History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 94

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 94

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Among the prominent men of Greenbush is Mr. H. S. Wheeler, son of Samuel Wheeler, of Greenfield. Samuel Wheeler was born in that town. He married Mary A. Dolliff, of Belfast. They had four children, viz: Henry L .; Almatia A., now Mrs. A. H. Pierce, of Boston, Mass- achusetts ; Emma M., now Mrs. G. W. Howard, of Mil- ford; Wald, now deceased. H. L. Wheeler is the oldest son of this family. He was born November 24, 1842. Arter receiving a common school education he entered the army during the civil war, serving four years. He settled in Olamon, Greenbush township, in 1868, where he has since lived. He married, in 1869, Miss Georgia A. Campbell, of Milford. They have no children. Mr. Wheeler is now postmaster, station agent, and express agent at Olamon, and is a live business man.

GREENFIELD.

Greenfield, although but fourteen miles from Bangor (northeast of that city), is in a part of the county which still considerably awaits development. On three sides of it are unorganized and as yet comparatively unimproved townships-on the north, Township No. I, in Penobscot county; on the east, Township 29, Hancock county; on the south, Township 32, in the same. On the west lie Milford and Greenbush. We are thus again enabled to treat two neighboring towns in succession.

Greenfield lies at one of the many corners which the county makes in the frequent angling of its boundary line. It is upon the lowermost of the steps of the sort of "giants' staircase " which the eastern boundary of the county makes in this quarter. This corner is due east of the middle part of Oldtown.

Greenfield is pretty nearly an even township, according to the present system of Government surveys. Each of its boundary lines, however-which are all perfectly straight, -- is a little more than six miles long, those on the east and west being a trifle longer than the two on the north and south. The town contains nearly forty square miles, or about twenty-five thousand six hundred acres.

Greenfield has no lakes or ponds, but is otherwise well watered. The Olamon Stream rises near the east line of the town, about a mile above the southeast corner, and flows across Greenfield, seven miles northwesterly to the north boundary, beyond which it passes to make a short arc in the next township, whence it returns into Green- field, making there a great curve and a small one in about three miles of flow, and finally going into Green- bush almost exactly at the west corner.

Near its source the Olamon receives the Morison Brook, a respectable tributary which heads in the south part of the townships north and northeast, flows in two branches to a junction a mile south of the town line, and thence south and southwestward nearly four miles to the Olamon. Below its mouth a short distance, the stream has a petty tributary from the south. On the northeast two other affluents, flowing wholly to this town, and one of them between three and four miles long, rising near the north town line, and the other near the lower part of this tributary, are received by the Olamon. The Bear Brook rises in the south central part of the town, and flows northwestward nearly four miles to the large curve of the Olemon in the northwest angle of the town. In the op- posite or southwest angle is a section of the Halfway Brook, flowing from Hancock county into Milford, two and three-quarter miles of its course being in Greenfield. It receives two small affluents in this town from the east, one of them near the south town line, and the other, a

two-mile stream, near the west line, just above School No. 4.

Greenfield has no railroad, but is accommodated by Milford, Costigan, and Greenbush Stations, on the Eu- ropean & North American Railway. Its wagon-roads are few as yet, the population being still somewhat sparse. The principal one comes in from Lowell post-office, across Township No. I, passing Greenfield in a curving southwesterly course of nearly five miles, and going across the south part of Greenbush to Costigan Station, with a connection in Greenbush northerly to the river-road be- low Olemon. In Greenfield this road passes a small cemetery two-thirds of a mile below the town line, school and store buildings about as much further, and the post- office a mile beyond, midway between the Olemon and Bear Brook crossings. About a mile below the town line the road sends off neighborhood trails to the right and left. A little below the post-office it receives from the south a highway beginning less than a mile from the southeast corner of the town, running westward three miles, past School No. 5, and then northwest and north for more than four miles, where it ends at the Costigan & Lowell road. A mile and a half above its sharp bend a road begins and runs westerly across Half-way Brook into Milford and on to Milford village. School No. 4 is at the crossing of the brook, and a shingle-mill half a mile to the northwest.

Most of the population of Greenfield is on the Lowell road, northeast of the post-office, though the northern half and the eastern end of its tributary road are respect- ably settled.

Notwithstanding its comparative isolation, the tract now occupied by Greenfield began to be settled in 1812, the first year of the last war with Great Britain. Among the early comers were Jeremiah Lord, Samuel Wheeler, and William Costigan, from Salem ; Peter Witham, from Thorndike; and Miles Stern, from Easton. The popu- lation is now largely White. As may be seen by the list of town officers below, they are nearly all Whites. The names of business men and officials of Greenfield, as given in the Maine Register for 1881, are every one White except two-a truly remarkable fact.

This tract was originally Township No. 38, of the Bingham Purchase. Mr. E. F. Duren, of Bangor, in- forms the writer that it formerly belonged to Hancock county, and was not set off from that county to Penob- scot until March 15, 1858. Titles to land herein were originally derived from the great proprietor in Maine, William Bingham, of Philadelphia, or his heirs, then Mr. John Black, who was agent for the sale of these tracts. January 29, 1834, this town was incorporated by the

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

Legislature of Maine. We do not get its census reports until 1860, when it had 359 inhabitants. In 1870 it had 317, and 337 in 1880. The number of its polls in these years, respectively, was 78, 77, and 92. Amount of es- tates-1860, $41,061; 1870, $52,500; 1880, $44,940.

Agriculture so far has received comparatively little at- tention in this town, the people still being mostly given to lumbering, for which the streams flowing to the Pe- nobscot afford fine opportunities. Not much is manu- factured in the town, there being at this writing only one shingle-machine in operation here. Two general stores are kept, and one hotel.

The Olamon Dam Company was incorporated, for operations in Greenfield, February 18, 1875.

The Postmaster and other officers in the town in 1880 were:

Mathew C. White, Postmaster; William H. White, Louis H. White, Frank W. White, Selectmen; Frank W. White, Town Clerk; Edwin B. Madden, Treasurer; James White, Jonathan White, Constables; William P. White, School Supervisor; Hiram White, Justice.

The oldest man now living in Greenfield, who was born here, is Mr. B. C. Wheeler. His father, Jesse Wheeler, came here with his father, Samuel Wheeler, not far from 1800. He was a Revolutionary soldier. Jesse Wheeler, when he became of age, settled in the north- ern part of the town, near where Mr. B. C. Wheeler now lives. He cleared, with his father, the first land in this town. He married Harriet Cummings, of Passadum- keag. Her family came from New Hampshire. They had eleven children-Samuel, B. C., Lucius B., George, Erastus, Ann, Joel, Charles, Frances, Daniel, and Mary. Of these five are now living-B. C., now of this town; Lucius B., now of Port Huron, Michigan; Joel, of Greenfield; Charles, now living in Clearfield, Pennsyl- vania; Frances, now Mrs. Marsh, of Pennsylvania, and Daniel, also of Pennsylvania. Mr. Wheeler died in 1858, and Mrs. Wheeler in 1853. B. C. Wheeler, the second son of this family, was born September 27, 1818. He has always lived on the old farm. He married Sarah J. White, daughter of Samuel White, of Greenfield. They have had nine children-Charles A., deceased; Harriet, deceased; Edwin R., now of Bay City, Michi- gan; Lucius H., deceased; Edgar R., also of Bay City, Michigan; Mary, deceased wife of Daniel W. White; Benjamin R., now at home; Samuel L., also at home; Hattie, now at Bay City, Michigan. Mr. Wheeler has held the office of Selectman many years; has either been Selectman or held one of the town offices almost every year since becoming of age."

Mrs. Alice L. White, of Greenfield, is the widow of Asa White. Her maiden name was Alice L. Watson, daughter of Christopher and Hannah Watson, of St. John, New Brunswick. They had twelve children, eight of whom are now living, viz: Clarissa M., deceased; Asa C., Rufus H., George R., Eliza J. deceased; Charles C., deceased; Hannah T., now Mrs. Joseph H. Emer- ton; Bartlett C., Louisa M., wife of J. B. Price, of Greenfield; Martha C .; Nathan S., deceased, and Benjamin T., all of whom live in Greenfield, except those men-

tioned above as living elsewhere. Asa White was born in 1790 in Peterboro, New Hampshire, and came to Greenfield in 1828, and settled where Mrs. White now lives. When he came here, there were but few families in town. He died in 1870. Mrs White is now eighty- three years old, and still lives on the old homestead. Mrs. Louisa Price is the wife of Judson Price. She is the fourth daughter of this family. They have no chil- dren, and live on the old place with Mrs. White.

R. H. White, of Greenfield, is the son of Asa and Alice White, whose sketch appears as above. Mr. White was born September 27, 1840, and married Mary E. White, daughter of Asa and Nancy White, of Greenfield. They have one daughter living, Mrs. Emma Richardson, of Greenbush. They have lost one daughter, who died in infancy. Mr. White lives in the northern part of Greenfield. He owns a farm of seventeen acres, and follows the business of lumbering principally.

William Pierce is the son of Nathan Pierce, who came here from the town of Montville, Waldo county, in 1829. He married Betsey Blake, of Burksville. They had twelve children, all of whom are now deceased, except four: John M., of Greenfield; Sarah, now Mrs. Anise, of Greenfield; William, the subject of this sketch, and Betsey A., now Mrs. Johnston, of Bangor. The names of the deceased were Mary, wife of George Avery, of Greenfield; Nathan, who died in Augusta; George, Augustus J., Samuel, Ephraim, who died in Oldtown, and two that died in infancy. William Pierce is the fifth son of this family. He was born April 29, 1823. He married Hannah H. Mayo, daughter of Allen Mayo, of Milo, Piscataquis county. They have had ten children, all of whom are now living, which is a remarkable fact. Their names are Francis H., of Milo; Charles; William, of Milo; Isaiah, of Greenfield; Augustus J., of Greenfield; Abbie J., now Mrs. Blaisdell, of Lynn, Massachusetts ; Harriet E., now Mrs. A. F. White, of Minneapolis, Minne- sota; Clara B., of this town ; Henrietta, now at home ; Nel- lie, also at home, and Flossie. Addie, a niece, now two years old, is being brought up by Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, and is considered as one of the family, her mother having died when she was an infant. Mr. Pierce began on his present place thirty-five years ago, when he felled the first trees on his farm of one hundred and eighty acres. He has served his town as Constable and Selectman, though he has no taste for public life, and prefers to let those have the offices who like them.

William Henry Littlefield is a son of John Littlefield, of Waldo county. The father of John was Samuel. John Littlefield married Mary White, daughter of Charles and Clarissa White, of Belmont. They had three chil- dren: Charles, now of Augusta, Maine; Benjamin, of Vassalboro, and William. Mr. and Mrs. Littlefield are still living in No. I Plantation. Mrs. Littlefield was born in Greenfield February 14, 1833. He married .Helen A. Avery, daughter of Jeremiah and Betsey Avery, of Greenfield. Jeremiah and Betsey Avery had twelve children-six boys and six girls: Winslow, now of Green- field; Benjamin, now deceased; Olive, also deceased ; Jeremiah, of Greenfield; Esther, now Mrs. Joseph

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE

Reeves, of Bradford; Helen A .; Selinda A. deceased; Caroline M., now Mrs. Thomas Benner, of Rockland; Rufus, now deceased; Olive, now Mrs. William Monroe, of Argyle; Horace, of Milford, and Willie, deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Littlefield have had nine children, seven of whom are now living, viz: Henry and Waldo, deceased;

Willie L., Clara M., Cretia, Blanche, Hattie, Chesley, Olive A. Mr. Littlefield lives in the eastern part of Greenfield. He is engaged in lumbering and farming. Mr. Littlefield has served as Selectman and Collector of his town several years.

HAMPDEN.

DESCRIPTION.

This is, perhaps, the most famous of the old towns of the county-famous by reason of its antiquity, its favor- able situation upon the Penobscot, and the stirring events which occurred within it during the last war with Great Britain. It lies in the extreme south range of the county, west of and adjacent to the river, beyond which lie Or- rington and a small part of Brewer. On the north are Bangor and Hermon; on the south, Winterport, in Waldo county; and on the west, Newburg. No one of the boundary lines is unbroken. The north, south, and west boundaries are right lines, but each is slightly broken by some defect in the surveys or other circumstance. The town at its northernmost part is eight and three- fourth miles wide; but the north line, beginning in the Penobscot River, runs a little more than half a mile north- west, thence westward six and one-half miles to the inlet from Stetson into Hermon Pond. Here the town , pro- jects a kind of cape into Hermon Pond, and between its inlet and outlet, of one mile depth and one and one-half in greatest breadth. Returning pretty nearly to the paral- lel forming the rest of the north line, the boundary runs about half a mile further to the northwest corner of the town. It is thus extended to a total length of nearly eleven miles. The west line of the town is slightly broken, making a very obtuse angle, and not sensibly lengthening the boundary, one and one-fourth miles north of the southwest corner. The south limit has also a break, and a very singular one, beginning one and one-fourth miles from the river, where the line breaks sharply to the south- ward, forming a right angle, but running south only one- fourth of a mile, thence east one and one-third miles, and back only one-eighth of a mile, or to a point a little south of the original line, whence it makes straight to the south- west corner. The south line is thus lengthened, but only by about three-eighths of a mile. For a tract confined mostly within right lines, it is the most singularly bounded town in the county.

The Penobscot, in a broad and noble stream, without

islands on this part, flows for a little more than six miles along the east front of Hampden, having landings at Hampden Corners and a number of other points. The interior of the town is also remarkably well watered. The superb sheet known as Hermon Pond, as we have noted, lies around a cape of the town at the northwestward. Its western inlet flows less than one mile from Patten Pond, which stretches southwestward only half a mile's length, ending at the west line of the town, about as far from the northwest corner .. Stetson Pond also lies wholly in this town, about as far south of Hermon Pond as Patten, and near the north line. It is a roundish sheet, only half a mile in greatest diameters. . The outlet of all these waters forms the lower section of the Sowadabscook Stream, a large and important brook, affording much water-power on its way to the Penobscot. (The Indian word rendered - Sowadabscook was more exactly "Soadapscoo.") From the northeast part of Stetson Pond it flows nearly in the same direction to the town line, which it just crosses, and then returns into Hampden and passes with a winding, generally southeast course to the river at Hampden post- office. Its total length is five and one-half miles. Its mouth is spacious enough to afford, to some extent, har- borage for vessels.

Into Stetson Pond flows the west branch of the Sow- adabscook, which rises in the southwest corner of Hamp- den, and runs with an exceedingly devious but generally north course of more than seven miles in all, to Stetson Pond. When about two mites from its mouth it takes in from the southwest a tributary of some size, which has two headwaters in Newburg and the southwest part of Hampden. In this angle also rises one of the brooks that flow out into Newburg. The West Branch also re- ceives a small tributary at School No. 13, from the east- ward, another from the south half a mile below, and a very small one from the northwest a mile from its mouth, a little east of which the pond has a petty affluent. The Sowadabscook welcomes from the south two small trib- utaries, and from the north as many, the principal of

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

which heads in Hermon. The Penobscot has here on its west bank some half-dozen small affluents, the princi- pal of which come in at Hampden Corners and nearly two miles below.

This town is the best supplied with post-offices of any in the county. On the river-road, beginning with East Hampden post-office at the northeast corner, are Hamp- den post-office, two and one-half miles below, and Hampden Corners, only about a mile further. In the interior are West Hampden post-office, near Stetson Pond, also the Neally's Corners and Hampden Centre offices. The settlement along the river-road, which runs over six miles in this town, may be regarded as practically one continuous village, so dense and populous is it, particularly below Hampden Corners. Many of the residences on this road occupy exceedingly beautiful and commanding sites, overlooking the river valley.

From the river, or the river-road near it, roads branch off as follow: From Hampden post-office, highways to the northwestward and north of west, the former run- ning into Hampden, and the latter through West Hamp- den to and beyond the northwest corner of the town; from Hampden Corners, and west and southwest road into Newburg, which is crossed, with a little jog, by a north and south road at a dense settlement about School No. 9; and from a point a little more than a mile below the Corners, near School No. 5, a westerly road which ends two miles out, above School No. 14. These, with a number of connecting and cross-roads, sufficiently sup- ply the needs of the town. There is no north and south road completely intersecting it, except the highway along the river.

Hampden has yet no railway, although the line of the Maine Central comes very near it below Bangor, and the route of the Penobscot Bay and River Railroad, follow- ing the west bank, has been surveyed through it.

The surface of this town is somewhat rolling, but not so much broken as to interfere with agricultural opera- · tions. It is accounted a good farming, as well as manu- .facturing town. On the Sowadabscook, two miles from its mouth, occurs a total fall of one hundred and twenty feet, at which are a number of valuable mill privileges. Two paper-mills and a grist-mill have been located here. There is a steam-mill at East Hampden. The town has also one carding mill, one manufacturer of pumps and blocks, two cooperage firms, five wheelwrights, one car- riage-maker, two boat-builders, and one door, sash, and blind establishment.

BENJAMIN WHEELER

enjoys the honor of being the first settler in Hampden. This tract, lying so far down the river, naturally received some of the first settlements made up the Penobscot Valley ; and one authority places the coming of Mr. Wheeler as early as 1767. Another, and perhaps more correct statement, given by the historian Williamson, fixes the year of his coming as 1772. He was an im- migrant from Durham, New Hampshire, and settled near the mouth of the Sowadabscook, where now is the principal village in the town. He was a carpenter, and soon had a sufficient house and outbuildings put up for

himself, which he followed by the erection of mills upon "the Basin," in this vicinity. From him the settle- ment took its primitive name of Wheelersborough; and when the town of Frankfort, now in Waldo county, was created in 1789, it was made to extend "from Belfast to Wheeler's Mills."

THE PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT

was for years very slow. A number of early settlers came from Cape Cod, with a view to permanent settlement. They experienced some annoyance and fear from the threats and menaces of the Indians; but were not driven away until after they were disturbed by the movements of the British up the river, following the defeat of Salton- stall and Lovell at the Castine peninsula, and abandoned their homes and fled with our soldiers and sailors through the wilderness to the Kennebec, and thence to Woolwich and Falmouth. Most of them returned in 1783, after she peace between the United Colonies and the mother coun- try. Those who made their settlement here good by the Ist of January, 1784, were afterwards confirmed in their titles by Massachusetts, upon payment of the nominal sum of six dollars. If they came afterwards, and settled at any time before January 1, 1794, they received their allot- ments of one hundred acres for fifty dollars. This was under an arrangement proclaimed when the township was finally surveyed and allotted in 1796, by Ephraim Ballard, under authority from the State, in tracts of one hundred acres to each actual inhabitant. After all allotments had been made, the remainder of the territory of Hampden was assigned, on the 5th of February, 1800, to the proprietors of the Waldo Patent, to eke out the defi- ciency in their grant of thirty miles square, which had been caused by a resurvey in 1798 restoring several townships belonging to the Plymouth Patent. The townships now covered by Bangor, Newburg, and Her- mon, excepting the settlers' lots, were also included in the same assignment. Previous to the survey and allot- ment, the residents here were very much in the situation of "squatters," as many of the early settlers on Western lands are called.

The following notice of some of the more prominent of the early settlers is taken from Coolidge & Mansfield's History and Description of New England, published in 1859 :

General John Crosby was one of the early settlers. He came from Woolwich about 1775, and commenced as a farmer, on the estate now occupied by Ivory Frost. He afterwards entered largely into commer- cial business, and carried on an extensive trade both with Europe and the East Indies. He died May 25, 1843, at the advanced age of eighty- six.

Another prominent man among the early settlers was General Gabriel Johonot, a Frenchman by birth, and a brave and distinguished officer in the American army during the Revolution. He was a friend and correspondent of General Washington ; and, during a long and active life, exerted a great influence in the affairs of the town.

Hon. Martin Kinsley, General Jedediah Herrick, Enoch Brown, and John Godfrey were early and prominent citizens of the town.

Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, now a Senator in Congress from this State, settled here as a lawyer about 1832.

It may be added concerning Mr. Kinsley that he wa the first Representative from Hampden to the General Court of Massachusetts, where he sat as a member in 1802. He was afterwards a member of the Senate, and

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

then of the Council of Massachusetts; was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1816-18, a member of Congress in 1819-20, and Judge of Probate of the county in 1822-23.

The first piano in the Penobscot Valley was brought by General Crosby, about the year 1800. It is still in existence, in the possession of Mrs. Elias Dudley, of Hampden.

MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION.

Two years before the survey and allotment above mentioned, the town of Hampden had been incorpor- porated. For some years before that the people had been under local government. The plantation name of the town, as already suggested, was Wheelersborough. All that part of it below the mouth of the Sowadabscook, or "Wheeler's Mills," had been included in the town of Frankfort, when that was created June 25, 1789, and made to include the present Frankfort, with Prospect and the greater part of Hampden. It reached as far south as Belfast, and up the river to Wheeler's. By 1790 this large tract contained 891 inhabitants, and four years later the necessity for a division became imperative, On the same day, February 24, 1794, Prospect was set off from the south part of Frankfort, and the north part, above the upper line of the Waldo Patent, was united with nearly as much territory still further to the northward, and created a new town under the name of Hampden. It was the eighty-seventh town incorporated in what is now the State of Maine, and the third in the present limits of Penobscot county, Orrington and Bangor alone having preceded it.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 94

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