USA > Maine > Knox County > Camden > History of Camden and Rockport, Maine > Part 17
USA > Maine > Knox County > Rockport > History of Camden and Rockport, Maine > Part 17
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Mr. Bowers had one daughter, Arathusa, who married Mr. Benj. J. Porter.
Of the brothers of Mr. Bowers, Oliver died unmarried shortly after coming here.
John was an Innkeeper and for a time owned and kept an Inn in the "Old Foote House." He afterwards built the house on Mechanic street now occupied by Mrs. Wm. H. Bowers.
Joseph was a carpenter and builder and many of the private and public buildings of the town erected during the first forty years of the nineteenth century are evidences of his handiwork. In company with Tilson Gould he built the Congregational meeting house in 1834. He died, May 28, 1840, aged 72 years and 8 months. He married Lucy Coose of Gloucester, Mass., and was the father of five children, viz : Rodolphus, Oliver D. Joseph H., Samuel C. and Katherine, who married Israel Perry.
Joseph Bowers is the ancestor of all the people of the name
A
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of Bowers, now or recently living in Camden and Rockport, except the late Wm. H. Bowers of Camden who was a descendant of John Bowers.
1817. The vote for Governor this year at the State Election held April 7th resulted as follows : - "His Excel'y John Brooks, 82 votes; Gen. Henry Dearborn, 87 votes."
At the town election held that day the voters went back to the old custom of electing three Selectmen, Assessors, etc., and Robert Chase, Moses Trussele and Banajah Barrows, were selected for those offices. Mr. Trussele was also again elected Town Clerk, while Lewis Ogier was chosen Treasurer. Jonas Wheeler, afterwards a prominent citizen of the town and state, was elected one of the Highway Surveyors, his name thus appearing for the first time on the town records.
This year the great wave of social and moral reform that was sweeping over the country reached Camden, and resulted in the calling of a town meeting, July 12th, "To see what measures the town will adopt for the purpose of preventing Re- tailers within the town of Camden, selling spiritous liquors to be drank, or entertaining, or suffering any Person or Persons to drink the same within their Shops ;" also, "To see what further measures the town will adopt for the suppression of intemperance." On the above subjects the town voted, "That there be a Com- mittee of three, viz : Ephraim Wood, Oakes Perry and Tilson Gould, in addition to the Selectmen, to carry into effect the laws of the Commonwealth Respecting the Retailing and drinking of Spirituous liquors within the Stores or Shops in the said town." They then voted to add two more to the Committee, viz : Wm. Parkman and Alden Bass, and further voted that a copy of these votes "be put in every store in the place." This is the first public action, of which we have a record, taken by the people of Camden on the subject of intemperance and liquor selling. Prior to this time liquor was sold as freely as molasses by all the grocers. It could be bought by the glass to be drunk in the
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stores, or in bottles or jugs to be taken away, and nothing was thought of it. Nearly all our people kept liquor at their homes and had it upon their tables and sideboards. Even the ministers of the gospel and deacons of the church thought nothing of taking a social glass, and the Masonic Lodges appropriated money that their Stewards might keep on hand a supply of wines and even stronger fluids. 1 Considering the customs of the day and the ideas that then prevailed on the subject of liquor drinking, this action of the town was a more or less bold and radical step, and indicates that the social and moral status of the town was much in need of reformation.
At the same meeting the town voted, "that the suit brought against the town by the Rev. Thomas Cochran, be defended by the Town," and the two lawyers of the town, "Jonas Wheeler and Jonathan Thayer, Esqrs. " were appointed agents of the town to look after the defense of the suit. This suit was the sequel of the trouble between the town and its minister already related and was brought to compel the town to compensate him for the amount he claimed to be damaged by his dismissal, the year before.
At this time, there being trouble between Spain and Mexico, an American privateer was fitted out at Baltimore and went to sea under a Mexican Captain, with an American crew, to prey upon Spanish vessels. Capturing a Spanish ship loaded with coffee, cocoa, indigo and other trophical products, its cargo was trans- fered to the brig, Catherine Shepherd, which had accompanied the privateer, while the prize was taken to Mexico. The Catherine Shepherd then sailed north and in May reached Green Island. There she took a pilot who brought her to the port of Camden, where she was boarded by Deputy Collector Curtis. The captain, John A. Nartigue, a native of San Domingo, pretended that the brig had put into this port in distress and that the crew had been
1. See Robinson's History of Amity Lodge, No. 6, pages 15, 16, 19, 24. Some of the old account books, now in existence, of the merchants of this period, show that rum and other liquors were the chief commodities purchased by many of our citizens.
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on an allowance for seventy days. Mr. Curtis and Jacob Ulmer, as Revenue officers, took possession of her as a smuggler and put on board John Bowers and Simeon Tyler as keepers. Not having anticipated this action and being in a fix, the mate, one Withing- ton, attempted to bribe Tyler, with the offer of a sum of money, to allow him to slip the cable by night and escape. Tyler abso- lutely and resolutely refused to be bribed, and the cargo was soon afterwards discharged and stored in the cellar of the Masonic building. The owners afterwards came and demanded the cargo, and Collector McCobb of Waldoboro, in a letter dated May 20, instructed Capt. Curtis as follows : "Deliver to Capt. Nartigue and Mr. Dickerman (or Dightmore, the super-cargo, ) all the merchandise now in your possession, imported in the brig, Cather- ine Shepherd, excepting the following, viz: 1 Bale Cotton; 1 Box Shell; 2 lbs. do .; 1 Bag, ditto ; 2 bbls. Castor Oil." The owners paid the duties upon the goods and took them away in a vessel to New York. The officers and crew of the Shepherd re- mained here for several weeks, but the brig after lying in our harbor for about a year was sold at auction. 1
1818. At this period the people of the town seemed to be taking but little interest in political matters and the vote at each gubernatorial election for several years had been growing steadily smaller. At the election held April 6, 1818, but 138 votes in all were cast for Governor, which were nearly evenly divided between the candidates of the two parties, Gov. John Brooks having 70 and Hon. Benj. W. Crowingshield, 68.
At the town election on the same day, Moses Trussell was again re-elected Town Clerk ; Robert Chase, Moses Trussele and Daniel Packard were elected Selectmen and Assessors, and Oakes Perry, Treasurer.
It was voted "To sell at Public Auction the Poor of sd. town of Camden to the lowest bidder." Agreeably to this vote the said "poor" were bid off by Mr. Abraham Ogier at $395 for 1. See Locke's Sketches, page 150.
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the year. For this sum he was to board and nurse them, the town assuming all doctor's and clothing bills.
Notwithstanding the able counsel engaged by the town to defend the suit brought by the Rev. Thomas Cochran, the town was defeated and on Dec. 8th, it voted "To Raise a Sum of Money not exceeding $1400, to satisfy the execution recovered by Mr. Cochran, and the necessary expense attending the same," thus closing this very unpleasant, and to the town, expensive incident. 1
1. Rev Thomas Cochran was a native of New Boston, N.H , and was born April 14, 1771. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College. His grandfather was one of the memorialists from the north of Ireland who petitioned Gov. Shute in 1718, as being desirous to emigrate " to that very excellent and re- nowned Plantation," New England. Meeting with the desired encourage- ment these memorialists, 1 rincipally from Londonderry, commonly called the Scotch-Irish, embarked for New England wh re they arrived Aug. 4, 1718. The following year the principal part of them settled a plantation in New Hampshire to which they gave the name of Londonderry. See Locke's Sketches, page 84, Foot Note.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
A NEW STATE.
1819. We have now arrived at an important period in the history of our state. The question of separation from the mother state of Massachusetts, had been agitated to a greater or less degree at intervals, for many years, and, as has been seen, several votes, at different times, had been taken upon it without result. For some years prior to 1819 the District had been increasing in population and importance with great rapidity, and then had nearly 300,000 inhabitants, living in nine counties and over two hundred and thirty towns. It is, therefore, not strange that the sentiment favoring statehood should grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength of the District, detached as it was in territory from the state proper, and its people having little community of interests with their fellow citizens dwelling in Massachusetts. Maine now had six newspapers, three of which were strong advocates of separation and through them and other- wise, the agitation was kept up until at last seventy towns petitioned the General Court, which action resulted in the pas- sage of an act favoring the separation on condition that all the public lands and buildings in Maine, not the property of the United States, be equally divided between the proposed new state and Massachusetts. Maine was to have its proporticn of the military stock and one-third of all moneys which might be reimbursed by the general government for war expenses.
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In July, 1819, the citizens of the District once more voted upon the question of separation, the precise question presented to the voters on this occasion being: "Is it expedient that the District shall become a separate and independent state, upon the terms and conditions provided in an act relating to the separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts proper, and forming the same into a separate and independent state ?" The result of the vote was that more than two-thirds of those voting favored separation, and the several towns afterwards elected delegates to a convention to be held at Portland, October 29, at which a state constitution was framed, and said constitution was adopted by the people in town meeting, December 6, 1819.
In the meantime the sentiment on the question of the sep- aration had been changing in Camden, and when the question of accepting the act came up for consideration the Camden voters approved it by a good majority as will be seen.
In the gubernatorial election held on April 5, our voters manifested even less than their usual interest in the result, Gov. Brooks receiving but 54 votes and his opponent, Mr. Crowning- shield, but 59, while Mr. Robert Chase of Camden had 1 vote.
At the town election on the same date the Town Clerk, Selectmen and Treasurer of the preceding year were all re-elect- ed. The town voted to raise "in their Parochial Capacity," the sum of $100 for the support of the ministry during the year.
May 10 the town, after more or less discussion, voted by a ballot of 70 to 69, to send a Representative to the General Court. A ballot was then taken and Nath'l Martin was chosen Representa- tive, having 79 votes to 31 for Jonathan Thayer, and 18 "scattering."
At the meeting on July 26, to vote on the question of separ- ation, there were 143 votes cast, 97 for the new state and 46 against it.
At the meeting held on Sept. 20, for the purpose of electing a delegate to the convention to be held at the Court House,
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Portland, to form a constitution for the proposed new state, Nathaniel Martin was chosen to serve in that capacity.
When the town voted on the adoption of the constitution of the new state prepared by the delegates at the Portland conven- tion the Town Clerk made the following record of that historical event :
"At a legal meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Cam- den, in the County of Lincoln, qualified to vote for senators, holden on the 1st Monday of Dec., being the 6th day of said month, A. D. 1819, for the purpose of giving in their votes in writing, expressing their approbation or disapprobation of the constitution prepared by the convention of delegates assembled at Portland on the 2d Monday of Oct. last pursuant to an Act entitled 'an Act relating to the separation of the District of Maine from Massachu- setts, and forming the same into a separate and independent state.'
The whole number of votes given in said Camden were sorted and counted in open meeting, and were 63 votes, of which 59 were in favor of the constitution adopted by the convention at Portland, and 4 votes were opposed to said constitution.
A true Record,
Attest :
MOSES TRUSSELL, T. Clerk." 1
A list of jurymen accepted by the town at this same meeting is recorded upon the records, and among the names we find the following that are familiar to us at the present day: Daniel Andrews, Wm. Carleton, James Curtis, Wm. Eaton, Nath'l Hosmer, John Harkness, Job Ingraham, James Simonton, Joseph Stetson, Joseph Thorndike.
This year one of our citizens, Capt. Noah Brooks, who had been prominent in the affairs of the town, removed to East Boston. Capt. Brooks was born in Scituate, Mass., where his ancestors had been prominent for generations. 2 He came to Camden in
1. Town Records, Vol. I, page 350.
2. See Deane's History of Scituate.
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1806, and being a shipwright by trade, went into the ship build- ing business in company with Benj. Cushing, and later carried it on alone. He married Miss Esther Stetson of Scituate, by whom he had eignt children. In the war of 1812 he was commissioned a Lieutenant in Capt. Asha Palmer's infantry company in Camden. After his removal to East Boston he carried on the ship-building business for a number of years. He was elected a member of the city council and afterwards a member of the Massachusetts Leg- islature. He retired from active business in 1843 and removed to Dorchester where he erected a fine residence. At his death in 1852 he was worth a fine fortune for those days.
At about this time, or possibly a little earlier, Farnham Hall, another prominent citizen left town for Malden, Mass., and after remaining there a short time went to New York, where he estab- lished an agency of the Malden Dye & Print Works, and soon afterwards organized the New York and Staten Island Dyeing and Printing Establishment, of which he was treasurer for a number of years. For several years he was in the commission business with Mr. William H. Bean, . the firm name being Hall & Bean. Mr. Hall was a native of Methuen, Mass., and was born Feb. 2, 1778. He came to Camden about the year 1806, and went into trade. While here he was one of the leading men of the town and represented Camden in the General Court. He was a prominent Mason and was the fifth Master of Amity Lodge. He also served several years as its secretary. During the last ten years of his life he was not in business, but lived in the country on a Staten Island farm, where he died March 13, 1850, at the age of 72 years.
1820. The constitution having been approved the next step was to seek admission to the Union as a state by an act of Congress. At the same time Missouri was seeking admission as a slave state. This aroused the anti-slavery sentiment in the country to make a vigorous opposition, but the friends of slavery were able to bring the question of the admission of the two states
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before Congress, coupled together in one bill. After weeks of strong and active effort the friends of Maine succeeded in getting the two questions separated, and Maine was finally admitted to the Union, as the twenty-third state on March 3, 1820.
At this time Camden had a population of 1828 and was the second town in size and importance within the limits of what is now Knox County, Thomaston, then including Rockland and South Thomaston, being the first. The principal village in the town was the "Harbor Village," Goose River not then having begun to any material extent, the growth which it afterwards had.
The first gubernatorial election in the new state took place on Monday, April 3, when Hon. Wm. King of Bath was elected our first Governor. While in the past party spirit had run high and at times party rancor had been very bitter, in the organization of the new state, all political bitterness and asperity seem to have been put aside and all elements joined in launching the State of Maine on a sea of peace, harmony and good will, and Gov. King received all but 1031 of the 22,014 votes cast.
The same spirit that influenced the rest of the state pre- vailed in Camden and when the voters assembled at the Mason's Hall, their balloting resulted as follows: For Governor, Hon. Wm. King, 150 votes ; Alden Bass 6, Oakes Perry 2, Joshua Head, Esq., 1. Robert Ogier 1. For Senators, Nathaniel Green, Esq., 196 votes; Benj. Cushing, Esq., 177, Erastus Foote, Esq., 172, Edward Kellaren 17, William Norwood 1. For Representa- tive, Jonas Wheeler, Esq., 131 votes; Ephraim Wood 22, Moses Trussell 1, Jonah Howe 1, Nathaniel Martin, Esq., 1. For County Treasurer, Joshua Head, Esq., 100 votes ; Jonas Wheeler, Esq., 1. 1
Jonas Wheeler, Esq., was, as the vote shows, the first Repre- sentative elected by the voters of Camden to the Legislature of Maine.
Following the old custom, the town election was held on 1. Town Records, Vol. II, page 7.
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A NEW STATE
the same day, when it was voted to elect three selectmen and three assessors as separate boards, and Robert Chase, Moses Trussell and Daniel Packard were elected selectmen, and Hosea Bates, Joseph Mirick and Daniel Packard, assessors. Moses Trussell was selected for town clerk and Oakes Perry for treasurer. Lewis Ogier took the collection of taxes at 3 per cent.
The following amounts were raised for various town purposes : Schools, $800; Poor, $1200; Highways, $3000. Repair of "Gaulbush Road," $150.
An agitation was started in the state to abolish the Court of Common Pleas and substitute town courts in their stead, which gained great headway, and on this subject we find Camden citi- zens calling a town meeting on May 1, 1820, "To see if the town will Petition the Legislature of the State of Maine 'to abolish the Courts of Common Pleas and establish other Courts less expen- sive," in favor of which the town voted.
A fire of considerable magnitude for that time occurred at the Harbor Village on Dec. 26th, by which four buildings in the business portion of the village were destroyed, viz .: the grist-mill and saw-mill owned by Wm. and Joseph Eaton and Capt. John Pendleton ; the tannery of Moses Parker and Robert Chase's blacksmith shop. These buildings were situated on Megunticook stream, extending from the present grist-mill on Main street back to where the "Higgins stable " building now stands.
This year Camden lost another prominent citizen and busi- ness man in the removal of Mr. Belcher Sylvester to Hanover, Mass,, where he was born in 1765. He was by trade a cabinet maker, and came to Camden in 1795, where he went into the mercantile business with hardly more than a "barrel of rum and a piece of India cotton " for his stock in trade, those two commod- ities being, in those days, considered sufficient with which to begin business, and certainly very essential commodities with which to start a successful trade. He began his trade near where the brick building of the Anchor Works now stands, but after-
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wards built a store about on the site of the Carleton, Pascal & Co's store on the corner of Elm and Mechanic streets. He also built the building on the corner of Elm and Chestnut streets now owned by Mr. H. M. Bean. He was successful in business and invested his surplus funds in real estate, in which he made lucra- tive speculations. Mr. Sylvester was a man of steady habits, disinclined to seek social or political distinction, but ambitious, by close business application, to acquire a competency. He never married and having accumulated a handsome property, removed to his native town, and passed his last days among his relatives and early associates. He died May 11, 1849.
1821. The annual town meeting this year was held April 2, at which Frye Hall was elected Town Clerk and Treasurer. It was voted to go back to one board of Selectmen, Assessors and Overseers of the Poor, but the voters had some difficulty in get- ting men to serve. Several were elected who declined the honor but finally a board was elected consisting of Jonathan Thayer, Wm. Parkman and David Tolman. The name of Joseph Hall, destined to be one of the most prominent men produced by the town, appears upon the town records of this year, as one of the surveyors of lumber.
This year the state election was held in September, as it is at the present time. Once more we find a cleavage of political sentiment among our voters, and where the year before Gov. King, a Republican, had received nearly a unanimous vote, this year the vote for Governor was divided as follows: Albion K. Parris, Republican, 72 votes ; Ezekiel Whitman, Federalist, 59 votes. Mr. Parris was elected. Jonas Wheeler was one of the senators elected, and Ephraim Wood was elected Representative. This year ten persons were licensed by the selectmen as retail liquor dealers.
On October 27 of this year departed this life James Richards, the first settler of the town, at the age of. 78 years. He was buried in the Richards family burying ground near the present Pearl
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A NEW STATE
street, where nearly all his family were laid for many years. A few years ago they were all removed to a lot in Mountain ceme- tery. To Mr. Richards and his wife, Elizabeth, were born the following children : James Jr., John, William, Bridget (who mar- ried Samuel Richards), Jacob, Moses, Mary (who married Phillips Crooker), Elizabeth (who married James Thorndike), Abraham, Robert and Hezekiah. Mr. Richards' father (also named James) and mother came to Camden and passed their last days with their son and both now lie in Mountain cemetery.
1822. At the annual town meeting, April 1, Frye Hall was again elected Town Clerk and Treasurer, and the Selectmen chosen were, Robert Chase, Moses Trussell and David H. Tolman.
At the state election on Sept. 9, the town showed a stronger Republican sentiment than the year before, Gov. Parris receiving 90 votes to 20 for Ezekiel Whitman. Jonas Wheeler was again a candidate for senator, but was not elected this year. David Tolman was elected Representative.
1823. The same Town Clerk, Treasurer and Selectmen were re-elected this year at the annual town meeting held April 7. At the state election, Sept. 8, "perfect harmony" prevailed so far as the vote for Governor was concerned, for Gov. Parris received every vote cast, to wit, 79. 1 Jonas Wheeler was this year again elected Senator, while Frye Hall was elected Repre- sentative with practically no opposition.
This year the first steamboat that ever entered Penobscot Bay visited Camden. Tradition says that it was with a good deal of trepidation that some of our people learned of her proposed trips into our harbor and some thought that she ought not to be allowed to come here lest she frighten away all the fish, but as has happened many times since, when objections have been made to some proposed innovation looking towards progress, the steamboat came just the same. Her name was the "Maine," and she was
1. So popular was Gov. Parris' administration that he this year received all but 850 of the 19,400 votes cast in the state. In 1824 he received all but 660 of the votes cast and in 1825, all but 1406.
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HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
commanded by Capt. Daniel Lunt of Lincolnville. She was of about 125 tons burthen. She connected at Bath with the steamer, Patent, plying between that port and Boston. The Maine made landings at Townsend, Owl's Head, Camden, Belfast, Castine, Sedgwick, Cranberry Islands, Lubec, Eastport, and occasionally, St. John. Some of the fares were as follows: From Bath to Cam- den, $2.00; from Belfast to Eastport, $5.00; from Bath to Eastport, $6.00. When the Maine first arrived at Camden, a salute from a cannon announced that fact, and a great multitude assembled at the shore to witness the approach of the new "Ful- tonian " craft, and many visited the vessel during its stay here over night. Warren Ranson was the agent at this place. 5
This year Nathaniel Martin, who, for twenty years had been as prominent, perhaps, as any citizen in all matters pertaining to the town's interests and in every affair of importance in which the interests of a public-spirited citizen should be enlisted, removed to New York City where he engaged in a commission business. Mr. Martin was born in London and came to this country when a boy. In his early manhood he settled on Fox Island, where he traded until 1803, when he transferred his business to Camden. In 1806 he married Rhoda, sister of Col. Erastus Foote, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. His name appears many times in this history in connection with town affairs. For many years he presided at the town meetings as moderator. He was Representative to the General Court, a delegate to the Port- land convention that adopted the Maine constitution, in 1819, was selectman and, in short, occupied nearly every office of importance in the gift of his fellow-townsmen, all of which he administered with great ability. After going to New York he introduced eastern lime into the market there, which soon super- seded that of the North River quarries on account of its superior quality. Mr. Martin was a man of urbane and polished manners, a refined and courteous gentleman.
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