USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay Harbor > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 26
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Southport > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 26
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 26
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31
Manasseh H.Smith, Dem., 19
1859.
Lot M. Morrill, Rep.,
35
Manasseh H.Smith, Dem., 28 1860.
Israel Washburn, Jr., Rep., 45
Ephraim K. Smart, Dem., 26
1861.
Israel Washburn, Jr., Rep., 44
Charles D. Jameson, War Dem., 14
1862.
Abner Coburn, Rep.,
48
Bion Bradbury, Dem.,
18
Charles D. Jameson, War Dem., 3
1863.
Samuel Cony, Rep.,
56
Bion Bradbury, Dem.,
27
1864. No Record. 1865.
Samuel Cony, Rep.,
51
Joseph Howard, Dem.,
9
1866.
Joshua L. Chamberlain,
Rep.,
55
Eben F. Pillsbury, Dem., 10
1867.
Joshua L. Chamberlain,
Rep.,
38
Eben F. Pillsbury, Dem., 19
1868.
Joshua L. Chamberlain,
Rep.,
55
Eben F. Pillsbury, Dem., 10
1869.
Joshua L. Chamberlain, Rep., 26
Franklin Smith, Dem.,
5
Nathan G. Hichborn,
Prohib.,
2
1870.
Sidney Perham, Rep.,
19
Chas. W. Roberts, Dem.,
5
304
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
1871.
Sidney Perham, Rep., 31
Chas. P. Kimball, Dem., 4
1872.
Sidney Perham, Rep., 47
Chas. P. Kimball, Dem., 7
1873.
Nelson Dingley, Rep.,
19
No opposition recorded.
1874.
Joseph Titcomb, Dem., 18
Nelson Dingley, Rep., 13
1875.
Selden Connor, Rep., 27
Chas. W. Roberts, Dem., 23
1876.
Selden Connor, Rep., 32
John C. Talbot, Dem., 24
1877.
Selden Connor, Rep., 26
Jos. H. Williams, Dem., 24 1878.
Selden Connor, Rep., 24
Alonzo Garcelon, Dem., 17
Jos. L. Smith, Nat. G. B., 15 1879.
Daniel F. Davis, Rep., 78
Jos. L. Smith, Nat. G. B., 20
Alonzo Garcelon, Dem., 13 1880.
Daniel F. Davis, Rep., 72
Harris M.Plaisted, Fusion, 29 1882.
Frederick Robie, Rep., 45
Harris M.Plaisted, Fusion, 13
Warren H. Vinton,
Ind. Rep., 11
1884.
Frederick Robie, Rep., 58
John B. Redman, Dem., 29
Wm. T. Eustis, Temp., 2
1886.
Joseph R. Bodwell, Rep., 44 Clark S. Edwards, Dem., 13 Aaron Clark, Prohib., 2
1888.
Edwin C. Burleigh, Rep., 66 Wm. L. Putnam, Dem., 22 Volney B. Cushing, Prohib., 2
1890.
Edwin C. Burleigh, Rep., 18
Wm. L. Putnam, Dem., 7 Aaron Clark, Prohib., 1
1892.
Henry B. Cleaves, Rep.,
50
Timothy B. Hussey, Prohib., 7
Chas. F. Johnson, Dem., 1894.
6
Henry B. Cleaves, Rep., 38
Chas. F. Johnson, Dem., 5 Ira G. Hersey, Prohib., 1
1896.
Llewellyn Powers, Rep., 80 Melvin P. Frank, Dem., 8 Ammi S. Ladd, Prohib., 2
1898.
Llewellyn Powers, Rep., 16
Samuel L. Lord, Dem., 8 Ammi S. Ladd, Prohib., 2
1900.
John F. Hill, Rep., 41
Samuel L. Lord, Dem., 6 Grant Rogers, Prohib., 4
1902.
John F. Hill, Rep., 52
Samnel W. Gould, Dem., 6 James Perrigo, Prohib., 1
1904. William T. Cobb., Rep., 48
Cyrus W. Davis, Dem., 13 Nathan F. Woodbury, Prohib., 3
305
OFFICIAL LISTS AND TABLES.
TABLE XX.
VOTES OF BOOTHBAY HARBOR FOR GOVERNOR.
1890.
Edwin C. Burleigh, Rep., 143
Wm. P.Thompson, Dem., 56 1892.
Henry B. Cleaves, Rep., 195 Chas. F. Johnson, Dem., 72 Timothy B.Hussey, Proh., 1 Luther C. Bateman, Peo., 1 1894.
Henry B. Cleaves, Rep., 213
Chas. F. Johnson, Dem., 47
Ira G. Hersey, Prohib., 2
1896.
Llewellyn Powers, Rep., 234
Melvin P. Frank, Dem., 44 1898.
Llewellyn Powers, Rep., 174
Samuel L. Lord, Dem., 54
Ammi S. Ladd, Prohib., 2
Erastus Lermond, N. Dem., 1
1900.
John F. Hill, Rep., 274
Samuel L. Lord, Dem., 48 Grant Rogers, Prohib., 1
1902.
John F. Hill, Rep., 279
Samuel L. Lord, Dem., 66
James Perrigo, Prohib., 5
Charles L. Fox, Soc., 1
1904.
William T. Cobb, Rep., 235
Cyrus W. Davis,
Dem.,
131
Nathan F. Woodbury,
Prohib.,
1
Wilbur G. Hapgood,
Soc.,
2
TABLE XXI.
BOOTHBAY POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
Jan. 1,1805
John M. McFarland.
Jan. 1,1811 Daniel Rose.
Oct. 1,1811 Edmund Wilson.
Jan. 30, 1830 Marshal Smith.
Jan. 31, 1850 Leonard MeCobb.
Apr. 28, 1853 Benjamin Blair.
June 5, 1861 Lydia P. Beath.
Oct. 30, 1876 Byron C. Matthews.
Sept. 24, 1885 Frank A. Baker.
Name changed to Boothbay Harbor, March 27, 1889.
Mar. 27, 1889 Frank A. Baker. .
June 4, 1890 Woodbury Marson.
Apr. 15, 1893 Eben A. Poole.
May 12, 1897 Woodbury Marson.
306
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
TABLE XXII. HALEY POST OFFICE.
Appointment.
Postmaster.
Oct. 24, 1882 William H. Reed.
Feb. 18, 1890 Asbury M. Powers.
July 22, 1891 Watson M. Simpson.
July 21, 1893 William H. Reed.
Name changed to West Boothbay Harbor, March 26, 1902.
Mar. 26, 1902 William H. Reed.
TABLE XXIII.
NORTH BOOTHBAY POST OFFICE.
Appointment,
Postmaster.
Mar. 5, 1829. William Emerson.
Mar. 6, 1838
Edward Emerson.
Feb. 20, 1841
Levi Willey.
May 10, 1842
William Carlisle.
Dec. 22, 1842
Robert Spinney.
Jan. 10, 1852
Frederick Reed.
Apr. 11, 1853
Robert Spinney.
June 19, 1854
Ephraim Pinkham.
May 15, 1856
William P. McCobb.
Nov. 11, 1857
July 12, 1861
Manson G. Fuller.
Samuel A. Fuller.
June 27, 1864
Reuel W. Lawson.
Nov. 22, 1866
Robert Spinney.
Jan. 18, 1867
Reuel W. Lawson.
Feb. 7, 1870
Lincoln Given.
Mar. 27, 1871 Jason Pinkham.
Jan. 27, 1875
Rufus Holton.
Name changed to Boothbay, February 16, 1891.
Feb. 16, 1891 Rufus Holton.
Mar. 7, 1891 John G. Spinney.
Jan. 13, 1892 John H. Welsh.
Feb. 8, 1894
John S. Spinney.
Feb. 11, 1898
John H. Welsh.
TABLE XXIV.
HODGDON'S MILLS POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
June 15, 1831 Henry Wright.
Feb. 27, 1833 Daniel Knight.
May 13, 1835
Henry Wright.
Isaac Pinkham.
Dec. 6, 1862
307
OFFICIAL LISTS AND TABLES.
Oct. 15, 1840 Caleb Hodgdon.
Oct. 1, 1849 Alden Goudy.
Apr. 11, 1853 John Gould.
July 12, 1861
Isaac N. Chapman.
Feb. 6, 1862 Peter McGunnigle.
Dec. 16, 1873
Charles F. Seavey.
Apr. 29, 1875 Edward E. Race.
Name changed to East Boothbay, March 22, 1876.
Mar. 22, 1876 Edward E. Race.
Jan. 4, 1889 Alice M. Hodgdon.
Oct. 26, 1889
John R. McDougall.
Apr. 3, 1893
Caleb Hodgdon.
May 28, 1897 William I. Adams.
TABLE XXV.
LINEKIN POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
Oct. 14, 1880
Ephraim S. Linekin.
June 24, 1897
William F. Reed.
Nov. 11, 1903
Frank Alley.
TABLE XXVI.
TREVETT POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
Oct. 11, 1882
Stephen G. Hodgdon.
Feb. 3, 1902 Charles S. Hodgdon.
TABLE XXVII. BACK RIVER POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
Jan. 1, 1898 Wilmot Lewis, 2d.
Mar. 13, 1901 A. F. Sidelinger (acting).
Apr. 18, 1901 A. F. Sidelinger (commissioned).
TABLE XXVIII.
SOUTHPORT POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
Jan. 17, 1851 Cyrus Mckown.
Discontinued August 30, 1852; re-established March 9, 1855.
Mar. 9, 1855 Freeman Grover.
Feb. 28, 1862 Martin E. Beal.
Sept. 23, 1885 Zina Orne.
308
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
Aug. 17, 1889
Martin E. Beal.
Nov. 25, 1890 Isabel Beal.
Nov. 3, 1892
Sumner Orne.
Oct. 22, 1897
Howard C. Mckown.
TABLE XXIX.
WEST SOUTHPORT POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
Apr. 8, 1878
Cyrus Pierce.
July 27, 1883
Alice A. Pierce.
Aug. 14, 1883
Simeon Pool.
Aug. 20, 1886
Everett E. Pinkham.
TABLE XXX.
NEWAGEN POST OFFICE.
Appointment. Postmaster.
Apr. 24, 1900
E. Gray.
TABLE XXXI.
SUMMER POST OFFICES.
Place.
Postmaster.
Bayville, Jeanette McDonald.
Isle of Springs,
H. S. Hussey.
Squirrel Island,
John Reed.
Mouse Island,
Lizzie M. Durrell.
Capital Island,
Wilbur N. Grover.
Ocean Point,
TABLE XXXII. CUSTOMS OFFICIALS.
By letter from the acting secretary of the treasury, Wash- ington, D. C., the following list of customs officials for Booth- bay and Boothbay Harbor was furnished me. The information was also given that no records prior to those are obtainable at that department, and, further, that the records in that depart- ment are incomplete. No records exist at the Wiscasset Cus- tom House to aid in obtaining names of earlier officers. That John M. McFarland, William Maxwell Reed, Major John Mckown, William Kenniston and Joseph Maddocks, Sr., held deputy commissions, besides some others, previous to 1853, is believed to be correct; but their exact duties, or dates of terms of office, are uncertain.
309
OFFICIAL LISTS AND TABLES.
Isaac W. Reed, Deputy Collector and Inspector, May 5, 1853. Sam'l K. Hilton, Deputy Collector and Inspector, May 16, 1861. Willard Holton, Deputy Collector and Inspector, Oct. 17, 1865. Dan'l W. Sawyer, Deputy Collector and Inspector, June 2, 1869. Byron C. Matthews, Inspector, Nov. 16, 1871.
George B. Kenniston, Inspector, April 19, 1873.
George B. Kenniston, Deputy Collector, Inspector, Weigher, Gauger and Measurer, June 30, 1881.
Charles H. Fisher, Deputy Collector, Inspector, Weigher, Gauger and Measurer, June 30, 1881.
Sewall T. Maddocks, Storekeeper, Aug. 15, 1881. (Office abolished Oct. 6, 1881. )
Edgar C. McClintock, Storekeeper, Aug. 15, 1881. (Office abolished Oct. 6, 1881. )
William E. Reed, Deputy Collector, Inspector, Weigher, Gauger and Measurer, July 25, 1885.
Jason Carlisle, Deputy Collector, Inspector, Weigher, Gauger, Measurer and Storekeeper, July 28, 1885.
Joseph Maddocks, Deputy Collector, Inspector, Weigher, Gauger and Measurer, June 30, 1890.
William Reed, Deputy Collector, Inspector, Weigher, Gauger, Measurer and Storekeeper, Oct. 10, 1890.
Cyrus R. Tupper, Deputy Collector, Inspector, Weigher, Gauger and Measurer, June 6, 1895.
John Edward Knight, Deputy Collector and Inspector, June 6, 1895.
Charles Jones Marr, Deputy Collector and Inspector, Nov. 12, 1898.
Charles Jones Marr is the only officer now (1905) stationed at Boothbay.
CHAPTER XVII. MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF SOUTHPORT.
W HEN that part of Boothbay that had always been referred to as Cape Newagen Island made application for separate township incorporation it is quite evident that a general desire for such action prevailed over the island and no remonstrance appeared from their brethren on the mainland. The charter was granted February 12, 1842. The name of the new town was Townsend,-a most fitting selection, reviving the old plantation name, and that which would have been given instead of Boothbay, in 1764, had it not been for the fact that a town by that name already at that date existed in Massachusetts. Jason Fuller was the Boothbay representa- tive at the Legislature and the charter bore the signature of John Fairfield, Governor. The bounds given in the charter are as follows :
"Commencing at the mouth of Sheepscot River, thence north by the channel to the channel between Boston Island and Spectacle Island, thence easterly through Townsend Gut, so- called, thence through the channel between Mouse Island and Oliver's Point, and thence easterly around Squirrel Island to the mouth of Sheepscot River, to the place begun at."
Some of the provisions were : that unpaid taxes were to be deemed an asset of the town they fell in after division, and other debts due the town of Boothbay, upon collection, should be divided in proportion to the valuation of the respective towns; that town property situated in Boothbay was to be appraised at its last valuation and the proportional part thereof in value paid to Townsend; that persons already objects of town aid, or those that might become such, fell within the town for support on whose territory they became charges.
William Greenleaf, as justice of the peace, on February 17, 1842, issued his warrant to Cyrus Mckown to warn and notify
311
MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF SOUTHPORT.
the legal voting inhabitants to assemble for the meeting of organization on March 1st following. The appropriations at that meeting were: Highways, $140; schools, $190; poor and to defray town charges, $300. The limits and bounds of all school districts remained as they had been. The "one John Mckown lives in to be No. 1; that which Daniel Cameron lives in to be No. 2; that which David Preble lives in to be No. 3 and Squirrel Island to be No. 4."
A vote fixed the first Tuesday of March as the date for holding annual meetings and the Methodist Church the place for holding them. It was voted not to issue licenses for liquor selling and the selectmen were instructed to prosecute illegal sales. In 1846 the number of school districts was increased to six.
On March 4, 1850, the town voted to petition the Legisla- ture to change the town name from Townsend to Southport. The reason for this change was that the harbor of Boothbay, in particular, and even the village itself, had become, from long and persistent usage on the part of the seafaring public, known as Townsend; and now that the name had an actual, legal existence, Townsend matter, both mail and freight, came to Boothbay and vice versa.
At the expiration of ten years there had been little other than routine business. Appropriations, road, school, poor and miscellaneous, remained at almost the same figures as at the meeting of organization. Squirrel Island, as a school district, was discontinued in 1854. In 1857 a new district was formed, called No. 7, constituted of the several Maddocks families and a few others in that neighborhood. June 7, 1858, at a special meeting, twenty-five votes, the total number present and vot- ing, were cast for the prohibitory law of that year. In 1859 it was voted to remove all bars, gates and other obstructions from the highways. In 1860 an appropriation of $225 was made for bridging Nelson's mill pond.
In 1862 the appropriations show some increase. Miscella- neous were $500; schools, $375. Taxes were collected for one and one-fourth per cent. where three had been previously paid. The usual custom was to elect school district agents in open town meeting or to vote to permit the district to choose
312
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
its own. In 1866 the amount of $2,000 was raised to liquidate outstanding indebtedness, and the following year $1,500 more was raised for the same purpose, and the same sum in 1868. This indebtedness was the result of war expenditures. In 1872, thirty years from incorporation, appropriations were : Schools, $708; poor and miscellaneous, $700; roads and bridges, $200. In 1883 an appropriation of $350 was made to build a bridge from George Witham's to William T. Maddocks'.
Previous to 1885 the custom in annual meetings had been to make special appropriations for schools and roads and bridges. Usually the third article of the town warrant was comprehensive enough to cover and include all other necessary town expenditures. Now, in 1885, a new plan of appropriat- ing was adopted and, for the first time, each proposed outlay became the subject of a special article in the annual warrant.
In 1887 it was voted that one-fourth of the tax assessed against islands, owned either by individuals or associations, and used as summer resorts, be returned to the owners. Two hundred and fifty dollars was raised in 1888 to build and equip a town office. In 1889 it was voted to allow a discount of four per cent. for voluntary payment of taxes before October 1st, and two per cent. if paid by January 1st, following. This plan for collection of taxes had been several times before the annual meetings, but always had suffered rejection.
The principal road action since incorporation is believed to be the following. In 1855 a road commencing at the termina- tion of the town way on the north line of the Jeremiah Nelson place, running southerly and easterly to the schoolhouse in district No. 3, was built. In 1857 a road was built from the east side, commencing near the house of George Love, running westerly to the town way near the house of James Orne. In 1860 a road was built from the south side of Decker's Cove, running westerly by the cove, to the town way. In 1861 a road from the house of Wilkinson Pierce to Nelson's mill pond was straightened and extended to the north shore of the pond.
In 1862 a road was built for Alfred Brewer from his house to that of Isaac Brewer. In 1863 a road was built from the house of George Webber to the fish house of William Orne ; in 1864 one from near Charles Pierce's north line, ending at
CHARLES J. MARR.
313
MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF SOUTHPORT.
the town way near George Jeffries' house. Private ways were laid out in 1866 for Amherst Spofford and George W. Rush ; in 1875 from the store of Martin E. Beal to low-water mark on Townsend Gut. In 1877 a road from the house of Charles C. Thompson to the ferry way on Townsend Gut was built. In 1884 two roads were built: one from northeast bound of land of Loring Pierce to the house of Nancy Coolen ; the other from terminus of town way, near E. L. Decker's, to Edward R. Cameron's. In 1894 a road from near the Southport post office, across the land of M. A. Beal, to near the residence of Robert Westman. In 1898 the Maddocks Bridge was rebuilt.
In 1900 Union Hall was purchased by the town. This hall was started in 1866 by a sewing circle, but it was taken off their hands by a stock company, of which Luther Maddocks owned a controlling interest, which later went into the hands of William T. Maddocks. Town meetings were at first held in the Methodist Church ; a few years after incorporation they were changed to the schoolhouse in District 2, and there held until the September election, in 1868, when meetings were changed to Union Hall, where they have been held regularly since. In 1886 a soldiers' monument was erected at West Southport by the town.
A brief review of the bridge question will be made, as the mention of municipal action on the subject has thus far been excepted that it might be presented connectedly. A bridge was built by a stock company late in the sixties from the pres- ent steamboat landing to Oak Point. The principal stockhold- ers were Mckown & Reed, J. & J. Maddocks, T. & N. Marr and E. & W. Decker. This bridge went down in the spring of 1871, by an ice field which made up about Indiantown Island, and was driven down upon it in a northwest gale. From 1871 to 1876 Martin E. Beal put on a private ferry which plied between the points where the bridge had crossed. An effort to have the town build a bridge was made in 1873 and again in 1876, but both times defeated. In 1876 the ferry location was changed to cross at Charles C. Thompson's. He agreed, if the town would build and equip a ferry, to conduct it satisfactorily for the term of five years for the income. The old ferry had been there, but it had been discontinued when
21
314
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
the bridge was built and also the road from Thompson's to Townsend Gut. Now the old road was laid out anew and built from his house to the new ferry. Boothbay assisted in the expense by appropriating $100.
In 1883 the bridge question again came up and a vote to aid in building a bridge to the extent of $800 was passed, but nothing ever came of it. In 1895 a spirited effort was again made, but was defeated by a vote of 61 to 54. A real agitation of the subject ensued, and in 1896 a vote of 68 to 47 in favor of building a bridge was obtained, if it could be done for $6,000, and authority to issue bonds from one to ten years accompanied it. A committee to have charge was chosen, and A. P. Greenleaf, C. A. Thompson, W. N. Grover, Sumner Orne and E. L. Decker constituted it. Seven hundred dollars of the amount was used to build a tollhouse. In 1897 the ferry was discontinued, occurring soon after opening the new bridge. Toll rates were reduced one-third in 1902. Boothbay Harbor appropriated $100 per annum for a term of ten years to assist Southport in this much-needed improvement. In 1904 the old road from Thompson's to the ferry landing was a second time discontinued. In this meeting $1,000 was appro- priated for a schoolhouse at Newagen and $2,000 for a high and grammar school building at West Southport. These were both completed during the year.
The municipal record of Southport is confined almost exclu- sively to routine matters. There has been no manufacturing within the town and but little merchandise kept for sale outside of common necessities ; on other lines the population has pur- chased elsewhere. The business of the town, therefore, pre- sents careful, conservative management, simply providing for every-day necessities and in compliance with statute law. In recent years more has been done by erecting good schoolhouses and connecting with the main by a bridge than had been accomplished in a quarter of a century preceding. Formerly the business was almost entirely fishing, and in the height of the town's prosperity, from this source, it was said that the per capita earnings of the men of Southport exceeded any other like population in Maine. The average prosperity of this island town, through good times and hard times, through the
315
MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF SOUTHPORT.
changing conditions of business, the dying out of one and the birth of another, has been remarkably even. Besides main- taining a general thriftiness at home this town has contributed largely to the success of other localities by her sons sent forth into the business world.
CHAPTER XVIII. DIVISION OF BOOTHBAY.
T HERE has been no sub-division of my subject that I have approached with so much trepidation as this one. The reasons for this feeling must be as manifest to many of my readers as to myself. The struggle occurred less than a score of years ago, and the principal actors, who were then among the most influential men of Boothbay and those possess- ing the largest pecuniary interests, are nearly all living, and to a marked degree holding the same rank and influence in their respective towns that they held in the old one. That there was bitterness of feeling engendered at the time of the contest aud in the preliminary skirmishing which led up to it, and that those animosities, once aroused, required time to sooth them, goes without saying. But Boothbay, like every other town, had had earlier dissensions and forgotten them. Each of the towns constituted anew by that act of division has since been sectionally divided at times, and these differences, too, are destined to be healed by the mollifying effect of time. This contest, however, in magnitude, dwarfed those which had pre- ceded and have followed it; and, culminating as it did in the dismemberment of the mainland of Boothbay, which had stood as a unit for one hundred and twenty-five years, produced a strong impression upon the minds of its inhabitants and one not easily eradicated. But, notwithstanding this tenacity of memory, passion has given way to reason, and the two towns, running their separate municipalities side by side, have pros- pered since division in a measure not equaled in any other like period of time since colonization ; and this they have accom- plished without in any sense succeeding at the expense of the other.
It has been the author's effort to arrange this volume in as nearly a correct chronological sequence as possible. To the reader, then, who has followed the story of the town, it must
317
DIVISION OF BOOTHBAY.
be evident that our wants were thrust upon us in a more rapid manner than in most towns. To the citizen who has lived through the period of rapid development from a little fishing hamlet, with more lots vacant than built upon, to a thriving village, where parts of the business section are as congested with buildings as the average city, it needs no explanation. The wants of Boothbay Harbor Village came upon it in a very few years. As buildings multiplied the dangers from fire became more apparent, and not only to the citizens, but to the insurance companies carrying the risks. The more business demanded in the way of increased building room in which to conduct it, the more rates advanced, and the greater became the hazard to both the companies insuring and the business capital. The action became simply automatic : every business opportunity that presented itself with a show of profit pro- duced, when put in operation, a burden of insurance taxation large enough to crush it. Besides lacking in what may be termed a commercial supply of water, the domestic supply was sadly deficient. Wells, as a rule, were poor and water hard to obtain in that way. Cisterns were almost universally depended upon, and it was often remarked that had a fire started on the westerly side of the village, during a dry season, with the kind of wind necessary to drive it, the village must have been swept to the water front.
Though realizing the needs of the place, the one chief requirement-a water system-the subject was approached carefully and by degrees. Several years intervened between the efforts which resulted in the procurement of a hand tub for fire fighting and the struggle for a water system. The munici- pal chapter will afford the reader knowledge of the town's action in that matter. It was finally obtained by subscription. In October, 1886, a fire occurred which came near sweeping the business section of the village, and was not subdued until several blocks had been destroyed and serious damage inflicted. That fire advertised to the world, plainer than anything which had preceded it, the helplessness in which the locality stood. Insurance rates immediately bounded up about threefold, on an average, above where they had formerly stood. Some com- panies, in fact many of the principal ones, after an accurate
318
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
examination of conditions, withdrew from taking risks in the village. Ordinary commercial establishments were rated at from four to five per cent. per annum, extra hazardous risks were held at proportional rates. It was the severest blow to business the village had ever experienced. It not only placed a handicap upon all established undertakings, but was practi- cally prohibitive to any growth or accessions to what was in existence.
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