USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 51
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 51
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 51
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
They recommended that before having the Commons surveyed, the town should procure a quitclaim deed from the First Parish of any further right than they had already received. Also, that when a sur- vey was made, permanent monuments should be placed at all the cor- ners, and a plan of the survey be reported to the town. This report of the committee was accepted by the town.
A committee was chosen by the town this year to examine the Com- mons in regard to the practicability and advisability of having the town farm there. This committee reported in August of that year, and the town ordered the report to be printed, and instructed the selectmen to have the Commons surveyed. The selectmen were also directed to petition the legislature for permission to use the Commons for agricultural purposes, or to dispose of it, should the town ever so direct. The prayer of this petition was not granted. They were directed, moreover, to " procure a release of the Town Commons, to sell if the town think best at a future time, from the Pejepscot Propri- etors." The town also instructed the selectmen to demand a rent from all persons who had improved any part of the Commons, and to cause the removal of all who did not pay the rent.
At the annual meeting of the town in 1857, Abner B. Thompson, John C. Humphreys, William G. Barrows, Samuel R. Jackson, Richard Greenleaf, and John McKeen were appointed a committee to investigate all matters relating to the Town Commons, ascertain what title the town had to the same, and the boundaries thereof, what encroachments had been made thereon, and all other facts relating to the subject, and were instructed to make a report at some future meet- ing of the town.
It was also voted at this meeting to petition the legislature to give the town a more full and absolute control of the use and disposal of the Commons, and enable them to receive more benefit from this grant from the proprietors than they could do with the land as it had been. This petition met with the same fate as the earlier one of similar tenor.
The committee to examine into the condition of the Commons reported in 1858. In their report they say that the Commons had been for more than a hundred years a fruitful source of perplexity, trouble, and expense to the town. Though designed for the benefit of the whole, a few had taken the lion's part, stripped it of its wood and timber, and used it otherwise as would best subserve their pur- poses. The expenses of looking after it had probably been thousands of dollars, and all that had been done resulted in nothing. Depre-
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PUBLIC LANDS, ROADS, BRIDGES, ETC.
dations had continued from year to year, and continual complaints would be made until some disposition was made which would more effectually secure to the town the enjoyment of it. Until this was done it would continue to be a source of expense, instead of income, to the town.
The committee say that in their preliminary examination for the boundaries of the Commons, it was found difficult to find many of its monuments ; many of them had been removed, and the purported boundaries, as given by those living in the proximity of the Commons, failed to give the proper number by nearly or more than one hundred acres. It was found necessary to search for such surveys as had been formerly made. After much trouble and investigation they had accepted the survey of Daniel Given, as settled and agreed to by the First Parish and town, in 1816, and they therefore presented the sur- vey of Charles J. Noyes, which they had unanimously agreed to adopt as part of their report, and they recommended that the town should accept the Given survey as the correct survey of the Commons.
The committee give an account of all the transactions of the town in regard to the Commons, and in relation to the deed they remark, " A conveyance in terms so ample would seem impossible to be con- strued, except as giving the town the fullest scope and authority in determining the manner in which the ' use and improvements ' for the common benefit should be made." They state that the surplus for the " support of the gospel ministry" amounted to about one hundred and ninety-seven acres. They submitted their report without any further recommendation than what has been given. The town accepted the report, and voted also that their agent be empowered and directed to enter into references with the parties whose lots abutted on the Com- mons, and in case any of these parties declined to refer the matter, the agent was instructed to institute legal proceedings to maintain and protect the rights of the town. It was also voted that when the lines were authoritatively ascertained, the selectmen should cause perma- nent stone monuments to be erected, to mark clearly the boundaries of the Commons. In accordance with this vote a few monuments were erected, but the Commons remain now, as they always have been, unmarked by any clearly defined bounds. Whether encroaclients and depredations upon them have been stayed is not known. If proper measures are taken to prevent further encroachments upon it, the time is certain to come when the whole tract will be of great value and utility as a public park. 1
1 Persons interested in this matter of the Town Commons will find the Surveyor's Report on pages 39 and 40 of Volume 5 of Town Records.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
ROADS.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to locate with certainty many of the roads which were constructed in the last century. With a few exceptions the records are extremely indefinite upon this point. The line of a road was generally indicated by notched trees, piles of stones, stakes driven into the ground, and similar landmarks, which have long since passed away.
With the assistance of Mr. Charles J. Noyes, C. E., - than whom there is no better authority, - we are enabled to give the following account of the more important roads and streets, and we believe that this account is as correct as it is possible at this late day to make it.
The first regular road was constructed in 1717, by order of the pro- prietors, who voted, June 3, to have a twelve-rod road laid out from the " southerly bastion of Fort George in a straight line to Maquoit," and to have a fence erected from the southerly bastion of the fort over to a small house occupied by Wymond Bradbury, which stood where the cottage uow is, at the top of the hill leading to the bridge. This was determined to be the end of the Twelve-Rod road, now Maine Street.1
At the same time a road was laid out from the Fort to the Landing- Place, and from the Fort to the Indian Carrying-Place. This road corresponded with what are now Mill, Mason, and Water Streets. The road was originally laid out in a straight line, east and west, and crossed the cove opposite to the end of Mill Street,2 but it could not have been travelled so on account of the steep declivity on the eastern side of the cove, and the travelled road was, doubtless, from the very first, substantially the same as at present.
A four-rod road was also, in 1717, laid out to run east and west on the south side of the tenth lot, to extend the length of the lot.3 This was what is now known as MeKeen Street, on the west side of Maine Street, and it then continued directly across what is now the college grounds in a straight line to the river. Traces of that portion of the road are still to be found. At some time, date unknown, the road across the college grounds was closed up, and what is known as Pine Street, from the Village Cemetery to Varney's Cemetery, was opened in its place.
In 1717 the proprietors made an agreement with Lieutenant Joseph
1 Pejepscot Records, and Brunswick Records in Pejepscot Collection.
2 Map No. 19 in Pejepscot Collection. 8 Pejepscot Records.
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PUBLIC LANDS, ROADS, BRIDGES, ETC.
Heath for him " to cut a Road or Way through the Woods at least Ten feet broad, clear it, bridge it, & make it passable for Men & Cat- tle from Fort George the Upperway to Ryalls River being judged about Twenty miles in Length [provided the Men at Ryalls River will engage at their charge to cut & clear a Road from thence to Presump- scot River] for which when finished we will allow sd Heath Fourty pounds." 1 According to McKeen,2 this road began at the twelve-rod road, about where General Joshua L. Chamberlain now resides, passed along the high land, westerly, to avoid the swamp, then turned a little towards the river and followed nearly the line of the present Freeport road, but more circuitously, passing over the hill where is now the " deep cut " of the railroad, thence by Oak Hill to Freeport.
Subsequently, probably not far from 1770, the portion of the road from General Chamberlain's towards the river was discontinued, and the travel came in by what is now Mill Street. In Given's map of Brunswick (1795), this was the only road to Yarmouth. The route was about as follows, using present localities as a guide. It went along Mill Street to a short distance above the upper railroad bridge, thence along the shore and back of Jackson's burying-ground (where the road is still to be seen), thence westerly, passing along in front of Samuel Blaisdell's house, and so on to the deep cut and thence in nearly a straight course to Walter Merryman's, then easterly over the hill, coming out by James Littlefield's, and then about as now trav- elled to Lewis Morse's just in front of his house, and then about as now travelled to Freeport.
In 1739, at the first meeting of the town in its corporate capacity, it was " voted that the roads should lay as they were laid out by John Gatchell, James Thompson, and Benjamin Parker." 3 When the roads were laid out by them is not stated, but it could not have been many years previously. The roads enumerated were : -
First. - A road from New Meadows to the twelve-rod road. This road began at what is now known as Howard's Point (south of the present residence of Bartlett Adams), passed around the head of Cluff's Bay, and then ran a north-northwest course to Cook's Corner, from whence it ran across the plains in an indirect line to the Twelve- Rod road, which it entered near the present meeting-house of the First Parish.4 From this road were two branches, one leading to the Twelve- Rod road a short distance south of the colleges, opposite the Samuel
Pejepscot Records.
2 Pejepscot Papers ; also Map No. 21, Pejepscot Collection.
8 Town Records, 1, p. 6. 4 Mup No. 24, Pejepscot Collection.
34
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
Berry estate, and the other entering the Twelve-Rod road near the old First Parish Meeting-House. Both these branches are in existence, but untravelled.
Second. - A road from Stevens's Carrying-Place to Coombs's (now Howard's) Point. This was substantially the same as the road which now runs from Bartlett Adams's, up the river, passing Chapin Wes- ton's, and so on to the head of New Meadows River.
Third. - A road leading from the Gurnet northerly, in about a straight line. till it intercepted the road leading from New Meadows to the Twelve-Rod road.
Fourth. - A road leading from the old west meeting-house to Mid- dle Bay. It ran about the same courses as the present road, but entered the 'Twelve-Rod road nearer the meeting-house.
Fifth. - What is now known as the old Harpswell road, from the Twelve-Rod road below the old west meeting-house to Harpswell Neck.
These roads were not formally accepted by the town and their courses recorded until several years later.
The town was occasionally "presented" for bad roads. At the January session of the Court of General Sessions in 1739, " Benjamin Larrabee, Esquire, one of the selectmen of the town of Brunswick, appeared to answer the presentment exhibited against the said town for deficiency in the highway in said town, leading to North.Yarmouth, and the said selectmen having promised to see the sa way mended ; ordered that they be acquitted paying fees of Court, two pounds eleven shillings."
At the town meeting in 1744, an order having been issued by the Court of General Sessions, for a highway between Brunswick and Georgetown, Deacon Samuel Whitney and Captain William Woodside were appointed a committee to lay out the same. There is no record of the action taken by this committee, but it is probable that they simply made passable the road previously laid out, as that was the only road to Georgetown, now Bath, for many years subsequently.
Not far from this time, though possibly a little later, there was a road from the New Meadows River straight over to the Androscoggin, at a point nearly opposite James Mustard's in Topsham.1 Here was a ferry. It is probable that the line struck the New Meadows River a short distance above Mr. Bartlett Adams's house, which was only a short distance above Brown's Ferry, across the New Meadows River.
In 1753 the inhabitants of Mair Point consented to give a free road,
1 Map No. 11, Pejepscot Collection.
PUBLIC LANDS, ROADS, BRIDGES, ETC.
531
Joosham
Brunswick
Hia Kosw
0
ยท metting-house
0
ROADS IN 1764.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
one rod wide, to the lower end of the Point, and to maintain sufficient gates on any fences which crossed the road, and the town voted to be at the charge of keeping the road in repair. In 1767 this road was made two rods wide.
In 1759 the road was laid out which leads from Nathan Woodward's by Gatchell's Pond and Washington Woodward's estate to the New Meadows River road.
In 1760 the road from Maqnoit Landing to Bunganock was laid out substantially as it now is, but at that time there was a branch road from a short distance below N. Blake's over to the Twelve-Rod road near the Maquoit school-house. This branch was subsequently dis- continned, but at what time is not known. The location of the roads described in the preceding pages can be readily understood by refer- ence to the map of roads which is given on the preceding page.
What is now known as the Pennell road, from the old Harpswell road to Pennellville, was laid out in 1770.
In the year 1773, on the petition of Jonathan Bagley and of others who were interested in the lands on the river, the town voted to accept the road to Durham, which had been constructed by the petitioners. This was the river road to Durham, which then ran close to the river on the intervales, and was very crooked. Changes in the courses were subsequently made.
The lower road to Freeport, starting a short distance above the old west meeting-house, and passing by Albion P. Woodside's and so on to Freeport, was laid ont about the year 1794. Mrs. J. D. Lamb dis- tinctly remembers walking through it when it was first laid out. She was then a child, nine or ten years old. The road was cut through a dense forest for nearly its whole length. It was not made passable for carriages for a number of years later. Mr. Lewis Simpson says the road was not completed until 1806. He remembers that the laborers npon the road ceased work during the great solar eclipse which occurred that year.
In the year 1789 a second county road was laid out from Cook's Corner to Bath, but it was not made passable until 1795.1 The town in 1790 opposed the building of this road. The road is not shown in Given's plan of Brunswick, which was made in May, 1795, so that it was not probably a travelled road until some months subsequently. This road ran up by Martin Storer's, and then in a very circuitous line
1 Maine Historical Collection, Vol. 2, p. 219. Lemont's Historical Dates of Bath, p. 41.
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PUBLIC LANDS, ROADS, BRIDGES, ETC.
to a short distance north of Ham's Hill, where it entered the old county road which passed around the head of New Meadows River. Portions of this road are still in existence and travelled.
In 1794 the road, from Oak Hill to Bunganock was laid out, and in 1796 the road from Bunganoek to Growstown was laid out.
In the year 1800 the road from L. D. Alexander's to E. C. Ray- mond's was laid out, and in 1802 what is called the Otis road was laid out. The " Friends' road," from the Durham River road to Freeport, was laid out in 1805.
The turnpike to Bath, sometimes called Governor King's turnpike, was built in 18051 or 1806. Mr. Lewis Simpson distinctly recollects that at the first Commencement at Bowdoin College, in 1806, two men who were engaged in building this road came up to spend the after- noon. This turnpike was well made, and the road-bed was hard and smooth. It went through the woods nearly all the way cast of Cook's Corner. The road now travelled from Brunswick to Cook's Corner and straight on to New Meadows River is a part of the old turnpike The turnpike bridge was a few rods south of the railroad bridge. The gate and toll-house were at the west end of the bridge.
According to Lemont,2 a second turnpike was built in 1806 from Bath to Brunswick, crossing the New Meadows River at Brown's Ferry. It is not probable that there was, at that time, a second turn- pike in Bath, and there is no evidence that another turnpike was built in Brunswick. The bridge at Brown's Ferry was built previous to that of Governor King, and only the abutments and piers remained in 1808-9. It is more probable that what Lemont calls the second turn- pike was a shunpike, as it is well known that, to avoid paying toll, travellers from Brunswick left the turnpike at Cook's Corner and crossed the river at Brown's Ferry. It was owing to this fact that General King established a gate on the turnpike west of Cook's Cor- uer. That expedient proved of no avail, however, as travellers there- after drove across the plains to Cook's Corner, and then down to Brown's Ferry, thus avoiding both toll-gates.
In 1810 an alteration was made in the upper county road to Bath, so that it crossed the New Meadows River a short distance above Ham's Hill, over a bridge called Hayden's Bridge, and in 1831 the road was straightened and laid out over Ham's Hill, as it is now. The Bull Rock Bridge road was laid out in 1836.3
In 1837 the New Wharf road was laid out.
1 Lemont, Historical Dates of Bath, p. 41. 2 Ibid. 8 Ibid.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
In 1843 a petition was granted by the Court of General Sessions for Lincoln County, for a road from High Street in Bath, over the Bull Bridge, through Brunswick to Freeport.
At what time guide-boards were first used is not known, but in 1814 the town instructed the selectmen to repair and erect guide- boards wherever necessary, showing that some, at least, had been erected previously to that date.
TWELVE-ROD ROAD. - Maine Street, or the Twelve-Rod road, owing to its location and the fact that nearly all the measurements and esti- mates of distances are based upon it, is entitled to a more extended consideration than the other roads of the town. All the lots at the laying out of the town were connected with lot number one, which commenced at a point twenty-seven rods south from the flag-staff upon Fort George. Therefore both the lots and the roads take their start from one and the same point, - a bastion of the old fort. In order to a complete understanding of the matter, it will be well to enumerate the various votes in regard to this road that have been passed by the town, or by the proprietors, since it was originally laid out in 1717. The first public action in regard to this road was taken at a legal meeting of the inhabitants of the township, held May 8, 1719. At this meeting it was voted : -
" That whereas ye Proprietors have allowed a road 12 Rod wide from Fort George to Maquoit as also sundry other private ways : henceforth no incumbrance shall be Erected or Continued in any of the said Wayes."
At the town meeting in 1740 it was voted that the main road from Fort George to Maquoit should be twelve rods wide. This vote was evidently intended to be merely confirmatory of the original action of the proprietors in laying it out of that width. At a meeting of the Pejepscot proprietors on November 14 of this year, it was voted by them that " Whereas a Road of 12 Rods wide was granted by the Proprietors June 3, 1717, from Fort George over to Maquoit and said road has not been improved as was originally laid out Therefore voted, That said Road run from the Southerly Bastion of said Fort George on a Streight Line over to Maquoit and that the Surveyour be directed to enter it upon the Platt accordingly."
This vote of the proprietors was not literally carried out. There is no evidence that the road was actually laid out in one straight line, and it is certain that it was never so travelled. All of the early plans locate the road as starting, on its western line, at the southwest bas- tion of Fort George, and running due south across the present depot
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PUBLIC LANDS, ROADS, BRIDGES, ETC.
grounds, to a point a short distance south of the residence of Professor A. S. Packard, and from thence a southwest course to Maquoit. At that time, and until the year 1826, there was a swamp extending from the present eastern line of the mall to the foot of Powder-House Hill, and to avoid this swamp the travel went out to one side, and passed along what is now called Park Row, on the eastern side of the mall, and thus the eastern line of this portion of the road was established much farther east than it was originally laid out.
Although the road had been laid out by the proprietors and had been built and used by the town, it was not formally accepted as a public highway until 1769. This road being of an unusual width, and much wider than was at all necessary for mere purposes of travel, the town in 1791 was induced to do what would be considered by many as a very unwise thing. It chose a committee and instructed them to lease six rods in width of this road, " where they think it best, leaving the road six rods wide at such places."
In April, 1792, the town appointed a committee to lay out the road again, from Fort George to Maquoit, eight rods in width, thus redu- cing the width four rods. This committee reported at the subsequent meeting in May, and the town voted to accept the road as laid out by them. with an amendment to the effect that two rods should be added to the road on the west side, between Mr. Stone's and Mr. Lunt's, and with some minor changes near the Maquoit shore.
The land between Mr. Stone's and Mr. Lunt's was that between Mill Street and the Pejepscot National Bank. On the other side of the street, in front of Day's Block, was a deep gully which increased in depth till it entered the cove in front of what is now Maynard's oyster saloon, opposite Mill Street. Encroachments had been made on the opposite side of the street so that the narrowness of the road and its sideling nature rendered travelling dangerous. It is known that accidents had at various times occurred there. In 1806 the town voted to pay fifty-nine dollars and fifty-three cents to Zephaniah Spurr, of Boston, for damages to his carriage, it having been driven off the bank and injured, owing to the bad condition of the road. It is prob- able that Mr. Stone and Mr. Lunt had leased a portion of the road, and that the town regretted its action and annulled the lease
In 1793 the town voted to accept this eight-rod road, as laid out with the amendments, and the surveyors of highways were directed to open the road agreeably to the plan, which was " eight rods wide from end to end except at the landing-place at Maquoit which is twelve rods wide." A committee was also chosen to lease or quitelaim the remain-
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IIISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
ing four rods of the old Twelve-Rod road. It is not known how much of the road was thus leased or quitclaimed. The only deed which we have seen was one to Lemuel Swift of " four rods of the twelve rod road, lying in front of Mr. Benjamin Stone's land, and situated between the land of John Carr and Captain John Dunlap's land, being twenty square rods at seventeen dollars per acre."1 This was the front of what is now the Rodney Forsaith estate, between Dr. Lincoln's and Benjamin Green's.
In 1794, Benjamin ( hase, one of the surveyors of highways, was directed to open the Twelve-Rod road the full width wherever people had not purchased the four rods, and where they had, to open it eight rods wide. It was also voted that all persons desiring to purchase the four rods in width that had not been sold could do so by applying for the same within fourteen days.
In 1804 the west line of Maine Street, as it now is, between Noble and Pleasant Streets, was accepted by the town.
In 1810, to put on record the locality from whence the measure- ments of the road and town lots started, the following paper was entered on the town records : -
" Whereas the Record of the West line of the twelve Rod Road from Brunswick Falls to Maquoit Bay, as laid out by the Proprietors of Brunswick, mention the Flag staff standing in the south West Bastion in Fort George as the point at which they began their survey ; and whereas the bounds and Lines of many Lotts and parcels of Land are ascertained by admeasurement from that point before mentioned ; and whereas Fort George and the Flag staff are demolished, and it may be of Great importance to render the precise point where the Flag staff in said Fort George stood permanent, therefore, be it remembered that we John Abbot, John Perry Jr. and Jacob Abbot, all of said Brunswick in the County of Cumberland and Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts, have this day applied to John Dunlap Esq of said Bruns- wick who was a soldier in said Fort George, when a young man, and lives nigh the plat of Ground where said Fort stood, and hath been frequently on the premises ; and to Cutting Noyes, who lives nigh the premises and assisted in removing the piece of Timber the said flagg staff was framed into : - and the said John Dunlap Esq and Cutting Noyes have designated, according to the best of their judgement and they say they think the spot where the foot of said flagg staff stood, and to render it permanent, we the said John Abbot, John Perry Jun'
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