USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 10
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 10
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 10
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Intersecting these layers, in immense veins or dikes, is found the granite. The granite dikes have clearly been formed by the filling of vast chasms in the earth's crust, probably at a high temperature.
Withstanding better the wear of time than the gneiss, these dikes now form prominent features of our landscape at Powder-House Hill and the hills of Topsham, and have been the cause of the rapids which furnish our villages with their magnificent water-power.
The granite dikes are here an extensive source of building material, and, farther north, of the feldspar ground for the glazing of pottery and the quartz crushed for sand-paper. In these dikes, too, are found the crystals that have rendered the vicinity so famous for its mineral wealth.
On Powder-House Hill and other places, and probably throughout the village of Brunswick, were it accessible, the surface of these hard and almost imperishable rocks is found deeply scored and furrowed in lines parallel with one another, and having the direction of northwest and southeast. These it is well known, and has been abundantly proved, have been formed by the action of an immense glacier which once extended over the whole northern part of the United States.
Over four thousand feet in thickness, covering all but our highest mountains, as Washington and Katahdin, this stream of solid ice moved slowly southward with crushing force, grooving the surface, grinding down the hills, and transporting the huge bowlders that were, later, stranded in our fields. By this same agency were formed the deep fjords or inlets of our coasts and the islands that stud Casco Bay.
Following the period of ice came a period of thaw. At the same
1 This description is by Professor Carmichael of Bowdoin College, and though written with expecial reference to Brunswick and Topsham, is undoubtedly equally applicable to Hurpswell.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
time the coast of Maine, which once had been higher than now above the ocean level, sank below its surface, and an arm of the sea flowed over the highest building sites of Brunswick. Then were deposited the beds of brick clay which immediately cover the solid rock and crop out at the brow of the " Hill."
In sinking wells in different parts of the village, not unfrequently mussel-beds (Mytelus edulis) are met with in this day. Their perfec- tion and disposition prove that here they have lived and died.
Other shells, as Leda truncata, which is not found to day south of Spitzbergen, attest to the coldness of the salt waters which then cov- ered the lowlands.
Two bison teeth, a fragment of a walrus tusk, a large and curious tooth resembling that of the walrus, found in a clay bed of the same period at Gardiner by the late Mrs. Allen, and deposited in the Museum of Bowdoin College by Mrs. M. Allen Elton, prove at this early day. long before Adam walked the earth, strange beasts occupied the morasses and briny waters of the Kennebec and Androscoggin valleys.
At a later period, immense streams of water from the still melting ice flowed southward through the Androscoggin, forming the high ter- races of which six, one above the other, may be seen on the Bruns- wick, and two upon the Topsham shore.
Then was deposited the expanse of sand forming the arid plain sur- rounding the village of Brunswick. Happy the agriculturist on whose land the Leda clay breaks through the barren terrace sand !
Ice, then, is the sculptor to whom we owe all the physical features of our vicinity. It carved out our hills, valleys, and river-beds ; brought bowlders and gravel from afar, and supplied the water which formed the terraces upon which the town of Brunswick has been built.
MINERALS.
This region is remarkably rich in the number of its minerals. The attention of the Pejepscot proprietors was early attracted to this fact, and with prudent forethought they passed the following vote, Jan. 15, 1718 :-
" Voted, that if it shall so happen that there be any Mine or Min- eral found out within any Proprietor's or Inhabitant's Lott; that the Said Mine or Minerall shall be held in common to the Proprietors : The Person in whose Lott it shall fall to have the same Quantity of good land elsewhere." 1
1 Pejepscot Records.
97
BOUNDARIES AND NOTABLE FEATURES.
The following list of the minerals of this region, and the localities where they are chiefly to be found, is furnished mainly by Professor Carmichael : -
FELDSPAR is found in large and handsome crystals in Cobb's quarry. In Topsham, crystals a foot in diameter have been found in Sprague's quarry. Fine crystals of Amazonian spar from an old feldspar quarry are found on the banks of the Cathance River.
MICA, BIOLITE, PHLOZOPITE, in crystals, are found at the railroad cut near the upper bridge, and at the Tarbox quarry, Topsham. Near the Old Feldspar quarry slabs have been found a foot wide. . Green mica is found at New Meadows. The green mica extensively exchanged by the late Professor Cleaveland was found in a bowlder near the river.
LEPIDOLITE is found at Topsham.
QUARTZ. - At Sprague's quarry large crystals, and at the Old Feld- spar quarry crystals a foot in diameter are found. Decahedral quartz and smoky quartz are found in various quarries.
BERYL. - At Cobb's quarry, small but perfect crystals, with interest- ing pyramidal faces, are found in the railroad cut near the upper bridge. At Fisher's quarry, Topsham, crystals of a hundred pounds' weight have been found.
The EMERALD is said to have been found in a cut near the upper fishway, in Topsham.
GARNET. - Small but fine crystals are found in Cobb's quarry. A fine, perfect specimen, nearly as large as a man's fist, in the Museum of Bowdoin College, was found in Sprague's quarry. At Fisher's quarry are fine, large specimens. Large quantities of crystals, of medium color and large size, have been taken from a quarry near the road, beyond the Old Feldspar quarry .. The most ordinary form is the ikositetrahedron modified by the octahedron and dodecahedron.
MAGNETITE is found in many localities. Crystals over two inches in diameter have been taken from Sprague's quarry.
TOURMALINE. - Large masses are found at Rocky Hill. Fine, large, perfect hemimorphic crystals are found at Tarbox's quarry, Topsham. Brown tourmaline is found at New Meadows, near the railroad bridge.
COLUMBITE. - Large and perfect crystals have been found at Fisher's quarry. One specimen weighed upwards of two pounds. It is found also at the railroad cut near the upper bridge.
GALENITE and IRON PYRITES are found (good specimens) near Cathance River.
APATITE is found near Cathance River, and crystals are also found at New Meadows, near the railroad bridge.
7
98
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
TITANITE is found at Cobb's quarry, and small but fine crystals are found near Miss Narcissa Stone's house.
CHLORITE is found at Cobb's quarry. ,
BISMUTHIENITE is found at Fisher's quarry and at Tarbox's quarry, associated with columbite.
AMPHIBITE is found at Sprague's quarry.
SPHALENITE is found at Cathance River.
MOLYBDENITE is found in the bed of the river near the Topsham paper mill, at New Meadows, and at the Old Feldspar quarry.
GOHNITE is found in a quarry near the road, beyond the Old Feld- spar quarry.
The following minerals have also all been found in some one or more of the three towns, though the exact locality we are unable to designate : COPPER PYRITES, MALACHITE, CALCITE, HEMATITE, CUP- RITE, EPIDITE, and MOLYBDITE.
TUNGSTITE is supposed to have been found, but it is not known with certainty.
SOIL AND CROPS.
The soil of Topsham is, for the most part, a light, sandy loam, with some clay at the northwestern and northeastern parts. In the main, it is tolerably productive. The best farms are on what is called the Foreside, and on Cathance stream.
The soil of Brunswick varies from the sandy loam of the plains to a gravelly loam at the westward. Rich loams and heavy clays are found in a few localities. Peat has been found in the low ground east of Miss Narcissa Stone's house and has been used by her. The best farms were formerly1 (and probably are now) at Middle Bay and Maquoit. The land is said, however, to have been much more fertile in former times than at present.2
Harpswell can hardly be considered an agricultural town, though portions of it are very productive. Some excellent farms are to be found upon the Neck and upon some of the larger islands. The soil of the Neck is largely granitic rather than a gravelly loam, with small tracts of clay loam. On Great Island the soil varies from a hard, tenacious clay to a sandy loam, while in some localities are found a fine sand, and in others slaty and granitic soils. Most of the farmns are equal to those on the Neck, being excellent hay and grazing land, while the higher parts are suitable for corn and wheat. Orchards do not flourish well.
1 McKeen, MSS. Lecture.
2 Maine Historical Society Collection, 3, p. 318.
99
BOUNDARIES AND NOTABLE FEATURES.
Potatoes, barley, wheat, oats, and beans are the crops chiefly culti- vated hereabouts. The mode of cultivation has improved very much of late years from what it was in Revolutionary times, when people " banked up their corn very high, and placed their potatoes very deep in the ground, and raised but little of either."
FLORA.
The flora of this region is, in general, like that of other similar localities in the central and coast region of Maine. The description here given is confined solely to the trees found here. At the time of the first settlement the wood growth was very different from what it is now. At that time there is said to have been an oak grove where the depot now stands in Brunswick, and the plains were covered with a growth of beech, instead of pine as at present. Then the prevailing growths were of hard wood. Among the forest trees now commonly met with are the alder, beech, birch, cedar, fir, juniper (or hackma- tack), hemlock, four varieties of maple, two of oak, four of pine, and poplar, spruce, and willow. Those which are less commonly found are the ash, cherry, elm, horse-chestnut, larch, and arbor-vitæ.
CLIMATIC AND METEOROLOGICAL.
The climate of this region is somewhat different near the sea-coast from that a few miles farther inland. In Harpswell, and around the bays of Brunswick, the temperature is as uniform as it usually is on the coast of Maine. Topsham, from its greater elevation, is cooler than Brunswick in the summer and, probably owing to its southern slope, is slightly warmer in the winter. The following meteorological statement is from the Annual Report for 1867, of the Smithsonian Institution : -
" Between the years 1807 and 1859 inclusive, meteorological records were made with great regularity by the late Professor Parker Cleave- land, of Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine, and after his death were consigned to this institution for reduction and publication. The observations, though not intended by their author to be of a strictly scientific character. were yet found sufficiently valuable to warrant the expenditure of considerable labor in preparing them for the press.
" The observations were made at 7 A. M., 1 P. M., and 6 r. M., and relate to indications of the thermometer and barometer, direction of the wind, state of the weather, amount of rain and snow, character of clouds, occurrence of thunder-storms, fogs, frost and hail, earthquakes, auroras, etc. The observations present, during a period of 52 years,
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
a mean temperature of 44° 4' Fahrenheit, which reduced to the level of the sea becomes 44° 6'.
" The lowest mean temperature for any year occurred in 1859 and was 40° 31', and the highest was in 1840, 51º 60', giving a range of 11º 29', which is considerably larger than at places farther south in the United States.
" According to the average of 52 years, the warmest day falls on the 22d of July, or 31 days after the summer solstice, and has a mean temperature of 67º 7'.
" The coldest day, on an average, is the 18th of January, or 28 days after the winter solstice, having a temperature of 19º 9' Fahrenheit.
"On an average, the 20th of April and the 24th of October have the same temperature as the mean of the entire year. The lowest record for the whole time is 30° below zero, and the highest 102° above.
" The northwest wind on an average reduces the temperature 4° 6'. The north lowers it 3º 1', and the northeast 3° 8'. The southwest wind, on the contrary, elevates the temperature above its normal value, 2º 6'. In summer the effect of rain and fog is to lower the temperature 6° 5'. In winter, snow, sleet, or rain increases the temperature 4º 3'. From 54,097 observations, the following is the proportional number of winds in 1,000: -
SOUTH.
NORTH.
WEST.
EAST.
s. W.
N. E.
N. W.
S. E.
29
40
51
29
311
143
320
77
" From this it results that the most frequent are the northwest and southwest, the former in winter and the latter in summer.
" The least number of days in which rain fell was in February, the greatest in May. The greatest number of days in which snow fell was in January. The earliest snow occurred on the 26th of September, 1808, and the latest on the 8th of June, 1816. On an average, snow falls in Brunswick on some day in May once in five years, and in October once every other year. The average number of rainy days is 64, the average number of snowy days is 30.
" The average amount of rain and snow is 44.68 inches. The greatest amount of rain during any one day was 84 inches, Novem- ber 4, 1845. The greatest fall of snow was on the 10th of March, 1819, and measured 30 inches.
" The greatest number of rainfalls occur while the wind is from the
101
BOUNDARIES AND NOTABLE FEATURES.
northeast, and the least number while it is from the west. The north- east wind in winter is almost constantly accompanied by rain or snow, while in summer the southeast surpasses it as a vehicle of rain, - a result evidently due to the position of the place of observation with respect to the ocean. The number of storms of thunder and lightning recorded during 51 years is 472, or about 9 a year. The greatest number occurred in July and August, the least in January and Feb- ruary. The total number of fogs is 1,135, or 22 in a year, the most dense of which occur in summer, the least dense in winter.
" July is the only month in which no frost is recorded. The ear- liest frost observed was August 3d and the latest June 19th. On an average, the spring frost ceases after the first week in June, and the autumn frost commences after the first week in September.
" There were 34 hail-storms, - the greatest number in January, the least in August. The records notice the occurrence of 7 earth- quakes and 86 auroras, the greatest number of the latter in September and October.
" The aurora also exhibits a maximum and a minimum. The maxi- mum occurred in 1808, 1818, 1830, 1838, 1848, 1857, giving differences of 10, 12, 8, 10, and 9 years. This indicates an average period of about 10 years.
"Unfortunately, the temperature of the barometer is not given, and therefore a reduction on account of the expansion of the mercury is not possible, and consequently the only use which has been made of the record has been to exhibit the monthly extreme values, together with their annual variations. The barometric maxima reach their greatest value in December, and their least value in June. The min- ima occur in August. The monthly range is the greatest at the period of greatest cold, in January, and the least range at the period of greatest heat, in July."
The coldest season ever experienced here was probably in the winter of 1780-81. It was, however, nearly, if not quite, as cold in 1751. As early as January 14 of that year (1751), Parson Smith gives an account of an excursion he took with his wife and others from Fal- mouth to Brunswick on the ice, " passing over Harrasicket Bay a-going, and venturing on their return to come directly from Brunswick across the Bay without Maquoit Island to New Casco,1 and over thence to the Beach home." 2 In 1780 Casco Bay was frozen over as far into the
1 Near where the United States Marine Hospital now stands at Falmouth Foreside.
2 Smith's Journal.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
sea as the island called the White Bull, and was travelled upon from Harpswell to Portland.
The mildest winter was that of 1838. On January 8, of this winter, David Johnson ploughed all day on Goat Island, Harpswell.
Destructive gales and thunder-storms have not been of exceptional frequency in this vicinity. The earliest one of any severity, of which mention has been found, occurred June 29, 1809, when there was a violent thunder-storm. The Gun House was struck by lightning, which struck also in twelve other places in that vicinity. On June 7, 1814, about 8 A. M., there was heard a report in the air resembling that of a gun, and gradually dying away. There was no storm at the time ; it was doubtless the bursting of a meteor. April 1, 1815, vari- ous sized balls of snow were found in the woods. They were from less than one inch to fifteen inches in diameter, of an oval or globular shape, loose and uniform in texture, and very irregularly distributed. The tracks could be seen where they had been rolled over the surface of the snow by the wind. On May 7 and 21, 1816, there were severe thunder-storms. On the latter date the storm was accompanied with hail, the form of which was very remarkable. The hail-stones were in hexangular pyramids, sometimes half an inch in length. In some the base was almost transparent. On August 6, 1834, there was a severe thunder-shower, during which the vanes on Professor Cleaveland's and Captain Given's barns were struck by lightning. August 20, 1835, there was a severe hail-storm, and hail-stones which measured three inches in diameter were picked up at Mustard's tavern. September 3, 1845, there was a violent thunder-shower, during which Common's Hall was struck by lightning. May 6, 1850, there was also a violent storm. The lightning struck Captain Minot's buildings at Mair Point, and in several other places. February 18, 1853, probably the severest storm of all occurred. The lightning struck in over twenty different localities ; among others, Deacon Perkins's house on the island in Tops- ham. October 30, 1866, the steeple of the First Parish Meeting-House in Brunswick was blown off.
In 1869, on September 7, a terrible gale began at seven o'clock P. M., and lasted for several hours. In the Lemont woods fourteen trees were blown down in one spot, and over two hundred trees were blown down in David Marriner's woods. A large number were also prostrated in Topsham. The depot woodshed in Brunswick, and two chimneys on the Medical College, were also blown over. A. great deal of damage was done, of which the above constituted but a small portion. August 16, 1867, there was another severe storm,
103
BOUNDARIES AND NOTABLE FEATURES.
during which seven and one half inches of rain fell. Seventy-five. feet of an embankment on the Androscoggin railroad in Topsham was washed out. It was twenty-five feet deep. July 15, 1868, a severe thunder-storm occurred, during which two houses and a barn in Brunswick, and an old wooden warehouse in Topsham, were struck by lightning. June 23, 1874, the Jordan House in Brunswick was struck by lightning.
Accounts have been preserved of some ten shocks of earthquake which have occurred here since the first settlement of Brunswick. The first and severest was the one which was felt throughout New England, and is called the "Great Earthquake." It happened on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 1755, at about a quarter past four o'clock A. M. The undulation of the earth's surface in this vicinity was so violent as to rock houses, and throw down chimneys, log fences, and crockery from the shelves. The chimney of Reverend Mr. Dunlap's house fell in, and some of his children narrowly escaped injury. The inhabi- tants generally were greatly alarmed, and viewed the occurrence as an omen of evil. Reverend Mr. Dunlap preached a sermon with especial reference to this event.1 The other earthquakes were much less severe, though some of them were sufficient to cause a degree of trepidation amongst the timid. They occurred Nov. 22, 1755 ; June 12, 1805, at 7.30 A. M. ; June 26, 1808, at 2.51 P. M. ; Nov. 28, 1814, at 7 p. M. ; the oscillations moved from north to south, lasted fifty seconds, and were followed by an explosion ; May 23, 1817, at 3 P. M., - lasted one minute ; March 7, 1823, at 10 A. M. ; July 25, 1828, at 6 A. M. ; Aug. 26, 1829, at 9 P. M. and at 9.15 P. M. ; and Oct. 17, 1860.
1 Pejepscot Papers.
104
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
CHAPTER II.
MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
THE town of Brunswick first received its name legally, in the year 1717, when it was incorporated as a township. This name was prob- ably given to the town in honor of the house of Brunswick, to which family the then king of Great Britain belonged. The reason for this presumption is, that this town, being earlier settled and incorporated than any of the other nine or ten towns of the same name in the United States, could not have been named after either of them, and as there were, so far as known, no Germans among the earlier settlers here, it was hardly likely to have been named for the German city.
UNDER COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
[1717.] The vote of the General Court, constituting Brunswick a township, was passed on the third of May, 1717, and provided " That ye Land Plotted for a Town from Pejepscot Falls to Maquoit in Casco Bay be Constituted A Township to be laid out the Quantity of Six miles Square as the Land will allow & to be Called by the name of Brunswick to be forth-with Settled in a Defensible Manner." 1
This action of the General Court gave the settlers municipal rights similar to those of plantations of the present day. Thus, for instance, they held public meetings, raised money for their common welfare, and chose their own town officers. Records were kept by an officer styled the town clerk, who was the first time appointed by the propri- etors, and afterwards elected by the people.
On the second of May, of this year, Lieutenant Joseph Heath was chosen by the proprietors " To be their Clark for the Town of Bruns- wick until the town is Qualified to make their own election and Sworn to the faithful Discharge of that Trust." ?
The first meeting of the inhabitants was held November 3, 1717. The first election of town officers was in March, 1719, when Captain John Gyles, Thomas Wharton, James Starrat, John Cochran, and
1 Massachusetts Records, 1717.
2 Brunswick Records in Pejepscot Collection.
105
MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
Joseph Heath were chosen selectmen for the ensuing year. Joseph Heath was also chosen clerk and town treasurer, and Peter Haines, constable.
At a regular meeting of the inhabitants, held May 8, it was voted to purchase a bos taurus for the common benefit. It was also at this meeting voted, " That whereas Some of the Inhabitants of this Town have already Brought on Cattle & others expect to have some come before Winter, Therefore our first rate to our Minister shall be raised on Lotts & poles onley." 1
Other meetings were held at different periods, at which action was taken relating chiefly to the support of a minister. The doings of those meetings will be found in the chapter upon Ecclesiastical History.
[1735.] In the year 1735 the inhabitants of Brunswick had become so numerous and felt so great need of a more perfect system in the management of their common concerns, that they made application to the government of Massachusetts for an Act of Incorporation as a town. The petition was as follows : -
" To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq. Captain General and Governour in Chief. The Honourable His Majesties Councill, and the Honourable House of Representatives of his Majesties Province of the Massachusetts-Bay In New England In General Court assembled May 1735.
" The Petition of us the Subscribers Inhabitants of the Town of Brunswick in the County of York Humbly Sheweth -That your Peti- tioners being arrived to a competent number to transact Town affairs & in Expectation of having others very soon added to us, having now a commodious Meeting-House chiefly erected at the charge of the Proprietors, and having also obtained a pious & othodox Minister to settle with us, we now find it necessary to be vested with Power to lay a Tax or assesment in order to raise money for his maintenance- Therefore your petitioners Humbly pray your Excelency and Honours that you will pleas to Erect us into a Township & vest us with the Power & authorities belonging to other Towns excepting only the Power of Granting & Disposing of Land, which we acknowledge to be in the Proprietors who placed us here - and your Petitioners as in Duty bound Shall ever pray &c." 2
This petition was signed by John Rutherford, Anthony Vincent, James Dunning, David Dunning, Richard Flaherty, - an Irish school- teacher, - James McFarland, James Carter, William Gibson, Andrew
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