USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Garland > History of Garland, Maine > Part 6
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eight bushels of the tubers that were in good condition for seed.
From seed thus obtained many crops were raised in this and subsequent years by Mr. Chandler and his neighbors. This discovery was more to the Chandlers than the acquisition of a thousand gold dollars to a Vanderbilt of the present time.
Arnold Murray, who had made a beginning on lot eight, range nine, in 1802 and had sold his interest in the lot to John Chandler in 1805, made another begin- ning on lot eleven, range nine, in 1805, where he lived for several years. This lot afterwards passed into the hands of a Mr. Besse and has since been known as the Besse place, although it has passed through the hands of several different owners since.
Another Fire in 1805
An ever present menace to the inhabitants of a new township is the liability to the loss of their homes and property by fire. The flues that conducted the smoke from the fierce fires of the large stone fire-places of their humble cabins were often built of sticks and clay. Such chimneys would sometimes burn and the debris falling into the capacious fire-place below, the cabin would escape destruction by the fiery agent. But the more immediate danger from fire arose from the necessity of clearing land for crops by burning the forest growth. In times of drought the fire which had been set to clear the lands for the season's crops would be driven by adverse winds towards the buildings of the settlers and their homes would suddenly disappear.
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Josiah Bartlett, who had made the first beginning in the township, was the subject of a misfortune of this kind in 1805. He had built a small but comfortable house and barn, and with characteristic prudence, had laid in supplies for use through the summer and autumn, and seed for his crops. He had also provided himself with an abundance of clothing. In his barn were a yoke of oxen, a horse and his farming tools. One day while at work at a considerable distance from the buildings they took fire from some burning piles near them. His sister, afterwards a Mrs. Chase of Epping, N. H., who was keeping house for him, was absent on a visit at William Sargent's, who lived where James Rideout now resides.
When he saw that his buildings were on fire he hastened to them, reaching them just in time to save one feather-bed. . The horse and one ox were burned to death in the barn. The other ox died the next day. In relating these occurrences years later to children and friends Mr. Bartlett used to say that as he could not save the buildings by his unaided efforts, and knowing that there was no human being near enough to respond to cries for assistance, he carried the feather-bed he had snatched from the flames to a safe distance from the burning ruins and lying upon it, he calmly watched the progress of the destructive elements and congratulated himself that the calamity was no worse.
Mr. Bartlett lost a second barn a few years later and with it some valuable stock.
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First Beginning in the Southwest Part of the Township
The coming of Edward Fifield into the township, in company with the Gordon and Chandler families in the autumn of 1804, to clear land whereon to establish a home has been noted. This was the first beginning in the southwest part of the township. Mr. Fifield came from the town of Ware, N. H. Early in the spring of 1805 he returned to the township to build a house and make preparations for raising crops. He was accom- panied by several sons and Mr. John Hayes, a carpenter, who took charge of building the house which was located on the site of the buildings upon the Joel W. Otis place. After clearing several acres for a crop of wheat, the seed, which had been purchased of Cornelius Coolidge of Elkinstown (Dexter), must be brought to the place where it was to be sown, and in the absence of any other mode of conveyance, it was borne in bags upon the shoulders of Mr. Fifield and his stalwart sons. As there was no trail leading directly to the Coolidge place, the Fifields followed a circuitous route which had been marked for the convenience of others. This route led them across the outlet of Pleasant Pond to the Murdock place, thence easterly to the brook a little to the east of Maple Grove Cemetery, thence northwesterly to the Dearborn place, thence westerly on the line of the present center road to the Coolidge place. The distance traveled to the Coolidge place and back must have been twelve miles.
The field they had cleared embraced several acres and they were obliged to make several trips to get the required quantity of seed. At the close of the spring farming Mr. Fifield returned to New Hampshire for his
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family, which before the close of June, was safely estab- lished in the new home.
Coming of Mechanics
Nearly all the immigrants to the township during the first two or three years were farmers, who could build rude cabins and perform other necessary work without the aid of skilled labor. With prudent foresight they brought with them wearing apparel and other articles of prime necessity to meet immediate wants. But as time passed and numbers increased and wants multiplied, there was a demand for mechanics, and mechanics came. Two or three of this useful class of citizens came at an early date. These were followed by others in 1805. In those earlier days of the township the mechanic could not depend upon constant employment at his trade. It was, therefore, the common practice for this class of men to provide themselves with land so that they might resort to the source that supplies, directly or indirectly, universal humanity with food.
John Hayes came into the township in 1805 to do the carpentry upon the house of Edward Fifield, whose daughter he subsequently married. He purchased lot ten in range two and in 1806 built a house upon it, where he lived until his death. The place where he lived is now owned and occupied by S. M. Paul.
In March, 1805, the first shoemaker made his appear- ance in the township in the person of Enoch Jackman, who emigrated from Salisbury, Mass. Mr. Jackman established his family upon lot eight, range six, where Landeras Grant had made a beginning two years earlier.
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The place was afterwards known as the Henry Calef place. No family lives upon it at the present time. Mr. Jackman was a faithful and accommodating work- man and was regarded as a valuable acquisition to the township. Like other men of his trade he went from house to house for the families who furnished the stock, carrying his tools with him. He charged seventy-five cents for his services per day and the making of two pairs of shoes was a day's work. He was of a kindly and social disposition and his narrations of the experi- ences of life in the new township gathered from the lips of his patrons, ranging from the ludicrous to the pathetic, were listened to with great interest. More- over the click of his hammer upon the old-fashioned lap-stone was prophetic of comfort in the wintry days coming. While on a visit to the township previous to his immigration he humorously boasted that he would bring with him a shoemaker, a schoolmaster and a schoolmistress. The promised shoemaker was embraced in his own personality. Two of his daughters taught school in the old schoolhouse that stood in the corner nearly opposite the present schoolhouse in district number eight. Both were women of great physical strength, and it was a venturesome youth who dared invoke their dis- pleasure. The promised schoolmaster never appeared. Mr. Jackman had been favored with a good education for the times and possessed a remarkable memory. Tradition says of him that after listening to a sermon, although appearing to have been asleep during its delivery, he would repeat nearly the whole of it without apparent effort. Mr. Jackman lived on the Calef place only a few years. His second residence in the township was on lot nine, range ten, now owned by Henry Merrill.
In the spring of 1805, Nathan Merrill, a carpenter and spinning-wheel maker, moved into the township and
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established a home on the easterly part of lot six, range two, opposite the present residence of Glenn Morgan.
To the present generation it may seem almost incredi- ble that during the opening years of the present century, and within the memory of many now living, the yarn that entered into the clothing of the inhabitants of the Province of Maine, whether woolen, cotton or flaxen, was spun by hand on the old-fashioned spinning-wheel. Spinning was a widely diffused industry and the monoto- nous hum of the spinning-wheel was heard in every well- ordered household. The manufacturer of a spinning- wheel, was therefore, regarded as a useful citizen.
John Knight, who two years earlier had married into the Grant family, located and built upon the westerly part of lot six, range two, in 1805. The site of his house is marked by the old cellar that may still be seen a short distance east of the present residence of Albert Grinnell.
Enoch Clough, for many years a well-known citizen of Garland, came to the township in 1805.
Simon French also came the same year.
A Large Crop of Corn
Wm. Godwin, who had purchased one hundred acres of land of David A. Gove and had felled an opening on it in 1804, enlarged it this year and raised a large crop of corn. The large crops of corn and wheat that were early realized attracted many persons to the township.
The site of his buildings was opposite Maple Grove Cemetery.
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The First Strawberry Festival
Peter Chase had made a beginning on lot seven, range nine in 1802. A year later he cleared land and sowed grass seed on it. In 1804, that most delicious berry, the strawberry, appeared. In 1805 they were quite abundant.
In the meantime Mr. Chase had built a small house. His nearest neighbor, Moses Smith, had made a begin- ning on the adjoining lot. Chase and Smith were young men without families and lived together in the house of the former. When the berries had ripened those men conceived the plan of calling the scattered inhabitants together to share with them a feast of ber- ries. In response to the invitation the people of the entire township assembled at the strawberry field at the appointed time. At the end of an hour spent in pick- ing berries they were invited to the house, where to their surprise and gratification, they found a table cov- ered with substantial food which had been provided by their bachelor friends. With the addition of strawber- ries, and the cream that had been brought by some of the company, and tea sweetened with maple sugar, which the women pronounced delicious, the entertain- ment was without doubt, enjoyed as keenly as the more elaborate entertainments of the present day. At the close, a brief time was spent in the expression of friendly interest and good wishes. The company then separated and soon disappearing in the shadows of the forest, eagerly threaded their way to their scattered homes, carrying with them pleasant memories to cheer them in the days that followed.
At the close of the season Chase and Smith left the township not to return. It must have been an occasion
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of keen regret to the scattered families that an acquaint- ance so pleasantly began should have terminated so abruptly.
The First School
The school was an essential factor in the progress of New England civilization. It sprang from New Eng- land ideas as naturally as weeds from the fire-swept lands of the new settlement. The necessary conditions were few and simple. A half dozen children of school age, liv- ing within a mile of a common center, a person qualified to instruct in the simplest rudiments of English literature whose services were available, books of the most ele- mentary character and, in warm weather, a spare corner in some house or barn-these were all the conditions necessary to the opening of a school. The products of the soil constituted the currency of the inhabitants and teachers were usually satisfied to receive these in pay- ment for their services.
After the coming into the township of the Gordon and Chandler families in 1805, the necessary conditions were fulfilled and a school was opened in Joseph Garland's barn, expenses being paid by the parents of the children. Miss Nancy Gordon, afterwards the wife of William Godwin, was the teacher, and she had the honor of teaching the first school in the present town of Garland. This unpretentious school embraced eight bright boys and girls, some of whom, in turn, became teachers of note.
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A Disappointment
The early settlers of the township had regarded the existence of a saw-mill therein with great satisfaction, but subsequent experience forced the conviction upon them that it would be of but little advantage to them. The more sagacious inhabitants desired to have such timber sawed as was necessary to the construction of comparatively small and rude habitations, reserving the larger and more valuable growth of pine, of which there were considerable quantities, for subsequent use or sale. They expected to pay bills for sawing by turning over to the mill owners a share of the lumber sawed, but such expectations failed of realization.
John Grant from Berwick, Maine, had purchased the mill in 1803. Early in the spring of that year he appeared in the township with several grown up sons and a six ox team with the necessary equipment for the lumbering business. His plans were not at all in accord with the expectations of the inhabitants of the town- ship. There was a good growth of pine on the mill lot, as well as on other lots in the vicinity of the mill site. In the language of one of the early settlers "there was upon the borders of the stream and meadow below the mill an abundance of pine as handsome as ever grew from Penobscot soil." With a team of his own equipped for service and a crew from his own family to man it, and with a heavy growth of pine of his own in close proximity to the mill site and large quantities that could be purchased at a price merely nominal, he could stock his mill and supply the inhabitants of neigh- boring towns, and thereby establish a business that would yield him a fortune. The growing settlement of Blais- delltown (Exeter), New Ohio (Corinth), and New
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Charleston (Charleston), extended to the Grants consid- erable patronage, but not enough to make their business successful. One great hindrance to success was the lack of money. The early settlers were scantily supplied with this vital element of business enterprise. Another hindrance was the total absence of the spirit of accom- modation in their dealings with their neighbors. One of these hauled some spruce logs to the mill with the purpose of having them sawed into boards. The logs were of medium size but not entirely innocent of knots. The Grant who had charge of the mill gruffly refused to saw them, giving as the reason that the knots were harder than spikes and that it would take two such logs to make a decent slab.
Repelled by such rebuffs the inhabitants of the north- ern and western parts of Lincolntown obtained boards to cover their buildings at Elkinstown (Dexter). Among these were Amos and Moses Gordon, Justus Harriman and John Chandler. The refusal of the Grants to saw spruce and hemlock was followed by the necessity of using pine lumber for the most common purposes. Many of the buildings in this and neighbor- ing townships were covered with the best quality of pine boards, while hemlock lumber, which was equally as good for that purpose, was burned upon the ground where it grew, to make room for the crops because the mill owners refused to saw it. After draining the section of the township immediately around the mill site, the mill property passed into other hands about the year 1810.
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The Township in 1806
Accessions to the township in 1806 were not numer- ous, but events occurred that were of importance to the future of the settlement. Jeremiah Flanders, who had visited the township in 1804 and had spent the summer of 1805 therein in the service of Amos Gordon, pur- chased and made a beginning for himself in 1806 or 1807 on lot eleven, range six, the site of the present home of Edwin Preble.
Sampson Silver, who had made his first visit to the township in 1804 and had worked for John Chandler the following year, made a beginning on the westerly part of lot ten, range five, the site of the present home of the late Albert G. Gordon.
Enoch Clough purchased the westerly part of lot nine, range five, and felled ten acres of trees on it. The place of this beginning is now owned by Ernest Rollins. He subsequently exchanged this place with Thomas S. Tyler for lot ten, range seven.
Philip Greeley came into the township about the year 1806 and bought lot ten, range nine, of James Garland, built a log house and made some improvements on it. At the time of his purchase there was an opening on it of ten acres that had been made by Mr. Garland in 1802. The westerly part of this lot is now the home of George Arnold, and Charles Carr resides on the east- erly part. Mr. Greeley emigrated from Salisbury, N. H., through the influence of the Garland family with which he was connected by marriage. He soon sold this lot to William Dustin, a brother-in-law of John Chandler, and made a beginning on lot nine, range eight, and subsequently purchased, and lived upon it until his death. This place was afterwards the home of
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the late Artemas Barton, a well-known citizen of Dex- ter, now owned by his son, R. M. Barton.
John Trefethen settled on lot eleven, range two, about 1806. William and George W. Wyman afterwards lived upon this lot for several years. It is now the resi- dence of John S. Hayden.
Joseph Saunders, an emigrant from New Gloucester, Maine, who had felled an opening on lot four, range nine, in 1802, moved his family into the township in 1806. He had a large family of children, among whom was a daughter who had become the wife of Deacon Robert Seward. The lot where he made his beginning became the site, in turn, of the residence of Nathaniel Emerson and Micah C. Emerson. It is now owned by John E. Hamilton.
Joshus Silver made his appearance in the township in 1806. He did not, however, become immediately a resident here, having lived in Elkinstown (Dexter) and Charleston for several years before establishing a resi- dence in Lincolntown. He finally established a resi- dence on lot eleven, range seven, where he lived for several years. Mr. Silver was a man of some eccentrici- ties. By virtue of being the seventh son of a seventh son, he claimed power over disease.
The First Tanner
During the first half of the present century the tan- ning business was a widely diffused industry. Nearly every town in the vicinity of the present town of Gar- land was favored with the existence of a tannery, where the hides of animals slaughtered for food could be con-
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verted into leather, thus supplying an ever existing necessity. From the middle of the century the small tanneries disappeared. This was due partly to the growing scarcity of the bark supply and partly to the increasing tendency of absorption of small manufactur- ing industries by large establishments and corporations, whose command of money enabled them to appropriate improved modern methods and expensive machinery.
A few years subsequent to the War of the Rebellion the small tanneries had nearly all disappeared.
Lincolntown's first tanner, who was also a shoemaker, was Andrew Griffin. Mr. Griffin purchased ten acres of land of Joseph Garland, located on the brook between the present residences of David Dearborn and Barton McComb. Here he built a small framed house for his family in 1806 and a shop for his business. A small level plat still shows the locality of his tan-vats, which were just outside his shop. A rude covering protected his bark and apparatus for grinding it, from rain. His machinery for grinding bark was of the most primitive character. It consisted of a circular platform of plank, ten or twelve feet in diameter, through the center of which an upright post was set firmly in the earth. The section of the post above the platform was about three feet in height. A circular piece of granite six feet in diameter and ten or twelve inches in thickness was placed in a vertical position on the outer edge of the platform. A wooden shaft was passed through the center of the granite and firmly fastened, one end of which was attached to the top of the post in the center of the platform by a revolving joint. A horse, harnessed to the opposite end of the shaft, traveled around the plat- form. The bark was broken into small pieces and thrown under the rolling stone and thus reduced to a condition suitable for use.
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The grinding of a single cord of bark was a good day's work. It was a tedious method, as indeed were all the processes of manufacturing leather in those days, but they met the requirements of the times.
The First Physician
Attendance upon the sick in the new settlements of eastern Maine at the opening of the present century was a long remove from holiday amusement. In the absence of roads the physician in his visits to the scat- tered families of his own and neighboring townships was obliged to follow uncertain way-marks along angular and circuitous routes through dense forests-to cross unbridged streams-climb over prostrate trees-to make circuit of bogs and swamps and to scale hills and mountains. If darkness obscured his pathway while yet in the forest remote from human habitations, his only alternative was to brace himself for hours of soli- tude and nervous apprehension while listening to the stealthy tread of prowling beasts (oftener imaginary rather than real) and the dismal hooting of long visaged owls. The companionship of a faithful horse or dog, if he was fortunate enough to possess one, would divert the sluggish hours of much of their dreariness, but the humble followers of Æsculapius were then oftener destitute of both than otherwise.
In the year 1806 the first physician of the township, in the person of Dr. Joseph Pratt, made his appearance. He was accompanied by a brother. The two brothers found a temporary home in the family of Joseph Garland. The destitution of a physician in the town-
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ship before the coming of Dr. Pratt had been the occa- sion of inconvenience and anxiety. His coming was hailed with joy and he subsequently proved himself worthy of confidence, both as a physician and citizen. His practice extended to other townships.
An incident of his early practice will illustrate his fidelity to his profession as well as the hardships which the physician was occasionally called to endure. A Mr. Brockway of Amestown (Sangerville) desired the ser- vices of a physician in his family and Dr. Pratt was summoned. It was midwinter-the weather was cold and the snow deep. As a horse could not be used, a more primitive method of travel was resorted to. The distance to Amestown in a direct course was ten miles, but the route followed required more than twenty miles of travel. Daunted neither by distance, depth of snow nor stress of weather, Dr. Pratt fastened on his snowshoes and started in response to the summons. His line of travel led him to Elkinstown (Dexter) thence to his objective point. He arrived in Amestown in due time and accomplished the purpose of his visit, but when ready to start on his journey homeward, a violent storm of snow, the first of a succession of storms, began and detained him from day to day. When he reached home he found by consulting the calendar that he had been absent twenty-one days.
The First Visit of a Minister
Religious meetings in the township in the first few years of its history were neither of frequent nor regular occurrence. Many of its residents having been relig-
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iously educated, keenly felt their destitution of religious privileges. The Sabbath, which they had been accus- tomed to regard as a day for rest and religious improve- ment, now gave no sign of its presence save by the partial cessation of the ordinary business of the week and the interchange of social visits between the scat- tered families. When, therefore, after a lapse of four years, they were favored with occasional visits of some devoted minister, they hailed his presence with mani- festations of joy and heard him gladly. To them it was prophetic of better days. The glad news of his coming was spread from house to house and the Sabbath found the scattered people with one accord in one place. In their eagerness to hear the words of the living preacher they forgot their denominational preferences, if indeed they cherished any.
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