USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 15
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 15
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 15
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[1829.] The same amount was appropriated for the same purpose, in 1829, and the town voted to have the bell rung at nine o'clock on Sunday evenings.
The town voted to hold its future meetings in the village, provided a house could be obtained without expense to the town. Accordingly the next meeting, September 14, was held in the Baptist meeting-house on School Street.
At the September meeting of the town, a code of By-Laws was adopted. The provisions of these By-Laws were, in brief, as follows : -
Article 1. Provided against injury or loss of fire apparatus.
Article 2. Against the building of bonfires in the streets, and against the careless use of lights in houses, barns, and stables.
Article 3. Against coasting on or across the streets, and also against obtaining rides by taking hold of or getting upon vehicles, without the consent of persons riding therein.
Article 4. Against the wanton or unnecessary discharge of fire- arms near any dwelling-house, shop, or store.
Article 5. Against playing ball within ten rods of any dwelling, throwing snow-balls, playing with kites, or doing anything in public streets to annoy passengers.
Article 6. Against the assembling of noisy crowds in the night, and against rude or disorderly behavior, indecent or profane language, or the injuring of trees, fences, or buildings. The penalty for the vio- lation of this article was five dollars.
Article 7. Against allowing geese to go at large. The penalty in this case was six cents per goose.
These By-Laws were approved by the Court of Appeals in the December following, and the town voted to have them printed, and one copy furnished to each family.
[1831.] In the year 1831, the town authorized the selectmen to appropriate a piece of land near the poorhouse for a paupers' ceme- tery. Also, that future town meetings should be held in the old west meeting-house.
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
[1832.] In 1832 the town appointed a committee to draw up some resolutions expressing the opinions of the inhabitants of Bruns- wick " in relation to the alarming modifications of the tariff now pro- posed to be made by the Congress of the United States." Another committee was also appointed to report suitable resolutions expressing the opinions of the citizens in regard to the sale of the disputed terri- tory on the northeast boundary.
The reports of both committees were read and accepted, and the selectmen were instructed to furnish copies of them for publication to the Portland Advertiser and Kennebec Journal.
The selectmen were this year instructed to sell the " poor lot " on Federal Street, by auction or by private sale as they might deem best.
The dividing line between Brunswick and Freeport was this year defined. There seems to have been some doubt as to its location before this, for on October 15, 1828, the selectmen of the two towns met at the house of Samuel Chase, and proceeded to perambulate the line. Robert D. Dunning was the surveyor for Brunswick and Bars- tow Sylvester for Freeport. The line surveyed by them appears from the record to have been the same, or nearly the same, as that previously established.
For some reason, however, the line was not satisfactory to some of the citizens of the two towns. Depositions were taken in January, 1832, from various residents, testifying as to the location of the origi- nal line. Depositions were made by David Curtis, William Alexander, and Daniel Given.
On the seventh of February, 1832, the legislature appointed Joseph Sewall of Bath, William Bradbury of New Gloucester, and William Cummings of Cape Elizabeth, a committee to establish the dividing line between Brunswick and Freeport.
On the eleventh of June following, the committee met and viewed the premises on that day and succeeding days, closing their labors on the twenty-third of June.
Their report, which we give below, furnishes the result of their labors : -
" Pursuant to the foregoing Resolve for establishing the line between Brunswick and Freeport, we the subscribers, the Committee therein appointed, having been duly sworn, and having given due notice to the parties, and having met them by their committees and counsel at the house of Alexander Moorhead, in Brunswick, the eleventh day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty- two, and by adjournment from day to day until this twenty third day
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
of said June, and having heard all their pleas, proofs and arguments, and having viewed the premises, and maturely considered the same, have determined and established the dividing line between the towns of Brunswick and Freeport, in the County of Cumberland, agreeably to the Acts of Incorporation of said Towns, to be as follows to wit : Beginning on the Western shore of Maquoit Bay at the mouth of Bungamunganock so called at a ledge which we have marked B, thence North twenty eight and one eighth degrees West, passing by a hem- lock tree in Vincent Mountfort's pasture, and through said Vincent Mountfort's house, and by a beach stump one rod and two links wes- terly of an ash tree in William Alexander's pasture by a stone in the wall on the western side of the county road on David Curtis' land marked + and over a ledge in said Curtis' pasture marked FB and by a spruce tree, a yellow birch tree, a ledge in Grouse's field marked +, a ledge in Skolfield's pasture marked +, a maple tree, a yellow birch tree, a stone set in the ground on the easterly side of the county road, twelve rods & sixteen links from the corner of Thomas Pennell's house, marked FB, a beach tree, a ledge in Samuel Sylvester's pasture marked FB, a stone in the wall on the westerly side of the Story road so called, a ledge in John Field's field marked FB, à beach tree, a hemlock tree, a spruce tree, a pine tree five miles & seventy rods to a stone marked FB at the middle of the Quaker road so called, and one rod and a half from William Jordan's wall, thence North East one
hundred & ninety six rods to a stone marked DB at the corner of Durham and including within the town of Brunswick all Mair Point so called, and to include within said town of Brunswick all the estate of the late Benjamin Chase which was annexed to said Brunswick by virtue of an act of the Legislature of Massachusetts passed in 1790, entitled an Act setting off Benjamin Chase, his family and estate from the town of Freeport and annexing them to the town of Brunswick.
" JOSEPH SEWALL. WM. BRADBURY. WM. CUMMINGS." 1
The same committee also established the Durham line.
According to McKeen the survey of the west part of the town was made by John Merrill while B. Ring lived in Brunswick, though the plan of the " Great Lots " was never laid down by any actual survey. According to the same authority, if Merrill's plan had been regarded
1 Pejepscot Records.
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
and the boundaries preserved, the line would have gone farther south upon Freeport than was established by the committee in 1832, and would have taken sixteen rods on to what Durham now holds.1
[1833.] The town appropriated for schools in 1833, $2,000; for support of poor, $700 ; for highways, $2,500.
The town clerk was this year directed to procure all plans and papers, of every description, of the Pejepscot Company, which might be of use to the town hereafter, and which related in any way to the settlement of the town, at as moderate an expense as possible. The papers of the Pejepscot Company were, at this time, in the hands of Josiah Little, Jr., of Newburyport (or of Amesbury), Mass. By a sworn statement by John McKeen, the then town clerk, it appears that Mr. Little placed the Pejepscot Papers in his hands upon condi- tion that they should be finally placed in the library of the Maine Historical Society, where they now are. This was certainly the best disposition that could have been made of them, particularly as many of the papers relate not only to Brunswick but to the whole region embraced in the Pejepscot purchase, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to separate from them those relating exclusively to Brunswick.
The selectmen were this year authorized to grant licenses to retail ardent spirits, on condition that no spirits should be drank in or about the premises of the retailer.
John Coburn was appointed an agent to appear before a committee of the legislature, and to use his best endeavors to carry into effect the vote of the town in favor of the formation of a new county from parts of Cumberland and Lincoln Counties.
[1834.] At a meeting of the town, held July 4, 1834, a lengthy report of the Committee on Town Commons was read and accepted.2 A committee was also chosen to consider the practicability and advis- ability of having the town farm upon the Commons, and to estimate the expense of removing the buildings thereto.
At a meeting held August 30, the Report of the Committee on Town Commons, Poorhouse, etc., was read, but its consideration was postponed to a further meeting. The selectmen were instructed to have the report printed and also to have the Commons surveyed.
The selectmen were also directed to petition the legislature for per- mission to use the Commons for agricultural purposes or to dispose of them at some future day, should the town ever so direct. They were,
1 McKeen, MSS. Lecture.
2 See Chapter XIX.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
moreover, directed to procure the same permission from the Pejepscot proprietors ; and also to demand a rent from all parties occupying the Commons, and to remove all persons refusing or neglecting to pay the rent.
[1835.] At a town meeting, held April 27, 1835, it was voted to build a town-house without unnecessary delay.
The village school district this year applied for an Act of Incorpo- ration, for certain municipal purposes, and an Act to this effect was passed by the legislature and received the approval of the governor, January 28, 1836.
At the annual meeting this year the town appropriated seven hun- dred dollars to pay for the town-house, and the Building Committee were authorized to borrow the needed balance of three hundred dol- lars. The town-house was completed this year.
[1837.] The town met at the town-house for the first time on January 16, 1837. The town, at this meeting, voted to receive its proportion of the money deposited with the State by the United States, in pursuance of " an Act to regulate the deposits of the public money," on the condition specified in the Act of this State entitled "An Act providing for the disposition and repayment. of the public money apportioned to the State of Maine, on deposit, by the govern- ment of the United States." James F. Matthews was appointed the agent of the town to receive this money. The revenue of the United States had for some years been in excess of the demands of govern- ment, and this Act of Congress was to distribute the surplus to the States.
At a meeting of the town in April, the selectmen were authorized to loan the town's share of the surphis revenue to citizens of the town, on good personal security, in sums not exceeding two hundred dol- lars to any one individual.
At a meeting held in July, the selectmen were directed to collect what had been loaned, as it became due, and to deposit the amount, together with the remaining portion of the surphis revenue, with the citizens in the following manner : --
The sum total was to be divided into as many shares as there were inhabitants of the town at the last enumeration, and each male head of a family, and each female head of a family where there was no male head, should be entitled to receive, on deposit, one share for each member of his or her family actually resident at home in the family on the first day of the preceding March, including the heads of the family, the daughters, the sons, under the age of twenty-one years, and the
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
regular apprentices. Each male above twenty-one years of age, with- out a family, was entitled to receive one share.
The receipts, which were to be taken in all cases, were to contain a promise of repayment, without interest, of the sum given, whenever the town should be required to repay it to the treasury of the State.
At a meeting held in September, the preceding vote was so amended as to entitle all who were residents of the town on the first of March previous to a share of the surplus money, and that persons since, but not then, residents should not be entitled to it.
[1838.] At the annual meeting in April, 1838, the town voted to relieve those who had received shares of the surplus revenue money from all obligation to return it, since the legislature had passed an Act releasing towns from a similar obligation.
The town voted to refer to the Building Committee the deeds of the gifts from Reverend William Allen and David Dunlap, Esquire. The above vote refers to the deeds of the land upon which the town-house was built.
[1841.] The overseers of the poor were authorized in 1841 to sell the poorhouse and farm whenever they could do so for a not less sum than $1,500.
In regard to several proposed amendments to the Constitution of the State, the town voted as follows : -
In favor of increasing the number of representatives, but against establishing the number at one hundred and fifty-one ; in favor of electing the governor for two years instead of one, and in favor of having the legislative meeting but once in two years.
[1842.] In 1842 a petition from Isaac Lincoln and others, to have the town house sold or else to have it moved to the village, was dis- missed.
[1844.] The town in 1844 voted in favor of an amendment to the Constitution of the State, changing the meeting of the legislature to May.
[1845.] A new hearse was purchased in 1845, by order of the town, and the old one was repaired and fitted with runners for use in the winter season.
[1847.] At the annual meeting in 1847 the selectmen were in- structed to have the bell on the Universalist Church rung daily, for the ensuing year, at the expense of the town.
The town also at this meeting appropriated two hundred dollars towards the purchase of a clock to be located in the tower of the Universalist Church.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
The town this year voted in favor of so amending the Constitution of the State as to prohibit the loaning of the credit of the State to any amount exceeding $300,000 in the aggregate ; and also, against an amendment providing that the governor, senators, and representa- tives should be elected by a plurality instead of majority vote.
[1849.] In 1849 the town voted to dispose of Engine No. 1 and to purchase a new one, and for that purpose the sum of three hundred dollars was appropriated. The town this year refused, by a vote of one hundred and fourteen to sixteen, to adopt an Act of the legisla- ture, which was passed July 16, 1846, and was entitled " An Act for the License and Regulation of Stationary Steam-Engines."
[1850.] The town voted in 1850 in favor of a constitutional amendment, which provided for a meeting of the legislature in Jan- uary instead of May.
At a subsequent meeting this year the town voted to accept an Act of the legislature authorizing certain cities and towns to grant aid in the construction and completion of the Kennebeck and Portland Rail- road, and also voted to loan its credit to that company for the sum of $75,000, according to the conditions and for the security provided in the Act. The vote was five hundred and eighty-eight in favor, and two hundred and fifty-two against the measure.
The inhabitants changed their minds in regard to stationary steam- engines, and the town accordingly voted this year to accept the Act in reference to the same, which was approved July 16, 1846.
[1851.] A protest, signed by one hundred and thirty-five of the inhabitants of Brunswick, was presented to the town in 1851. This protest was against the vote to loan money to the Kennebec and Portland Railroad, and was made on the ground that the Act of the legislature authorizing it was illegal, unconstitutional, and not binding upon the town.
[1856.] In 1856 the town authorized the selectmen to grant the use of the town-house to the Brunswick Light Infantry for an armory.
[1857.] The Act of the legislature, approved March 13, 1855, granting authority to cities and towns to adopt ordinances or by laws for sidewalks, was accepted in 1857, and a committee, consisting of the selectmen and Richard Greenleaf, Esquire, was appointed to lay out and determine the width of the different sidewalks in Brunswick, and to prepare some by-laws in reference to the same, which they were to report at a future meeting.
Another committee was also appointed this year, consisting of Messrs. Abner B. Thompson, John C. Humphreys, William G. Bar-
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
rows, Samuel R. Jackson, Richard Greenleaf, and John McKeen, to investigate all matters relating to the town Commons ; to ascer- tain what title the town had to them, and the boundaries thereof ; to ascertain what encroachments had been made upon them, and all other facts relating to the subject, and to make a report at some future meeting.
Some time between March 16 and the first Monday in June, the town- house was destroyed by fire. The June meeting met -by adjournment -at the ruins of the town-house, and adjourned to Mclellan's Hall.
The committee on sidewalks reported at this meeting the names of the streets upon which they had constructed sidewalks, the widths of the walks, and a code of by-laws in regard to the same.
The selectmen were authorized to dispose of the materials of the town-house which remained after the fire, and of the lot upon which it stood.
[1858.] At a meeting of the town, held January 18, 1858, to see what measures the town would adopt for the purpose of obtaining a charter for a city government, it was voted to appoint a committee of nine, - three from the village. three from the east, and three from the west part of the town, - to consider the matter and to report in one week. This committee reported, January 25, that the east and west portions of the town were opposed to a city form of government, but that the village was strongly in favor of it. A motion to petition the legislature for a charter as a city was lost by a vote of twenty-six majority. It was, however, voted that the village school-district should have leave to petition the legislature for a city charter for said district, under the name of the city of Brunswick, and the selectmen and town clerk were directed to petition the legislature to that effect. This they did, and upon February 10, a committee of the legislature reported a bill to incorporate the village district as the city of Bruns- wick. This bill was laid on the table and ordered to be printed. It was afterwa Is passed, and was approved by the governor, March 29. The bill provided for its acceptance by the whole town within thirty days, or to be null and void. At a meeting of the town, April 27, the charter was read, and rejected by a majority vote of one hundred and one.
At the annual meeting in March, the sum of seven hundred dollars was appropriated for a night watch. The committee on town Commons reported at this time. The report was accepted, and it was voted that the town agent be empowered and directed to communicate with the several parties whose lots abutted on the Commons, and in case any of
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
them should decline to give the matter to referees, he was instructed to institute legal proceedings against them, that the rights of the town might be maintained and protected. The selectmen were also in- structed to cause permanent stone monuments to be erected, in order to mark clearly the boundary lines of the Commons, whenever these lines should be authoritatively ascertained.
At a meeting held June 7, the town voted almost unanimously for the Prohibitory Liquor Law of 1858, there being but one vote for the License Law of 1856. This vote shows either an unparalleled senti- ment in the town in favor of prohibition, or else that those in heart opposed to a temperance reform believed that its advocates had over- shot the mark and that there would be a speedy reaction.
The town this year voted against granting State aid to a proposed Aroostook Railroad, and in favor of exempting future manufacturing establishments from taxation for a period of ten years.
[1860.] A committee was appointed in 1860 to consider the pro- priety of building a new town hall. They recommended the erection of a building on the corner of Maine and Pleasant Streets, at an esti- mated cost of $5,000. The town, however, refused to build.
[1862.] In 1862 the town lines between Brunswick and Freeport, Brunswick and Durham, Brunswick and Harpswell, and Brunswick and Bath, were perambulated by the selectmen of Brunswick and the authorities of the other places named, and monuments were erected to mark the line.
[1866.] An article in the warrant for a special meeting in Novem- ber, 1866, in relation to petitioning the legislature to set Brunswick off from Cumberland County, was dismissed.
A new hearse was this year procured.
[1869, 1870.] In 1869, and again in 1870, propositions were made looking to the erection of a town hall, but they were defeated, and none has yet [1877] been erected.
[1872.] In 1872 a proposition was made for the erection of a monument in memory of the fallen heroes of the Rebellion. A com- mittee was appointed to consider the subject, and at a subsequent meeting reported in favor of such a monument, but the town decided adversely to its erection.
All important acts of the town not embraced in this chapter will be found in other connections.
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF HARPSWELL.
CHAPTER III.
MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF HARPSWELL.
UNDER COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
THE place formerly known as Wescustego was, on September 22, 1680, incorporated as a plantation by the name of North Yarmouth.
In 1731 the limits of North Yarmouth were determined by order of the General Court as follows : -
" To begin at a white Rock by the side of the Bay dividing between Falmouth & North Yarmouth & to extend from thence into the woods North west by Falmouth line eight miles, and from ye sd white Rock to extend by the Bay to the mouth of Bungamunganock River, from thence to extend eight miles into the woods on a line parallel to Fal- mouth line & from thence to Falmouth line aforesaid, & from the aforesd white Rock & mouth of Bungamunganock River Sª Township to extend south east, the width of sª Township to the Main Sea so as to include the Islands within sª courses."
On April 6, 1733, the township was incorporated as a town.1
In 1735 a committee appointed by the General Court ran the line of the town as follows : -
" Beginning at the mouth of Bungamunganock River on the west- erly side thence south east over Maquoit Bay to Mare Point and said line runs over Minot's Barn which stands on sd Point, thence over Middle Bay to Merriconeag neck, thence across sd neck and Merri- coneag river to a point on Sebascodegan Island to an Inlet of water called the Basin, thence crossing another part of sª Island to a small Island called Egg Island in Quahaug River, thence crossing another part of sd Island running a S. E. course across the bay to small Point, thence to Hunnewell's Cove, thence crossing sª cove and so on in a S. E. line to the Main sea at mouth of Kennebec River."
The present town of Harpswell, or the greater portion of it, was, it will be observed, at this time embraced within the limits of the town of North Yarmouth, of which town it constituted a parish.2
1 Maine Historical Society Collection, 2, pp. 172, 176. Russell's History of North Yarmouth.
2 Maine Ilistorical Collection, 2, p. 180.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
[1740.] In the year 1740 Merriconeag Neck was annexed to Brunswick, as will be seen by the following petitions to and order of the General Court : -
"TO HIS EXCELENCY JONATHAN BELCHER ESQ. CAPTAIN GENERAL AND GOVERNOUR IN CHIEF, THE HONOURABLE THE COUNCIL AND HONOURABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF HIS MAJESTY'S PROVINCE OF THE MAS- SACHUSETTS BAY IN NEW ENGLAND IN GENERAL COURT ASSEMBLED MAY 28TH, 1740.
" THE PETITION OF THE PROPRIETORS OF THE NECK OF LAND IN CASCO BAY IN THE COUNTY OF YORK, CALLED BY THE NAME OF MERECONEGE NECK :-
" HUMBLY SHEWETH
" That Whereas the said Neck of Land, is one half part of it within the line of the Township of North Yarmouth, and having Paid Rates and Taxes to said Township, both to Church and State, altho' the Inhabitants there live above Thirty miles distant by Land from the Meeting House, and twelve miles by Sea across two very Dangerous Bays, (Especially in the Winter time) being also many times Impassa- ble in canous, with their Familys thereby depriving them of the Public Worship of God, for a great part of their time, which is a very great discouragement to the Setlers, and Whereas this Honourable Court have been pleased Two years since to Invest the Township of Bruns- wick with all priviledges as the other Towns in this Province Enjoy and that Brunswick Meeting House is but Three Miles distant from the upper end of said Neck, adjoyning to Brunswick Town, and no Water to pass over which makes it easy to repair thereto without the Danger and Dificulty of the Winter and Tempests by Water and the very great length of way by Land.
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