USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Garland > History of Garland, Maine > Part 10
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The Third Town Meeting of 1811
This meeting assembled at the house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., on the 31st day of August, 1811. Its main pur- pose was to consider the question of schools.
Thomas Gilpatrick was chosen moderator, and Dr. James Parker, clerk. A committee of three, embracing Joseph Garland, Justus H. Harriman and William Blaisdell, was chosen to divide the town into school districts with instructions to report at the next meeting of the town.
It was voted that the method of warning town meet- ings should be by written notification, and that said notification be set up at some place at least seven days previous to said meeting, except in some extraordinary case of emergency. In such case the method should be left to the discretion of the selectmen. The last pro- vision of this vote is significant as showing that ominous shadows of an impending national conflict were hanging over those homes in the forest, and that the purpose of the inhabitants was to hold themselves in readiness to respond to the call of their country with patriotic promptitude, come when it might.
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The Fourth Town Meeting of 1811
The fourth and last town meeting of 1811 was held at the house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., September 22d. Thomas Gilpatrick was chosen moderator, and Dr. James Parker, clerk pro tem. Its purpose was to hear the report of the committee on the division of the town into school districts, and to take such action with reference thereto as well as to the general question of schools, as the majority should determine.
The action of the town with reference to this matter seems to have been in harmony with the recommendations of the committee on divisions.
It was voted that all the settlement east of the center road running north and south be one district. It also voted that the center road running east and west, together with the road north of this (and parallel to it) be one district with the privilege of two schoolhouses. It voted that the settlement by E. Fifield's should be one district. This was in the southwest part of the town.
Josiah Bartlett was appointed school agent for the district east of the north and south center road.
Joseph Garland was appointed agent for the second district, and Edward Fifield for the third district. It was voted that each district should build its own school- house.
The Rev. John Sawyer, Dr. J. Parker and Isaac Wheeler were chosen superintending school committee. This was the first school committee of the town.
The vote of the previous meeting that each district should build its own schoolhouse, was reaffirmed.
The attempts of the inhabitants of the town to par- tition it into school districts, and to locate and build
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schoolhouses, gave rise to a long and persistent if not bitter struggle between opposing factions. The theater of the struggle was sometimes the town meeting, and sometimes the school district meeting. The history and results of the struggle will be given in another con- nection.
Garland in 1812
The year 1812 like that of 1811 was fruitful of town meetings. Business had been accumulating during the eight years of the unorganized condition of the town- ship. Now, having been invested with municipal powers, business that had been neglected, much of it important, confronted its inhabitants.
The town had exceptional difficulties to encounter in providing for the welfare of its people on account of their being so much scattered over its surface.
At a meeting in 1811 it had voted to make twenty- two miles of road. This was a task that would require many years in the performance. But this long stretch of road failed to reach all the families. There was an urgent demand for more road. But the division of the town into school districts, and the location and building of schoolhouses, presented questions of a much more perplexing character.
The annual meeting of 1812 was held at the home of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., on April 6th. Amos Gordon was chosen moderator, Jacob Garland town clerk, Isaac Wheeler, Josiah Bartlett and John Trefethen were chosen selectmen and assessors.
The town voted that twenty dollars in cash should be
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raised to defray town charges, and that every man should deliver his tax money into the hands of the town treas- urer. John Hayes was chosen collector, and was voted a compensation of four dollars for his services in this capacity. Amos Gordon was chosen town treasurer.
The town voted to raise seven hundred dollars to make and repair highways, two hundred dollars for the sup- port of schools, and one hundred and thirty dollars to defray town charges.
Twelve and one half cents per hour was voted for labor on the roads. It was voted to allow six shillings for corn, seven shillings for rye and eight shillings for wheat in payment for taxes.
At an adjourned meeting, held April 7th, the town instructed the selectmen to provide powder at their own discretion, which indicated a prudent regard for the time- honored maxim, "In time of peace prepare for war."
The First Vote for Governor
On the same day of the annual town meeting of 1812, such inhabitants of Garland as were qualified to vote for governor, having been duly warned in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, gave in their votes for governor, lieutenant governor and three senators.
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The First Voting List on Record
Names of the inhabitants of Garland legally qualified to vote for governor, lieutenant governor, senators and county treasurer :
Josiah Bartleit.
John Jackman.
Abram Bond.
John Knight.
William Blaisdell.
Silas Libbee.
Isaac Copeland.
Simeon Morgan.
John Chandler.
James Parker.
John M. Chase.
Rev. John Sawyer.
James McCluer.
Ezekiel Straw.
William Dustin.
Moses Saunders.
Edward Fifield.
Joseph Saunders.
Cutteon Flanders.
Oliver Saunders.
Jeremiah Flanders.
John Stephens.
Joseph Garland.
William Sargent.
Amos Gordon.
Sampson Silver.
John Gordon.
Thomas Tyler.
Jacob Garland.
John Trefethen.
Benj. Gilpatrick, Jr.
Joseph Treadwell.
Thomas Gilpatrick.
Sullivan Tyler.
Phillip Greeley.
Isaac Wheeler.
Moses Gordon.
Oliver Woodward.
Isaac Hopkins.
William Godwin.
John S. Haskell.
Enoch Clough.
John Hayes.
Landeras Grant.
Manoah Harriman.
Simon French.
William Church.
James Jackman.
John Saunders.
James Godwin.
Nathaniel Fifield.
Selectmen,
John Grant.
Thos. Gilpatrick, Jr.
Justus Harriman.
Enoch Jackman.
James Hutchinson.
Isaac Wheeler. Thomas Gilpatrick. Josiah Bartlett.
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For Governor.
Hon. Elbridge Gerry had thirty-five votes. Hon. Caleb Strong had thirteen votes. Scattering, four votes.
For Lieutenant Governor.
Hon. William King had thirty-seven votes. Hon. William Philips had fourteen votes.
Although war with Great Britain had not yet been declared, active preparations for the anticipated event were in progress. The preponderance of sentiment in the old Commonwealth was adverse to the war. But in less than three months war was formally proclaimed by President Madison, whose term of office would expire in the following March. The political forces which would determine whether or not Mr. Madison should be his own successor, were being marshalled in every town how- ever new, small or remote, within the limits of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The voters of Garland gave their approval to the war policy of President Madison by a majority of almost three to one.
History repeated itself when, in 1864, the War of the Rebellion was nearing its close, and Abraham Lincoln was a candidate for reelection, the opposition declared the war a failure and went into the campaign with that as its main issue.
The second meeting of the town in 1812 was held at Church's mills on the 25th of July.
The purpose of this meeting was mainly to consider the matter of roads, an account of which will appear in another place. The only other business transacted was to instruct the selectmen to buy forty pounds of powder and balls and flints in proportion, at the expense of the town.
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A third town meeting was held at the house of Joseph Garland on the 24th day of September, 1812, to con- sider a school district question, without result.
A fourth town meeting was held on the second day of November, 1812, at the house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., to consider the question of school districts.
First Vote for Member of Congress for the Kennebec District
On the second day of November, 1812, the voters of Garland assembled at the house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., to give in their votes for a member of Congress to represent the Kennebec District, when Hon. James Carr received seventeen votes; Hon. John Wilson received seventeen votes.
The First Vote for a Presidential Elector
On the 12th day of November, 1812, the inhabitants of Garland qualified to vote for presidential electors, assembled at the house of John Grant to give in their votes for that officer. Hon. William Crosby received twenty-three votes, Hon. James Campbell received four- teen votes.
A town meeting was held at the house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., on the 17th of November, 1812. This meeting was devoted exclusively to the consideration of the school question. The articles of business named in the warrant calling the meeting were all "passed over."
The year 1812 closed the first decade of the history of Garland as a township. It had now been invested with corporate powers.
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Construction of Early Houses
It has been said that the life of a country or com- munity is the essential fact of history. While the history of the lives of the early settlers of Garland may be devoid of interest to the general reader, it cannot fail to be of interest to their descendants.
A very few of the first houses in Garland, including those of the two or three first settlers, were built of logs. The proprietors of the township had built a saw- mill before other houses were needed. A saw-mill had also been built in the township now known as Dexter, which accommodated the settlers of the western and northwestern sections of Garland.
Sawed lumber now took the place of logs in the con- struction of buildings. Nails made one by one, by the blacksmith of the township were used. The first framed house in the township was built by Joseph Treadwell for John Tyler, upon the farm now owned by Charles Brown. Mr. Treadwell was the grandfather of our present citi- zen, Joseph Treadwell. He came from New Gloucester, Maine, in the summer of 1802, on horseback, bringing his tools with him, cut, hewed and framed the timber and hauled it to the building site, raised and covered the walls and roof the same summer. He finished the house in the summer of 1803. A gambrel roof covered the body of the house.
To the regret of many of our older citizens, this quaint old house gave place to one of more modern con- struction years ago.
The early houses had, as a general rule, only a single room upon the ground floor. In this, the unwieldy loom, the spinning-wheel, and bed for the heads of the
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family found place. There were no partitions save as quilts and comforters served as such. The pride of the housewife was the large, red dresser, with open shelves at the top, where were displayed the shining rows of bright tin dishes.
A heavy cleat door, swinging on wooden hinges, furnished with a wooden latch, indicated the place of ingress and exit.
On the outside, the door was opened by a string attached to the latch, which passed through a hole above it to the inside. When the family retired at night, the string was pulled in for the safety of its inmates. The second floor was of rough boards or splits placed across the floor timbers. Sometimes straight poles laid closely together across the floor timbers were made to do service as a floor. The second floor was reached by a ladder.
How Houses Were Warmed
"Shut in from all the world without We sat the clean-winged hearth about; Content to let the north wind roar With baffled rage at pane and door, While the red logs before us beat The frost line back with tropic heat.
"What matter how the night behaved ? What matter how the north wind raved ? Blow high, blow low, not all its snow Could quench our house fires' ruddy glow." -Whittier.
The capacious stone fire-place with smoke flues of boards or sticks imbedded in clay mortar, was a marked feature of the early homes. Such chimneys were some- times burned without much injury to the house.
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The various appliances for kindling fires at the present time were then unknown.
It was therefore necessary to preserve fire from night until morning. This was done by protecting the glow- ing coals with an ample covering of ashes. In case of failure to preserve the fire through the night, the only resort was to borrow from the nearest neighbor regard- less of distance.
An All-Day Fire
The first thing of a cold winter morning was to lay the foundation for an all-day fire. The ample bed of coals, that had reposed under a covering of ashes, was scraped aside with the large iron shovel. A log of birch or maple of the average size of eighteen or twenty inches in diameter had been drawn in on a hand sled or raised up on end and hitched along, first on one corner and then the other. This was placed in the back of the fire- place and upon it a back log was laid. A large fore- stick was placed on the andirons in front. Stones were sometimes used in place of andirons. The foundation of the all-day fire was now complete. Kindlings and fine wood, dried between the jambs of the capacious fire- place, were used to start the fire. In due time the "frost line" was forced back towards the rear of the room.
The open fire was used to cook the food of the family. In the long-handled frying-pan, heated by the glowing coals, meat, fish and game were cooked. Indian meal, rye meal, and rye and Indian meal mixed, were spread upon long, shoal tins and baked by the heat of the open
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fire. A fat, nicely dressed chicken or other fowl, hang- ing by the legs before the glowing coals of the huge fire- place, held by a flaxen string fastened to the floor tim- bers above, was not an unusual sight.
How the Houses Were Lighted
The blaze of the large open fire furnished all the light needed in the main room for ordinary purposes. If the boys and girls desired light to prepare their lessons for the next day's school, they would bring pine knots from the forest for the needed additional light.
Portable lights were prepared by coiling a narrow piece of twisted cotton cloth in a dish of lard. Tallow candles run in moulds came into early use.
Furniture of the Times
The furniture of the early settlers, if indeed the word thus used is not a misnomer, was of the rudest descrip- tion. The substitutes were such as could be made with the saw, axe, auger and shave, supplemented by nails from the hands of the common blacksmith.
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The Clothing of the Inhabitants
"I hear the humming of the wheel- Strange music of the days gone by-
I hear the clicking of the reel, Once more I see the spindle fly : How then I wondered at the thread
That narrowed from the snowy wool,
Much more to see the pieces wed, And wind upon the whirling spool."
-Walter Bruce.
The materials that entered into the clothing of the early settlers were wool, linen and cotton. Some of them brought woolen yarn from the homes of their child- hood. Sheep in small numbers were early brought into the township. Almost every family cultivated a small piece of flax, which when ready for harvest, was cut and spread evenly in rows, where it remained until the bark of the plant that concealed the long, fine fiber was decomposed by the influences of sun, dew and rain. Then under cover of barn or shed it was passed through a flax-brake, a clumsy wooden machine worked by hand. This was the first step in the process of ridding the fiber of the bark. The process was completed by the use of a large wooden knife, called a swingling-knife, by which the fiber was cleared of the small pieces of bark still adhering to it.
The fiber was then passed through the hatchel to free it from the short, coarse fiber called tow, which was util- ized for various purposes. It was now drawn into thread on the small wheel and woven into cloth which was used as clothing for men, women and children, also for table linen and toweling.
Any surplus above the wants of the family was readily sold in Bangor. It was often exchanged for cotton, which in turn was manufactured on the wheel and loom
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for home use or sale. Cotton and wool were also trans- formed into cloth by wheel and loom.
It must not be inferred that the spinning and weaving of the early days were irksome to those who performed them. To the ears of the ambitious housewife, the hum of the wheel upon which the thread was drawn from the wool, and the rattle of the shuttle, passing swiftly back and forth between the warp and woof, associated as they were with the future comfort of husband and children, were music as inspiring as that of band or orchestra. The movements of the maiden, vieing with the mother for excellence of achievement at the wheel, were as grace- ful as any in the fashionable ballroom.
Their Food
The food of the early settlers of the township was simple and substantial. Salt pork, salt beef, game and fish from forest and stream, entered largely into their food supply. Johnny cakes, rye cakes, and cakes of rye and Indian meal mixed, were baked in oblong tins by the heat of the coals of the open fire.
This was before brick ovens came into use. Hasty puddings were also relished. In some families bean por- ridge was a favorite and convenient dish. It could be made in large quantities and its keeping qualities were good, as according to the old proverb, bean porridge hot or cold, is best when nine days old.
The soil of the township was well adapted to the pro- duction of wheat, and sometimes forty bushels of that cereal were produced on a single acre of land. Wheat flour entered but slightly into the food supply of the
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period, on account of lack of machinery to manufacture it into flour.
A Luxury
Maple syrup was one of the few luxuries of the early settlers. The boys of the families looked forward to the season of its manufacture with fond anticipations. The methods employed were of a rude character.
In the latter part of February the work of preparation was begun. By the aid of the gimlet and jack-knife, wooden conductors were made to carry the sap into troughs, which were used instead of the tin pails of the present time. The troughs were made from logs of basswood, about three and one half feet in length, and fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter, split into halves, which were hollowed with an axe, and subjected to heat to close the pores of the wood to prevent leakage.
When the period for active operations arrived, the troughs and conductors were distributed to the trees of the sugar orchard. Small holes from four to five inches deep were bored into the tree, three to four feet from the ground, into which the conductors were driven.
The clumsy troughs were placed to receive the sap as it ran from the trees, which was generally gathered in the morning, and poured into a receptacle placed at a central point.
Two or more iron kettles were suspended from a hori- zontal pole far enough from the ground to allow a hot fire beneath them, which forced the water off, leaving the syrup for the delectation of family and friends.
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Social Life
Separated from parents, brothers and sisters, and the companions of their earlier life, and subjected to hard- ships and privations common to them all, the primitive settlers who met as strangers became fast friends at sight. Scattered over the entire area of the township, through the mistaken policy of the original proprietors, the interchange of visits was much less frequent than would have been the case had they been compactly located.
They were a very hospitable people, and the latch- string was always out, not only to the inhabitants of their own township, but to those of other townships.
Visits were more common in winter than in summer. The men were more at leisure. Horse or ox-teams could be driven at will among the trees at this season. A pair of quick-moving steers hitched to a common ox-sled was regarded as a good turnout.
John Morgan, one of the early settlers of the town- ship now known as Dexter, who was on neighborly terms with the people of Garland, was accustomed to boast of a more aristocratic turnout than any of his neighbors possessed. He was the owner of a carpenter's bench which, turned bottom up on his ox sled, was supplied with a generous layer of clean straw whereon his family could rest their feet, and seats of boards, supported by the sides of the bench. The visiting party being pro- tected by comforters and quilts, and the quick-moving oxen attached to the sled, now started joyously on their way to friends who were ready to receive them with open arms.
In summer the people went from house to house on foot or horseback. The conditions of life in the new township which have been described, refer particularly to the first ten years of its history.
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The Conquest of the Forest
At the beginning of the present century, the township was covered with a heavy forest growth. There were gigantic maples whose spreading tops had waved in the storms of centuries, and whose massive trunks having no marketable value were relentlessly consigned to the flames. There were also the tall, towering pines whose trunks had never been disfigured by the "King's mark." Intermingled with these, were many varieties of humbler growth, all of which must give way to sunlight and civilization.
The removal of this imposing forest growth required courage and muscle, both of which the pioneers of the township possessed in large measure. The felling of the trees was generally performed in the month of June.
Armed with his favorite axe of polished steel and keen edge, the pioneer commenced his attack upon that portion of the forest that came within the scope of the year's plans. After a careful inspection of the configu-' ration of the ground, and the inclination of the trees, he chopped into both sides of each, on a strip of one to two rods wide, and of indefinite length. One of the giants of the forest with widely spreading branches was then felled, which, descending with great force, carried with it the trees next in range, and these, in turn, carrying others, until all that had been nitched reached the ground with a terrific crash. This in the vernacular of the period was a "drive." The breaking of the strong, coarse fibers of the trees, subjected to this irresistible force, was sometimes heard on a clear, still morning, two or three miles away, and was strikingly suggestive of human agony.
The next step in clearing land was the dropping of
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the limbs from the prostrated trunks of the trees, with the axe, the only tool which has not been radically changed in form within the last one hundred years.
The limbs and leaves were packed together to facili- tate the burning when the torch should be applied in the coming autumn, or more frequently, in the following spring. When the large amount of combustible matter was believed to be in condition for a "good burn," fires. were started at different points.
The terrific roaring of the flames, as they leaped from point to point, rising above the surrounding tree tops, and the dense volume of smoke that shut off the light of the sun, lingered in the memories of our fathers until the end of life.
The "felled piece" having been cleared of the leaves and small limbs by fire, the work of hand-piling was next in order. This meant the piling by hand of the larger limbs and brands that had not been reduced to ashes. When these piles were burned, the land was ready for the reception of seed, from which sprang the first crops, embracing corn and subsidiary crops, such as potatoes, beans, and garden vegetables.
Planting Corn
Corn and other seeds were planted on the patches of land between the blackened trunks of the prostrate trees.
The planter provided himself with a little bag which was suspended from his waist, filled with seed, and a hoe with a blade about three inches wide, with a handle fifteen to eighteen inches long. With his strong right arm, he thrust the hoe through the scurf on the surface
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of the ground into the underlying loam, threw the seed into the incision, and pressing the earth above the seed with his foot, he passed on, repeating the process until the planting was completed.
If he had been favored with a "good burn," only a little labor was required from the planting to the har- vesting of the crop.
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