USA > Maine > Piscataquis County > History of Piscataquis County, Maine : from its earliest settlement to 1880 > Part 15
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These pioneers did not overlook the education of the
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young. In the winter of 1821-22, a private school, free to all who could attend, was taught by Dea. Lucius Hyde, in the house of James Stinchfield. The next winter, Father Sawyer taught the first town school in the same room, and preached to the people on the Sabbath. In the summer of 1823, a school-house was erected near the mills; to this all the scholars in town for a few years came. This served also for a place of public worship.
In the fall of 1823, Dr. Alpheus Davison came from Ver- mont, and settled as a physician. Previously the people had been compelled to go to Sangerville for medical assistance. When cases of sickness occurred which would not admit of delay, men, weary and sleepy, have risen from their beds, and walked ten or a dozen miles, to hasten on the doctor, while morn would arise before they arrived home. The in- coming of an experienced physician was peculiarly satisfac- tory. Dr. Davison was also long useful as a school teacher, and as a town officer, spending the remainder of his days in this town.
During 1824, other citizens of note were added to the pop- ulation. John Crafts, Solomon Cushman and Oliver Eveleth came in. As another great convenience, a post-office, was established, and F. F. Gates appointed postmaster. Guil- ford, ten miles away, up to this time had been their nearest post-office. The mail was now carried weekly, though in rather a primitive manner. The roads then answered for horseback riding, but the pay would not allow it. So, the Doughty boys at first, then Benjamin Stinchfield, took it in a pack, and footed it down and back, usually going to San- gerville village, to do certain entrusted errands. But this was soon superseded. In 1827, Dea. Thomas Fuller drove a carriage from Bangor to Monson for this purpose. In less than five years a regular stage line, three times a week, took the business.
The next year, 1825, marks another advance. Oliver Ev- eleth opened the first store in town, and brought the neces- saries of life nigh unto them.
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The Congregational church also settled Rev. Lot Rider as its first pastor. He received the land reserved for the first settled minister, and entered on a promising career, but sick- ness soon fastened upon him, and he died in a few months after his ordination, very deeply lamented.
In the great fire of 1825, this town was seriously damaged in its timber and woodlands, but they all succeeded in fight- ing it off from their buildings.
In May, 1824, the mills and surrounding buildings were in great peril from an approaching fire, likewise in 1831, but strenuous efforts delivered them.
In 1827, Mr. Samuel Robinson erected a building for card- ing and cloth-dressing. He commenced dressing cloth in the fall of 1828, and carding the next year. After a few years, he sold out to Mr. Thomas Scales, but in a few years Scales sold to Stedman Kendall, who afterward moved the ma- chinery to Abbot, and the building was converted to other uses. Dea. Robinson settled on a farm, and remained in town until his death, and was well known as a worthy and highly esteemed citizen. This year, Solomon Cushman open- ed another store in the place.
In 1830, T. S. Pullen Esq., from Winthrop, opened another store, and by this time mechanic shops of various kinds were established in the village.
In the summer of 1831, the Congregational meeting-house was finished and dedicated. This was the first house for public worship erected in the county, the first, except the one in Dexter, north of Bangor, and the town of Monson was the first to hear the tones of a church-going bell.
After the summer of 1831, the seasons in these parts were colder, and early frosts diminished the harvests. But the lumbering business on the lake made a great demand for hay, oats and other farm products, so that the farmers of this town, being nearer that market than others, were quite pros- perous. But many of them became discontented. The se- vere winter and late spring of 1835 increased this, so that many were bent upon selling out at all hazards. When this
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peculiar state of things became known abroad, a Mr. Elliot J. Kidder came into town, took lodgings at the hotel, and shrewdly surveyed the situation. After figuring slyly with some of the residents, he was ready to buy farms, stock, prod- uce, etc. But he could not pay money. He had wild lands on the Indian Steam Tract, in northern New Hamp- shire, and an indefinite amount of old notes against certain parties in the vicinity of Norridgewock and Athens, which he flippantly and assuringly called good paper. He was gentlemanly in his deportment, affable and self-confident, so oily in speech that he could make the worse seem the bet- ter reason, and had such magnetic power. that he would win over almost anyone that he fastened upon. Pity it is that he secured as a secret accomplice one resident of the place, a man of influence, who was more confided in because he was originally from New Hampshire, and was believed to know the land Kidder was offering, and he capped the deception by affirming that Mr. Kidder was all right. So some eight or ten good farms with their stock and farming tools were sold to him, and paid for in these bogus securities.
And so these honest, hard-working farmers were swindled out of their hard earned patrimonies. At length the spell broke. They learned too late that they had legally conveyed away their property, and their despoiler could snap his finger in their faces. The sufferers were indignant, and the com- munity sympathized largely with them. One remedy was left them. They could arrest him for fraud. A precept was put into the hands of a sheriff, and several of the inter- ested parties as a volunteer "posse comitatus," started with him. He got wind of it, and took to the woods. They fol- lowed in hot pursuit. The frightened fugitive bent his steps toward Number Eight as fast as his legs would carry him. Striking the path of James Johnson, who lived in a rude cab- in, some four miles beyond all other habitations, he reached Johnson's opening, with his pursuers not far behind. Pant- ing and perspiring, he besought Johnson to conceal him, promising a tempting reward, for he expected that, if caught,
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summary justice would be visited upon him. Johnson read- ily consented. Lifting a trap-door, he hurried his protégé into a hole beneath his cabin floor, which he used for his cel- lar, and replacing it, sat down upon it, quietly mending a part of his wearing apparel. The sheriff and his company were soon at the cabin door, hastily inquiring if he had seen any one passing that way. Johnson demurely answered, no. "But he came this way, for we have tracked him." John- son naively remarked that he "guessed that was what his dog was barking at a little while ago," and kept on setting his stitches. He played the part of a deceiver so adroitly that they left him without any suspicion of his complicity. They soon gave up the pursuit as hopeless, and retraced their steps. Johnson was the fit tool of such a desperate cheat, and for such a crisis. When a young man, he had promising powers of mind, was of good habits, and early fell in love with a young lady, in whom he placed the utmost confidence. As they were both indigent, he labored steadily to obtain means to buy a piece of land and fit up a home. These earn- ings he entrusted to his sweetheart for safe keeping, and toiled on to secure a sufficient sum. "O woman, thy name is frailty!" Another suitor came along, whom she liked bet- ter. She forgot her first confiding lover, and basely kept his money too! This was a crushing blow to poor James. The double stroke overcame him. He sought to drown his trouble in strong drink, but his manhood went under more deeply. He fled as far from society as he could conveniently dwell, addressed himself to clearing a farm in an unbroken forest, living in perfect solitude, except that roaming hunters or explorers occasionally called as they passed that way. Inexorable necessity would compel him to go to Monson vil- lage now and then, to get his grain ground, and his stores replenished, tobacco and rum being the larger part. To such an one Kidder committed himself, and upon such fare as he could set before him, this man of taste and refinement subsisted for two or three weeks, who had usually boarded at the best hotels. But in his extremity, he accepted the situa-
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tion. In Monson and vicinity, great inquiry was made for him, and by a select few, not in vain. Favored ones, direct- ed by that silent partner, went secretly to Johnson's camp, and it is said, obtained payments from the secreted swindler. At length he crept slyly from his hiding place, and by the aid of his accomplice, went to parts unknown. Some of his farms he conveyed to new owners, some he put tenants upon, keeping himself out of the State, and remaining but a short time in any one place. The next winter he went to a remote town in central New Hampshire, and took lodgings at the village hotel. After remaining a week or two, he bantered the proprietor to exchange the property with him, for the Chapin farm in Monson, for this was one of his trophies. The trade was concluded, and so Col. Samuel Pillsbury and his father, now deceased, became occupants thereof.
In 1848, an Academy was chartered, the second in the county, and a suitable building erected by the contributions of the people. The State granted it a half township of wild land. With the proceeds of this and another subsequent grant, the Trustees secured a permanent fund of $4,000. It has been kept open a part of the time annually, advancing effectually the education of the young. The building was destroyed by fire, in March, 1860, and rebuilt the next sea- son. On account of this loss, the State granted this Acad- emy one fourth of another township of wild land, and a · part of the sum received for it, was added to its permanent fund.
Although this town lost no buildings in the great fire of 1825, yet no other in the county has suffered so severely by the devouring element. The dwelling-house of Samuel Rowe was destroyed in 1819, that of Calvin Colton, in 1823, George Doughty's, in 1834, and A. G. Houston's, in 1853. But May 27th, 1860, was a day of burning to the pleasant and thriving village of Monson. It was a pleasant Sabbath day, with a fresh wind from the south west. A little past noon, a fire broke out in the stable connected with Nelson Savage's hotel. The wind drove it through the heart of the village with fearful rapidity. All resistance was powerless,
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until the buildings failed in its path. It laid in ashes the Congregational meeting-house, two stores, two hotels, sever- al mechanic shops, dwelling-houses, barns and out-buildings, all numbering about forty. All this must be set to the ac- count of a company of non church-going, careless, smoking river-drivers.
In 1870, the slate quarries on the confines of the village were unearthed, and this turned a new leaf in the business of the place. The deposits proved to be extensive, and sev- eral companies were formed to work them. This gave em- ployment to many hands at the quarries, and to teams to transport the slate to Dexter. When the Bangor and Pis- cataquis Railroad was completed to Guilford, the teams un- laded there, and now, Abbot depot, four miles from Monson village, takes the business. Six companies have been incor- porated, and have operated with more or less success in devel- oping these resources. In 1879, another quarry was opened.
In keeping with the intelligence, enterprise and good taste of the residents of this town, when the fiftieth anniversary of . its incorporation occurred, they celebrated the day with pub- lic commemoration. On April 22, 1872, the day on which the first town-meeting was held, a goodly company of old and young assembled in Academy Hall, and celebrated it in this manner. Aretas Chapin, Esq. president of the day, who was present at that first town-meeting, made a brief opening address, Rev. R. W. Emerson addressed the throne of grace, Mr. Charles Davison, a native of Monson, gave an historical address, to which I have been largely indebted in prepar- ing the above sketch, Rev. A. H. Tyler and Hon. S. A. Patten offered extempore remarks, and preceptor William S. Knowlton read an historical, sprightly and facetious poem, then some of the venerables, who could speak of pioneer life from experience, told to their children anecdotes of those earlier times. These closed, the assembly was invited to an old fashioned supper, which, notwithstanding the progress of the age and the fastidiousness of the rising generation, went down with as good a relish as the intellectual feast above.
The hardships of breaking into the forest will appear by
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rehearsing some of the exploits of the early settlers of this town. In the spring of 1817, Mrs. George Doughty with her boys walked four miles to their new field, to plant a bushel of seed potatoes, for which she had paid one dollar, earned by her own labor.
Mrs. Amos Atkinson with a three months old infant re- . mained contentedly alone, while her husband went on busi- ness to Foxcroft. In the silence of night, and in the solitude of her secluded dwelling, she awoke to find her sweet babe cold in death. No neighbors were within three miles. With true feminine fortitude, she watched and waited the night out, and till the evening of the next day came on, be- fore her husband returned to mingle his tears with hers, and share the heavy burden.
At Carleton's mill in Sangerville, they must get their grinding done. For a while they had no passable road for horses, nor horses, indeed. So a man would shoulder a bush- el, a large boy a half bushel, and bear it twelve miles and back, often hastened homeward by the approach of nightfall.
Mr. Joseph Jackson went on horseback to Bangor, and : purchased four bushels of corn. As three was the utmost that the horse could carry, he shouldered the fourth, and bore it fifty miles home, driving the heavily laden horse be- fore him.
In December, 1819, James Stinchfield jr. went to Sanger- ville, carrying three bushels on horseback. Darkness came on early, and the horse could not keep the path. He took off the bags and hitched the horse to a tree. He attempted to strike fire, but lost his flint and failed. On dry meal he made his supper, and walked and stamped to keep himself from freezing, but as he had got wet in fording the streams, his frame trembled, his teeth chattered, and thus he spent the night.
In 1822, after the business of the year was over, Messrs. Hiram Vinton and Abel Janes started for Massachusetts. On reaching Hallowell, they took passage to Boston by wa- ter. They spent a night, a few miles out of Boston, and
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started early on their way. They hardly stopped to take a regular meal, but ate such food as they could while going ahead, and reached home that night, one walking sixty-four miles, the other seventy-five, in one day.
When the dark cloud of civil war overshadowed our fair land, no town furnished a more liberal quota for the Union forces than Monson. From a population of 708, eighty-four were mustered into the army. Of these, six were killed on the field of battle, sixteen died of sickness,-twelve of them in hospitals, and four reached home and died among their kin- dred, and sixteen others were wounded. It need not be said that the pathway to Canada was not much worn by the "skedaddling " feet of her cowardly sons, for she had none. From the above narrative it may be readily seen that a strong religious element has ever existed in this town. The original members of both of its churches were among its early settlers. In this Monson was fortunate.
So, too, a good degree of intelligence has ever character- ized this people. Their attention to common and high schools has clearly indicated this. Many changes have taken place in its families. Its early prominent actors have passed away or removed to other places. But this interesting feat- ure still abides. As proof of this, Mr. Davison stated in his address that five daily, and one hundred and seventy-three weekly newspapers, six semi-monthly, and eighty-four month- ly periodicals were taken by the people of that town. Two years previous, the population was only 608.
A few fatal accidents remain to be noticed.
In 1819, Asa Rowe, son of Samuel, a smart, active boy of six or eight years, died after a brief, and peculiarly strange sickness. A post-mortem examination, brought to light a living reptile in his stomach, of the lizard kind, nearly three inches long. The boy had been in the habit of drinking at every little stream that he came to, and this, it was supposed, accounted for it.
On Dec. 4, 1822, John T. Delano, a young man, was drowned in attempting to skate across Hebron Pond.
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July 4, 1831, Alfred Ely, a son of Dea. Samuel Robinson, in 1840, Streeter Strout, and, July 10, 1858, C. M. Tarr, all lost their lives by drowning.
Mr. H. W. F. Carter, agent and manager of the Hebron Pond Slate Company, was fatally injured in February, 1878, by the fall of a heavy stone, while at work in the quarry. He lingered a few weeks in great distress, and expired. He was a reliable and successful business man, a worthy and ex- emplary Christian citizen.
In Monson village there are now ten stores, one hotel, three lawyers, two physicians, also mills and various me- chanic shops.
SILVER MINE. There has been recently discovered on the Drake farm an extensive mine of silver and lead. A sufficient quantity of the ore has been already assayed, to show that a paying quantity of silver is contained in it. High expectations are raised that large and rich deposits are there, and a company is forming and preparing to work it.
PHYSICIANS. Dr. Alpheus Davison, James Leighton, Jo- siah Jordan, - Clement, A. S. Patten and C. C. Hall have practiced in this town.
The valuation of this town in 1870, was $134,520; its pop- ulation 608.
CHAPTER XXII.
ORNEVILLE, FORMERLY MILTON AND ALMOND.
THIS was Number one, Sixth Range, and has an area of 23,040 acres. Its soil is not quite an average with that of its surrounding townships, but in water power it is not defi- cient. At the outlet of Boyd's Lake there is a good fall, and a steady supply of water. This is improved. On Dead Stream, which passes through the south-west corner, there were two mill privileges, one of which has been annexed to Atkinson, both occupied, and another on Alder Brook, near the north-west corner, also occupied.
PROPRIETOR. Gen. J. P. Boyd, in 1805, soon after his re- turn from India and England, purchased the whole township from the State, and continued the proprietor of it until his death. He did not hasten its settlement, caring more to have the timber stand and increase. In 1820, only two persons are returned as then residing there.
Eben Greenleaf was employed to lot out parts of the east half, but eventually it was re-surveyed by Japheth Gilman. The west half was lotted by D. W. Bradley, and the lots deeded by their plans. Between 1820 and 1825, a county road was laid out through the township, from Milo to Brad- ford, and eventually made by O. Crosby Esq., at the expense of the proprietor, and after this settlers began to break in. Abner and Allen Hoxie, James Philpot, William M. and Eben Ewer, William and Solon Hamlin were the first set- tlers who took up lots and made openings upon this road. At first the settlement was mainly in the west part of the town, adjoining Atkinson.
The Huntington mills were early built, and the owners of
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them procured the annexation of the lot upon which they stood, to Atkinson. James Porter and sons erected a saw- and shingle-mill on Alder Brook, at a later date. These mills have done a good business, and are still run by Judson Briggs. Moses Chandler also early built a saw- shingle- and grist-mill on Dead Stream, near the south line of the town. These have been long known as the McGregor mills. They were successfully operated by different owners until 1873, when they were burnt, and have not been rebuilt, much to the inconvenience of that vicinity. Mr. J. W. Hall has put a shingle mill in operation on that dam.
In 1832, after it had been Boyd's plantation for a few years, it was incorporated as the town of Milton. It organ- ized, chose its town officers, and assumed the usual responsi- bilities of such corporations. But its course was singular, presenting features of municipal life not found in the histo- ry of any other town. Men were chosen to important offi- ces, who did not prove discreet and competent. Money was raised and in some way assessed. Some of the inhabitants were poor, not owning the farms which they occupied, and in these hard times, could not pay their taxes. A large part of these was assessed upon the non-resident land. Gen. Boyd was now dead, his estate was in the hands of his executors, and they finding good reasons, refused to pay those assess- ments. Still, town orders were drawn on the treasurer, though it was well known that he could not meet them. They were then offered for sale. Lawyers in Bangor would buy them, commence a suit, and attach any personal proper- ty that could be found owned by any inhabitant. This was sold in due time under the hammer of the sheriff, the costs added to the face of the order, and the excess, if any, paid back to the owner. It was then his turn to sue, not for the amount secured by the sheriff, but for the actual value of the property which had been wrested from him by the grip of the law. The next piece of attachable property was taken, new costs made, new sacrifices necessitated, and a lower depth of indebtedness reached, so that in a few years, every piece of attachable property within the boundaries of the
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town was transferred to persons outside of its limits. The town was verily bankrupt. The lawyers found it too bare for any more picking. These difficulties culminated in the hard times of 1837. The reaction of the great land specula- tion had fallen with a palsying stroke, upon every branch of business. When that speculation was in full blast, it prom- ised to make everybody rich. But in its recoil, it made ev- eryone for a season poor. Wealthy men could hardly pay their .taxes. The Banks all refused to redeem their bills. Bread-stuffs rose to a higher price than they had reached since the cold seasons. Only the bare necessaries of life found a market. Employment for the laborer could hardly be found.
In these trying times, the people of Milton had plenty of time to consider. They learned, as they ought to have done before, some really valuable lessons. They learned that grave responsibilities rested upon voters, upon those who used, and could use, the elective franchise. For incompe- tent men, and irresponsible men, can only accept of such offi- ces as they are elected to by a majority of their fellow citi- zens. And if they feel their incompetence, their electors by choosing them, have pronounced them otherwise. If
men chosen to provide for the town's poor, procured sup- plies at the expense of the town, and appropriated some of them for their own use, that especial trust and confidence had been reposed in them by their friends and fellow citizens. They had betrayed their trust; others had placed them in a condition to do so. They learned, too, that by public meas- ures they could carry the individual down to bankruptcy. No one could sell any real estate in town, for to buy, was to engage to meet an untold number of waiting executions.
Even the crop raised in the sweat of the face, beyond a certain amount, could be seized and sold to pay the town's debts. So it is that public evils necessarily become personal evils; the mistake of a Legislature or body politic strikes back into the family ; public dishonors come back to roost upon the shoulders of those who are primarily responsible for them.
In this peculiar crisis, an individual voluntarily came to
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the rescue. The Hon. Henry Orne of Boston, who had mar- ried a niece of Gen. Boyd, who had a large estate, who was unwilling to see all the land interest of the late proprietor rendered worthless, and who was willing to make a name and a place to himself, stepped in and undertook a work of recovery. He obtained possession of the greater part of the late proprietor's unsold land. He encouraged the town to raise and assess in a lawful and equitable manner, money to commence the payment of their debts, and readily paid his proportion. He began to erect mills at the outlet of Boyd's Lake, and drew in business men. A saw-mill and a first class grist-mill were a great convenience to the settlers.
Judge Orne selected an elevated and pleasant tract of land, which commanded a splendid view of the lake, cleared it, and laid out an old-time "baronial manor." Buildings, fields, orchards, gardens, and ornamental trees were all on a large and elegant scale. A piece of primeval forest was re- served for a deer park, but this was never stocked with them. He was thoroughly educated, a man of refined taste, had en- tered the legal profession, and had held the office of Police Judge in the city of Boston. In his culture and bearing, he well represented "a gentleman of the old school," capped with a large share of high-toned aristocracy. So in social life he had a kingdom of his own, and business alone forced outsiders to invade it. The workmen employed upon his farm had a separate house, table, and style of living. He lived upon his magnificent estate until his death, in 1852, and departed, revered and gratefully remembered. As a finan- cial operation this enterprise was not lucrative, shrinking his estate of $20,000 when he came, to $9000 at its settlement.
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