History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 168

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 168

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Along the first days of January the cold was intense. The mercury at one time congealed. It was from forty to forty-two below zero. In Boston the harbor was frozen over below the fort. The Penobscot Bay was frozen over from Belfast to Castine.

Peleg Sprague, United States Senator from Maine, re- signed his seat in Congress.

The School Committee established a school in Jan- uary, exclusively for apprentices and boys.

Captain James Thomas, for whom Thomas's Hill was named, and who had once been the proprietor of it, was at this time in trouble about a plan of certain house-lots which he and Captain Charles Thomas, of the United States Army, had caused to be surveyed by General Joseph Treat, and sold in June, 1831. He went to Washington soon afterward, and on his return this year could neither find his plan nor a record of it, whereupon he made the complaint public that he had made arrange- ments with the United States Captain Thomas to have the plan recorded; that he did not; that on calling upon him for it he said he had lent it to John C. Dexter, a purchaser of some of the lots ; that he called on Dexter, and Dex- ter said he had lent it to Thomas F. Hatch, who was at one time an Assessor of Bangor ; that he called on Hatch, and Hatch said he thought the Selectmen might have mislaid it among other town papers. He took this method to recover the plan and to let the purchasers of the lots know that if they had trouble about the lots in consequence of the loss of the plan, he was not in fault.

The question of abolishing the Court of Common Pleas began to be agitated. Complaint was made of

· slowness of that very upright judge, Perham. There were one thousand or more actions upon the docket; his court had been in session from the 6th to the 22d of January, and had not disposed of one-sixth of the busi- ness! The Whig thought the abolition might make the system infinitely worse, but one thing was pretty sure, it "would strike at the foundation of the means of livelihood of the vast majority of those who call them- selves lawyers in our land. We mean the mere collectors of debts, by means of that instrument called a writ, who turn pale at the very sound of a defense, and who, creep- ing under the protection of a lawyer, shrinks into insignifi- cance when the action which he has brought into court resolves itself into a question of law."

The following named gentlemen were appointed by the City Temperance Society delegates to attend the meet- ing of the State Temperance Society at Augusta on the 4th of February: John Godfrey, James Crosby, Edward Kent, T. A. Hill, William D. Williamson, Henry Call, Joseph Brown, Amos Patten, Charles A. Stackpole, Do- minicus Parker, Joseph C. Lovejoy, John Ham, Joel Hills, Samuel Garnsey, J. A. Poor, Jacob Drummond, Buchan Haskins, Zebulon S. Patten, John Fiske, John Barker, Asa Walker, Jr., N. G. Norcross, J. R. Greenough, Thomas Drew, and Samuel Sylvester.

The Theological Seminary had this year sixty-seven students-twenty-seven in the theological department and forty in the classical.

The first number of the Mechanic and Farmer, a weekly newspaper, edited by John S. Sayward, made its appearance on the 6th of February. It was published in the interests of the mechanics and farmers of the city and region.

On February 6th an initiatory meeting was held at the Baptist Chapel on Harlow street for the formation of a society to supply the lumbermen of the Penobscot Val- ley with religious services during the period they were in the woods in the lumbering season. It was called the Lumber Missionary Society. The committee of manage- ment were Rev. Thomas Curtis, Jacob McGaw, and Jo- seph W. Mason. Secretary Samuel Garnsey, Treasurer Oliver J. Shaw.

William Hammond, an old citizen, originally from Newton, Massachusetts, died the first week in January at the age of sixty-three.

On the 17th of February Cyrus Hamlin,* a student of the Theological Seminary, lectured upon "The erroneous views of past ages relative to Natural and Mechanical Philosophy." His lecture was highly complimented.

The public was a little excited at this time by a report from Washington that Leonard Jarvis, Representative in Congress from the Washington District, challenged F. O. J. Smith, Representative from the Cumberland District, to fight a duel; that Smith declined to fight Jarvis be- cause " he considered Jarvis no gentleman." The bearer of the challenge, Lytle, of Ohio, in compliance with the code of the duel, challenged Smith, but Smith declined

* Mr. Hamlin is now President of Middlebnry College. Has been President of a college in Turkey and a Professor of the Bangor Theo- logical Seminary.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

on the ground that he had never injured Lytle; where- upon Mr. Jarvis posted F. O. J. Smith as "most emphat- ically a Liar, a Scoundrel, a Coward ;" and the effect was about like the "falling of water on a goose's back."

Ex-Governor Samuel E. Smith was reappointed to the Judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas, from which he was taken for Governor, in place of John Ruggles, elected United States Senator.

A great sale of timber lands was announced. It was considered remarkable that Township No. 3, Range 13, should have sold for $3.25 per acre. The purchasers were (it was said) Amos M. Roberts, William Emerson, and Isaac Farrar, all of Bangor.

Applications were made to the Legislature this year for the charter of the Franklin (Eastern), Lafayette & People's Bank and the City Bank, in the city of Bangor. There was a seeming necessity for more currency in the city at this time. Speculators were here in large num- bers. Transactions in land were frequent and immense. A great hegira from all parts of the country was made intc. Bangor. Business of all kinds had increased. Many had the reputation of having suddenly become wealthy. Many more were stimulated by this to make great efforts to become so. There was not money enough for the transaction of business. It was thought that that might be obtained through the incorporation of new banks; and perhaps some saw their way to wealth clear, through new banks which had no visible means of support.

There were clear-headed men in the Legislature who well understood to what this increase of bank currency would lead. . The Representative from Bangor, Mr. Henry Call, was not, however, one of these. He could not see any danger of overtrading in Bangor, or that ex- travagance particularly abounded there.

But Messrs. Curtis, of Freedom, Barnard, Washburn, and Dumont, of Hallowell, were not under the influence of the excitement upon the Penobscot. In the debate, on motion of Mr. Curtis to postpone the question of in- .corporating the City Bank until the Ist of July, Mr. Washburn thought there was a strong disposition at Ban- gor to overtrade and run into extravagance, which the business of the place could not support; that the dockets of the courts were evidence of this, which groaned under their burthens, the bills of cost being estimated at $100,- ooo a year. People from that city had the modesty to ask to be allowed to issue bills of credit to the amount of $600,000 beyond what the existing banks might issue, and in two adjoining towns the privilege of issuing bills to the amount of $150,000 was asked for; and if all were granted the banks in the county of Penobscot would have authority to issue bills to the amount of $1,350,000.

Mr. Washburn then said that, with $50,000 in specie, the six banks reported for Penobscot county, with a cap- ital of $500,000, might be put in operation-only fifty per cent. in gold and silver to be paid in before discounts were permitted. They were not required to go into op- eration on the same day. The City Bank would give no- tice that fifty per centum of its capital must be paid in on Monday. The specie would be borrowed from the older banks in operation. On Monday "the committee

appointed by the Governor and Council would count the money and make oath that fifty per centum of the capi- tal stock was actually paid in gold and silver. On Tues- day the same specie might find its way to the Franklin (Eastern) Bank, and the same farce be gone through with there. On Wednesday to the Lafayette Bank, on Thursday to the People's Bank, on Friday to the Penob- scot Bank, and on Saturday to the Stillwater Canal Bank." On Monday, perhaps, the specie would be on its way back to the banks from which it originally came.

If every lawyer's office in Bangor were converted into a banking-house, it would not increase the wealth or cap- ital of the city. It might enable the lawyers to carry on "the business of shaving on a large scale;" and there was reason to apprehend that the banks contributed to the multiplicity of suits. Discounts were made freely, busi- ness was overdone, the time of payment came, and the money had not come back with which to pay the banks. He referred to the Wiscasset Bank, where the inhabitants were running into the same extravagances they were run- ning into in Bangor, and to the losses that were sustained by the failure of that bank. He referred also to the Eastport Bank and the Castine Bank, which took great pains to circulate their bills in. the country when they were about to fail, but would not undertake to say that their directors had anything to do with it.

All the banks were incorporated and put in operation; but not one of them, excepting the Franklin (or the East- ern), of which Amos M. Roberts was President, was in existence many years afterward.

In the discussion above, Mr. Dumont, of Hallowell, explained how banks took extravagant interest. An ap- plicant for money must have it. His necessities were imperious. The bank had discounted to the extent of its ability, the director says, "but if you must have it, to oblige you I will let you have a draft on Boston at sixty days for 21/2 per cent .; but it will be a great damage to us to let you have the money even at that rate."

In the winter of 1832-33 commenced the speculation in timber land, which resulted in fortunes to a few, but in disaster to many. Those lands had previously borne a very low price in the market. Some large sales at- tracted attention, and business men became satisfied that money was to be made in transactions in those lands. They discussed their value everywhere. Amos Davis, Samuel Smith, and other bold speculators, obtained the refusal of lands from the owners by bonds, in which the owners contracted that if within such a time a certain sum-say a quarter of the sum required for the whole purchase-were paid in cash and security given by mort- gage of the premises for payment of the rest in one, two, three, and, perhaps, four years, a deed should be given. The lands were valued at from say twenty-five cents to a dollar an acre, and any quantity from one hundred acres to a township of 22,040 acres, excluding the one thou- sand acres reserved for school purposes, were thus bonded. The bonds were obtained by all sorts of oper- ators, who would get some sort of an estimate and plan by a pretended or actual surveyor or explorer, and go into the market and make a sale to some other specula-

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

tor for a small advance per acre in cash. The purchaser would then go into the market and perhaps get a small advance also, or he might be disposed to make the pur- chase of the land actually for an investment.

After the speculation got into full operation, there was great ingenuity exercised to effect sales. Men were em- ployed as explorers to make plans and descriptions of the lands. Surveyors of easy conscience, and pretended surveyors without any conscience, were employed in this business, and plans and descriptions, with the certificates of the explorers as to their correctness, showed fabulous quantities of the best qualities of timber upon tracts so well watered that the facilities for driving the timber to market were all that could be desired. Consequently there was a vast deal of swindling in the transactions at last. Such instances as the following were not unusual. A gentleman made a purchase of a township which by the certificates of men in good standing appeared to con- tain more than 120,000,000 feet of pine timber. He sold it with his warranty that it contained twenty mil- lions. The purchaser sued him on the warranty. He fell back upon the explorer, expecting, of course, to be sustained by his testimony, and took his deposition. This was its substance:

" Is this your certificate ?"

"Yes."

"Is it true that there is 120,000,000 of pine timber upon the township."

"No."

" How much is there ?"

" Perhaps there may be two millions."

Finding that he had been swindled, he compromised with his purchaser by paying him $4,500.

Men often could be found who had their prices, some very large, for these lying certificates, apparently thinking there would be no crime in the transaction until it came to perjury, and probably not then were it not for the prison.

Sometimes honest explorers were deceived in regard to the identity of the township, in some way being led to think they were exploring on a certain number, when they were in fact exploring one of a different number.

A dollar an acre for lands appears to be a trifling sum to some men who are accustomed only to lands worth a hundred dollars and upwards an acre; and when they are taken by a keen speculator upon a tract that he wishes to sell, they are made to see in its timber, its soil, it may be in its rocks even, ten times the value that is asked for it and in the excitement of the time he feels that the $20,000 he has paid for a township on the head-waters of the Penobscot is invested in that which will make him a landed proprietor to be envied, with resources not likely soon to be exhausted.

This speculation in bonds in wild lands extended to bonds of building lots in the town. There was an influx of population which few dreamed would subside. Of course they must have dwelling, and places where to erect them. Many undertook to make their fortunes out of nothing by obtaining bonds of large parcels, dividing them into small lots, and selling or giving bonds of them.

One deacon of a church dealt largely in these bonds, and some of his envious neighbors, thinking that he was get- ting rich roo rapidly, intimated that he was not over- scrupulous in his representations, or, at any rate, that he was becoming altogether too much a lover of mammon .. This having been reiterated to his pastor until he felt himself obliged to mention it to his deacon, he took oc- casion to allude to his transactions by way of inquiry.

" Mr. Pomroy," said he, with a twinkle of the eye and in a tone of some solemnity, "I would that thou wert almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds."

Mr. Pomroy could not go on with the subject, and left his deacon to such satisfaction as he could gather from so wittily warping the words of St. Paul.

One other genius had laid out a town in the suburbs of Bangor ; had his plans of streets and lots, and made sales to ignorant persons, who, when they came to occu- py, found the tract, to be sure, but the title to it had never passed to their enterprising grantor.

But to return to the timber lands. Some were sold as high as $4 an acre, which had the appearance of being covered with excellent growths of timber. On being cut, however, this proved hollow, "concussy," rotten, and un- profitable. To the uninitiated all timber was fair. The initiated could soon tell worthless timber. A concussy: knot was evidence to satisfy them. This knot was the root of a decayed limb. Exposed to the weather, its bark would fall off; it then gradually became rotten, the rot would penetrate to the heart of the tree and up and down it. Unprincipled speculators would get seemingly sound logs out of many of these trees, and the fraud. would not be detected until after the timber had passed through several hands and been subjected to the mill saw or the carpenter's axe.

After the usual amount of deception and swindling attending such excitements, the people learned the un- profitableness of this kind of speculation, and some re- turned to their old occupations, perhaps not wholly stripped of their means, but somewhat soberer and wiser. Some learned that it was not a sure road to fortune, some were ruined for life, and some, who never had any means or much brains, and had got it into their heads that they were somehow to be enriched if they could only get pos- session of a bond, on finding their capital on the bursting of the bubble exactly as it was before the inflation, threw up their hands in disgust, and went into the next most profitable business - that of mourners for the loss of what they never had.

This year the City Council by ordinance established a High School for the education of youth of both sexes.

Hon. Allen Gilman was renominated for Mayor by the Whigs, against Levi Bradley, Democrat. In a vote of 715 he was defeated at the first balloting by 82 scatter- ing on March 10, but on the 17th he was elected by a vote of 408 in 762.

The question of abstinence from all intoxicating li- quors was thoroughly discussed this year before large audiences in Hammond street vestry. The question of incorporating cider and strong beer into the pledge oc:

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

casioned most controversy, but invariably the vote was to include them. There was meeting after meeting, and after it had been decided over and over again, meetings were called for a reconsideration of the vote, and always with the same result.

The ladies took the matter of temperance in hand, not as "women's rights women," but as "females of Ban- gor," and "P. V. McGaw and 758 others" sent a womanly petition to the Legislature, in which they said:

We do not know how to approach Legislators because we have never presumed to interfere with political matters. We know that in such affairs you are better judges than we. But many of us know how to approach husbands, whom we tenderly love, with entire confidence that the woes we feel or dread will be relieved, warded off, or shared by us. Others of us have experienced the delight derived from leaning on the manly wisdom, dutiful affection of virtuous sons-others, too, have looked up to affectionate fathers for assistance, with a degree of confi- dence that can only be increased when we look to a heavenly father- and many feel happy in the consideration that our brothers, by their noble virtues, will not only sustain the honor of their families but assist to perpetuate the honor and dignity of the State in which we have the pleasure to live. To such husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers we present this petition.

They then entreated the Legislature to manifest their love of country, and affection for wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters by such enactments as will banish from our houses and our State the reproach and misery which the use of ardent spirits constantly imposes, not only upon its consumers, but upon their innocent children and friends. "The amount of woe," said they, " suf- fered from the tremendous scourge, intemperance, we deem it unnecessary to spread out before you. Its deso- lations are manifest wherever you turn your eye. The best method of removing this calamity we leave to your superior wisdom."

The temperance feeling at this time was so strong in the city that the enemies of the cause undertook to create a prejudice against it by posting notices calling on its friends to meet at a certain time and place to nominate a candidate for Mayor. The committees of the two temperance societies of the city felt it incumbent on them to give notice that "an enemy hath done this," in order to prevent " a false impression " and to defeat a scheme "to effect an unworthy object," and to denounce it as a hoax.

Hoaxing was fashionable about this time. Some one wrote this note to the editor of the Washington Globe:

FRIEND BLAIR: I enclose you $10 and wish you to send me extra numbers of your Congressional Globe to this amount, to counteract the progress which the - Whigs are making here.

Yours, etc., JOSHUA CARPENTER. Inclosed in this note was a $ro bill of the broken "Farmer's Exchange " bank. The extra Globes came, and the postmaster notified Carpenter that his Globes were ly- ing there idle, and at the same time Mr. Blair sent back the letter and bill. The famous Colonel Carper ter certi- fied on the back of the letter that it was a forgery. How the postmaster and the parties disposed of the Globes and the bill was not made public.

A Youth's Temperance Society was organized. Ben- jamin Silsbee, President ; Allen Tupper, Vice-President ; Rufus Upton, Secretary ; John M. Prince, Jr., Treasurer ; Richard B. Thurston, H. G. O. Morison, R. L. Savage,

and the President and Vice-President, ex-officio Com- mittee.

On March 13 the law firm of McGaw, Allen & Poor was formed. Jacob McGaw, Frederick H. Allen, and John A. Poor were the partners.

A difficulty occurred at this time between Mr. Rufus Dwinel and the Kenduskeag Bank. Mr. Dwinel was an enterprising merchant of remarkable temper and will. Because of a want of accommodation from the bank he made a war upon it and undertook to break it. It was thought that the war was neither a benefit to the bank, the public, nor Mr. Dwinel. He declared that the public had decided that the bank was the aggressor. He demanded an apology from the Directors, nothing more; admitted that the public had sustained an injury from the war, and said he should persist in his course unless the apology were made.

Temporary sidewalks were suggested until brick walks could be had. They were a necessity. The soil of Ban- gor is clayey, and in wet weather the walking was bad in- deed.

Notwithstanding the reported sale of Township No. 3, Range 13, to Amos M. Roberts, William Emerson, and Isaac Farrar, at $3.25 an acre, there was complaint that there was an improper manipulation regarding it in the Land office; that it was one of the best, if not the best, timbered townships in the State; that it had been fully explored and was run out into square-mile sections with the desire to accommodate small capitalists and practical lumbermen, but that it was disposed of much below its fair value to favorites through one Henry Warren, a per- son in the employ of the Land Agent.

The temperance movement had many enemies. Its advocates were sneered at, and sometimes insulted and abused. Hon. Samuel M. Pond, of Bucksport, a decided man and Secretary of the Maine Temperance Society, was happy that, at one time, his own village had become free of rum-selling stores and taverns; but there had been a reaction and bad men were in the ascendant in taverns and grogshops, and drunkenness became rampant. Mr. Pond, of course, was in disfavor. The rum lovers man- ifested their hate of the good man in scurrilous hand- bills, and by daubing on his law office the word Rum in large characters, thus really helping the reputation of Mr. Pond and disgracing their village.

It was about this time that Rev. George B. Cheever and the publishers of the Salem Landmark were indicted for publishing the article "Deacon Giles's Distillery," and that those who assaulted Mr. Cheever were indicted.

This year Mr. Ransom Clark conceived the project of Broadway Park. Mr. J. Prescott, civil engineer, de the plan. Lots were laid out around it and sold at good prices. The conditions were that the purchasers should build two-story brick houses. This not done, the lots were, many of them, sold for taxes, and the park contin- ued a common.

In March two large moose were seen quietly traveling in the road near Orono, occasionally leaving it for the woods, but coming back to it in consequence of the great depth of snow.

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Here is a description from the Whig of the return of the lumber operators of the past winter to Bangor. It may be taken as a good general description of their return.

The lumbermen are returning from their winter quarters, and their de- parture is marked by movements somewhat similar to the breaking-up of a muster or ball. The cattle are brought down in droves and car- ried away to be refitted by food and rest for employment another season. The weary teamsters, with long beards and tattered garments, are emerging from the depths of the forest again to breathe the atmos- phere of civilized life, after having been pent up through the dreary winter months, in the camps in the woods. It must be pleasure indeed for them to join their families again, and count their gains while they recount their hardships,

In April the Penobscot Indians received this con- temptuous notice from the Whig: "The pleasant weather has brought down these drones, who may be seen in scat- tered groups along the streets. Their appearance in the spring is as much indicative of a change in the seasons as that of other hibernating animals.

This month Ransom Clark, George B. Moody, and Edmund L. LeBreton advertised the lots on Broadway Park for sale, and Philip Coombs advertised the lots around the city common.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 168

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