History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 73

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 73

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THE CHURCHES

of Carmel are the Calvinistic Baptist, the Free Baptist or Union, and the Methodist societies. The first of these was organized at a very early day, the first Baptist church in the county, by Elder Ruggles and his co- believers in the faith. It had thirty-six members in 1821. Elder B. D. Small is the present minister; Rev. James Blagden has the Free Baptist church in charge; and the Rev. F. A. Bragdon was the Methodist pastor in 1880.

A Congregational church was organized in Carmel, May 5, 1853, but we are not possessed of the records of its rise and fall.

MANUFACTURES AND TRADES.

Not much lumbering is now done in Carmel. There are two blacksmiths and two butchers, one carriage maker and one maker of carriage woodwork, one furni- ture manufacturer, one boot and shoe-maker, one harness- maker, and one carder, weaver, and cloth-dresser. There are half a dozen general stores, three resident physicians, and one hotel, kept by Edward Murphy.

MINING COMPANY.

The Harrington Silver Mining Company was formed some time ago in Bangor, for operations in this town. E. C. Nichois is President; Eugene M. . Hersey, Secre- tary; and William H. Darling, Superintendent of the | Company. Its operations have not been very vigorously prosecuted.

CHEESE FACTORY.

The Carmel, Hermon, Hampden, & North Newburg cheese factory was incorporated February 8, 1875. The first meeting of the company was held in North Newburg, where the factory has been located. It is accounted a somewhat valuable industry in these parts.

ASSOCIATIONS.

The societies of Carmel best known to the public are the Golden Harvest Grange, No. 33, Patrons of Hus- bandry, meeting on Wednesdays; St. Paul's Division of Sons of Temperance, meeting Saturday evenings; Saw- adabscook Lodge of Good Templars, Thursday evenings; and the Benevolent Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, Wednesday evenings in the weeks of full moon.

THE POST-OFFICES

are Carmel and North Carmel. Mr. C. K. Johnson is postmaster at the former, Sunt Tailles of the olen.

THE PUBLIC OFFICERS

of the town in 1880 were: Alonzo Tilton, W. O. Syl- vester, C. H. Goodwin, Selectmen; J. F. Benjamin, Town Clerk; F. A. Simpson, Treasurer; R. A. Robinson, Collector; Paul Ruggles, Constable; Frank Robinson, John R. Chase, A. I. Pickard, School Committee; Hiram Ruggles, F. M. Simpson, F. A. Simpson, Trial Justices.

SETTLEMENT NOTES.

The Rev. Benjamin D. Small, now the oldest living inhabitant of Carmel, is the son of Alexander Small, of Provincetown, Massachusetts, who came to this town about 1800 or 1802. His wife's name was Ruth Dyer. They had eight children, two boys and six girls, all of whom, except our subject, are now deceased. When he came here there were no roads this side of Hampden, and he had to bring his goods on an ox-sled and by hand, there being not even roads for a wagon, and only one horse in the settlement. This belonged to the pioneer Ruggles, who lived in what at that time was called the Ruggles Settlement, three miles south of the present village of Carmel. When a man asked for this horse to use on the morrow, Mr. Ruggles could not posi- tively promise, but would say: "The first man who comes here to-morrow will get the horse." Mr. . Small settled in the western part of Carmel, on the road now leading from Hampden to Newport, though it was some time cre the road was laid out. Mr. Small spent the re- mainder of his life here in farming pursuits. He died in April, 1846. Mrs. Small lived to be ninety-two years old, dying in or about 1860. The hardships and priva- tions these carly settlers endured would be thought un- bearable by the present generation. The only remain- ing member of this family, Rev. B. D. Small, was born July 17, 1808, and married Eliza Sawyer, of Hampden. He first settled in Etna, preaching in that town and in this. . There were at his earliest recollection but twenty voters in this town. He first settled here on the old farm, where his father lived. He has lived in Veazie, St. George, Carmel, Newport, Harrington and Waterville, preaching in most of these towns to churches of his faith-the Baptist. Mrs. Small is still living. They have had three children-Augustus D., Fidelia C., now Mrs. Whittemore, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Edwin S., a Baptist clergyman, of Livermore Falls. Augustus D. has for several years been Superintendent of Schools in Salem, Massachusetts. Mr. Small, thongh now sev- enty-two years old, still preaches occasionally. He is a well preserved and intelligent old gentleman, and one whom it is a pleasure to meet. He can remember when there were but two schools in this town, and when it was not thought important to teach Englith grammar. When he began to preach he had first to study grammar by himself, it not being taught much in the schools.

L. A. Small is a son of Alexander Small, whose father's name was also Alexander. For sketch of the latter's life see above. The younger Alexander came here with his father from Provincetown, Massachusetts, when a child of about four years. He married Betsey Blaisdell, daughter of Daniel Blaisdell, of Stetson. They had seven chil-

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

dren, four boys and three girls, who arrived at maturity, besides one who died in early manhood. The names of the living are Susan, now Mrs. Burnett, of Newport ; Lucinda, now Mrs. Blagden, of Carmel; Jonathan Smith, of Portland ; Betsey B., now Mrs. Spratt, of Carmel ; L. A., the subject of the sketch; Sidney I .; of Saginaw, Michigan, a physician ; and Daniel E., of Carmel. Mr. Small has been dead some years. Mrs. Small died in 1873. L. A. Small was born in 1840, May 16. After receiving a common school education he entered the army in 1862, and remained about a year, when he was discharged on account of sickness and disability. In 1862 he married Linda B. Clapham, daughter of Charles G. Clapham, of Woodstock, New Brunswick. They have no children. Mr. Small now lives on the old home-

stead, about one and a half miles from the village of Carmel. He has a good farm, though small, and is im- proving his buildings by the erection of an "L" to his house for a kitchen, wood-house, and carriage-house. When completed he will have a very convenient set of buildings.

Among the early settlers of Carmel was Eben C. Hinkley, who came from Barnstable, Massachusetts, about 1806 or 1807. He married Dele Hoxie, of Sand- wich, Massachusetts, and soon after came here. He settled in the eastern part of the town, near Hampden, on what is known as Hinkley Hill. They had ten chil- dren, five boys and five girls. Here he lived ever after, and died March 7, 1859.

CARROLL.

ITS SITUATION, ETC.

This history now makes a long leap from Carmel to Carroll. The latter is a comparatively new town, form- erly known on the maps simply as Township No. 6, Second Range, north of the Bingham Penobscot Pur- chase. It lies on the furthest east line of the county, ad- joining Washington county, on the old stage road from Lincoln through Lee and Springfield to Princeton, in Washington county; and is forty-five and a half miles distant from Bangor, "as the crow flies." It is bounded north by Prentiss; east by Kossuth, in Wash- ington county ; south by Lakeville Plantation ; and west by Springfield. It would be a nearly regular township of six miles square, but for an "L" three and one- half miles long from east to west, and nearly two miles wide, in the southeast part of the town, encroaching upon territory which would seem rightfully to belong to Lakeville Plantation.

The town contains about 27,520 acres. Considering its distance in the interior and neighborhood to the re- cent wilderness tracts in Washington, county it is well settled ; and as the census returns below will manifest, it has held its own remarkably during the hardness of the last decade, which cost some towns in the county large percentages of their population. The southeastern quarter, however, and some of the northern tracts, are as yet but sparsely inhabited. Much of the settlement is upon the main central highway of the town, the only one

which traverses it throughout in any direction-the old stage road before mentioned, from Lincoln to Princeton, in Washington county. A road of about equal length, but more crooked, comes in near the southwest corner of the town, from the direction of Duck Lake, in Lake- ville, runs northeasterly to the stage road, and thence northerly to and ending near Trout Brook, a mile from the north boundary. Nearly half a mile after it enters Carroll, a road into Springfield leaves it, and runs west- erly across that town to the stage road in Lee. Nearly two miles east of the crossing of the north and south road and the stage road, another highway starts for the north- ward, and runs into Prentiss, and across that in a nearly due northeast direction into Webster Plantation, and thence to Kingman Station, so giving access again to the European & North American Railway. The other roads of the town are unimportant, except to the small neigh- borhoods they reach.

On the stage route through Carroll is the post-office, about half-way across the town, where the mails of the Carrollians are handled by a postmistress, Mrs. Mary E. Curtis; also the Trotting Park, a little east of the post-office; likewise three school houses, one at the road junction a mile and a quarter east of the office ; another at a road junction less than half a mile west of it, and School No. 2 a mile west of that. As many cemeteries lie near this road-the easternmost just south of the school-house first named ; another half a mile southwest

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

of the post-office ; and the westernmost about midway between School No. 2 and the school near the post-office. On the road to Duck Lake, about two-thirds of a mile below the second cemetery, is still another small grave- yard. School No. I lies about a mile beyond it, on the same road; and there is one more little cemetery a half mile southwest of it, near the town line, on the road into Springfield. School No. 4 is a mile and a half north of the post-office, and yet another two miles nearly due west of this, on a road across the northwest corner of the town. A hotel is also kept on the stage road, east of the post-office ; and mills are found in various parts of the town.

The waters of Carroll are Boyce Brook in the south- east, running into a pond just north of Junior Lake, to which its flow ultimately goes by a short connecting stream; Getchell Brook, which rises near the post-office, and runs to Duck Lake, receiving a small tributary from Carroll on the way; Lowell Brook, which just touches the southwest corner; the two branches that form the Mattagondus Stream, which, after a very short course in this town, runs out into Springfield at a point about in the middle of the west line of Carroll, and after travers- ing some four miles of Springfield, re-enters this town again for a little way at the northeast corner; the Trout Brook, which presently becomes the Spruce Brook, and joins the Mattagondus Stream a mile north of the town ; and, in the northeastern and eastern parts of Carroll, the head branches, with their tributaries, of a stream that flows into Kossuth town, Washington county, and into one of the numerous lakes of that region. A small lake or pond-unnamed as yet, so far as we are aware-should also be mentioned on the west line of the town, some- thing more than a mile above the southwest corner, and connected with Duck Lake by the Lowell Brook.

Carroll is thus a finely watered town, and one exceed- ingly eligible for settlement. The surface and soil of the town are quite as favorable as those of the average town elsewhere in the county, and in time it can hardly fail to contain a numerous and prosperous population. The soil is of a deep red loam, well mixed with fine dark slate. There is considerable limestone also in the town, and one of the finest quarries of the kind in the State is on the farm of Homer Gates. In the southern part of Carroll minerals so abound that not a little difficulty is experienced in running lines by the compass. The sur- face of the town lies in large and very gradual swells.

THE BEGINNINGS.

In 1830 Mr. Luke Hastings came in, and felled the first trees and built his cabin on the bank of the Mat- tagondus Stream. His lot, No. 11I, has been occupied at different times since by other settlers, and is now in a good state of preservation. After Mr. Hastings' occupa- tion, it was sold to Deacon William Stevens, of New Gloucester, Maine, and subsequently to Hon. Hiram Stevens, its present owner and occupant.

The next year Messrs. Charles, Ezekiel, and Horace Brown, Samuel Coombs, William Oliver, and others commenced farming here; and during the next three years Captain Daniel Lathrop, Captains Daniel and

Thomas Lindsey, Lincoln Curtiss, Samuel Bowers, and H. W. Larrabee made their settlements in the township.

The first female child born here was Cordelia Blanchard in the cabin of Luke Hastings. The first male child, Levi Lincoln Curtiss, was born February 26, 1834, in the house of William Oliver. The second, William E. Oliver, born a month later, was a child of the Oliver household.

ORGANIZATION.

The natal day of Carroll itself is March 30, 1845, . when it was erected into a town. Previously, the west haif of the township had been in Penobscot county, and the east half in Washington county; but both were now united in the former county under one municipal organi- zation.

PROGRESS.

The population of Carroll, when it became a town, was not much more than 300. Five years afterwards, in 1850, it had 401 people; in 1860, 470; in 1870, 632; and in 1880, 625. It held its population remarkably well during the depopulating decade 1870-80.

Carroll had 102 polls in 1860, 143 in 1870, and 156 in 1880. There has thus been a steady increase in the number of polls, notwithstanding a slight falling-off in the census return the last few years. This shows that the number of grown men in the town was more than kept good.

The estates of Carroll were valued in 1860 at $54,513; in 1870, at $103,498; and in 1880, at $112,464.

THE CHURCHES.

A Congregational Society, for Carroll, Springfield, and Lee, was organized March 14, 1846, the year after the town was incorporated. The pulpit of the church in this town is just now vacant. There is also a Baptist Society here, which is likewise temporarily without a pastor.

THE OTHER SOCIETIES

of Carroll are the Baskahegan Grange No. 126, Patrons of Husbandry ; and the Star in the East Lodge, No. 213, of the Independent Order of Good Templars, a compara- tively new organization.

INDUSTRIES.

Carroll has one manufactory of long lumber, one of long and short lumber, one shingle and grist-mill, one carriage-worker, one limestone quarry, and one black- smith. Messrs. Ring & Blanchard keep a grange and general store.

OFFICERS OF 1881.

D. W. Lindsey, W. H. Brown, J. Gardner, Selectmen; D. W. Lindsey, Town Clerk ; Albion Gates, Treasurer ; Jacob Gardner, Constable and Collector; H. B. Carr, School Supervisor; J. A. Larrabee, A. H. Lindsey (quo- rum), Hiram Stevens (trial), J. A. Larrabee (dedimus), Justices; J. A. Larrabee, Pension Notary.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

Mr. John A. Larrabee, of Carroll, one of the early set- tlers of the town, is a son of Moses and Eunice Larrabee, of Danville, now Auburn, Maine. His grandfather's name was Solomon Larrabee, who was from Scarborough,

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Maine. Moses and Eunice Larrabee had seven children, three sons and four daughters, viz: Permelia, widow of the late Phineas S. Woodman, of Springfield, Maine ; Hiram, deceased ; Eunice, wife of Joseph C. Larrabee, Medford, Massachusetts ; Moses, deceased ; John A .; Emily; Minerva, wife of Samuel . Cloke, of Carroll. Moses Larrabee was for many years Justice of the Peace here, where he died June 13, 1845. Mrs. Larrabee died December 25, 1864. John A. Larrabee, youngest son of this family, was born February 9, 1814, in Danville (Auburn). He came here with his father in 1834, when twenty years of age, and settled on the place where he now lives, clearing up the farm almost wholly, as there was no house on the place and only a few trees were felled. There were no roads within twenty miles of him at that time. They had to go that far to Lincoln for supplies and milling. The hardships endured by these early settlers can hardly be realized by their descendants of the present generation. Mr. Larrabee married Eve- line Lindsey, by whom he had one daughter, now de- ceased. Mr. Larrabee died February 17, 1838, and her husband married Hannah M. Martin, daughter of Jacob Martin, of Atkinson, Maine. They have had seven chil- dren, of whom five are living: Charles C., now at Jack- son Brook, Maine ; George A., with his father; Bina E., wife of George D. Brown, of Carroll ; Hiram A., now in Massachusetts ; and Abbie M. Mr. Larrabee has held various town offices, has been Selectman and Assessor for twenty-seven years, and Town Clerk for twenty-nine years. He has a fine place, and is well known in this part of the county.

Zadoc Bishop, who came to Carroll when a boy, with his father, is a son of Joseph Bishop. The latter was a native of Leeds, Maine, and married Jane Turner, of Leeds. They had eleven children, nine of whom grew to maturity, viz : Abial D., Joseph, Elizabeth, Amos H., and Walter, deceased; Zadoc; Nathan, of Monmouth, Maine; and George, now of Leeds. Zadoc Bishop was born May 14, 1815. His father lived here but three summers, going back winters. Zadoc and his two broth- ers bought out their father and commenced farming for themselves. Zadoc Bishop married Emily M. Lothrop, daughter of Daniel and Lucy Lothrop, of Leeds. They formerly came from Massachusetts. This couple have had seven children, viz : Ellen, deceased ; Frank P., now in Wadena, Minnesota; Emma, wife of William Brown, of Carrol! ; Ellouisa, now Mrs. E. Lothrop, of Carroll; Albert, now with his father; Roscoe, Ella, and Jennie. When Mr. Bishop came here he took his pack upon his back and followed a spotted line. He has cleared up the farm where he now lives and built all the buildings on it. He now owns one hundred and sixty acres of good land and has a large two-story house. Mr. Bishop has held important town offices, such as Selectman, etc. He raised the first English or cultivated hay in the town. He has been engaged in lumbering in connection with his farming, for many years, and was in the famous Mada- waska or Aroostook war.

Ezekiel Brown is a son of Ezekiel M. Brown, of Tops- ham, Maine. They had seven children who grew up,

and lost one in infancy. Their names were Hannah, wife of David Graves, of Bowdoinham; Ezekiel; Charles, now of Carroll; Mary, widow of John Fisher, of Topsham; Elizabeth, widow of Alfred Gowell, of Bowdoin, Maine ; Horace, of Carroll; and Daniel M., now in Texas. By his second wife he had one son, William P., now in Ore- gon. Ezekiel M. Bishop died May 26, 1858, and Mrs. Brown July 17, 1834. Ezekiel Brown, the oldest son of this family, was born December 5, 1806. He spent his early days on a farm, but on arriving of age he settled on the farm where he now resides, There were at that time no roads through the town. He built a log-house and cleared up the farm, and now has one of the best farms in the town. He married Eveline H. True, daughter of Josiah and Mary True, of Lisbon, Maine. They have had eleven children, eight of whom are now living. Their names are: Ezekiel M., in Minnesota; Hannah T., de- ceased; Homer J., now of Springfield, Maine; Dellie A., deceased; Frank T., now in Anoka, Minnesota ; John K., of Kansas; Annie T., deceased; Mary E., wife of Allen C. Reed, of New York city; Leander B., of Car- roll, with his father; Will P., in Nevada; and George D., of Minnesota. Mr. Brown has held various town offices and represented his class in the Legislature in 1858.

Charles Brown, son of Ezekiel and Emma Brown, of Topsham, Maine (for a sketch of whose life see the above), was born August 7, 1808. He came to Carroll in April, 1831, settled where he now lives, and married Lucy Lothrop for his first wife. They had five children, viz: Mary H., deceased, wife of Joshua T. Baldwin, of Prentiss; Martha J., wife of Lewis F. Yeaton, of Wa- dena, Minnesota; Charles R., now of Springfield, Maine; John F., at home with his father; and Lucy A., wife of Charles M. Maltby, of Bluffton, Minnesota. Mrs. Brown died September 28, 1849. Mr. Brown married for his second wife Lydia Turner, daughter of George and Betsey Turner, of Leeds. He has served his town fourteen years as Treasurer; has one of the finest places in Carroll which he has cleared up from the woods himself.

One of the old settlers of Carroll is Mr. Calvin Lane, who came here from Leeds, Maine, in 1836. He is a son of Gideon and Jemima Lane (nee Jemima Norris). Gideon Lane was a son of Daniel Lane, who came to Leeds from New Gloucester. He was a native of Mas- sachusetts .. Gideon and Jemima Lane had thirteen .children, of whom twelve lived to maturity, viz: Polly, Alpheus, Lydia, Jemima, Dorcas, Fanny, Giddins, Sam- uel, Susan, Ruth, Esther, Calvin, and Nancy. Gideon Lane died January 29, 1836, and Mrs. Lane died in April, 1865, being over ninety-five years old. Calvin Lane, the youngest son of this family, was born Septem- ber 6, 1814, in Leeds. His boyhood was spent upon a farm. On arriving at manhood he commenced farm- ing for himself in the then wilderness of Carroll. He came here in 1836. There were then but few families in the town. The road was laid out, but nothing yet done on it. He made the first clearing on the farm ad- joining his present home, where Mr. Blanchard now lives. He lived here twelve or fifteen years, when he built a

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

279

store and engaged in trade. He followed mercantile life for about six years, then bought the farm where he now lives. He married Dulsena Lothrop, daughter of Daniel and Lucy Lothrop (nee Lucy Gilbert). They have had seven children, five of whom are now living, viz: Francis A., wife of George Baldwin, of Prentiss; Esther J., wife of George Taylor, of Topsfield; Orestes H., now in Nevada; Clara A., wife of Alonzo Noble, of Carroll; Daniel G., of Topsfield. Mr. Lane has served as Selectman several years. He has a fine farm of one hundred and thirty acres, besides out-land.

B. W. Blanchard, a farmer and merchant of Carroll, was born November 20, 1823, in the town of Bowdoin, Kennebec county, Maine. His father, John F. Blan- chard, married Betsy Hopkins, of Bowdoin. They had six children, viz: Benjamin W .; Caroline, now Mrs. David White; John A., deceased; Edward H .; Helen

D., wife of Daniel Hall, Oconto, Wisconsin; and De- borah, deceased, wife of T. Woodcock, of Ripley. John F. Blanchard died in 1849, and Mrs. Blanchard is also dead. B. W. Blanchard, the oldest son, spent his early life on a farm, but his father moved to Bowdoin- ham, Maine, when he was young. He came to Carroll with his father in 1838, when he was fifteen. On be- coming of age he engaged in lumbering till he was twenty-seven, when he married 'Miss Rhoda Abbott, daughter of Jeremiah and Betsy Abbott, of this town, and bought a farm, where he has since resided, though en- gaged in lumbering. He also has a lumbering supply store with a Mr. Ring. To this couple have been born eight children, five of whom are living: Adel F., Rose, Georgia, Nellie, and William A. Mr. Blanchard has a good farm of eighty acres. He has not been engaged in public life, except as postmaster for eight years.

CHARLESTON.

The narrative now swings back to the older and more densely populated towns of the county. Charleston, formerly called New Charleston, is one of the oldest of these, having been settled in 1795 and incorporated in 18II, the same year that Carmel was erected into a town. Although more distant from Bangor, (twelve and a half miles away) than the former town, and as yet with- out a railroad, it is almost the peer of Carmel in popula- tion, and surpassed it by the censuses of 1850 and 1860 -in the latter case by 175 persons. It is one of the best and most satisfactory towns in Penobscot.

Charleston is a regular township of thirty-six square miles and 23,040 acres, like most others in its range, forming the north quartette of towns in the western region of the county. Its companion on the east is Bradford, on the west Garland. Atkinson, in Piscataquis county, neighbors it on the north, and Corinth on the south. It is connected with these towns, and its several parts with each other, by an excellent system of wagon-roads. The main east and west highway is that on a straight line through nearly the exact centre of the town-the road mentioned in our descriptions of Alton and Bradford as traversing this entire northern range of towns to and be- yond Dexter village. Another road a mile north of this is generally parallel with it very nearly across the town ; and about a mile north of this still another runs about

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 73

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