USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Garland > History of Garland, Maine > Part 7
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The first minister to visit the township was the Rev. Samuel Sewall, one of the numerous family of ministers of that name. Mr. Sewall's first visit to the township was in 1806. He preached his first sermon in the house of Joseph Garland, where the people gathered and lis- tened with great interest. He afterwards made several visits to the township.
First Winter School
The first summer school in the township, taught by Miss Nancy Gordon, in Joseph Garland's barn, has been noticed. The following winter William Mitchell, then residing in Elkinstown (Dexter), taught school in Joseph Garland's house, which occupied the site of the present residence of David Dearborn. The school embraced
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scholars of all ages from all parts of the township. Several persons who had passed the limit of school age attended it. It was a school of respectable numbers. Mr. Mitchell had been a student in the old academy at Gilmantown, N. H. He was a man of more than ordi- nary intelligence for the times. He was original in methods, abrupt in manners and stern in discipline. Many of his scholars carried very distinct recollections of his words and ways through life. Our late venerable citizen, James J. Chandler, was one of his scholars.
As Mr. Mitchell was, in later years, a resident of Garland and was laid to rest in one of its cemeteries, some of his early experiences illustrative of pioneer life in eastern Maine at the beginning of the present century may appropriately be noticed.
He early emigrated from Sanbornton, N. H., to Athens, Maine. In the autumn of 1802, he selected a piece of land in Elkinstown (Dexter) and built a small cabin of logs thereon. The site of the little cabin was a short distance east of the present residence of A. L. Barton and near the westerly limit of Lincolntown. The brook, upon the margin of which the cabin stood, is still known as the Mitchell brook. Early in March, 1803, he employed a neighbor with a two-horse team to move his family and such household goods as would be needed for immediate use to his cabin in Elkinstown, a distance of about eighteen miles. Up to the morning of their departure from Athens the weather had been cold and the deep snow had been hard enough to bear up a two-horse team. Unfortunately, the weather had become much warmer and the horses slumped badly. Articles of furniture were thrown off by the wayside from time to time to lighten the load. They pressed resolutely onward until they reached the site of the present town of Ripley where night overtook them.
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Too much fatigued to continue the unequal struggle they determined to cease further efforts until strength and courage should be renewed by a night's rest. There was no attractive hotel to offer them entertainment nor even a settler's cabin to invite them to its friendly shelter. A little shelter of poles and evergreen boughs was hastily built. A bed of boughs covered with blankets they had with them afforded a comfortable rest- ing place for the night. The following morning opened brightly but bore with it unmistakable indications of continued warm weather. A frugal breakfast was hastily prepared and eaten. The family was making prepara- tions to continue its journey, when, to their utter dis- may, the teamster informed them that it was useless to attempt farther progress with team, and that he should turn it towards home. Neither entreaty nor expostu- lation availed to change his determination. Throwing off what remained of his load he abruptly left them in a limitless sea of snow. The family embraced the father, mother, an infant son in his mother's arms and five daughters ranging from four to fourteen years of age. This was not promising material for a forward move- ment, but Mr. Mitchell was a man of resolute courage, and in this respect Mrs. Mitchell was not a whit inferior to her husband. A forward movement was promptly begun. The three older girls were strong and resolute, needing but little assistance save occasionally to rescue a shoe imbedded in the deep, damp snow, from which the foot had been drawn in the attempt to regain the sur- face. Mrs. Mitchell was fully equal to the task of bearing forward her infant son. The transportation of the two younger girls remained to be provided for. Mr. Mitchell must carry them, but could not carry them both through the deep snow at once. He was a man of expedients as well as courage and quickly solved the difficulty. The
-
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family was now ready for a forward movement which was executed as follows: Leaving Mrs. Mitchell, the baby and the youngest daughter upon the bed of boughs, which had been their resting place during the night, he took the next younger girl in his arms and accompanied by the older girls, he moved forward a half mile, where he left them as the first installment of the party. Returning to the starting point, he conducted Mrs. Mitchell with the baby in her arms to the place where the first installment had been left, carrying the youngest girl in his arms. The regularity and success of the first advance inspired something akin to military enthusiasm. Subsequent movements of the same character brought them to the residence of John Tucker in Elkinstown, which was on the hill a little west of the present village of Dexter. In getting his family forward five miles Mr. Mitchell had travelled fifteen miles in marching and counter-marching. It was near night when the tired family reached the residence of Mr. Tucker, where they remained three days and were treated with the hospitality characteristic of the times. During this time the weather became colder, and a hard crust forming on the surface of the snow, Mr. Mitchell collected the goods which had been thrown from the load on the first day and hauled them to Ripley on a hand-sled. On the fourth day they moved into their own log-cabin by the brook which had been built the preceding autumn. Our former much esteemed resident, the late Mrs. N. P. Smith, was one of the girls that participated in the hardships of that remarkable journey from Athens to Elkinstown in 1803.
The robust personality of the late Mordecai Mitchell, an esteemed and prominent citizen of Dover, was evolved from the babe that Mrs. Mitchell carried in her arms from Ripley to Dexter. Mrs. Smith kindly communicated to
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the writer various particulars relating to their pioneer life in the wilds of Elkinstown. Her father's family was the fifth to take up a residence in that township. They lived in a log-cabin within which was the traditional stone fire-place. This was made to do service both in warming and cooking. Their nearest neighbors were the families of Seba French of Elkinstown, who moved into the township a little later than her father, and Joseph Garland of Lincolntown. These families were bound together by the closest ties of friendship-a friendship based upon common experiences of hardship, loneliness and similarity of disposition and religious faith.
The Mitchell and Garland families lived four miles apart, but this was no obstacle to a frequent interchange of visits by Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Garland. A horse- back ride, guided by spotted lines, brought them often together, and in the absence of a horse the distance was made on foot. Mrs. Smith furnished an interesting account of their mode of living while at Elkinstown and of the privations and hardships they endured. Mr. Mitchell spent his winters in teaching, during which Mrs. Mitchell was left in the lonely cabin with the care of her large family of young children. On these occa- sions she exhibited a degree of courage and fortitude seldom surpassed. If her husband could be useful by giving instruction to the children of the scattered settle- ments and at the same time, earn something for the sup- port of the family in its straitened circumstances, she was not the woman to interpose objections. Teachers were then paid for their services in corn, wheat and rye at prices fixed by custom. The food supply of the family was of the most simple character. They, in common with their neighbors, kept a cow, a pig and a few fowls. For a year or two they procured their bread
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supply from Cornville. When they began to raise crops they got their milling done at Cornville, eighteen miles away. Their cooking was done by an open fire. Among their luxuries were roasted potatoes in milk, hominy (a coarse meal from new corn) with a maple syrup accom- paniment-samp (corn in the milk cut from the cob and eaten in milk). Their everyday bill of fare was-for breakfast-corn and rye bread, or milk porridge and hasty pudding. Their suppers were much like their breakfasts. Their dinners were of pork and potatoes, the latter being the largest factor of the meal. Wheat bread was seldom seen. At barn raisings a few years later, pork and potatoes, pork and beans, brown bread, Indian puddings and pumpkin pies were the appropriate articles of food.
Their beverages were water, milk, crust coffee and a drink made of a root found in the forest. They very seldom had the satisfaction of inhaling the odor of the real tea which women so highly prize. The substitutes for tea were sage, balm and raspberry leaves.
It was customary for the women to assist in the lighter farm work. They cultivated the flax plant, which entered largely into the clothing of both men and women. They sowed the seed, and cared for the plant until it came to maturity. Mrs. Mitchell was accus- tomed to spin and weave its long, strong fibers into shirting and send it to Bangor for sale. She also pur- chased cotton in Bangor, spun and wove it into cloth and returned it to the same place where it was sold at 50 cents per yard. The travel to Bangor was on horseback. The amusement of the children was simple and health- ful. They basked in the sunlight that straggled through the tree tops. They watched with never tiring interest the nimble movements of the squirrel, now running with surprising celerity through the tree tops-now disap-
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pearing in the foliage and directly chattering defiance from some distant point. They listened to the "joyous music" of the little brook as it ran past their humble cabin over the stones and shallows. The little brook trout were a great attraction to them as they darted from one hiding place to another, and if perchance they caught one with a pin hook it was a brilliant achieve- ment, for hath not the poet said,
"Oh what are the honors men perish to win To the first little shiner I caught with a pin?"
In autumn, like their squirrel neighbors, they gath- ered beechnuts to store for the winter. They "lived close to Nature's heart" and their days and weeks were replete with health and contentment.
Mrs. Mitchell was a women of strong religious pro- clivities. Upon the advent of the family of Seba French she found a kindred nature in the person of Mrs. French. After a brief acquaintance, the two women selected a spot midway between the two houses where they met at stated times for conference and prayer. This was, perhaps, the first prayer-meeting instituted in the present town of Dexter.
In the year 1809 Mr. Mitchell removed his family to township number three, in the sixth range of town- ships north of the Waldo Patent, now Dover. He set- tled upon the lot which afterwards became the home- stead of his son, Mordecai Mitchell. He had felled and burned over ten acres of trees the previous summer. His first work after reaching the new township was the building of a cabin for the shelter of his family. This accomplished he commenced clearing the burned piece for the crops of the season. During his first day's work he inflicted a wound upon one of his feet with his axe which incapacitated him for further labor through the
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spring. But his wife and daughters with characteristic resolution, aided by a hired man, prosecuted the work that had been so suddenly arrested and raised sixty bushels of wheat and other crops that entered into the food supply of the family.
When the Mitchell family had become established at Dover Mrs. Mitchell, at the solicitation of a prominent citizen of the vicinity, held religious services on the Sab- bath. Mr. Mitchell, not being professionally a religious man, his wife conducted the devotional exercises and he led the singing and read a sermon or religious literature. These were the first religious meetings held in what are now the villages of Dover and Foxcroft.
Mrs. N. P. Smith, the daughter of Mr. Mitchell, to whom allusion has been made, married a Mr. Bradbury, a business man of Piscataquis County, who died early, leaving his wife with the care of one daughter and two sons.
A few years later Mrs. Bradbury married Deacon Stephen Smith of Garland, where she immediately took up her residence. The children of this marriage were four daughters - Matilda, Caroline, Henrietta and Hannah, who died in early childhood. Mrs. Smith's earlier years in Garland were not entirely devoid of pri- vation. Lewis Bradbury, the younger son of her first husband, went to the Pacific coast about the year 1850, where in course of time he became wealthy, and to his credit it may be said, he remembered his mother and supplied her abundantly with money. From this time onward she had no occasion for anxiety about the future support of herself and family.
Her daughter Caroline went to California in 1859 with a lady friend to seek employment as a teacher. A few years later she married and became the mistress of a home of her own. Deacon Smith died in Garland,
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July 15, 1866. In 1873, Mrs. Smith, with her daugh- ters, Matilda and Henrietta, moved to California where they enjoyed the comforts of a modern home provided by her son, Lewis Bradbury. Here, in the neighborhood of her older children, and blessed by the constant pres- ence and tender care of her younger daughters, her later years were years of ease and comfort. She had also the satisfaction of knowing that her daughters were passing lives of much usefulness. While living in Garland, Mrs. Smith was an active member of the Congregational church. On a beautiful Sabbath morning, near the close of her residence in Garland, the churchgoers were sur- prised and delighted at the presence upon the table in front of the pulpit of an attractive silver communion service, her parting gift to the people she loved so well. She also left a sum of money in the hands of her revered pastor, Rev. P. B. Thayer, to be distributed to the poorer members of the church in case of sickness or want.
Mrs. Smith's father, William Mitchell, Garland's first schoolmaster, died in Garland, May 23, 1842, at the age of 72 years. Her mother died in Garland December 19, 1853, at the age of 84.
Early Marriages
The first marriage celebrated in the township is believed to have been that of John Knight to Agnes Grant in 1803. In 1804, Isaac Wheeler, Esq., was united in marriage with Betsey Murray of Rutland, Mass., a daughter of Alexander Murray. In 1805, Josiah Bartlett, afterwards known as Elder Bartlett,
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was married to Sarah Kimball, daughter of Andrew Kimball of Belgrade, Maine.
In 1806, William Godwin married Nancy Gordon of Lincolntown. The marriage of John Hayes to Martha
Fifield, both of Garland, occurred in 1806. Isaac Wheeler, Esq., commenced housekeeping soon after his marriage in a log-cabin that occupied the site next to the Free Baptist church. He soon afterwards built a house on the site now occupied by the heirs of the late William B. Foss.
It was in 1807 that Isaac Wheeler, Esq., and his wife made their first visit to their old homes in Rutland, Mass. They took their two children with them on horse- back to Bangor and thence to Boston by water. One of these children afterwards became the wife of Charles P. Chandler of Foxcroft, Maine; a lawyer of much promi- nence in Piscataquis County.
On their return to Lincolntown, they were accompa- nied by Elisabeth Murray, a sister of Mrs. Wheeler, who soon after became the wife of John S. Haskell. From this marriage sprang a large family of children who, in after years, became prominent citizens of Gar- land.
The marriage of William Sargent to Lucretia Kimball occurred in 1807. Mr. Sargent lived on the place now occupied by James Rideout.
The Township in 1807
But few events of importance to the township occurred in 1807. Men who had made beginnings at an earlier date were enlarging the area of their cleared lands, erect-
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ing buildings and making improvements. John S. Haskell, one of the most prominent of the early set- tlers, built a small house and barn this year, and was married and commenced housekeeping.
Jeremiah Flanders from Hopkinton, N. H., whose visits to the township in 1804 and 1805 have been noted, purchased lot eleven, range six, this year and made a beginning on it. He built a log camp close by the brook near where William Jones now lives and occu- pied it while preparing for a future home.
William Dustin moved into the township this year, and lived in the log house upon the lot he had purchased a year earlier of Philip Greeley.
The First Blacksmith
Several of the most useful trades had representatives in the township as early as 1805, but it was still desti- tute of a blacksmith. The year 1807 contributed a representative of this useful trade to the township in the person of Andrew Kimball of Belgrade, Maine. Mr. Kimball had at this time three daughters here-Mrs. James McCluer, Mrs. Josiah Bartlett and Mrs. William Sargent. These were the attractions that lured him thither. The settlers of a township can get along with- out gold and silver but not without iron. The latter is, in some form, a necessary factor of civilization, and the worker of iron is esteemed as one of the most useful of citizens. The coming of Mr. Kimball was, therefore, hailed with great satisfaction, but his usefulness was greatly abridged by the want of tools and stock.
The scant supply of necessary materials, and the rude
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character of the tools and fixtures used by the black- smiths, at the opening of the present century, were not unfrequently the occasion for merriment. A man of this trade came into a neighboring township to set up in business. He made a crib of the requisite size of logs and filled it with sand for a forge, put his bellows in position, adjusted his anvil to the top of a stump, and with no suggestion of a covering save the moving tree- tops, announced himself ready for business.
Shortly after, a stranger who was riding through the township on horseback, lost a shoe from his horse. Meeting a resident, he inquired for a blacksmith shop. The instant reply was-"Why bless you, Sir, you are in a blacksmith shop now, but it's three miles to the anvil." Then, with the utmost gravity, he directed the stranger to the distant anvil.
Mr. Kimball's shop was of smaller dimensions. It was a rude structure of slabs, located on the brow of the village saw-mill. Here he shod horses and oxen, mended plows and chains and did numerous jobs of making and repairing that came within the range of his facilities for doing.
A little later, he built a larger and more convenient shop on the little island just below the site of the grist- mill owned by Edward Washburn. Like others of his trade, Mr. Kimball was often obliged to resort to make- shifts to meet the wants of his patrons. Some of these would hardly accord with ideas of the professional farrier of the present time. On one occasion he had business in Bangor, and must go on foot or horseback. By dint of effort he procured a shoeless horse, but a horse with- out shoes might prove a dangerous horse to ride. Although Mr. Kimball had forged many a horseshoe, successful work of this kind required iron, and of that he had none. In a pile of rubbish in a corner he found
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a set of ox-shoes that had been thrown aside as worth- less. Shaping these to meet the exigency, he nailed two to each foot of the horse. Thus equipped, he made his trip to Bangor, accomplished his business and reached home in due time without accident.
Previous to the coming of Mr. Kimball, the inhabi- tants of Lincolntown were obliged to go to Simon Prescott's shop in New Ohio (Corinth) to get their iron work done. This involved inconvenience, loss of time and increased expense. Mr. Prescott's price for shoeing a horse was two dollars.
The Township in 1808
In the year 1808, only one family so far as is now known, established a residence in the township. This was the family of Abner Bond, who made a beginning on lot seven, range eight.
Our well-remembered citizen, Aaron Hill of Bangor, followed Mr. Bond on the same lot where he built and lived for many years. The farm is now owned by Davis and Walker brothers. 'The date of the transfer of this place from Mr. Bond to Mr. Hill was 1823. The latter married and began housekeeping in 1826.
The year 1808 marks the date of the birth of several children who afterwards became prominent citizens of the town of Garland. Among these were the late Daniel M. Haskell and Horace Gordon.
Joseph Treadwell, who had built the first framed house in the township for John Tyler, and had occupied it with Mr. Tyler for several years, built a house for himself on lot four, range seven, in 1808, where he lived for many years. His twelve-years-old son, the late
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John Treadwell, carried the heavy brown ash braces that were used in the frame, from the spot where they were hewn, to the site of the house, upon his shoulder. John Treadwell succeeded to the ownership of this farm. It is now owned and occupied by Joseph Treadwell, the grandson of the original resident. The house is one of the oldest now standing. This is one of the few instances where the original homestead remains in the line of family descent.
The Township in 1809
The population of the township was increased in 1809 by the incoming of several families who settled in differ- ent parts of it. Asa Burnham from Nottingham, N. H., settled on lot one, range eight. It is not probable that he remained long in the township as his name does not appear on the first voting list prepared three years later. He became well known in this section as a devoted and esteemed minister of the Freewill Baptist. denomination, preaching at various places, including Exeter and Sebec.
A little later, Robert Seward, afterwards known as Deacon Robert Seward, purchased this lot and lived on it until the year 1860, when he sold it and moved to Bangor. While living upon this lot he erected build- ings, added to, enlarged and improved them from time to time as convenience required, and his means allowed. He was also diligent in the improvement of his farm, which became at length one of the most productive in the town. His choice of location has sometimes been criticised somewhat sharply because it was a half mile
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away from any established road. Two strangers appeared in town at a recent date, who were in pursuit of farms. They were directed to the Seward farm. A little later they were seen and asked how they liked the Seward farm. They replied that they "liked the farm well but they did not care to live in a British Province." But when Deacon Seward made his selection, there seemed a strong probability that a county road from Bangor into the Piscataquis region would pass across his farm, and the location of his buildings was determined by the expectation that this probability would become fact. The Seward farm was purchased by Clark Richardson in 1860, where he lived until his death in 1910.
Jeremiah Flanders from Hopkinton, N. H., having purchased lot eleven, range six, in 1807, and having subsequently cleared land and built a house upon it, married a wife in 1809 and commenced housekeeping. He occupied this house until about the year 1822, when he built a two story house which was among the first two story buildings of the town.
Mr. Flanders improved his farm from year to year until it became a productive one. It is now occupied by Edwin Preble.
Mrs. Flanders was accustomed to repair to a log camp, which her husband had built two years earlier, to do her weekly washing. The camp occupied a site at the foot of the slope close by the brook east of the house where Edwin Preble now lives. On one occasion a down- pour of rain through the capacious chimney of sticks and mortar put out the fire. A neighbor's boy, who was making a friendly call, was sent a half mile to get fire to rekindle with. That was before the invention of friction matches. It was no uncommon thing to send to a neighbor's house for coals of fire to kindle anew.
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Samuel Mansfield purchased a part of lot eight, in range eight, in 1809, and became a resident of the town- ship the same year, where he lived until his death, which occurred July 3d, 1856.
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