History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 177

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 177

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The following named gentlemen were the officers of the several banks in Bangor this year :

Kenduskeag-John Wilkins, President; George W. Pickering, Elisha H. Allen, Abner Taylor, John Godfrey, Directors ; Theodore S. Dodd, Cashier.

People's-William D. Williamson, President; Isaac Hodsdon, Charles Stetson, Jabez True, Albert G. Jew- ett, Theodore B. McIntyre, Otis Small, Directors ; Thomas Drowne, Cashier.

Eastern-Amos M. Roberts, President ; John Brad- bury, A. Haynes, Samuel P. Strickland, Directors ; Wil- liam H. Mills, Cashier.

Globe-Solomon Parsons, President; Calvin Dwinel, C. Cooper, J. Appleton, Samuel Smith, Directors ; Sid- ney K. Howard, Cashier.

Bank of Bangor-Samuel Veazie, President ; James Crosby, Samuel J. Foster, Nathaniel Lord, John Bright, Directors ; William P. Richardson, Cashier.

Commercial-John Fiske, President ; Henry Warren, Amos Davis, Fred. Lambert, Leonard Marsh, in place of Rufus Dwinel, resigned, Directors ; William H. Foster, Cashier.

Penobscot-Isaac Farrar, President ; William Emer- son, E. G. Rawson, Jona. Farrar, Eleazer Coburn, Di- rectors ; John Wyman, Cashier.

Mercantile-John Hodgdon, President ; Samuel Farrar, Henry Warren, Oliver Frost, Francis G. Butler, William Weatherbee, Hezekiah Williams, Directors; Samuel Har- ris, Cashier.

Lafayette-Thomas A. Hill, President; Joseph Carr, Joseph C. Stevens, Stephen J. Bowles, George Waugh, Directors ; E. T. Coolidge, Cashier.

The triennial festival of the Mechanic Association oc-

curred on the 18th of October. An address was deliv- ered by Franklin Muzzy, Esq., at the Baptist meeting- house. This address was listened to evidently with great interest by a crowded audience, and was pro- nounced "remarkably neat and appropriate." Mr. Muzzy was one of the first citizens of Bangor, and after- wards was in the State Senate.

The initiatory steps for the establishment of the county of Piscataquis were taken this year by action of towns and the publication of a memorial to the Legislature, signed by James S. Holmes and 125 others, to have certain towns from Penobscot and Somerset counties incorporated as the new county.

The managers of the Bangor Lyceum, E. L. Hamlin, D. T. Jewett, and Thomas L. Harlow, gave notice that the opening lecture would be delivered by George B. Moody, Esq .; that Dr. Jackson, State Geologist, would deliver a full course of lectures on geology; and that other lectures would be delivered by William Paine, Esq., John S. Sayward, Esq., Dr. McRuer, Hon. William D. Williamson, Rev. Mr. Pomroy, Dr. Barker, Hon. War- ren Preston, S. H. Blake, Esq., David Worcester, Hon. Henry Warren, and D. Barstow.

Dr. Enoch Pond, of the Theological Seminary, pub- lished an exposition and vindication of the general form of church government adopted by the Congrega- tional and Baptist churches in America and England, which he believed to be more nearly in accordance with apostolic usage and better adapted to secure the great ends of church organization than any other of which he had knowledge.

At the Charleston balloting for Representative to the Legislature, Daniel Chase received 240 votes, D. Chase received one vote, all others 240. The question before the Bangor public was whether any one was elected. The friends of Daniel Chase claimed that he was; the friends of D. Chase and "all others" claimed that Daniel Chase was not elected, for there were other "D. Chases" in the district. When Benjamin Swett was candidate for county Treasurer, "Benjamin Sweet" received votes enough, with those cast for "Benjamin Swett," to elect that gen- tleman; but the County Commissioners, on the principle that "every tub must stand on its own bottom," decided that Benjamin Swett was not elected, greatly to that gen- tleman's indignation.

The Municipal Court, Judge McDonald, was entertained by a controversy between Mistress Honner Belcher and Mr. Abram Roundy, of the suburb Barkeville. She had caused the venerable Mr. Roundy to be brought up on two warrants for a breach of the peace. It appeared that there had been a bellicose transaction between the parties, during which the atmosphere became impregnated with soapsuds, dishcloths, old shoes, hot potatoes, and the like feminine implements of warfare, from which the masculine participant appeared to be engaged in defend- ing himself. The sympathies of the court were with him at the termination of the hearing, and it discharged him; and further, to the utter disgust of the Celtic complain- ant, would not even listen to a proposition to require him to find sureties to keep the peace.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

On November roth there were 168 vessels in the har- bor. The larger part of them were taking in lumber for the Western and Southern ports and the West Indies. There was much apparent business in the city; but it had suffered and was suffering from the incubus of debt. The staple-lumber-was selling at low prices, but the citi- zens were anxious to relieve themselves of their obliga- tions. This year had, in a business point of view, been a trying one to Bangor. The over-speculation of years previous, the dissolving the connection between the Gov- ernment and the United States Bank, and stopping specie payments, affected business all over the country, and that of Bangor perhaps more than any other place of its size. As much lumber had been shipped as in any former year, it was said, but the prices were twenty-five per cent. less than in the last two seasons previous.

In this month (November) Messrs. Jackson and Hodge, Geologists of Maine and Massachusetts, returned from a reconnoissance of public lands on the headwaters of the Penobscot and in Aroostook, and found, in passing up the Seboois, in several places the new red sandstone, and such as is associated with the coal formation in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and elsewhere. The indica- tions of coal were so great that they did not express a doubt of the existence of coal beds in that vicinity and near township No. 4 in the Seventh Range. They dis- covered, also, a large bed of iron on crossing the Aroos- took river, which they supposed, from the quality and di- rection, to be a continuation of the vein discovered by Dr. Jackson in the neighborhood of Houlton the last year.

From the occasional discoveries and rumors of discov- eries of mineral deposits in various parts of the State the impression has prevailed, for many years, that there are large and rich deposits in various regions. There has been, however, very little effective interest manifested in regard to them. The discoveries on the Seboois should have stimulated a disposition to make a full exploration of the locality where coal is indicated. The importance of veins of coal in this region, as a factor in the prosperity of Bangor, cannot be overestimated. With coal, iron, and slates in its neighborhood, Bangor would not be far into the twentieth century before it would be a second Glasgow.

Mr. Cyrus McKenney confessed to having been made a political victim this year, and to have endeavored to put Samuel C. Clark, Esq., of Springfield, on the road to moral martyrdom. He publicly acknowledged that he had wilfully and wantonly traduced the character of that man; had brought a suit against him for stealing a cow when he had an undoubted right to take her, as he (McKenney) had not fulfilled the contract on his part ; that it had never entered his heart that Clark did wrong, as he had before requested him to take the cow; that Clark had befriended him, and he never should have taken the course he did if Clark's political enemies had not put him up to it, and he asked his forgiveness. Mr. McKenney was not the only man whom politics had set down to a "square meal" of humble-pie in the late cam- paign.

A branch of the Bangor & Oldtown railroad extended the length of Harlow and Exchange streets from the sta- tion. The grade between the station and Harlow street was quite steep. On the 30th of November, before day- light in the morning, a car laden with wood in descend- ing the incline overcame the brake by which it had been controlled, and dashed down with tremendous ve- locity, arousing all on the route from their slumbers, and frightening one of the men in charge with the thought that it would be precipitated into the river. He attempted to jump from the car, and in so doing fell under a wheel that passed over and so seriously injured him that he died on the following day.

The death of Edward Sargent on the 12th of October, at the age of sixty-three, was announced. Mr. Sargent was an old and highly respected citizen.

Reports were coming daily that the Patriots in Canada were in arms. Papineau and O'Callagan, leaders, had taken possession of the old fort at St. Charles, on No- vember 21. On the 25th a Loyalist force from Montreal, consisting of two hundred regulars, came in collision with them and lost four men.

The Revolutionists called themselves "Sons of Lib- erty," and issued an address to the young men of the North American colonies in which they contrasted their country, after seventy-seven years of British rule, with the "prosperous republics who wisely threw off the yoke of monarchy," and set forth, in detail, their grievances. "Hosts of officers appointed without the consent of the people, to whom they are too frequently obnoxious and never responsible." The trial by jury was a "vain illu- sion." Immense funds were diverted from their com- mendable purpose and "made an instrument of corrup- tion." Public lands were sold to or bestowed on speculators beyond seas. Representation was a solemn mockery; a Legislative Council ignorant of the country and not in sympathy with it was imposed on them; and other causes of dissatisfaction. William Lyon McKen- zie and others had organized the rebellion in Upper Can- ada, and Sir Francis Head had offered a reward of £1000 for his apprehension. The rebellion during the year assumed such proportions both in Upper and Lower Canada as to cause considerable alarm.

It was this movement in Canada that took from Ban- gor its military citizen, who three years before had made himself conspicuous in putting down the mob; and more recently in memorializing the city government with re- gard to distributing the surplus revenue among the peo- ple-Captain Charles G. Bryant. He acquired the title of "Grand Eagle " in that movement, whatever that may mean, and afterward took it to Texas, where he was de- spoiled of it by the Comanches, who murdered him.

The movement had no sympathy from the Govern- ment of the United States, and after the loss of some lives and property it was crushed out.

The Methodist chapel on Union street was dedicated on December 12th.

The Anti-Slavery Society of the city passed some reso- lutions relating to the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy at Alton, Illinois, the editor of an anti-slavery paper, and

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

condemnatory of the institution of slavery, which the Whig published "as a matter of courtesy," not holding itself "responsible for any sentiment they embody."

Abner Taylor was declared elected County Treasurer by the County Commissioners, in consequence of infor- malities in the returns from Dover, Exeter, and other towns which gave large majorities for Levi Bradley, the opposing candidate.

The Bangor Sacred Music Society entertained a fine audience at the St. John's church on the evening of the 25th, with choice music executed "admirably well." Christmas was not so generally celebrated up to 1837, in Bangor, as it has been in later years. Holidays had not become of frequent occurrence. Fourth of July and Thanksgiving were the only two established days of relaxation, though the boys had begun to trespass on Fast Day. The Episcopalians and Roman Catholics always celebrated Christmas. Now the people appear to have come to the conclusion that enjoyment of the high- est quality is not to be gathered from "all work."

A railroad between Bangor and Frankfort was contem- plated. A favorable route had been found that would accommodate the Hampden villages, and it was confi- dently predicted that the road would soon be completed. Frankfort had not the enterprise of its neighbor, Bucks- port, which town has not only a road but has got to pay for it, while Frankfort has still to use the old stage coach.

The year 1837 closed without there having been any unusual calamities to record within the year. On the 15th of December a block of five wooden stores adjoin- ing the Hatch House was burned, and the noted hotel came near being consumed, but that misfortune was not to occur until a later day.

The citizens generally were gratified that Edward Kent had been selected to the highest position in the State, not merely because of his political, but on account of his moral worth. He was a man who had acquired their confidence, and they felt that the interests of the Com- monwealth would be safe in his hands.

There was much effort made by the Democrats in the House of Representatives to prevent his inauguration- informalities in the returns being the basis of their labor; but the Democratic Supreme Court would permit no technicalities to set aside the unquestioned expression of the people, and on January 6th a committee of ten from the House and five from the Senate was appointed to an- nounce his election to Mr. Kent. Messrs. Dennet of the Senate, and Codman and Parris of the House, dele- gated by the committee, immediately proceeded to Ban- gor and performed their duty. Mr. Kent resigned the office of Mayor, and at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of that day left town for Augusta, "amidst the roar of artillery and the cheers of his fellow-citizens."*

*Bangor Daily Whig and Courier.

CHAPTER XXXI .*

THE SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF BANGOR.

Events of 1838-1840-1841-1842-1843-1845-1846-The Great Flood- 1847 -- 1848-1849: The Cholera year-1850-Statistics of Lumber Surveyed at the Port of Bangor-1851-1853-1854-First Superin- tendent of Schools Appointed-1855-Norombega Hall and the Post-office Built-1856-1858-1859-1861-1862-1863-1864-1866 -1867-1868-1869-1870-1871-1872-1873-1874-Several No- table Fires-1875-1876-1877-A Noble Deed of Charity-1878- 1881.

1838. The Girl's High School was established this year. The Principal received a salary of $700 per an- num.

The fire-engine "Bangor," built by Messrs. F. Muzzy & Co., was purchased. About the same time three other fire-engines were built here.

1840. The members of the Fire Department were now paid the munificent salary of $1 apiece per year, and this was in lieu of the cost of caps, clothing, etc., which the firemen were expected to furnish for them- selves. The entire expense of the Department for the municipal year was but $652. 10.

The report of the public schools of the city for the last academic year showed fifty-one pupils in the Boys' High School-David Worcester, Principal, at $800 a year; sixty-four pupils in the Girls' High School-A. G. Wakefield, afterwards City Solicitor and Mayor of the city, Principal, at $700 per annum; and nineteen other schools, with an attendance of 23 to 115 pupils each. Total attendance, 2,566, of 2,921 in the city entitled to admission. Cost of schools, $6, 175.08. A select school for girls, kept by Mr. J. E. Littlefield, had seventy-six students; and an apprentices' school, in charge of F. L. Washburn, had seventy-two.

1841. An incendiary fire on Harlow street March 5 destroyed the iron foundry and machine-shops of Messrs. Hinckley, Egery & Co. and Muzzy & Co., with a loss of $15,000.

An addition to the Almshouse was built. The cost of the institution for the financial year 1841-42 was $6,063.90.

The Universalist society was organized this year.

1842. The ex-Firemen's Association was formed Oc- · tober 20, consisting of about forty members. James Lit- tlefield was President, J. E. Leighton Vice-President, William L. Parker Secretary, and John B. Williams Treasurer.

The First Baptist Church was organized September I, in North Bangor. Its meeting-house was built during the fall and early winter, and dedicated in January fol- lowing. The Rev. B. D. Small was installed as pastor May, 1843, and remained such until October, 1845.

An arrangement was made between the city and coun- ty this year for the partial use of the Almshouse by the latter as a house of correction.

The Fire Department now possessed five engines, nine hose-carriages, two thousand four hundred feet of hose, and thirteen pipes, a hook and ladder carriage, and a good supply of other equipments.

The city debt was now $154,830.06.

" This and the following chapters of this division are not from the pen of Judge Godfrey.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY MAINE.

1843. The Bangor Mercantile Association was organ- ized November 30, and incorporated February 5 of the next year. George W. Pickering was President, Jabez True Vice-President, Jere Fenno Secretary, and Francis M. Sabine Treasurer, with a full corps of Directors and Arbiters. By 1848 its library was said to contain three thousand volumes, with Thomas Smith in charge as Li- brarian. In 1844 the library had seven to eight thousand volumes, with eleven daily papers and twenty-five others in its reading-room.

The Bangor Young Men's Bible Society was organized in December.

1844. This was a great year for the Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows in Bangor. Penobscot Lodge No. 7 was chartered February 14, and organized in March, Kenduskeag Lodge No. 12 in May, and the Katahdin Encampment No. 4 in September. All speedily be- came flourishing institutions.

A valuable cabinet of minerals was presented to the Girls' High School this year by its Principal, Mr. Wool- son.

1845. The First Congregational church, in North Bangor, dedicated its meeting-house in April. This society had been organized in June, 1838, with just a dozen members for the beginning.

The Second Baptist church, at the corner of Wall and Independent streets, was organized September 12.

The order of Sons of Temperance got a good lodg- ment in Bangor this year. Cynosure Division, No. I, one of the earliest in the State, was instituted August 19. The next year Crescent Division No. 29, and the Eleusinian Temple of Honor No. '2, were instituted, October 18, 1847, Relief Division No. 92, in North Bangor, was formed.

Three school-houses were erected-one on Main street, one on the Avenue Road, and one in District No. 2, in the country. The rooms in the High School were replastered and newly seated, and other school buildings received a general repairing. The number of children of school age now in the city was 3,589, of whom 2,495 were in the public schools, with an average attendance of 1,780. The schools numbered 34, with 36 teachers.

The Penobscot Steam Towboat Company was incor- porated February 21, 1845, and built the same year the tug-boat " Tarratine," at a cost of $11,000.

A special census of the city in September exhibited 5,862 male population, 5,888 females; total 11,690.

1846. Following the introduction of the reformatory order of Sons of Temperance the year before, came the Daughters of Temperance this year. The Central Union No. 3 was instituted October 7, and the next year, May II, and August 10, 1847, Coronilla Union, No. 9, and the Grand Union, respectively, were formed.

THE GREAT FLOOD.

This was the year of the tremendous flood in the Penobscot and Kenduskeag Streams, which inflicted a great and memorable loss upon the people of Bangor. The account written at the time by the Rev. Dr. West, an Episcopal clergyman then residing here, in a private let-

ter to a distinguished clerical brother in New York City, remains to this day the best published account of the disaster; and we gladly give place to it here:

To the Rev. Dr. Tyng, New York.

Rev. and dear Brother :- We have passed through a scene within the last two or three days which will deeply interest and impress you. Our city has met with a calamity unparalleled in its annals, and perhaps unequalled, in proportion to its population and means, by any in our country. We have been inundated by the river in consequence of what is called here an ice-jam. The history of the matter is briefly as fol- lows :

It sometimes happens that the ice in the river breaks above, while it remains too strong at the outlet to admit of its passing down. The consequence is the accumulation of a dam of ice which completely fills the river from bank to bank, and heaps up sometimes to the height of from fifteen to thirty feet, and thus forming a reservoir of water above iti which overflows the banks and inundates the country around.

The present winter has been a remarkable one in the mode of the formation of the ice. After the river was first frozen over, the ice con- tinued to form in cakes or sheets, and to flow down the rapids to the still and frozen portions, and these were drawn under. This continued until the submerged sheets were stopped by rocks or shoals; then the accumulation went on until the bed of the river became consolidated to an astonishing thickness. Around the piers of our great bridge it was cut through to the depth of about fourteen feet. Thus the entire bed of the river seemed to have become, at least except the channel, an almost solid body of ice.

A few days ago the river began to break up for about thirty miles above the city, while it continued firmly bound for about twelve miles below. There were several different spots where the jams or ice dams were found; and when they broke away they came rushing down with the force of a mountain torrent, until the strong ice below resisted their progress. : These jam's came down one at a time, and, lodging against another below, kept increasing their magnitude. The two most for- midable jams were within seven miles of the city, in the vicinity of the two largest and most important ranges of saw-mills. Those which formed above, when they broke away, passed through at Oldtown and Stillwater with little comparative damage other than carrying away the bridges and adding to the size of the jam below.

The first movement was the raising the two principal ranges of mills from their foundations by the rise of the water. After this the first jam that passed down swept away the Basin mills, which belong to a New York company, and which rented for above $10,000. They next carried away a large range of mills belonging to some of our most en- terprising citizens, and which rented for $15,000 per annum. One of the proprietors thus lost about $50,000. The mills in these two ranges contained about fifty saws, were possessed of the most unfailing water power, were recently fitted up with the best improved machinery, and performed last year about one-third of all the business on the river.

The jams thus worked their way down gradually, carrying destruc- tion to bridges and small houses, and other buildings on the banks, until they were all concentrated in one immense mass of four miles in length, of great height and depth, and filling the river, which varies in width from one thousand to fifteen hundred feet from bank to bank. Above the jam the water was twenty or thirty feet above its usual height, filling up the rapids, and making a dead level of the falls.

The first injury to the city was from the breaking away of a small section of the jam, which came down and pressed against the ice on our banks. By this twenty houses in one immediate neighborhood, on the west bank of the river alone, were at once inundated, but without loss of life. This occurred in the daytime, and presented a scene of magnificent interest. The effect of this small concussion upon the ice near the city was terrific. The water rose instantly to such a height as to sweep the buildings and lumber from the ends of the wharves, and to throw up the ice in huge sheets and pyramids. This shock was resisted by the great covered bridge on the Penobscot, which is about one thousand feet in length, and this gave time to save much property from impending destruction. But, meanwhile, another auxiliary to the fearful work had been preparing by the breaking up of the ice in the Kenduskeag River, This river flows through the heart of the city, dividing it into two equal portions. The whole flat on the margin of the river is covered with stores and public buildings, and is the place of merchandise for the city. The Kenduskeag runs nearly at right angles with the Penobscot at the point where they unite. The Penobscot

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skirts the city on the eastern side, and on the banks of this river are the principal wharves for the deposit of lumber.

I must mention another circumstance to give you a just idea of our situation. There is a narrow spot in the river, about a mile below the city, at High Head, in which is a shoal, and from which the greatest danger of a jam always arises, and it was this that cansed the principal inundation.

The next incident occurred at midnight, when the bells were rung to announce the giving way of the ice. It was a fearful sound and scene. The streets were thronged with men, women, and children, who rushed abroad to witness the approach of the ice avalanche. At length it came rushing on with a power that a thousand locomotives in a body could not vie with; but it was veiled from the eye by the darkness of a hazy night, and the ear only could trace its progress by the sounds of crash- ing buildings, lumber, and whatever it encountered in its pathway, ex- cept the glimpses that could be caught of it by the light of hundreds of torches and lanterns that threw their glare upon the misty atmos- phere. The jam passed on, and a portion of it pressed through the weakest portion of the great bridge, and thus, joining the ice below the bridge, pressed it down to the narrows at High Head. Meanwhile the destruction was in progress on the Kenduskeag, which poured down its tributary ice, sweeping mills, bridges, shops, and other buildings, with masses of logs and lumber, to add to the common wreck.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 177

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