USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > History of Gorham, Me. > Part 31
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- House of Capt. Stanwood, on Flaggy Meadow road. This house, at one time occupied by James Paine, stood opposite that of the late Samuel Cressey, and was built by David Patrick.
1877. Schoolhouse burned at Great Falls.
1878, April. The tar house of the Oriental Powder Company. Loss five hundred dollars.
1878 or '79. About this time the house on the old Jedediah Cobb place in the Quaker neighborhood was burned. It was where Charles Horton had lately lived, but at this time was unoccupied.
1883, Sept. 9. The two story house, known as the Webster house, situated nearly opposite the Congregational church, was burned. This house was one of a number built by the late Alexander
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FIRES IN GORHAM.
McLellan, Esq., as tenement houses for the use of the coopers employed by him in his West India trade.
1884, Feb. Stave mill of Goff & Plummer ; above Great Falls.
1885, Nov. Large barn on the Haggett heirs' estate; loss seven hundred dollars ; fire was caused by children playing with matches.
1885 or '86. House of Asa Libby, situated in Whitney neighbor- hood, near William Files's, was burned.
1886. Jan. House of Freeman Fairbanks. This was the old Lieut. Ebenezer Murch place, on Flaggy Meadow road.
1886, Jan. or Feb. House of Uriah S. Nason at White Rock was burned. Fire was caused by a defective chimney.
1888, Aug. 2. The old Alden house, on the Standish road, was burned. This house was built by Dea. Austin Alden, and was raised Dec. 11, 1764.
1889, Dec. 21, or 22. The David Elder house, so called, was burned. This was the house built by Dr. Jeremiah Barker, and spoken of in this chapter under date of 1780.
1892, Feb. 5. On the night of the 5th and 6th of February fire destroyed at Gorham village the building occupied by Frank H. Emery as a store. This building was known as the Emery and Jameson block, and stood on the spot where the old Longfellow store was burned in May, 1845. It was occupied in part as a dwelling by Stephen P. Libby. There was also burned at the same time a tenement house, facing on South St., owned by Dr. Alden T. Keen, and the grocery store of Cyrus Abbott.
1894, Aug. 26. The house of William P. Sturgis at West Gorham was burned. It was occupied at the time by Harris Moody. Loss two thousand dollars.
1894, Oct. I. Normal School dormitory building, owned by the State, better known as Gorham Seminary, was burned. The building was four stories high, and was occupied by about eighty students. As the fire occurred in the day time, the occupants, except those who roomed on the fourth floor, were able to save nearly everything. The total loss was in the neighborhood of five thousand dollars.
1894, Dec. 25. The two-story house at the village, on State St., occupied by Silas Rounds.
1895, Aug. About this time the Ansel Stone and the Richard Willis places, situated in what is known as the "Quaker neighbor- hood," were burned. The Stone place was where James Bangs formerly lived, while Elder Joseph Cates resided on the farm after- wards owned by his grandson, Richard Willis.
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
1895, Sept. 26. The farm buildings of W. H. Parker, near Grove- ville. The fire was caused by lightning.
1897, Aug. Dwelling house burned on the Gray road ; standing near Little River. It was owned by Theodore Sayward, and was occupied at the time by a Mayberry family.
1897, Dec. The store of H. G. Parker, at Great Falls, was burned, together with the post office, and the residence of Carlyle W. Shaw. All the mail was burned.
1900. Barn of Mrs. Henry L. Carll, at West Gorham, was burned in the spring of this year.
1900, Aug. 20. Schoolhouse in Fogg district was burned during the night.
1900, Oct. 24. House of Mrs. Henry L. Carll, at West Gorham. This was the old Ithiel Blake place.
BUILT BY CARY MCLELLAN FOR TAVERN IN 1779.
CHAPTER XVIII.
TAVERNS -TEMPERANCE - LIBRARIES.
The earliest settlers of Gorham were as a rule a hospitable set of people, ready to share their beds and their food with the wayfarer and the stranger, when occasion brought such to their doors. It was only with the opening of the roads, and the easier chance thus offered for travellers to pass to and through the town, that Gorham began to feel the need of some public place of entertainment for man and beast. The first person to meet and relieve this want was Mr. Jacob Hamblen. In 1757 he opened in his dwelling house, which stood at the head of Main St., on the spot lately occupied by R. G. Harding's store, a "house of entertainment," as it was called, which he kept until his death in 1774.
He was succeeded in this business by Jonathan Elwell, who came to Gorham in 1775, and during the following year opened a tavern in the Mosher neighborhood. In the year 1778 he moved to the village and took the old Hamblen tavern, which he kept for a short time. We find meetings of the Proprietors notified to meet at his public house in Gorham. A part of this old Hamblen tavern was afterwards moved, and with some additions, used by Maj. Simeon Farnham as a dwelling house. In 1805, when he built the brick house, recently known as the "Gorham House," he moved the old house farther down the street, and for many years it stood in what is now the Misses Hinkley's flower garden, just west of the tannery. It was torn down some years since.
In 1779 Cary Mclellan exchanged his farm, the hundred acre lot No. I, situated on South St., with Daniel Hamblen for his farm at Gorham corner (formerly his father's). He then built, on the site of the old Jacob Hamblen house, a tavern, into which he worked the Daniel Hamblen house. This building is the Harding store. Here Mr. McLellan kept tavern until 1805. We have recollections of this hotel as having been occupied by Capt. Daniel Hunt, who died in 1833, and later by Mr. Jonathan Tukesbury, and Col. Colman Harding.
From the old Court of Session Records we find that Capt. Bryant Morton was licensed as an Inn-holder in 1764, as were also Samuel
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
Whitmore in 1771, Ebenezer Hall in 1774, Jonathan Elwell in 1776, and Caleb Chase Feb. 13, 1777. In 1762 Bryant Morton and Wentworth Stuart, in 1765 Stephen Phinney, in 1767 Benjamin Frost and Joel Whitney, in 1769 Caleb Chase, in 1772 William Gorham, and in -1774 Cary Mclellan, Alexander McLellan and James Warren were licensed as " Retailers of Tea, Coffee and Liquors."
Samuel Prentiss opened a public house here in 1786. His house stood on what is still known as the Prentiss lot, close to the spot where Simon B. Guthrie's store now stands. About 1805 there were several public houses in town. Samuel Staples kept a public house at the village, in his dwelling which still stands on the west corner of Main and Elm Sts. James Phinney, Jr., who lived about a mile below the village on the old road to Saccarappa, on the farm now owned by Geo. Alden, kept a hotel in the old house which stands in the corner of the roads. This hotel was long a famous resort for fashionable parties from the village. The best society in the place would gather there for a fine supper and a good dance. In the north part of the town Samuel Butts kept a tavern in his house, which is the place, not far from the North Meeting house, where Jonathan S. Whitney now lives. Allen Davis also kept a tavern in his house on the Flaggy Meadow road, now owned and occupied by his grandson, Frederic D. Scamman. Josiah Shaw bought of Samuel Prentiss in 1797 a lot of land on Main St. in the village, and on this land built the house now occupied by Prof. Lucian Hunt. Here he kept a tavern, noted far and near for its good cheer. The old Judge Thacher mansion was purchased by Alexander McLellan, Esq., who added the ell (lately removed), fitted the house up and let it for a hotel. Thomas A. Barker kept a public house here, and was fol- lowed by Capt. William Stephenson, Mr. Bragdon, Mr. Drake, Mr. Lowell and Joseph Estes.
Jacob H. Clement and Reuben Lowell kept large taverns at West Gorham, designed with their immense stables especially to accommo- date the teaming travel to Portland, which came down through the White Mountain Notch.
William A. Rice came from Portland and settled at Great Falls about the year 1833, when he opened a public house there.
Col. James March came to" Gorham from Scarborough about 1806, and kept a hotel, called the " Bell Tavern," at Gorham village, in the brick house built by Maj.[Simeon Farnham. This house, after having been used as a private dwelling for some years, was again converted into a hotel, which was kept by various parties, among
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them, Eli and Jesse Annis ( Eli died there in 1852), Augustus John- son, who came from Cornish in 1854 and bought the place, then called the " Narragansett House," Mr. Dow, and Henry B. Johnson, the latter of whom was running the house at the time it was burned in 1871.
Mrs. Harmon has more recently kept a hotel at her house on Main St. Willis I. Bickford now keeps, in the Capt. Winslow house, a hotel called the " Crystal Spring House." Mrs. Jose keeps a pub- lic house at the village in the house which was formerly Samuel Staples's tavern.
In the town of Gorham the cause of temperance seems by our records to have had quite an early consideration, for at a town meet- ing, held April 7, 1806, it was " Voted, That whereas the practice of selling ardent spirits in retail shops in small quantities to be drank in said shops is pernicious and injurious to the interests and morals of the citizens at large and ought to be guarded against, and sup- pressed, therefore, Voted as the sense of this town, in public town meeting expressed, the standing laws respecting retailers are good and wholesome, and ought to be strictly observed by all the retailers of ardent spirits in this town." Still we were like other towns in those days much engaged in business of which lumber formed the principal part. For this article the West Indies was the chief mar- ket, and the returns came home generally invested in ardent spirits, and everybody supposed that it must be used, so about everybody drank, and nearly all thought that it was all right.
The first Temperance Society that was in operation here was what at the time was known as the " Sixty Nine Society," so named from the fact of its having sixty-nine members. This was about the year 1815, but the mass of the people did not receive it with much favor. All the traders were forbidden by the agents of this society to sell liquor to be drank within the premises. This was carried out for a short time, but was evaded by purchasing it in one store, and drink- ing it in another, or by withdrawing to the platform in front of the building, which was furnished with a hogshead standing on its head for an extempore table, on which was a pail of water, tumblers and sugar. Small pocket-flasks were much in use in those days. The seller would not have the liquor drank on his premises, but would put it into a flask, and give notice that across the street all the appliances for concocting a mixture could be found. This did not stop the drinking, but made the thing so ridiculous that the whole affair soon blew over, and people who wished were allowed to take
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their drinks under cover. Rev. Asa Rand, Dr. Barker, Col. Lewis, Mr. Alden and Dea. Cross were the principal movers in this society. The formers were ahead of the times ; the society was never popular, and died purely from dissolution.
It was the fashion, and probably the law, that the selectmen should once in a year, and oftener if necessary, read to the retailers, and post up in their stores, a list of persons by them deemed to be drunkards, forbidding all persons selling those named any intoxicating liquors, under the pains and penalties of the law. Usually, soon after the March meeting, the selectmen would be seen with notices in hand marching about the village, and going into the stores, where they would call the owner before them, and in a solemn manner read the notice to him, post it up conspicuously, and walk out. And by the time their last foot had left the door, the notice was stowed away in some snug place, not to appear till wanted. Many persons were thus posted who never knew the fact. But the law had been com- plied with.
Another attempt at reform was made in 1822, when a society, known as the "Total Abstinence Society," was formed. The princi- pal movers in this were Rev. James Lewis and James Smith, Esq. This society accomplished some good, but soon died. Among other temperance organizations which have existed in Gorham have been the " Rechabites," and the " Reform Club."
At a town meeting held in March, 1839, the town voted to accept the following resolves, which were presented by Edmund Mann, Esq. :
" Whereas it has been the practice of certain individuals to post themselves at or near our Public Meetings for the purpose of selling intoxicating liquors, the effect of the use of which is wrangling, disorder, confusion and indecency at said meeting. Therefore resolved that our Moderator, Selectmen and Constables be instructed to use their authority to the extent of their jurisdiction to protect us in the exercise of our rights, from the loathsome and demoralizing effects of tippling establishments, by preventing their locating at or near the place where we meet. And whereas the Statute provides that the Selectmen may grant license to as many as they think neces- sary, to retail spirituous liquors ;
"Therefore Resolved that we respectfully request said officers to review the scenes frequently exhibited in our bar-rooms and grog shops, and that they regard the feelings of wives and children whose bread is there taken from them, and then decide how many such establishments shall have their sanction ; sum up the advantages and disadvantages and be guided by the result."
DANA ESTES.
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LIBRARIES.
In 1845 the town voted that the selectmen, clerk and treasurer, be directed not to grant license to retail spirituous liquors in any case otherwise than for medical and mechanical purposes. The select- men were also directed to prosecute all persons who might sell in town without a license.
In 1814 a village library was kept in Mr. Nathaniel Gould's house. Mr. Gould was a saddler and harness-maker. His son Edward, who had some care of the books, says that his father's shop was a resort for many of the Revolutionary soldiers and others, who would take the books into the shop, where the old soldiers would compare the Revolutionary history with their views and memories.
The Attic Fraternity at Gorham Academy, a society modelled on the Peucinian and Athenean societies of Bowdoin College, possessed a library about the year 1818.
In January, 1834, a Social and Circulating Library was established, the shares in which were one dollar per year. Daniel C. Emery was chosen president, and Eben Preble, secretary. This library was at first kept in the wooden building, which stood where F. H. Emery's store now stands, and which was destroyed by fire in 1845. Mr. Preble at this time kept store in this building, and as he was libra- rian, the having of the books here made it very convenient for him. The library was afterwards kept in Dea. Chadbourn's shop, which stood on the Parish lot, where the new Congregational vestry is located. From thence it was moved across the street and placed in the room behind Dr. Waterman's office. This library contained about one thousand volumes - magazines and books. The members of the Association, with the exception of Dr. Keen and Judge Waterman, having allowed their membership to lapse from the non- payment of dues, these two gentlemen claimed the library, and presented it to the Seminary library. When the Seminary was discon- tinued, the books were transferred to the Normal School.
In 1881 the idea of forming a Library Association was proposed and talked up by some of our citizens. It was thought best to sell shares at five dollars each, and the village was canvassed for subscribers. Circulars were also sent out addressed to former resi- dents. There was no opposition, and the movement was a success from the start; people subscribing liberally; among others, Ex-Gov- ernor Robie took twenty-five shares, Judge Waterman, ten, etc. Rev. Dr. Geo. L. Prentiss of New York City, the Robies, Hiram Tenney, Dana Estes and others made contributions of books, while Judge Waterman offered the Association the use of a room, free of rent for a year. This Library Association was incorporated in April, 1882,
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
and the library opened to the public in the following October. The Association has had a number of librarians, among them Miss Mary Smith (Mrs. John A. Waterman), Miss Sarah Warren and Miss Sally Robie. The late John R. Cressey at his decease in 1892, left by will to this library the sum of one thousand dollars. It also received from the Walker estate a donation of five hundred dollars. The library at North Gorham (Great Falls) also received six hundred dollars from this latter source.
About 1892 John McGregor Adams of Chicago, the oldest son of Rev. Dr. John R. Adams, late of Gorham, made the Gorham Village Library Association the generous offer to erect for their use a build- ing to cost not less than ten thousand dollars. After some delay and discussion as to the location of the building, Mr. Adams made the town the following proposition :
" If the Free Public Library Building is erected upon the Drown and old school house lots I offer to enclose these lots, together with the cemetery lot, with a substantial fence -a neat, uniform iron fence on the east side and south side, and to have the cemetery put in such condition that it will be an ornament to the village, and place a sufficient sum of money in the hands of the Library Association to provide and maintain it (the cemetery) in such condition ; provided the schoolhouse lot is conveyed by a good and sufficient deed of warranty to the Library Association."
Dec. 3, 1892, Ex-Governor Robie offered the following preamble and motion, with appropriate remarks : -
In consideration of the munificent gifts of Mr. J. McGregor Adams of Chicago, for the purpose of erecting a suitable free public library building for the use of the inhabitants of Gorham, also providing for the proper and perpetual care of the old cemetery in said town, the voters of Gorham, in town meeting assembled, do return a unanimous expression of sincere thanks to our distinguished former townsman for these public testimonials to his honored father, the late John R. Adams, D. D., and his worthy and accomplished mother, Mrs. Mary Ann McGregor Adams, whose sacred memories are held by every citizen of the town in the highest veneration and esteem.
It was then voted "That the town accept the offer made by Mr. J. McGregor Adams, and grant to him such permission and full authority to act as contemplated by him in his offer to take care. of the cemetery."
For various reasons the carrying out and completing of this designed work has been for the time being postponed, but will no doubt be satisfactorily accomplished in the near future.
CHAPTER XIX.
EARLY SOCIETY IN GORHAM, AND SOME FACTS ABOUT GORHAM FOR THE YEAR 1780.
When the first settlers came to Gorham, and made their small clearings, they were hemmed in on every side by the dark and dense woods. There were neither roads nor bridges. Neighbors found their way to each other's cabins by paths marked out by spotted trees.
Their first dwellings were of logs laid cob-house fashion one upon another as close together as possible ; the crevices stuffed and chinked with moss and clay to keep out the cold. These houses were built with an enormous chimney on the outside, usually made of stone, and the open fireplace took up the larger part of one side of the room. The mantle-bar, as it was called, which held up the top of the fire- place, was in those early days made of wood, and one of the last duties to be performed before going to bed was to wet this thoroughly, and thus lessen the danger of its taking fire in the night. In the depth of the great fireplace was burned wood four feet in length. A huge log, from two to three feet in diameter, hauled in sometimes on a hand-sled, and sometimes by the horse, was placed first in position ; upon this was laid a back-stick, just enough smaller than the log to lie well upon it; next came the fore-stick, and upon these was piled the smaller wood, the coals fanned with boughs, or blown by the bellows, and soon a roaring fire leaped high up the chimney, and filled the room with light and heat. There was no need for economy in the article of firewood in those days.
A sulphur match was then unknown, and it was a serious calamity to our ancestors to lose their fire. It was the custom on retiring to cover up carefully and deep with the ashes in the fireplace the coals and half burned brands of the evening's fire and on raking open the ashes the next morning there would be found a fine bed of glowing embers. If, however, by some mischance the fire went out, the only way to relight it was by the slow and uncertain method of striking a spark from flint and steel into tinder or tow, or by "borrowing fire " of a neighbor, which was frequently done, if one was within reason- able distance. For instance, when George Waterhouse built his
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cabin and made his clearing, his family and that of his nearest neighbor, John Dyer, a half mile away, often borrowed fire of each other, going across lots through the woods by the spotted trees. To. bring home live coals and burning brands required haste, hence the expression, so often used of a person in a hurry, " going to borrow fire."
Pots and kettles swung from the iron crane over the fire, and were hung lower or higher by means of pot-hooks and trammels. Skillets, trivets, toasting-irons and other cooking utensils stood or hung around the hearth. Meats were suspended by a stout string over a dripping- pan to roast before the blaze. To twist this string, and so turn the meat and give each part a chance to cook, was usually the duty of some child of the household. When the string had been twisted in one direction a while it could be left to itself to untwist, then the process must be repeated. No meat was ever better cooked or tasted sweeter than that cooked in this way. Bread and cakes were baked on a board propped up before the fire, unless the housewife were so fortunate as to have brought a Dutch oven with her from her old home. Potatoes and onions were roasted to a turn in the hot ashes. Our ancestors would at first have fared hardly for fresh meat, but for the fact that game abounded in the woods. Squirrels, rabbits and . coons were easily caught in their season, and occasionally a bear, a deer, or a moose furnished the table with a luxurious meal. It is said that the last moose seen in town was on the hill east of the Black Brook road, not far from the house of Freeman Richardson.
The chimney corner was a favorite resort. In and around the fireplace the family would gather, scorching their faces, while the draft up the chimney's throat chilled their backs, Almost as much light must have come into the room through the top of one of these low, broad chimneys, as came in through the small window openings. Certainly there could have been no lack of fresh air or of ventilation. As years went by, and larger houses were built, the huge chimneys still held their own, but were placed in the centre of the house, and had deep brick ovens built in them. In these ovens large fires were kindled, and kept burning till the temperature was judged to be right, when the fire was "drawn," and the ashes swept out by means of a broom of green hemlock boughs, and the oven was ready to be filled with all manner of savory compounds. An iron shovel with a handle four feet in length was used in putting in and taking out the food, and it required long practice and much dexterity to slip from the blade of this shovel, into its place at the back of the oven, a hand-moulded
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loaf of "rye and indian" bread, and not have it fall a shapeless mass. The first act of the hospitable housewife on the arrival of unexpected company was to " put a blast " into the oven, that is, heat it for a baking. The mouths of these ovens were at first closed by squares of sheet iron, but about 1815-20, Samuel Edwards, for some years a resident of Gorham, invented the cast iron oven-door, famil- iar to so many of us. The large two-story house which lately stood on South St., near where the late Freeman Higgins lived, and which was built about the year 1767 by Capt. Cary Mclellan, had a kitchen fireplace which was ten feet wide on the front, eight feet across the back, and about six feet high. Within this fireplace were two brick ovens, one on either hand, each capable of holding several loaves of bread and pots of beans, and a dozen or more pies.
The first cabins had for windows, small openings cut to admit light and air, and these could be closed and fastened by heavy wooden shutters and bars, for security against wild beasts and Indians. Window-glass was not used in Gorham for many years.
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