History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 123

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 123

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There is still much manufacturing in Springfield, in- cluding one grist-mill, one grist- and shingle-mill, three mills making long and three making short lumber, one woolen manufacturer, two boot and shoe-makers, and one maker of edge tools.

Other business establishments comprise four general stores, two millinery and fancy goods stores, two black- smith shops, one carpenter, and one carpenter and builder, and one painter.

The professional men of Springfield are two resident physicians and one lawyer.

A hotel is kept by Hiram Burr.

The public officers in 1881 were the following-named : Melvin M. Lewis, Postmaster; H. B. Lewis, Asia Jones, William H. Murdock, Selectmen; G. A. Lewis, Town Clerk; P. C. Jones, Treasurer; A. H. Hanscom, Consta- ble and Collector; Miss J. A. Reed, C. J. Lewis, Everett Murdock, School Committee; Hiram Burr, L. C. Stearns (Quorum), L. W. Drake (Trial), Justices.

One of the early settlers in Springfield was Mr. Rob- inson Conforth, who came here from West Waterville, Maine, in 1843, and made a chopping. The next year he brought his family and built a house. He married for his first wife Luzetta Young. They had five children- Birks, Elvira, Helen, Asa, and Norilla, all of whom are living except Norilla. Mrs. Conforth died in 1864. Mr. Conforth married for his second wife Melinda Hussey, daughter of Ebenezer Hussey, of West Waterville, Maine. They had eight children-Rosetta, wife of George Mayo, of Nevada; Gardner; William, deceased; Melvin, now in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Sarah, wife of Franklin Manter, of Milo; Charles, now in Montana; and Eben, deceased. Mr. Conforth died March 27, 1877. Mrs. Conforth is now living with her son Gard- ner. Gardner Conforth was born July 16, 1839, in West Waterville. He came to Springfield with his father when a small boy, and has ever since lived on the old place. He has helped to clear up and make the farm where he lives. He married Henrietta Coombs, daughter of El. bridge Coombs, of Orono, Maine. They have four chil- dren-Linna B., Dona D., Charlie A., Lena B. They lost one in infancy.

One of the oldest and first settlers in the town of Springfield is Hiram Burr, who came to Brewer from

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Massachusetts, and was among the first settlers in Brewer. He was a ship carpenter. He had ten chil- dren that grew up. Of these five are now living-Mary, now Mrs. Forbs, of Delaware; Hiram; Martha, now Mrs. Winslow; Harriet, now Mrs. Godfrey, of Minnesota; Ben- jamin A., of Bangor. Hiram Burr is the fourth son of the family. He was born October 9, 1810, in Brewer. He has always followed farming, though since living here he has kept public house in connection with his farm. He came to Springfield when eighteen years of age in 1828. He married Betsey L. Johnson, daughter of Stephen Johnson, who came here from Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Burr have had four children-Henrietta, wife of Emery Johnson, of this town; Benjamin H., of this town; Almira, wife of Henry H. Scribner, of Cali- fornia; and Hiram J., of Springfield. Mr. Burr came to this town when there were but five acres cleared and no road within thirty-two miles from here. They had to go to Lincoln to get supplies and bring them in on their backs. The first fall their provisions failed, and they lived about three months on beans and musty meal with a little salt. They brought in provision enough to last till their crops came off, but they were stolen. The privations which these early settlers underwent were very severe indeed. Mr. Burr has been prominent in leading

positions in the town here many years. He and his wife are now spending their old age in the village he has seen grow from the first house to the present.

William Olmsted, of Springfield, is a son of David Olmsted, of New York. David Olmsted married Rhoda Manley for his first wife, and William is a son of this couple. He was born June 24, 1811, in Plattsburg, New York, and is the only child in the family who lived to grow up. His father was a blacksmith by trade and a soldier in the War of 1812. On becoming of age he engaged in the business of house carpenter and joiner; he has always had a farm, though, on which his family have lived. He came to Springfield in January, 1835, and soon after bought the place where he now lives. January 22, 1835, he married Lydia G. Duren, daughter of William and Lydia Duren. They have had twelve children, eleven of whom were-David, deceased; Wil- liam Henry, now of Lowell, Maine; Isaac L., in Bangor; Joseph A., of Bangor; Calvin M., died in the army in 1865; Cynthia M., at home, and Elmer E., at home. There died in early life Elsie L., H. Hamlin, Sylvester B., Eliza A. Mr. Olmsted has been engaged in trade for many years, but is now closing out the goods in his store. He has lived in Springfield since 1835.

STETSON.

Stetson belongs to the range of towns next north of the Bangor range. It is ten and a half miles distant from Bangor. It is separated from the west county line, or Palmyra, in Somerset county, only by Newport, which bounds it on the west; from Dover, Piscataquis county, on the north, only by Exeter, its next neighbor on the north, and Garland; and from Monroe, Waldo county, on the south, only by Etna and Carmel, which bound Stetson by about equal breadths on the south, and be- yond them by the halves of Dixmont and Newburg. Levant is the adjacent town on the east. Corinth cor- ners with it on the northeast, and Corinna on the north- west.

Stetson, by its position and intended shape, should be a regular township, six miles square; but comes a very little short of it. The south and east lines are each six miles long; but, by the slight convergence of the latter toward the east line the north boundary of the town is shortened about one fourth of a mile, and the east line is about as much shorter than the west. The town, how- ever, is not much shortened by these differences, and

still contains nearly the even thirty-six square miles, and is generally credited, as in the Maine Register, with the full 23,040 acres of an even township.

Across the north central part of the town, east and west, from a point two and one-fourth miles distant from the west line to another nearly a mile from the east line, lies the fine body of water called Stetson Pond. It is almost three miles in length, not quite a mile in greatest breadth toward the west end, and perhaps half a mile in average width. At the east end (head of the Pond), by the cemetery and blacksmith's shop, it receives a small tributary from the east, heading in Levant; and about a mile from the other end, on the north shore, it discharges its waters through the Stetson Stream, which has a course westward of three miles in this town and about two in Newport, where it empties into a small bay on the east shore of the great Newport Pond. Half a mile before leaving Stetson it takes in a tributary from the north, which rises in Exeter. At Stetson post-office, a mile from the pond, it receives a very small stream from the north, and midway between this and the other a somewhat

View of Stetson Pond -- From Premises.

4 .

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

larger one from the south. One-fourth of a mile from its source at the pond, it has a two- or three-mile tribu- tary flowing down from Exeter. The pond has two sim- ilar affluents on its north side, also heading in Exeter, the westernmost of them receiving a short branch three- fourths of a mile from the pond, which flows wholly in this town. Across the northeast angle, in a course of about two miles in the town, from Exeter to Levant, flows a tributary of the Little Kenduskeag Stream.

In the south central part of Stetson rise two heads of a tributary of the Etna and Carmel Pond, flowing in from the north. A small section of this pond, about half a mile long by perhaps sixty rods in average breadth, occu- pies the central south edge of Stetson. It receives in this town a very small affluent at its northwest point. Near its northeast shore rises a tiny stream, which, with another coming down half a mile from the north, enters at the same place a petty pond half a mile east of the .north shore of Etna and Carmel Pond, and from it a small brook flows into Carmel. Two miles to the north- east are three headwaters of a tributary of the Sowadabs- cook Stream, in Carmel, which (the tributary) flows about two miles in Springfield.

This town has two main roads across it east and west, and one from north to south-the latter what is known as Brown's stage route from Exeter to Etna. This enters from Exeter, a little more than one and a half miles east of the northwest corner of Stetson, and makes a bee-line just as far to Stetson post-office. There it diverges a little to the eastward, but keeps a general south course to the other side of the town, where it leaves just west of Etna and Carmel Pond, into the northeast angle of Etna. Three-fourths of a mile before crossing the line it passes School No. 7, and a little above that the cemetery, where a road ends which comes in from Carmel a mile from the southeast corner of Stet- son, and runs northwest and west to this point. A mile above this it crosses the lowermost east and west, or Newport and Plymouth road. This traverses Stetson at a general distance of two and a half miles from the south line, passing School No. 5 one and a half miles from the east line, where a short cross road starts off toward the pond, and thence northeast to the main road beyond East Stetson; also School No. 3, near the east line of the town, where the road southwest from Stetson post-office joins the main road, which here itself angles to the southwest, and runs on to and through East Newport.

East Stetson is the settlement about a mile northeast of the Pond, clustered near the two or three road- junctions in that quarter. A road here comes in from Levant, which runs west and northwest about a mile and a quarter, when it strikes almost a straight line westerly, passing the Town Farm a mile and a half from the east town-line, School No. 1 a little further, and two and a half miles further Stetson village and post-office, whence a mile and a half further take the road out of town and toward North Newport .: Near School No. 1 .it sends a short cross-road northward, which at its north end inter- sects near the beginning another east and west road, which strikes nearly an air line across the rest of the town

into Newport. Half a mile west of this junction, at School No. 4, and at another point about a mile west of that, it starts off two north roads into Exeter, which presently cross at School-house No. 13, in that town. At the East Stetson end of the east and west road next south, a branch highway comes in from the northwest angle of Levant, and joins the main road about a mile from the town line.

The Maine Central Railroad passes for three-quarters of a mile through the southwest angle of Stetson, from Etna to Newport, but makes no station in this town.

Stetson village is about a mile northwest of the Pond, and very nearly equidistant from the east and north town lines, being about one and two-thirds miles from each, at the crossing of the two important roads upon which the town is situated. It has a post-office, a meet- ing-house, School-house No. 2, a cheese and other fac- tories and mills, and a fair business quarter. The Stet- son Stream passes through it, with a large semi-circular side channel in the heart of the town, and a small tribu- tary joining here from the north.

The soil of Stetson is productive, and the surface of its territory generally level. It is accounted an excellent farming town.

The materials at hand for a history of Stetson are very limited. The first settlers are known to have set the stakes of civilization here at the beginning of the century --- in 1800, it is said. About a generation passed, how- ever, before its population justified full erection as a town. It was not until January 28, 1831, that. it finally received incorporation from the Legislature. The name it bears was derived from an original proprietor, Mr. Amasa Stetson, of Dorchester, Massachusetts. It had been Stetson Plantation for many years ; and, contrary to the frequent custom in this county, the plantation name was continued for the town.

In 1810 Stetson Plantation had 108 population, and 131 in 1820. In 1830, the year of incorporation, Stet- son town had but 114, but made a bound within the next ten years almost unexampled in this county, rising to 616 in 1840. In 1850 there were 885, 913 in 1860, 937 in 1870, and 729 in 1880.

The voters of Stetson numbered 195 in 1860, 214 in 1870, and 218 in 1880-increasing every decade in re- spect of these, although falling off somewhat during 1870-80 in the respects of population and property.

The Stetson estates in 1860, as officially valued for taxation, amounted to $166,127. They were $262,735 in 1870, and $219,399 in 1880.

The churches of Stetson are the Calvinistic Baptist, which has Elder William E. Noyes as a resident minister, but has no pastor at present; Methodist Episcopal, in ·charge during 1881 of the Rev. D. B. Holt, of Exeter ; and the Christian or Disciple, whose pulpit is also vacant just now.

The other important societies of the town are the Stet- son Grange, No. 235, Patrons of Husbandry, which was organized March 1, 1878; and the Reform Lodge, No. 231, Independent Order of Good Templars, formed Au gust 18, 1876.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

The Stetson High School and Library Association, an organization of some reputation and usefulness, was in- corporated March 1, 1870.

The Stetson Cheese Company organized in 1874, with C. H. Foster, President. John Rogers was its first Sec- retary, and Joseph Wiggin first Treasurer. They built and equipped a factory at an expense of $2,500, and ap- pointed Asa S. Spooner as manager. It has carried on business every year since it was built, and manufactures, on an average, over thirty thousand pounds of cheese per annum. The cheese made at the establishment is of the best quality, and always commands the highest mar- ket price. The plan on which the factory is run is as follows: Every person receives one pound of cheese for every ten pounds of milk furnished, which is considered the safest and most profitable plan for all parties inter- ested. Its present Board of Directors are C. H. Foster, R. D. Pulsifer, and John C. Gibson; V. D. Debolt, Pres- ident; H. Daymon, Secretary; John C. Gibson, Jr., Treasurer. The factory is run at an expense of about $500 per annum.

The business of Stetson is at present mainly confined to the Cheese Company, one lumber- and grist-mill, one other saw-mill, two carriage-makers, one boot- and shoe- maker, one harness-maker, two builders, two smiths, three general stores, and one millinery establishment. There are one hotel and one resident physician. The town officers of Stetson in 1881 were: George L. Her- sey, I. W. Tibbetts, G. B. Woodcock, Selectmen; G. M. Bond, Town Clerk; G. L. Hersey, Treasurer; T. P. Townsend, Constable; W. A. Lennan, School Supervisor; Charles H. Goodwin, Newton G. Merrill, Samuel F. Bus- well, (Quorum) John Rogers, C. R. Ireland, (Trial) Justices. The postmasters are C. R. Ireland, at Stetson ; Joseph Pitman, at the South Stetson office.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

This town has produced a full share of the more use- ful and renowned citizens of the county and State. Among them the Hon. Lewis Baker, now of Bangor, and a prominent member of the Executive Council, practiced law in Stetson for about thirty years; and Dr. Calvin Seavey, a leading medical practitioner in the same city, was in full practice in this town for many years. Full biographical sketches of both these gentlemen will be found in the Bangor division of this book.

The following notices of Stetson soldiers during the late war are extracted from the Reports of the Adjutant- General of the State:

BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JONATHAN A. HILL, of Stetson, enlisted as a private in September, 1861, and was commissioned as captain of Company K of the Eleventh Regiment Maine Volunteers in November, 1861; served as captain during the Peninsular campaign of 1862, and was engaged in the battles of Lee's Mills, Williamsburg, Chickahominy, Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, Bottom's Bridge, and the Seven Days' Battle before Richmond. In 1863 he participated in the siege of Charleston, South Caro- lina. In 1864 he distinguished himself at the battles of Richmond, Petersburg Railroad, Chester Station,

Drury's Bluff, Wier Bottom Church, Bermuda Hun- dreds, Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom, and Deep Run ; was promoted Major in June, 1864, and in the same month was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel.

During the campaign of 1865 Colonel Hill won dis- tinction by his bravery, coolness, and judgment at the battles of Hatcher's Run, Forts Gregg and. Baldwin, and Appomattox Court-house, and was commissioned Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers, April 9, 1865.

Colonel Hill was in command of the regiment most of the time from June 2, 1864, until the 16th of August, 1864, when he was wounded and lost his right arm in the hotly contested battle of Deep Run. In November, 1865, Colonel Hill returned to his regiment, and was in command until the surrender of Lee's army, and was again wounded at the battle of Appomattox Court-house, where his regiment suffered severely, losing forty per cent. of their number in killed and wounded. After the sur- render, General Hill was on special and detached duty. in Virginia as President of a military commission at Rich- mond, and in command of the Northwestern District of Virginia at Lynchburg; also at Fredericksburg, of the Northeastern District, and in command of post at City Point, until February 2, 1866, when he was mustered out of the United States service. Since leaving the service, General Hill has been appointed Postmaster at Auburn, a position which he continues to fill to the most perfect satisfaction of his fellow-citizens.

CAPTAIN HENRY F. HILL was born in Stetson, Maine, May 24, 1843, and entered the service of his country as first sergeant Company I, Seventh Maine Volunteers. From the first he won the entire confidence of his supe- rior officers, and was always at his post in time of danger. At Antietam, when his regiment was ordered to take an orchard and house where were Stonewall Jackson's head- quarters, he especially distinguished himself, and in the desperate conflict that ensued in the orchard, he saved the life of his regimental commander. The latter soon after mentioning his services and the act to Governor Washburn, he immediately commissioned him a captain; and when the Seventh Maine returned to the field, he went out in command of Company A.

Conspicuous in every battle from that of Salem Heights, he escaped unscathed until General Grant's great campaign. At Spottsylvania, within twenty yards of the bloody "angle," he fell, shot in the forehead, cheer- ing his company in the charge. As his men were carry- ing his body to the rear, they were ordered to leave it by an officer of rank, slightly wounded in the foot. Discipline prevailed; they went to a needless succor of the living, and his mangled remains were that night consumed by a fire that raged through those tangled thickets and seemed to feed on blood.

The following paragraph is from the Adjutant-General's Report for 1863:

The unparalleled success which attended the labors of Major Joel W. Cloudman, of Stetson, in raising a com- pany of 125 men in less than two weeks in September last, for "Baker's District of Columbia Cavalry," induced the War Department to continue him for a time in that

View of Residence from Pine Hill.+

1.700

RESIDENCE OF JOHN A. JORDAN, STETSON, MAINE.

RESIDENCE OF EDWARD JORDAN, STETSON, MAINE.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

service. His efforts in this behalf will result in the enlist- ment, at trifling expense, of sufficient first-class men for a regiment in less time and at less cost than the same number were ever recruited in this State by any one per- son. It is also worthy of note that all the men of Major Cloudman's enlistment for this cavalry send home through his influence a greater amount of money, com- paratively, to their families and friends than those of any other organization from this State.

The following is a line from the Roll of Honor of Bow- doin College:

Class of 1868 .- S. Fogg, Jr., was born in Stetson in August, 1844; was second lieutenant United States Col- ored Troops.

Samuel Stetson was born in Randolph, Massachusetts, January 12, 1793. When nine years of age his father died and he was bound out, according to the custom in those days, to a person by the name of John Mann, of Randolph, with whom he was obliged to remain until he was twenty-one years of age. Mann proved to be both cruel and stingy, and owing to the fact that he was obliged to furnish two feet of wood for the use of the school, he kept Mr. Stetson at home, and consequently his early education was neglected. But after he at- tained his majority he succeeded in educating himself, and at his death he was perhaps as well informed a man as there was in the town. In 1819 he came to Pe- nobscot county and settled on the farm now owned by his son, Samuel R. He purchased his farm from Major Amasa Stetson, the then proprietor of the town. On the 6th of November, 1821, he married Hannah, daugh- ter of Dr. Thomas Stow Ranney, then of Newport, but formerly of Brentwood, New Hampshire. He died in Stetson, October 31, 1843. His wife died in Stetson October 30, 1876. He was the father of four children: Irene, who married Ralph C. Evlett, and died in Bangor in 1851; Rebecca, who married Henry V. French, of Brockton, Massachusetts, where she now resides; Mary A., who was twice married, first to Dr. John F. H. Turner, who died in Stetson-she afterwards married Franklin O. Howard, and now lives at Brockton, Massa- chusetts; Samuel R. was born in Stetson April 5, 1834, where he has lived all his life. When nineteen years of age his father died and left him the sole manager of the old homestead, consisting of about four hundred acres, and about twenty thousand dollars in personal property. In the summer of 1881 he purchased the Stetson water- power and saw- and flouring-mills at the village of Stetson.

David Abbot was born in York county in 1789, where he lived nearly all his life and followed the trade of blacksmith. He was twice married. His first wife's name was Irene Bowden. She had six children, and died in York in 1823. He married for his second wife Mehitabel Shaw. He came to Penobscot county in 1849, and settled in Levant, where he died in 1851. His second wife was the mother of one child. She lived in York. He was the father of seven children, namely : Thomas, John, David, Abraham, James, Charlotte, George. Thomas Abbot was born in York, April 24, 1813, where he was educated, and when twenty-one years

of age he came to Penobscot county and settled on the farm now owned by Lorenzo Ecles in Stetson. In 1837 he married Elizabeth Pease, a native of Exeter, who died in Stetson in 1876. He is the father of nine children : John F., who married Almyria Ross and lives in Top- field, Massachusetts ; Irene E., lives at home ; Annette, who married Charles Robinson and lives at home, Mr. Robinson being dead ; Charles H., lives in Wenham, Massachusetts ; Amanda O., who married William S. Randlett and lives in Newport ; Susan E., married George W. Keyes and lives in Stetson; Thomas W. lives at home ; Frank P., lives at home ; Preston W., lives in Topsfield, Massachusetts. John H. Abbot was a member of Company G., Eleventh Maine Infantry, and served in the Army of the James, under General Butler, and was present at the capture of Richmond. He is engaged in farming in Massachusetts.

George W. Jordon was born in Cherryfield in 1813. He came to Penobscot county in 1823, and settled in Bangor, where he received a common school education. In 1836 he married Elizabeth Pennington, of Sanger- ville. He came to Stetson in 1838 and settled on the farm now owned by G. W. Shaw. He held the office of Selectman two years. His wife died in Stetson in 1878. He died at the same place in 1879. He was the father of five children : Frances, John A., Henry, George O., Edward. John A. Jordan was born in Stetson in 1840. In 1864 he enlisted in Company G, Eleventh Maine Infantry, under Captain Adams. The regiment was under command of Colonel Hill. He served in the Army of the James under General Butler, and was pres- ent at the fall of Richmond. He was mustered out of service in May, 1865, when he returned to his native place, and in 1866 he married Sarah J. Clark, a native of Stetson, and settled on the farm on which he now lives. In 1880 he went to California, where he purchased a large tract of land and is engaged there extensively in farming in connection with his business in Stetson. He is the father of two children, Horace G. and Fisher R.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 123

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