History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 72

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 72

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Among the earliest settlers in the town of Bur- lington were three Pages, two brothers, Caleb and Ed- mund, and a cousin of theirs, Thomas Page. For the history of one of these families, see preceding sketch of Philip Page. Jeremiah Page is a son of Thomas Page. He was born June 20, 1812, in Conway, New Hamp- shire. He came to Burlington with his father In 1825. After becoming of age he engaged in farming and lum- bering, in which he continued until within a few years. About ten years since he engaged in trade at the Corners. He lived on a farm until 1864, when he moved to Bur- lington Corner, where he has one of the finest places in town. Since he came here he has entertained the travel- ing public, there being no other hotel in town. Mr. Page has long been one of the prominent men of the town, and held the office of chairman of the town board for many years. He has long been and is now a justice of the peace.

Mr. Page married Margaret J. Clark, daughter of James and Sarah Clark. They have had twelve children, of whom nine are living, viz: Alonzo R., of Drew Plan- tation; Thomas D., on the old homestead; Edward S., Anoka, Minnesota; Charles H., of Anoka; Simeon C.,

of Burlington; Fred. N., Utopia, Canada; George M., of Burlington; Lizzie E., and Marcia H., at home. They lost three in infancy.

Mr. Norman Page, living in the town of Burlington, is a son of Thomas Page, who came here in 1825. His history may be seen in part in the sketch of Jeremiah Page. Norman Page was born February 19, 1819, in Con- way, New Hampshire. He came to Burlington with his father when six years old. On becoming of age he bought of his father a part of the old homestead, where he has since resided. He has erected most of the good set of farm buildings now on the place, and has now one of the best farms in town. He married Miss Hannah Springer, daughter of John and Eliza Springer (nee Eliza Ford). They have five children, viz: Angie F., Leslie T., Agnes E., Earle S., and Grace A.

The representative of the Page family who first settled in this county was Mr. Edmund Page, who came to Bur- lington in 1821, and settled on land at that time owned by a Mr. Bingham. He was born March 4, 1767, in Fryeburg, Maine. He married Miss Nancy Ingalls, who was born in 1767, and died in 1845. The only surviving member of their family is Mr. Jonathan Page, now of Burlington. Mr. Page was deputy sheriff for forty years. He died February 24, 1849. Mr. Jonathan Page was born February 19, 1798. He married Miss Ruth East- man; they had eleven children, viz: Stilson E., deceased; Comfort E., deceased; Harriet J., Nancy I., Lydia B., deceased; Martha, Thomas P., Mary E., Randall H. Hannah, and Merena O. Mrs. Page has been a very successful doctress for thirty years, and is widely known as such. She lives near the village and attends to her farm.

Dr. S. W. Bragg, of Burlington, was born May 30,. 1853. He is a son of J. M. Bragg, of Bradley. His grandfather, David Bragg, was a native of China, Maine, and one of the first settlers. Josiah M. Bragg married Eliza DeBec, of Clifton, Maine. They had four chil- dren, viz: S. W. Bragg; Francis V., now in Bradley ; R. Ami, and Ceneth M., deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Bragg are still living in Bradley. S. W. Bragg, the oldest son of this family, graduated at the Eastern Maine Confer- ence Seminary in 1876. He then entered the office of "J. N. Norcross, M. D., of Oldtown, and studied there three years, when he entered the medical department of the State University of Vermont, from which he gradu- ated in 1879. The following September he came to Burlington and located where he is now practicing.

Mr. David Moore, of Burlington, who came to this town in 1838, is a son of Henry Moore, of Windham, Maine. Henry Moore married Anna Varney, of Wind- ham. They lived in Windham and Otisfield. Mrs. Moore died in Windham, and Mr. Moore was killed, or so injured that he died from the effects of being thrown from a carriage by a runaway horse. They had eight children, namely: David; Jonathan, deceased ; Alvin, now in Alton, Maine ; Comfort, deceased ; Parmelia, wife of George Libbey, of Gorham, Maine; Asenath, widow of the late Eben Haley, of Massachusetts ; Levi, of Burlington ; Edwin, in Michigan.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

David Moore was born July 19, 1812, in Windham. He lived in Windham and Otisfield until of age, and a few years afterwards came here to Penobscot county. He lived in Lowell six years, then came to Burlington, where he now lives about one mile and a half from the village. He owns one hundred and sixty acres of land. He married Jemima Hayden, of Lowell. They have seven children, viz : Benjamin, of Burlington ; Har- rison, of Michigan ; Sivilla, of Lincoln ; Blake, now of Minnesota ; Arletta, wife of Edward Page, of Michigan ; Anna F., and Bertha C. Mr. Moore has held various offices of trust in town, such as constable, surveyor of highways, etc.

Mr. Benjamin F. Bowers, of Lincoln, was born in Lowell, Maine, September 16, 1825. He is a son of John and Phebe Bowers. They had eight children- Benjamin; Eliza, wife of David Lowe, of Lincoln; Orrin, now in Easton, Maine; Edwin, Burlington; Rebecca, de- ceased; Wethy, wife of Joseph Crowell, of Dexter; John W., deceased; Catharine, now Mrs. Turner, of Burling- ton. Mr. Bowers died May 5, 1867. Mrs. Bowers is still living in Burlington. Mr. Benjamin Bowers settled on the farm where he now lives in 1846, when twenty- one years of age. He felled the trees and cleared up the farm where he now lives. There were two or three other clearings in this part of the town. Mr. Bowers married for his first wife Marion Lowe, of Lincoln. To this couple were born two children-Frank and Free- land. Mrs. Bowers died March 28, 1867. Mr. Bowers married for his second wife Arvilla Buck, of Lincoln, with whom he is now living. She has three children- Helen, Marion, and Hattie. Mr. Bowers has one hun- dred and thirty acres in his farm. He has served several . years as Assessor, and is well known.

Edwin Bowers is a son of John Bowers, a sketch of whose life may be found in that of Benjamin Bowers. The younger Bowers was born May 5, 1837, in Lowell, Maine. He came to Burlington with his father when six years of age. He now lives on the old homestead

which his father cleared. He married Belle Brawn, daughter of Warren Brawn, of Aroostook county. They have one daugher-Flora. Mr. Bowers has one hun- dred acres of land-the old home farm-about nine miles from urlington. .

Mr. James Edes, of Burlington, is a son of Isaac and Lydia Edes, of Guilford, Maine. Isaac and Lydia had nine children, of whom five are living-Thomas, of Park- man, Maine; Lydia, wife of A. Tucker, of Bangor; Susan, deceased; Jane, deceased; Emma, wife of Charles C. Kenney, of Bangor; James; Isaac, deceased; John M. deceased; May A., now Mrs. Harlow, of Parkman. Isaac Edes died in 1874. Mrs. Edes was born Septem- ber 19, 1832, in Guilford, Maine. He learned the trade of blacksmith and has always followed that business. He came to Burlington in 1872. He had previously lived in Lowell. Mr. Edes has a farm of seventy-five acres out of the village about one-mile. He married Permelia M. Barker, daughter of Noah and Tabitha Barker, of Burlington. They have five children-Carrie H., wife of Charles E. Taylor, of this town; Frederick M., at home; William B .; Agnes M .; Edwin C. Mr. Edes has served several years as Town Treasurer, Town Clerk, and Selectman of his town, both in Burlington and Lowell. In 1873 and .1874 he represented his class in the Legislature.

Mrs. Mary McCorison, widow of the late George McCorison (nee Mary S. Page) was married May 7, 1861. He was a son of William McCorison, who settled in Bur- lington in 1841. The father was born in Belden, Maine, in 1796, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He was a wheelwright by trade. He married Sarah Lowell, who was born in 1801. aud died in 1864. The only surviving members of their family are Maria A. Strickland, Eliza- beth M. Page, and Sarah J. Page. He died in Burling- ton in 1858. Mr. George McCorison died April 2, 1875. He had three children, Nellie M., Edwin S., and Willie E. Mr. McCorison was a farmer and house- carpenter.

CARMEL.

DESCRIPTIVE NOTES.

Carmel, one of the old towns of the county, originally known as Plantation No. 3, Second Range, is the second town west of Bangor, in the same range, and included within the same parallels on the north and south boun- daries. It is one of the regular territorial formations in the county, the limits and dimensions of the town being

precisely those of the township, and comprising thirty-six square miles, or 23,040 acres, almost every acre of which is improved or improvable. . No part of it is covered with water, except that touched by running streams and the half square mile' or more in the northwest corner, which forms the bed of the Etna and Carmel and the Parker Ponds. The town is separated from Waldo

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

county by only the breadth of Newburg, a little over six miles; and from Bangor the width of Hermon, or six miles. It is bounded on the east by the latter town, on the south by the former, on the west by Etna, and the north, for equal distances, by Levant and Stetson.

The waters of Carmel are the Sowadabscook Stream, which has its source in Parker Pond, and flows in a southeasterly course to the centre of the town and be- yond to a point about equidistant (one and three-eighths miles) from the east and south lines of the town, whence it bends and makes its way out in a northeasterly course into Hermon, and so on to Hermon Pond and the Pen- obscot. Half a mile southeast of the Carmel depot, near the geographical centre of the town, the Sowadabs- cook receives the Kingsley Stream from Newburg, and is thereafter a quite broad and respectable brook. The Kingsley receives three affluents in this town -- one hard upon the south boundary, which comes in from Etna, where it heads; another a mile north of this, also of Etna birth and with a tiny tributary also heading in that town, and running a mile or so in Carmel to a mouth near the middle of the west line; the third is on the east side of the Kingsley, with its headwaters near Ruggles Place, and its mouth half a mile south of the second. In the north part of Newburg head two branches of another tributary of the Sowadabscook, entering a mile and a quarter below the Kingsley Stream, the westernmost of them taking in a very short "run" before the union of the two. A few hundred yards above its mouth, about the same distance from the mouth of the Kingsley, and again a little more than half a mile above the depot, the Sowadabscook has three tributary brooks, the middle of which is longest, coming in from the corner of Stetson, and itself receiving a rivulet on the west side and near the town line. In the northeast part of the town are several small waters, which unite to form a brook running into the Kenduskeag Stream, near its debouchure into the Sowadabscook. In the opposite, or northwest corner, lies the Etna and Carmel Pond. This, as its name im- plies, is partly in the town of Etna, and a small portion reaches into Stetson. It is a mile in extremest length, which is at the lower part, and a little more than half a mile broad. Parker Pond, south of the Etna and Car- mel, is practically a part of the same sheet, but is some- what separated from the other by two islands of some size, which divide the uniting waters into three channels. The area of Parker is less than half that of its twin sister.

This survey or "waterscape" exhibits Carmel as a remarkably well-watered town.

It is not less excellently provided with roads. Three highways cross it throughout, from east to west; another describes pretty nearly a diagonal from the neighborhood of the southeast corner to a point a little below Parker Pond; and six north and south roads,-none of them, however, crossing the town continuously,-with some shorter routes, abundantly supply it with this kind of travelling facilities. In addition, between seven and eight miles of the Maine Central Railroad lie in Carmel. It enters about three-fourths of a mile below the exit of |

the Sowadabscook Stream into Hermon, crosses that water at a mile's distance, runs thence north of west to the depot near Carmel post-office, and on northwesterly by the hamlet known as Damascus (which has no post- office), to its departure into Etna, close by the bank of Parker Pond. A little more than a mile south of its track, and somewhat further to the southeast of the depot, is the locality called Ruggles Place, which also has no post-office of its own. The North Carmel post- office is about three miles north of the Central track, and nearly in the northeast corner of the town.

Carmel is well supplied with school-houses, which gen- erally stand at or near the junction of roads. There is a cemetery at North Carmel, another at Carmel Station, and another toward the southeast corner of the town, on the Newport and Hampden road, running southeasterly through Ruggles Place from Carmel post-office. A num- ber of shingle, saw, carding, and other mills are scattered over the town. The Town House is in Carmel village, and the Town Farm is on the Bangor and Plymouth road, a mile west of that place.

The surface of this town is generally level, and along the streams are some fine tracts of alluvial land, a small part of which is swampy. The town was originally cov- ered with a dense growth of pine timber, some of which remained until quite of late years.

THE ORIGINAL OWNER.

The township which forms Carmel was bought of the State of Massachusetts on the 2d of March, 1795, by the Hon. Martin Kinsley, of Hampden, under whose auspices the early settlements were made by Paul Rug- gles and others. He seems to have been a man not only of large property, but of reasonably large and liberal views, and a good name to associate with the beginnings of a populous and prosperous community.

THE FIRST SETTLER

in Carmel was the Rev. Paul Ruggles, oldest son of Ed- ward Ruggles, of Hardwick, Worcester county, Massa- chusetts, where he lived until his twenty-sixth year. He there married Mercy Dexter in 1796, and early in the spring of the second year thereafter they pushed their way alone into the Maine wilderness. An ox-sled was sent ahead of them, bearing their little stock of furniture and household goods. They followed in a sleigh (the snow was still on the ground, although spring had come) some days after, and after a cold, rough journey through the deep woods and over the primitive roads, reached the Penobscot country at Hampden. They made their way thence into the present tract of Hermon, where a settler named Garland had built one of the first cabins, if not the first one, in that town; and with his family the young pioneers spent some weeks, until the weather be- came more settled and such as to allow them to go on to their own destination further in the wilderness interior. The rest of the story is well told in the number of the Gospel Banner and Family Visitant for March 17, 1866, by a correspondent who visited Mrs. Ruggles and her descendants that year. He says:

Mr. Garland's dwelling was about the only human habitation in Her

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

mon. Here Mr. Ruggles and party remained till about the first of May, when, as no road had been constructed to Township No. 2 [3]. now Carmel, the place of their destination, they built a boat of a log, called a "dug-out," in which they placed their effects, and, launching it into the Sowadabscook, paddled up stream into the central portion of the township, and landed near the mouth of a beautiful, clear stream, swarming with trout, which empties into the Sowadabscook, and which they called Ruggles Brook. Here they built them at first a log house directly in the midst of the wilderness. Subsequently they erected a plank dwelling.

Moose, deer, beaver, etc., were abundant. Mrs. Ruggles says .he can remember many circumstances that took place distinctly, because they were of such a nature as to impress themselves on her mind in- delibly. For instance, she awoke one morning just before sunrise in the summer, and saw a very large oul sitting upon the lead-land of her bed looking down with the utn o't gravity and composure into her face. The door of the cabin Lad le. n left partly open, and the owl, without stopping to knock, had thus unceremoniously entered the dom- icile of these Massachusetts gentlefolks, and without so much as wait- ing to be introduced, perched himself thus in close proximity to the faces of his new-made acquaintances.

Mrs. Ruggles also recollected d' firetly the method invented by Ler husband of taking the trout in the stream near their dwelling. He and his brother built a mill the first se ison of their removal to their now home, and there were times after the mill was shut down, the water be - ing shoal below the mill, that it seemed to be literally alive with the ... beautiful, glittering fish-the speckled trout, from three to four inches to a foot in length. Her husband would place boards in the stream and a basket, so as to drive the trout through an opening into the basket, taking a bushel or more at a time. Selecting of the finest, sufficient, for their purpose on any occasion, they would permit the, others to escape.

This venerable lady, the first to set foot on the soil of the present Carmel, was still living when this was written. She survived, indeed, in remarkable health and preserva- tion of her faculties, until June 8, 1870, when-she passed away at the advanced age of ninety-three years. . Her husband, the brave young pioneer, not only. in material civilization, but in the higher matters of religion, died more than half a century before-on the 2 1st of May, 1820. Some further sketch of these primitive Carmelites is com- prised in the biographical notice of their distinguished son, Major Hiram Ruggles, appended to this History, as also below. The tract they settled, between one and two miles southeast of Carmel village, is still known upon the maps of the county, and otherwise quite widely, as the Ruggles Place, although it passed out of the possess- sion of the family quite a number of years ago.

MR. RUGGLES AS A PREACHER.

The following notice of Elder Ruggles is included in A Memorial Paper, read at the Semi-centennial meeting of the Maine Baptist Missionary Convention, held at East Winthrop, June 16-18, 1874, by the Rev. C. G. Porter, of Bangor ;

While Merrill was thus serving the church with voice and pen near the coast line of the State, there was another, of a John-the-Baptist stamp, lifting, up his cry in the then wilderness region of the Penobscot. Elder Paul Ruggles was one of our early pioneer preachers. He was the father of Doctor Paul, deceased, and of Hon. Hiram, for many years and now a leading citizen of Penobscot county, and at present Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fourth District. Mr. Ruggles was one of the constituent members of the church in Etna, organized in 1807, and its deacon until 1811, when he was ordained to the work of the ministry at Www. homein (on), KA Jal ml ( Bg and John Cabourg was up in the u. Det one to upon las great work with the face of an . de, whe. was abated till closed by his death, which o qui: 1 21 ) 21, 1979.

---

I have his journal here with the t .d ., in which is found a record of all the places in which he pre Ted and the texts used, from the time of bis ordination till a few weeks before his death. I find upon examina-

tion that in a little more than nine years he preached more than twelve hundred sermons, prie pally in the Penobscot region, varied with visits as far east as the State line and west to what is now Somerset county, anlthat he w .s chiefly instrumental in gathering five churches, viz : at Newp &. Stetson, L'acteur, Hermon (now Second Hampden), and that . 1 1 In Tomar. 1215, he made a preaching tour as far east as List, ou ston Moore Iland), preaching in all the towns on the way and heat, a number of times on the island, at the house of Deacon Fin Hayder Returning, on his arrival at Lubec, February 15th, he il d. jafal news of the proclamation of peace with Great Brit. in, and immediately calling the people together at the house of Captain Morton, he preached from Luke ii. 14: "Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, good will to men."

Mr. Ruggles was very popular as a preacher, as much so as our most popular ministers of the present day. The old men and women who remember hin, speak of him as having been very smart, and very able, and very vigorous. He was a great favorite, particularly in Bangor and Hampden, and w .. > sometimes pressed into service at very short notice. He preached the first sermon preached by a Baptist in what is now the city of Banger, on the evening of the second of November, Idi7, and this was his text, Matthew xxii. ro: "And when he was come into Jeru- dlem all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?" Mr. Case followed him in December, and baptized two persons. Mr. Ruggles had preached some years before, within the town limits, at the house of a M :. ITisey, about lour miles out on the Pushaw road ; but this was 11- Srst Paptist sermon in what is now the city proper.

Ti i told of him that, being in Hampden one day with his ox team, he was besought to remain and preach to the people in the evening, and consented, taking for his text the story of that stranger who slew so many of the Phiistines with an ox goad. He was regarded, in that very straight day, as a very close preacher, and, as they used to say, ' "hered by the line, let the chips fall where they might." A young man-old, however, when he told me the story-heard him prooch a sermon in Frankfort, in 1815, on "Christian Character," in which he made it so exalted that the young man said "it tore him all to pieces and left him without any foundation to stand on." He said he feared to do it, but felt so alarmed that he did not dare to let Mr. Ruggles go without asking him "if it was not possible for one to be a Christian without being just so exalted a character as he had set forth in his discourse." "O, bless you, my dear young man," was the Elder's reply, "we ministers have to preach what people ought to be, not what they are. Christ is the standard, and there must be a striv- ing to be like him ; but th best of the saints will come infinitely short."

Ifis journal shows that Mr. Ruggles, like many of our earlier min- isters, was full of preaching from prophecy and figurative and quaint passages, such as are found in the prophetic books and in the Songs of Solomon, such as these : . In l the river was divided into four heads." "And the cherubims spreid forth their wings." "And I saw three uncleon spuits, hke frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon." " A lump of figs." "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse." " And as a lly among thoms, so is my love among the daughters." In running over the record, I was a little puzzled with what at first I thought was a text. It reads thus: "1018, September 27th. Preached at the upper school-house, in Carmel, from Luke iii., 8. And the devil came from No. 4." As I said, I thought at first it was a text, and. I knew the devil came from a great many place-, but I didn't remember about No. 4. But I found, upon examination, that it was simply a record of the fiet th ta wicked man came from No. 4 (now Etna), and disturbed

Att. Ruggle, died at the early age of thirty-eight, much lamented. IT is amon was preached at Newport, but a little time before his da!, than one of those texts he loved so well to handle-Songs iii. 6 : "Who: . l.i. that cometh out of the wilderness, like pillars of smoke, . fumed wall myrth and frankincense, and all powders of the mer- com ?" I d'might how fitting it was that the spirit of that gifted man should exhale in the aroma of such a text as that.

ORGANIZATION.

Carmel was erected as the one hundred and eighty- seventh town in the District of Maine, on the 21st of June, 1811, the same day that Corinth, in this county, and Sebec, in Washington county, were formed.

RECORD OF GROWTH.

Within fourteen years after the foundations-that is, in 1810-the population of this township numbered 123.

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

275

The next year, June 21, 1811, the town was incorporated . . by the name it now bears. By 1820 the people of Car- mel numbered 153; in 1830, 237; in 1840, 520 (the population had more than doubled during the preceding decade); in 1850, 1,225 (an increase of 136 per cent.); in 1860, 1,273; in IS76. 1.345: in ISSo, 1,220.

The number of polls in the town in 1812, the year after it was organized, was 25; in 1820, 38; in 1860, 300; in 1870, 336; in 1880, 294.

The total valuation of estates in 1812 was only $948 .- 50, with a tax of 13 cents in the $1,000. In eight years more it had mounted to $20,545. Forty years later, in 1860, the valuation was $188,235; in 1870, $260, 118; and in 1880, $291,073.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 72

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