History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 112

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 112

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The Maine State College and farm, on the east bank of the Stillwater, about a mile from the village, have their history and description sufficiently detailed in our Gen- eral History.

On the highway from Orono to Oldtown, on the east side of the Stillwater, and about equidistant from that stream and the Penobscot, is the Race-course.

Just below Orono village is a good-sized island in the Penobscot, which is quite useful in the extensive lumber operations of that locality.

The soil and surface of the town, in general, do not differ materially from those of other parts of the lower half of the county, west of the Penobscot.

A BIT OF LAND HISTORY.

"A Plan of the Lots Surveyed by Elihu Warner, A. D. 1794," very neatly drawn and colored, is appended to a little manuscript book of "Remarks on Township Number One, in the Third Range, situated on the west side of Penobscot River, surveyed into lots in the summer of the year 1795, for the Hon. Oliver Phelps, Leonard Jarvis, Esq., and Mr. Apollos Hitchcock, by Seth Pease," which is in the possession of the Bangor Historical Society. The book itself has little interest, except, perhaps, as evidence in the litigation of a land case, being merely "coppyed from the Field Book, but in a different order, that the outlines of each lot may be found more readily;" but the subjoined map gives the names of residents or owners upon a number of the lots, with the amount of their several properties in the lands. We subjoin a list, be- ginning at the northwest corner, upon the Stillwater River, and now within the limits of Oldtown:

William Tibbets, Jun, 134 8-160 acres.

William Dunning, 115 133-160 acres.

Benjamin Tibbets, 102 acres.

George Tibbets, 105 26-100 acres. This tract was immediately opposite that of Benjamin Tibbets, on the east side of the steam. Just east of this piece, was an- other lot belonging to George Tibbets, containing 50 acres.

Elisha Mayhew, 50 acres. Immediately south of the piece last mentioned, Mr. Mayhew had a second tract,

measuring 621/2 acres, next southwest of Benjamin Boobar's lot, named below.

Major Robert Treat, 148 139-160 acres. Next south of George Tibbets's large piece.

Benjamin Boobar, 76 98-160 acres. Opposite the southwest part of Major Treat's tract.

John Capers, 141 41-160 acres. South of Mr. Boo- bar's.

Nathaniel Mayhew, 100 acres. In a big bend of the stream, opposite John Capers's, and south of Elisha Mayhew's. This is the southernmost tract on the map.

A number of tracts-two east of Dunning, containing 103 and 48 26-100 acres, respectively; one west of Major Treat, 117 acres; one south of the last, 100 acres ; and a fifth south of that, also containing 100 acres-are noted as " vacant," or have no names of owners annexed. The lots are not numbered, but north of the whole is " Lot No. 54," east of which is " Part of Lot No. 53," south of that "Part of Lot No. 47," south of the whole plat "Lot No. 24," and east of that "Part of Lot No. 23.""

NAME OF THE TOWN.

Mr. E. F. Duren, of Bangor, makes for this work the following note:

It derives its name from an Indian chief, Joseph Orono, an able and friendly chief of the Tarratines, often. at the head of deputations to meet Committees of the Provincial Congress in reference to the interests of the tribe. His mark, or signature, was the fac simile of a seal. His countenance was fair and beautiful, and in old age his hair was milky white. He died February 5, 1801, aged one hundred and thirteen. Mrs. Mace gives the following tribute to his memory :

Noblest among the braves was Orono,

A kingly native, just, and wise, and true,

To his dark brethren faithful, yet at heart

The white man's friend, With clear prophetic view,

Our larger work and destiny he knew.

. Worthy of honor -- well do we bestow On this, his dwelling-place, the name of Orono.

A full notice of this renowned Tarratine or Penob- scot chief is given in our chapter on the Indians of Maine.

HISTORY OF THE TOWN.

Almost the sole authority for this, in print at least, is the invaluable Centennial Address of ex-Governor Israel Washburn, delivered at the celebration of 1874 in Orono, of which this distinguished citizen was formerly a resi- dent. The material for most of the following paragraphs is derived from the remarkably full and lucid pages of the Governor's production.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

In the year 1774 Jeremiah Colburn and Joshua Eayres were the first white men to settle in Orono. This settle- ment was made on wild and unimproved lands, five miles above any settlement. Two dwelling-houses were built and a saw-mill half completed, and two roads cleared- one to a meadow six miles away, and the other to the nearest inhabitants. A large tract of land was soon afterwards cleared and improved, and the saw-mill fin- ished by the assistance of others. In July of 1774 the

View of River from Residence.

RESIDENCE OF B. P. GILMAN, ORONO, PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

buildings were begun, and in the following October the families of the two pioneers were moved into their new homes, where they remained till the succeeding May. On that date, deeming it unsafe to remain on account of the depredations of the Indians, their families and effects were removed to the nearest settlement.

Mr. George Ring, who was brought to this town in the year 1800, at the age of five years, gave it as his opinion that the first house was built in 1773 by Joshua Eayres; but his knowledge, coming from some informant, is more likely to be in error than statements made by Messrs. Colburn and Eayres themselves in a petition which they sent to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1776.

Jeremiah Colburn built his house, according to the more recent statement of his grandson, William Colburn, Jr., on what is now Mill street, in Orono village, near where Wyatt H. Folsom, Esq., lived. The same in- formant locates Mr, Eayres's house on what is now Middle street, a short distance from the Universalist par- sonage, and nearly in rear of the Orono House.

The first mill in the town, built by the same two men above mentioned, was on the south side of the Stillwater, near a small island, and not far from the match factory. Captain David Reed, at some subsequent date, built a saw-mill on the same spot.

Esther Eayres, daughter of Mr. Joshua Eayres, was the first white child born in Orono. Her birth was on April 30, 1777.

In 1800 Mr. Eayres moved to Passadumkeag, leaving his name to the island which has since become the seat of the most extensive lumber manufacture in the State, and also to the falls, which had been previously known as Penobscot Great Falls, and still earlier as Arumsumhun- gan Falls.

Mr. Colburn continued in this town till the time of his death. It is believed that he was born in Dracut, Mass- achusetts, in 1726. His wife's maiden name was Fanny Hodgkins.

During 1775 Mr. Colburn, while at Camden in charge of ammunition and stores, was surprised by a party of British soldiers, taken prisoner, and carried to Bagaduce (Castine). An exchange having been afterwards effected, he returned to Camden to find that his buildings had been entirely destroyed. His household effects, however, had been removed, and were uninjured.

Mr. Colburn owned or occupied nearly all the territory upon which the main part of the village is now located, reaching up the Stillwater as far as the farm now belong- ing to Mrs. Eliza W. Wyman. He died in 1808, and was buried in the old cemetery near South Water street.

John Marsh, then called the " Interpreter," was born in 1749, in Mendon, Massachusetts, and came to Orono in 1774 with Mr. Jeremiah Colburn, whose daughter Sarah was afterward his wife. His title to the Indian grant of Marsh Island was afterward confirmed by the Com- monwealth, and he held his possessions undisturbed. Oldtown, Great Works, Pushaw, and portions of Lower and Upper Stillwater-altogether not less than five thou- sand acres-are in that grant. Their aggregate popula- tion at the present time must be about five thousand.

Captain Abram Tourtellotte, who was born in 1744, came to Orono from Rhode Island in 1781, and made his first settlement on the farm on the Bangor road which is now the property of Mr. Samuel Page. He lived on this farm thirty-eight years, and died there in the year 1819.

Samuel White, born in Mendon, Massachusetts, in 1760, moved to Orono in 1784. He married Fanny Colburn, daughter of the pioneer Jeremiah Colburn, and first settled near Upper Stillwater, but soon after removed to the island farm occupied so long a time since by his son Daniel.

Captain Daniel Jameson, a shipmaster, was a native of Freeport, Maine. About the year 1785 he came to Or- ono and married another member of the Colburn family, Miss Betsey Colburn. He was the father of Mrs. Wil- liam Colburn, Jr., and Daniel Jameson, well known in Orono for many years.

Joseph Page, from Rhode Island, came to Orono soon after the close of the Revolutionary war. His settlement was made on the Bangor road farm now occupied by James Page.

Antoine Lachance was born in Quebec in 1750 or 1751. In November, 1782, he was married to Miss Sarah Buzze, and they probably moved soon after this to Orono. In a deposition given in 1837 Lachance says he had resided where he then did-on the southwest corner of the upper College lot - forty-odd years. He re- mained there till his death August 6, 1839. He was a "squatter" upon the northerly farm now occupied by the State College, but after living there twenty years he con- veyed the lot to James Harrison. Living on the same place another twenty years, he testified that his deed was worthless, and that the land rightfully was the property of Seth Wright, a resident of Northampton, Massachu- setts, held by a deed from John Marsh.

Sometime before 1790, Robert, John, Joshua, and Joseph Treat removed to Orono from Frankfort, in Waldo county. Their business was lumbering and fish- ing. John moved to Enfield, where he died a few years ago. Robert was a business man in Bangor for many years. Joshua was "the great hunter" who erected his cabin near Fort Pownall in 1760, and is generally reputed to have been the first permanent white settler on the river. There are now no descendants of the brothers in town.

As early as 1785 there came into what is now Oldtown a man by the name of William Lunt. He had a large family of children, some of whom afterwards remained in this part of the town. Several grandchildren are living there at the present day.

In 1790 Mr. Abram Freese and his three sons-John, Retire W., and Isaac-came to Orono from Bangor. The father made his first settlement on the lot on the Stillwater road afterwards owned by his son, Retire W., half a century or more. As far as soil and location goes, this farm is considered one of the best farms in this part of the State. On this place the father erected the first frame building in Orono. He died here about the year 1800.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

One of the earliest settlers was Captain David Read, who came from Topsham in 1793. In 1800 he put up the second frame house in town. This stood a few rods north of the hall, and was owned and occupied subse- quently by John Bennoch, Esq.

The first tavern in town was kept here by Perez Graves, and here occurred the first meeting for the elec- tion of town officers, April 7, 1806. In 1786 he built the first mill where the stone mill now stands.

Mr. John Read, son of Captain David Read, was chosen for one of the Selectmen at the first meeting after the incorporation of the town. George, another son, died here many years ago ; his son, Mr. Hugh Read, is the present proprietor of the Orono Hotel.

Mr. Joseph Inman was the first occupant of the farm which was at a later date the property of John Read. Some of his descendants are in Orono at the present time.

About 1795 Andrew Webster settled in this town, from Salisbury, Massachusetts. He removed to Castine when a young man, thence in the year 1771 to Bangor, where he lived near the crossing of Main and Water streets. In Orono his house was where the residence of his grand- daughter, Mrs. Joseph Treat, now stands. The old home was removed in 1835. Of his large family but three set- tled in Orono.

Captain Francis Wyman, who was a native of Phipps- burg, Maine, came to Orono either in 1792 or the fol- lowing year. His settlement was on the Upper Stillwater road, on the farm occupied now by Elijah Wyman, his son.

Archibald McPhetres moved from Arrowsic, in the present county of Sagadahoc, to Bangor in 1771, and twenty-four years later settled in Orono, on the Bangor road. Four of his five sons remained as residents here. The name, which indicates Scotch descent, is sometimes written "McPheadris."

Early in the history of Orono, some time before 1800, William Duggans came as a settler. He owned a house somewhat off from the Bangor road and below the farm of Mr. John Read. He first lived on the place owned since by David McPhetres, this side of the "Mac Brook."

At a very early day in the history of this town the name of Spencer was heard; but the persons to whom it belonged are not easily identified. Among them, how- ever, were two of the same name-Nathaniel. The one who lived here being smaller than the one living on the east side of the main river, was known everywhere sim- ply by the appellation, "Little 'Thaniel."

There came from Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1798, one Ard Godfrey, who settled on the farm on the Stillwater road nearest to the Oldtown line. He was a mill-wright, and so his labor was in great demand. Dur- ing many years he was Town Treasurer. He was elected Constable and Collector at the first town meeting, which was held in the year 1806. The year following the April meeting was held in his house. The first mill at St. An- thony's Falls, Minnesota, was built by his son, of the same name.

George Ring, Sr., came to Orono in 1800, and when Joshua Eayres removed to Passadumkeag, occupied the house which he had built. He was born in 1759, in Georgetown, this State.

MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION.

Previous to 1806, during certainly twenty years, the people lived under the organization known as "Stillwater Plantation." This place seems first to have been known as "Deadwater;" but one Owen Madden, a discharged soldier of Burgoyne's army, who had spent some time at Stillwater, New York, changed the name from "Dead" · to "Still," as having a preferable sound. Mr. Madden seems to have been a school-master in Bangor and Orono.

March 12, 1806, the Plantation became a town by an act of the Massachusetts Legislature entitled "An Act to incorporate the Plantation heretofore called Stillwater, in the county of Hancock, into a Town by the name of Orono." The act was approved by Governor Strong, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

After the incorporation of the town, the first meeting for the election of officers was called by Richard Wins- low, a Justice of the Peace residing at Oldtown, by a warrant dated March 27, 1806, and directed to Andrew Webster, who was Constable. This meeting was held at the house of Captain David Read, in Stillwater village, April 7, 1806. It is not recorded that any formal vote was taken to accept the act of incorporation, but that defect, if it were such, was cured by the equivalent trans- actions of the meeting .*

At this first meeting $75 were voted for contingent ex- penses and $1,000 for roads, to be paid in labor. Noth- ing was granted for schools, but the next year $200 were voted and $50 in 1808. Forty-six votes were cast for Governor in 1816.

There was a lively scare all through this part of the country in the spring of 1814, when the British were och cupying Hampden and Bangor. A town meeting was held in Orono, and the following resolve passed :

That we choose a committee to make inquiry and to find out the intentions of the British towards the inhabitants of this town, and if it appears to them that they intend to invade this town, to report the same to the inhabitants, and also to have authority to call the inhabit- ants together at the shortest notice possible, to determine what method shall be taken for the preservation of the persons and property of said town.

Captain Eben Webster, William Coburn, Jr., and Samuel White, were appointed such committee; but they do not seem ever to have made a report.

November 3, of the original year, at the third meeting held in the town, it was voted to petition the Court of Common Pleas to send a committee to lay out a road from Bangor to Mr. John Marsh's house. This meeting

*The boundaries of the new town were defined in the act as follow; Beginning at the northeast corner of Bangor, on the Penopscot River, thence by the northeast line of Bangor until it meets the southeast cor- ner of Township No. I, on the second range; then north on the east line of Township No. I, in Pushaw Pond, to the northeast corner of said No. 1; thence north to the northwest corner of the second quarter of Township No. 4; thence by a line drawn on the middle of the eastern channel of Penopscot River, so as to include the whole of the island called Marsh's Island, to the boundary first mentioned.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

was held at the dwelling-house of Mr. Andrew Webster.

The fourth meeting was held April 6, 1807, at the house of Mr. Ard Godfrey. On the question whether the District of Maine should be separated from Massa- chusetts, taken April 1, 1816, there were sixteen votes for and four votes against separation. Another poll taken in August of the same year, brought out a vote of only eight to five. Upon the final vote in April, 1819, only four electors of Orono favored separation, and nineteen were opposed to it. Mr. Jackson Davis was unanimously elected Delegate to the Constitutional Convention.

NOTES OF PROGRESS.

Between the year of the town's incorporation and the the year 1820, its growth was extremely slow. In 1820 the population was only 415-an increase of sixty-four during ten years.

Between 1820 and 1830 there was a more marked ad- vance in population than there had been at any previous time. The census of the latter date showed a population of 1,473.

Mr. Perez Graves kept the first tavern in town, in the house afterwards owned by Mr. Bennoch. This was opened in 1812.

In 1824 Mr. John Read built the tavern on Main street, subsequently known as the Stillwater Exchange. He was the first landlord.

The Stillwater Canal Company was chartered July 6, 1828. It was intended for the passage of rafts from Upper Stillwater and above, to the Penobscot River below Eayres Falls. In 1835 it was opened for the en- tire distance. A part of it had been in use previously.

Jonas Cutting, attorney at law, opened an office in the village in 1826. He could claim that he had been under the teaching of Rufus Choate, the latter having been a tutor in Dartmouth College when he was a student there.

In 1829 a Quarterly Meeting of the Methodists was held at the house of Mrs. Daniel Jameson. Religion had been neglected during the earlier- periods, but now began to receive more attention. The Methodist society here took the form of a strong, earnest band of workers.

The Congregational people occasionally had preaching in dwelling-houses and school buildings.

Between 1830 and 1840 the great land speculation oc- curred. Orono grew, at this time, in a most marvelous manner. The population, which was less than 1,500 in 1830, arose, according to the census of the Selectmen in 1836, to about 6,000, of whom nearly 1,900 were in this village. Lots in Orono were named at city prices, and the man who had not given a bond of village property, or did not already own some, became of no account whatever.

In 1836 the village could boast of twenty-five retail shops.

The Stillwater Canal Bank was incorporated March 21, 1835. Business began in the summer or early in the fall of the same year. The first President was Albert G. Brown, and the first Cashier, E. P. Butler.

THE FIRST RAILROAD, ETC.

A charter was obtained for the Bangor & Oldtown

Railroad March 8, 1832. The organization of the com- pany, however, was not completed until 1835.

A village corporation, for school and police purposes, and protection against fire, being authorized by a legisla- tive act of February 16, 1837, was organized and contin- ued until the final division of the town.

In 1835 or 1836 a joint stock company, called the Stillwater Iron Foundry, was formed, and a foundry built below the old Sleeper tavern and uot far from the Ham- matt mills. The first manager was Mr. Haley.

After the general collapse of 1836-37, the population decreased, goods were attached and sold at auction, and a widespread prostration of all kinds of business ensued.

During this interval of stagnation Mr. Asa W. Babcock and Captain Samuel Moore engaged in a movement for a free bridge, and worked at the scheme with such energy that the bridge was planned and completed ready for travel in a few months. The bridge ran from near the old foundry site on this side of the river, to a point on the island near the terminus of the more recent railroad bridge.

Some time before the year 1834, a brick school-house was built on the island, and a large wooden one was also erected near Mr. Josiah S. Bennoch's, the one now on Main street, near the Universalist church.

The Congregational church, built by Messrs. Hugh Read and Israel Brown in 1833, was dedicated in the spring of the following year. The first settled pastor was Rev. Josiah Fisher. He continued till 1835.

The lawyers of Orono before the year 1834 were Messrs. Cutting and Perley, John H. Hilliard, Frederick A. Fuller, and Thomas J. Goodwin.

The first murder committed within the limits of Orono was that of Reuben McPhetres by Isaac Spencer, at the house of James McPhetres, on the Bangor road, next below the "Mac Brook."

Between the years 1832 and 1841 no other town was classed with this for Representative to the Legislature. The Representative in 1832 was Noah Nason.

The mills situated on the island end of the Babcock dam were erected in 1832, destroyed by fire the following year, and rebuilt soon after.

THE AROOSTOOK WAR.

Governor Washburn has the following humorous re- marks upon the part borne by this town in the famous but almost bloodless conflict over the Northeastern boun- dary :

From your proximity to the city of Bangor, where the expeditions were fitted out, and from which they moved, as well as from the fact that all the men and munitions passed through your village, and that it was on the line of the company of videttes (extending from Bangor to Masardis),-whose members, if they did not "witch" our Eastern "world with noble horsemanship," afforded an exhibition at which it gazed, and wondered, and smiled, -the excitement in town during the continuance of the "war" was, as will naturally be sup- posed, high-strung and unflagging.

Rumors of battles, of the approach of Mohawk Indians and the bloody Bluenoses, were rife upon your streets, but yet were unable to stifle the sense of the ridiculous and quench the love of fun that ruled the hour, breaking out now in disrespectful remarks at the expense of the glorious company of videttes-and martyrs; now in Otis. Banks' offering a dollar for the head of Thomas Hill, a carpenter and English- man, who was loyal to his native land; and again, in sending a crowd

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

of anxious patriots and wonder-mongers from Whitney's bar-room to my office, to see General Wool, and where they were soberly introduced, by the graceless wag who had sold them, to Artegus Lyon, the colored man.

In 1840, March 16, there was passed an act of division and incorporation of Orono and Oldtown, which had previously formed one town. The June following the census showed Orono to have a population of 1,521, Old- iown 2,345 ;- both towns, 3,866. In the division more than two-thirds of the territory was set off for Oldtown, leaving Orono one of the smallest towns in area in the State.

Immediately following the election of the President in 1840, a gradual revival of business began to be evident. In this neighborhood it showed itself in 1843 and 1844, in greater demands for our great staple, lumber, and in the increase in value of timber lands. By 1847 the im- pulse had grown into an active movement.

February of 1843 saw effected an organization for building a Universalist Church, and on August 24th of the year following, the first Universalist society in Orono was founded.

During the decade between 1840 and 1850 the lawyers in Orono were Frederick A. Fuller, Nathaniel Wilson, Israel Washburn, Jr., and Nathan Weston, Jr. The physicians during the same period were Drs. Ricker and William H. Allen. Dr. Niran Bates was in town for a few months.

Although the census returns of 1860 showed a de- crease in population since the previous census, the in- crease of business and the occupation of more houses than at any previous date showed a wrong count at some time. The population in 1850 was given as 2,785.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 112

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