USA > Maine > Aroostook County > Bridgewater > History of Bridgewater, Maine > Part 7
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Adelbert worked in the tannery until it closed, then took up the car- penter trade, which he still follows. He is also a painter.
Edna and her husband, Lawrence Stitham, operated the farm until a year ago (1952) when they sold it to Chester Sargent and bought the Wilson Estabrooks farm where they operate a dairy farm. They have one son, Wendell. Ada, Geneva, and Adelbert have several children, most of them living elsewhere.
1898
Richard McCleary (See Monteith Road.)
Edward Dow 1900
Edward Dow came here from Monticello, Maine. He bought a farm on the Corner Road from Orlo Smith. He was married when he came here and had four children. Clara married George Jamison and lives in Mexico, Maine. Laura went to Quebec and married there. Glen mar-
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ried Faye Terrill and after her death he married Ida Shaw. Thomas married Nettie Hartley, daughter of Wilmot Hartley. Glen lives in Ridlonville, and Thomas in Etna.
Mr. and Mrs. Dow lived and died on the farm. Then it was taken over by their son Glen who, after a few years, sold it to John Edmunds.
1900
Alvin Stitham
Alvin Stitham came here with his wife and nine children from Can- terbury, N. B., where he had been a Fish and Game Warden. Upon coming to Bridgewater he got a position with the Singer Sewing Machine Company, as salesman, a position he held for many years. Then he worked as salesman for various companies selling food products.
Alvin had three sons, Alvin Jr., Sam, and Charles. Alvin Jr. worked for the New England Telephone Company thirty-two years, retiring in 1950. Sam worked for the same company twenty-eight years, retiring in 1948. Charles worked for the Maine Public Service Electric many years, and is now in business for himself in Mars Hill.
Alvin had seven daughters. The youngest, Hazel, was born after he moved here. Of these ten children only two are living in town today, Rose and May (Hall).
1900
William Black
William Black came from Bloomfield, N. B. He bought the Harry Barrett farm, which was the one that Absolem Kimball had lived on. Most of it had been cleared before William bought it. He lived here until 1930, when he sold to Maurice Perfitt. Two years later he bought the farm of his brother-in-law, Fred Nickerson.
William was married before he came here. His wife was Vine Nick- erson. They had two sons, Byron and Linwood. Byron has worked for the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad as Station Agent at Fort Fairfield for many years. William makes his home with him. Linwood now lives in Massachusetts.
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From Present Owner to First Owner
Now let's try to trace the farms in town from the present owner back to the first owner or settler. Starting at the north end of town, the first farm on the west is now where Allen Kingsbury lives. It was owned by his father, Robert, who bought it from his father-in-law, Thomas Hunt- ington, who first settled here in 1890. He bought it from John Ketchum.
The first farm on the east side of the road is now owned by Wood- bury Bearce who bought it from Fred McBurnie. Fred got it from the Edmunds Seed Co. of Boston. Before them it was owned by Harry Whited, who got it from his father, Frederick Whited. This was the original Joseph Ketchum farm. This farm extends from the town line to the Corner of the east, and on the west side from the Kingsbury farm to the Corner.
The first farm below the Corner is now owned by Harry Grant. This was owned by Elmer Fulton, before him by John Fulton, and before that by Joshua Fulton, who cleared it and settled here on this farm in 1840.
The second farm south of the Corner is owned by Donald Kings- bury and his mother, Minona. It was the farm of his father, Roland Kingsbury, who bought it from Thomas Huntington. Thomas bought it from the Nelson heirs whose father, Orin Nelson, came here in 1840. This farm is on both sides.
The next farm, both sides of the road, is owned by Dan Bradstreet, who bought it from C. Edgar Lawrence, who got it from Martin S. Rideout. Martin bought the south half from John Ackerson. Dan bought the north half from the heirs of Harding Ackerson, whose father owned this whole farm in 1850.
The farm of Chester Sargent was owned by his father, Howard, who bought it from Doran Gray. Before that it was owned by Harry Barrett, and before him it was owned by Charles Bradstreet. It was first owned by Dennis Nelson, who came here with Orin in 1840.
The farm of Perry Carmichael was owned by his father, Joseph Car- michael, who bought it from John Sargent. Previous to that it had a number of owners for a short time. It was originally owned by G. W. Collins.
This takes us to the village. Now below the village is the farm of Frank McKeen, which has been in the family since 1860 when John McKeen came here. This farm is on the west side of the road.
The next farm, west side, is owned by Joseph Smith. This has been in the Smith family since 1852. This farm was a double lot, as was the
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McKeen farm, each lot containing 120 acres. The McKeen farm is the first one in the Portland Academy Grant.
The first farm going up Bunker Hill is owned by Lewis Finnemore. This was the place of Robert Brown, who got it from George Pen- nington.
The next farm is now owned by Harry Simonson, who bought it from H. M. Kimball. This was the George Williams farm.
The next farm is owned by the Slipp boys. It was the farm of Bert Slipp, who bought it from George London, whose father, John, came here in 1844.
The farm owned by John Kimball was owned by his father, Fred, who got it from his father, John. It was originally the William Lawrence farm. This farm is at the top of the hill on the west side.
William Scott owns the farm on the south side of the hill. It has been in the Scott family since 1882, and was bought from Charles and Gene Bradstreet as a wood lot.
Frank Slipp and Lewis Finnemore own the next few lots, which are wood lots.
Clair Allen has the next two lots. This was the farm of his mother, who had it after her husband's death, and it was settled by Guy's father, George Allen, about 1860. This farm is on both sides of the road.
The last farm in the town is owned by Robert Harding. It was owned by Mrs. Harding's mother, Mrs. Elva Williams, before that it was the farm of Mrs. Williams' father, Doris Ackerson, who bought it from Richard Kimball. Richard bought it from George Stewart. This farm, also, is on both sides of the road.
Now to get back to the village, the first farm on the east side is owned by Charles Simonson. Going back, it was formerly owned by Ray Yerxa, William Whited, Edwin McBurnie, Mrs. Parsons, Christo- pher Bradbury, Joseph Smith, and David Foster.
The first farm below the Snow Road is owned by Joseph C. Smith and has been in the family since 1852. The south part of the farm was at one time the farm of Thomas Durgin.
The first farm across the swamp and part way up the hill is now owned by Ralph Terrill. This was the farm of C. Edgar Lawrence, who bought it from George Pennington. It had previously been owned by Gideon Kinney.
The farm at the top of the hill is now owned by Byron Lawrence. It was the farm of his father, John Lawrence, who bought it from Oliver Rideout.
Kenneth Parks owns the next farm. This was the Hiram Kimball farm. Hiram's father, George, bought from Jason Russell.
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Frank Slipp has the next place which was owned by his father, J. Howard Slipp, and his father, Samuel Slipp.
Now let's go back to the Corner Road, the north side starting with the farm under the hill. This was half a lot. It was owned by Howard Jamison, George Barrett, and J. H. Collins.
The next farm is owned by Wendell Pierce. It was the Maurice Per- fitt, William Black, and then Absolem Kimball farm. Absolem came here in 1852.
The next two farms are today the John Edmunds farms. The one just below the railroad track was originally owned by J. H. Collins. The second one was the Edward Dow place. He bought from Orlo Smith, who got it from Samuel Hartley. This was a half-lot. The next farm, also Edmunds, was the Den Barrett place owned by his father, Edward, who bought it from J. H. Collins.
Bradbury Brothers come next. This was owned by Fred Nickerson, Charles Bradstreet, Albert Chandler, and Charles Kidder.
George Esty has the next farm which he bought from his father, Andrew, who bought it from Mrs. Bedford Hume. This is the farm he bought from Nicholas Rideout in 1860.
Ray Yerxa has the farm of William Whited, who bought it from George Freeman, who bought from Nathaniel Rideout. This was the farm that Joseph Ketchum first settled on in 1831.
Fred Whited owns all the farms around the Boundary, the ones of Hamilton Farley and Nathaniel Bradstreet.
Corner Road, south side. The farm now owned by Bernard Smith was the Charles Smith Farm.
Beyond the railroad track is the John Edmunds farm. The first lot is mostly wood lot; the second lot was bought from William Black, who bought from Fred Nickerson. Before that sometime, it was owned by G. W. Collins. Then comes the farm that was the Barrett farm.
The next farm is the Bradbury Brothers', which is the same as the north side.
Fred Cook owns the next farm, which belonged to his father, Thomas Cook, who bought it in 1870 from Samuel Kidder.
Thomas Cook now owns the farm that was first settled by Cyrus Chandler. This brings us to the Fred Whited farm, the last one on the road.
Now let's go to the Snow Road. These farms changed hands so many times it may be hard to trace them all without a search of all the old deeds. The ones on the north and south corners of the road have been mentioned before.
The second farm from the Corner is now owned by Harry and Robert
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Simonson. It was originally the J. P. Hayes farm, and Orlo Smith farm.
The farm of Earl Kingsbury was the Edmund Hayes farm.
The Burns farm, which has been in the family since it was first settled, comes next.
The Bert Nelson farm was also a Burns farm.
Jessica Sargent has the one that her husband, Percy, bought from his father, Joseph Sargent.
Harry Simonson's farm changed hands a number of times in the early years; it was originally the Otis Turner farm.
Sam Hartley has the Buckley farm, originally the Berry Brothers' farm, the Edward and Thomas Snow farms, and the Jerry Turner farm.
On the south side of the road is Robert Simonson's farm which was the Orlo Smith farm.
Earl Kingsbury's place has been mentioned before.
Ferdinand Bradstreet has the Charles Simonson farm. This was owned by Joseph Milbury, which was originally the John Nelson place.
Ralph Stockpole has the farm of his grandfather, Augustus Stack- pole Sr., who bought it from Jason Russell.
Howard Nelson has the farm first settled by Nelson Cain.
Carroll Sharp has the Isaac Durgin farm, which was his father's. This was first cleared some by Joseph Sargent.
Many changes have been made in the other farms, so no attempt will be made to trace them. Other farms are still owned by descendants of the original owners.
Settlers on Monteith Road
Previous to 1877 there were only seven families on this road. The first farm on the north side of the road was a half-lot which was owned by Perl Tapley, who cleared part of it and sold it to Eugene Monteith. Mr. Monteith owned the next half-lot which he cleared and where he lived all his life. It is from this farm that the road gets its name. These two pieces of land are now owned by Edward Buckley.
The second lot, north side, was owned by Joseph Ricker who came from St. Stephen, N. B. Living on a corner of the farm was a J. Jewell and across the road lived W. Jewell. These two men did not own farms. Probably they worked for Mr. Ricker and Mr. George London, who had the second lot on the south side of the road across from the Ricker farm.
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The third lot on the south side was owned by Rideout. No informa- tion could be obtained about him.
(The above list of farms is taken from an old map printed in 1877.)
Frederick Ritter
In the year 1877 several men came to the Monteith settlement and took up farms on the eastern part of the road. They were Frederick Ritter, Stephen Nichols and his son Edward, Charles Lewis, and Wil- liam Reid.
In order to know more about some of these men we shall have to go back to 1843. In that year there lived in London, England, a lad named Frederick Adolphus Ritter, who lived with a wealthy aunt who had fond hopes for his future; but Frederick had plans of his own, so he ran away and came to Bae Chaleur, N. B., in the summer of 1844. That winter he worked in the lumber camps and the following summer he came to Good's Corner, Carleton County, N. B. He settled there and made a fine farm from the wilderness. He married Anita Carmichael, and to them were born three sons-William J., Albert Bunyan, Fred- erick Adolphus Jr. (known as Dolph); and five daughters-Janice, Alice, Elizabeth, Annie, and Ruth.
When Frederick came here in 1877 he chose the farm nearest to the border on the north side of the road. Again he hewed a farm from the wilderness. Part of it he cleared and built a large set of buildings, the lumber coming from the farm. The rest he left for wood and lumber.
Later he bought a farm two miles to the west, from George London, and deeded to his son Dolph. Before his death in 1893 he deeded his farm to his son, William.
Dolph tore down the buildings that Mr. London had built far back from the road and built a large set nearer the road. Most of the farm was woods when he bought it, so this had to be cleared. It is owned today by his daughter and her husband, Alma and Jack Allen.
Adolphus Sr.'s daughter Elizabeth married Edward Nichols. Ruth married John Lawrence and Alice married Eugene Monteith, son of David Monteith. The rest of his family preferred the Province of New Brunswick, so returned there to live.
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1877
Charles Lewis
Charles Lewis took a lot of wild land south of Mr. Ritter's. This he cleared and made into a very good farm. In 1898 he sold the west half of his farm to Richard McCleary. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are now dead and the family are living in other parts of the country.
1877
Edward Nichols
Edward Nichols came here from Good's Corner, N. B., desiring to settle and make a home. Being only eighteen years of age he could not get a title to the land, so his father bought the land from the state. Three years later, when Edward was twenty-one, his father deeded the land to him.
Edward built a small house and cleared the land, using oxen to do most of the work. Later on he raised his own fine horses, many of which he sold. After he married Elizabeth Ritter he built an addition onto the front part of the house and a shed on the back.
Mr. Nichols worked from dawn to dark clearing his farm and raising horses and cattle, and in a few years, he was able to buy the Reid farm on the west and an adjoining woodlot.
A schoolhouse had been built in the district on part of the George London farm, but burned in 1887. The next year, 1888, Mr. Nichols took the contract to build it for $400, and out of that he had to hire the carpenter to do the building (that amount would hardly buy lum- ber to build a pig pen today but shows how far a dollar would go in those days).
Mr. Nichols had two children, David and Ada (Kilcollins). Ada lives on the homestead in the original house built by her father, while David lives on the Reid farm.
1877
William Reid
William Reid came here from the same place as the three men men- tioned above and took up the third lot from the Boundary on the north side of the road. He cleared some of it and later sold it to Edward Nichols. The Reid boys who live in town today are his descendants.
77
Sewell Baston
About this time Sewell Baston came from Ripley, Maine, and took a lot of wild land, the third lot from the Boundary, south side of road. At first he lived in a log house, but as he got his land cleared he built a frame house and barns. He was a Civil War Veteran.
He had three children: Henry, Eldora, and Harry. Eldora died when eleven years old; Harry moved to Oakfield.
Henry lived on the homestead until his death in 1939. He had one son, Charles, who lives in town. Several daughters are living in Massa- chusetts.
John Brewer
John Brewer came here from Woodstock, N. B., and took up a farm next east of Joe Ricker. He was a carpenter by trade and helped the other settlers build their houses.
Henry Hodgedon
Henry Hodgedon, a Civil War Veteran, had the farm east of John Brewer. Where he came from is not known today.
The next lot east of the Brewer place was a wood lot owned by G. W. Collins. This completes the lots on the north side of the road.
Thomas Burpee
Thomas Burpee, probably from Canada, had the lot west of the Bas- ton farm. The next lot to the west was owned by G. W. Collins.
Rodney Parks
Rodney Parks, who had owned the Buckley farm on the Snow Road, sold it and bought the Brewer farm on the Monteith Road, which he
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finished clearing. He then bought a lot on the south side of the road. His sons, George, Henry, Ray, and Warren, were a great help to him in clearing these farms.
Theodore Parks, a brother of Rodney's, bought the lot across the road from the Hodgedon farm.
George, son of Rodney, then bought the Joseph Ricker farm, and in 1921 he bought the first lot on the south side of the road.
1898
Richard McCleary
In April of this year Richard McClearly and his brother Thomas came from Bloomfield, N. B. They were of Irish descent. Their early ancestors left Ireland because of the low wages paid there. Hearing of the high wages paid in America and Canada and the ease with which one could obtain property on this side of the water they migrated to Canada. Richard bought the east half of the Charles Lewis farm.
He was married when he came here and had seven children, only two of whom are in town today-Lester and Richard Jr. Hettie lived here for some time, but now lives in Oakfield.
From Present to Original Owners
Now let's go back and trace these farms on Monteith Road from the present owners back to the first settlers. It might be of interest to note that the lots in this part of town, the Portland Academy Grant, are 120 acres, while those in the north part of town, in the Bridgewater Acad- emy Grant, are 160 acres.
Beginning at the west end of the road, north side, the farms are owned by the following people:
Edward Buckley, who came from Westfield, owns the first one, the Eugene Monteith farm. This was first settled by Perl Tapley who had the west half-lot and David Monteith who had the east half-lot.
The second farm is now owned by Albert Allen, who bought it from George Parks. Before him it was owned by Joseph Ricker. This was a whole lot.
The third farm, a whole lot, is owned by Reuben Grass; before him by Rodney Parks and John Brewer.
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The fourth farm is now owned by Ferdinand Bradstreet. This was the Henry Hodgedon farm, which changed hands several times before coming into the possession of Mr. Bradstreet.
David Nichols has the next two lots. The first one was owned by Edward Nichols, who bought it, a woodlot, from G. W. Collins. The second lot was owned by Edward Nichols, who bought it from William Reid. It is on this lot that Mr. Nichols lives.
The seventh lot is now the home of Fred Kilcollins, whose wife is Ada Nichols. This farm was the original Edward Nichols homestead.
The eighth and ninth lots are now owned by Erwin Lawrence. This was the William Ritter farm which his father settled in 1877. This is a double lot.
This completes the north side of the road. There are nine lots on the road.
Starting at the west end of the road on the south side, the first farm is owned by George Parks and his son Kenneth. He bought it from George Carmichael, but it was originally owned by John Monteith.
The second farm is now owned by Milton Allen. His wife was Alma Ritter, daughter of Dolph Ritter who owned the farm which was bought from George London.
The third lot is Reuben Grass' farm which, according to a map made by George Parks and David Nichols, is identified as the farm that John and William Jewell settled. According to a map printed in 1877, these two men lived on the corner of the Ricker farm and on the London farm. Be that as it may, it is today the Grass farm.
The fourth farm is owned by Gordon Parks, a grandson of Theodore Parks who first settled the farm. At Theodore's death it went to his son Lafayette, then Lafayette's son Theodore II, and now to Gordon.
The fifth lot is the Hazen Bridges farm. This was owned by G. W. Collins at one time.
The sixth lot is now the farm of Paul Kilcollins. This was the Thomas Burpee farm. Paul also owns half of the Sewell Baston farm, which is the seventh lot. The other half of the Baston lot is owned by Fred Kil- collins, father of Paul.
The eighth and ninth lots are owned by Richard McCleary Jr. whose father, Richard Sr., bought the east half of the Charles Lewis farm. A few years ago Richard Jr. bought the rest of the Charles Lewis farm, making it again a double lot as it was originally.
This completes the south side of the road. It is hoped by tracing these farms from the present owners back to the original owners a clearer picture may be had of where the early settlers had their lots of land.
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Settlers on West Road
This road was built on the line between the Bridgewater Academy Grant and the Portland Academy Grant and runs from the center of town to the town line on the west. Today the road has been extended across D Plantation for lumbering operations and is passable for auto- mobiles, whereas a few years ago it was simply a woods road.
Most of the wild land in the Portland Academy Grant, south side of the road, was owned by George Pennington, while that in the Bridge- water Academy Grant, north side of the road, was almost all owned by G. W. Collins.
1880
Wilson Estabrook
The first settler on this road was Wilson Estabrook who came from Canada and bought five hundred acres of wild land from George Pen- nington for two dollars an acre. Part of it he cleared and some he sold to new settlers as they came in. By much hard work he cleared much of his farm, even to most of a hill on the back part of the farm, which he used for pasture. This hill was a landmark known for many years, and may still be called "Wilses" hill. He built a substantial set of buildings, most of the time living alone, as he was never married.
1889
Norman Dickinson
Norman Dickinson bought a lot of wild land from G. W. Collins, which he cleared into a nice farm and on which he built a good set of buildings. One day his wife sent the daughter to empty out some ashes. She dumped them at the side of the shed. The wind was blow- ing and soon a blaze started, which, before they realized it, had gotten beyond control and the buildings were burned to the ground. That sum- mer they slept in the barn while the new house was being erected. Sometime in the early 1900's Mr. Dickinson sold his farm to H. G. Stackpole and moved away.
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1889
Frank Sharp
Frank Sharp came here and bought a lot of land back from the road along the stream. He later bought the lot along the road, which he sold to Elisha Shaw, and bought the Guy Morse farm in 1920 (see complete story of Frank Sharp on page 61).
1889
Gideon Hallett
Gideon Hallett came about this time with his wife and two sons, Witford and Charles, and two daughters, Deborah (Morse) and Clara (Clark). Mrs. Clark is the only one of these children living today.
For sometime he lived on the Dickinson place, then he bought a small lot of land from Pennington, which he afterward sold.
Witford married Annie McKeen, daughter of John McKeen. Their children were Vine, John, Charles, Evelyn, and Clara. All are living in town.
1894
Mckinnon Family
William Mackinnon came here in 1894. His father was a Scots- man, born in Scotland, where he was a sheep farmer, but when a young man he migrated to the Scotch settlement at Stanley, N. B. Here he was married and here he raised his family. Somewhere down the years the "a" has been dropped from the Mac and it is spelled today "Mckinnon."
William bought a lot of wild land from G. W. Collins on the West Road. It was practically all woods which he cleared into a fine farm. The nearest neighbor was Wilson Estabrook on the west, nearly a mile away, and Norman Dickinson a mile to the east. Between these two houses was dense woods.
The family of Newell Bear, an Indian, lived in a camp near the brook. Sometimes Newell came to the Mckinnon home, but if William was not at home he would not enter for he knew that Mrs. McKinnon was afraid of him. In fact she was more afraid of strangers than she
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was of bears, of which there were plenty in those days. If she saw a strange man coming up the road she would gather her children together and hide until the stranger had passed the house.
(It might be of interest to know that Newell Bear lived to reach the age of 107 before he died. At least that is according to his reckoning, and people did not doubt him. He was a very old man, and had sons who were old men.)
Mr. McKinnon was married before coming here to live and most of his family were born before the family came here. His family were Ernest, who is dead; Dora (Blake), who lives with her father; Bruce, Dawn, and Annie living in Houlton; Violet (McKeen); and Earl, the youngest, who lives on the homestead.
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