History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 77

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 77

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

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Irwin W. Mrs. Davis's father was Reuben Rich ; her mother Almira Davis. Daniel W. Davis was elected to the Legislature in 1856, and served one term. In politics he is a Democrat.

Elisha Chick was born in Shapleigh, Maine, in 1806. His early life was passed in Aurora, where he remained until twenty-one years of age, when he came to Clifton, where he has since resided. Mis wife was Mary Ann Parks, who was born in Holden, but grew to womanhood in Clifton, whence her parents removed when she was a child, and where she was married. She died in 1852, aged forty-two years. Their children were William, Mary Jane, Moses F., Lucy Ann, Auriville, Lovicia, Susan, Thomas, who was killed in the battle of the Wilderness in 1864 ; Lucinda, and Mary Etta. Moses F., the third child, was born in Clifton in 1846. He has been a farmer and lumberman. He was married Janu- ary 1, 1868, to Nancy G. Campbell, daughter of John and Sarah Doble Campbell. Mr. Chick was a member of the State Legislature in 1867, and is now Supervisor of Schools. Is a member of the Free-will Baptist Church, and in politics is a Republican.

The father of Daniel Walker Leonard was born in Old Sharon, Norfolk county, Massachusetts, in 1781, where he lived until about eighteen years of age, when he moved to the town of Knox, where he died in 1835. His wife was Experience Walker, who was born in Marshfield, Massachusetts, in 1786. When eighteen

years of age, she removed to Knox, Maine, where she was married, and lived until 1858, when she moved to Bangor, where she died in 1872, aged eighty-six years. Their family consisted of three children: Anna, William L., and Daniel. The latter was born in Knox in 1823. His business has been that of farmer, mechanic, and teacher. He was married in 1846 to Alvena J. Haskell, and had one child, now deceased. Mrs. Leonard died, aud he married Lizzie R. Huntington in 1855, by whom he has one child, Fred G. Mrs. Leonard was a daugh- ter of Stephen Huntington and Betsey W. Horn.

Simon Crosby was born in the town of Hampden, Maine, where he lived until ten years of age, when the family moved to Fox Islands, Hancock county, Maine, where he lived about sixteen years. He afterwards lived a short time at Eddington, when he came to Clifton, where he died in 1871, aged seventy-three years. His wife was Esther Lewis, who was born at Fox Island in 1803. Samuel L. Crosby, the first child, was born at Fox Island October 13, 1821. He married Rebecca Bragg July 15, 1853. She died, leaving one daughter, Mary E., who married Charles E. Clough, and has two children. Mr. Crosby is a Republican in politics; in his religious belief he is a Freewill Baptist. During his life he has held township office. The other children of Simon Crosby were. Mary Ann, William (deceased), Margaret, Benjamin, Nancy, Kissey, Sarah J., Lucinda, Eben, Susan, Abby, and Stephen R.

CORINNA.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

Corinna is another of the even, square thirty-six mile townships in the westernmost part of the county. It is the first of the second tier or range of such towns, reck- oning from the north and west lines of the county. Its western neighbor is St. Albans, in Somerset county. It is bounded on the north by Dexter, on the east by Ex- eter, and the south by Newport. Weymouth Pond lies upon its western border, and another small lake stretches into the southwest corner. The town is sixteen miles distant from Bangor, in an air line. It illustrates the carelessness with which distances are calculated or esti- · mated, when one finds, in what is probably the most important authority for the statistics of the State, the statement that Corinna is thirty miles distant from Bangor.

This town, we have seen, is bounded altogether by in- visible and artificial lines. Those other works of man, more apparent and scarcely less important, known as wagon roads, cut up the town with surprising multiplicity and minuteness. From Corinna village alone, at the foot of the large pond between it and West Corinna, radi- ate no less than seven highways, five of which are leading roads running out of the town, from which two or three of them make their exit in two branches. Another through east and west road passes West Corinna. It has School No. 3 and a cemetery upon it, about two-thirds of a mile from the east town line, besides the public and semi-public buildings at West Corinna. Five north and south roads intersect the entire town with more or less directness, all of them making some breaks or jags at the cross roads, but all of them finding their way across

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

the town, from Dexter to Newport. Connecting these and the transverse lines, and also accommodating the smaller neighborhoods, are a considerable number of minor wagon-ways, making it one of the very best provided towns, in this respect, in the entire county. The Dexter & Newport branch of the Maine Central Railroad also crosses the town from north to south in a course of six and one-half miles within its limits, passing Corinna and West Corinna villages on its way across the territory of the town.

As may readily be supposed of a town so excellently equipped with facilities of movement, it is well and some- what densely populated. Contrary to the statement which must be made of the average town in this county, it has scarcely a square mile of territory in one tract which has not an inhabitant. The thickest settlements are upon the road northwest from Corinna Station, through Morse's Corners, a hamlet less than two miles distant, where are the Union Church and School No. 10. Nearly one and one-half miles further, about half a mile from the east line of the town, is School No. 2. Upon the extension of this road through Corinna village, at the cross-roads a mile away, is School No. 16, in a well- settled region. The east and west road through West Corinna is also well settled; the Town Farm is about two-thirds of a mile west of the village. There are, in- deed, no long stretches of highway in the whole town, without at least one civilized habitation. Post-offices are located now only at Corinna village and Corinna Centre, the latter being at a cross-roads nearly equidistant from Corinna, West Corinna, and Morse's Corners, and not far, as its title hints, from the centre of the town. Here also are the Town House, School No. 5, and a cemetery. A Union Academy, Union Church, and public school are situated at Corinna village; and numerous school- houses, stores, mechanic shops, and mills, in other parts of the town.

None of the waters of Corinna are specially large or im- portant. Ponds of some size cover several spots in the town; as, Mower's and Weymouth's Ponds in the north- west, the latter of which goes a little way into Somerset county; the sheet of water before mentioned, one and one half miles long, between the Corinna villages; an- other of nearly two miles' length, but narrow, on the other side of the railroad, from near Morse's Corners southwest- ward; a small one near the southeast corner of the town; and mere bits of ponds at West Corinna and near School No. 2. Each of the ponds in general has streams flow- ing into and from it. In the southwest of the town three brooks flow into the Mulliken Stream, which goes out into Newport almost broad enough to be itself consid- ered a lake. The Dexter Stream comes in from Dexter, receives a number of tributaries before entering the ex- pansion between Corinna and West Corinna, and flows thence into Newport, receiving the waters of the neigh- boring long lake on the way. Into this flows the Alder Stream, from the north and northwest of the town. Some of the heads of Crooked Brook are also in the eastern part of Corinna.

EARLY CONDITION AND PURCHASE .*

Situated on neither of the great thoroughfares between the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, Corinna was not early selected by the pioneer settlers of the State. In 1804, however, on the 30th of June, the land was sold by the State of Massachusetts. A young man of now un- known name, having contracted for the purchase of the township, but being unable to pay for it, sold his interest to Dr. John Warren, a brother of the Revolutionary hero, General Joseph Warren, for two cents per acre. In the heart of a Maine forest, situated on no large body of water, the territory was not then especially inviting, even to the Indian. Its history does not abound in stories of the tomahawk and scalping-knife. The beaver, unmo- lested, built his dam ; the bear and the wolf ranged with safety along the quietly-running stream. Fish were abundant, but not all were of good quality. The plash of the trout and the pickerel, the snarl of the wolf, the snap of the fox, the growl of the bear, and the song of the bird, were all the sounds of living beings that broke the stillness.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION.

At the time of its purchase by Dr. Warren, this was de- scribed as "the Township numbered four, in the Fourth Range of townships north of the Waldo Patent," Somer- set county, District of Maine, Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts. Now, it is the second town from the north in the most western tier of towns in Penobscot county, State of Maine. The town is crossed from north to south by the Dexter Stream, the eastern branch of the Sebasti- cook. The eastern part is drained by a tributary of the Kenduskeag, which in turn flows into the Penobscot. Consequently, the town forms a part of the watershed between the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers.

The surface is undulating, forming a part of the plain that extends northward from the Dixmont hills to the re- gion of Mount Katahdin. Traces of the glacial period are seen in small boulders of granite dropped here and there, and the "horseback " extending along the east side of the stream south of Corinna village. This ridge is about eighty rods in length, is elevated fifteen to twenty feet, and extends from north-northeast to south-southwest. It consists for the most part of gravel, covered with a soil of sandy loam. South of the village, at the lower ex- tremity of the horseback, the stream receives a tributary from the east called Alder Stream Brook.

The higher land consists of yellow, sandy loam, and the valleys of black vegetable deposit and clay loam. A ledge containing quartz, mixed with a variable amount of gold, silver, lead, and copper, underlies the greater part of the town, and crops out in the northern and eastern parts.

The soil is good, and in general the farmer gets good return for the labor and capital spent upon his fields. The tract was once well wooded-the hills with the oak, birch, beech, and maple; the valleys with ash, cedar,

* The remainder of this chapter, except a few statistical and other notes, has been prepared for this work by Professor Wyman B. Piper, Principal of the Corinna Academy, and a thoroughly competent writer, as we think the readers of his sketch-will cordially agree.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

spruce, juniper, and hemlock; while, scattered through- out the town, the familiar Maine emblem towered above its neighbor of less stately habit.

THE PIONEERS.

Soon after the purchase of the township, Dr. Warren gave to Samuel Lancey, Esq., 170 acres of land near the centre, for bushing out a road east and west across the township, and building a house and barn upon the land. 'Squire Lancey cut the bushes from the proposed road, and upon the land now owned and occupied by Jacob Philbrick and Winkworth Allen, erected hewed frames for his house and barn. Around these buildings he cleared ten acres of land. He partly covered the barn frame, but did not finish the house frame. The barn was afterwards used for the first religious meetings of the early settlers of the town.

Previously two men, Isaac and Moses Hodgdon, who were surveying Exeter, having completed that town, came into Corinna to run it out .. They entered the southeast corner and built their camp. Their provisions having failed, Isaac went to East Corinth for supplies. Moses and another man busied themselves in felling trees while he was away.

The next year two men by the name of Goodhue came to the same place and completed felling eighteen acres. From this they obtained a crop of corn the first year, after which they abandoned their claim, leaving the corn to rot in the bins into which they had gathered it. Their nearest neighbors were at East Corinth, sixteen miles away; their only road a line on spotted trees.

Among the first who came with their families was a Mr. Chase. He built himself a log cabin, and to this brought his wife. Here, it is said, the first child born in the township looked upon his forest home. Chase, be- coming dissatisfied, left his wife and children and went to Massachusetts, His wife afterwards married a man by the name of Hartwell.

Along the road bushed out by Lancey settled Thomas Barton, James Smith, Joseph Pease, and Ebenezer Nut- ter. Barton was accounted a good citizen, but held no important offices. He had formerly served in the Revo- lutionary war. After the act pensioning the soldiers of the Revolution he drew his pension, and is reported in the census of 1840 as one of the four Revolutionary sol- diers living in the town. James Smith lived on the farm now owned and occupied as the Town Farm. He held the office of Constable after the town was organized, and is reported as a good officer. He reared a family of four children. Joseph Pease lived in the eastern part of the town, and afterwards sold his farm to Henry Dearborn, a tanner and shoemaker from North Durham, New Hamp- shire. Pease was one of the first Board of Selectmen. Ebenezer Nutter was a single man, and lived in the west- ern part of the town.

From this time the history of the town has been the history of its citizens. The township furnished no sol- diers for the War of 1812, and not yet being incorporated it was not subject to a draft. Therefore it became the refuge of those of the adjoining towns who were fright- ened at the roar of the British Lion.

Dr. Warren, hoping to induce settlers to come to the township, hired Captain Joseph Ireland and his nephew, Joseph Ireland, to erect a mill on the stream. They came from Bloomfield and built their mill. One end of it was used for sawing lumber, and the other for grind- ing grain. One run of stones was all the Irelands put in, and the pioneer farmers brought their grists to be ground and carried it home unbolted on their horses' backs. The records of births and deaths show that these farmers were of good stock, raising large families and living to a ripe old age.

The second road bushed out was from the site of this mill to the one opened by 'Squire Lancey. Supplies were brought from Bangor on horseback, the pay for which was hauled out to the river on "hoopling " sleds.

MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION.

In December, 1816, an act of incorporation was introduced into the General Court of Massachusetts, making Warren Township, No. 4, the town or Cor- inna. It was named for a daughter of Dr. Warren. Be- low is given the text of the act of incorporation, together with the warrant issued for the first town meeting:

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

In the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixteen. An Act incorporating the town of Corinna, in the county of Somerset.

SECTION I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- tives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the township numbered Four in the fourth range of townships north of the Waldo Patent, in the county of Somerset, as contained within the following described boundaries, be and is hereby incorpor- ated as a town by the name of Corinna, viz: East by the town of Exeter, north by the town of Newport, and west by the town of St. Albans; and the inhabitants of the said town of Corinna are thereby vested with all the powers and privileges, and shall also be subjected to all the duties and requisitions of other towns according to the Constitu- tion and the laws of this Commonwealth.

SECTION 2. Be it further enacted that any Justice of the Peace for the county of Somerset, upon application therefor, is hereby empow- ereed to issue a warrant directed to a freehold inhabitant of the said town of Corinna, requesting him to notify and warn the qualified voters therein to meet at such time and place in the same town as shall be appointed in the said warrant, for the choice of such officers as towns are by law empowered and required to choose or appoint at their an- nual town meetings in March or April.

In the House of Representatives, December the 10th, 1816, this bill, having had three several readings, passed to be enacted.

(Signed) TIMOTHY BIGELOW, Speaker.

In Senate, December 11th, 1816, this Bill having had two several readings, passed to be enacted.

(Signed) JOHN PHILLIPS, President,

December 11, 1816, approved, JOHN BROOKS.

Secretary's Office, { A true copy, December 28, 1816. 5 Attest: A. BRADFORD, Secretary of Commonwealth.

SOMERSET, SS:

To John Eliot, one of the principal inhabitants of the town of Co- rinna, in the county of Somerset; Greeting:

By an act of incorporation on the tenth [eleventh] day of December, eighteen hundred and sixteen, the inhabitants of the said town of Corinna are vested with all the powers and privileges, and shall be sub- ject to all the duties and requisitions of other towus; and

WHEREAS, by law it is made the daty of some justice of the peace to call a meeting of said inhabitants, application being made to me the subscriber, one of the Justices of the Peace within and for the county of Somerset, for to call a meeting in said town of Corinna.

These are, therefore, in the name of the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts, 16 request you to notify the freeholders and other inhabitants qualified by law to vote in town affairs, to assemble at the dwelling- house of Benjamin Hiltons on Saturday, the first day of March, in the

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventeen. at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, for to act on the following articles, viz:

First, to choose a Moderator to govern said meeting.

Second, to choose a Town Clerk, Selectmen, Assessors, Constable, and all other town officers which towns have a right to choose by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[ Given under my hand and seal this seventeenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen.

SAMUEL LANCEY.

At that town meeting William Elder, Joseph Pease, and Constant Southard were elected Selectmen, and Wil- liam Elder, Town Clerk. The following is recorded:

Voted that the collectorship be put up at vendue, which was accord- ingly done, and struck off to Benjamin Hilton, on condition that he give five per cent. and secure bond.

At that meeting no money was voted to be raised; but at a meeting held April 7, 1817, it was voted to raise two hundred dollars for the support of schools, and one hun- dred dollars for the necessary town expenses.

March 31, 1817, fifty votes were cast for Governor of Massachusetts, General Henry Dearborn receiving forty- two, and General John Brooks, already the incumbent, but eight. For Lieutenant-Governor, General William King had forty-two votes, and the Hon. William Phillips seven. William Moor received forty-six votes for Sena- tor, there being no opposition.

For three years the annual town meetings were called in the name and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

When the question of separation of Maine was put to the vote of the people, the town of Corinna cast thirty- five votes in favor of the proposition. William Elder was elected a delegate to meet with the delegates from other towns, at the court-house in Portland, to frame a Consti- tution for the State of Maine. The action of the com- mittee being presented to the towns for approval, Co- rinna unanimously voted to accept the Constitution December 6, 1819.

April 3d, the following year, the Hon. William King, the first Governor of Maine, received all the votes cast, being forty-eight in number. William Elder was elected Representative to the Legislature. Becoming dissatis- fied with some of the county officers for the ensuing year, Abraham Bean, Thomas Brown, and Ebenezer Nutter were appointed a committee to petition the Gov- ernor and Council to remove Benjamin Adams, Sheriff, and Warren Preston, Esq., Judge of Probate for Somer- set county. Whether or not their prayer was granted, does not appear from the record.

THE STORY OF MILLS AND ROADS.

In the meantime the mill built by the Irelands was rotting down. The Irelands left the mill privilege and purchased a home in the northern part of Newport. A few years afterwards, in 1825, William Moor, Esq., bought the Ireland mill site, spliced the posts of the old mill, and put in one run of stones for grinding grain. The mill was run one year without a bolt; but the following year a hand-bolt was used.

'Squire Moor built himself a house near his mill, on the east side of the stream, where now is the Corinna House. The material for building he purchased in New- port. He afterward built a public house west of the

stream, about twenty rods from his mill. This old house remains at the present time as one of the ancient land- marks, and is familiarly known as the "Bee-hive." From that time to this day the settlement at this place has been known as Moor's Mills.

Until the incorporation of the town no roads were regularly laid out. Each citizen bore his respective share of the burdens in opening highways. None were better than the logging roads in the swamps of to-day. After Corinna became a town it was necessary to build high- ways, and money was liberally raised for this purpose. The oldest settlers say that the first tree cut upon the town roads was a birch, and grew in the eastern part of the town under the hill on which lives David Palmer. In 1823, money being hard to get, the town voted to pay their local taxes in grain-wheat at six shillings a bushel, corn at four shillings, and rye at four shillings, to be paid into the town treasury by the Ioth of the following Feb- ruary. Imagine a tax collector starting from home with four horses and a lumber wagon to haul home the town tax! For several years the taxes were paid in this way. At the rate of three and one-third per cent., the amount paid to the tax collector during these years, he must have worked hard all day collecting taxes, in order .to obtain grain enough to feed his horses and himself over night.

In 1823 it was "voted that warrants to notify town meetings shall be posted up in the school-house in the west part of the town, at the school-house near Seth Knowles's, and at Esq. Bean's;" also voted that the same be posted up by the person that will do it cheapest. The posting of warrants was accordingly struck off to Joseph Pease, who gave two cents for the privilege, and paid the money in open town meeting. As the town meetings were held at private houses frequently in the warmer months, it was necessary to adjourn out of doors.

In 1820 Joshua Cushman received twenty votes to represent the Sixth Eastern District of Maine in the Congress of the United States.

THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION.

Three liquor licenses were granted in the year of 1825, three in 1826, and five in 1827.

The Rev. David Stewart, then a lay member of the Baptist church, delivered a temperance lecture in the au- tumn of 1827, probably one of the first delivered in the State. The Rev. B. P. Winchester was present at this lecture, and ever after David Stewart and Benjamin Win- chester were the champions of the temperance cause.

The following year only two licenses were granted by the town officials for selling intoxicating liquors. From the efforts of those engaged at that time sprang the germ of temperance organizations of the present.

RECORD OF PROGRESS.

At the time of the settlement at Moor's Mills another was formed two miles to the eastward, at Morse's Cor- ner. William Hole was one of the early settlers. He was several times chosen for some of the minor town offices. A pleasant little village was formed in one of the pleasantest parts of the town. This, in fact, was con- sidered the chief place until the building of the railroad.

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

In 1837, Robert Moor, the son of William, built the first store at Moor's Mill. The goods to stock it were bought in Boston, Robert having made the journey thither by stage.

In 1842 the Town House was built, and in 1871 the town built a hearse-house on the southeast corner of its lot and purchased a hearse.

To this day the town has been foremost in all good enterprises. It was fifth in the county in respect to the amount of money raised for the expenses of the war. Many brave soldier-citizens here left their homes to fall and fertilize the Southern plains.

Unfortunate in 1879 in the collection of its debts, Corinna lost considerable money through the default of its Collector.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 77

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