History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 143

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

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PARAPHRASE. Tune: "Plunged in a Gulph." "O, procul este profani." "Keep off, you race of infidels, we pious people are."

The Bangor Club of moral folks, And eke the Tythingmen, Of officers our annual choice This day have made again.

We'll have them quickly quorum nob, And (if we do not fail) Our chest shall profit by the job, Or they must go to gaol.

For last year's labor and success, (Which we think very great), Our orderly and moral friends We do congratulate.

This privilege alone we claim, On Sabbath day to roam; While others of less pious fame Must keep themselves at home.

The friends of good morals at length became satisfied that their cause suffered from the undue zeal manifested in its behalf, and discontinued the enforcement of the

laws further than it could be sustained by the public sen- timent.

The Bangor Athenæum was opened this season. It was a library and reading-room. The collection of books was quite valuable; the magazines were the best of the time, and twenty-five newspapers furnished the news to the patrons of the institution. Mr. Joseph Whipple, a gentleman of taste and literary ability, who about this time commenced the publication of a History of Acadia in the columns of the Register, was instrumental in its establishment.

The season was remarkable for the low state of the thermometer, etc. In June the cold was severe. A very unusual change in the temperature occurred early in that month. A warm rain commenced on the 5th and con- tinued until the afternoon of the 6th. The night was quite warm. At 3 o'clock the weather had changed, and snow fell for about an hour and a half; some of the flakes on striking the ground covered spaces two inches in diameter. It snowed again in some places on the 7th and 8th. Water froze for several nights, and on the Loth the ice over puddles would bear a man. Great numbers of birds-among which were the humming bird, the yel- low bird, the marten, the scarlet bird-were so benumbed that they could be taken readily in the hand, and many perished.

On the night of June 13, the community was thrown into a state of excitement by the murder of William Knight, of the firm of Knight & Lumbert, keepers of the inn at the corner of Oak and Hancock streets, by Peol Susep, an Indian of the Penobscot tribe. With an- other Indian Peol had been in the house, and both had been so noisy and troublesome from the excitement of drink that Knight put them into the street. Upon this . they threw stones at the house, and Knight went out to drive them away; Peol then attacked him with a knife and stabbed him fatally. Peol admitted the stabbing, but gave as a reason that he was intoxicated. He had the reputation of being inoffensive when sober.

As there was no jail yet in Bangor, and the Supreme Court was still to hold its sessions at Castine for both Hancock and Penobscot counties for several years, Susep was taken to the jail in Castine, and tried in June, 1817. Great interest was manifested in this trial, and the crowd in attendance was so great that the court adjourned to the meeting-house.

The court assigned Prentiss Mellen and William D. Williamson as counsel for the prisoner, and these gentle- men used all their skill and eloquence in his behalf, and Solicitor-General Davis summed up in behalf of the State. After the arguments were concluded, the court gave the prisoner an opportunity to be heard if he had anything further to say. He replied that John Neptune would say something for him.

Neptune, who was afterward Lieutenant-Governor of the tribe, was a tall, fine-looking individual, of dignified bearing, of much ability, and of much influence among his tribe. A reporter of the case says, "he came forward to the forum with the ease and assurance of a Cicero," and addressed the court in an impressive manner. He

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claimed immunity for the prisoner on the ground that several white men, who had murdered Indians, had escaped punishment, and referred particularly to the case of one Livermore, who had been convicted and sen- tenced to death for the murder of an Indian, and whose sentence had been commuted to imprisonment for life- that he and his people were willing that Livermore should be released if Susep could be discharged. He then urged the importance of there being peaceful rela- tions between the whites and Indians, and averred that it was the sincere wish of his own tribe, and of the Pas- samaquoddy and St. John Indians to live on good terms with the Americans.

Susep's wife and relatives and about thirty of the tribe were present during the trial and "behaved with the ut- most decorum."

The jury retired, and in a short time returned and rendered a verdict of manslaughter, whereupon the court sentenced the prisoner to one year imprisonment in the county jail.

In September, 1819, more than two years after this conviction, Peol Susep was indicted for a felonious as- sault on the prison-keeper. The jury returned a verdict that he was insane, and the court ordered him to be im- prisoned, under a statute, until he should give bond for good behavior !

Notwithstanding the coldness of the season, and the disposition of the people to remove to Ohio, there was much advertising, by the most respectable traders, of fourth-proof cognac brandy, Holland gin, Jamaica rum, St. Croix rum, Teneriffe wine, best London porter, shrub and loaf sugar, and some manifestations of humor. Mr. Tilley Brown advertised real estate in this style:

The numerous individuals who for want of house-room are under the necessity of taking their repose in a perpendicular attitude, or at heads and points, or, at best, with one foot out of the window, are in- formed that a house is to be sold for part song and part cedar shingles, and at a reduced price: It would be strange indeed if some of the multitude did not make themselves cripples in their exertions to be first on the premises.

But there were philanthropic ladies then in the town, as there are now, whose sympathies went out to the poor and unfortunate. In July they met at Mr. Philip Coombs's to organize a society "for the instruction of the children in the new settlements by means of schools."

Prior to July 20th of this year, it was the practice of the inhabitants on the shores of the river from twelve to eighteen miles below Bangor to board vessels ascending the river and warn the masters of the danger attending the navigation above. This led to a survey of the river by two shipmasters and a merchant-competent persons -and they reported twenty-one feet at low water off Dutton's Head, on the west side of the river. Thence to India Point (between Central Depot and the Kendus- keag Stream, the water fell in the channel to fourteen feet at lowest ebb, the channel being narrow and not very direct. On the easterly side of the river, above Dutton's Head, is a shoal with from five to nine feet of water at low ebb. Opposite India Point, the depth is seventeen or eighteen feet in the channel; thence parallel with India street (Joppa, now Front street), it is

twenty to twenty-one feet at lowest ebb, about twenty fathoms from the shore, and seventeen to twenty-one feet, to three hundred fathoms above Kenduskeag Point. The bottom of the river is in most places rocky. There is an eddy under the High Head on the Brewer side, about one hundred fathoms above Kenduskeag Point, where in one place is twenty-eight feet at low water, and the bed is an excellent sandy bottom, and several ships of from five hundred to seven hundred tons' burthen, load- ed, may lie afloat at low water.

On the first Tuesday of July the first session of the Court of Common Pleas was held in Bangor under the act incorporating the county of Penobscot passed Feb- ruary , 15, 1816. Bangor had been made a half-shire town with Castine, February 28, 1814, and an office for the Registry of Deeds in the northern half of the county had existed there since that time.

The act incorporating the new county went into opera- tion on April 1, 1816, with the following officers, ap- pointed by the Governor: Samuel E. Dutton, Bangor, Judge of Probate; Allen Gilman, Bangor, Register of Probate; Jacob McGaw, Bangor, County Attorney; Thomas Cobb, Bangor, Clerk of the Courts; Jedidiah Herrick, Hampden, Sheriff.

John Wilkins was elected Register of Deeds. There were only two towns in the county that made legal re- turns, Corinth and Levant. Mr. Wilkins was elected by twenty-six votes over Charles Rice, who had eight votes, by the legal returns.

Zadock Davis, a tanner, lived at the end of the street called Joppa, and for a great number of .years was honored by his fellow-townsmen with the office of keeper of the pound, which was directly opposite his establish- ment, and convenient for him to look after. It was situated on the river side of Main street, near the brook which runs under the Maine Central depot. And to Mr. Davis the great men of the town had frequently to resort and pay tribute for the trespass of a horse, cow, or other animal. They always found him urbane and gentle, therefore he was a popular office-holder. He it was who after the Hampden battle voluntarily performed good service for his company in hiding the guns in the woods after the famous retreat, and, involuntarily, a like good service to the enemy in revealing to them their place of concealment. But the enemy patronized him-for he was a shoe-manufacturer, as well as a tinner, and they wanted shoes. Some came, got fitted, and marched off triumphantly, forgetting to pay; others, more considerate, paid him any price he saw fit to put upon his wares; and on the whole he was the better off for the custom. He probably fared quite as well with them as he did with his regular customers, many of whom had as poor mem- ories as the non-paying Britons. But he had a way of demanding payment of these, which was effective and not offensive. The Register was a convenient vehicle for his duns, and in this way did he use it:

IF THE COAT SUITS, PUT IT ON. To such as promise and don t pay, But forfeit promise-keeping, I have a word or two to say,

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And then I must send GREETING,

Unless these lines soon take effect And bring you to your bearing, And each one comes and pays his debt, And shuns the storm preparing.

And now if you'll take my advice, You'll have it cheap as dirt, sirs; You'll pay me promptly, if you're wise, And then you shan't be hurt, sirs.

Else there'll be trouble in the camp For each delinquent debtor; Now, dear sirs, do not act the scamp, But pay, for that is better. ZADOCK DAVIS.

BANGOR, August 7, 1816.

Bangor was resorted to for lumber this year from the East as well as from the West. In the three weeks next preceding August 17th, thirteen large vessels sailed from the port for Lubec with cargoes of lumber. Severa] others sailed shortly afterwards.

Some enterprising person, deeming that packeting from Bangor would be profitable, built a packet sloop which he called the Herald, to put into the business. It was launched August 13th, and was sailed by Captain John Perkins.

On August 23d Joshua P. Dickinson established him- self in Bangor, and practiced in the families of the Con- gregational Society, whose meetings he attended. The practice was divided between him and Dr. Rich, who had been established in the town since 1806, and gave more attention to his business than to the ordinances of the church; therefore, on the arrival of the more com- plaisant physician, many left the old and employed the new one. The effect was as is usual in such cases.

The Sunday-school, which was commenced in 1814, with eight scholars, had now an attendance of from sev- enty to eighty. "A worthy young gentleman and three pious and accomplished young ladies," were the teachers. Three or four classes were taught in separate apartments in the same building. The school was in session an hour and a half after the church service in the after- noon. The pupils were examined as to their knowledge of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Westminster Catechism, and taught lessons from the Scriptures. Each child was expected to repeat religious poetry-generally from Dr. Watts. The class contain- ing the more advanced members were questioned in ref- erence to a particular chapter of the Bible which the Superintendent had designated on the preceding Sunday for reading in the week. He explained the difficult passages and closed the session with prayer. It was said of this school that it had "already become the source of much good, and gave assurance of invaluable useful- ness."

On August 19 Captain Isaac Hatch died, at the age of fifty-one. He built the Hatch tavern on Main street in 1801, and had a store at the foot of Water street, which was afterward occupied by Perkins and Parker. Mr. Hatch's tavern was for several years the principal inn of the place. Besides carrying this on he gave his at- tention somewhat to trade, and consequently had deal- ings in lumber. It was then the practice to send lumber

to Boston for a market, and as purchasers were sought they had their own way in regard to the survey. If a cargo of merchantable lumber was shipped from Bangor, under the manipulation of the Boston Surveyor a con- siderable portion of it turned out to be refuse, a lower grade, and the price was regulated accordingly. Mr. Hatch had once a customer who wished him to ship to him at Boston some merchantable lumber at a certain price. As he had patronized the Captain's inn the Captain agreed to do so, and was disposed to take pains to send him as good a quality of lumber for the price as he could afford. He went to Boston and was there when the cargo arrived, and found that lumber had ad- vanced in value. The purchaser put his surveyor upon the cargo, who set aside about half of it as " refuse." In a different state of the market the Captain might have objected, but as it was he said nothing. After the dif- ferent qualities were separated, and the customer had computed his indebtedness for the merchantable lumber, he said to Mr. Hatch that they would have the refuse surveyed. Mr. Hatch demurred. The customer in- sisted. Mr. Hatch said he had furnished him with the merchantable lumber as he had agreed ; that he had not agreed to furnish him with refuse. He would take charge of that. He did so, and obtained more for it per thousand than he had for the merchantable!

The Selectmen were instructed that year to petition the Legislature to obtain the enactment of a law secur- ing all the fishing privileges in Bangor to the town.

The petition for the separation of the District from Massachusetts resulted in a reference of the question by the Legislature to the people who were to hold meetings upon the 20th of May to vote upon it. The whole num- ber of votes in the District was 37,328. Only 16,894- not half-voted. There were 10,393 yeas to 6,501 nays. Notwithstanding the people were so indifferent to the matter, the Maine Senators and most of the Representa- tives procured the passage of an act on the 20th of June, directing meetings to be held throughout the District on the first Monday of September to vote on the question, "Is it expedient that the District of Maine be separated from Massachusetts and become an independent State?" and delegates were to be chosen, equal in number to the Representatives, to meet at Brunswick on the last Monday of September to determine if a majority of five to four of the votes returned were in favor of the separation.

The delegate elected in Bangor was Joseph Leavitt. He received 53 votes; William D. Williamson, 22 ; Allen Gilman, 18 ; Moses Patten, 10 ; Jacob McGaw, I ; Amos Patten, I.

The number of delegates elected at the Convention was 185. If they found that the legal majority of votes was in the affirmative, they were authorized to form a Con- stitution. Two-thirds of the delegates were favorable to the separation. The votes cast were 10,969 yeas, 10,- 347 nays. The committee of the Convention reported that "the whole aggregate majority of yeas over the nays, in the towns and plantations in favor, was 6,031 ; the whole aggregate of nays over the yeas, in the towns and plantations, opposed was 4,409 ; then as five is to four

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so is 6,031 to 4,825 ; but the majority of nays is 4,409 only." The Convention accepted the report, appointed one committee to draft a constitution and another to ap- ply to Congress for admission into the Union as a State, and adjourned to the third Tuesday of December.

Mr. Leavitt was appointed a member of the Committee on the Constitution, but his services were not required. The Legislature's arithmetic was different from that of the Convention. They did not see that as "five is to four, so is 11,969 to 10,357," but declared that the con- vention had misconstrued the act, and dissolved it. Our delegate thus expressed his disappointment : "Thus by much artful management of the officers and I think unfair and improper measures, and by help of the strong arm of the Government, the high, important, and bene- ficial question is put at rest-but, I hope, but for a short time."

The question had been discussed at length in the Register and in other papers in the State, with consider- able vigor, not to say acrimony. But the question of separation was known to be only one of time.

The vote of Bangor for Representative to Congress this year was : For John Wilson, 39 ; Martin Kinsley, 17; Jacob McGaw, Francis Carr, and Martin, each one vote.

Mr. Kinsley was the Republican candidate, nominated on October 16 by a convention held at Tobey's tavern, in Frankfort, in pursuance of the first call for a Repub- lican or Democratic convention that ever appeared in a newspaper in the county of Penobscot. It was in the Register of September 2 Ist.

Moses Greenleaf, of Williamsburg, first published his map of Maine this year.

A singular phenomenon occurred in October. The water in the Penobscot River, and in springs and wells in various parts of the town, was salt for several weeks. It was conjectured that the water contained one-sixteenth saline matter. The saltness of the water in the river was easily accounted for, if there was an unusual drought. That of the water in the springs and wells is more in- comprehensible. The Register said that such a circum- stance was "never before known to the oldest inhab- itant."

Much attention was given to military affairs in these days, and a militia organization was deemed as important throughout the State as it is now in Massachusetts. But there were people who possessed ideas upon the subject "in advance of the times," and in expressing them some- times permitted their zeal to get the better of their dis- cretion.

In October a preacher of the Methodist persuasion was addressing a congregation in a school-house in Le- vant (now Kenduskeag) on Sunday, and Colonel Trafton, who the day before (12th) had been reviewing a battalion of his regiment in Charleston, being on his return to Bangor in company with the field officers, they manifest. ed their regard for religious observances and the Lord's day by attending the meeting in costume. As may be supposed, the attention of a large part of the congrega- tion was diverted from the preacher to the military

strangers, who presently found themselves shocked by a little diversion of the preacher himself in their direction, as they imagined. He warned his hearers against "the evil consequences and the dangerous tendency of those military appearances and badges of military distinction that were then present in their view." After the service, one of the visitors "insulted the minister with his con- versation, and then went off without any person making him any. answer." However, he had revenge, for he preached the preacher a long sermon in the Register, though it was not quite as impressive as it would have been if the result of the Hampden battle had been dif- ferent, and he had had before him a poor, war-worn sol- dier who had been wounded by the shafts of the enemy."

A brief history of the first ununiformed militia of Ban- gor is embraced in the following paragraph :--

After the commencement of the Revolution, the first organized militia-a company of infantry-on June II, 1776, elected Thomas Campbell its first captain. In 1779 he removed to Brunswick, and came to Brewer in 1783. In 1785 or 1786, Robert Treat was elected cap- tain in place of Campbell, removed. Before he took command of the company he was elected Major, and James Budge was elected captain. He was honorably discharged by Governor John Hancock, at his own re- quest, and on January 1, 1794, Benjamin Smith was elected to the vacancy. Captain Smith removed to Salem; and, several plantations having been annexed to the Bangor military district, Captain Edward Wilkins, of New Charleston, was elected captain. Captain Elisha Mayhew succeeded Wilkins, October 21, 1805, who was honorably discharged. Captain Mayhew was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. On April 29, 1811, Josiah Barker, of Exeter, was elected captain, and commanded the com- pany in 1816. A later company of infantry was organ- ized in Bangor, and Timothy Crosby was elected its cap- tain. Captain Crosby was promoted to Major.

A cause of much excitement in Bangor this year was the reported robbery of Elijah P. Goodrich. He had resided in Danvers, Massachusetts, and removed to Ban- gor, where he opened a country store. In December he made a visit to Boston, ostensibly for the purpose of pur- chasing goods, and on his way procured $1,700 in gold from the Exeter Bank. On the 19th of December, about 9 o'clock in the evening, he passed the chain bridge at Newburyport. About an hour afterward he returned to the toll-house and reported that he had been robbed of his money by three men ; that one of them seized his horse and another demanded his money, which he prom- ised to deliver. He then opened his portmanteau and took therefrom a pistol to shoot the robber, but the rob- ber had a pistol at his breast ; that he struck it aside, and, the robber discharging it, its contents went through his hand ; that he was then dragged into an adjoining field, his handkerchief was stuffed into his mouth, and he was struck several blows. He was then robbed, and the robbers disappeared. Having obtained assistance at the bridge, he attempted to return to the place of the robbery, but, fainting on the way, he was taken back to the bridge. After recovering, he accompanied the men

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

with a lartern to the place, and found his portmanteau, letters, papers, watch, $50 in bills upon the ground, and a letter containing money which a friend in Bangor had sent by him.

Three men were arrested for the robbery, taken before a magistrate and discharged for want of evidence. Levi and Laban Kenniston were afterwards arrested in New- market, New Hampshire. They were both in Newbury- port on the day of the occurrence, and Goodrich, pretend- ing to have reason therefor, caused their father's house, where they lived, to be searched. The result of this search was the discovery of two doubloons with Good- rich's mark on them, in a pork barrel in the cellar; another in their father's pantaloons pocket, which were hanging up; and a bank-bill in a drawer, with a name which had been written upon it by Mr. Goodrich. The Kennistons were committed and tried at Ipswich in April. They were defended by Daniel Webster and Samuel L. Knapp, and after a trial of two days were acquitted. Solicitor-General Davis conducted the prosecution.

Goodrich wrote to a friend in Bangor in April, saying that he had traced one of the robbers to New York, and finding a part of his money and papers upon him, had caused his arrest; that the fellow "defended himself most manfully, and one of the Marshals of the city received a severe wound in arresting him."

The belief arose and gained ground that this was a case of self-robbery, and that Goodrich's motives were best known to himself, though pretty well understood by others. He returned to Bangor and put into his store a new stock of goods. He continued for a while to do business, but finally failed and went to Norfolk, Virginia.

This year Joseph Carr was appointed Inspector of the Revenue for the Port of Bangor. John Wilkins was ap- pointed Collector of the United States of the direct tax of 1816, and of the arrearages of the taxes of 1798.

Mr. Leavitt launched the schooner America in Sep- tember. In October, on her first voyage to Boston, she got caught in the ice and was cut out for about three miles at Hampden. The weather was very cold this month, but the last two weeks of December were as warm and pleasant as April.

CHAPTER X.

Political Parties-Military-Mr. Loomis-Affair of the Singers-Op- position-Proposal for two Parishes-Not Agreed to -- Gaol Built -- Hessian Fly-Bangor Bank Organized-James Burton takes the "Register"-Agriculture Reviving.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 143

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