History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 127

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 127

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Lake, which is fed mainly by the Mud Brook, from Pren- tiss, which has its mouth a little way inside the south line of the Plantation, on the southeast shore of the lake. This water, which is vastly smaller than some of the "ponds " in the county, is only two-thirds of a mile long by one-half a mile in greatest breadth, and does not cover more than one-third of a square mile of surface. It lies one and one-fourth miles from the southwest cor- ner of the Plantation, and its southernmost end just touches the south boundary.

One mile above the tributary near the south bend of the Mattawamkeag, the Meadow Brook comes in from the east, rising in the edge of Township No. 8, and re- ceiving two small affluents from the southeast in Drew, within about a mile of the county line. A little above, on the other side of the river, the Libbey Meadow Brook enters from the west, flowing wholly the distance of near two miles in Drew. Three-fourths of a mile above its mouth the Pitlock Stream, entering in two heads from Reed's Plantation, and uniting them one-half mile below the town line, and flowing thence one and a half miles further, enters the Mattawamkeag.

In the southeast angle of the town rise two of the headwaters of the East Branch of the Mud Brook, which flow out south into Kingman.

The only highway entirely traversing Drew Plantation, toward any points of the compass, is the north and south road which runs from Springfield village northeast and north through Prentiss, into Drew, which it enters a mile east of Mud Lake, and nearly two and a half miles from the southwest corner of the Plantation. It thence pursues a somewhat zigzag but generally northerly course for about six miles through the tract, running up the east side of the Mattawamkeag and crossing it one-third of a mile above the mouth of the Pitlock Stream, a half a mile further the railroad, going out of the Plantation half a mile beyond, very nearly at the middle of its north line.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Upon or near this road is almost the entire settlement as yet in the Plantation. On the other or west side of Mud Lake another road from Springfield, branching from the former in the northeast corner of that 'town and running through Prentiss, reaches the lake after about half a mile's run in this Plantation, and there stops. On the other road, half a mile east of the lake, a public school- house has been constructed.

This tract was originally known as Plantation No. 7, in Range 4, north of the Bingham Penobscot Purchase. It was settled about 1825, and organized as a plantation September 8, 1856. It is the oldest of the organized plantations except Webster, which is seven days older, and Woodville, which is four years older. It had a pop- ulation of 85 in 1870, and 137 in 1880. Polls in 1880, 20 ; estates, $33,335. There is no post-office, and no artisan but one blacksmith. The officers of the Planta- tion in 1881 were : Warren Butters, C. G. Potter, George Sprague, Assessors ; Warren Butters, Clerk ; Page Mix, Treasurer ; J. N. Belden, Collector ; J. N. Belden, Constable ; Mrs. C. G. Potter, Mrs. Annie Butterfield, George Sprague, School Committee.

Stephen Belden was born in Palermo, Maine, Septem- ber 29; 1802. His father, Stephen Belden, Sr., married Mary Harvey, and reared a family of six children, who grew to maturity, viz: Olive, Stephen, Drusilla, Betsey, James, and John. Stephen Belden, the oldest son of this family, first settled in Palermo, where he lived until 1874, when he came to this county and bought the farm where he now lives in Drew Plantation. He married Lois Dennis, of Palmero. They have had ten children, viz : Lucinda, wife of Joseph Yeaton, of New Hampshire ; Wilbert, died in the army ; Arvilla, now Mrs. Deland, of Portland, Maine; Edwin, now of Prentiss ; Philander, now in California ; John F., of Prentiss ; Ruth, wife of Frederick Young, of Palermo, Maine ; Marcia, wife of Alonzo Young, of Drew Plantation; Eliza, wife of Wil- liam Bowler, of Palermo ; Joseph, with his father on the farm in Drew Plantation. Joseph has been Collector for five years in this Plantation. Joseph Belden married Sarah F. Norton, of Palermo. They have two children, viz: Etta G., and Lois.

One of the early settlers in Drew Plantation was Mr. James Potter, who came here from Perry, Maine, in 1850. James Potter married Mary Golden, of Perry. They settled in Perry and there lived until coming here. He was a native of Whitefield, Maine. They had a family of seventeen children, of whom only seven grew to manhood and womanhood, viz; Lucy A., Joseph C., Peter G., George E., James L., Clark G., and Annie M., all of whom are living except Peter G., and James L. Mr. Potter died March 15, 1875. Mrs. Potter was drowned September 2, 1876. Clark G. Potter was born March 19, 1842. When eight years of age he came here with his father and helped to clear up the farm where he now lives. He married Miss Annie M. Averill, daughter of Ira Averill, of Prentiss. They have had five children, of whom three are living, viz: Ernie M., Bennie A., and Brett. Mr. Potter has a good farm of one hundred and fifty acres. He has been engaged

in lumbering as well as farming. Mr. Potter has always held some town office since he became of age. He is now First Assessor of this Plantation.

Angus Mackay is a son of William Mackay, of Scot- land. William and Catharine Mackay had five children, viz : Alexander, deceased ; Barbara, wife of George Fox, of Southampton, New Brunswick; John, deceased ; John, now of Newfoundland ; and Angus. Angus Mac- kay was born January 12, 1828. He came to the United States when sixteen years of age, and worked at lumber- ing. He bought the farm on which he now lives in 1851. Since then he has worked at lumbering winters and farming summers. He married for his first wife Emeline Ames, from Farmington, Maine, and had by her five children, viz : Sarah, William A., Catharine, John, and Emeline A., all of whom are dead except Emeline. Mrs. Mackay died in 1861, and Mr. Mackay married for his second wife Miss Mary Skillinger, of Danforth, Maine, by whom he has seven children, viz : William, Charles, Nettie, Esther, Hattie, John, and Hugh, all of whom are living except Hattie. Mr. Mackay has a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres on the Mattawam- keag River.

Page Mix, of Drew Plantation, is a son of Enos Mix, of Vermont. Enos Mix married Sarah Page. They had fourteen children, of whom twelve grew to maturity, viz: Polly, Samuel, Lucretia, Sally, Eliza, Matilda, Ruth, El- mira, Mary, John, Page, Eli, and Enos. Of this large family only five are now living, viz : Elmira, Mary, Page, Eli, and Enos. Page Mix was born May 1I, 1814. He first lived in Orono after he became of age; he lived there about fifteen years, when he went to California, where he remained three years and a half. In 1855 he returned to Maine and bought the farm where he now lives on the Mattawamkeag River, in Drew Plantation. He married Eunice Merry, of New Portland, Maine. They have had five children, viz : Flora, now Mrs. James Young, of Drew Plantation ; Elmer P .; John A .; Carrie A., deceased ; and Eli O. Mr. Mix has been Treasurer of his town. He owns three hundred and sixty five acres of land, lying on the Mattawamkeag River in Drew Plantation, and is now engaged principally in farming, though he used to lumber in connection with farming. Mr. Mix lost his wife in 1880, and is now living with his second wife.

LAKEVILLE PLANTATION.

This is a large tract, occupying pretty nearly the whole space of two surveyed townships-Nos. 4 and 5, in the first Range, north of the Bingham Penobscot Purchase. It lies in the form of a parallelogram over six miles wide, by about ten and a half miles long, sepa- rated by a narrow tract, part of which belongs to Carroll town, from Washington county. It is bounded on the north by Carroll and Springfield; on the south by Town- ship No. 4, in Hancock county, and Township No 5, in Washington; and on the west by Township No. 3, in

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Penobscot. The town of Lee corners with it on the northwest.

The surface of Lakeville Plantation is considerably cov- ered with sheets of water, which are here quite uniformly called "lakes,"whether large or small. The middle western part is occupied largely by the Sisladobsissis Lake, a rather narrow water, about five miles in length, and lying from northwest to southeast. By a short inlet from the north it receives the waters of a much smaller sheet. Its own outflow is by another short stream into Sisladobsis Lake, a sheet of nearly the size of the Sisladobsissis, which stretches from northwest to southeast out into Washing- ton county. At a bay on the north of it, in the Planta- tion, it receives from the northwest a tributary fed by two small lakes a little west of the head of the Sisladobsissis. In the northeastern angle of the Plantation is a roundish sheet called Duck Lake, covering about half a square mile. It receives from Springfield the Lowell Brook, and from Carroll Getchell Brook, each of which flows a mile, more or less, in Lakeville. On the north and west of this is most of the settlement which the Plantation so far has. Duck Lake flows by a southeast channel of about four miles' length to the northwest part of Cug Lake, a sheet of about the same size as Duck, but of more irreg- ular shape, lying in the south centre of the east part of the town. Opposite the entrance of the Duck Lake out- let,-that is, at the southwest part of the lake,-the out- let of Cug Lake passes about three miles into Washing- ton county. Part of the Horseshoe Lake lies a mile or two east of it, in the southeast corner of the town. This is connected with Junior Lake, a large body of water, which fills most of the strip between Lakeville and Washington county on that side. A little of the western part of this lake, and the extremity of its northwest bay, with a small lake and outlet which feed it, are in the eastern part of Lakeville with a small lake and outlet which contribute to feed the Junior Lake. Three or four miles of the Taylor Brook, entering from Township No. 4, and flowing northwest and west to the Passadum- keag River, are in the southwest angle of the Plantation. A pretty large curve of the Passadumkeag River, with a smaller one north of it, is in the southwestern part of Lakeville, near the west line.

The Plantation has few roads as yet, and these are almost wholly in the northeastern part. The stage-road from Lincoln to Topsfield passes two to three miles north of it, through Springfield and Carroll, upon which the Lakeville people have still to rely for postal facilities. From a point on the stage-route half a mile east of Springfield village, near the Beaver Pond, a road starts off southwardly and enters Lakeville near the southeast corner of Springfield, running two to three miles into the interior of the Plantation. Just after entering Lake- ville it sends off a short cross-road, to connect with a highway northwest from Duck Lake into Carroll; and a little below this cross-road a neighborhood track of about two miles' length starts off to the west and southwest. Half way between Duck Lake and the cross-road is School-house No. I, from which a "plug" road of two miles' length runs east into the southerly projection of

Carroll, passing School No. 7 near the town line, and just before that sending off a curving road southeasterly almost to the extreme south line of Carroll, but crossing only about half a mile of Lakeville soil.

Civilized settlement did not get in here until about 1855. The Plantation was organized February 29, 1868, under its present name, probably derived from the large lake within its borders. It had a population of 108 in 1870, and 136 in 1880. Polls-1870, 30; 1880, 34. Estates-1870, $43,990; 1880, $48,608.

Formerly, a great deal of lumbering was done within this tract, and it is still a profitable industry here. Two saw-mills and one shingle-machine are in operation.

The following-named were the Plantation officers for 1881: S. T. Mallett, Charles Hale, J. A. Ham, Assess- ors; Charles Hale, Clerk; S. T. Mallett, Treasurer; Isaac Whitney, Constable and Collector; A. E. Gowell, School Supervisor; A. E. Gowell, Quorum Justice.

One of the prettiest places in Lakeville Plantation is that owned by Alfred E. Gowell. Mr. Gowell came to this place from Topsham, Maine, in 1862. He is a son of Alfred and Elizabeth Gowell (nee Elizabeth Brown, of Topsham). Alfred Gowell was a native of Bowdoin. Alfred and Elizabeth Gowell had six children, viz: Alfred E .; Peregrine W., now in Kansas; Emma B., wife of Rowland Rogers, of Bowdoin; Gilbert M., on the old place in Bowdoin; William M., deceased, and Horace F., now in Caribou, Maine. Alfred E., the oldest of this family, was born June 3, 1834. On becoming of age he worked at the ship-carpenter's trade for seven years in various places. He came here in 1861 and bought the . place where he now lives in Lakeville Plantation. It is on the north side of Duck Lake, a very beautiful sheet of water. It is here that the Duck Lake Club have their Club-house. This club is composed of six gentlemen from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Mr. Gowell owns here three hundred acres, and is beautifying his grounds by setting out trees, grading lawns, etc. He married Miss Rhoda L. Blake, daughter of Lemuel and Nancy Blake. They have four children, viz: Nancy E., Rose A., Herbert E., and Ethel G. Mr. Gowell has held vari- ous offices in the gift of his townsmen, such as Clerk, Justice of the Peace, member Board of Assessors, etc.

NO. I PLANTATION.

Township No. 1, in the North Bingham Penobscot Purchase, is an even surveyed township, lying in good shape fifteen and one-half miles northeast from Bangor, between Greenbush on the west and No. 2 Grand Falls Plantation on the east, which alone separates it in that direction from Hancock county. On the north is Lowell, on the south Greenfield. Township No. 39, in one of the northwest corners of Hancock county, which abound in this region, corners with No. I Plantation on the southeast. Passadumkeag corners with it on the northwest. The tract is only three and one-half miles the Penobscot, from the nearest point of the river along the north line of Greenbush to the northwest corner of

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

No. I. The one hundred inhabitants, more or less, yet in the Plantation, are accommodated with railway facili- ties chiefly at Olamon Station, on the European & North American Railway, near that line, and with postal facilities there and at Lowell on the north and Greenfield on the south.

The Olamon Stream, heading in Morison Brook and other waters in Greenfield and southward, runs up into the Plantation with a short curve toward the southwest angle, and returning into Greenfield, passes thence into Greenbush, very near the southwest corner of No. 1, and passes on to its junction with the Penobscot at Olamon Station. Near the east line of the Plantation and in its south central part, are the headwaters and tributaries of Lord's Brook, which runs northwest to a union with the Passadumkeag River, about the middle of the arc which that stream makes in the north part of the Plantation. The river enters from the direction of Lowell post-office, about two and one-half miles from the northeast corner of No. I, makes a great curve of which the south- ernmost part is about a mile distant from the north line of the Plantation, and after a flow of more than three miles therein, goes out for Lowell and Passadumkeag at a point about a mile from the northwest corner. Three- quarters of a mile east of its entrance a small tributary of the river between Lowell village and Suponic Pond takes its rise. In the southeast angle of the Plantation are a mile or two each of two small streams which flow into Greenfield, and there unite to form the Morison Brook.

The principal road in No. I is the highway that com- pletely traverses the Plantation from south to north. Starting from the river road on the east of the Penobscot it flows through Greenbush and out at the southeast corner of that town into Greenfield, where it curves northward into No. I, crossing the south line almost mid- way and running with a somewhat curvilinear and zigzag course east of north till it leaves the town for Lowell post-office. A road east from a little below Olamon also runs a little way into No. 1.

No. I Plantation is of very recent creation. A war- rant for its organization was issued by the County Com- missioners January 7, 1878, and its formation may be considered as dating from that year. The tract had a population of but sixty-six in 1870 and ninety-seven in 1880. The polls and estates in these years were not re- ported.

Judging from the list of officers of the Plantation, the people consist largely of Littlefields. One of the Asses- sors is Lorenzo Littlefield; Mr. John Littlefield is Collec- tor, and J. W. Littlefield is a Constable. The other offi- cers are Charles Cunningham and D. C. Douglass, Asses- sors; Albert McLain, Clerk; Simeon Philbrick, Constable, and Messrs. McLain, Philbrick, and Cunningham, School Committee.

NO. 2, GRAND FALLS PLANTATION.

This is another of the newer municipalities on the out- skirts of the county and of the wilderness, It is, how-

ever, but twenty-two miles in a straight line from Bangor, and but nine from the river and railroad at Olamon Sta- tion. It was formerly No. 2, of the North Bingham Penobscot Purchase, and is, like No. I Plantation, a reg- ular township of thirty-six square miles.

THE ALLEN TRACT,

where most of the population of the Plantation reside, consisting largely of Pettingill families, is an area in the form of a parallelogram, in the northeast part of the town, adjoining Burlington, and named from a former owner. It contains about six square miles.

THE PASSADUMKEAG STREAM,

crossing from east to west, nearly divides the tract into halves, and flows out of it northwest to and through the Su- ponic Pond, having a total run of about three and one- half miles in the Plantation. Near its point of entrance on the line of Washington county are the Grand Falls, which give a part of the name to the Plantation. Just outside the northwest corner of the Allen Tract, the Madagascal Stream comes down from the north into the Plantation, flows in it, and mainly in the Tract, through a great curve of over two miles, and enters the Passadum- keag a mile above its mouth.

About half the area of Suponic Pond, which has been described in our notes on Burlington, lies in this Planta- tion, and about half-way across its northern edge. It is a beautiful sheet of water, very picturesque in its surround- ing scenery, and almost sublime in some of the loftier neighboring heights. Less than a mile south of the pond begins the rise of the most imposing natural feature of this part of the county, or any part of the county east of the Penobscot and north of Black Cap Mountain, the

PASSADUMKEAG MOUNTAIN.

This is an eminence of many hundred feet in height, nearly two miles in length at the base, and more than two miles in basilar breadth. It is a conspicuous object in the landscape for many miles in each direction, and adds not a little to the physical attractions of the Planta. tion.

WAGON-ROADS.

The roads in No. 2, Grand Falls, are almost confined so far to the northeast part and the Allen Tract. The principal one runs down the northeast shore of Suponic Pond into the Plantation half a mile northeast of the mouth of the Passadumkeag, and strikes about in a bee- line for that stream near the middle of the Tract. It is continued in a neighborhood road across the stream, and a mile or so further east till near the county line, where it ends. Trails also run north and east to the Grand Falls and the southeast corner of Burlington.

BOUNDARIES.

No. 2, Grand Falls, is bounded on the north by Bur- lington; on the east by Township No. 3, in Hancock county; on the south by Township No. 39, in the same; and on the west by No. I Plantation. Lowell comes with No. 2 at the northeast corner of the latter.

ORGANIZATION AND STATISTICS.

This township was settled about 1830, and the Planta-

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

tion was organized Nov. 16, 1878. It had a population of even 100 in 1870, and 93 in 1880. Polls in 1880, 23; estates, $23,822.

PLANTATION OFFICERS.

The offices of No. 2 seem in 1881 to have been, and they probably are generally, concentrated in few hands. Mr. Harvey Stickney was, that year, Clerk, Treasurer, an Assessor, and a member of the School Committee. Joseph Folsom was another of the Assessors, and also Constable and Collector. P. B. Moore was the remain- ing Assessor, and a School Committeeman. Charles B. Littlefield was the only one to have but one office; he was a member of the School Committee.

There is no post-office in the Plantation, the people re- lying mainly upon Burlington for their mails.

STACYVILLE PLANTATION.

Stacyville is the northernmost organized plantation in the county. It is a regular township (No 3) in the Sixth Range, the same range to which belong the town of Patten, its next neighbor on the north, and the town of Mt. Chase above that. It is bounded on the east by Sherman, Aroostook county; on the south by Township No. 2, Sixth Range; and on the west by No. 3, Seventh Range. It is sixty-six miles east of north from Bangor.

Stacyville is an exceedingly well watered tract. The Swift Brook, heading in two small lakes in the south- western part of Patten, intersects the whole of Stacyville from north to south, and has no less than ten tributary brooks in this Plantation. Six of them, all small, flow in on the east side of the Swift, in the north half of the town. On the west is received, a little below the lower- most of these and near the middle of the town, an af- fluent from the northwest, which heads in two branches in the southwest angle of Patten. They join in Stacy- ville, and the united stream flows for about two and one- half miles to the Swift. A little more than a mile below a similar tributary is received, with two long branches rising, respectively, in Townships No. 3 and 4, flowing southwest and uniting somewhat more than a mile from the brook. Through the southwest angle of the Planta- tion flows very much another such tributary, its two branches heading in No. 3, each running a mile, more or less, in Stacyville, there uniting and flowing a little way out into No. 2, Sixth Range, where the stream unites with the Swift to form the Mud Brook, an affluent of the East Branch of the Penobscot.

Two miles east of the Swift flows the Little Molunkus Brook, rising in the north part of No. 2, Sixth Range, and flowing north and northeast through a small pond, in the south centre of eastern Stacyville, to a junction with the Molunkus Brook a little way over in Sherman. The Molunkus rises in three heads in the south part of Pat- ten, and flows about four miles southeast and east in Stacyville to about the middle of the east line of the Plantation, where it leaves the county. About mid-way between the Little Molunkus and the Swift about two

miles of a headwater of the Salmon Pond and the Salmon Stream flow south and into No. 2.

· The main highway of Stacyville, upon which are set- tled most of its people, is the road which leaves the old military trail at Molunkus, enters Stacyville just below the Molunkus Brook, crosses there the Little Molunkus, and shortly after the Molunkus itself, and runs west of north up the east side of that brook into Patten and then to Patten post-office. In the southwest angle of Sherman this highway sends off the Mt. Katahdin road, which crosses the southern part of Stacyville in a somewhat broken course, and runs west and northwest about fifteen miles to a point between the northeast and southeast flanks of the main bulk of the mighty moun- tain.

Stacyville was settled in 1850, and incorporated ten years afterwards, on the 30th of June, 1860, taking its name from one of the original settlers and proprietors. It is the oldest of the plantations in the county, except Webster and Drew. In 1870 it had 138 inhabitants, and 184 in 1880. It must soon be ready for incorporation as a full-fledged town. The votes in 1880 numbered 45; its valuation of estates was $20,362.

The Plantation officers for 1881 were; Robert N. Mc- Clure, James Kelley, and Joshua Bragg, Assessors ; Robert N. McClure, Clerk; Alonzo J. Richmond, Treasurer; Alonzo J. Richmond, Constable and Collector; Fred Hunt, School Supervisor.

WEBSTER PLANTATION.

This was formerly Township No. 6, in the Third Range north of the Bingham Penobscot Purchase. It is sepa- rated by but the width of one town - Prentiss, upon the east - from Washington county ; by only another --- Kingman, on the north - from Macwahoc Plantation, in Aroostook county ; by Winn only from the Penobscot - four miles distant, by the north line of Winn, its shortest breadth , and by Springfield, its next neighbor on the south, and the Lakeville Plantation beyond, from Han- cock county. It is thus completely bounded on all sides, save that, on the west of Kingman and north of Webster, about two miles' breadth of Mattawamkeag bounds the Plantation. It is cornered on the northeast by Drew Plantation, on the southeast by Carroll, and on the southwest by Lee. It is forty-four miles northeast of Bangor, from corner to corner, and less than three miles from the European & North American Railroad at King- man Station. It is pretty nearly an even township of thirty-six square miles.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 127

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