USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > History of Gorham, Me. > Part 8
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Some sixty years since, we met an old gentleman, who said that his father, in his young days, lived with the elder Hugh and his wife. He said that he had often heard his father tell the story of their moving into the township, as they told it to him. That they moved on with an old white horse harnessed to a drag, as they called it, - two long poles, the forward ends confined to the horse, like carriage shafts, the other ends dragging some twenty feet behind; on these pieces they lashed cross-pieces, on which they secured their effects. William (" Uncle Billy "), then a lad of seven or eight years, drove the little cow, and Hugh, the father, carried Abigail, the babe, two or three months old, a part of the time, and drove the team, while the mother carried the babe a part of the time. He said the old lady told his father it was a very good kind of a carriage where the track was good and straight, but bad over stumps and short turns. They came up (from Falmouth) by spotted trees, as there was then no road or track. They were a long day on the road, and it was nearly dark when they arrived home. It was winter when this mov- ing took place. When they arrived at their house, they found that the snow had beaten in the roof and that the house was half full of snow, and they had to spread a coverlet, or bedspread, and build a fire in the corner for the children to stand by, till the room was cleaned out and the roof repaired, which latter they did not get com- pleted till the next day.
They were fearful of losing their land after paying for it, as they did not get a deed for some time after they had put in a crop. The old lady furthermore told him that there was but one white family in the town, that of Capt. John Phinney, but that there was a white
78
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
hunter, by the name of Ayer, who camped opposite their house, and was there occasionally. (He afterwards purchased a town right.) She said he afterwards got scared at the report of coming Indians, and ran off. Parson Smith mentions Ayers of Gorhamtown coming in to Falmouth, and reporting an Indian scare, in the summer of 1740.
The first white child born in Gorhamtown was Mary Gorham Phinney, who was born on the 13th of August, 1736, and married, in
-
MARY GORHAM PHINNEY.
THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN GORHAM.
1756, James Irish. The second child to be born in town was in the Ayer family -- a son. He was still living, about 1830, in the east- ern part of the State.
Daniel Mosher, the third settler, moved into town during the same winter, 1738-39, probably very shortly after Mclellan came. He received his first deed of a Proprietor's right, a thirty acre, a hundred
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
acre, and a seventy acre lot, some time during the year 1739. The first recorded deed to him, in which he is described as Daniel Moyz- hear, housewright, was from Charles Frost of Falmouth, of a thirty acre lot, and bears the date of Sept. 3, 1754; but from the fact that Mosher conveyed the same lot by mortgage to Frost, Feb. 19, 1746, it appears certain that there must have been a deed of earlier date con- veying this lot to Mosher. 'The lot on which he made his home was the thirty acre lot No. 4. This lot is situated on the southerly side of Fort Hill, in the southwest corner, formed by the crossing of the Fort Hill road and Queen street, and is now owned and occupied by Archelaus L. Hamblen. This lot, Nov. 9, 1761, Mr. Mosher con- veyed to his son-in-law, Moses Akers, and soon after moved to the farm since occupied by his great-grandson, Mark Mosher.
As has been elsewhere stated, in April, 1733, the General Court of Massachusetts appointed a committee consisting of Edward Shove, Thomas Tilestone, John Hobson and Samuel Chandler, to survey and lay out the tracts of land for five of the Narragansett townships. This committee selected as their surveyors, Samuel Small and Benjamin Stone, who were accordingly sworn to make a faithful discharge of their duties, as the following document will show :
York ss Biddeford Nov. Ye 20th 1733,
We Samuel Small & Mr Benjamin Stone appeared and were sworn to the faithful discharge of the office of Surveyors and to follow such directions as they shall from Time to Time receive from the General Court Committee as also John Smith, John Bagshaw, John Smith, Joshua Hilton & Lieut John Stackpole as Chainman.
Cor John Gray Justs Peace
The surveys were made by the above, and on Feb. 11, 1733-34 the committee presented to the General Court plats of townships Nos. I and 7, with the following description of the same :
This Plat describes two Tracts of Land laid out for the Narragan- set Soldiers between Saco River & Presumpscott containing the contents of Six Miles Square in each Plat with the allowance of Seven Hundred acres formerly granted to Hill & others in the Town- ship next Saco River & thirteen Hundred Acres for Ponds, and in the Township joining to Presumpscott River there is allowance for five hundred acres granted to Tyng & others & twelve hundred acres for Ponds, and the said Plans are bounded and described as followeth beginning at Saco River at the head of Biddeford & runs Northeast by the Needle twelve miles by the head of Biddeford & Scarborough & Falmouth till it comes to Presumpscott River & then bounded by
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
Presumpscott River & runs up the same till it makes Seven miles and one quarter of a Mile on Straight course North 33° West and then runs 9 Miles & 50 Poles South Wt by the Needle till it comes to Saco River & then bounds South Westerly by Saco River till it comes to the Head of Biddeford aford the dividing line between the two Town- ships begins on the Line next the Head of the Townships Seven Miles & one quarter of a Mile to the Northeast of Saco River & sd line runs North 33° West by Needle extending Seven Miles & one quarter of a Mile and the two Townships was Surveyed by Samuel Small & Benjamin Stone who were Sworn for the faithful discharge of their Work before Justice Gray Dated 23d of Nov 1733 Edwd Shove Thomas Tileston Committee John Hobson Samuel Chandler
Township No. 1, now Buxton, was ordered to be set apart for Philemon Dane and others, and No. 7, now Gorham, was confirmed to Col. Shubael Gorham and others.
In the Cumberland Court Records are the following depositions, which were taken, in perpetuam rei memoriam, at the desire of Capt. John Phinney, the first settler of the new town. The deponents personally appeared before Edward Milliken and. Solomon Lombard, " Justices of the Peace Quorum unus," on the 20th day of July, 1767, and separately made oath to the truth of their statements.
Thomas Haskell's Deposition.
The Deposition of Thomas Haskell, aged seventy eight years, testifyeth and saith, that he well remembers his being assisting of Capt. John Phinney in laying out the thirty acre Lots in Narraganset Township Number Seven, and that I the said Deponent always understood that said Phinney was employed by Collo. Shubell Gorham of Barnstable, and that I the Deponent was with Daniel Mosher and others several times assisting said Phinney in laying out said Lots, and I never understood that any Body else was employed by said Gorham to run said Lots, and also I have been with Collo. Gorham and understood by him that said Phinney had orders from him for to do said business. , Yr Deponent further testifies that I was at the Proprietors' meeting the 9th day of Augt. 1739, and do well remember that the Lands that was voted to Edmund and Stephen Phinney (a hundred acres each) was voted to the said Edmund and Stephen for their services and theirs only.
Thomas Haskell.
Benjamin Haskell's Deposition.
The Deposition of Benjamin Haskell, of full age, testifieth and saith that he was at a Proprietors' meeting of Naraganset Township
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
Number Seven, ales Gorham, and that I the Deponent well remember that at Falmouth when the Proprietors proceeded to pitch or draw for their hundred acre Lots, it being the Second Division, that Mr. Wentworth Stuard stood and put his fingers on two Lots on the Plan, and told the Moderator, Mr. James Milk, that them two Lots was then possest by the Phinneys, and that he the said Stuard said that was Mr. Lombard's Lot that laid between them, and desired them not to pitch on them, for he said that they were taken up, and as there was none of the Phinneys there, said Stuard and my self told the Proprietors that we thought it a great Hardship, we knowing that the said Phinneys possest said Lots, and were then in Possession of them.
Benja. Haskell.
Wentworth Stuart's Deposition.
I Wentworth Stuart, aged 35 years, testify and declare that I being at Falmouth at the Proprietors' meeting of Naraganset Proprietors No. 7, ale Gorhamtown now Gorham, when they draw'd their 100 acre Lots or Second Divisions, Capt. James Milk, Moderator, they chose a large Committee to say who were Intitled to have Pitches agreeable to a former vote, before the Rest should draw. Said Com- mittee reported, I think, that there was 22, and while those 22 were a pitching I told the Moderator that No. 42 and 44 was pitched, and that by a former Committee that was to sign Grants, and that Stephen Phinney did then live on No. 42, but notwithstanding Mr. Anthoney Brackett pitched the same by virtue of the last Committee, and that the Moderator pitched No. 44 for the Family of the Potes, and I told him that that was Capt. John Phinney's Pitch, and further saith not. Wentworth Stuart.
Daniel Mosher's Deposition.
I Daniel Mosher, of the age of fifty five years, testify and say that in the year A. Domini 1735, in the month of May, Mr. John Phinney received written orders from Collo. Shubal Gorham to run out and Plan all the Home Lots in Gorhamtown alias Naraganset No. 7 and now Gorham, and that in Pursuance to those orders the said Phinney employed three Surveyors in that Business, vizt. Godfrey, King and Scales, and also two Chainmen, vizt. Winter and Roberts, and that I the said Mosher went with them as axman to mark and spot the Trees the whole time they were upon the Business, till we had run out all the Home Lots, which was compleated about ye Month of November following, and that I the said Mosher was Employ'd by the said Phinney in running out said Lots and was paid by him for the Same. I do further testify and say that I was at the Proprietors' meeting the 9th of Augt. 1739, when the Proprietors voted a hundred acres of Land to Each of the said John Phinney's two Sons, vizt. Edmund and Stephen Phinney, and I well remember that the said Land was granted or voted to the said Edmund and Stephen for their services & theirs only.
Daniel Mosher.
82
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
From the foregoing depositions it appears that the first plans of the thirty acre, or home lots as they were then called, were laid out by Capt. John Phinney in the summer of 1735, by direction, as he says, of Col. Shubael Gorham. Phinney was aided by Skillings, Mosher, Weston, Akers, and others, as chainmen, axmen, etc. This plan was found to be very imperfect, and full of errors as to measurements ; one of which errors was, in laying off the tier of lots on the easterly side of Fort Hill road, commencing at Queen street and running
67
68
65
66
Little River.
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63
64
X
61
62
69
34
69
60
70
33
2
58
32
57
72
82.
84
86
88
90
92
94
96
98
100
31
4
3
73
83
86
87
89
93
95
97
99
56
54
52
30
6
5
74
116
117
118/19
9
55
$3
29
Lo
7
75
28
10-
9
76
42
40
38
365
27
12.3
11
77
41
39
37
35
29
14
13
78
102 /04
106 108
110
112
114
43
44
451 46
25
16
15
79
103 105
10% 109
111
113
115
47
48
49
60
17
80
23
20
19
81
×
22
27
×
PLAN OF THE THIRTY ACRE LOTS. FROM THE ORIGINAL BY JOHN SMALL, 1751.
toward the Corner, six lots were laid out with sixty rods front and were made to extend to where the road turned off to Portland, thus giving to each lot about three and one-third rods more front than they should have as the whole distance is about three hundred and eighty rods.
When Col. Gorham came down, he ascertained how the thing was, and being dissatisfied with Phinney's work, rather disowned having
Comm IRLARd.
24
18
122
121
E
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
anything to do with it, and at once took measures to have a new and correct laying out of the lots. Mr. John Small was chosen for the surveyor, with proper aids, and all were put under oath to do the work correctly. In the meantime the Portland road had been opened where it is now traveled.
Mr. Small makes the following return on the plan he made of his work to the Proprietors :
" Being desired by the Proprietors of Gorhamtown to measure out the fronts of the lots on the road, Accordingly I began at No. 1, Capt. John Phinney's lot [now Mr. Moses Fogg's] by the Peach yard corner, and measured out the several lots 60 rods fronting on the road, South 13° East and found a piece of common land 20 rods wide at Gorhams Corner as the same is Described within the plan, and then begun at the Peach yard corner, and ran North 13º West, meas- uring each lot 60 rods front by the road, and find the Mill privilege falls clear into the lot No. 64: Excepting the six Streets mentioned by name in the plan, all the others are two rods wide." The streets named on the plan were four rods in width. (See Chap. XV.)
This plan of the thirty acre lots was accepted by the Proprietors at a meeting held at the house of Capt. Joshua Bangs in Falmouth, April 16, 1751, and it was voted to record it in the Proprietors' book and in the Secretary's office.
It will be seen from the foregoing that there were thus two plans of the thirty acre lots, Phinney's and Small's, each party claiming theirs to be the genuine one, consequently the recording of these depositions by Phinney to show that his work was done by authorization. In an application for a Proprietors' meeting, dated Aug. 11, 1753, and signed by Enoch Freeman, Esq., Jacob Hamblen, Cornelius Brimhall, Capt. Joshua Bangs, and Capt. Jedediah Preble, we find the following article, -" To choose a committee to get the Grant and plan of the township confirmed by the General Court, and Recorded anew in the Secretary's Office, as the records were burnt in the townhouse in Boston, a few years ago." This meeting was held at the house of Capt. Bangs in Falmouth, Aug. 28, 1753, when a committee of the new plan party, consisting of Jabez Fox, James . Otis, David Gorham, Moses Pearson and Jedediah Preble, was chosen to "present the plan of the town to the General Court for their confirmation." The strife was ended by the John Small plan being subsequently con- firmed by the General Court, and declared to be the true and original plan of the town of Gorham, " Provided it does not interfere with grants previously and legally made." This is dated Dec. 28, 1753.
·
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
And the last that is known of the Phinney plan, it was in the hands of the Rev. Solomon Lombard's executor, much worn and dilapidated. This first survey and plan by Phinney was made before any settler had moved in, and was the plan by which the original rights were drawn or located in the thirty acres.
Capt. Phinney with his aids lived in Falmouth at the time they surveyed the township. In the new plan no alteration in the number or location of lots was made, only correction of distances. In locating the original rights, the numbers of the thirty acre lots were put into one hat, and the Proprietors' names into another, and drawn one against the other.
A Proprietor's right consisted of a thirty acre lot, a hundred acre lot and a seventy acre lot, making two hundred acres of land in all.
The hundred acre lots were surveyed and laid out by Small at the same time that he resurveyed the thirty acre lots. A plan of the town, showing the thirty and hundred acre lots, was then drawn by him. This map, which is still in existence, bears the following :
"This Plan of Naraganset Township No 7, otherwise called Gorham Town taken at the request of Charles Frost Enoch Freeman and Moses Peirson Esq's a Committee of the Proprietors of said Town- ship the 17th march 1753
Pr John Small Survey"
The drawing by the Proprietors for these hundred acre lots took place at an adjourned meeting, held at the Town House in Falmouth, on the 28th of August, 1753. At this meeting a committee reported the names of those who had their taxes all paid up, and had per- formed their other settlement obligations. These were then allowed to "pitch," or select, for every thirty acre lot owned, any hundred acre lot desired, not already chosen. After they had made their choice (the Moderator being empowered to pitch for any one entitled to do so, but absent), the remaining lots were put into a hat, from which they were drawn and read by the Moderator for the benefit of the remaining Proprietors.
The twenty acre strip at Gorham Corner, already spoken of, was pitched on by Capt. Bryant Morton as part of his second division ; he also had a hundred acre lot by draft, in addition to this strip. Afterwards it was ascertained that several of the settlers had more land than they were entitled to - some a lot by pitch and a lot by draft - and a committee, consisting of Enoch Freeman, Stephen Longfellow and William Cotton, was chosen to settle all such cases. Their report is dated March 4, 1765, wherein they say that they
--
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
" have agreed with Capt. Bryant Morton for twenty acres he pitched at Gorham Corner as a part of the hundred acres, to confirm the same to him and his heirs, upon his giving the Proprietors a deed of twenty acres off the southeasterly side of his third division of seventy acres, No. 18, and do so report." This report was accepted.
It looks very much as if it were no uncommon thing for a few interested persons to clandestinely call a Proprietors' meeting by application to a Justice, or the Clerk, hold the meeting, vote grants, and pass.votes for the advancement of things and for the interests of the settlers, which they could not pass in a regular meeting attended more fully by the Proprietors ; then appear at a subsequent meeting with the records all sworn to, produce proof that notices were legally posted, etc., have all recorded in the book - all right, claim good, land surveyed off. To illustrate this point : in the Proprietors' Records there is no mention made of any meeting being held between Nov. 13th, 1749 and July 25th, 1750, but in the Records of Cumber- land County we find this :
At a Proprietors' meeting legally warned of the Proprieters of Gorhamtown or No. 7, held at the fort in sd Town, January 31 : 1750,- Voted that Capt. John Phinney be Moderator for this meeting. Voted that Joseph Weston be Proprietors' Clerk for this meeting, in the absence of the former Clerk, he not being at said meeting. Voted the first [Article] in the Warrant, which was to choose a Proprietors' [Clerk], be dismissed. Voted that the Second Article in the War- rant, which was to Choose a Treasurer, be dismissed. Voted to dismiss the former Committee who was chosen to sign Grants. Voted to choose a Committee to sign Grants. Voted the Committee to sign Grants shall consist of three men & no more. Voted Christo- pher Strout, Esq., Capt. John Phinney, and Benjamin Stevens, be a Committee to sign Grants to those men who have fulfilled according to General Court's Injunctions.
John Phinney, Moderator.
Seventeen years after that time, July 20, 1767, Joseph Weston, in a deposition taken at the request of Capt. John Phinney, testified that he was elected clerk pro tempore of that meeting, and supplied the word Clerk in the report, which we have enclosed in brackets, which was wanting in the original copy. The word Article was also omitted in the original. The "former Clerk," alluded to in the report, was Capt. Moses Pearson of Falmouth, who was the Proprie- tors' clerk. He was elected clerk Aug. 30, 1744, and served until September, 1776, when he resigned on account of infirmity, dying less than two years after.
86
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
In the old Proprietors' Records the first meeting recorded was held in 1741. But it afterwards appears that a Proprietors' meeting was held before that time. The record is as follows :
" At a Proprietors' meeting by adjournment held for Gorhamtown, alias ye seventh township granted to the Narraganset Soldiers, August ye 9th, 1739." It does not appear who was the Moderator, but Daniel Gorham was clerk of the meeting (and this is the only time his name appears as Proprietors' clerk). At this meeting one hundred acres each was voted to Edmund and Stephen Phinney, sons of Mr. John Phinney. These two hundred acres of land were located on the westerly side of the thirty acre lots, adjoining Nos. 33 and 34, and on the old plans of the town are marked "Plain," and are on the road from Fort Hill to West Gorham. Both lots had Little River passing through them. The location and survey were made by Capt. John Curtis and William Pote, a committee chosen for that purpose. Their return and plan are dated, Gorhamtown, Sept. 24, 1739. The Captain, being a sea-faring man, it appears used a marine compass, as the courses are " From a Beach tree two hundred rods, North and Be West, to a Hemlock tree." It appears that the record of the doings at this meeting was not brought forward to be recorded in the Proprietors' Records till about the year 1750. The granting and location of these lots and the claim made to them by the Phin- neys, was thought to be, by some of the old Proprietors, rather a shaky piece of business, and was the cause of some trouble when the Proprietors came to pitch and draw for their hundred acre lots, or second division ; some siding with the Phinneys, and some against them. And from this affair arose the necessity of Mr. John Phinney's procuring the depositions in perpetuam mentioned before, and of having the same recorded. One hundred acres of this land were sold by Capt. John Phinney to John Freeman and his wife Bethiah Freeman, and in 1760 these latter sold to Daniel Marrett of Falmouth, shipwright, the hundred acres of land they bought of Capt. John Phinney, "being one half of the lot set off to Edmund and Stephen Phinney, his sons, by the Proprietors in 1739."
At the meeting held as aforesaid, it was voted "That no persons, that are not actual settlers or inhabitants within said town shall have any liberty to cut any Grass Growing or that shall be growing on said Meadows or the common land, and that no settler or inhabitant as above shall presume to cut any of ye meadows before a division or proportion of ye same from year to year, be first made by a majority of ye sd Proprietors and inhabitants.
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
" Voted, That ye grantees, inhabitants and settlers are allowed to cut timber for their own use for Building in sd town, and no more.
" Voted, Yt each grantee or Proprietor in sd Township shall pay for each Right he possesses twenty shillings, By Ye last of October next, to be laid out in mending ye highway in sd township, between Ve Great Bridge and Ye upper lot laid out on King street."
This road extended from Little River bridge, above Fort Hill, to the late Albion Johnson's, about one hundred and eighty rods, and the men were to have ten shillings per day, finding themselves.
As already stated, the record of proceedings at this meeting did not appear till August 30, 1749, when the following vote was passed :
" Voted, That the papers said to be attested by Daniel Gorham relating to 200 acres of land granted to Edmund and Stephen Phinney, and containing other matters, be referred to further consid- eration."
At a meeting held Aug. 29th, 1750, of which Capt. Phinney was Moderator, the subject was again brought forward. Moses Pearson and Joshua Bangs, a committee for that purpose, reported that they had examined the papers and thought the same ought to be recorded ; and it was so voted, and was then recorded by Moses Pearson, Pro- prietors' clerk.
The seventy acre lots were surveyed by Joseph Noyes, under the direction of a committee composed of Enoch Freeman, Moses Pearson, Esq., and Capt. Ephraim Jones, and his plan, which is still in exist- ence, bears the date of Jan. 14, 1765. Although the actual survey of these seventy acre, or third division lots, was not completed until sometime in January, 1765, the Proprietors, at a meeting held Dec. 3Ist, 1764,
" Voted the Committee for laying out after Divisions, No. the same and make a Box ; prepare and make ready for the Proprietors Draw- ing their lots at the adjournment of this meeting.
" Voted that there be marked on the plan 117 lots for the third Division and no more, as Majr. Gorham has given his bond to relin- quish to the Proprietors four hundred acres of common land to be divided among them in lieu of 400 acres voted to him near Sacca- rappa some time past to the amount of about six after Divisions.
" Voted the drawing the lots shall be as followeth, viz : those that have paid their tax draw directly, and those that have not, to draw as soon as they pay. To be drawn in presence of the Clerk and Treas- urer of sd proprietary ; the lots to be kept in a box under Lock : the Clerk and Treasurer both to keep account, and the Clerk to record them in the Proprietors' book - The Clerk to keep the box and the
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