USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Garland > History of Garland, Maine > Part 5
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HISTORY OF GARLAND, MAINE
Lincolntown in 1804
So far as is known only two families established homes in the township in 1804. Isaac Wheeler, Esq., then recently married, commenced housekeeping in the log- cabin he had built two years earlier near the site of the present Free Baptist meeting house. Later in the same season he built a comfortable frame house on the site of the house afterwards owned by the late William B. Foss.
James McClure having purchased Edward Sargent's interest in lot three, range five, moved his family into a cabin that stood near the site of the present house of Samuel O. Davis. Peter Chase, who made a beginning on lot seven, range nine, two years earlier, cleared a piece of land in 1804, raised a crop and built a house. Moses Smith bought Thomas Finson's interest in lot six, range nine, in 1804, and made preparation for a future home. William Godwin came to the township again this year and enlarged the opening begun the preceding year.
James Holbrook, a brother-in-law of Isaac Wheeler, purchased the westerly part of lot eight, range five, of Mr. Godwin and felled an opening there. Years later this lot passed into the hands of Benjamin Garland, who lived there several years.
Amos Gordon of Hopkinton, N. H., made his first visit to Lincolntown in June, 1804, and purchased of Joseph Garland a part of lot nine, range ten, paying four dollars an acre for it. This was a large price for land at that time, but it occupied an eligible site-was of excellent quality and situated in the part of the town- ship that was attracting more emigrants than any other at that time. Amos Gordon was the grandfather of our well-known citizens, Horace H., James P. and Albert
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G. Gordon. Mr. Gordon performed this journey on horseback by the way of Kennebec to Ripley, where he had acquaintances, and thence to Lincolntown. After having selected and purchased the land of his future home he returned to New Hampshire to prepare for a change of residence. In September of the same year he revisited the township, cleared land and built a log house for the reception of his family the following spring.
About the time he started on his second visit to the township, which was on horseback, five men of his acquaintance went to Massachusetts to take passage in a sailing vessel for the same destination. These were his son, Moses Gordon, Jeremiah Flanders, Sampson Silver, Caleb Currier of Hopkinton, N. H., and Edward Fifield of Ware of the same state. Arriving at New- buryport they were much disappointed at not finding the vessel in which they had engaged a passage. Waiting several days they became impatient of the delay and took passage on a rude fishing-smack that had just dis- charged a cargo of wood and was about to start on the return voyage to the Penobscot. They took on board with them a pair of oxen and an ox-wagon belonging to Moses Gordon, a horse owned by Mr. Fifield, supplies for themselves and tools for their work.
These men started on their journey for the double purpose of inspecting the lands of the township and of assisting Amos Gordon in building his house and pre- paring land for crops of the following spring. With the exception of Mr. Currier they all became residents of the township a few years later.
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In Peril of Shipwreck
Weighing anchor, two fruitless attempts were made to get out of the harbor. The third attempt was suc- cessful. The vessel had scarcely got out to sea before these men discovered to their dismay that they were in an unseaworthy vessel, commanded by a drunken captain and manned by an incompetent crew. A violent storm soon arose, intensifying their anxiety. After hours of weary watching and hard work at the pumps by turns, the vessel entered Townsend harbor. Here they found several vessels that had sought shelter from the fury of the storm, among which was a vessel bound to Frank- fort. Not desirous of continuing their acquaintance with the captain and crew with whom they first sailed, they transferred their effects to the Frankfort vessel and took passage in her. Arriving safely at Frankfort in due time the oxen, horses and ox-wagon were landed. Mr. Fifield proceeded directly to the township and arranged with Joseph Garland and John Grant, who now owned the mill built two years earlier, to send a pair of oxen each to help the incoming emigrants along. The supplies and tools were transferred to the boat belonging to the vessel and under direction of the mate, Messrs. Flanders, Silver and Currier brought them safely to Bangor.
From Frankfort to the Township
The oxen, as soon as they were in condition to begin their overland journey, were hitched to the wagon and driven to Bangor by Moses Gordon. Here the tools and
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supplies were transferred from the boat to the wagon. A Mr. Hasey of Levant, who was in Bangor at the time with an ox-team, assisted Mr. Gordon to haul his load to the elevated land away from the river. The party passed the night at the Campbell place in Bangor. The next morning Mr. Campbell helped them to the north line of Bangor with his team, where they met Mr. Fifield with Joseph Garland's oxen. The team now moved slowly forward, crossing the clayey bed of the unbridged Kenduskeag at the foot of a long declivity, now known as the Jameson Hill, without accident.
The party reached Levant, now Kenduskeag, at night- fall, where they tarried until morning with Major Moses Hodsdon. From this point to Lincolntown, a distance of fourteen miles, a sled road had been bushed out to what is now known as West Corinth, thence to the Simon Prescott place in the northwest corner of New Ohio (Corinth), thence to the mill in Lincolntown (Garland). The old county road from Garland to Bangor, estab- lished about a dozen years later, followed very nearly the route of the sled road which has been described. Our party of emigrants took an early breakfast and an early start from the hospitable home of Major Hodsdon with the determination to reach their destination before indulging in another night's sleep. They had fourteen miles to travel over a way which no wheeled carriage had ever passed, but they had a strong, although slow mov- ing team. They had, also, three or four stalwart, reso- lute men, armed with axes and handspikes, to precede the team and widen the way for the passage of the wagon. Three miles on their way they met Landeras Grant from Lincolntown with another yoke of oxen to aid in hauling the load. Their progress was slow and night overtook them four miles short of their objective point. It was now raining and very dark, but they
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moved on without serious interruption until they reached the swamp about one mile south of the present village of Garland. Here the wheels sunk into the mud to the hubs and it was so dark that the axemen were unable to see the obstacles that were in the way. Fortunately the way was now wide enough to admit of the passage of the wagon if the numerous sharp angles could be avoided. Landeras Grant was the man for the occa- sion. He was familiar with every part of the way and knew· every angle- seemed to know it instinctively- and could indicate it as well in the darkness of night as in the light of day. With Landeras to pilot them they were sure to get safely through. He therefore took charge of the expedition, and obeying his commands, the teamsters "hawed and geed" and floundered through the swamp. The party was now near the end of its journey and an hour later it was comfortably quartered in John Grant's camp near the mill in Lincolntown. Before retiring to rest the members of the party gave to the mirey swamp which had so seriously retarded their progress the name of "The Lake," which it retained many years. In 1814, the town of Garland voted to lay out a road from "The Lake, so called, to Exeter line. "
After a brief rest the men of this party repaired to lot nine, range ten, the site of the present home of D. B. McComb, and commenced building a cabin for the reception, in the following spring, of Amos Gordon's family. At the completion of this job a piece of land was cleared for raising a crop the following year. The men then repaired to lot eleven, range three, the site of the present home of Joel W. Otis. This lot and lot number ten in the same range had been purchased by Edward Fifield. On lot number eleven a piece of trees had been felled and the ground burned over. When
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or by whom the opening had been made tradition does not inform us. Being remote from other beginnings, it probably had been made without attracting the attention of other settlers and quietly abandoned. But the question as to who had made this beginning did not trouble Mr. Fifield. His own title being satisfactory, his immediate purpose was to clear the land for a crop the following year, which by the help of his companions was soon accomplished. Late in autumn the Gordons, Mr. Fifield and their companions returned to New Hampshire to prepare for the renewal of their efforts to wrest homes from the unwilling wilderness.
Early Births in the Township
It has been said that children are among the earliest productions of a new colony. Whether this is true as a general proposition or not, it was true of the settle- ment at Lincolntown as facts will show. There is a tradition that in the year 1803, the second year of the settlement, a son was added to the household of John and Agnes Grant Knight. If the fact is in harmony with the tradition, this was the first birth in the new township. There are records to show that in 1804, the third year of the settlement, there were four births in the township. On the 24th of January, 1804, there was born to Miriam Chase, wife of John M. Chase, a daugh- ter, Polly Chase. To the family of Joseph and Zeruiah Garland, there was the addition of a daughter, Zeruiah Garland, born February 3, 1804. To the family of Justus and Miriam Harriman there was the addition of a son, Manoah Harriman, born May 14th,
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1804, and to the family of Isaac and Betsey Murray Wheeler, there was the addition of a son, Reuben Wheeler, born September 20th, 1804. These records were copied from family records and entered upon the records of the town after its incorporation in 1811.
Lincolntown in 1805
A resident of any railroad village in the state of New Hampshire might, in the year of grace, 1868, have risen at a convenient hour in the morning, sipped his cup of coffee, read the morning news leisurely and stepped aboard the cars, valise in hand, and at the end of a jour- ney that had been monotonously comfortable, have found himself at night enjoying the hospitality of friends in the pleasant town of Garland.
A Striking Contrast
The convenience, dispatch and comfort of journeying now are in strange contrast with the discomfort and hardships of traveling at the opening of the present century. At the opening of the year 1805, there were living in Hopkinton, N. H., three families who had determined to leave the homes of their birth, the friends of their youth, and the associations of their earlier life and establish new homes in a remote township of eastern Maine. These were the families of Amos Gordon, including himself, his wife, several sons and four daugh-
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ters, whose names were Polly, Betsey, Nancy and Miriam ; John Chandler and family, consisting of himself, his wife and several children, among whom was our late and well remembered citizen, James J. Chandler, then a boy of seven years; Moses Gordon and his wife and a daughter of fourteen months. The families were accompanied by Jeremiah Flanders and Sampson Silver, who afterwards . became citizens of the township. The latter was a brother of Moses Gordon's wife. The company of emi- grants embraced men and women in the vigor of life, boys and girls and children of tender age. Early in February, their preparations having been completed, they bade adieu to relatives and friends whom they might never again see, and taking passage upon open sleds they committed themselves to a sea of snow of uncommon depth even for an old-fashioned New England winter. The journey was made with horse teams. They were obliged to take with them supplies both for the journey and for immediate use at the journey's end, and such household goods as were necessary to meet the simple requirements of pioneer life.
They had scarcely started on their journey when they encountered a storm, which was the first of a succession of storms that assailed them almost every day until they reached the end. There was an unlimited expanse of deep snow on every side of them and furious clouds of snow, driven by fierce winds, above them. The several teams, though traveling as near each other as was con- sistent with convenience and safety, were sometimes hidden from each other through almost the entire day in "the tumultuous privacy of storm." There was, how- ever, one mitigating circumstance. Much of the latter part of their route led them through dense forests that shielded them somewhat from the violence of the storms. But their progress was toilsome and tedious. Much of
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the country through which they passed was sparsely set- tled. There were but few public houses on the latter part of their route, but the hospitality of the scattered families was limited only by their ability. When this party of emigrants reached the town of Harmony, they were tendered the use of the house and barn of Mr. Leighton, who, with his worthy wife, administered to their wants and comfort to the full extent of their ability. Mrs. Leighton had, a few months earlier, pre- sented her husband with twin children, who, disturbed by some of the ills of childhood, cried vociferously through a large part of the night. The mother walked the room with them, carrying each by turn, endeavor- ing to soothe them by singing that grand old tune, Old Hundred. It was a satisfaction to know that reared by such a mother, under the inspiration of such music, they became substantial citizens of an intelligent com- munity.
The snow had reached such depth when the party arrived at Harmony that a detention of several days seemed inevitable. The sleds were unloaded and the men started with their teams with the intention of breaking their way to the end of their route. When they had reached the next township, now Ripley, they were much elated to find that, in anticipation of their coming, the settlers of Lincolntown had broken the way through the snow to that point as an expression of their satisfaction at the prospect of so large an accession to their numbers.
Returning to Harmony the party reloaded their sleds and renewed their journey. At nightfall they found themselves within the limits of the present town of Dexter, where they passed the night in an old camp. The night of the next day, February 22, 1805, found them at the end of their journey. They had taken
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twenty-one days to perform a journey of about two hundred miles. The fast sailing steamers of the present day would make their trips across the Atlantic Ocean and return in an equal period of time.
Amos and Moses Gordon, with their families, went directly to the log house that had been built the preced- ing autumn, where they quickly started a fire with fuel that had been prepared and left in the house.
When ready to cook their first meal Mr. Gordon, assuming a mysterious air, went to a barrel that at the close of the previous season's operations had been left partly filled with pork, intending to surprise the hungry members of his household with a generous piece of that article. The surprise was complete-but Mr. Gordon was the individual surprised. In the interval between autumn and the time of the arrival of the family some of the original dwellers of the "forest primeval" had appropriated the meat.
John Chandler and family spent the first night in Lincolntown with the family of Joseph Garland. After- wards they were quartered a few weeks with the family of Justus Harriman.
Burned Out
The Gordon and Chandler families had experienced severe hardships during their recent journey to Lincoln- town and hardships were still in store for them. They were yet to be buffeted by forces that seemed to chal- lenge their right to a foothold in the new township. They had been assailed by violent storms through weary days while on their way to it. Now that they had
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safely reached it a more severe trial awaited some of their numbers. While in the township in the autumn of 1804, Amos Gordon purchased a piece of land just within the limits of the present town of Dexter, about two miles away from his own land, for his son Moses Gordon. A small opening had been made upon it, and a cabin of logs with a bark roof had been built.
This would shelter his family until better accommo- dations could be provided. In the month of March, after they had recovered from the fatigue of their recent journey and a hard crust had formed upon the surface of the deep snow, Moses Gordon, assisted by other mem- bers of the family, embraced the opportunity to haul his furniture, household goods and other needful things to his cabin on a hand-sled. Having finished this work, he repaired to the little cabin early one bright morning and arranged his scanty supply of furniture so as to give the one solitary apartment as cheerful an aspect as possi- ble. After building a fire in the stone fire-place and guarding it, as he believed, from danger of accident, he returned to get Mrs. Gordon to introduce her to the new home. The latter hastily preparing herself, they started on their morning's walk. The pure, bracing air of the early spring morning imparted buoyancy to their movements and inspired courage for the encounter with the hardships immediately before them, and inspired hopes of the "better time coming." A brisk walk car- ried them to the little opening which two hours earlier had contained all their worldly goods, when, to their utter dismay, the site of their little cabin presented nothing but a heap of blackened and smouldering ruins. Their household goods, their wearing apparel, their scanty supply of food, all the articles for use and con- venience that had been made by Mrs. Gordon's own hands-all these things had disappeared in a brief hour.
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This sudden change of prospect was too much even for the cheerful, the hopeful, the courageous Mrs. Gordon. She fainted and fell upon the icy crust that covered the snow.
When consciousness returned, she found herself sitting upon an old chest that had been left outside the cabin because it was worthless. It was the only thing that had escaped the fire. A sickening smoke was curling up from the blackened ruins, as if in mockery of her grief. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon returned wearily to Amos Gordon's to remain until other arrangements for housekeeping could be made.
During the spring of 1805, Mr. Gordon selected, and afterwards purchased lot ten, range five. The year following he felled six acres of trees on the lot and built a house on the site now occupied by the Murdock build- ings. The boards which covered the house were hauled from Elkinstown (Dexter) with an ox-team. It required two days to go to that place and return with a load, although the distance was only five miles.
Early the following autumn he moved his family into the house. The boards with which the house was cov- ered, shrunk by the heat of the fire in the large stone fire- place, leaving openings for the winds to enter unbidden. The members of the family would sometimes awaken in the morning to find that wind and snow had provided an extra covering for their beds. Thus it was with many of the houses of the earlier settlers.
A Spacious Sleeping Apartment
John Chandler and his family, who accompanied the Gordon families on their journey to Lincolntown, spent
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the night in the township under the hospitable roof of Joseph Garland. The next day they found quarters in the cabin of Justus Harriman, where they remained until the first of May. Mr. Chandler had purchased of Arnold Murray his interest in lot eight, range nine, which joined Mr. Harriman's lot. Mr. Murray had felled an opening on this lot three years earlier and had raised one or two crops there. Henry Merrill, who mar- ried a granddaughter of John Chandler, now owns and occupies the same lot.
Mr. Harriman's little cabin afforded close quarters for his own family. There was scarcely more than standing room for two families. Lodgings for the Chandler family must be sought elsewhere. Necessity often enforces compliance with accommodations that accord neither with choice nor convenience. In this case it compelled the Chandler family to resort to the barn for lodgings. Beds were, therefore, placed in the barn and comfortably furnished. The inconvenience in the case was in getting to and from the barn through the snow and water of the warm spring days. Repairing to the barn for the night without adequate protection for the feet, the hosiery of the family became saturated with water. Cold nights followed warm days and the footwear would freeze. Fruitful in expedients, Mrs. Chandler wrung the water from the hosiery and placing it between the feather and straw beds it came out in the morning in good condition for use.
The Surprise
Soon after the arrival of the Chandler family in the township Mr. Chandler commenced preparations to build
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a house. Before the coming of May he had a frame up, ready to cover; also a supply of boards and nails. Keeping house at Mr. Harriman's, where the room was so limited, had become irksome to both families. Mrs. Chandler cherished a strong desire for a home of her own at the earliest possible date. One day, early in May, Mr. Chandler was about to start on a business trip to Bangor on horseback. He would be absent three days. As he rode from the dooryard Mrs. Chandler mysteriously hinted that on his return he would find something to surprise him. He had no sooner disap- peared in the forest than she summoned their hired man, Sampson Silver, to her assistance, directing him to equip himself with the necessary tools and go to the house frame which was a short distance away and nail to frame and rafters enough boards to shield herself and family from wind and rain. Mr. Silver, entering into the spirit of the joke, had accomplished the work he was directed to do by nightfall of the first day. At the close of the second day, which opened auspiciously for the accom- plishment of their plans, beds, cooking utensils and other things necessary to a rude form of housekeeping had been moved in and the family had taken possession of their new quarters.
But now to their dismay ominous clouds were rapidly gathering. About midnight while the members of this little family might have been indulging in pleasant dreams, inspired by the sentiment that "be it ever so humble there is no place like home," the rain suddenly came, and, to use a modern phrase, "the storm center" seemed to rest directly over the devoted household. With the ready command of expedients characteristic of the early settlers, Mrs. Chandler promptly summoned the hired man, and together they rolled beds and bed- ding into the smallest possible compass and covered them
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with boards which were at hand, thus saving them from getting wet. The morning of the third day dawned pleasantly and it was spent in obliterating the traces of the recent rain and preparations for the reception of Mr. Chandler on his return from Bangor.
The mind of the latter as he approached his home was sharply exercised over the solution of the character of the surprise that awaited his return. Emerging from the shadows of the forest just as night was shutting over the scene, into the little opening which he had often looked upon as the site of his future residence, he met his wife who smilingly invited him to the comforts of their new home. This was the surprise so mysteriously suggested as he rode from the Harriman cabin three days earlier. Mr. Chandler now continued the work on the new house which Mrs. Chandler had so heroically begun, until it reached the condition of a comfortable dwelling.
A Discovery
The difficulty of procuring seed for crops constituted one form of hardship for the early settlers of a new township. They were often compelled to travel many miles on foot for this purpose and bear their purchases home on their shoulders.
Mr. Chandler was, however, more fortunate in supply- ing himself with seed for his first crop of potatoes. He found a plat that had been planted with potatoes the preceding year by Mr. Murray, who had left the crop in the ground through the winter, which, covered by the deep snow, had not been frozen. From this plat he dug
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