History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 122

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 122

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Although Prentiss occupies the area of a surveyed township, it is not a full township of thirty-six square miles. No one of its sides, according to the lines of the Atlas of Penobscot county, which purports to be based upon "actual and recent surveys and records," is fully six miles long. The north and south boundaries are each five and a half miles in length; the east line five and a quarter; the west line, by a slight convergence of the north limit, is a trifle shorter, its length being but five and one-sixth miles. All of its boundaries are right lines.

Prentiss is remarkably well watered, only a strip of perhaps a mile's width on the east side of the town being comparatively destitute of streams: No ponds or lakes of 'size exist within its limits; but the southernmost point of Mud Lake, in Drew Plantation, comes down just to the north line, nearly one and a half miles from the

northwest corner. Into it, a little way up the east side and a trifle north of the Prentiss line, comes the Mud Brook from the south. This heads, by its east branch, itself in two branches, near the south line of Drew, in its southeast angle. These unite in Prentiss, half a mile below the line, and as much further away the branch is joined by a small affluent from the east, and flows west a mile and a quarter more to a junction with the West Branch. This rises at the southeastward, about three- fourths of a mile from the middle of the east line of the town, and has a course of about three miles. After the union of the branches, the main stream of the Mud Brook flows one and a half miles further, making a mill- pond at the road crossing half a mile from the junction, and a little beyond the road receives two tributaries, one a pretty long. one, from the southeast, and then makes a sharp bend to the north, receiving at the bend a petty tributary in three branches from the west, and running thence nearly one and a half miles to the Mud Lake.

The waters of the south and southwest of the town belong to the Mattagondus Stream. This rises in two heads in the interior of Carroll, flows southwest and west into Springfield, and near Springfield village makes a big bend and runs north and northeast across the extreme northwest corner of Carroll and into Prentiss by its southwest corner, whence it makes east of north and northwest, nowhere more than three-fourths of a mile from the town line, to about the middle of the west line, where it passes into Webster Plantation, and thence north through Webster to the east part of Kingman, where it flows into the Mattawamkeag. About three and a half miles of its course are in Prentiss. Three-fourths of a

486

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

mile from its entrance it receives a small stream from Webster; and about a mile from the southwest corner of the town takes from the southeast the waters of Spruce Brook, which in Carroll seems to be called Trout Brook. It rises in that town, very near the main head of the Mattagondus itself, and flows about three miles northwest to that stream. A mile further north the united waters of the Prescott and Cleaves Brooks are welcomed. The former of these rises on the south line of Prentiss, very near the head of a Carroll stream, which becomes one of the tributaries of Baskahegan Lake, in Washington county, and the Prescott flows northwest two miles to a junction with the Cleaves Brook one-fourth of a mile be- fore it reaches the Mattagondus. The Cleaves rises toward the southeast of the town, and flows in a tolera- bly straight course a little north of west three and a half miles to the Mattagondus, which leaves the town a mile and a half below.

In the central east of the town are two small head- waters and about half a mile of the united stream of a brook that flows into Washington county, and probably belongs to the Baskahegan system.

Prentiss is quite well settled, considering its situation far in the interior and on the border, as it were ; and contrary to the story of most of its fellows of the county, it has steadily increased in population within the last twenty years. Most of the settlements are in the west half of the town, although there is a good-sized cluster of dwellings a little east of the central south part of the town about School No. 4. The settlements are so far so scattered that the town has not yet been granted a post-office, but is still dependent upon its neighbors for mail facilities. By the main highway through Prentiss, from Springfield village through the southwest corner of this town, and traversing it northeasterly for three miles, then north a little more than three miles to and through Drew Planta- tion into Aroostook, connection is made with the Europe- an & North American Railroad at Lincoln Station, twenty to twenty-five miles away ; and another and nearer ac- cess is had to the same road by a highway which leaves the main route in Prentiss about the middle of its course through the town, and runs northeast across the corner of Washington county to Danforth Station, in the edge of Aroostook, about thirteen miles from the east line of Prentiss. The two roads, with one branching from the former in the northeast corner of Springfield, running up the Mattagondus on the west bank, and following it out into Webster Plantation, sending off a north branch to Mud Lake shortly before crossing the line, constitute the principal roads of Prentiss. There is another, however, which leaves a by-road on the Mattagondus half a mile from the west line of the town, and runs southeast, east, and south about four and one-half miles, to its departure into Carroll, nearly two miles from the southeast corner of Prentiss. School No. 4, and the settlement about it, are on this line. School No. 2 is in the north central part of the town, at the beginning of a road which strikes across to the Mud Lake route. School No. 6 is about half a mile north of the point of junction. School No. I is on the same road, to Springfield, in the south

. west angle of the town. One and one-half miles west of north from it is School No. 6 school-house, on the road up the Mattagondus.

The first trees felled on this tract by permanent set- tlers were cut in 1836 by Messrs. Ira and Eben Averill, on the farms where they have resided for nearly half a century. The family is a prominent one in the town. The Centre House, the only hotel in Prentiss, is kept by Eben Averill, and Mr. Ira Averill is Constable and Collector-or was in 1881.

In 1837 the following-named gentlemen were residents of the tract: Joshua T. Baldwin, John Judkins, An- drew Philbrook, Benjamin Osgood, and John Austin. A number of the descendants of these pioneers are still residents of the town.

Such are the statements that have come to the writer. It will be observed below, however, that the family of Mr .. Judkins claim for him the honor of the first settle- ment, and his year as 1838.

In 1840 the following additional immigrants are noted as having been here: Messrs. Abraham Cleaves, Sam- uel Dennis, John Prescott, and Harvey Shepherd.

It was twenty-two years after the first settlers got in before the population of the township warranted full municipal organization. The town was incorporated on the 27th of February, 1858. The late Hon. Henry E. Prentiss, a prominent and wealthy citizen of Bangor, and formerly its Mayor, was a principal owner of the tract, and in his honor the new town received its present name. He was a liberal and public-spirited citizen; and among his benefactions to the town, in recognition of the honor conferred upon him, was a present of a public library of three hundred volumes, which has been a prominent means of disseminating and maintaining general intelli- gence in this region.

With two exceptions-Mattawamkeag and Mt. Chase -Prentiss is the latest town organized in the county.

March 1, 1869, a small annexation of territory was made to this town from Drew Plantation.

The population of Prentiss in 1860 rumbered 226. In 1870 it was 387, and in 1880 416, which certainly ex- hibits a healthy growth, considering the times.

The polls in 1860 were 56, 75 in 1870, and 103 in 1880.

The estates in these years, respectively, were valued at $27,165, $54,385, and $67,789. In all the elements of material growth Prentiss has kept steadily on the up- ward move.

Farming is nowadays the principal occupation in this town, and it is becoming a fine agricultural district. Eight thousand bushels of grain, 2,000 bushels of pota- toes, and 1,000 of apples, were raised here in 1878. There was formerly much lumbering on the tract, but the valuable timber has now been largely cut. In 1861 George E. Baldwin built a saw-mill here, and still main- tains it. There are no other important industries or trades in the town just now. One of the town officers, writing to a friend three or four years ago, recorded, evi- dently with some glee, the fact that "there never was a lawyer, doctor, nor a minister a resident of the town."

487

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

The following-named were the officers of the town in 1881: T. M. Butterfield, Elias Boyington, C. W. Jud- kins, Selectmen; E. D. Averill, Town Clerk; Edwin Belden, Treasurer ; Ira Averill, Constable and Collector; B. F. Osgood, Jr., School Supervisor; Daniel Butters, Benjamin D. Averill, Elias Boyington (Quorum), Justices.

The first settler in Prentiss was John Judkins, who came here from Fayette, Maine, in 1838. He married Anna Baldwin, and had a family of nine children- Horace P., Emily, Ernestine, Norman B., John B., Maria, and Amelia (twins), Nahum A., and Charles W. When Mr. Judkins came here there was not a tree cut in town towards a farm. He cleared the land and erected the building where C. W. Judkins now lives. He often held prominent town office, and was a Representative in the Legislature at one time. He died in 1878; Mrs. Jud- kins died in 1866. C. W. Judkins was born September 4, 1834. He came here with his father, and lived in an old camp until his father could erect a house. On be- coming of age he went to Minnesota, and remained two years, when he returned to the old farm. In 1863 he was drafted in the Nineteenth Maine Regiment, and was in the army nearly two years. Since then he has lived on the farm, and been engaged in lumbering to some ex- tent. He married Lizzie Gibbs, daughter of James and Julia Gibbs, of Carroll. They have three children- Anna, Oscar, and Leroy. Mr. Judkins holds the office of Assessor and Selectman at the present time, having served in that capacity several years.

Benjamin F. Osgood, of Prentiss, whose father was one of the first settlers in the town, came here in 1839. He is a son of Benjamin and Isabel Osgood, of Oxford county, Maine. Benjamin and Isabel Osgood had seven children, viz: Sarah ; Maria, wife of Eben Averill, of Prentiss ; Charlotte, wife of Phineas Merrill, of Dan- forth ; Ruth, deceased wife of William P. Tidd, of this town ; Samuel, deceased ; James A., of Danforth. Ben- jamin Osgood died in 1865 ; Mrs. Osgood died in 1852. B. F. Osgood was born February 13, 1826, in Saco, Maine. He came here with his father when thirteen years of age, and helped to clear the farm where he now lives. Mr. Osgood married for his first wife Mary M. Doten, daughter of Isaac Doten, of Springfield. By her he had nine children, of whom seven are living : Josephine E., deceased; Frank E., now of Prentiss; Belle; Fred L., now in Nevada; Benjamin F., at home; Forest E., at home; Prentiss; Jesse; Myra, deceased. Mrs. Osgood died in 1871. Mr. Osgood married for his second wife Mrs. Melissa Homes, of Calais. They have three children- Bert, Jay Dix, and Charles R. Mr. Osgood has held the office of Town Clerk and First Selectman for several years in succession.

Among the early settlers who came to Prentiss in 1840 were two brothers, Eben and Ira Averill, who came here from Bangor. Their father, Asa Averill, of Pittston, married Mary Catlin, of Newcastle. They had seven children, viz : Martha, Mary, Eben, Ira, Hiram, Asa, and Sarah, all of whom are living except Mary. Asa Averill died many years since ; Mrs. Averill died in 1822. Eben Averill was born April 15, 1812. On becoming of age

he went to Dixmont and worked two years on a farm, at the end of which he went to Bangor and worked by the month at farming, teaming, etc., until 1840, when he came to Prentiss, then No. 7, Range 3, and began to make a farm. He and his brother came through to this place from Lincoln on foot, following a spotted line and bringing supplies on their backs. They felled about fif- teen acres that year, and built a log house. They brushed out a road during the fall to Lincoln, so that during the winter they could draw in some provisions with a horse for use the next season. In 1839 Eben married Maria Osgood, daughter of Benjamin Osgood, of Bangor. In 1841, the next year after he made his first chopping, he brought his wife to his new home. They came in March on a sled. Here they have since lived. They have had seven children, viz : Ann M., wife of C. A. Rowe, of Prentiss ; Abbie Isabel, wife of A. R. Page, of Drew Plantation ; Alberta M., now Mrs. George B. Gates, of Carson City, Nevada ; Pert Edna, wife of Edward Skil- linger, of Danforth ; Mabel, wife of George Larrabee, of Carroll ; Pitt Eben, now with his father at home; Asa M., now at home. Mr. Averill has held the office of Justice of the Peace, Selectman, etc.

Leonard Lothrop, of Prentiss, is a son of Alson Lo- throp, of Leeds, Kennebec county, Maine. He married Miss Hulda Richmond, of Turner. They had nine chil- dren-Alson, Drusilla, Leonard, Daniel, Nathan, Eaton, Rossa, Henry, and Stillman. Leonard, the second son of this family, was born April 22, 1817, in Leeds. He first settled in Jay, where he lived several years, when he moved to Carroll, where he lived about two years. He moved into Prentiss in 1851, where he has since lived. When he came here there were but twelve acres cleared on his present farm. There was no road and he had to haul goods on a sled in summer either by hand or oxen. He married Fannie Warner, daughter of Benjamin Warner. They have had eight children-Charles, died in the army; Mary F., deceased; Nathan, deceased; Har- rison, deceased; Eaton, now in Lynn, Massachusetts; Samuel, of Prentiss; Nancy, wife of William Fogaty, of Prentiss, and Henry, now at home. Mr. Lothrop has 180 acres of land, and is engaged in farming.

George Baldwin, of Prentiss, was born December 20, 1832. His father, Joshua Baldwin, was a native of Fay- ette, Kennebec county. He married Sarah Morrill, of Hallowell. They had five children, viz : John M., de- ceased; Albert, now in Danforth, Maine; Joshua D., de- ceased; George; William H., now in Minneapolis, Minn- esota. Joshua Baldwin came to Prentiss in 1839 and settled on the place where Mr. Frank Osgood now re- sides. He cleared up the farm and built the buildings on it. He died July 3, 1879. George Baldwin came here when about seven years old with his father. After becoming of age he built a saw-mill in 1861, and rebuilt it in 1879. He has a small farm in connection with his mill. He married Frances Lane, daughter of Calvin Lane, of Carroll. They have six children, viz: Calvin, Frank, Flora, Joshua, Myra, and Belle. Mr. Baldwin has held the office of Town Clerk, School Committee, etc. His place is near the central part of the town.

SPRINGFIELD.

This town, as before noted, is a close neighbor of Prentiss, with which it corners at the northeast. It is bounded on the north by Webster Plantation, east by Carroll, south by Lakeville Plantation, and west by Lee. It has Winn at the northwest corner, across which is its nearest distance to the railroad and the river, seven miles, and Township No. 3, in the first range north of the Bingham Penobscot Purchase, at the southwest. Lakeville Plantation stretches so far to the east that it does not corner with Springfield at the southeast. Spring- field is separated by only that tract from Hancock county; by Carroll only from Washington; and by Webster and Kingman, with a strip of Mattawamkeag, from Aroostook county. It is forty miles northeast of Bangor, as the crow flies.

Springfield was formerly Township No. 5, in Range 2, north of the Bingham Penobscot Purchase. It is pretty nearly an entire township, even by the lines of the County Atlas. . According to that, the north boundary of the town is almost six miles; but, by some convergence of east and west lines, the south limit is reduced to about a quarter of a mile less. The west line is five and two- thirds miles long ; but by another deflection of the north and south pair of boundaries, the east line measures nearly one-third of a mile less. The confines of the town are unbroken ; but the east line passes through the western part of a small lake lying mostly in Carroll, and ending about a mile from the southeast corner of Spring- field. A little more than half a mile's length, and a very narrow breadth of this sheet, lie in Springfield. Half a mile northwest of it is the Beaver Pond, an ellipse of about one hundred rods' length by seventy-five rods' breadth, from which flows a small, short outlet to the Mattagondus Stream. This enters Springfield from Car- roll about two and a half miles down the east line, flows a mile or so westward, and then makes north and east of north, in a total course of three and a half miles in this town, to an exit a short distance below the northeast cor- ner, across the corner of Carroll, into Prentiss. About a mile from its exit it expands into a small pond, which sends a brief outlet to a similar sheet on the east branch of the Mattakeunk Stream. This water has its head in the southeast angle of Webster Plantation, and shortly flows into Springfield, through which it courses in a great curve for about six and a half miles, being about one and a quarter miles from the north line of the town at the lowest depth of the curve, and leaving the town exactly at the northwest corner. About one and a half miles from its entrance it is expanded into a rather long mill- pond, which furnishes power to shingle and carding-mills at its foot. Less than two miles further a sizable tribu-

tary comes in from the south, which rises nearly a mile southwest of Beaver Pond, and flows in a very winding course of about five miles to its junction with the East Branch. Near Springfield village rises a two-mile afflu- ent of this brook, which flows northwesterly to it. Less than a mile west of this brook is the source of a small stream, which runs northwest and southwest two and a half miles to a good-sized pond, from which departs to the northwest an affluent of the West Branch of the Mat- takeunk in Lee, and another to the southwest, which reaches Ware Lake in the same town. Half a mile be- fore leaving Springfield, this is joined by a small two-mile tributary from the southeast. Along about two-thirds of a mile of the east end of the south line of the town, flows a section of the Lowell Brook, coming out of Lake- ville Plantation and returning to it to flow into Duck Lake, a mile and a half distant. About the middle of this section it receives in Springfield a tributary from the north of perhaps one and a half miles' length.

The main road in Springfield, being the stage-route from Lincoln Station, on the European & North Ameri- can Railroad, to Calais, runs through the central part of the town, nearly east and west. Large part of the pop- ulation of the town is on this road. Besides the village at Springfield post-office, which has a Congregational church, cemetery, hotel, and other public conveniences, there is a dense cluster of dwellings a mile west of it, where two roads from the south join the stage-route, and where a valuable water-power is created by the tributary of the East Branch of the Mattakeunk. Here are a Union church, a cemetery, and several mills and shops. School No. 10 and a store are within a mile and a half to the west. Here (at School No. 10) a road runs off to the south, connecting at School No. 7 and the neighbor- ing cemetery with another east and west road, rather thinly settled as yet, which intersects the entire south part of the town. Half a mile west of this junction a neighborhood road runs off to the southwest corner of the town. One and a half miles west of the School No. 7 junction is School No. 6, where another cross-road runs north and northeast to the dense settlement west of Springfield post-office. Just after entering the town from Carroll, the southern road westward, at a pretty thick cluster of settlement, sends off a two-and-a- half-mile road north to the stage-road a little east of the post-office. Upon this are School No. 2 and a cemetery. From the post-office a highway runs through another dense settle- ment a mile or more north, and then northeast to the corner of the town, just before reaching which it forks and enters Prentiss in two branches, both of which, as before noted, make their way entirely across that town.

488

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUN

4 --

On the stage-road, nearly two miles west of the post- office, a road runs northwest into Lee, crossing the town line half a mile below the northwest corner. From the point of exit a road runs straight down the west line of the town to the stage-road, two and a half miles distant. About half-way down, near the cemetery, a road runs a mile west, and as far north, to the former highway.

The first settlers got into this township in 1830. Their names have never been disclosed to the present writer, but it is known that James Butterfield was the first trader. Population must have flowed in somewhat rapidly, for the town was organized within less than four years-on the 12th of February, 1834. It is said then to have had about three hundred inhabitants, and by 1840 the num- ber had increased to 546.

The northern half of this town was included in the grant made the State Legislature for the sustenance of Foxcroft Academy. It was presently sold by the trustees of that institution to land and lumber operators in Ban- gor at the cheap though then sufficient rate of thirty-one cents per acre. It was a valuable tract, heavily timbered with pine and spruce.

The southern half of the township was conveyed by the State directly to actual settlers and others. It is ac- counted to comprise some of the best land in the State, and has largely contributed to give Springfield character and reputation as a farming town. When, in 1837, the State offered a premium for the largest and best produc- tion of wheat within its borders, the prize was taken by Springfield, in which as yet no field had been cleared as much as seven years. Mr. Samuel C. Clark was the suc- cessful contestant, he having raised that year on his place 1,340 bushels of wheat and 435 of other grain, making a total product of 1,775 bushels. Some of the farmers in this town have grown wealthy by the pursuits of agri- culture.

For some years in its early day the growth of this town was comparatively slow. Settlers were discouraged from coming in and locating by the heavy tax imposed upon estates by the incurring of a debt of $6,000 for the con- struction of two county roads through the town-but one of which, it has been thought in later years, would have been sufficient for the needs of the people. About one- fourth of all tax levied for a period of years went to pro- vide for interest and payment of this debt ; and settle- ment was thereby somewhat retarded. The courageous and honest citizens of Springfield, however, by no means repudiated the debt, incubus as it was on the town; but provided fully for its payment, and it was extinguished in about thirty years from the time of its contraction.

From 1840 to 1850 the population of Springfield rose but thirty-seven, or from 546 to 583. But during the next ten years there was an increase of 271, the people numbering 854 in 1860. There were 879 in 1870, and 878 in 1880. The town has come remarkably near to holding its own in the matter of population, and has as nearly held its own in the number of voters. In 1860 there were 186 polls, 199 in 1870, and 193 in 1880. The estates in these several years were officially valued at $84,228, $122,230, and $105,242.

March 14, 1846, a Congregational society was formed by residents of this town and of Carroll and Lee. About the year 1859 a fine church edifice, costing $2,500, was put up in Springfield and dedicated by this society. There have been two Free Baptist societies in the town, but only one seems still to survive, which has the Rev. Horace Graves for pastor. Rev. J. C. Towle is pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church. The pulpit of the Con- gregational society is temporarily vacant.

The town is well supplied with schools, and a high school has been maintained for a number of years.

The only society not of a religious character just now maintained in the town is the Forest Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. The Beacon Light Lodge of the In- dependent Order of Good Templars existed until a year or two ago.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 122

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