USA > Maine > Franklin County > Jay > History of Jay, Franklin County, Maine > Part 2
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HISTORY OF JAY, MAINE
soldiers in war. Each succeeding generation is more forgetful of these things than its predecessor, unless it is taught to revere and love the deeds of the soldier. It should be in the mind of each father and each mother to instill into the mind of the youth the significance of the inscriptions, 'Killed at Gettysburg,' 'Wounded at Vicksburg,' or 'Died at Libby Prison.'
"It is with pleasure that we are able to give a list of the men who served in the Union ranks from the town of Jay. These names, and the part taken by each soldier, are recorded in the reports of the State Adjutant General.
SOLDIERS OF THE REBELLION
"The following list will not be found to be entirely com- plete: Jefferson J. Adams, Isaac M. Adams, Jos. L. Allen, Thos. J. Allen, Harrison Allen, John Alden, John Adams, Henry D. Brown, Geo. O. Brown, John M. Bean, Alvin C. Bean, Benj. F. Bean, Amzi F. Blaisdell, Consider F. Blaisdell, Americus Clark, Chas. S. Coolidge, Geo. O. Coolidge, Geo. C. Chute, Wm. S. Clark, Wm. B. Cox, Jas. C. Collins, Thos. Crosby, Saml. H. Crafts, Albert Dawley, John Dupee, John G. Dixon, Franklin L. Dixon, John Dixon, Chas. Davenport, Levi C. Davenport, Geo. L. Daisey, Silas C. Foster, John N. Foster, Ezra P. Foster, Chas. B. Fuller, Henry R. Fuller, Elias W. Gould, Jere P. Goding, Wm. Gould, Jr., Wm. S. Horn, Chas. E. Humphrey, Albert Harvey, John H. Haskell, John Heath, Chas. A. Horn, Chas. H. Jones, Chas. E. James, Benj. W. Johnson, Ebenezer S. Kyes, Michael Kennedy, Robt. Kennedy, Chas. H. Knox, Rutillus W. Kyes, John H. Kim- ball, Horatio A. B. Keyes, Albert F. Keyes, Alonzo B. Mor- ton, Josiah Mitchell, Jos. Mitchell, John Mitchell, David Macomber, Columbus Maycomber, Edw. F. Morrill, Walter F. Noyes, John E. Nash, Alonzo Nutt, Vitore Porre, Chas. A. Partridge, Willard F. Packard, Chas. F. Parker, Chas. F.
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Pomroy, Wm. H. Purrington, Isaac Purrington, Foster J. Pickard, Winslow E. Packard, Gustavus Pease, Major Phin- ney, Horace Richardson, John W. Reed, Jerry W. Riggs, Billings H. Ridley, Osman Richardson, Wm. H. Rollins, Edelbert Roundy, Wm. Smith, Bradford B. Smith, Timothy Stone, Wm. H. Small, Jefferson L. Smith, Onslow V. Severy, Jas. C. Smith, Lemuel H. Smith, Augustine R. Taylor, Benj. F. Thompson, Roscoe B. Townsend, Nathan M. Townsend, David W. Trask, Chas. A. Trask, John G. Tibbetts, Gilbert B. Townsend, Andrew Winslow, Sumner W. Whitney, Thos. C. Wright, Chas. S. White, M. W. White, Matthew Woodcock. "FOREIGN ENLISTMENT: William H. Hanson, B. F. Lawrence, Thomas Emery Lawrence.
"Nor was this town without good representation in the late Spanish-American War, fought in the interests of civilization and humanity. We find the names of Wm. M. Dutton, G. W. Pease, William Ryan and Herbert L. Wills on the roll of the First Regiment of Maine Volunteers."
CHAPTER V
INDUSTRIES OF JAY
IN 1839 Francis Lawrence and Thomas Winslow built the first sawmill at Jay Bridge. The following year the bridges were built by a syndicate called the Jay Bridge Corporation.
During the freshet of 1843 the sawmill was carried away by the flood, but was rebuilt the year following by Noyes & Lawrence. The same parties also built the grist mill, which did a thriving business for a number of years.
The mills were afterwards burned and the water power passed into the hands of Alvin Record, who built a large pulp mill and operated it in connection with his pulp mills in Liver- more Falls, until he sold his interests to the Falmouth Paper Company. This company built a paper mill in 1892, and oper- ated both the paper and pulp mills until they came into the hands of the present owners, the International Paper Company. These mills have now been torn down and a large power-house is being constructed which will furnish electricity to the other mills of the company on the river.
A long lumber steam-mill for sawing and grinding was erected by Hutchinson & Lane in 1872 or 1873. This was purchased by R. H. Thompson about 1880 and operated by him for four years. This was a large mill situated just above the village and had a large novelty mill connected with it, which gave employment to a number of the village folks. This mill was burned in January, 1884. The Jay Wood Turn- ing Company at Jay Bridge was established in 1907 and is a corporation for the production of all kinds of wood turning. The factory is located on the west side of the Androscoggin,
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just below the bridge. While in operation it employed one hundred and twenty-five hands in winter and seventy-five in summer. At the present time it is closed, but we understand that under a new firm it is to be reopened.
The corn factory at the bridge, now operated by Tomlinson of Portland, S. B. Farnum, superintendent, does a large busi- ness each year in canning corn, apples and squashes raised by the surrounding farmers.
PULP AND PAPER MANUFACTURE
The chief manufacturing industries in Jay at the present time are the manufacture of pulp, begun in 1888, the manu- facture of paper, begun in 1890, and the operation of her granite quarries at North Jay, which began to be extensively worked at about the same time. The pulp manufactory at Jay Bridge began in 1888 and was operated by Alvin Record in connection with his mill at Livermore Falls, as previously mentioned.
The pulp and paper mills at Chisholm, costing about $4,000,000, are among the larger paper industries of the state. These mills include a wood grinder mill, a large sulphite mill and a large paper mill. The paper mill has nine machines for news paper and one for wrapping paper. Seventeen tons of wrapping paper are made daily from waste. The pulp mills grind daily sixty cords of wood. The sulphite mill converts a hundred cords of wood daily into paper. The capacity of the plant is 240 tons, or 12 car loads, a day. It has now in its employ 550 men. The water power is 7,500 horse-power.
Chisholm is comparatively a new settlement, having sprung up in connection with its large paper industry, around what was formerly known as Otis Falls, and near the flourishing village of Livermore Falls, of which it has become practically a part, having the same railroad station and post-office. In
JAY BRIDGE.
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1883 it had only three houses; now it has about one thousand inhabitants. This place takes its name from the late Hugh J. Chisholm, the man who did so much to develop the paper in- dustry at Rumford Falls and other places in New England.
Farther up the Androscoggin River, near the Canton line, at the falls formerly known as Peterson's Rips, there is a large pulp mill, established in 1897, which has a daily capacity of 100 tons, giving employment to 100 men.
The water power at Riley is 940 horse-power. This place is called Riley from Edwin Riley, whose home is in Livermore Falls. His superintendent is T. J. Foley. Several houses have been built on the west side of the river for the use of the em- ployees of the mill and a school established for their benefit. These pulp and paper mills, together with the three water- powers of Riley, Jay Bridge and Chisholm, are now owned and operated by the International Paper Company, which also owns or controls both banks of the Androscoggin from the Canton line to Livermore.
A branch line of the Rumford Falls Railroad runs from Canton on the south side of the river, with stations at Canton, Riley and Jay Bridge, crossing the river near Chisholm and con- necting with the Maine Central Railroad at Livermore Falls.
GRANITE QUARRIES
The working of the granite quarries at North Jay is now one of the important industries of the town. The quarries have been operated from the beginning of the nineteenth century, but only on a small scale for local purposes till the valuable properties of the granite began to be known by archi- tects. Its whiteness and uniform color are now recognized by the leading architects and the building trade. It is un- doubtedly the whitest granite produced in this country. It is remarkable for its hardness and its durability owing to the
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absence of all mineral and foreign substances which would incline to disintegration under the action of the weather. These two superlative qualities make it especially desirable in all building and monumental work where light-colored granite is required.
The facilities for turning out building material are unsur- passed by those of any granite company in America. The granite is all handled by gravity between the quarries and the cutting sheds, and between cutting sheds yards and loading platforms by portable hoisters. The loading platforms are located directly on the lines of the Maine Central Railroad. In the year 1884 a corporation was formed, known as the North Jay Granite Company. This company operated but a short time, principally in the line of manufacturing paving, curbing and the cruder class of work. In 1887 a new organiza- tion took possession of the quarries and employed J. P. Murphy of Lewiston as general superintendent. Mr. Murphy had a practical knowledge of all branches of the business; and as the new company had secured some very desirable contracts, among them being the R. H. Dunn Building, Lower Broadway, New York, Memorial in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and several others, the plant was quickly enlarged.
The Maine & New Hampshire Granite Corporation now con- trol entirely the quarries at North Jay. They employ at the present time 318 men, with a weekly pay-roll of $9,000. They make a million paving stones a year and are turning out 250 tons of crushed rock per day. They have on hand now several large building contracts, including the German Bank Building, Wheeling, W.Va., the Carnegie Technology School Building, Pittsburgh, Pa., and the Albany High School, Albany, N.Y. The officials of the company are Frank A. Emory, president; George E. Munroe, vice-president and general manager; James R. Raymond, treasurer. Around these quarries has
NORTH JAY QUARRIES.
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grown up the large and flourishing village of North Jay, with its department stores, fraternal organizations, churches and schools. Beginning with a few scattered houses in 1820, there are at the present time fine residential houses, several public buildings, department stores, and a population of about a thousand people.
The North Jay Grange, No. 10, Patrons of Husbandry, one of the flourishing fraternal societies of the town, has had an interesting history. It was organized March 27, 1874, with nineteen charter members. J. O. Keyes was chosen first master. In 1889 a stock company was formed and a good Grange hall was erected at a cost of $2,600. This hall was destroyed by fire in February, 1895. The loss was heavy, as there was no insurance on the building. Nevertheless the follow- ing summer the enterprising members erected the present fine structure on the old site at a cost of $3,000. It was dedi- cated in July, 1895. This building has since been remodeled to accommodate the Grange store. This store has been suc- cessfully operated for about thirty years and has proved a financial success to its patrons. The Grange now has a mem- bership of 312. The officers for 1912 are: W. M., Ernest C. Morse; W. O., Chester R. Miller; W. L., Minnie H. Allen; W. S., Robert Stevenson; W. A. S., Love A. Hyer; W. Chap., Simon M. Coolidge; W. P., Harry L. Macomber; W. Sec., S. Master Foster; W. G. R., Lester H. Willis; W. C., Genet Morse; W. P., Belle Stinchfield; W. H., Nellie P. Hyer; W. P. A. P., Elizabeth Woodman.
CHAPTER VI
THE CHURCHES AND THE MINISTRY
IN the early records of the township we find little mention of religious services, though ample provisions were made in the grant of the General Court to the proprietors for religious and educational purposes. In 1791, by direction of the pro- prietors, a meeting-house was erected, which was still un- finished as late as 1798, though it was used as a house of worship till the erection of the new house on Jay Hill in 1807 or 1808, near or on the site of the old meeting-house. This new meeting- house, which is still standing and used for a town house, was regarded as a very spacious building for those days; it was built in the old English style, following the custom of church building in the early times. In its original form it had a large vestibule surmounted by a bell-deck and steeple. There were broad galleries on three sides, with the elevated pulpit and winding stairway leading to it. Beneath the pulpit was the deacon's seat facing the singers' gallery. In the audience room were the box pews with their hinged doors and seats. For many years there was no arrangement for heating the building except the foot-stoves which the worshipers brought with them from Sunday to Sunday. Stoves in those days were very costly and one large enough to heat so large an audience- room was a very expensive affair. Once or twice efforts were made to raise the necessary purchase money for a stove by subscription. At the first failure to obtain the required amount a shrewd old farmer was heard to say, "I am glad I put down three dollars on the paper, for now I have saved my money and credit too." Some older persons will remember the hinged
OLD BAPTIST CHURCH, JAY HILL, BUILT IN 1807.
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seats in the pews and the clatter they made as the audience rose and sat down again at prayer time, as was the custom in ye olden time. And in the attics of some of the older houses may now be found the identical foot-stoves that our grand- mothers carried with them on the cold Sunday mornings in the winter months. Some anonymous versifer has embodied the same in rhyme.
"The seats were hinged. In prayer we rose And turned them up; and then Were ready at the prayer's close To slam a loud Amen.
We had no stoves; our mates, poor souls, Indulged their vain desires With small tin boxes filled with coals Brought from a neighbor's fires. Our parson made it hot enough, No need for fires to yearn,
With good old doctrine dry and tough Made all our hearts to burn."
ORGANIZATION OF BAPTIST CHURCH
Delegates from the Baptist churches of Fayette and Liver- more convened in the meeting-house on Jay Hill, July 11, 1799, to form a Baptist church. The names of the persons who appeared to unite together to be embodied in church order were William and Hannah Goding, Joseph and Betsey Winter, Thomas and Martha Fuller, Henry and Susannah Goding, Oliver Peabody and Hannah Eddy, William Bachelder and William Eustis, and Oliver and Polly Fuller. William Goding was chosen clerk of church. On there appearing to be a happy union the council declared them as a church, and they were pronounced by Brother Williams to be a church of Christ, saying, "We wish you God's blessing." Samuel Eustis, clerk of council.
On the next day, July 12, Rev. Eliphalet Smith of Fayette preached to the general acceptance of all.
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We find from the early records of the church that the brethren of the church, in the absence of an ordained minister, took turns in leading the Sunday services. On Jan. II, 1800, at a meeting of the church, William Goding was given a license to preach.
On Oct. 14, 1801, at a regular meeting of the church, it was voted to receive Brother Joseph Adams into Christian fellowship, he having been previously immersed. Brother Adams came from Billerica, Mass., and previous to his coming to Jay had been a member of a Methodist church. He became the first settled pastor in 1804. He continued in the faithful discharge of his duties for fourteen years and then resigned, but continued to supply occasionally, alternating with Elder Joseph Macomber and Joseph Alden. In 1821 Rev. Elias Nelson was called to the pastorate, remaining till 1825. He was a man of more than ordinary gifts and much beloved. Again Rev. Joseph Adams assumed the pastorate for five years, thus serving the church for more than twenty years. In the years succeeding we find the names of Walter Foss, Daniel Hutchinson, Lucius Bradford, James Follett and Hugh Dempsey, bringing the record of pastors down to 1857. In 1847 the old meeting-house was repaired, the vestibule taken down, the upper story fitted up for the use of the church and the lower floor left in its original condition for a town hall, for which purpose it is still used. In 1873 the services of the church were held in a hall at Jay Bridge until the building of the new church at the Bridge, which was dedicated Nov. 2, 1893. A memorial window to the memory of Rev. Hugh Dempsey was placed in the new church by his children. The same year the Baptist parsonage was moved from the hill to Jay Bridge. The present pastor of the Baptist Church at Jay Bridge is Rev. George Cook.
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HISTORY OF JAY, MAINE
CHURCHES AT NORTH JAY
A union meeting-house was built at North Jay about 1845. There was no settled minister, but it was occupied alternately by the Universalist and Methodist societies. This church was removed from its former site and is now used for secular purposes, and a new Universalist church was built in its place in 1893. The edifice was erected by subscription, the larger donators being the Niles brothers of Boston and Payson Tucker of the Maine Central Railroad. The pastors of this church have been Rev. Blanche A. Wright, Rev. Hannah J. Powell, Rev. H. S. Fiske and the present pastor, Rev. S. M. Nieveen.
FREE BAPTIST CHURCH AT BEAN'S CORNER
This church was organized at an early date with a member- bership of five. For several years services were held in the schoolhouse, district No. 4, but in 1865 the present church building was erected. The earlier pastors were Rev. John Foster, John Cheney, Hubbard Chandler, William Badger, S. P. Morrell, Roger Ela, Henry Preble, J. S. Swift, and others.
METHODIST CHURCH AT NORTH JAY
This society, as we learn from the Jay Register, was first started by Charles Williams, a stone-cutter, who commenced holding meetings in the Grange hall. Soon after a branch so- ciety to the Methodist church of Wilton was organized, and the pastors of that church have held regular services here. Rev. Alexander Hamilton was pastor from 1893 to 1895; Rev. B. F. Fickett, 1895 to 1898; Hosea Jewett, 1898 to 1900; A. T. Craig, 1900 to 1905. The church edifice was erected during Rev. Mr. Fickett's pastorate, being completed in 1897 at a cost of $3,500. Regular services are maintained and a Sunday school and Epworth League well supported.
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HISTORY OF JAY, MAINE
ST. ROSE CATHOLIC CHURCH, CHISHOLM
This society was formed in 1893 and the church erected near the Livermore line in 1894. The parochial school building was erected on the same lot the following year and the pastor's house in 1896. The present pastor is Rev. John Le Guenice. There is a large attendance at the church and parochial school.
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, NORTH JAY, ME
1
1151
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, NORTH JAY.
CHAPTER VII
THE SCHOOLS
THE district schools from an early date have been of high grade for a rural community; and it may be truly said that they have been fountains of knowledge and inspiration. The town at one time contained nineteen school districts and twenty- two schools. Private high schools were held at Jay Hill and Jay Bridge in many past years. At the present time there are a high school at Jay Bridge, V. Merle Jones, principal, and nineteen schools of lower grade in different sections of the town. The following is from the report of the superintendent, Rev. S. M. Nieveen, for the year 1912:
"It gives me pleasure to state that the introduction of a uniform course of study and the use of a uniform series of text-books are producing good results, even during the short period of service they have thus had. I have graded all the schools, so there are at present no ungraded schools in town. The one-room mixed has been changed to a one-room graded school having the same courses and books as the school in the village."
The town may well be proud of the men and women who in these schools in their youthful days laid the foundation and received their equipment for life's duties. As clergymen, lawyers, physicians, teachers and business men they have attained prominent positions in public life.
There are some doubtless who remember the school-books of the former days. First of all was Webster's spelling-book with its rude cuts and the story of the bad boy up in the apple tree and the old farmer pelting him first with grass and then
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with stones; and the Young Reader with its story of the foolish boy who was eaten up by the wolf as a punishment for crying "Wolf, wolf!" when there was none; and the fate of the young lamb that strayed away from the flock and the sheepfold. Some will recall the old English Reader with its classic orations, Smith's Arithmetic, Greenleaf's Grammar and Peter Parley's Geography. And those that attended school in those early days will not forget the parsing class where the sublime verses of Young's "Night Thoughts" were studied, analyzed and parsed.
In those times writing was one of the three R's taught in the district school. Every scholar furnished his own pen, writing-book and ink. The writing-book was home-made and usually consisted of twelve sheets of common writing-paper with a cover of stiff brown wrapping-paper stitched together. The leaves were carefully ruled with a plummet, sometimes in the form of a hatchet, made from common sheet lead, for lead pencils were not in common use at that time, if invented. The pen was the goose quill, skilfully prepared and kept in order by the teacher with his sharp penknife, which with his ferule or ruler, as it was called, was an essential part of his equipment. The steel and gold pens had not then come into common use; and the skill in making a good pen was an essential condition of a teacher's fitness for his position. It had to be a goose quill of good quality to make a good pen. I remember when one day on my way to school having picked up a turkey quill by the roadside I carried it to school and to the teacher to be made into a pen. The laughter of the school at my ignorance of the unfitness of the turkey quill was very mortifying. The teacher must also write a good hand, that he might set the copy at the top of the leaf. It quite often happened that the scholar, as he wrote line after line down the page, copied the mistakes of one line into the next, so that the last line at the bottom of the page had little resemblance
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HISTORY OF JAY, MAINE
to the copy set by the teacher, a practice too often followed in the lives of youth in their failures to profit by the good examples set before them.
Before the days of commercial colleges the teaching of pen- manship and bookkeeping occupied a prominent place in the education of the more ambitious young people. Private writing- schools or classes were formed in almost every school district. The writing master was wont to advertise his class by a large poster ornamented by a pen-painted swan or the American eagle, skilfully surrounded by scroll work. These posters were often of a very high order of artistic ability.
United with teaching of penmanship was often that of book- keeping. Many of the prominent business men that went forth from our town to the cities and centers of trade obtained in these writing-schools the instruction in commercial affairs that has made them successful.
CHAPTER VIII
REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS
IN every prosperous home of the early settlers there was all the machinery for manufacturing the cloth from which they made the garments with which they were clothed. The cards to prepare the fleecy rolls for spinning, the spinning- wheel, the spool wheel and the loom by which the wool grown on their own sheep was transformed into articles of dress, were essential parts of the necessary equipments of every household. From the flax raised upon the farm, after it had been sufficiently rotted by lying on the ground and hatcheled to remove from it its woody fiber, our grandmothers spun the linen thread which they wove into the fine linen sheets for bedding and underwear. It was in later years that the card mill aided the home workers by preparing the fleecy rolls for the spinning-wheel, and the fulling mills dressed the home- made flannels into the heavy cloth from which the coats and trousers worn by our grandfathers were manufactured by their prudent housewives or the itinerant seamstress.
The shoemaker in those days often went from house to house, carrying his kit of tools with him, making and repairing for the family the necessary foot-gear for the winter's supply. In summer they had no need of his services, as they went barefoot. The leather from which these shoes were made usually came from the hides of animals of their own raising, tanned by some near-by tanner. Occasionally some well-to-do farmer or ambitious young man would have a calfskin especially prepared and made by some expert workman into a Sunday or dress-up boot.
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