History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 163

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

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1831. The year opened with remarkable weather. On the first day of January a farmer in the neighborhood ploughed his field. On the same day the schooner Suc- cess arrived in port and discharged her cargo of goods. The river had closed, but on the 26th of December it opened and continued open until after the 4th of Janu- ary. On the last week in December the mercury was 56° above zero, and rain fell every other day. The freshet in the river was very high.

A new interest was at this time awakened in regard to public schools. A meeting of gentlemen from different parts of the county was held in Bangor on January 4th and 5th. Rev. Mr. Ripley, of the First Baptist Society, delivered an address upon the subject of education. A county society was organized, with Oliver Crosby, of Atkinson, President; William D. Williamson of Bangor, Ephraim Goodale of Orrington, Moses Greenleaf of Williamsburg, Vice-Presidents; Edward Kent, of Bangor, Recording Secretary; Daniel Pike, of Bangor, Corre- sponding Secretary; Benjamin Nourse, of Bangor, Treas- urer; Seba French of Dexter, Elias Dudley of Hampden, Jonas Cutting of Orono, Thomas A. Hill and Royal Clark of Bangor, Councillors.

The society was called the "Penobscot County Asso- ciation for Promoting Popular Education."

Addresses were delivered by Cyril Pearl on the de- fects in common schools; by Abel M. Quimby on the monitorial system; by Joseph C. Lovejoy on school-houses, apparatus and discipline. Remarks were made by Amos Patten, Daniel Pike, and William D. Williamson, and the feeling was that "the subject was one of immense importance; that great defects existed, and that they could and must be removed by a vigorous and united effort."

The Hampden Mutual Fire Insurance Company went into operation this year, under a notice of three of the corporators-Simeon Stetson, Enoch Brown, and Jede- diah Herrick.

The population of Penobscot county by the census of 1830 was 31,530; Washington, Hancock, and Waldo

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

were the only counties containing a smaller population. The population of Penobscot in 1820 was 13,870. The census of New England was 1,049,882; in 1820 it was 1,659,854; increase 200,028.

Although the country was constantly improving, yet there was much hardship among the settlers. The fol- lowing tale will show that the comforts of the city were not yet known to all. In the first of the winter Mr. Stin- son Potter removed his family into a camp on the east side of Pushaw Lake. About the first of January Mrs. Potter, being there with only her children, had all the cares of the household upon her. One day her cow hav- ing strayed away she sent the children into the woods to search for her, and becoming alarmed by their long ab- sence, she went in pursuit of them. Her husband came home in the evening, and finding no one in the camp went in search of the family. He soon found the chil- dren, but not the wife. The next day her body was found a long distance from the camp, dead. Her feet and ankles were much bruised and torn, and her clothes were nearly torn from her body. She had waded through water four feet deep to reach the place where her body was found.

The ice in the Penobscot stopped permanently on the 9th January.

Hon. William D. Williamson made an attempt to get the Legislature to subscribe for three hundred and fifty copies of his History of Maine, at $4.50 per copy. The National Republicans meanly allowed political objections to the author to control their vote, and there were pe- cuniarily mean Democratic Republicans enough to assist them in sending his petition to the next Legislature.

Party spirit ran so high that the Democrats this year insulted Mr. Hunton's administration by passing an act rendering valid the acts of the last Legislature, and of the Governor and Council ! thereby rendering them- selves ridiculous. The act was called the "Healing Plaster." It was reported by Ebenezer Knowlton and advocated by Gorham Parks !

Mr. Parks also advocated subscribing for Mr. William- son's History. The Portland Advertiser had the follow- ing comments :

In the debate in the Legislature on the merits of this work it was remarked that before it went into press it would be revised and polished by a person well qualified for the task. It is now rumored that the person alluded to is no less than Williamson's son-in-law, the redoubt- able Haynes, " the gentlemen alike distinguished, etc., etc." If it be so, Heaven save the work-he is as destitute of literary taste as he is of modesty-the veriest chowder-head that ever dug clams in Helicon. If such be the fact, and the Legislature patronize the work, they will be entitled to the credit of having caught the biggest humbug in Christen- dom.

The History was revised by Mr. Haynes, and one edi- tion was published by the house of Glazier, Masters & Co., of Hallowell, in 1832. It contained many valuable facts. It is now nearly out of print and is much sought for.

Citizens of Dover, Maine, established an "Anti-Liti- gation Society " this winter. Its object was to have all controversies between its members settled by referees. Temperance societies at this time were much in vogue. The Anti-Litigation Society is not now alive, but temper_

ance societies are, owing to the frailty of human nature; and, what is not remarkable, the friends of temperance in- voke the aid of lawyers and courts in putting down in- temperance.

The Hon. Samuel E. Dutton died on February 16, aged fifty-six. He had been the first President of the first bank in Bangor, and the first Judge of Probate of the county of Penobscot.

The question of the Northeastern boundary had been referred to the King of the Netherlands, and on the 10th of July his decision was put into the hands of Mr. Preble and Mr. Bagot, the American and English Commission- ers.

Captain Edward Wilkins, who had been a soldier of the Revolution, died at Charleston, March 9, aged seven- ty-seven.

On March 14 Daniel Pike, Royal Clark, and Henry Call were elected Selectmen, Assessors, etc .; Henry Call, Town Clerk; Fred Whitman, Treasurer.

On the Ist day of April there was a great freshet in the river. In consequence of a heavy fall of rain on March 30, the ice was broken in the streams above Bangor, and came down the river with irresistible force. On the night of the 31st the prospects were alarming; the ice had jammed below the town, and the river began to rise, threatening to overflow the business part of the town. The jam gave way, however, and the water subsided. But on Friday morning (April 1) the Register says:

At 8 o'clock the alarm was again given that the jam of ice, etc., above the town had given way, and that the immense body was moving down. In a few moments the head of the advancing column was seen, and the whole village was intently watching its movements. It came opposite the mouth of the Kenduskeag; acres of ice of great thickness werc thrown in heaps upon the shore with tremendous force, whilst the great body moved on, crowding and jostling like a militia company on mus- ter-day. Suddenly the cry was raised that the mass had again jammed, as the water was rising rapidly. In less than five minutes the water rose ten or twelve feet above high-water mark, overflowing the wharves, lower streets, and the bridge. The water came in through the streets bearing shingles and clapboards on its bosom, and compelling the loiter- ing pedestrians to abandon the sidewalks for higher ground. It is well known that at this season of the year our wharves are covered with shingles and other lumber. It is estimated that at least one million of shingles, besides other lumber, were swept off the wharves and carried down the river and lost. The water, overflowing the bridge, carried off the whole railing on both sides, together with all the sidewalks and centre arch, leaving only the carriage-way of earth; so that the old bridge now looks as demure, crestfallen, and smooth as an ancient maiden who has suddenly lost her cap and curls. (The town has been talking some time about rebuilding the bridge.) The water began to subside again in about ten minutes, and went down as suddenly as it rose; and just as our classicals (for we have classicals on the Penobscot) were exclaiming: "Eheu! jam satis," the jam broke, and the ice and water took up their march for the ocean. One vessel on the stocks was thrown down-one or two buildings of small value were swept away. Shortly after this alarm we were again startled by the information that the ice and logs on the Kenduskeag were moving down; and so it proved. They came over the dam at Pearson's mills (the lower mills), carrying the dam partly away and injuring the mills considerably. A large number of logs passed through the arch of the bridge, but a con- siderable number were stopped. It was thought that this rush would carry away the bridge, but it produced no effect on the remaining part of it.

At Hampden the Sowadabscook cut for itself a new channel on the southerly side of the bridge, under- mining it, leaving the Crosby & Dudley mills high and

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

dry and destroying the navigation of the creek for some distance below.

At Orono the bridge, which had cost between $4,000 and $5,000, was carried away.

The bridge and dam at Levant (Kenduskeag) were carried away. The Jameson bridge, below, was carried away.

The Bridge at Six-mile Falls, Bangor, was nearly de- stroyed.

Eddington, at the "Bend," was overflowed-the large Sibley store was upset and some shops and a large quan- tity of lumber carried away.

At Sunkhaze the country was overflowed and resem- bled a large lake. The shore residents were obliged to abandon their houses.

This year the valuation of the State showed that Penobscot county, in the number of polls and wealth, was greater than its parent, Hancock county; the num- ber of polls being 5,549, and valuation $1,892,812, while the number of polls in Hancock was 4,090, and valuation $1,557,571.12. Of the ten counties Penobscot was the seventh in wealth and population. . Cumberland was first : polls, 9,970; valuation, $6, 175,814.45.

Rev. John Smith, D. D., Principal and Professor of Theology of the Bangor Theological Seminary, died April 7, at the age of sixty-five. He was highly esteemed for his dignity, learning, and good sense.

By order of the Court of Sessions John Godfrey, Esq., County Attorney, was appointed to offer the old Court- house for sale, preparatory to building the new Court- house.

The Six-mile Falls dam being out of repair, J. K. Lumbert applied to Edward Kent, Esq., to call a meet- ing of the owners to take measures for its repair.

The classification of the Representative Districts by the Administration created much excitement among their opponents, who declared that it was unjustly made, and with a view only to the aggrandizement of the party. In order to insure a Representative of their own political complexion, they were accused of making inconvenient districts. One in Penobscot, called the "Hammer Dis- trict," was the especial mark of their objurgation. It commenced on the northerly line of Bangor, embrac- ing six towns, then west about ten miles to include Wil- liamsburg, which made the Hammer. There was a great deal of criticism of this method of districting, but the Jacksonians laughed at the objections, so long as they had secured a Representative for a decade, at least, no matter how.

The Kenduskeag bridge was rebuilt this year, under Ford Whitman, James Crosby, and John Ham, a com- mittee.

A brick school-house, twenty-four by twenty-eight, ten feet walls, was built above Treat's Falls, beyond the hill and turn in the road next above and on the westerly side of the road.

Advardus Shaw took the Maine Coffee House this year on Water street, on the site occupied by the late Daniel House.

The sloop Aurora, Captain Hutchinson, "having ex-

cellent accommodations for passengers," plied between Bangor and Portland this season. A schooner called the Free Trade plied as a packet between Bangor and Boston.

The anniversary of Independence was celebrated in the town by the Bangor Artillery, under Captain Samuel P. Dutton. Rev. Benjamin Huntoon was the orator and Edward Kent the reader of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. There were two sentiments drunk at the din- ner worthy of note. One (a regular) shows the feeling that existed in regard to the decision of the King of the Netherlands on the boundary question.

"The State of Maine: Always inclined to peace - but she finds it hard to agree to the Dutchman's division, which finds a range of highlands in the bed of a river."

The other was a volunteer, by George B. Moody, Esq .:

"Patriotism has been jestingly said to be the want of an office. May our patriotism be love of country, and our politics her prosperity."

Temperance societies continued to be organized through the county this year. At Dixmont one was formed with Josiah Howe President; Samuel Butman Vice President; Rowland Tyler Secretary.

The First Parish meeting-house was rebuilt, and was dedicated July 20. Rev. Swan S. Pomroy preached the sermon, Text John iv. 24. Rev. Mr. Ripley, Baptist ; Rev. Mr. Schermerhorn, Methodist, of Bangor, Rev. George E. Adams, of Brunswick, Rev. John Crosby, of Castine, and Rev. Mr. Fitch, of Belfast, took part in the services.

The house was upon the present site; in fact, it was the principal part of the present house. It fronted on French street. Its windows were pointed. It had a wooden tower with four pinnacles, one at each corner, which were painted white and looked like a table bottom up- wards. It was a quasi Gothic structure - not a credit- able specimen of architecture. It contained 134 com- fortable pews ; an organ made by Calvin Edwards of Portland , andin the tower was the old bell of Mr Bussey, re-cast, but with a tone very inferior to the original. It is the present bell. The house and organ cost something more than $12,000. The sale of pews produced $14,000,

The committees appointed by the Board of Directors for promoting popular education in Penobscot county were: On School Books: Moses Greenleaf, Joseph C. Lovejoy, Joseph Doane, Charles Stetson, William Up- ton, Jonas Cutting, John B. Hill, Aaron Hill, Dr. Stevens. On Qualification of Teachers: David Per- ham, Ephraim Goodale, Edward Kent, S. Wyman. On Systems of Instruction: David Shepherd, Samuel Garn- sey, Joshua P. Dickinson, Elisha H. Allen, Jeremiah Perley. On School Houses and Apparatus: Daniel Pike, Daniel Wilkins, Elias Dudley, John Bennoch, Thomas A. Hill. On Expenses of Education : Moses Greenleaf, Amos Patten, Ephraim Goodale, George Leonard, James S. Holmes. On Arrangements: Daniel Pike, Royal Clark, Benjamin Nourse.

On August 2 the last number of the Bangor Register was issued. In their valedictory the publishers, Messrs. Burton & Carter, recommended to its patrons the Penob-

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scot Journal, which was to be published the next week under the editorial charge of Phineas Barney, Esq., and with which they were to be connected. They plumed themselves upon the pure Republican principles the Register had always advocated, and declared it to be "a most gratifying reflection that from the first they had been decided and unwavering in their opposition to the elec- tion of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency; and desired to be thankful that for the disgrace and humiliation of his election their humble selves had nothing to answer ; that they had been thought too lenient and forbear- ing to those who had assailed them often with billings- gate and blackguardism; that they had been inclined to reply, but had been quieted by the reflection 'that if you only give certain men rope enough, they will hang them- selves;' and certainly the acts and editorials of their neighbor [of the Eastern Republican] were most excel- lent exemplifications of the truth of the old adage."

James Monroe, late President of the United States, died on the Fourth of July.

General Jackson's Cabinet resigned this year, because of the refusal of their ladies to associate with Mrs. Eaton, the wife of the Secretary of War. Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State; Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury; John H. Eaton, Secretary of War, and John Branch, Secretary of the Navy, were the resigning min- isters.

August 9 Samuel L. Valentine issued a newspaper called the Penobscot Journal. Its editor was Phineas Barnes, Esq., a graduate of Waterville College. It pro- posed to advocate, among other things, "the encourage- ment and protection of domestic industry," thus showing that it would be an organ of what was then called the "National Republican" party. The paper was a large weekly, and contained from ten to fifteen columns of reading matter.

Bangor then contained 2,868 inhabitants, and the Journal gave this pleasant notice of the condition of the town :

The activity of trade in Bangor at the present time is cheering to its citizens, and excites the admiration of strangers, A large share of our merchants are in the very comfortable condition of having as much as they can do. Our streets exhibit the bustle of a city, and a fleet of shipping is constantly in the harbor. Boats and rafts are passing on the river at all times, in all directions. A large number of buildings are in progress, including several blocks of stores. Six or seven brick- yards within this village are in constant operation. A spacious hotel, we believe the largest in the State, is well filled. Laboring men are in great demand, and at the highest wages. The country around finds a ready market for its productions.

The editor, in another article, says:

This town is the key, the inlet and the outlet of an extensive region of country, highly distinguished for natural advantages. It possesses a soil which will yield ample subsistence to that which alone deserves subsistence-persevering industry-and which now bears upon much of its surface a mine of immense wealth. It is spotted with interesting and useful lakes, and traversed by numberless water-courses of untold value. With these advantages, and inhabited by a population much more than double the number of settlers in 1820, the Penobscot country seems to offer the fairest field for the useful labors of the public press.

The valuation of Bangor this year . was: Personal estate, $171,465; real estate, $234,202; total, $405,667. Tillage land was valued at $11 an acre; mowing, $12.18;

pasture, $6.57; woodland, $4.06 ; unimproved land, $1.31. Hampden's valuation was : Personal estate, $41,010; real, $111, 193; Orono (including Oldtown): Personal, $11,645; real, $79,287. Brewer : Personal, $14,308; real, $62,545. Orrington: Personal, $18,528; real, $58,227. Dexter: Personal, $10,702; real, $32,692.

There was much speculation at this time in regard to the future growth of Bangor. One enthusiastic vaticin- ator made the following calculation, premising it by say- ing, that "it is probably safe to calculate that it will ul- timately become the first town in Maine, and possibly in New England." Bangor, in 1830, with a population of 2,865, had increased at the rate of 135 per cent. for ten years. Portland, with a population of 12,601, had re- ceived an increase of about 46 per cent. in the same time. At the same ratio, Bangor in 1840 would con- tain a population of 6,739, and Portland of 18,397. In 1850 Bangor would have 15,845; Portland, 27,859. In 1860 Bangor would have 38,245 ; Portland, 40,674. In 1862 Bangor would have 48,571, and Portland 44,334. Thus in thirty-one years Portland would be second to Bangor in population. This view did not suit a Port- land citizen, and he was unwilling to admit the conclu. sion, whereupon the man of Bangor says that he (the Portland man) had lost sight of the fact that the calcula- tion was based upon this one truth, that Bangor has "twice the amount of territory depending upon it for a market that Portland ever can have; and that this whole country is now settling with unexampled rapidity." The Portland man said that Bangor lived upon the lum- ber trade, and would not continue to grow after the lumber was cut off; that what they wanted in Portland was money to develop its resources. The Bangor man admitted that the lumber trade was of great importance to Bangor; but that the prosperity and growth of Bangor mainly depended upon the trade of the immense and growing back country "which concentrated itself here," and that as to money, Bangor at present felt no such lack ; "our lumber furnishes a very tolerable amount of this article, and we have enterprise, which is far better than cash." The Bangor writer was too enthusiastic. Bangor did not contain twenty thousand in 1862 ; Port- land contained thirty thousand, more or less.

The Independent Volunteers (Light Infantry Com- pany), Captain Micajah Haskell, made an excursion down the river on the 23d of August, in the packet- sloop Adventurer, Captain Cornwallis. At Bucksport and Belfast they performed various evolutions, and were highly complimented. The Belfast Light Infantry gave them a dinner at the Eagle Hotel.

The United States Revenue Cutter Morris arrived in port from a cruise on August 31; Richard Derby, Com- mander ; Gold, Carter, and Martin, Lieutenants.

Samuel E. Smith, Democrat, was elected Governor this year over Daniel Goodenow, National Republican. Edward Kent, National Republican, was elected Repre- sentative from Bangor over Gorham Parks, Democrat. Kent's vote was 358, Parks's 840.

Hemp, raised in the county, was brought into the Bangor market, and the hope was expressed that the

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PHOTO- ENG. CA.1

Abel Stunts

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

farmers would give their attention to its cultivation, as with proper attention it could be made profitable.

Henry A. Head and N. O. Pilsbury formed a co- partnership as auctioneers September 26.

Paul Joseph Osson, son of John Osson, a Penobscot Indian, gave indications of superior talent in a school at Oldtown, under a Catholic priest, and on a visit to Ban- gor became so much interested in some engravings which he saw in a store that he was taken to an artist's room, where he saw some paintings that fired him with the idea of imitating them. He succeeded so well that some Bangor gentlemen placed him with an artist, who said that his improvement indicated great promise. He was about eighteen years of age, was rather a wonder in the tribe, and an enthusiastic writer thought, if he should prove to have real genius, that the " world would stare at the Indian artist ! He will be a greater wonder than West was to Europeans."

About the Ist of October there were rumors of troub- les in Madawaska between Americans and Provincials.

On October 5 the Bangor Mechanic Association, the object of which was "to improve its members in the theory and practice of their several arts and professions, " and to acquire and promote among themselves all good and useful knowledge," celebrated its first triennial festi- val by an address in the First Baptist church by Henry Call, Esq., and a dinner at the Penobscot Exchange hotel. An elegant banner was presented by the ladies.

The editor of the Journal was about calling the atten- tion of farmers to the capacity of Maine for wheat-grow- ing, when his eye fell upon the following paragraph from a New York magazine of 1817 :-

The farmers of the District of Maine are turning their attention to the cultivation of wheat, and it is anticipated that the time will soon arrive when Boston and the other seaboard towns of the Common- wealth 'will derive their full supply of flour from the mills on the Ken- nebec and Penobscot. The scarcity in the year 1816 was not because wheat would not grow, but because very little was sown; and this year the abundance is such that one contract has been made for the sale of two thousand bushels, to be shipped from the Kennebec to Baltimore. As a specimen of what the soil of the District of Maine can produce, it is stated that Mr. Daniel Hasey, of Fairfield, raised on one acre and twenty-six rods of ground, in the summer of 1816, sixty-four bushels and a half of wheat.

And the editor put this pertinent inquiry :-

Why is it, when the capacity of the State for wheat-growing is so good, and when we have water-power equal to any in the world, that we are annually drawing thousands and thousands of barrels of our substance from the wheat-fields of New York, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, and paying freight and commissions, besides the first cost, which might be kept here in circulation and in our own farmers' pockets.

The unsettled condition of the Northeast boundary gave periodical excitements which possessed serious as- pects for a time, though they usually subsided in the ex- pectation that something would be done by the General Government.

The settlement on the Madawaska River, composed principally of French inhabitants, was sometimes the cen- tre of commotions. In August, this year, under an act of the Legislature, a warrant was issued by William D. Williamson, Esq., for the purpose of organizing a town -- the whole of the Madawaska settlement from the Monu- ment north to the Highlands-as part of the county of

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 163

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