History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 107

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100

USA > Maine > Penobscot County > History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 107

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Malcom J., George C., Charles D., and one that died in infancy named Victor. Mr. Whitney has held, the offices of Town Clerk, Collector, School Committee, etc., etc.

William L. Harvey, of Maxfield, is a son of Samuel and Clementine (Berry) Harvey. Samuel Harvey came from Nottingham, New Hampshire. He was born Jan- uary 26, 1803, and settled in Maxfield in 1825. He settled on uncleared land, and made himself a comfort- able home. His family consisted of six sons and two daughters. One son died in early life, the rest lived to mature years. .. Four of his sons and one son-in-law fought in the war of the Rebellion, . One son was killed and two others severely wounded. One incident worthy of note, showing something of the hardships he endured in his pioneer life, is worthy of space here. He, with others, paid for his, land to. Joseph. McIntosh, agent for the Bridgton Academy Land Grant, but the deed not being recorded immediately, and Mr. McIntosh dying, he, with the others, had to pay for the land again. He commenced without anything and worked at day's work for subsistence while clearing his land, yet he succeeded in making a good farm and a comfortable living at farming, though most of his neighbors did more or less at lumber- ing. He died in Lagrange in 1875-dropped dead while speaking in a religious meeting. His children living are: William L .; Ira B. Harvey, of East Corinth; J. C., of Petaluma, California, and Clementine B. (Mrs. Freeze), of Deering, Maine. William L. married Adeliza Hayes in 1854. They have had three children: Arthur L., Clara E., and Cyrus A .. The first and last are deceased. Mr. Harvey is a well-informed man and takes great inter- est in educational matters. He contributes to· edu- cational magazines and is a practical teacher himself. He has held all the leading town offices, including that of Supervisor of Schools.

MEDWAY.

Medway, formerly Nicatou or Nickatow, notwithstand- ing some disadvantage of remoteness from the centre of population in the county, and its surroundings being still considerably in wilderness, nevertheless enjoys some uniqueness and distinction of position. It is the only organized town in the county that lies on both sides of the Penobscot River. It is the locality in which those two waters so important to loggers and lumbermen, the East and West Branches of the Penobscot, unite their waters and their precious freights from the far north and

northwest forests. It had a growth during the decade 1870-80 unapproached, in actual numbers or in ratio, by any other town in the county except Kingman, rising in the ten years from three hundred and twenty-one to six hundred and twenty-eight, or very nearly doubling its numbers. It is the most populous of the towns and plantations north of the range of towns of which Lincoln is one, with the sole exception of Winn.

Medway lies at the base, as it were -- is the southern- most-of the stately columns of nine regular townships

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

on the east side of the long north projection of the coun- ty, eight of them numbered in the sixth range. Mount Chase and Patten, the only organized towns, and Stacy- ville, the only organized plantation, in this part of the county, lie in this range. Medway itself is not quite an

even township, however. It is the regulation six miles' length on the north and the west sides, but on the south side encounters the older system of surveys, which has inclined its south line to the northward, and made a jog in it, at the northeast corner of Township No. 2, break- ing the line southward for a fraction of a mile, and then making another angle which sends the line north of east again to a junction in a somewhat obtuse angle with the east line of the town, which by the northward deflection of the south line is shortened about one-half of a mile, or to a length of five and a half miles. By this zigzag on the south, however, the area of the town is not material- ly reduced from the usual township size of thirty-six square miles, or twenty-three thousand and forty acres.

Medway is bounded on the north by Township No. I, in the Sixth Range; on the east by Molunkus, in Aroos- took county; on the south by Woodville and the north- east angle of Township No. 2, Range Eight; and on the west by Township A, Range Seven, in which lies the Hopkins Academy Grant, and beyond and above which lies the Indian Purchase of two townships. The town is forty-seven and one-half miles from Bangor; and about the same distance, 'or forty-eight miles, from the north line of the county. It is very fitly named Med (that is, Mid) way.

The Penobscot waters are by far the most important, and indeed are almost the only waters in this town. The East Branch comes in from. Township A, a little below the northwest corner of Medway, and flows three and one-half miles south to the junction with the West Branch, which enters from the same tract, and has a course to the southeastward of less than one and one- half miles before joining the other branch to form the main stream of the Penobscot. This has a flow in Med- way, in an almost straight course to the southeast, of four and one-third miles. It leaves the town in a gentle curve, almost at the exact southeast corner, and then forms the boundary between Woodville Plantation and Mattawamkeag. It would be interesting to describe further here these invaluable waters, and give some sketch of the lumbering scenes upon them; but this has been so fully done in the first chapter of this work and elsewhere, that anything we could write here would be little more than repetition. Just at the junction of the Branches there is a small island. One mile to one and one-half above it the East Branch receives two small af- fluents, one on each side. Half a mile above, on the West Branch, a petty tributary empties, having three headwaters in the southwest angle of the town. A mile below the junction a small brook enters the Penobscot from the central part of the town, and a little one from the southwest on the other bank, one-third of a mile above the former. Somewhat less than a mile from its exit from the town, the river receives the outflow of the Salmon Stream, a pretty large tributary coming down

from Township No. 1, and flowing nearly six miles in a southeast course, receiving a trifling rill from each side on the way. Very near its mouth another stream, head- ing in two branches in the edge of Molunkus and the northeast part of Medway, flows south into the river. Nearly opposite the mouth of the Salmon, the Pottagem- bus or Pattagumpus Stream, rising in two branches in the northwest of Woodville and giving its name formerly to a settled strip in the north part of that tract, flowing with a northeast course one and one-fourth miles, enters the Penobscot.

The population of Medway, with few exceptions, hugs closely the main trunk of the Penobscot, and along or near its shores are to be found the only important wagon- roads in the town. The stage-road enters from Matta- wamkeag across an angle of Molunkus, crosses the Sal- mon Stream near its mouth, and runs on to Medway post-office, whence a trail runs up the east side of the East Branch. About a mile below Medway village the road passes two cemeteries, one on each side of the track, and nearly opposite each other. Just west of the Salmon a short road diverges to the river-bank. On the opposite side of the river, at about half a mile's distance, an im- portant road nears the Penobscot from the southward, and bends for its course up the south shore of the river. This highway leaves the great road from Bangor up the west side of the Penobscot, at Chester post office, and runs with a general north direction through the heart of Woodville and about half a mile in Medway, before it turns at almost a right angle and goes about five miles up the river in Medway and out a little further to the Rockabema Rips, in Township A, on the West Branch. From the school-house half a mile south of Medway village a two-mile road runs off west of south to the town line, on which are several settlements. There is another school-house two-thirds of a mile further up the road, and one a mile and a half further, near the west line of the town. About the school-house on the Pattagumpus near the great bend in the road, and between the road and the Penobscot, is a cluster of dwellings, now called South Medway, where a post-office has been established of late years. This was the older Pattagumpus Plantation. Here also is a shingle- and saw-mill. At Medway village there is a ferry across the Penobscot, with a post-office, a Congregational church, the extensive tannery of Henry Poor & Son, with a hotel, two general stores, several shops, and the "Reunion " Lodge of Good Templars. There is an old mill-site at the lower end of the island where the branches join their waters.

From its favorable situation, settlement naturally got quite early into this tract-as soon as 1820, it is said, although the pursuits of the river and of lumbering must have caused much transient occupation by the whites here before that time. By 1852 the number of inhabitants here was enough to demand the simple local government for which the plantation system provides. The township was organized as a plantation, and long bore the name of Nicatou (often spelled "Nicatow " upon the maps)- a personal name of some note, we believe, among the Penobscot Indians.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY MAINE.

Nicatou (Medway) existed as a plantation for nearly a quarter-century, or until 1875, when, on the 8th of Feb- ruary of that year, it was incorporated as a town under its present name. At the same time Pattagumpus Plan- tation, south of the township, and formerly known as Letter Z, in Township Two, lost its identity, and was ab- sorbed in the new town.

Medway Plantation had a population of 321 in 1870, and 628 in 1880. Polls these years, severally, 76 and 156; estates, $30,637 and $79,638.

Pattagumpus Plantation had 105 people in 1860 and 94 in 1870. In 1880 its census was taken with Medway. In 1870 its polls numbered 20, and its estates were valued at $5, 171.

The public officers in the town in 1881 were as follow: James F. Kimball, William Waite (South), Postmasters; J. F. Twitchell, Timothy W. Reed, Alvarus Hathaway, Selectmen; J. F. Twitchell, Town Clerk; B. N. Fiske, Treasurer; John O. Hale, Collector; John Hall, Jr., Nelson A. Powers, Constables; Thomas Fowler, James F. Kimball, Mrs. John O. Hale, School Committee ; J. F. Twitchell, John Hall, Jr., Justus Hathaway (Quorum), J. F. Twitchell (Trial), Justices.

Benjamin N. Fiske, of Medway, is a son of Walter and Abigail Fiske, of Pepperell, Massachusetts. Walter Fiske was a native of Wilton, New Hampshire, and mar- ried Abigail Dixon, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. They lived many years in Pepperell, but moved to Medway in 1846. He has since lived in Waterville, New Brunswick, from which place he moved to Mattawamkeag, where he is still. residing. Mrs. Fiske died August 4, 1846. This

couple had six children, viz : Mary A., deceased; Ben- jamin; Sarah N .; Achsa, deceased; Hannah M .; and Walter H., deceased. Benjamin N., the oldest son, was born March 1, 1815, in Pepperell, Massachusetts. He began business as a hotel keeper in Medway in 1844, where he has since lived except two years spent in Aroos- took county. He married Eliza P. Warren, and they have had three children, viz: Emily D., wife of Charles F. Moore, of Medway; Theodore V., deceased; and Henry D., now of Medway. Mr. Fiske is not now en- gaged in the hotel business, but is giving his attention to farming. He was the first Clerk in this town, when it was Nicatou Plantation. He was postmaster here for several years and has also held the offices of Town Treasurer and Selectman at different times.

Charles E. Powers, of Medway, is a son of Charles Powers, of Kennebec county, Maine. Charles Powera had five children, four sons and one daughter, viz: Charles E., Andrew, Nelson, William, and Laura A. (de- ceased). Mr. Powers died September 25, 1874. Mrs. Powers, whose maiden name was Frances Proctor, died in 1870. Charles E. Powers, the eldest of this family, was born August 6, 1826, and married Hannah Dean, daughter of Gideon and Mary E. Dean, of Robinson, Maine. He first settled in Marion, Maine, but moved to Medway in 1847, where they have since lived, engaged in farming and lumbering. He has had seven children, viz: Wellington, now of Medway; Maria, wife of George Reed, of Medway; Angeline, wife of William Taylor, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Ella D. and Mark, deceased ; John A., and Charles William.

MOUNT CHASE.

Again we move far, far up the valley of the Penobscot, up the East Branch, up the Seboois River, and up its eastern tributary waters, to the northernmost organized town or plantation in the county, eighty miles- the Maine Register says one hundred-from Bangor. It is the ancient Township 5, in Range 6, erstwhile Mount Chase Plantation, and finally Mount Chase town. It is on the stage line from the European & North American Railroad at Mattawamkeag, to Fort Kent in the extreme north of the State, on the St. John.

Mount Chase occupies an even surveyed township (but for a little break or bend near the southeast corner, caused probably by a fault in the surveys). It is bounded on the north by Township 6, of the same range ; on the

east by Hersey town, in Aroostook county; on the south by Patten, Penobscot county; and on the west by Town- ship 5, in the Seventh Range. Crystal Plantation, in Aroostook, corners with it on the southeast; and Moro Plantation, in the same, corners on the northeast.

Mount Chase, from which the town derives its name, is a commanding eminence in the central part nearly a mile and a half in length, and of considerable height. The story of its name will be given below. A road leads to it on an east and west line from Aroostook, which sends off a branch a little way due north, about half a mile from the east line of the town, and another a third of a mile further, which goes to the southward about a mile, then by a right angle to the east again, joining a

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

little beyond the Aroostook line the stage road through Patten to Port Kent. This road enters the town nearly one-half a mile west of the southeast corner, and runs a little east of north two and one-half miles to its exit on the north line of the town. Half a mile from its en- trance it sends off, on the west side, a mile long road to a settlement in the interior, and half a mile or more fur -. ther another and shorter one on the other side. Shortly before entering the town, the only east and west road through Mount Chase branches from it and passes nearly. due westward to its junction with a second im- portant road from the Patten way, which, crossing the Mount Chase line about two and one-fourth miles from the southwest corner, runs northwestward nearly five miles, passing out into Township 5, just north of the Lower Shin Pond. Most of the settlements are on these main roads; and nowhere are they yet dense enough to form a village. The people are still mainly dependent upon Patten for mail facilities. School No. 2 is on the east and west road, about midway across the town; and there is another school-house about two-thirds of a mile below the junction of this with the stage road. There are in all six school districts in the town, four of which have school-houses. There is a Methodist Episcopal Society in the town, but we believe with no meeting- house built as yet.

The lakes of Mount Chase are the Shin Pond, lying a little way beyond the north line, but the main body south of it, the whole about one and one-fourth miles long, with perhaps an average breadth of one-third the length; a little sheet three-fourths of a mile south, with an outlet to the other; and the Lower Shin Pond, of nearly twice the area of its northern sister. It is on the west line of the town, and a large portion of it outside ; is about a mile southwest of the upper Pond, and connecting with it by a broad, winding outlet. The upper Pond receives a small tributary on the east, which itself has several petty heads in this town. One of these ponds gives its name to the only hotel kept in the town-the Shin Pond House.

Through the southern part of the town from east to west flows the Crystal Brook, receiving from the north three small tributaries at intervals of about a mile from its head in the southwest angle, and flowing into Hersey

about a mile north of the southeast corner. Further in the aforesaid angle are the three or four heads of a brook which flows across the adjacent angle of Patten into Township No. 4, Seventh Range. Three-fourths of a mile east of it the headwater of Fish Stream, which be- longs mainly to Patten, passes the town line.

This township was first settled in 1838, and it was in due time organized as Mount Chase Plantation. March 21, 1864, it was erected as a full town, under the name of Mount Chase. This goes back for its original to the imposing height in the north part of the town, and that took its name from a man named Chase, who was here in 1825. He was probably an agent of the State, as his mission was to prevent trespasses by timber thieves upon the public lands, drive them off, and destroy some wild hay which they had cut. The great fire of that year in the north woods came upon him while thus engaged, and he had to flee with the utmost dispatch to save his life. Fortunately the mountain, till then unnamed, at least by the whites, was within his reach before the flames overtook him, and he found safety upon its slopes or heights. It has since been known as Mount Chase, and is one of the most notable physical features in the north of the county, specially remarkable, perhaps, among its mountains and waters, as bearing an English name.

Thirteen years passed, as already noted, before the first permanent settler got into this township, in the per- son of Thomas Myrick. He was presently followed by his relative Ezra Myrick, and by Francis Weeks, John Crommett, John Fisk, and David Bumpus.

Mount Chase Plantation had 250 people within its borders by the census of 1860; in 1870 it had 262, and 310 in 1880. Its voters in 1870 numbered 72; in 1880 71. Estates in these years, $22,025, and $28, 101.

The principal occupation of the citizens of Mount Chase is now farming, but there is still one firm engaged in manufacturing lumber. There is a great deal of ex- cellent water-power in the town, at one place falls of ninety feet sheer height.

The town officers of Mount Chase in 1881 were: Charles Noyes, William Lord, Oscar Davis, Selectmen ; Fred Noyes, Town Clerk ; John Steen, Treasurer ; Wil- liam Lord, Constable and Collector ; Fred Noyes, Thomas Purvis, Frank H. Osgood, School Committee.

NEWBURG.

GEOGRAPHICAL, ETC.

Again far to the southwest and westward, this time nearly a full hundred miles, until we are brought up by the south line of the county; and we are at the ancient town of Newburg, on the old stage route from Bangor to Vassalboro, through China, in Kennebec county. It would rightfully be also an even surveyed township, but its symmetry is badly broken by the divergence of its south line from parallelism with its north boundary, and by the convergence of its east line, as it goes southward, toward the west limit. It thus happens that no two of its confines are of equal length, and that its area is less than twenty-three thousand acres. The measurements of Its several bounding lines, if the Penobscot County Atlas is to be accepted as authority, are about as follow: North, six miles ; east, five and a half miles ; south, five miles ; west, five and a half miles. The east line is in two sec- tions, one running straight from the northeast corner of the town west of south, to a point about one and a third miles from the southwest corner, whence it drops to the corner in a line more nearly south. The west boundary is about a quarter of a mile longer than a perpendicular dropped from the north line to the southeast corner, which is about five and a quarter miles long, and de- scribes the narrowest width of the town. Its greatest length is indicated by the north line, six miles.

Newburg is bounded on the north by Carmel, on the east by Hampden, the south by Winterport and Monroe, Waldo county, and the west by Dixmont. It is distant from the nearest point of Bangor only by the width of Hermon, six miles.

This town, having been settled for nearly ninety years, has become quite densely populated, its numbers consid- erably rising a thousand. By far the great majority of these are on the three east and west roads which com_ pletely intersect the town, and the other road in the same general direction which crosses something more than half the tract. The northernmost of these, the old stage-road aforesaid, comes in from Bangor at the north- east corner of the town, passes North Newburg post- office at less than a mile's distance, School No. 8 at the edge of the village, and School No. 7, with a cemetery, about two miles further ; School No. 4 near the junction of a north road a mile from the town line which runs into Carmel, and at this junction divides into two branch- es, which run out half a mile apart into Dixmont. Near- ly one and three-quarter miles below the northeast corner of the town enters from Hampden the road from Hamp- den village through West Hampden, which makes far to the south of west across Newburg and on to Dixmont post-office and out into Somerset county. This is the

old stage-road. The Town House is half-way across, and almost at the exact geographical centre of the town; Newburg post-office, with a cemetery and School No. 5, is a mile west of it; and Newburg Centre post-office, with School No. 5, nearly a mile and a half east, and School No. 11 over a mile beyond the post office.

Between these two roads another east and west high- way traverses about three-fifths of the town, beginning in two branches at a road from the west of Newport Cen- tre going north to the other road near School No. 7, the branches uniting less than a mile distant and forming a highway which goes about three miles to and then into Dixmont. About half way over it passes School No. 9, and then sends a north road a little over a mile's length to the main east and west road.

The third principal highway across the town also comes in from Hampden in two branches, which unite over half a mile in the interior of Newburg, at the Newburg village post-office. It runs thence a little south of west about a mile and a half further to South Newburg post-office. Half a mile out, at School No. I and the neighboring cemetery, it shoots off a road north to Newport Centre. Another north road goes from South Newport to the Town House. The main road leaves the town for Dix- mont Centre about a mile above the southwest corner, a little after passing the Free-will Baptist church. A num- ber of short cross-roads connect these main lines; but they call for no description. Across the northeast angle of the town passes the north and south road from Hamp- den to Carmel. Little more than a mile and a half north of this corner, in Carmel, lies the Maine Central Railroad.

The headwaters of a number of streams are in this town ; but no stream cuts completely across it except a tributary of the Sowadabscook, and this only in two branches part of the way, and only across a little more than the northwest quarter of the town. The heads of the Kinsley Stream are still further in the northwest angle. In the opposite or northeast angle are several heads of the stream running into Patten Pond, on the border of the town. Further south, in the central east and south of the town, and the southeast angle, are numerous sources of a tributary of the west branch of the Sowa- dabscook. A very small lake, near the south line of the town, is one of them- the only sheet of water in New- burg. In the southwest angle are the headwaters of petty brooks that run into Waldo county.

The northern and western parts of Newburg are pretty full of rocks and hills; but in the southeast of the town, along the banks of the Sowadabscook, are extensive tracts of fertile intervale land. The soil here is well adapted to

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

the growth of Indian corn and other grains, of potatoes, and of hay; and various kinds of fruit are produced with success. In the older days the hemlock and other woods of the Newburg forests prompted a large business in hauling bark and cordwood to Bangor and other points on the Penobscot; but the land is now mostly cleared and devoted to agriculture.

THE ORIGINAL OWNER

of this township, after the State of Massachusetts, was the redoubtable Revolutionary General and afterwards our first Secretary of War, Henry Knox, of whom more elaborate mention is made elsewhere in this volume. Newburg is upon one of the four townships selected Feb- ruary 5, 1800, to make good the deficiency in the Mus- congus or Waldo patent, a large share of which (that is, the additions from the present Penobscot county) was as- signed to General Knox. The purchaser from him of "Plantation No. 3" (Newburg), was Benjamin Bussey, who sold comparatively little of it, by reason of the high prices put upon it, and so held most of it until his death.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 107

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co. Number of Pages: 1100

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100