USA > Maine > Piscataquis County > History of Piscataquis County, Maine : from its earliest settlement to 1880 > Part 3
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PROPRIETORS AND SURVEY. Near the beginning of the present century, this township and the one adjoining it on the east, were purchased of the State, by Robert Hallowell and John Lowell, with the conditions that the usual amount should be reserved for public uses, and a certain number of families should be settled upon them, within fifteen years. But the real purchasers, however, were Charles Vaughan and John Merrick of Hallowell. Hallowell and Lowell were merchants in Boston, relatives of the Vaughans, and so acted as their agents. Lowell had done a similar thing, in purchas- ing the Charleston township for Mr. Vaughan, some five or six years previous.
As these men, Vaughan and Merrick, were the actual pro- prietors, and settled the township, we will give them a pass- ing notice. Benjamin, John, and Charles Vaughan, three brothers, and John Merrick, a brother-in-law, belonged to a wealthy, highly cultured and well connected family in Eng- land. For some reason they left their native land, and came to the United States. It was thought that they sympathized with the Colonies in their struggle for independence, and thus lost caste with the hot-blooded aristocracy. John set- tled in Philadelphia, the other two brothers, Charles and Benjamin, and Mr. Merrick, in Hallowell, Me. This was about 1793, and having come from Boston to Gardiner, by water, for want of a carriage road, they walked from thence to Hallowell, both men and women. Charles Vaughan early began to invest his capital in wild land, buying, some time before 1795, Number Two, Fifth Range (Charleston), and in- troduced its first settlers. But having failed to get the re- quired number of settlers, Lowell and Hallowell, in 1814, petitioned the Legislature for an extension of time, to com- plete the stipulated number of families to be settled in both
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
townships, Charleston and Dover. An extension of three years was granted, provided they would give sufficient secur- ity to the State, that they would pay thirty dollars forfeit, for each settler below the agreed number, when the extension should expire.
Vaughan and Merrick are both well reported of, as propri- etors. They were indulgent to the poor, hard working set- tlers, sometimes letting their notes run on unpaid, till they had expired by the statute of limitation, and losing the debts. Mr. Merrick built a meeting-house at his own expense, on Bear Hill, and gave it, with twenty acres of land, to the Methodist society, in 1836. He also gave the land for a small " common," now a park, in Dover village. But Mr. Vaughan, by building a flouring mill, and afterward a facto- ry, at Dover village, greatly increased the business of the place, and also benefited the whole community. These will be more fully dealt with at the proper date.
There is a tradition that the first lotting out of the town- ship was not satisfactory. But it is now certain that Lem- uel Perham was employed in 1803 to lot out the. greater part of it. At a later date, S. C. Norcross lotted out several ranges on the west side of the town, and by his survey and plan, those lots were sold and deeded.
THE FIRST SETTLERS. Abel Blood now comes into more distinct notice. He purchased the first tract of.land for set- tlement, felled the first opening, and was the first pioneer to come into the county. At an early date, some time before 1799, he purchased a square mile, having the first choice in locating it, on terms that cannot now be fully ascertained. Eben Lambert, long the proprietor's agent, thought that he purchased it of the State, before Vaughan and Merrick had bought the township. He selected his tract on the north side of the township, embracing the water privilege at East Dover, and the beautiful intervals and slopes on either bank of the Piscataquis. And this quantity was run out to him by the surveyor, as the first thing to be done in lotting the
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township. We deeply regret that the incipient movements of Mr. Blood have not been more definitely retained. A dark, mysterious shadow hangs over them.
He must have explored this region, and made his pitch, previous to his coming in, with men, to fell the first trees, for they came directly to it. Of this adventure, we have a writ- ten report drawn up by a committee, one of which, John Spaulding, was one of that band. This report was presented to the Piscataquis Historical Society, Dec. 16, 1824, and in a condensed form it will be repeated. In June, 1799, Abel Blood left Norridgewock for this selected lot, with seven men, viz., John and Seth Spaulding, Jonathan Parlin, Jonas Parlin jr., Charles Fairbrother, Samuel Carleton, and Robert Kidder. These men started with the necessary implements for felling trees, utensils essential to camping, and supplies of food for a fortnight. A tramp of fifty miles, most of it through a trackless forest, was before them. For want of roads, teams could convey their luggage only to Athens, about fifteen miles. Thence they carried their burdens to Moose Pond, in Harmony. Here Mr. Blood hired two men to bring their burdens, in birch canoes, up Main Stream, the company pushing on along its banks. About ten miles brought them to the "carry" from this stream to the pond in Parkman. Here they had to shoulder their loads, and bear them three miles to the water. Floating down to the outlet of the lower pond, near the site of Sangerville village, Blood dismissed the boatmen, and they walked and carried their loads the remainder of the way. We here observe that this boating route was the northern one, which the roving natives sometimes used in their light canoes, in passing from the Kennebec to the Penobscot. The load equally divided among these men was estimated to be one hundred and twenty pounds each. Thus freighted, they followed the course of Piscataquis River, twelve miles, to the place select- ed for a strike. This was on the south bank of the river, a little below the end of the East Dover bridge, now known as the farm of Benjamin Dow jr. Here for four or five days the
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
majestic forest trees came crashing down, leveled by the sturdy stroke of those stalwart axe-men, startling the inhabi- tants of those wild regions, with echoes to which they had ever been strangers. But the woods then swarmed with greedy blackflies and mosquitoes, which eagerly improved so rare an occasion to gorge themselves. Their provisions grew ominously less, so that, before they had worked their intended time, they unanimously concluded that it was time to beat a hasty retreat. Breaking camp, they struck for the shortest route home, using a compass to direct them. On the second day of their return, they came out to the late Jona. Farrar's hill, above Dexter village, and here they divided the residue of their provisions, amounting to only two ounces of bread, and one of meat to each man. On this they traveled the next day, and at its close reached the settlements in Har- mony. One day more brought them safely home. The next year (1800), the first entrance was made by a spotted line into Dexter, from Harmony, and preparations made for build- ing mills and introducing settlers. Were it not for Col. Fox- croft's statement, we should lose sight of Abel Blood for the next two or three years.' From him we learn that Blood was there in October, 1800, and had raised a crop of corn and garden vegetables, as already mentioned. So Mr. Blood- must have followed up the beginning made in 1799, burnt his felled piece, and planted corn in the year 1800, harvest- ing the first crop raised in this county, though he was not the first to bring in a family. It is not known at what date he did this; certainly before the spring of 1805, for May 16, 1805, he and his wife executed a deed here, conveying two hundred acres of his land to Eli Towne. He seems to have been an enterprising, athletic, and industrious man, but not a good manager. In October, 1804, he and John Spaulding contracted with Col. Foxcroft to build and put in operation a saw- and grist-mill, upon the upper falls in Foxcroft, and have them running by Jan. 1, 1807. But Blood transferred his contract to Eleazer and Seth Spaulding, who with their brother John, proceeded to build them. He made and burnt
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the first kiln of brick in the town and county ; and from this, Chamberlain and Baker procured brick for a chimney, in 1807. His brother, Royal, also settled here, and occupied a part of Abel's land, but the title afterward passed to Mr. John Dow, and from him, to John 2d, and Benjamin Dow. Blood then moved to Sebec.
These Bloods were from Temple, N. H., sons of Gen. Francis Blood, a Revolutionary officer, who obtained an hon- orable record in the service of his country. But Abel Blood did not sustain so desirable a reputation. It is well known that, about 1811, he fled suddenly to parts unknown, and his brother Royal assisted his family to return to Temple. Some twenty-five years later, he turned up again in Ohio. One of his old neighbors, who also found it for his interest to seek a new home among strangers, emigrated to the far West, and there fell upon and recognized Mr. Blood, the first pioneer of this county. But they did not revive their old acquaintance. Both were willing to remain strangers, to let "by-gones be by-gones," and to strive mutually, as we may hope, to secure a fairer future.
THE TOWNE FAMILY. As stated before, to Eli Towne, belongs the honor of being the first permanent settler of Dover, and of this county ; but his father and brother Moses preceded him in the first steps toward it. Thomas Towne and his three sons, Moses, Eli, and Abel, then grown to man- hood, resided in Temple, N. H. It seems that Moses Towne first bargained with Abel Blood for a part of his land on the north bank of the river. There was a rumor that a man from Carratunk, by the name of Baker, felled an opening on this lot in 1779, but it appears to have been further down the river. Col. Foxcroft mentions no such opening in 1800. But in 1801 trees must have been felled, as Thomas and Moses, and probably, Eli Towne, spent the summer of 1802, raising a crop on it, and enlarging the opening. As cold weather came on, all but the old gentleman and Moses returned to Temple, but these latter continued on the soil, as Mr. Thomas
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
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Towne was greatly addicted to hunting, and here he had an unstinted range. As they were expecting Eli and family in the spring, and as the Chase family were preparing to move on to the river, a few miles below, the next fall, Moses Towne and Francis Chase made maple sugar together on the inter- val below Towne's place, living on hulled corn and maple syrup, both Blood and the Townes having already raised and harvested corn.
At this time let it be remembered that, though openings had been made in several townships on the river, no homes with women and children had been established in this county, and but comparatively few families then lived in the next tier of towns, Dexter, Garland and Charleston.
In this state of things, Eli Towne, with his wife and one child, the late Alvin Towne of Sebec, then about one year old, started from Temple, N. H., to plant a pioneer home on the banks of the Piscataquis. They first came to Portsmouth, and from thence took passage by water to Bangor. His own account of the journey from Bangor to his waiting cabin, given to a committee, and afterward to his sons, nearly fifty years after the memorable event, is here compiled and amended. For the want of a carriage road, they started on foot, Mr. Towne carrying the child, thirteen months old, in his arms, and he and his wife, the indispensable outfit, as best they could. In this way they proceeded to the Le- vant settlement, thirteen miles, now Kenduskeag village. At Levant a grist-mill was then running, and all the settlers in the region north of it, resorted thither to get their grind- ing done. Fortunately, Mr. Towne found at that mill, a boy from Charleston, with a horse. He hired him to walk home, and let his wife ride on horseback with the grist. But the roads were so rough and muddy that Mr. Towne had to carry the babe a large part of the way. Arriving at Charles- ton, he hired the same horse for completing the journey, and started the next morning for their wilderness home. There was no road, no bridges over the streams and swamps; only a spotted line marked their toilsome way. Dark clouds
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deepened the gloom of the dense forest; about mid-day, a damp, fleecy snow began to fall and make the progress more slow and wearisome. Mrs. Towne used to relate, that for the last eight miles she was so weary and utterly despond- ing, that she was as willing to die as to live. Nearly that. whole day was spent in making those last fifteen miles. As the day declined, they reached the banks of the well-known river. Eagerly they looked across upon their opening, some forty rods below, which Mr. Towne said was burnt and planted with corn, potatoes, beans, etc., the season before, but "the black logs, big old fellows," were still lying thick on the ground. A solitary log-cabin, in which the father and brother had spent the winter, alone animated that sombre scene. Mrs. Towne's quick imagination, true to itself, asks, is this to be her future home? No female associates, no roads, scarcely a footpath through the dense forest, no mills, stores, or physicians near! Falling tears were a fit salutation .-
" Tears more eloquent than learned tongue, Or lyre of purest note."
These shed, and woman's power of endurance rose to the stern demand of the crisis. They crossed the rolling tide, and made that humble meagerly furnished cabin a sweet ' lodge in the wilderness." A reinforcement of men with brave hearts and strong hands soon arrived to resume their clearing, and to prepare the way to bring in their families also. "But before winter," said Mr. Towne, "they all re- turned to their homes, leaving us to winter alone." Their arrival, be it noted, was May 8, 1803; and let it be distinctly marked as an important era in our historical calendar, for this confirms the correctness of other leading dates and state- ments given above, and corrects some of those which conflict with them.
Necessity had to be the mother of invention with this iso- lated family. As they must carry their corn thirty miles upon their shoulders, to get it ground, they hollowed out a mortar-shaped cavity in a solid rock, and bruised it therein with a rough stone pestle. As there were no boards for 4
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
doors, floors, and shelves, to their cabin, they would rift out splints from the pine and cedar, and shape and smooth them for these purposes. The old gentleman Towne, by his skill in fowling and fishing, made the forest and streams their pork and beef barrels, and the growing crops, rejoicing in the rich- ness of the virgin soil, charmed away the perplexity and weariness of laboring among pestering flies and in smutty cut-downs. .
Moses Towne sold out his interest on the Blood Purchase, to his brother Eli, and took up the Burrill place, and cleared up that beautiful interval. At length he sold this also, and moved into Foxcroft, and in 1833, or afterward, went to Ohio. Eli bought two hundred acres of Abel Blood, em- bracing the greater part of Blood's land on the north bank of the river.
By the consideration named in his deed, it seems that he paid one and a half dollars per acre, and he used to say that he brought the money in silver dollars from Temple, in sad- dle-bags, to do it with. This deed was executed in May, 1805, and sent to Castine, to be recorded. Upon this lot Mr. Eli Towne and his father spent the remainder of their days, turning the wilderness into the fruitful field, in due time building a dam and mills, and preparing the way for the flourishing village now found there. It appears from Mr. Towne's statement, that they had no family near them for the first year, except Ezekiel Chase's, four miles below, in Sebec, which came the next September ; but in the spring of the next year, 1804, others came in,-Abel Blood's, Lyford Dow's and Moses Towne's, probably. In February, 1805, John Spaulding moved his family from Norridgewock, into a log-cabin near Mr. Towne's, and in March, John Dow ar- rived with his, moving his wife, with a child in her lap, all the way from Temple, N. H., more than two hundred miles, on an ox-sled. He had a house prepared for them on the Sturtevant place, which he had commenced clearing. By this time several other beginnings had been made, some of them higher up the river, opposite to Foxcroft village.
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A brief personal sketch of Messrs. Thomas and Eli Towne, and we will take leave of them. Thomas Towne was a Rev- olutionary soldier, and having practiced sharp-shooting at the "red-coats," he was a good shot, and liked to handle the musket. Hence he became a mighty hunter, and took to the howling wilderness. In some of his adventures he dis- played unusual daring. On one occasion he fired upon a bear which was swimming across a pond, and wounded him. As the bear neared the shore, the hunter's dog swam in, and attacked him. Bruin, in pure self-defence, seized the dog, and plunged his head under water. The old veteran rushed upon the bear, and thrust his head beneath the surface, too, crying out, "drown my dog, will you!" The bear was soon conquered, and the dog rescued. He once set a trap for foxes, near a spring of water. Starting one day to go from his field to his house, he went to that spring to slake his thirst, and found a wolf in his trap, struggling hard to free himself. He was empty-handed, for he had taken neither gun nor axe. Not willing to give the wolf time to escape, while going for them, he wrenched a limb from a fallen tree, and brought down such stunning blows upon his wolfship, that he soon ceased to snarl and breathe. So he shouldered his bloody trophy, and bore it home in triumph.
In 1806, the first Act granting pensions to the Revolu- tionary patriots, was passed; but it restricted them to those only who were likely to become a public charge. Not long after, in 1818, it was extended, and Mr. Towne was entered, and continued on the list through life. He lived to see his hunting grounds give place to pleasant fields smiling with generous productions; mills turned by the falls, whose mur- murs lulled him to sleep when reposing upon his couch of boughs; the militia mustering upon those broad intervals reclaimed by hardy pioneers from the majestic forest trees which once overshadowed them; and the face of nature all around, marked with amazing improvements. In the latter period of his life he became totally blind, and finally passed away in May, 1824, aged eighty-three years.
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
Eli Towne was a blacksmith, and this trade was of great use to him and his neighbors, in the new settlements. For a few years he was obliged to live in a rude cabin, but when the Spauldings built the saw-mill in Foxcroft, he could rear a more comfortable habitation. At his house the first public religious meeting was held within the limits of Foxcroft and Dover. He always sustained a good reputation, was a Jus- tice of the Peace, an officer in the first military company or- ganized here, and often held important plantation and town offices. In March, 1805, his wife bore him a daughter, the first child born in Dover, the fifth in the county. She still survives in East Dover, known as the widow Sybil Dow. Not long after this event Mrs. Towne departed this life, and was buried on the banks of the Piscataquis. Over her grave the willow should wave its pendent branches, and upon her monumental stone be engraven: The first female settler of this county. Mr. Towne married again, and left several other children. He lived to be nearly eighty years of age, and died in Christian peace, in 1852, dividing his patrimony between two of his sons, Obed and Ezra Towne, who still occupy that historical homestead.
Lyford Dow was also an early settler. He came before his brother John, mentioned above, and settled on the river, a little below the Blood tract. From these two brothers a large number of that name, now dwelling in this vicinity, have descended.
Mrs. John Dow had the patience and resolution needful in a back-wood's life. One night when her husband was absent, and she was alone with her young children, a bear came out and made an attack upon their hogs. They fled for an asy- lum to the log-house, and as only a quilt served as its door, rushed in and took refuge behind the stone chimney. The blaze of the fire deterred the bear from coming in, too, and making an additional inmate. But he prowled about the door all night, but Mrs. Dow kept the fire burning till day dawned, and that sent her unwelcome visitor away. Mrs. Dow lived to see ninety-eight years, and quite recently died in Sebec.
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In 1806, Peter Brawn moved his family on to the lot since occupied by Seth, Benjamin and Josiah Spaulding, succes- sively. He had already made a clearing, and built a log- house. During the next year he lost his wife, and in 1808 sold out to Seth Spaulding, and moved to Moorstown (Ab- bot). There he remained until "the cold seasons," and then moved to Foxcroft, and afterward to Number Eight, and eventually died in Guilford. He married a second wife, and had an additional number of children. .
Jonas Longley took up the northwest corner lot of Dover, and felled trees as early as 1806; and Mr. Fifield, a brother- in-law, began on the adjoining lot, afterward Dwelley's. Mr. Zachariah Longley, his father, brought a bushel and a half of seed potatoes, on horseback, from Norridgewock, which, planted on this newly cleared soil, produced seventy bushels. In the fall of 1807, Luke Longley, an older brother of Jonas, in attempting to take a boat and a raft across the mill-pond at the same time, fell in and was drowned. Mrs. Brawn and her children saw him fall, but could not render him any as- sistance. This was the first death in town, probably the first in the county. His body lay in the water till the next spring. As Mrs. Samuel Chamberlain was looking out upon the river, she saw a dark object rise to the surface, near the present Jordan mill, and float away. Mentioning this to her husband, he and others went out and found the body lodged on rocks above the Great Falls. It was buried on the bank of the river, not far from the end of the present bridge.
In 1808 (some say 1809), Mr. Zachariah Longley and Mr. Fifield, his son-in-law, moved from Norridgewock into town, Mr. Longley settling on the lot that his son Jonas had taken up. The old gentleman resided on it till his death in 1826, and then it passed to Mr. Ellis Robinson. Mr. Longley was a fifer in the Revolutionary army, and always exhibited cer- tain habits then and there contracted. He blew long and loud on the field of Saratoga, and never forgot that proud day. He was a pensioner from the beginning. Jonas Long- ley came to an untimely end. In December of 1811, he
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
started, with his dog, in pursuit of a fox. The wary animal led him in a zigzag course into the thick, dark forest. Night came on, and the intense cold chilled and stiffened him. He attempted, with steel and flint, to kindle a fire, but failed. He crept under a log, and tried to revive his warmth and strength, but found them too much overcome already to rally. The roar of the falls was within his hearing, and his last efforts were in a bee-line toward them. Thus battling bravely for life, he became exhausted, and falling upon the snowy earth, expired within one mile of settlers, near the present home of Dea. John Woodbury.
Mr. Fifield, after occupying different farms for some fifteen years, removed to Aroostook, and died there.
In the year 1808, good crops were harvested, and several advance steps were taken in the settlement. Nathaniel Chamberlain, probably as early as this, took up the Dover village lot, felled the first opening, and built the first house' there.
This year, Paul Lambert, from Winthrop, purchased five hundred acres of land for himself and sons, in the south part of the township, and felled an opening; and this started the settlement around the present South Dover meeting-house. The next spring Mr. Lambert came with his son Eben, then sixteen years of age, put in a crop, enlarged his opening, and made preparations for a future removal. Dea. James Rowe made a beginning that year, and in 1810, moved his family in. He cleared up a farm, and occupied it till his death. This man bore an important part in the arrest and conviction of the Exeter counterfeiters. As this adventure exhibits some of Deacon Rowe's characteristics, and unfolds a chap- ter of crime, we will briefly sketch it.
In the year 1829, a small company of men residing in Exeter, Me., obtained a set of plates, and commenced mak- ing counterfeit bank bills. One of them, a Mr. Hills, came up to South Dover, and bought Dea. Rowe's mare, paying him seventy-five dollars for her, getting five dollars back in good money, in making change, and passing off eighty dollars
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