USA > Maine > Aroostook County > Bridgewater > History of Bridgewater, Maine > Part 11
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In the thirties the mail may have been brought to Houlton, then taken across to Woodstock, and from there to the "Line," but after 1839 there was a road or trail from Houlton and the mail could have been brought direct to town.
The first U. S. Post Office in the town was at the Corner in 1849. As the records were burned in the Corner fire, the author wrote to the Postmaster General and later to the National Archives office for the list of Postmasters. The last letter appears first.
National Archives and Records Service Washington, D. C.
Miss Annie E. Rideout Route 2 Oakland, Maine
August 12, 1952
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Dear Miss Rideout:
This is in reply to your letter of August 10, 1952, to the National Archives and Records Service, regarding the post office at Bridgewater, Maine.
According to the records of the Post Office Department now in our custody, a post office was established at Bridgewater, Aroostook County, on February 8, 1849. It was discontinued on April 21, 1860, and reestablished on September 13, 1860, and finally discontinued on October 19, 1894. Names of postmasters and dates of their appointment were:
Joseph Ketchum
February 8, 1849
Charles Kidder
May 13, 1854
James H. Ketchum
December 27, 1856
Linneus Morse
September 13, 1860
Charles Kidder
October 2, 1860
James H. Ketchum
January 13, 1863
George W. Collins
December 9, 1863
Frank P. Orcutt
October 31, 1873
Mrs. Harriet B. Rice
October 9, 1876
James Kidder
October 22, 1877
James H. Kidder
November 6, 1877
Della J. Kidder
November 23, 1880
Della J. Whitney
January 17, 1882
Lottie M. Hume
December 7, 1882
Edwin O. Collins
December 21, 1886
Richard H. Perkins
May 21, 1888
Mrs. Isadore A. Barrett
June 14, 1889
Ida A. Perkins
September, 1893
During 1864 the post office at Bridgewater was a 5th class office, and effective October 1, 1864, the annual compensation of the postmaster at this office was $46.00.
Very truly yours, Victor Gondos, Jr. For the Chief Archivist Industrial Records Branch
E. C. Folsom was Postmaster from September 1893 to February 28, 1901.
Post Office Department Assistant Postmaster General Washington 25, D. C.
April 14, 1952
Miss Annie E. Rideout Route 2 Oakland, Maine
Dear Miss Rideout:
The Postmaster General has asked me to acknowledge your letter of April 2, 1952, in which you request to be advised of the names of the postmasters at Bridgewater, Maine, from the establishment of the post office to 1920.
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The name of this office was changed from Bridgewater Center to Bridgewater, effective March 1, 1927.
The records of this Bureau disclose the following postmasters at the fourth class office of Bridgewater Center and the years of their service:
Postmasters
Assumed Charge
Separated
Albert L. Chandler
March 1, 1901
Aug. 11, 1909
Harvey A. Tompkins
Aug. 11, 1909 Sept. 22, 1909
Mrs. Ada A. Perkins
Sept. 22, 1909
May 16, 1916
Franklin Bradstreet
May 16, 1916
April 14, 1919
Edmund O. Collins
April 14, 1919
Nov. 12, 1926
Office Made Presidential October 1, 1920 Appointment date.
For the names of postmasters during the early years of this post office you should write the National Archives, General Reference, Washington 25, D. C.
Sincerely yours, Joseph J. Lawler Assistant Postmaster General
The following list was received from the present Post mistress, Bethe Stone. Became a 3rd class office January 1922.
George Barrett (acting) Nov. 12, 1926
July 13, 1927
Donald W. Stackpole July 13, 1927 Jan. 31, 1936
Bethe M. Stone Feb. 2, 1936
The first rural free delivery service was established in 1905 with Charles Ackerson as the rural mail carrier, an office he held twenty-one years, until failing health forced him to retire, Aug. 1926.
Carrying the mail in those days was not an easy task. He had to go in all kinds of weather, sunshine or rain, through deep mud, frozen roads, and deep snows. No weather was too rough to prevent him from starting on his route, though there were times when the roads were im- passable and he had to turn back.
In winter he had a little house built on his sleigh, which protected him from the wind and snow. A soapstone kept his feet warm, but there was no way of keeping his hands warm except heavy gloves and mittens.
After the resignation of Mr. Ackerson, Robert Jamison was appointed carrier, a position he still holds. His first traveling was done in the same way as Mr. Ackerson's, but soon after, the roads were improved to the extent that he was able to use a car during the summer months. Winters he had to travel by team.
Today the roads are hard surfaced and plowed in the winters, so he can travel all winter in a heated car. Such are the improvements in travel.
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The mail has been carried from the station to the post office for over thirty years by George K. Davidson, and is still carried by one of his daughters, who is carrying it until George is able to be about again.
Doctors
In the early 1800's people were ill as they are today, but they had to be more self-reliant, for doctors were scarce. Most of the women knew and gathered common herbs found in the fields and woods.
Some of the herbs were tansy, penny-royal, catnip, the mints, gold- thread roots, cherry bark, labrador, liverwort, and many others. To the majority of people today these herbs are unknown.
In the early days, in a case of illness, the people of the Boundary had to depend on Dr. Wiley of Florenceville, N. B., a distance of about nine miles. If a doctor was needed, a man took his team if he had one (if not, he borrowed his neigbor's), drove to Florenceville and brought the doctor back with him. There were no telephones then.
Dr. Wiley's territory extended from Monticello to Westfield, as well as over an equally large territory in Canada. He had a roan horse which he drove in all kinds of weather, over all kinds of roads, day and night, winter and summer, to minister to the suffering. No summons was too far away, no weather too severe, day or night, to stop him from answer- ing a call.
From 1860 to 1873 the Corner had doctors: first, Dr. Ayer, then Dr. Lewis, Dr. Fulton, and Dr. Young, all good doctors for those days and all kindly men, never imposing heavy fees.
In the fall of 1874 Dr. W. W. White came to the Boundary from Canada and located in the building at the end of the bridge, now owned by Fred Whited. Here he lived and had his office.
He was always ready to answer every call, day or night, regardless of the weather. The town pauper or the well-to-do farmer received equal attention and all the help within his power to bestow, and many were the accounts on his books that were never collected, because he knew full well the patients could not pay.
Dr. White was beloved by all, for he was not only their doctor but friend and counselor as well.
About 1918 he gave up his practice here and moved to Houlton where he continued his office practice until failing eyesight forced him to retire after sixty years of service. He was awarded the Medal of the Maine Medical Association for fifty years of continuous practice.
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Dr. White was a graduate of Magill University, a member of Cen- tral Lodge of Bridgewater, Masonic Lodge of Mars Hill, St. Aldemar Commandry of Houlton, Annah Temple of Bangor, and a member of the Methodist Church.
Dr. White was never married. The last few years he was nearly blind. He died in 1938 at the age of eighty-seven, highly esteemed by fellow members of the medical profession and by friends.
About 1900 Dr. Schriver came to the Center and started to practice, but stayed only a few years then moved to the southern part of the state.
Sometime between 1910 and 1912, Dr. E. H. Jackson came to town but he also stayed only a few years, then left to specialize in nose and throat, and now has a practice in Augusta. He was followed by Dr. Bundy, who after a short time moved to Mars Hill, but still kept his patients in Bridgewater. He later moved to Brownville where he is em- ployed as the B & A doctor.
Bridgewater has now been without a local doctor for many years. Dr. W. B. Summerville from Mars Hill serves the community at the present time.
Bridges
Up to 1848 the only means of crossing the Prestile Stream was on a floating bridge in the spring and fall. Probably the stream was low enough to be crossed by teams, or on rocks by foot in the summer, and on the ice in the winter-at the Boundary.
In the winter of 1848-49 the piers for the first bridge were built. They were made of cedar logs, square, box shaped, placed on the ice and filled with rocks. When the ice melted in the spring the piers sank to the bottom of the stream.
Stringers of logs were laid from the banks to the piers and on these were spiked the plank flooring of the bridge. The only railing was a log fastened on each side of the bridge, but with only teams crossing, this railing was enough.
The plank flooring had to be replaced from time to time but the piers stood the test of time, about seventy-five years, through spring freshets and the trickle of summer droughts until they were torn down in 1922 and replaced by a concrete bridge.
There is no record of when the first bridge was built at the Center, but probably before that at the "Line." It was smaller than the bridge at
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the "Line," having only one pier, probably built the same as that at the Boundary, but in later years this had a railing on the sides. In the year 1916 the town voted to build a concrete bridge across the Whitney and the Dead Brook.
In the spring of 1923 the bridge across the Whitney stream was un- dermined and the bridge toppled into the stream, but it was immedi- ately rebuilt. In the meantime the traffic had to cross the bridge on the West Road.
The bridge across the West Road was no doubt built at a later date. This has been rebuilt three times; the last time was in 1952 and is of wood.
Old Sawmills
In 1829, Nathaniel Bradstreet built the first sawmill in the town at the mouth of the Whitney Stream where it enters the Prestile. This was primeval wilderness and the site had to be cleared, the dam put in place, and the mill hewn by hand from water wheel to ridgepole.
The first mill was run by an up-and-down saw which operated much as a jig saw does today, the power driving the saw being a water wheel. He operated this mill until 1838 when he sold it to Harvey and Trask, who kept it about four years and in turn sold it to the Moulton Brothers in 1842.
The Moulton Brothers immediately built an addition onto the mill large enough for two clapboard machines and two shingle machines. Each machine was operated by a separate water wheel. This was a great improvement, for if one machine broke down it could be repaired with- out stopping the other machines.
The wheels that ran the new machines were not of wood but made of cast iron about three feet in diameter and adjusted to an upright shaft geared to the required speed of the saw.
These machines were far different from those of today. A wooden crane was set in the floor and ceiling above, so it would swing either way, with warp and pulleys attached, and grappling hooks to seize the cut at both ends. Then by turning a crank at the base of the crane, the warp would wind around a wooden roller and the cut be lifted from the floor and swung into the machine in a horizontal position above the saw.
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The "sappers" were built on the principle of a turning lathe and were to remove the bark from the logs.
The shingle machines were old style, too, the saw entering the end of the bolt, and quartered with the up-and-down saw.
The sawed lumber was floated down the stream and into the St. John River where it was rafted and floated to Fredrickton, then shipped to Boston and other New England markets by boat.
Mr. Baird was the next one to operate the mill, in 1851. Again changes were made. First he sawed lumber for a new mill using the old machinery. He then removed the mill, built a new and higher dam, and by 1854 had a new mill operating. In it he had a gang saw and an up-and-down saw. He ran this mill several years, selling much of the lumber to the English markets.
He ran the gang saw for three seasons, then took it out but kept the up-and-down saw, running it until 1872 when he sold to John Pryor.
Mr. Pryor replaced the up-and-down saw with a rotary saw and im- proved the water wheel. After about twelve years, in 1884, G. W. Col- lins bought the mill adding a planer and groover and making other improvements. This mill was kept in operation until December 1894 when it was burned.
In the meantime Mr. Collins built a sawmill at the Center, in 1876, on the Whitney Stream. This had an up-and-down saw and a shingle mill. In 1880 he sold it to Thomas Huntington.
The first sawmill at the Center was built by John McKeen in 1860 shortly after his arrival, which he operated until 1884 when he sold to Elmer E. Milliken. This first mill was for sawing shingles. Later he put in machinery for sawing long lumber also. He operated it until June 1, 1915, when it was burned, but it was immediately rebuilt. When his sons, Leon and William, were old enough they took over the manage- ment, but after a few years William went into business for himself in Presque Isle. Leon carried on until his death in 1924.
To return to T. G. Huntington. He did not have the sawmill long before it burned. He then sold the site back to Mr. Collins who erected a new mill which he sold to C. P. Church. After the tannery was burned, this mill was bought by Frank and Clifford Sharp. After a few years Frank sold his share to Clifford who operated the mill alone until sometime in the thirties. Since that time both the Sharp and the Milli- ken mills have crumbled into decay.
About 1905 William Van Wart came from Houlton and bought the mill site at the Boundary where he built a mill for making fine finishes. This was one of the best of its kind in the county at that time as Mr.
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Van Wart was an expert workman. In the flood of 1923, it was swept away and was never rebuilt.
The later mills of the town need no explaining.
Tannery
The first tannery, built by G. W. Collins about 1875, was located on the east side of Whitney Stream near where the present mill stands. This tannery processed upper leathers. The hides used were obtained locally and from the western United States. This tannery was destroyed by fire in 1884, but another was rebuilt near where Howard Lewis now lives.
C. P. Church bought the new tannery, putting in machinery for making sole leather. The hides used for the soles were shipped from Buenos Aires and were sugar cured. They were shipped to Bangor and then hauled to Bridgewater by teams. After the railroad came through, they were shipped by carload lots.
C. P. Church built a store which was located where the machinery store now is. The store supplied not only the tannery help, but many of the townspeople traded there. Later J. H. Farley bought the store.
On Saturday, July 3, 1886, the tannery burned, but was soon rebuilt and bought by Hunt Company of Boston who operated it until 1890 when it came under the management of Proctor, Hunt & Haskell.
Why did they ship the hides here, so far from the shoe factories? Tannin was the chief ingredient used in tanning the leather, and since tannin was obtained from hemlock bark, and since they used twenty-one cords of bark a day, it was cheaper to ship the hides in than to ship the bark out. Besides there were large stands of hemlock near the town.
Large crews of men were sent into the woods to cut these beautiful trees which were peeled and left in the woods to rot as the wood was too soft for building purposes and too poor for firewood. What a waste this seems today with such a scarcity of wood and lumber in many places.
In a few years the woods were stripped of hemlock trees, and today there is scarcely a hemlock to be found in the forests for many miles around, and today the majority of people, even men, unless they are woodsmen, cannot recognize a hemlock tree when they see one.
The making of sole leather involved quite a process. Twenty-one
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cords of bark were ground a day, enough to make four leaches. Hot water 360ยบ F. was put on the ground bark and left twelve hours. This made the tannin. The vats containing the tannin were in the yard. There were 555 vats, each 9x9, and 8 feet deep.
The whole hides were placed in these "soak vats" for forty-eight hours, then taken out and split from "neck to tail" (making what was called two sides), and hung in the "sweat vaults" where they were left forty-eight hours. They were then brought out and "milled." The "mill" was a huge trough, six feet wide, ten feet long, and three feet deep. Two large legs ran back and forth on a crank shaft. The men put thirty hides in each mill; an overhead pipe poured water continuously over the hides while they were being milled. There was a foot on the bottom of each leg with iron prongs. These turned the hides, rolled and rubbed them together for about fifteen minutes. This process took most of the hair off. The hides were then put in cool water for the beemsters.
From there they were put through the "fleshers" which took off any bits of fat or flesh left on the inside of the hides. From there they were put in pots of spring water and left overnight.
The next day the "beemsters" pulled the hides out of the water and put them on a "beem" where the hair was shaved off with huge knives. Twenty-one "beemsters" were employed, each man had his own stamp which he put on the hides. In this way the overseer knew if any man was slighting his work. Each man did from forty to fifty sides a day.
The hides were then sent to the handler house where they were put in vats containing a weak solution of lactic acid. They went through ten solutions, each one a little stronger than the last. This process took eight days. From here they went into the yard and put through more solutions, each one slightly different. This entire process took ninety days. One thousand sides were ready to take out each day and went to the "wash wheel." Fifty sides at a time went into a wash which con- tained eight gallons of fish oil. Fifteen men were employed to run the washes.
The next step was to take the hides to the "dry loft" where they were hung on "cat sticks" to dry, which took from twenty to thirty days.
After they were dry they went to the "coops" and were piled. Here they were put on tables and the wrinkles were smoothed out from "backs, shanks, flanks and pates." From here they went to the roll room where the "fitter" put them on slatted racks where a mixture of Lenox soap, fish oil, glucose, and salts was put on the grain side of the leather. They were then hung up between steam pipes where they stayed over night.
The last step was putting them through the "rolls" where they were
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"roughed." This process took two days. Each forenoon, ninety sides were "roughed." In the afternoon, the ninety sides were finished that had been done the morning before.
The hides were weighed on scoop scales, each side weighed from twenty to sixty pounds. They were then put in the warehouse or loaded in boxcars. A boxcar held from 2500 to 2800 sides.
In 1900 a strike occurred in the tannery because they were paying higher wages at the Bradford and Island Falls tanneries, so the Com- pany brought in twenty-two Italians; but they didn't stay long, for the local workers made their lives miserable. In 1901 twelve Greeks were brought in; two of these were the Forgie Brothers, now of Presque Isle.
The tannery burned September 8, 1908, and was not rebuilt be- cause most of the hemlock trees had been cut. There was over a million dollars worth of stock on hand at the time of the fire. Everything was burned except the hides that were in the vats and in the handler house. About half of this stock was salvaged after the fire.
The tannery employed about eighty people. Those who worked in- side were trained workers, most of them coming here from the other tanneries. Most of the local people who worked here were the yard men and the woods men although a few learned the trade of making sole leather.
Charles Sanford was the bookkeeper for many years; he was also the purchasing agent and paymaster.
There were three boardinghouses here at the time of the tannery, one across the stream, one on Tannery Street, and one in the house now owned by Bethe Stone, the latter run by Oliver Rideout.
Corner Fire
May 11, 1894, dawned, a clear day with a strong wind blowing from the south. Mr. G. W. Collins had had men in the woods cutting lumber all winter and the brush was very dry. This was west of Dan Brad- street's farm.
Some people say that against the advice of the men, Mr. Collins set this brush afire in order to clear the land. Others say that sparks from one of the men's pipes may have started the fire; at any rate the fire was started and soon was beyond control.
With the strong wind blowing from the south the fire swept swiftly northward through the dry slash until it reached the Joshua Fulton
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place about noon. These were the first buildings to burn. Sparks from the Fulton place soon started fires at the Corner.
Twenty-eight buildings were burned including the hotels of Bed- ford Hume and G. W. Collins, the latter a large building of nearly fifty rooms. Attached to the rear was a long carriage shed, housing many wagons. In the hotel lived several families.
Three stores were burned-Mr. Pryor's grocery store, Sam Powers' furniture store, and Richard Perkins' jewelry store-in addition to the Post Office (Mrs. Ada A. Perkins was postmistress at the time), the schoolhouse and all of the private dwellings except that of Frederick Whited, which stood a little to the east.
Inside of an hour the village was burned flat. The heat was intense and the whole place seemed to be one sheet of flame. Furniture was moved out of the houses only to be burned in the street.
It is told that Mr. Pryor's store might have been saved when the fire started if the men had been there, but they were all at work in the fields. Why they left their homes unguarded is a mystery, when the fire could have been seen sweeping rapidly from the south.
Mr. Charles Murphy tells that he was at home at the Corner at the time, a boy of fifteen. His mother had two trunks in the house. One contained quilts, winter clothing, and other things; the other old cloth- ing and odds and ends. His mother was not at home when the fire started, so Charles rushed in the house, grabbed a trunk and carried it out, then went back and got a rocking chair. By that time he could not get in again, so all he saved was the trunk and chair. When the trunk was opened, of course it was the one with the old clothing.
A Mrs. Bradstreet who was living in the hotel was in bed with a three-day old baby. When the hotel caught fire she got up, took her baby and walked to the Whited house. In those days that was an un- heard of thing, for then they kept a new mother in bed for two weeks.
Where the people stayed after the conflagration is not known. Prob- ably some stayed at the Whited home; others were taken in by kind friends at the Boundary and the Center.
The men were so incensed by the fact that the fire was believed to have been set that they threatened to do dreadful things to Mr. Collins. In order to protect himself it is said he carried a pitchfork with him for several days. But the men's anger cooled as quickly as it had been roused and Mr. Collins went unharmed.
How slowly news traveled in those days! No telephones, no tele- graph, or radio to summon help from nearby towns-not even a bucket brigade that day.
What a difference, too, in the newspaper reports! No headlines say-
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ing a town had been wiped out by fire. One week afterward, on an inside sheet, under a small headline, only an inch was given to the tragedy.
The Corner was never rebuilt. Allen Boone and Joshua Fulton were the only two to start over again. The others either left town or built homes at the Center.
It is the author's opinion that the Corner would never have grown much larger even if there had been no fire. The sawmill was built on the stream at the Center, the starch factory was there too, and the next year the railroad came through the Center.
Boundary Fire
It was a week before Christmas 1894. The ground was frozen, but there was no snow. About dark a pink glow illuminated the sky at the Boundary. Soon it was discovered that the glow came from a fire at the old mill.
Everyone-men, women, and children-rushed to the fire, in wagons, on horseback, and on foot-on the run. Then as now a fire was an event. By that time the mill was a blazing inferno, and the men, young and old, waged a fierce fight to save the nearby buildings.
The fire company was a bucket brigade reaching from the buildings to the pond; men, women, and even children worked frantically.
The huge timbers from which the mill had been built over sixty years before were dry as tinder and soon nothing was left but smouldering ashes and twisted machinery.
Mr. Collins, who owned the mill at the time, arrived at the height of the fire, but there was nothing he could do but watch it burn.
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