History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 19

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

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" The sun looked o'er with hazy eye, The snowy mountain-tops which lie Piled coldly up against the sky."

The " solemn pines" are not so abundant now, nor the " firs which hang its gray rocks o'er."

The Songo River is but two and a half miles in a straight line, yet in passing up it one must sail six miles and make twenty-seven turns round its tortuous course. Its peculiar sinuosity is well described by Longfellow in the following lines :

" Nowhere such a devious stream, Save in faney or in dream, Winding slow through bush and brake, Links together Inke and lake.

" Walled with woods or sandy shelf, Ever doubling on itself, Flows the stream, so still and slow, That it hardly seems to flow.

" Never errant-knight of old, Lost on woodland or on wold, Such a winding path pursued Through the sylvan solitude.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

" In the mirror of its tide Tangled thicket on each side Ilang united, and between Floating cloud of sky serene."

The water is clear and deep, and mirrors with perfect accuracy the forest and foliage upon its banks.

Near the foot of the lake on the east side is the curious mass of rock called the " Images," rising nearly seventy feet perpendicularly, and then sloping in jagged and fanci- ful shapes for a distance of about thirty feet more. In these rocks, at the water's edge, is an opening four feet by six, and about twenty-five feet in extent into the ledge, called the " Cave," which has a peculiar interest, from the fact that it was a favorite boyhood resort of Nathaniel Haw- thorne, who was wont to sail in it in his tiny fishing-boat. The early home of the great novelist was but a short distance to the northeast of this spot.

The scenery to the north and west is somewhat rugged and mountainous. The principal mountain on the west is Saddleback Mountain, in Baldwin; on the east, Peaked Mountain ; and on the north, Mount Kearsarge and the White Mountain range.

Mount Pleasant, an hour's ride from Bridgton Landing, is quite a place of summer resort. The road winds amidst romantie scenery about two miles to the summit, which, when attained, commands a prospect of about three hundred miles.

Looking eastward, we perceive at our feet Moose Pond, and farther on Wood's Pond, Highland Lake, Bridgton Centre, North Bridgton, and South Bridgton villages, Long Lake, which resembles some majestic river, and the Bay of Naples ; and the Harrison and Otisfield hills, beyond which the distinctive features of the landscape are lost in the horizon haze. Southward, we behold Saddleback Mountain, in Baldwin ; Mount Cutler, in lliram ; and Lake Sebago, the queen of these inland seas, beyond which we may dis- cern Portland, and catch the silver gleam of the Atlantic. In the west is Brownfield, where is seen at certain hours of the day a faint pennon of smoke following the whirl of the iron horse through field and forest ; and in its range old Ossipee, on the shores of Winnipiseogee,-that " most ex- quisite jewel in the necklace of New England." In the northwest are seen the Saeo River and its lovely valley, Lovewell's Pond, on whose shores occurred Lovewell's famous Indian fight in 1725, Round and Pleasant Ponds, Kezar Pond and River, Jockey Cap, Oak Hill, and Frye- burg village, the four-toothed summit of Chocorua, and farther north the tall, isolated, cone-shaped Kearsarge, near North Conway,-the view bounded in that direction by the White Mountain range, capped by the sharp dome of Mount Washington. In the northeast are the pretty vil- lages of Waterford, near Bear and Ilawk Mountains; and Norway and Paris Ilill may be descried. Some fifty lakes and ponds may be distinctly seen from the summit by the naked eye, and the view far surpasses that offered from Mount Washington, being unobstructed by clouds and neighboring mountains, and rich in all the varied charac- teristies of the beautiful, the sublime, and the pietur- esque.

CHAPTER XIV.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Post-offices and Mails-Public Conveyances-Early Roads-Cumber- land and Oxford Canal-Railroads.

POST-OFFICES AND MAILS.

IT was not until the year 1760, the date of the forma- tion of Cumberland County, that a weekly mail was deliv- ered farther east than Portsmouth. Before that time letters were allowed to accumulate till there was a sufficient num- ber to pay the expense of sending them forward to their destination, which, of course, as letters came in slowly, often delayed their delivery for a considerable length of time. The only sure method of sending important news was by a dispatch or courier sent especially upon the errand. The benefit of the English mail system, which was first regulated in that country by aet of parliament in 1660, was not extended to North America till 1710, when a gen- eral post-office was established in London for all the British dominions, under one director called a Postmaster-General, who had letter offices at Edinburgh, Dublin, New York, and other convenient places. The deputy Postmaster-Gen- eral for the colonies was to reside at New York. In 1774, by the good management of Dr. Franklin, deputy Postmas- ter-General, the post-office in America had been made to produce clear to Great Britain three thousand pounds an- mally. In 1680 Massachusetts appointed John Haywood postmaster of the whole colony, as previous to that time letters had been thrown on the exchange in Boston, so that anybody might take them, and many had thus been lost. In 1689, Richard Wilkins was appointed postmaster by the General Court " to receive all letters, and to deliver out the same, and to receive on each one penny." In New Ilamp- shire a post-office was established by the colony at Ports- mouth in 1693. A line was extended from this point to Falmouth some time before the Revolution, and an office was kept by Thomas Child in King Street, though the date of its establishment or the rate of postage is not known. Mr. Willis says, " In an old book of Mr. Child's I find Arthur Savage, under date of Nov. 11, 1766, charged with the postage of three single letters to Boston, eight pounds, which is two pounds thirteen shillings four pence for each, and several other charges of two pounds sixteen shillings for a letter to Boston or from it."*

The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, immediately upon the separation from England, deemed it of importance to establish lines of communication throughout the colony, and for this purpose they established a general post-office at Cambridge in May, 1775, and appointed post-riders upon the principal routes in the province. These extended as far east as Georgetown, in this State. Joseph Barnard carried the mail on horseback between Portsmouth and Falmouth. There were but three post-offices established in Maine, one of which was at Kennebunk, kept by Na- thaniel Kimball, another in Falmouth, kept by Samuel Freeman, and the third at Georgetown, of which Jolin Wood was postmaster. The rates of postage fixed at this

# Ilist. Portland, p. 192, note.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

period were, for a distance not exceeding sixty miles, five pence one quarter ; from sixty to one hundred miles, eight penee ; from one to two hundred miles, ten pence two quarters ; from two to three hundred miles, one shilling one penny. The first post-rider under this arrangement arrived at Falmouth on Saturday, June 10, 1775. He continued to carry the mail till October 7th of that year, the number of letters not exceeding four or five a week.

The General Congress, perceiving the benefit to be de- rived from a uniform mail establishment throughout the colonies, assumed the charge of it in July, 1775, and es- tablished a regular line of posts from Falmouth ( now Port- land ), in Maine, to Savannah, Georgia. Benjamin Frank- lin was placed at the head of the department, and the first mail under this system arrived in Falmouth Oct. 7, 1775. At this period there was but one line on the whole of this distance, and as late as 1790 but seventy-four post-offices in the United States. In 1783 the whole number of letters sent from the Portland office was fifty-seven; after this time they increased rapidly, and amounted in 1785 to sev- cral hundred. In 1786 the mail was for the first time in the United States begun to be carried in coaches,-from Portsmouth, N. H., to Savannah,-under an act of Con- gress passed in September, 1785. The advantages of this new arrangement were not extended into Maine till 1787. In September, 1786, the Postmaster-General was directed to enter into " contracts for the conveyance of the mail by stage carriages if practicable, for one year from January next, from Portland to Savannah." This arrangement was carried into effect by the enterprise and great exertions of the old post-rider, Joseph Barnard, who put upon the road a wagon drawn by two horses in January, 1787. This was the first attempt to carry passengers in the State of Maine. It was thought a great enterprise, and Mr. Barnard was loudly applauded for his zeal and energy. The mail-wagon left Portsmouth in the morning, reached Kennebunk the first day, Broad's tavern, in Westbrook, the second day, and arrived at Portland on the morning of the third day .* It will seem incredible to the present generation that the immense mail establishment of the United States, with the innumerable and splendid advantage of mail and passenger transportation, could have advanced in so short a period from such humble beginnings. In 1832 the United States mail was transported in stages 16,222,743 miles ; in steamboats, 499,301; on horseback and in snlkies, 6,902,977 miles. The number of post-offices in the same year was 9205, and the revenue of the department $2,258,570.

It would seem that staging began in the United States only six years later than in England. In 1828 the Lord Mayor of London said, "I remember that in 1780 the first stage-coach was established between London and Maid-

The following was Barnard's first advertisement : " Joseph Bar- nard, stage proprietor, informs the public that the Portland Mail Stige sets off from Mr. Motley's tavern, in this town, every Saturday morning, arrives on Monday at Portsmonth, where he meets the Bos- ton stage ; leaves Portsmouth on Tuesday, and arrives in Portland on Thursday. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who choose this expeditions, cheap, and commodious way of stage traveling will please to lodge their names with Mr. Motley any time previous to the Stage's leaving his house. Price for one person's passage the whole distance, 208. ; baggage 2d. for every pound above 11. Portland, January 26. 1787."

stone, and the sluggishness of the conveyance may be guessed at from the fact that the coach set out at six o'clock in the morning and did not reach its destination (thirty- eight miles ) till eight or nine o'clock at night, and those who traveled so comfortable a distance used to take leave of their friends about a week before." Now, over the same road, they are flying by steam with the velocity of forty miles an hour.

" In 1788 a new arrangement of the mails was made, by which it came here from Boston three times a week in summer and twice a week in winter, and was forwarded to Pownalborough once a fortnight. As late as 1801 the mail was four days going to Boston, t and we had a mail from there but three times a week.

" In December, 1793, the first attempt was made to carry passengers from Portland to Hallowell in a sleigh, by Caleb Graffam. He left Portland on Monday morning at seven o'clock, reached Wiscasset the next day at one o'clock, and arrived at Hallowell on Wednesday noon. Mr. Graffam was employed by Thomas B. Wait, publisher of the Cum- berland Gazette, to convey the newspaper to Hallowell, Wiscasset, and the intermediate places. He made the tour but once a week in summer and once a fortnight in winter ; and as the mail went but once a fortnight to Wiseasset at this period, he took letters from the post-office to deliver on the route, under the direction of the postmaster.

" The income of the office for several years after its estab- lishment was of no consideration ; during the latter part of Mr. Freeman's term the net amount paid from it to the government, with the postmaster's compensation, was as follows, viz. :

" 1792. To government $340.01

To Mr. Freeman $165.65.

1795 ...

607.23

185.51.

1800 ...

1000.89

451.48.

1804 ¥

1167.75

1044.29.

" The amount paid to government in one year, ending March 31, 1830, was $4789.89, and for the year ending March 31, 1832, $4777.10 .; But the business of the office may be better estimated by the amount of postage ou letters and papers which pass through it. For the year ending March 31, 1832, there were received for letters de- livered at the office $6926 and for newspapers and pam- phlets $667, making an aggregate of $7593; besides this the amount of postage on letters distributed and forwarded to other parts of the State was $37,979."§

The first accommodation stage that commenced running from this town regularly was in 1818, when it went three times a week to Portsmouth. There was a line during part of the war of 1812, when communication by water was in- terrupted by British cruisers in the bay ; but this was sus-

+ In April, 1785, the mail from Boston was delayed between four and five weeks, during which time no news was received from the west. Mr. Smith says, " April 29 the post at last got here, har- ing been hindered near five week -. " This delay was owing to the excessive bad roads. In 1802 no papers were received from Boston from February 25th to March 8th, on account of the traveling.

# The amount of postage paid to government in the State in the year ending March 31, 1830, was $31,922.83.

¿ This being a distributive office, all the letters for the State pass through it.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

pended when peace took place for want of encouragement. In 1832 the number of stages that were employed on differ- ent routes from this town was twelve, of which five arrived and departed every day, and the remainder three times a week ; seven carried mails, the others were accommodation stages.

The usual mode of traveling, even for some years after the Revolution, was on horseback, the roads being too bad, except in winter, to admit of comfortable passing in any other manner. The judges and lawyers rode their circuits, and the physicians and ministers made their visits on horse- back. Chaises came into use here about 1760, for riding about the town and neighborhood ; they were not, however, in general use, nor were they generally used by those who owned them, but kept, like the Sunday dress, to be worn only on gala days. The Rev. Mr. Smith purchased one in 1765, and Dr. Deanc in 1766, and yet the latter mentions in January, 1770, that he " rode to Joshua Frecman's and carried his wife behind him."* Dr. Deane has recorded as a notable fact in 1769 that "at the funeral of Savage's child there were sixteen chaises in the procession."+ This was probably the whole or nearly the whole number owned in town. It was not until about thirty years after the Revolution that a private four-wheeled carriage was kept by any person in town. Public hacks, which are now numerous, did not come into common use until about 1818.1

EARLY ROADS.

As the population and business increased, it became necessary to increase the facilities of traveling. A water communication had always been kept up with neighboring towns, and also with those more remote : the coasting trade between Falmouth and the towns in Massachusetts was successfully carried on, and fish and lumber, as well as agri- cultural products, at that early period found a market there, for which returns were made in English goods and groceries. It is believed that two sloops commanded by Capts. English and Phillips plied regularly between this bay and Boston.

The communications were not, however, as they had for- merly been, wholly confined to the water ; a road several years previous to the time of which we are speaking had been laid ont from the ferry-way in Cape Elizabeth, near where it is now established, which passed round Purpooduck Point by the water and joined the present road near Simonton's Cove; then passing on by the light-house and the head of Pond Cove as the road is now traveled, it bent westerly and crossed the cape directly to Spurwink River, which trav- elers crossed by a ferry, about a mile from its mouth. It then kept by the shore the whole distance to Piseataqua, crossing the several rivers by ferries near their mouths. This road passed through all the settlements, as they then clustered upon the coast, but was circuitous and long. It

was soon found expedient to strike out shorter paths at the expense of going greater distances through the woods.

In 1686 the Court of Sessions at York granted a ferry at Nonesuch Point to Silvanus Davis, " for passage of man and horse over Casco River for the benefit of travelers." This point was on the south side of Long Creek and be- tween that and Nonesuch Creek ; the landing on this side must have been a little above Vaughan's bridge. A road was laid out from Scarborough to the ferry, which shortened the distance between the Neck and that place several miles.

In addition to this route, there was a road to Stroudwater and Capisic which passed along on the bank of the river to Round Marsh, and thence probably as the road is now trav- eled to those places. Another road or path was laid out by the settlements on Back Cove to the Presumpscot, cross- ing Ware Creek at the foot of the hill, near the almshouse. As carriages were not then in use here, these roads may properly be considered merely foot-paths through the woods, which then covered the whole territory and overshadowed the settlements.

In April, 1688, Richard Clements, a surveyor, was re- quired by the government of Massachusetts to make a sur- vey of land from Kennebec, " so as to head the several rivers of Casco Bay, and see where they may be best passed in order for settling a county road as far westward as Cap- isic, or any other remarkable place thereabouts toward Saco, and also observe what places were proper for eross-roads to each town or settlement." A like warrant was given by Nicholas Manning, chief magistrate of the Duke of York's province, for a survey from Pemaquid and New Dartmouth to the Kennebec.

CUMBERLAND AND OXFORD CANAL.

As early as 1791 a committee was chosen by several towns in this county to ascertain the practicability of open- ing a canal from Sebago Pond to the Presumpscot River. A report was made in September of that year very favor- able to the design, in which it is said that lumber, produce, etc., might be brought, if the canal should be opened a dis- tance of sixty or seventy miles to the falls at Saccarappa. The plan was proseented with considerable zeal by Wood- bury Storer and some others, who, in 1785, obtained an act of incorporation, under the name of the Cumberland Canal, to open a canal from the Sebago to the Presumpscot River, at Saccarappa. Another company was incorporated at the same time, by the name of the Proprietors of the Falmonth Canal, for the purpose of uniting the waters of the Pre- sumpscot River above Saccarappa with those of Fore River. The leading persons in these projects were Woodbury Storer, Joseph Noyes, Nathaniel Deering, and Joseph Jewett.

But the limited capital of our people was not equal to their enterprising spirit, and subscriptions to the stock could not be obtained within the ten years fixed by the charter for the completion of the undertaking. As the time of its ex- piration drew near, an extension of five years was obtained. which also passed away without witnessing even a com- mencement of the work. The undertaking was evidently more expensive than was contemplated by its projectors, and much beyond the means and resources of the country at

# These two chaises may be supposed to be among the earliest ; Mr. Deane's cost him £180. Joshua Freeman lived at Back Cove, on the farm directly opposite the almshouse.

t Arthur Savage, the comptroller, who lived where Moorehead afterwards kept tavern in Middle Street.

# In 1820 the number of chaises owned in town were ninety, and four-wheeled carriages ten. In 1830, chaises one hundred and one. carriages sixteen.

IHISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

that period. We may judge of the under-estimate of the proprietors, by the fact that the amount of property they were allowed by the first charter to hold was only twenty thou- sand dollars, which in 1804 was enlarged to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Storer, whose heart was bent on carrying this improvement into exceution, though frustrated in his first attempts, did not permit the subject to pass from his mind. During the period of commercial restrictions and war, all projeets of improvement were of course suspended, but immediately after the separation of the State, when new life was sent into all the channels of in- dustry and enterprise, the project was again revived, and in 1821 a charter was proenred to construct a canal from Waterford, in the county of Oxford, to the navigable waters of Fore River, under the name of the Cumberland and Ox- ford Canal. The incorporators were Arthur Mclellan, Alvin K. Parris, Charles Whitman, Asa Clapp, Samnel Andrews, Leander Gage, Daniel Brown, Nathaniel Howe, Enoch Perley, Josiah Whitman, and Ira Crocker, with their associates and sueecssors.

To aid the projectors in this more extensive scheme, a lottery was granted to them in 1823, by which they were authorized to raise the sum of fifty thousand dollars, to en- able them to accomplish the laudable undertaking .* In 1825, as a further measure to promote the design, the en- terprising projectors procured the Canal Bank to be incor- porated with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars, of which it was one of the conditions that a quarter part of its capital should be invested in the stock of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal.

Under these advantages, and by the aid of individual subscriptions, the work was commenced in 1828. In 1823 the engineer had estimated the whole expense of the work from Sebago Lake to Fore River, at Stroudwater, at one hundred and thirty-seven thousand three hundred and forty- three dollars; it was eventually extended to the harbor, and completed in 1830, at an expense of two hundred and six thousand dollars.

The canal was mortgaged to the Canal Bank, of Portland, for thirty thousand dollars, July I, 1829; again, for thirty thousand dollars, Aug. 28, 1829, and Oct. 6, 1830, for thirteen thousand five hundred dollars. These mortgages and notes secured thereby were assigned by the Canal Bank to Isaac Dyer, trustec, for himself and F. O. J. Smith, Jan. 16, 1862. On the 14th of September, 1874, the heirs of Isaac Dyer conveyed their interest to Charles P. Mattocks, Esqf., of Portland, and on the 23d of November, 1877, the executors of the late F. O. J. Smith conveyed their interest to Mr. Mattocks, who still holds these interests, together with nearly all the stock, which was acquired through the same chain of title.

The canal was an important internal improvement, and continued to be of great service to this section of the coun- try till the era of building railroads, when, like most other canals, it began to decline. It is still operated from Har- rison to Goff & Plummer's mills, in Gorham.

There was a project started some years ago, during the latter years of Mr. Smith's life, to convert the canal, from

Lake Sebago to the salt water in Portland harbor, into a grand fish-breeding establishment, and the matter was brought before the Legislature, and referred to the Com- mittee on Fisheries, but no report, we believe, was ever made. The plan, we understand, still stands open for any parties who may wish to engage in the enterprise.

RAILROADS.

The movement in favor of railroads began in Massachu- setts as early as 1828, by a report to the Legislature setting forth the advantages of that mode of transportation. In their actual construction the Boston and Lowell Company took the lead, obtaining their charter in 1830. This was followed the next year by the Boston and Providence and Boston and Worcester Companies, both of which were incorporated in 1831. These three roads were opened in 1835, and so much exceeded publie expectation in their practical working as to give an impetus to railroad-building. The Boston and Maine Railroad was incorporated in 1833. For a while they used fifteen miles of the Lowell road to Wilmington, and gradually extended their line until it reached South Berwick, in Maine, where it joined the Portland, Ports- mouth and Saco road, which was incorporated in 1837, and opened to Portland in December, 1842.

While these grand enterprises awakened a spirit of emu- lation in Maine, the direction given to publie sentiment was in opposition to plaeing additional facilities for trade in the hands of Boston, which was already seen to be dam- aging to the interests of Portland, but to open easy and cheap communication with the interior and with Canada. Hence, as early as February, 1835, a resolution passed the State Legislature, requesting the Senators and Representa- tives in Congress to use their influence with the general government to procure the aid of a corps of engineers for the purpose of surveying a track for a railroad from Port- land or some other point on the seaboard, by navigable waters in this State, to some point on the border of Lower Canada. In pursuance of this resolution the United States government appointed Col. Long, an eminent engineer of the United States, to make the survey suggested. At the same session the Governor was requested to appoint two in- dividuals to visit Quebee and Canada, to procure the co-op- eration of that province in the great enterprise. Col. Long immediately proceeded in his work, and before the next winter completed it, making a careful examination of various routes, to determine which was most feasible. The result of his survey was in favor of a line from Belfast, on l'enob- scot Bay, to Quebec, as the shortest and most practicable route from the seaboard. The Legislature, in March, 1836,

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 19

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780