USA > Maine > Piscataquis County > History of Piscataquis County, Maine : from its earliest settlement to 1880 > Part 4
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of his counterfeits. Dea. Rowe soon discovered the fraud, but the rogue had defrauded the wrong man. No one could cheat him to that extent, without getting an after-clap. So the Deacon was soon mounted, and on his way to Exeter. Learning that Hills had started with his horse for Canada, he followed in sharp pursuit, and got on the track of the fugitive. They passed into New Hampshire and Vermont, where, in strictly legal proceedings, Rowe had no authority to arrest the culprit. But the deacon knew but little, and cared less about, legal technicalities, if he could catch the rogue. Hills reached the last house in Vermont, before crossing the Canada line, and not dreaming that an accuser or an officer was at his heels, stopped for the night. But a sheriff engaged by Dea. Rowe for the occasion, was soon there with a warrant in his pocket. He found Hills, and asking him if his name was Hills, he admitted it, and then he told him that he had a warrant for his arrest, for passing counterfeit money. In surprise he asked, "who brought it ?" "Mr. James Rowe," was the reply. He answered that he did not know him. He then asked leave to retire to a private place, but the keen eye of the officer soon saw that he was concealing his pocket-book. Taking possession of this, he found it well filled with the same kind of bank bills, all of which were counterfeit. He raised no question as to their right to arrest him, and was brought back to Exeter, and kept in custody. The public was now thoroughly aroused; the neighborhood in which he resided was searched, and the shop, the tools, and the plates for turning out such counter- feits, were found and seized. Other persons were suspected, and several of Hills' associates were arrested. In this crisis, one of the band offered to disclose the whole plot, and testify against his accomplices. As the result, Hills and four others were committed to jail to await trial. At the next term of the Supreme Judicial Court in Bangor, they were tried, con- victed, and sentenced to the State Prison. Dea. Rowe re- covered his horse, for which he had received no real value, but lost the five dollars he paid in making change, the time
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he spent, and the expense he incurred in his long pursuit of the counterfeiter ; but had the satisfaction of feeling that he had broken up one of the most daring bands of villains that had ever infested this part of our State.
In March, 1809, Capt. Job Parsons moved into town, and settled on the lot which he occupied till his death. Arte- mas Parlin came about the same time, with much fatigue as the way was nearly impassable from the great depth of snow.
The same spring, Mr. William Mitchell, originally from Sanbornton, N. H., but having resided at Norridgewock and at Dexter, moved into the township, and settled upon the lot which he possessed till his death, and which was then occupied by his son Mordecai Mitchell. He had felled ten acres of trees, the summer previous, and had them burnt, but it was a "poor burn," and the labor of clearing it was slow and toilsome. He came with an ox-team, and crowded his large family into Eli Towne's already filled dwelling, until he could get up a frame and cover it. Boards could then be obtained at the mill in Foxcroft, and a house was soon made competent to camp in. To this they repaired, and soon brought it up to a comfortable shelter. When the ground became bare, he commenced clearing, for a crop from that opening was their sole dependence for their next year's bread. But the first day, by an unlucky stroke of his axe, Mr. Mitchell cut his foot so severely, that he was laid up through the whole of seed time. His only son was but six years old. He obtained a hired man to lead off, and his wife and daugh- ters went resolutely into the smut and smoke, " niggering off the logs," and aiding essentially in clearing. By their inde- fatigable toil, an acre and a half was prepared for wheat in good season, from which sixty bushels were harvested in the autumn. The rest of the opening was "brushed up," burnt off, and planted with corn, potatoes, and other crops, so that their first hard year was rewarded with abundant supplies * for the winter. Mr. Mitchell was a reliable and esteemed citizen, prominent among the early officers of the plantation and town, while Mrs. Mitchell will be long remembered for
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her devoted and active piety. She pitied, and to the extent of her means, aided the poor when the cold seasons brought gaunt famine upon the land. Her name is written high in the religious annals of those early times.
We will now notice the removal of Mr. Allen Dwelley. As it was after that of Messrs. Longley and Fifield, I date it February, 1809 or 1810. He started from Paris, but upon reaching Mr. Hale's, in Ripley, the road was so poor, and his team was so worn out, that he could not proceed with his load. Upon hearing of his condition, Capt. John Bennett started from Lowstown, with a team, to help him through. On Bennett's arrival at Hale's, Mr. Dwelley start- ed, leaving one daughter there sick, and another to nurse her, but taking his wife and seven other children, and their lading with him. Full ten miles of unbroken forest lay be- tween Hale's and the next settlement. Deep and loose snow impeded their progress; they soon concluded that without more team, they could not get through the woods before night. So they sent William Dwelley (a lad of thirteen), forward on horseback, to raise more help. But darkness overtook him before he reached inhabitants, and he tied his horse to a tree, and camped out, as best he could, for the night. In the morning he found that he was only half a mile from a habitation. Making known his message, the people promptly started to aid the slow-coming party, and met them only about half way through the woods. They, too, had camped out through the night. With these recruits they pressed on, but were all day in getting to Dexter. Mr. Dwelley lived above the Spaulding place many years, and late in life removed to Oldtown. It was his yoke of yearling steers that got their heads.caught in a large iron pot sus- pended on the river bank for washing purposes, and raising it on their heads ran into the river and were drowned; af- "fording a literal instance of death in the pot. Mr. Dwelley served for a season in the Revolutionary army, but he never obtained a pension.
The settlement proceeded slowly. In 1808, it is said, there
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were but seven families in the township, and in 1810, but eleven then residing here. The census taken that year re- ports ninety-four persons as inhabitants, and that included all the single men. By the year 1810, Nathaniel Chamber- lain had built a framed house on the Dover village lot, and moved his wife into it. It stood upon the spot now occupied by S. W. Hall's office and stable. He was a carpenter and joiner, excelling in the former craft, and always employed to frame the more complicated structures. Nearly all the bridges on the river, familiarly called "ex-work," are speci- mens of his architecture. He was once called out to the State of Ohio, to construct one of these long bridges.
On one occasion, while engaged in repairing Knowlton's mill in Sangerville, he had a narrow escape from death. Heavy rains had made a great freshet. The flume, having a depth of eighteen feet of water, suddenly burst its bulkhead, only a few feet above where he was at work. He was swept directly into a large pile of slabs, through which his mighty struggles and the rushing flood carried him. Thence, over a dam, and down over a succession of falls, he was drifted by the swollen, angry stream, until he providentially struck a projecting point, and crawled out on to dry land. He was bruised, sprained and lamed all over, but was neither killed nor drowned, for every man's life is insured till his work is done. He was a man of good natural abilities, and of fair education for the times, and soon obtained a notoriety in that growing community. He was early appointed a Justice of the Peace for Hancock County,-the first man thus honored within our limits. He was quite a genius, skillful in argu- ment, a ready public speaker, though not especially oratori- cal. He was often called to manage cases before a Justice, and would pile his arguments as high and as strong as his op- ponent. One instance is not easily forgotten. A sheep was missing from an honest farmer's flock. He had a neighbor who had never learned the ten commandments. His prem- ises were searched, and enough of the lost sheep found to justify a prosecution for theft. When arraigned, he secured
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the services of an able lawyer to make his defence, while Mr. Chamberlain was appointed to act for the State. Though the testimony was clearly against the accused, his lawyer put forth all his ingenuity to secure his acquittal. The plaintiff's sheep had wandered away, and would soon come back all right. He had known cases where they had so got lost, and remained for a long time, sometimes all winter, and been found at length. So it undoubtedly would be in this case, and exonerate his client from all suspicion of the crime charged. Mr. Chamberlain drew his keen blade of sarcasm. over this part of the argument. He, too, had known sheep to stray away, and to remain a long time in their seclusion, but he declared emphatically, that he never had before known a sheep, when about to stray away, to cut off its own head, and throw it out on the dungheap, and to take off its own skin, and hang it up over another man's hay-mow.
He was a decided and active politician, and in this, too, he had some memorable contests. On one occasion a mass conven- tion assembled in Dover, not confined to one party. Hon. Gorham Parks came out in one of his brilliant speeches, set off in those musical tones, and pronounced with that impres- sive emphasis and mellow cadence, which he perfectly com- manded. Parks then stood at the head of Penobscot bar, was rising fast in the estimation of his party, and already was regarded as one of its lions. When he finished, and the ap- plause ceased, to the astonishment of many, up rose the rus- tic Mr. Chamberlain, to reply. In personal appearance, in diction, in manner of utterance, he was no match for the mellifluent Parks. But he took up point after point of that blazing speech, and so riddled it with answering logic, spiced with incisive sarcasm, that his sympathizers claimed that he had triumphantly demolished it. And so the gifted Parks learnt that he could not presume on awing every one into silence, or of passing unchallenged in any part of the county.
He was a man of honesty and integrity, and thoroughly reliable in fulfilling a contract. He was once sent to the
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Legislature, and held many plantation and town offices, and was quite a manager of municipal affairs. He lived upon the lot which he cleared up, till 1819, and then exchanged it with Col. J. Carpenter, and moved into Foxcroft. Looking back from the present standpoint, we wonder at his egregious mistake. A village was beginning to rise, and must stand largely on his domain. And the sale of building lots, already begun, would be a source of income. With all his opportu- nities for acccumulation, he never became wealthy, and even- tually died in Foxcroft, above eighty years of age.
Resuming the train of events, we find that, in 1811, Mr. Joel Doore came to town, and began on a lot near Paul Lambert's. Previous to this, John, Eleazer, and Seth Spaul- ding had sold out in Foxcroft, and purchased lots in Dover.
In August of 1811, Eli Towne and others petitioned Isaac Wheeler to call a legal meeting of the inhabitants of that vicinity, to regulate the taking of fish in the Piscataquis River, evidently moved thereto by the prodigality hitherto practiced. The meeting was duly held in the mill-yard in Foxcroft, Jeremiah Rolfe, moderator. It was voted to
choose three fish wardens, and Eli, Moses, and Abel Towne, three brothers, were chosen. Eli, taking this as an intended slur upon them, declined the office, and so did his brothers. They were all excused, and the meeting dissolved without choosing others, virtually sanctioning the lawless waste which had been outrageously perpetrated.
Paul Lambert had good framed buildings finished by 1812, and brought in his large family, having seven sons who eventually settled around him. In the summer of 1811, he raised his barn; then fifteen men only could be procured in the vicinity to do it. As large heavy timbers were then thought necessary in such frames, this was a small number for such a job.
Up to 1812, neither Foxcroft nor Dover had been organ- ized as town or plantation. But this year is memorable for these historic events. In February, 1812, an Act was passed, incorporating Number Five, Seventh Range, as Foxcroft;
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and August 3, 1812, the Dover township was organized as Plantation Number Three. It then had less than twenty voters. Seth Spaulding, William Mitchell, and Abel Towne were chosen assessors, John Shaw, clerk and collector of taxes. The next plantation meeting made some change in the officers. Nathaniel Chamberlain was chosen clerk, Ar- temas Parlin, one of the assessors, and William Mitchell, collector. They voted to raise money for schools, fifty dol- lars at first, afterward more, and also, for making and re- pairing highways. Mr. Vaughan made a proposal to the plantation, that he would pay the State tax, if the inhabi- tants would pay that of the county, and the plantation voted to accept it. They soon experienced trouble. The first col- lector appropriated the money to his own private use, and some failed to pay their taxes.
About this time, the seasons began to be cold and frosty, the harvests uncertain, and the population made but little increase. For ten years Dover remained as a plantation, longer than any other in the county. But they managed to secure most of the privileges of a town, and were not obliged to support their poor. In 1813, they cast nineteen votes, in 1820, only thirty-four.
In 1818, A. Moore, having sold his estate in Number Seven, came to Dover, and took up the Dover village lower lot, and built a grist-mill on the western side of the Great Falls.
Col. J. Carpenter moved on to the other village lot, the next year. He was elected to represent this district in the Legislature of 1822, then embracing Dexter, Garland, San- gerville, Guilford, and Dover plantation. About this time Col. Carpenter and Eben S. Greeley built a saw-mill on the Moor privilege, which was kept in operation till quite recent- ly, the Greeleys being its last owners. In 1824, he moved down river, and eventually died in Houlton, being killed by the falling of a tree, when eighty-three years of age.
In 1821, Thomas Davee put up a store and potash factory, and commenced trading here in 1822. He also built mills on the falls below Brown's mills, now unoccupied, and sawed
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boards and clapboards. In 1830, the dam was carried away, and never rebuilt, and the mills were taken down and con- verted to other uses.
About this time, Elder N. Robinson, a Baptist minister, came into town, and the plantation invited him, in public meeting, to remain. Afterward they voted to settle him, and give him the lot of land reserved for the first settled minister. He then brought in his family. But after the town was incorporated, in 1822, it put a negative on this con- tract. Again the subject came up, and the town voted to settle him, provided he would deed one equal half of said lot to the town, to be disposed of as it might determine. Elder Robinson assented to this, and settled on the poorer half of said lot, and eventually received thirty dollars of the town, to adjust this difference. The disposal of the other half re- mained for some time an open question. An attempt was made to give it to Elder William Frost, a Universalist preacher, who resided in town, but this was negatived. Again it was proposed to divide the income of it among the other religious societies in town, pro rata, excepting the Calvinist Baptist, which had received its share, and this se- cured a passage. Eventually this, and the ministerial fund, were appropriated to the support of public schools.
INCORPORATION. In 1822, the inhabitants of the planta- tion petitioned for an Act of incorporation, selecting Dover for the corporate name. An Act to that effect was passed, Jan. 19, 1822, Joshua Carpenter being named therein as the Justice who should issue a warrant to one of the inhabi- tants, to call the first town meeting. Abraham Moor was selected to give such notice, and on his call, a meeting was held at the dwelling house of Joseph Shepard, March 19, 1822, at which the town of Dover was duly inaugurated. Eli Towne was chosen town clerk, D. Lambert, E. S. Gree- ley and Eli Towne, selectmen. The young town displayed much vigor in locating new roads, establishing school dis- tricts, and in amending certain acts of its parental planta-
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tion. Its first great effort was to build a bridge across the river, above Moor's mill. In the fall of 1823, a town meet- ing was held, at which it was voted by only one majority, to build such a bridge within two years, and money was raised, and committees appointed, to procure materials and super- intend the work. To check-mate this, a meeting was called, to build another above Towne's mills, but this could not be carried. In the fall of 1824, another town meeting voted to raise seven hundred dollars to finish the bridge already be- gun at Moor's mills, and also to raise four hundred dollars to begin one at the lower falls. Before this time, in 1823, Eli Towne had built a dam on the falls, and put a saw- and grist-mill in operation. Soon after this, Dea. R. Barker started the hatting business, and then run a clapboard ma- chine, and opened a store also in the place. Elder F. Bart- lett also opened a store, and run a clapboard machine here, and mechanics began to settle in. So both bridges were found necessary, and after a little unavoidable delay both were completed. About this period there was a rapid increase in the population. In 1825, the town cast ninety votes, and three years later, one hundred and fifty-four votes.
As early as 1823, some one presumed that a village would grow up between these two water privileges. So Solomon Adams, a distinguished school teacher in Portland, was em- ployed to lot out, and make a plan of, Dover village, prospec- tively.
In the summer of 1825, the decided step was taken, which pushed it on to a more rapid growth. At that date Charles Vaughan decided to utilize the water power on the eastern side of the Great Falls, and commenced blasting out the canal, to convey the water to the forth-coming mill. The next season, the dam and canal were completed. In 1826, a grist-mill, with three runs of stones, with a cleanser for wheat, was then put in operation, and it soon drew an im- mense patronage. This was the first cleanser,-that essential part of a flouring mill,-ever operated in the county ; and then the smut and wild seed that befouled the wheat crop, was
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very injurious to the flour. Cleansed of these, a vastly im- proved article was obtained. Hence, wheat was brought thirty miles to this new mill.
Mr. Sewall Cochran, already known to Mr. Vaughan as an excellent miller, was employed by him to take charge of this. new mill, and this proved fortunate to both parties. Large . crops of wheat were then raised in this part of Maine. The toll taken at this mill eventually rose to two thousand dol- lars worth per annum. Flour was put up and sent to Ban- gor, Kenduskeag, and other places, to supply merchants in that trade, a single dealer sometimes buying one hundred and fifty barrels per year. Mr. Cochran once bought eight hundred bushels of wheat of Guy Carleton, a mill owner of Sangerville, to supply the demand for his flour. Then other mills, all through the county were running cleansers.
Mr. Cochran, after running the mill three years as an em- ploye, purchased one-third of it, and continued a part owner for more than forty years. As the grist-mill stood near the factory, when that was burnt, it went with it, but another soon arose upon its foundations, having four runs of stones, which is still known as the Dover Flouring Mill. In 1869, Mr. Cochran having been for forty-four years an hon- est, an accommodating, and a successful miller, sold his in- terest in the mill to the heirs of Hon. S. P. Brown, doffed his drab clothing, and retired from active business. He still resides in Dover, enjoying a "green old age," highly esteemed by his surviving acquaintances.
In 1827, Mr. Vaughan erected a carding and clothing mill on this canal, and employed S. P. Brown to operate it. In 1836, this mill was converted into a woolen factory, and Vaughan, Brown, and Sawyer formed a company to run it. This required an enlargement of the canal, and it was wid- ened and deepened to its present dimensions, making it one of the best privileges in the State. After three years, Mr. Sawyer sold his interest to Mr. Vaughan, and entered into trade, continuing in it still, in company with Mr. Gifford, his son-in-law. In 1839, Charles Vaughan died, and his son
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John became the mill owner. In March, 1840, the factory and grist-mill were laid in ashes. A generous and interested community assisted in replacing them, and Mr. Brown run the factory with varied success, until the breaking out of the Great Rebellion. During that struggle, this business paid unusual profits, and becoming wealthy, he bought out Vaughan's interest in it. In the year 1857, a great winter freshet swept away the dam, and injured the canal and the building, but these were repaired in a more substantial man- ner. In 1867, Mr. Brown built a large brick mill, on a safer spot, containing six sets of machinery, and giving employ- ment to seventy-five operatives. Just before Mr. Brown had abandoned the old mill, and started up the new one, he was taken sick and died, greatly lamented. He had ever been an honorable and reliable business man, had held a seat in the Sen- ate of Maine, and was highly esteemed for his Christian integ- rity. S. O. Brown & Co., took the business, and still continue it, now owning the flouring mill and the entire water privilege. The factory is now furnished throughout with the most im- proved machinery fixtures, and heating arrangements.
Piscataquis County was incorporated in 1838, and Dover was made the shire town. This gave a new impulse to the growth of the village. Stores, mechanic shops, hotels, meeting-houses and dwellings were added to the existing number, with unprecedented rapidity. In dimensions, and style of architecture, too, there was a marked change. The Court- house, containing rooms for the Courts and the County offices, was erected in 1844, by T. H. Chamberlain, at a cost of two thousand nine hundred dollars, the inside finishing not in- cluded,-a small sum it would seem to us of the present day,- and the whole expense reached but three thousand seven hundred dollars.
Soon after this county was incorporated, George V. Edes removed to Dover, and started a weekly newspaper,-The Piscataquis Herald. Its name was soon changed to Piscata- quis Farmer, and in 1848, to Piscataquis Observer, which it. still retains. Mr. Edes continued to edit and publish it to the time of his death, and now it is continued by his young- 5
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est son, Samuel D., and a partner, F. Barrows. Mr. George V. Edes was connected with the press from his boyhood, and at the time of his death, was the oldest printer in the State. He assisted in printing the Herald of Liberty, in Augusta, in 1810; in 1815, set the first types in Penobscot County, to print the Bangor Register,-a paper known to some of us in our boyhood; was then in Hallowell, one year, 1822, print- ing the American Advocate ; then he removed to Norridge- wock, and in company with Mr. Copeland, established the Somerset Journal. After editing and publishing this, fifteen years, he came to Dover. He was candid, quiet and cool in his temperament, ever generous toward all men, of marked reliability, and without an enemy in the world. He married Susan Witherill, in 1825, and only a few weeks before his death, they observed their golden wedding. He was then able to go to his office, but his health soon failed, and he died Nov. 26, 1875, aged seventy-eight years, deeply lament- ed by all who knew him.
The completion of the Bangor & Piscataquis Railroad to Dover, in 1869, marked another era in the growth and pros- perity of this village. The town of Dover took $35,000 worth of stock in it, and individuals, some $10,000 more, to push the enterprise through. It has not yet proved lucrative to its stockholders, but it gave a new impulse to the business of the place, and largely increased the valuation of the town, while its terminus was here. In December, 1871, it was extended to Guilford, consequently the business to and from the upper towns centered there, and fell off here. Still Do- ver and Foxcroft is a business center for the county, and does a large amount of mercantile, mechanical, and profes- sional business.
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