History of Gorham, Me., Part 24

Author: McLellan, Hugh D. (Hugh Davis), 1805-1878; Lewis, Katherine B
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portland : Smith & Sale, printers
Number of Pages: 1015

USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > History of Gorham, Me. > Part 24

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The Board of Trustees still maintains its organization, and has recently held a meeting, at which vacancies in its number were filled - the Board now being made up as follows : Frederick Robie, president, John A. Waterman, secretary and treasurer, Roscoe G. Harding, John A. Hinkley, Joseph Ridlon and Lucian Hunt of Gorham, Fabius M. Ray of Westbrook, George Hammond of Yar- mouth, and Isaac Dyer of Portland. Measures were also taken at this meeting looking toward the reopening at no very distant date of the school which was once so renowned and which has sent forth so many men who have written their names high up on the scroll of fame.

The Legislature of 1878 provided for a State Normal School, to be called the Western Normal School, and to be located at Gorham upon certain conditions. Whereupon the town voted to raise fifteen thousand dollars. From village subscriptions seven thousand dollars were realized, and the necessary balance, something over five thous- and dollars, was paid by the treasurer of Gorham Seminary.

A lot of land,adjoining the easterly side of the town house property, was purchased of Josiah T. Mclellan, and a fine building erected at a cost, when completed and ready for dedication, of about twenty-five thousand dollars. At the same time the old Seminary building was presented by the trustees to the State, and converted into a dormi- tory for the use of the normal scholars. The new building was dedicated in December, 1878. The following is a hymn, written for the occasion by the Hon. Edward P. Weston, a former Principal of the old Maine Female Seminary :

Shout the glad tidings from seaside to mountain,

Wave the bright banner from steeple and tower ; Open we here on the rock a new fountain, Fountain of wisdom, and knowledge, and power.

Not from the brain of some mystic Minerva,

Not in the fables of heathendom sung,

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HISTORY OF GORHAM.

Wisdom's fair genius, and all they who serve her, Straight from the line of dear Bethlehem sprung.

Hail to the Science that bows in devotion, Worshipping still with the wise men of old ;

Bringing from earth, and from air, and from ocean, Treasures more costly than rubies and gold.

Ever in beauty, O Temple of Learning, Shine from this height on the valleys below,

Bright on thine altars for evermore burning, Incense of knowledge with love in its glow!

Then shall the guides who shall pass from these portals, Laden with lessons of wisdom divine, Rise to the glorious rank of immortals, Crowned with their jewels, forever to shine.

The school since its foundation has been under the efficient charge of Principal W. J. Corthell.

In October, 1894, by the destruction by fire of the old Seminary building, the scholars were compelled to take board in private families in the village until the completion of the new domitory provided by the State. This beautiful building, which is known as " Frederick Robie Hall " and was opened for use in September, 1898, is located near to the Normal School; together with which it forms an addition and ornament to our village of which any town may justly feel proud.

1 -

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDING.

FREDERICK ROBIE HALL.

CHAPTER XII.

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS - FIRST MILLS - BURYING GROUNDS.

It is impossible for us of the present generation to realize fully the hardships and privations our ancestors had to contend with in the early settlement of Gorham. In the year 1736, when John Phinney made his settlement here, the town of Gorham was an unbroken wilderness, and contained not a rod of cleared land where a white man had ever lived, nor a single inhabitant, except it were a few Indians camped here for fishing and hunting purposes.

It is not our purpose to devote this chapter to an account of the personal hardships or sufferings of our ancestors, but to view progress in certain things, showing the energy and perseverance of the old settlers.

Stock-raising at the present time, when feed of all kinds, long feed and short, cracked corn and whole, oats and shorts, are plenty, is thought to be one of the great interests of the country, and to it much time and attention are paid. How was it with these old settlers, when they had nothing of the kind? We shall see that they went ahead, notwithstanding. Grass, hay and browse were all they had to boast of, and but little of that. If they raised a little corn, they could not afford to feed it to their stock ; many of the settlers were compelled to travel on foot to Falmouth, now Portland, purchase a little meal, and bring it home on their backs, to keep their wives and children from starving.

The settlers knew that the town must be an agricultural town, and that farming without stock was of no account. John Phinney's first crop was Indian corn, peas and watermelons, and this crop of melons is what throws the first light on our subject. He attempted to carry some of his melons to Falmouth for sale, and as presents to his friends at Presumpscot Falls, and with his daughter Elizabeth, started with a load in his boat. They got along very well till the transporta- tion around the falls came up at Saccarappa and Ammoncongin. There they found that the thing would not pay; and as Mr. Phinney said, when they came home they commenced to feed the rest of the melons to their cow and pig, and with a few peas they made a splen- did piece of pork of that pig. These were probably the first cow and

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pig in Gorham. It is not probable that Mr. Phinney owned a horse at this time. In the winter of 1738-9, the Mclellans came into town with their horse and little cow ; it does not appear that they had any other stock.

Oxen must have been introduced as early as 1743, for the business of logging was carried on at that time, and the Proprietors of the town were often troubled by trespassers cutting timber on the com- mon lands. A sale at auction was had, Aug. 16, 1743, of logs thus cut. Some of the sales were as follows : "Sold to Ben Stevens, Ben Skillings and Hugh Mclellan, one hundred logs at eleven pounds, old tenor." "Sold to Moses Pearson and John Gorham the logs cut by William Knight and James Knap for forty shillings, old tenor." "The logs that were cut by Abram Anderson and Stephen Manchester, and carried off, were sold to William Cotton for six shillings."

These transactions show clearly that there must have been some work for oxen at this date. A number of oxen were in town at the commencement of the Indian war, for on the morning of the mas- sacre of the Bryant family, (April 19, 1746,) Reed came to the McLellans to borrow an ox-chain with which to plough, and when Mrs. McLellan gave the alarm that Bryant's family were murdered, Hugh Mclellan and his son William were ploughing in the field; they immediately unhooked their oxen and let them run, and them- selves made for the house.

It is not probable that the increase of stock was large in town during the war, but John Phinney's had increased one certainly, for at first he had but a cow. In one of the Indian raids, in 1747, they reported they had killed and eaten John Phinney's heifer. The fol- lowing extract from a letter written by Capt. Charles Frost to the Hon, William Pepperell, dated Falmouth, April 16, 1747, throws some light on this affair: "A scout of what few soldiers were here with some of our inhabitants immediately followed, came athwart of Three Camps, and about half a mile above Gorham Town Garrison, where they found some beef and the skins of two cows. (These camps were near Files's Bridge, so called, on the road leading from Fort Hill to West Gorham.) The woods seem full of tracks, *

and unless immediate succor or assistance [arrive,] I cannot perceive how Gorham Town, Marblehead and Saccarappa can sub- sist, for they do not care to visit them or carry them necessaries of life unless they have more men. They found in ye above camps eighteen spits or sticks to roast their beef on, which shows there were in that scout at least 18 indians."

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Although there were but about seven families who made the fort their permanent home, it is evident they had quite a stock of cattle ; for tradition says that all the stock that could be found were brought home to the fort every night and shut up within the stockade under the eye of the sentinel. At times the milk of the cows contributed greatly toward the support of the garrison. The Indians knew well the value the settlers placed on their cattle, and their custom of hunting them up before night. Many of the skirmishes between them and the whites were brought on by these hunting parties meet- ing the Indians in ambush. Edmund Phinney came near being killed in this manner, while after the cows ; he was severely wounded, and also had his arm broken, by being fired on by the Indians, but succeeded in getting to the fort, as is related elsewhere.

Soon after the close of the Indian war, masting became quite a business in Gorham. Gorham was not called a pine timber township, being covered principally with hard wood, interspersed with a great many pines of a large size. As one of his royal reservations, or king's rights, the king claimed all standing trees of a certain size. These pines were sharply looked after by the king's surveyors. When one was found large and long enough to answer for a king's mast, it was marked with the broad R, which, however, cannot be properly represented without being engraved. Trees with this mark none were allowed to cut, unless they had a government contract to cut and haul them. The preparing and hauling of these masts was a large business, and as it gave employment to a. large number of men and oxen, and was paid for by the Government in cash, was exceedingly profitable to those engaged in it. The trees required for these masts were truly fathers of the forest; their dimensions must be "over one hundred feet in the clear," and when hewn and shaven fit for use, were to be "not less than thirty-six inches in diameter measuring one-third of the way from the butt toward the top, without knot, spawl, or blem- ish," and when delivered at the king's navy yard, they were worth about seven hundred and fifty dollars, lawful money. The moving of these trees from the woods to suitable places for finishing often required as many as one hundred oxen for each tree, with men in proportion. Sometimes it was necessary to cross deep gullies, and often several yoke of the oxen would be strung up by the head at a time, unable to touch ground except occasionally with their hind feet till they were drawn to the opposite bank. About every ox in the team had to undergo this operation, while men were stationed in the bottom of the gully, to seize them by the tail and keep them

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steady, and enable them to land all right. Cattle were often injured in these haulings, and they were attended with much danger.

Hugh Mclellan and his son William were largely engaged in the mast business. They cut a tree on their own land, in 1763, northerly of where the corn shop was burned in 1871, on land now owned by the heirs of the late Samuel Bailey, on the stump of which, after the tree was cut, they stood a yoke of seven-foot oxen.

A story is told of one of these trees that was paraded in the road, now Main St., in the village, and there prepared for hauling to Stroudwater, the place of shipment. All who saw it pronounced it a splendid stick. When the surveyor was examining it, he saw a dis- colored spot, and struck it with the pole of his axe; that blow reduced the price of that mast three hundred dollars. There was a rotten spot, which condemned it.

About the year 1727 the King's Mast Depot was moved from Portsmouth, N. H., to Falmouth, Casco Bay. Col. Thos. Westbrook was appointed King's Agent. Col. Westbrook, though never a citizen of Gorham, owned a large amount of lands in town, and being King's Agent for marking, collecting and surveying the king's masts, had a large amount of business with the early settlers, and spent much time in perambulating the town in following his business, and was much respected by the citizens. He was the son of Col. Westbrook of Portsmouth, N. H. How early he came to Maine we cannot say, but in 1719 he commenced purchasing lands in Maine. He and Samuel Waldo were the principal members of the company which built the first dam across the Presumpscot River, at what is known as the Presumpscot Falls. This was about the year 1734 or 1735, according to Mr. Willis. Parson Smith in his Journal says, Nov. 8, 1734, " I rode with my father to see the Colonel's great dam." This dam was carried away by a freshet on the 31st of July, 1751. It was here, and about this time, that the parson saw the large shoals of salmon ("an acre of fish, mostly salmon ") and other fish, con- gregated below and stopped from going up the river by the dam then recently completed, and remarks that damming the river, and thus stopping the fish from ascending to the Pond, would be more damage to the population above the dam, than they could receive profit from all the lumber they could manufacture. So that to Col. Westbrook and his copartners may be laid the sin of stopping the fish from going up the river to Sebago Pond.

From old records it appears that our ancestors viewed the increase and preservation of the fish in our rivers and ponds as an important

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item in the economy of the country, for we find, at a town meeting held in Gorham June 17, 1776, it was " Voted, Prince Davis, William Gorham, Esq. and James Phinney be a committee to petition the General Court for an order for the removal of several Dams that obstruct the Fish, coming up Presumpscot River." And on the 9th day of May, 1786, it was "Voted, To concur with ye neighboring towns in a petition to ye General Court to let the Fish up Presump- scot River." And as early as March 12, 1765, Edmund Phinney and Hart Williams were chosen Fish-Wardens.

It is probable that at Saccarappa was the only dam on the river. Whether this dam crossed the whole of the river, or ran only from the island to the shore, we cannot say; but Parson Smith says, that in February, 1748, Mr. Conant at Saccarappa told him that he had ground one thousand bushels of corn that winter, there being no other mill than his between North Yarmouth and Saco. There had been a grist mill at Gorham, which was burned by the Indians, and it is known that at this time, all the meal used in Gorham was ground at Saccarappa, and at Capisic, at which latter place we think there must have been a mill, notwithstanding what Mr. Conant says.

From the foregoing facts it appears there was quite a large amount of stock in Gorham at a very early date. The amount of hay raised in the town, taking into account the number of hay-eating animals, with the addition thereto of the number of oxen brought in, in the winter, for the purpose of logging and masting, must have made a very short supply, which in some way had to be made up. Browse would answer partially for the young cattle, but this was hard to get when the snows were deep. Hay was necessary, and must be had ; they got it by perseverance and hard work, but often had to look a long way off to find their crop, and in harvesting, it does not appear that they were governed by the same rule laid down for them at home, where no one was allowed to cut hay on the common land before his share was surveyed and allotted off to him.

A large part of the salt marshes in Scarborough at this time was proprietors' property. In 1750 we find the Proprietors of Gorham- town voted to have the road cleared out to the salt marshes in Scarborough. In addition to this, many notices appear to have been issued from the Court at York, requiring some of the citizens of Gorham to appear and answer to the charge of trespassing on the Proprietors' salt marsh in the town of Scarborough. Some of them had to pay quite smartly, but they got the hay. This was salt-haying, now for the fresh.

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HISTORY OF GORHAM.

Mr. Austin Alden, one of the early settlers of Gorham, in the diary of his daily doings has many entries between the years 1760 and 1766 like this: "Worked to-day for William McLellan on the Great Meadows, cutting and stacking hay." One like this: "Worked for William McLellan on Great Meadows. William got scared, the first time he was ever scared in his life; he trod on a big rattle-snake. He killed the snake, and then fainted."

The location of these meadows seemed to be rather a mystery to the younger generation; nearly a hundred years had passed away, so had all the laborers. There was no place in town answering to the description, but since the publication of the Rev. Paul Coffin's Journal of a Missionary Tour to Pequawkett, made in the autumn of the year 1768, the location is made certain. He says he climbed a pitch-pine tree to leave his name. "From this tree we had a fair prospect of that land of delight which makes Fryeburg and Capt. Brown's town (Brownfield). We saw the long meadows at the east end of Fryeburg. There the people of Falmouth and Gorham cut hay in 1762, and the winter following they kept at one of the meadows, viz., the most easterly, 105 head of cattle and 11 horses, and the people of Frye- burg kept there also, the same winter, 70 head of black cattle. And the Gorham and Falmouth people kept the same winter at the other meadow two miles northerly about 100 black cattle. There were then no settlements in Fryeburg, but some clearings near where the village is. The stock driven in was in charge of Nathaniel Merrill, John Stevens, and Limbo, an African."

By reference to the list of the first seven settlers of Fryeburg, Merrill is found to be one of the number ; he went in the fall previous to the coming of the others, and remained in charge of the cattle. Benjamin Stevens, who is spoken of above as "John" Stevens, belonged to Gorham, and Limbo was the slave of Hugh Mclellan of Gorham.

When a clew is gotten hold of, it is sometimes easy to unravel. Mr. James Phinney, the youngest son of John the first settler, a short time before his death, told a person while in conversation about these meadows, that he knew all about them ; he had several times when young, helped the men drive the cattle up. He said their track was to Standish, over Pudding Hill to Baldwin, to Saco River, up the river to near where Hiram bridge now stands, thence to the right, skirting Moose Pond through the westerly part of Bridgton, on to the meadows. He said the keepers had a nice time, carrying only their breadstuff, guns and ammunition, plenty of game and fish being

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always at hand. They often made something handsome with the furs they caught, and the cattle always came home in the spring in good order, though occasionally a calf or young creature would be lost, or be killed by wild animals.

This hay was cut, made, and put up in stacks, with a rick fence around it to keep off the animals. A shelter of bushes constructed so as to keep off the snows and wind from the cattle, with a comfort- able camp built of logs for the keepers, was all that was required. The animals would not go astray, but would keep in the neighbor- hood of the camp.

After the settlement of Fryeburg these meadows and hay went into the hands of the proprietors; but some of the citizens of Gorham continued to winter stock there for several years, by purchasing the grass standing, and cutting it as of old.

Lately some old records, left by Samuel Wiley, grandson of Benjamin Wiley who came to Fryeburg with his father William Wiley in 1766, have come to hand, still farther enlightening the matter. Old Kezar, for whom the ponds and rivers in that region are named, used to come to Fryeburg trapping after he was quite an old man and stop with Benjamin Wiley, who lived at the north part of the town. Kezar was the old trapper who told the Gorham people about the Great (Kezar) Meadows, and afterwards told Benjamin Wiley that Gorham people went there in 1760. They drove there some cattle and horses through the woods, on the old Indian trail, and wintered them at what is now lower Kezar; building there a log house for themselves, and long shelters for the cattle. Some of the Proprietors of Fryeburg came with catttle in 1762 and claimed the lower Kezar meadows, but concluded to let the Gorham people winter their cattle there that year. The next year, 1763, the Gorham people gave up their camps on lower Kezar to the Fryeburg Proprietors, and built new camps, two and a half miles to the north, beyond the limits of Fryeburg upon upper Kezar Meadows, now Lovell. There they wintered two hundred head of cattle and twelve horses. The Proprietors of Fryeburg took possession of their old camps in that year.

Our record is rather scant for many years, but there is enough to show that after the year 1760 settlers began to come in more freely, and improvements increased fast. In the year 1772, thirty-six years after the first settlement of the town, we find in an old document the amount of stock owned in Gorham to be five hundred and six sheep, one hundred and twenty-five swine, seventy-seven horses, two hun-

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dred and eighty-one cows and two hundred and four oxen ; and there were cut in that year eight hundred and fifty-three tons of hay. As this enumeration was taken for tax purposes, it is probable that it was by no means overestimated.

Since the days we have spoken of, a great change has come over the land. Our citizens no longer have to labor and toil with the trees of the forest, to reduce them to masts and lumber, for small pay. These things have all passed away. Our hills are now covered with fields and rich crops. Our farmers do not have to go seventy- five miles for hay for their animals; they now raise enough and to spare on their own land, and send to market annually over five thousand tons of hay alone. Improvements have made rapid strides. Our farmers, for all are more or less of that class, by industry and perseverance have become prosperous, and some of them rich.

Col. John Gorham was a man of good judgment and great energy. After the death of his father, he was the largest Proprietor. He knew his father had lost money by the proprietary, and that he should make none unless the town could be brought forward to such a point as to make the lands salable, and to accomplish this end he spared no means in his power.

The settlers were greatly in want of mills, both to grind their corn and saw their lumber. Whether Col. John Gorham built the first mill in town does not clearly appear. In August, 1739, Col. Gorham and his cousin, Daniel Gorham, were in town. Some preparation for, or commencement of the work of building a mill below the bridge above Fort Hill had then already been begun. A Proprietors' meeting was held at the fort on the 9th of August, 1739, when the following pro- ceedings were had :

At a proprietors' meeting held for Gorhamtown, alias Ye seventh township granted to ye Naraganset soldiers, August ye 9th, 1739, by adjournment, it was - Voted Yt any proprietor or Inhabitant may have ye privilege of building a Grist Mill on Ve Little River in sd township, provided they do not incommode the building of a Saw Mill intended to be built below ye Bridge on sd River, and provided they build and completely finish ye same by ye first of March next, then they to have ye fee of ye same to them, their heirs and assigns forever.

A true copy attest,

DANIEL GORHAM, Props Clerk.

It does not appear who procured the passage of this vote, or who took up the contract to build the grist mill, or who it was who con-

SITE OF FIRST MILLS IN TOWN.

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templated building the saw mill below the bridge. But some years after, the Book of Records appears to have been taken to York, and the foregoing vote to have been recorded in the Registry of Deeds, for under the vote the following entry is made :

York, ss. Received December the 4, 1742, and recorded with the Records of Deeds in said County, Libº 23, folº 106.

Attest DANIEL MOULTON, Regr.

At a Proprietors' meeting held in Falmouth, Aug. 29, 1750, it appears that the minutes of this meeting were brought forward and referred to a committee for examination, and the following is the report. (The records examined contained also the vote whereby the two hundred acres of land were granted to Edmund and Stephen Phinney.)

Falmouth, Aug. 29, 1750. We the subscribers have examined the votes within and compared ye same with an attestation of the within named Daniel Gorham, and are of opinion that he compared and attested the same, and are of opinion they be recorded.

MOSES PEARSON, ) Props JOSHUA BANGS, " Committee.

Voted, Accepted the committee's report above, and that it be recorded in Ye Proprietors Book of Records, with Ye within named Lots and Grants, as may be.

JOHN PHINNEY, Moderator.

Examined and compared.

Per MOSES PEARSON, Pro Clerk.

It is evident that there was no grist mill in town in 1739, and none was completed by the Gorhams before March, 1743 ; and it is also evident that at that time, March, 1743, there was a mill owned by another person than Gorham on Little River. This mill was the Blenham mill, situated on the small falls some fifty rods below the other falls and the bridge. It appears strange at this day, that a grist mill should have been built on the small falls and in this to us out-of- the-way place, when falls far superior in power and convenience were so near, but perhaps these early settlers took a different view of the case. These falls were at the head of navigation. Here John Phin- ney landed in his boat when he came into town, -so said his grandson, Mr. James Phinney ; here he took his boat when he went out ; here he landed his corn and all his supplies. Most of the set- tlers who had no horse to truck through the wilderness brought everything by boat up the river, and landed at the same place. The fort and Fort Hill were the centre of business. The present was

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History of Gorham, Me., Part 24

Author: McLellan, Hugh D. (Hugh Davis), 1805-1878; Lewis, Katherine B Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portland : Smith & Sale, printers Number of Pages: 1015

Author: McLellan, Hugh D. (Hugh Davis), 1805-1878; Lewis, Katherine B
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portland : Smith & Sale, printers
Number of Pages: 1015