History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 214

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 214

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The Centennial year presented no notable features, as far as Bradley was concerned. It was the dullest of dull years, and was greatly lamented by those dependent on the lumber business for support.

The succeeding year was a slight improvement on the preceding, but it presented many features that make its memory disagreeable to the lumberman.

The next year, 1878, was the year that the Greenback wave swept over Maine, and Bradley, for the first time for many years, failed to roll up a majority for the Re- publicans.

860

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

The next year showed a decided improvement in lum- ber and all other branches of business. The mills were run to their fullest capacity, everybody was employed, and wages were slightly better.

In November of this year James J. Norris was mur- dered in a most shocking manner. Mr. Norris was one of the most capable and respected citizens of Bradley, and had been the recipient of all the offices in the gift of the town. He had been Representative to the Legis- lature in 1863, and at the time of his death was Treas- urer of the town, which office he held for a number of years. He was resident agent for Messrs. Cutler & Eddy, managing their extensive business in Bradley. In this position he handled large sums of money, and generally had money on hand, which he kept in the safe in the office. Joseph Bolduc, a Frenchman from Canada, who had been employed in the mills but had lately been dis- charged, conceived the idea that Mr. Norris was the cause of his discharge, and determined to have revenge. Mr. Norris was accustomed to write late in his office in the evening, and Bolduc, knowing his habit, secured an axe and awaited him outside the office. Between 9 and IO P. M. Mr. Norris finished his labor and started for home. He was met by Bolduc, who struck him with the axe and in a moment laid him dead on the spot. He then burst open the safe and rifled it of its contents. Mr. Norris was found in the morning, and Bolduc took the early train for Quebec. But suspicion was attracted toward him, and by means of the telegraph he was over -. hauled at Newport and arrested. He was tried, found guilty, and is now in the State prison at Thomaston, serving out a life sentence.

The succeeding year, 1880, was one of great activity.

The demand for lumber was greater than the supply, and all branches of business were in a flourishing condition. The drought was severe, but a large cut of lumber was produced by the Bradley mills, they being in such excel- lent condition that they are not much affected by a drought.

Frank Livermore was chosen Representative to the Legislature, it being Bradley's turn to select the candi- date.

In the winter of 1880-81 the capacity of the mills for the production of lumber was enlarged by the addition of a circular saw-mill to the machinery. The season of 188I was one of the most favorable for sawing ever known. The river was at a high pitch, and the burning of the mills at West Great Works, on the other side of the river, made the water at Bradley even better than at other places on the stream. An unprecedentedly large cut was the result, which has been sold at remunerative prices.

The Baptist society erected a church on a pleasant lo- cation in the village. It is a quite handsome and con- venient structure, and is an ornament and honor to the village.

Bradley is now in a prosperous condition. The mill property is in the best of hands, and all other kinds of business flourishing. The town has improved much in appearance, and there is reason to believe that it is grow- ing faster than at any time since 1840; and with its spir- itual, moral, and intellectual condition constantly improv- ing as they are, it must be one of the most pleasant towns in the county to live in. It is not a large town, but still has natural advantages that, improved as they ought to be, will make it a populous and important place.

DR. GEORGE A. HAINES.

DEXTER.

[The following valuable contribution to the History of Dexter, by Volney A. Sprague, Esq., of that town, was received too late for insertion in its proper place. ]

From the date of the first settlement in Maine, by George Popham, in the year 1607, to the year 1760, the history of Maine presents a rapid succession of Indian wars, wherein savage cunning and hate mingles strangely with Anglo-Saxon pluck. At that time the power of the natives became completely broken, and they continued to exist merely a band of mendicants, subsisting on the bounty of their conquerors. Up to this time the Dis- trict of Maine was organized in only one county, the county of York.

In 1760 the counties of Cumberland and Lincoln were organized, Lincoln to contain all the State east of Cumberland. Thus Dexter was in Lincoln county till 1790, when the county of Hancock was formed, so that the settlement of Dexter was commenced when included in the territory of Hancock county. The county of Penobscot was organized in 1816 with Bangor for a shire-town, its limits including the county of Piscataquis. We need say nothing more of the county.

The town of Dexter until its settlement was of course an unbroken wilderness, with occasional tracts of excel- lent timber, consisting of pine, spruce and juniper. It being the highest land between the Penobscot and Ken- nebec rivers, the tribes of Norridgewock and of Penob- scot both claimed it as their hunting-ground, and we can only imagine the conflicts that may have taken place with- in our town limits, between those tribes in asserting their rights. Indian hunters sometimes used the stream and small lakes connected with it in their passage from the Kennebec to the Penobscot, and occasionally used the Dexter stream, but their usual course was to ascend the Sebasticook to Pittsfield ; take the west branch to Moose Pond in Harmony, then by way of Main Stream to the nearest point on the Piscataquis river, thence down that river to the Penobscot. This way was circuitous, but they preferred a route like this, as they traveled mostly in canoes. The fact that Dexter is the highest ground be- tween the two rivers is shown by the waters in the east part of the town running into the Penobscot, and those of the west running into the Kennebec. Indeed, on the farm of N. G. Brackett a rivulet divides, a moiety flowing into each river.

There is a question about the year in which the first settlement was made in Dexter, which we are not at present prepared to discuss. The exterior lines were surveyed in 1792 by Samuel Weston, and like all other towns in this part of the county, contains thirty-six square miles. The actual area is about 25,000 acres. The

township, then known as No. 4, Range 5, north of the Waldo patent, soon after passed into the hands of pro- prietors by a contract from the State of Massachusetts. The original contract for the purchase of the territory of Dexter was made by James Bridge, the date of which I have not yet learned. Under this contract was granted a patent to Amos Bond and others, on the roth day of March, 1804.

The township was surveyed into lots by Simeon Saf- ford, in 1803.

In the year 1799, the proprietors wishing to encourage immigration to the plantation, not only offered liberal in- ducements in lands to settlers, but also sent Samuel Elkins, a mill-wright, from Cornville to look up a site and build mills. He selected the outlet of what is now known as Silver Lake, and commenced immediate oper- ations. But little more was done that year than to clear away the underwood, fell and hew timber, and build a camp of hemlock bark. It is also urged that Ebenezer Small came and began work on a clearing in that year, but he certainly came the next year, cleared a small piece of land, and planted a crop. In this year, 1800, also came into town John Tucker, who felled trees on the farm owned by John Shaw; also Samuel Elkins, who cleared a patch on the site of the grist-mill. He also continued his preparations for erecting the proposed mill.

Mr. Small built a house of unhewn logs, filling the interstices with clay and covering with hemlock bark. He also built a hovel, with poles inclined and secured at the top with elm and wickerby bark. In these humble structures he laid up the first crop raised in Dexter. These were the first buildings.

We cannot avoid the conclusion that Mr. Small, who moved from Alton, New Hampshire, to Athens, in 1799, on his way to Dexter, really felled a patch of woods in the same year, on the hillside now owned by Josiah Crosby; that in the year 1800 he raised corn there, felled more trees, built his camp just north of the Stone Mill, and upon the crusted snows of the following spring, 1801, hauled his wife from Harmony, the nearest unobstructed point to his camp, fourteen miles, on a hand sled. This is as the story goes, but in fact Mrs. Small walked a good part of the way on snow shoes.

They lived here about three years when he built a house on the hill, near the residence of Hiram Bassett, and several years later occupied the farm now owned by Charles C. Hatch, where he lived for many years.

861

862

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

We accord to the plucky Small the no mean praise of clearing the first land, raising the first crop, building the first dwelling, and hauling the first white woman into Dexter.

We accord to his energetic wife the praise of being the first white woman that stepped on our native soil, that bore the first child, and took the first slide on a hand- sled.

The ladies of Dexter, her fair representatives, continue to honor her example by coasting down the hills of our village, in spite of town ordinance or constable.

The child born was Joannah Small, who married and is now living in Springfield, Maine. Mrs. Small at- tacked, single handed, a half-grown bear, and succeeded in dispatching him.

In 1801 good progress was made on the mills. Mr. Tucker built a small house, and the succeeding year moved his family in, being the second family in town. Mr. Elkins, on account of failing health, did not return in 1802, but his brother, John Elkins, came and com- pleted a saw- and grist-mill in one building, located on the site of the late saw-mill. The town after that was known as Elkinstown.

One of the great disadvantages labored under, was the difficulty of transportation. A road had been cut out from Bangor to Corinth, and a winter road continued to Garland. From Garland to No. 4, six miles, the mill irons had to be transported on horseback. The first mill crank was brought into town balanced on a horse, a man support- ing each end, while a third led the horse. Millstones were manufactured from native granite. Soon after the mill was completed, it was sold to Jonathan Snow, who lived in a log cabin near the mill until 1804, when he built the first framed house, near where Mrs. B. F. Horton's house now stands.

In the year 1806, the barn of Samuel Copeland was burned, and Mr. Snow was so strongly suspected of being the incendiary, that, fearing trouble, he sold his property to Wiggins Hill and moved to Massachusetts; afterward he was convicted of a crime there, and sentenced to the penitentiary. While there, he was visited by Hon. Seba French, of Dexter, to whom he confessed that he was guilty of burning Mr. Copeland's barn.

In the spring of 1803, Seba French, of Washington, New Hampshire, moved into town, making his way from Harmony through snow so deep that he was three days in reaching John Tucker's house, and another day in getting to his camp three miles east on the farm of A. L. Barton. During the summer Cornelius Coolidge, Charles and Stephen Fletcher, Simeon, Theophilus, and John Morgan, moved into town from Hallowell. During the years 1803-4-5, Samuel Copeland, Simeon and John Saf- ford, and Hugh Maxwell, moved from Washington, New Hampshire, to Dexter. E. W. Sprague also came from Greene. Mr. Copeland had a large family of boys, and girls, who married and settled in Dexter. They have nearly all passed away, only two remaining-Mrs. Emma Beals, of Corinna, and Chauncy Copeland, of Dexter, Michigan.

About the year 1807 immigration had increased with

such rapidity that the inhabitants concluded to enjoy' some of the luxuries of life, so laid out a road from Gar- land to Dexter, built a school-house near the house of the late Justin Whitcomb. This house stood there for more than fifteen years, and did duty for the whole town as town-house, church, and school-house, united.

From this time the affairs of Elkinstown continued to prosper. The people were hardy and industrious, ever ready to extend to each other a helping hand, so that the town was as free from cases of actual distress as could be expected. Wiggins Hill, during a residence of two years in Dexter, cleared eight acres of land east of the Abbott mill and built a house near the present residence of the late Jeremiah Abbott.

He then sold the mill to Andrew Morse, who built the house now owned by D. D. Flynt, which is now be- lieved to be the oldest two-story house in town, being seventy-one years old.

The War of 1812 affected the settlers of Dexter very little until the news came that the British fleet was as- cending the Penobscot River toward Bangor. Fifteen men immediately volunteered to go to Hampden, where the militia were to rendezvous, but they, meeting the Americans in full retreat, and feeling that prudence required them to join the strongest party, retreated also.

Up to this time what public work had been done was by voluntary contributions. But on the 17th day of June, 1816, just four months and ten days after Penobscot county had been established, the Plantation of Elkinstown was incorporated into the town of Dexter. Previous to this, great interest had been taken in the name of the town by the settlers. Mrs. Small claimed the right to name the town, and she was supported by most of the women. But alas, women could not vote, so she failed. Her choice was Alton, from her native town in New Hampshire. The Federalists voted for the name of Gower, from the Federal Governor in Massa- chusetts, while the Republicans went for Dexter, from Samuel Dexter, the Republican candidate for Governor. So you see that Republicans were in the majority in those days as now.

The first test vote is recorded as follows, April 7, 1817: Votes given for Governor; For Major-General Henry Dearborn, 26; for his Excellency John Brooks, 17. We must remember that his Excellency was the then Gov- ernor.

This record is signed, Elijah W. Sprague, Town Clerk, and as I happen to know that his organ of reverence was decidedly small, it is a matter of surprise that he should spread such high-sounding titles upon the town books.

On the 16th day of April, 1816, a petition signed by Seba French and Samuel Copeland was presented to Isaac Wheeler, of Garland, a Justice of the Peace, to call a meeting of the legal voters of the town to organize under its charter. The warrant was directed as follows:

Penobscot ss. To Captain Samuel Copeland, one of the inhabitants of the Township numbered four, in the fifth range, north of the Waldo patent, and by a late act of the General Court incorporated by the name of Dexter, and being in said county of Penobscot. Greeting.

863

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

The first town meeting was held August 23, 1816. Andrew Morse was chosen Moderator; John Bates Town Clerk and Treasurer; Andrew Morse, Cornelius Coolidge, and Seba French, Selectmen ; Elijah W. Sprague, Con- stable.

On the 2d day of September, 1816, the town was called upon to vote on the question of separation from the State of Massachusetts. The vote was as follows : Yeas 27, nays o.

This year is known as the cold year. The winter was very severe; the spring opened late and backward. As late as the 11th of June a severe snow storm occurred, snow falling several inches deep, and remaining on the ground for more than twenty-four hours. The corn, which was the farmer's main dependence, failed to ripen, and it seemed that in the autumn starvation was at the doors of the poor people. But some of the best farmers had raised good crops of wheat, and this, scattered around, averted the danger. When 1817 opened cold and backward, such men as French, Coolidge, Copeland, and Morse, gave and lent wheat to their poorer neigh- bors for seed, and a much greater breadth of wheat was sown this year and a less quantity of corn.

Is it not a credit to those brave men that but one man in the whole town attempted to take advantage of the uni- versal distress, and obtain an extra price for the grain he had to sell? Corn in the year 1816-17 was brought from Virginia to Bangor and Augusta, by water, and so found its way into the country, where it brought the then great price of a dollar per bushel, besides the expense of trans- portation. A farmer would start for Bangor, Augusta or Norridgewock, they being the nearest markets, ride horse- back, buy a horse-load of corn, and then walk home by the side of the horse, balancing the grain on its back.

In 1817 Jonathan Farrar bought the mill property of Andrew Morse and the carding-mill of James C. Hill, and being possessed of some means, commenced a sys- tem of permanent improvements; dug the canal, built the grist-mill pond, built a new saw-mill and grist-mill, opened a store, and so induced a rapid settlement of the town.

But, strange as it may seem, and as poor as the people then were, the articles mostly sold in his store were liquors, and the special liquor was New England rum. It was said that he would tap a hogshead at each end, sell one end for forty-two cents and the other for fifty cents per gallon, and even in those days there were peo- ple so fond of luxuries that he sold out the fifty-cent end first. He enjoyed this joke as well as any one. He was a sharp, shrewd business man, but fair and honorable in all his dealings, and in all business matters was respected and trusted by all classes ; and although as a merchant he catered to the universal custom of drinking, he was a strictly temperate man-not temperance man, as the cause of temperance was then unknown. His means en- abled him to carry a large stock for those days, and " Farrar's Store" was known and patronized by the in- habitants of all the surrounding towns. He accumulated a large fortune, and in 1835 was reputed to be worth $200,000. In religious belief he was a Universalist, and

the flourishing condition of that society was largely due to his munificence.

One little incident came under the writer's personal notice. Soon after the organization of the society, at a meeting of the managing committee, some one (I think Dr. G. M. Burleigh) proposed raising by subscription a sum of money to bay a small library of denominational works for the use of the society. Esquire Farrar (as he was always called) immediately answered the proposition by offering to give one hundred dollars if the other mem- bers would give fifty. His proposal was at once. ac- cepted.

He was the senior member of the firm of Farrar & Cutler, formed in 1835 for manufacturing woolen goods, which is now known as the Dexter Woolen Mills Cor- poration. He died in 1839. He came originally from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but resided in Bloomfield for some time before taking up his residence in Dexter.

In 1817 the town was divided into five school districts, but no other school-house was built until 1822, when one was erected in the village district, No. 6, about on the spot occupied by Josiah Crosby's office. The first physi- cian, Benjamin Clement, located in Dexter in 1816. Doctor Gilman M. Burleigh moved into town in 1818, and up to the time of his death in 1872 he was more or less connected with the public business of the town. He was an active, influential citizen, and until near the close of life was yearly elected to some town office.

Two events happened in 1818. One, a wagon passed through the town, being the first one ever seen in Dexter, causing more astonishment among the little folks than Barnum's circus would now. The other, a mail route was established from Bangor to Harmony through Dex- ter, and a post-office opened, Jonathan Farrar being ap- pointed postmaster. The mail was carried on horseback till 1828.

The year 1820, Benjamin Greene opened a tavern in the two-story house now standing on the hill east of the village. I believe the house was built the year before. The population of the town now was about five hundred, and its valuation $132,876.

The village consisted of four dwellings and seven other buildings. Some of the dwellings had a room or two finished, but there was not a complete house in town. This year, the last under the jurisdiction of Massachu- setts, a town meeting was called at the house of Benjamin Greene, and the constable is directed "to warn the male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one, and who are liable to be taxed, and who have resided in town one year, to meet," etc.

In the record of the next meeting it commenced as follows: " In the name of the Com.," then that is erased, and "State " follows. The clerk had been so much in the habit of writing Commonwealth, that he forgot that Maine had become an independent State.

At the town meeting in 1821 we find the following curious vote : "Article 14, on motion, voted to raise four hundred dollars for the support of schools, and one hundred to defray town charges, and to be paid in grain, delivered at the Town Treasurer's office, between the

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

twentieth and the thirty-first days of January next, at the following prices, namely, wheat at six shillings per bushel, rye at five per bushel, and corn at four per bushel, and the Town Treasurer to be sole judge of the quality of said grain."

In 1820 Jeremiah and Amos Abbott came into town from Andover, Massachusetts, bought the carding-mill and saw-mill, and the upper water privilege. They were the originals of the firm of Amos Abbott & Co., which is still in existence, as one of the oldest firms in the State, being sixty-one years old. Amos Abbott died in 1865, and Jeremiah in 1879, but George, the son of Amos, and Job, the son of Jeremiah, carry on the business, and as each of them have a son, who take actively to the business, they bid fair to make the familiar name of Amos Abbott & Co. perpetual.

The old carding and cloth-dressing-mill has grown, under their fostering care, to a mill one hundred and twenty-five feet long, forty feet wide, and four stories in height, with four sets of machinery, and a pay-roll of $2,000 per month.

HOTELS.

In 1824 John Bates opened a tavern at his house, be- ing the first tavern in the village proper. That house is now standing, just below Newell Bates' saloon. Just look at it, and compare it with the Merchants' Exchange. That house could not hold a fashionable woman and her baggage. Either she or her baggage would have to stop out-doors. This house was kept open to the public until 1830, when the three-story house, near the machine shop of N. Dustin & Co., was erected by Stevens Davis and others, and opened as a hotel on the fourth day of July of that year. This was kept open for about fifteen years, and was succeeded by the Dexter House, built on the site of the Bank Block. This was closed in 1874. In the year 1866 L. D. Hayes built the Merchants' Exchange at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars. This is one of the best appointed hotels in the country, and has always been kept in tip-top style. It has fifty-two rooms, is supplied with pure spring water, and being situated in the busy part of the village, is a desirable stopping place for travelers. The present proprietor is Colonel W. G. Morrill.

The only other public house now is the Dexter House on Spring street. This was formerly known as the Fountain House. After some years it was closed. About five years ago it was purchased by J. H. Brown, who made extensive repairs and additions, and opened it as the Farmers' Hotel. Two years ago he sold it to J. M. Jordan, who is the present proprietor. It has twenty-one rooms, and is well patronized. The hotel accommoda- tions fully supply the wants of the place.

In 1824 a floating bridge was built across the narrows of Pleasant Pond, now called Silver Lake. Previous to this it was usually voted to pay William Smith from fifteen to twenty dollars per year, payable in grain, for tending ferry. This floating bridge was supported by the town till the year 1860, when a permanent stone bridge was built at a cost of almost four thousand dollars. This

bridge is about thirty-five rods in length, and is very substantially built.

CHURCHES.

The first church (Universalist) was erected in 1829. The society was large, wealthy, and public-spirited. The house contained fifty-two pews, held at that time by indi- viduals. The first pastor was Rev. William Frost. This church in 1869 was enlarged and completely renovated at a cost of about $12,000. It now contains seventy-six slips, which are owned by the society, and the preaching is sustained by the slip rent. The present pastor is Rev. J. Eugene Clark. The church is situated on Church street. The auditorium is the best in Dexter, with a seating capacity of four hundred and fifty.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 214

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