USA > Maine > Piscataquis County > History of Piscataquis County, Maine : from its earliest settlement to 1880 > Part 5
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The farm upon which the upper portion of the village is built, passed from Col. J. Carpenter to J. B. Everett, and from him to Hon. J. G. Mayo, in 1844, who possessed it till his recent death,-a gem among the farms on the river. He erected large and expensive buildings upon one of its village lots, and occupied them till recently, but latterly he resided in Foxcroft, where his factory and foundry are, and where he
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DOVER.
had erected a still more magnificent dwelling. But he owned a large amount of real estate in Dover at his decease. The building of the different meeting-houses will be noticed in the history of the churches.
MERCHANTS. Several men have been in trade in Dover village, of whom no mention has been made. Among whom, near the Great Falls, Hon. T. Davee and A. S. Patten (with whom C. Blanchard was a silent partner), J. L. Phil- brick, D. Bryant, G. W. Sawyer, C. E. Kimball, C. H. B. Woodbury, and B. C. Lowell are prominent. Near Foxcroft bridge, trade was commenced more than forty years ago, and was continued by different persons. A. L. Ober, J. W. Loud, E. D. Wade, E. Coburn, are among the more recent.
HOTELS. E. R. Favor opened a small hotel in 1827; but in 1832 purchased the house of T. Davee, and moved into that. This house was destroyed by fire in 1834, but was soon re- placed, and is continued as a public house to the present time. Maj. I. Blethen built the Blethen House in 1845, and in 1869 the American House was erected by Harvey Greeley, only a part of which was ever occupied as a public house.
LAWYERS. C. P. Chandler, J. B. Everett, W. Blake, A. M. Robinson, H. G. O. Morrison, J. S. Wiley, J. Rice, S. R. Hall, C. A. Everett, James Rowell, and J. B. Peakes have practiced law in Dover.
PHYSICIANS. Drs. Hiram Canon, Mr. Jacobs (Thomp- sonian), J. Smith, Benjamin Johnson, E. A. Thompson, J. B. Cochran, and S. W. Elliott (Homeopathic), have been in the medical practice here, the last three still continuing in it.
Hon. Thomas S. Pullen, after leaving Monson and resid- ing a few years in Guilford, removed to Dover. Here he justly merited the respect and confidence of his fellow citi- zens, and was elected to several State and County offices. He died in 1865, while Judge of Probate, leaving the treas- ure of a good name, as well as a good estate, to his family. His oldest son, Stanley T. Pullen, has long been editor-in- chief of the Maine State Press, and Portland Daily Press, and twice has had a seat in the Legislature. Two younger sons are well educated, and are now in Colorado.
CHAPTER VIII.
SEBEC.
SEBEC was originally Number Four, Seventh Range, the eastern of the Bowdoin College townships. Its area is 22,228 acres. Its soil is fair, with some fine intervals, and many good upland farms.
SALE. It was lotted in 1802 by Moses Hodsdon, and a portion sold about that time, but the name of the purchaser is now unknown.
In May, 1803, the Treasurer of the College deeded sixteen thousand acres to Richard Pike of Newburyport, embracing all, not already sold, and not reserved for public uses. He paid about seventy cents per acre. In 1804, Mr. Pike sold one-sixteenth of this to Capt. Benjamin Wyatt, and soon af- ter, David and Charles Coffin, Mary Pike and Phillip Coombs bought equal shares, and became proprietors. For a while these proprietors held, and sold out, their land in common, but eventually had the unsold lots divided among them by legally appointed commissioners. Only a few lots are now non-residents.
MILL PRIVILEGES AND MILLS. At the outlet of Sebec Lake there is a fall of eighteen feet, in a short distance, mak- ing an excellent mill privilege. Its supply of water is un- failing, freshets are not felt, and water-wheels are seldom troubled by ice. On this fall the first mills in the county were built, and around it Sebec village clusters.
In 1804, Samuel Kimball, Mark Trafton and others here built a dam, and put up a mill, the first framed building raised in the county. Roger Chase of Carratunk, built the gearing, and put a saw- and grist-mill in operation. In
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these, the first boards were sawed, and the first grain ground in the county. In April, 1805, Kimball and Trafton, each, sold one-eighth of the mill, dam, and land connected, to Moses Greenleaf. He was then trading in Bangor, but in- tending to settle in the Williamsburg township, and as rafts could be run out from this mill to tide water, he early se- cured an interest in it. By the account book of Stephen Snow of Milo, we are assured that this grist-mill was running in the summer of 1806, probably earlier.
FIRST SETTLERS. Capt. Ezekiel Chase was the first to clear an opening, and to bring in a family. He had been a Revo- lutionary soldier, loved to roam the forest, and had become a successful hunter. He once took four hundred dollars worth of furs in a single hunt. He penetrated these forests, and explored these hills and vales in their primeval luxuri- ance. In 1802, he selected his lot on the bank of the river, near Sebec Depot, and felled his first opening. He bought his land of Vaughan and Merrick, as it lay in their township, although brought into Sebec by its act of incorporation. In 1803, he raised his first crops, cut and stacked meadow hay, built a log cabin, and in September moved his family, the second planted in the county. He came with teams, bring- ing his family and household effects on sleds, as the most convenient vehicle. He also drove in other farm stock, the first on the river. When they reached their new home, they found Benjamin Sargent and family there, who, on their way to Milo, were resting in their weariness. Henry B. Sargent and Ezekiel Chase jr., then five years old, both recollected that incident. The next summer, July 15, 1804, they had a child born, Charles Vaughan Chase, the first white child born in Sebec, or in the county. Capt. Chase purchased more land, and resided there till his death. He was a self- taught physician, skillful among the sick, using simple rem- edies which he learned while in the army. He became a pensioner, had commanded a company before his removal, and was prominent in the march to Bangor. In politics he was active, and was once chosen a Presidential elector by the Democrats.
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
Abel Chase, a brother, early settled in town, and raised up an enterprising family. Captains Joseph, Daniel and Abijah were his sons. Ezekiel Chase. jr. was a worthy citizen, and ever lived in town, departing, July, 1879, aged eighty years and six months.
In 1803, James Lyford, Mark Trafton and a Mr. Hill made openings in town, and these men camped together while clearing. James Lyford cleared the lot which his son John now occupies; Trafton, the M. G. Lyford farm ; and Mr. Hill, the Moulton place. Mr. Lyford moved his family to Bangor in the winter of 1804, and had a daughter born there on the fifth of April following. She is still surviving in Bowerbank.
Mark Trafton planted one of the earliest and largest or- chards in the county. Parts of it still remain on the Moses G. Lyford farm. Mr. Trafton, after "beating the bush" for a few years, moved to Bangor. He was a deputy sheriff, and afterward a military officer, finally General Trafton. He was the father of Hon. and Rev. Mark Trafton, an elo- quent and successful Methodist clergyman, and once a mem- ber of Congress. Gen. Trafton, after several years' absence, returned to his farm, and resided in town for a season, but eventually sold out and returned to Bangor.
Jona. Lyford, a brother of James, was another early set- tler. These Lyfords were natives of Canterbury, N. H. Jeremiah Moulton, from Exeter, N. H., was early here, and in 1822, his brother Ephraim came. In 1806, Mr. Johnson and others settled on the river, toward Milo, and about this time Peter Morrill began at Chase's Corner.
By 1812, N. R. Lowney came in. He was a leading man in town affairs, and was, in 1819, sent as delegate to the Con- vention for framing a State Constitution. He was a wealthy and esteemed citizen, but, in his old age, sunk into a state of despondency, and ended his life about 1850.
INCORPORATION. Sebec is the oldest incorporated town in the county. The Act was passed Feb. 27, 1812. By this, the Piscataquis River was made its southern boundary, annex- ing a small part of Dover and Atkinson to it, and leaving a smaller portion of Sebec to Atkinson. In 1810, it had one hun-
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dred and fifty-seven inhabitants, second only to Atkinson, of all in the county. John Whitney issued a warrant to James Lyford, to notify the meeting of organization. The same was held in his own dwelling-house, March 21, 1812, the act of incorporation accepted, town officers chosen, and this first town in the county stood upon its feet.
The minister's lot of land was voted to Elder Asa Burn- ham, a Free-will Baptist, who labored in town as long as he was able, and died here in 1852.
Bylie Lyford began on the Harriman place, and built a barn there. It was burnt when full of grain. He tlten sold to Mr. Silas Harriman, who abode upon it till his death, having accumulated an estate of $25,000.
Dr. Francis Boynton, a grandson of Gen. F. Blood, settled on the place still known as " Boynton's Point." Already an opening had been made upon it. He practiced medicine, and taught school, also vocal andinstrumental music. Some of the aged will remember hisred coat on the muster field, others, the sweet tones of his clarionet in religious meetings, and others, his thorough instructions in the rude school-room. In run- ning a raft of boards from Moor's mill to his farm below, he was, thrown from it, in passing the rips, and though a good swimmer, he sank before he reached the shore. This occurred, April 22, 1822, in the thirty-sixth year of his age.
In 1816, Ichabod Young put a fulling mill in operation at the village,-the first in the county,-and at a later date, a. carding machine,-the second in the county. He run them till 1822, when he was killed by the fall of a rearing horse. In 1820, N. Bradbury opened a store, near the present depot, the first opened in town, but in two or three years he re- moved his goods to Foxcroft.
At this date, Sebec had the largest population of any town in the county, four hundred and thirty-one. Business was increasing at the village. The pine timber upon the banks of Sebec Lake and its tributaries, some from Greenville and Elliottsville, was brought down and worked up there.
In the first State tax levied in this State, Sebec paid the
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
highest in the county, $60.38; Sangerville, $53.33; Atkin- son, $47.28; Foxcroft, $36.50; Parkman Plantation, $32.25; Dover Plantation, $31.59; Guilford, $29.81; Brownville Plantation, $29.10; and Williamsburg, $18.65.
Mr. Towle opened the first store in Sebec village, in 1821, and soon after Solomon Parsons became his partner. In 1823, J. Lamson sen. and son opened a second store, and several me- chanics came in. John and Nathaniel Bodwell succeeded Mr. Young, in 1823, and also started a hatter's shop. In 1830, Benjamin Gilman & Brother succeeded Towle & Par- sons, and soon after bought the mill of Morrison & Son, and did a large lumbering business. J. W. Jewett opened another store in 1832, and in 1833, Theo. Wyman united with him, and still continues it. In 1835, N. Bodwell sold his fulling mill to Joseph Cushing. The next year a Woolen Factory Company was incorporated, and a building completed, and two sets of machinery put in operation. Mr. Cushing run this for the next five years, then left it and went to Milo. This mill was kept running till it was burnt in 1856. Messrs. Edward and Richard Robinson were then running it. It proved a serious loss to its owners and operators, as they failed to obtain their insurance. But a larger building was soon erected, containing three sets of machinery, and this is still running.
LAWYERS. Several of this profession have been in prac- tice in town, some of whom. have become eminent. Henry Parsons was the first to open an office, but consumption soon marked him for the grave, and his place was left vacant. Hon. John Appleton, now Chief Justice of Maine, opened his first office, in Sebec village, in 1824. He was succeeded by his brother Moses, in 1833, who, after a few years, also removed to Bangor. Harvey Evans followed him, in 1835, and left in 1836. In 1838, Hon. A. M. Robinson opened an office in the village, and after six years removed to Chase's Corner, and after ten years, located at Dover. No one has succeeded him at Sebec since.
PHYSICIANS. Not ignoring Capt. Ezekiel Chase, nor Dr.
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SEBEC.
Francis Boynton so early removed by drowning, we men- tion Dr. David Shepherd, who commenced practice in Sebec village in 1825, and continued it until 1863. He then be- came Register of Deeds, and removed to Dover, but was soon taken sick and died in 1864. He was a successful physician, and highly esteemed as a citizen. He was once elected to the Senate of Maine, and held many important town offices. Others, before Dr. Shepherd, had attempted a settlement, and recently, Dr. A. T. Walker practiced there, and now L. C. Ford has succeeded him.
The Bangor & Piscataquis Railroad passes through the south part of Sebec, and the town aided it to the amount of $7,500. This town has a school fund of $1,667, and twelve school districts.
In 1852, Joseph Lamson, a leading business man of Sebec, visited.California, and made an extensive tour on the Pacific coast. Since his return he has put his observations into print, and recently brought out a neat volume, " Around Cape Horn," which instructs,and entertains its readers.
In the summer of 1879, the Woolen Factory, which had been lying still for three years, was started up by a new com- pany, and is turning out woolen blankets, with fair promise of success. A large business is also now done in tanning and dressing sheep-skins, by Charles Butler; and F. M. Ford now runs the lumber mills, and also manufactures pine and cedar tubs.
In 1870, Sebec had a valuation of $190,407.00, and a pop- ulation of nine hundred and sixty-four.
CHAPTER IX.
MILO.
THIS was township Number Three, Seventh Range, hav- ing an area of 21,920 acres.
It is watered by three beautiful rivers, the Piscataquis, Se- bec, and Pleasant, all sufficient for boats and rafts. It has two good mill privileges, one on Pleasant River, two miles below Brownville village, unoccupied, and another on Sebec River, at Trafton's Falls, now Milo village, with nine feet head, and fourteen feet fall, occupied with various mills. Mark Trafton, when running a raft over these falls, was thrown off and rescued with great difficulty,-hence they were so named. The soil is good generally, while upon these rivers, there is a broad extent of rich and beautiful intervals.
PROPRIETORS. Mr. Jonathan Hastings early purchased this township, and a Mr. Wells of Boston became his partner. They conveyed the greater part to the settlers, and finally sold out the remaining lots to the late Russell Kittredge.
It was first lotted into three hundred and twenty acre lots, by Park Holland of Bangor, and afterward, some of these were divided into one hundred acre lots by Andrew Strong of Corinth, and still later, the portion south of Piscataquis River, by P. P. Furber.
FIRST SETTLEMENT. A Mr. Snow of Belgrade, who afterward settled in Corinth, early roamed these forests as a hunter. He crossed these intervals, and was delighted with them as a promising agricultural tract. But as he had al- ready passed the meridian of life, he forbore to push so far into the wilderness, and battle with the hardships of a back
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MILO.
settlement. But he had two sons, then grown to manhood, Moses and Stephen, and they came, probably in 1801, and selected lots on Pleasant River, near the present bridge. Mr. Benjamin Sargent from Methuen, Mass., made a selec- tion on the Piscataquis River, near the ferry, at the same time. In the summer of 1802, Messrs. Snow felled their first openings on the lots already selected; so did Mr. Sar- gent on his lot, now the farm of Mr. Holbrook. Mr. Sar- gent, Bylie Lyford, and some other persons, perhaps, came to Bangor, and built a batteau, in which they brought up their provisions, spending six days in making the ascent of the Penobscot and Piscataquis Rivers. The uppermost settle- ment on the Penobscot was then at Sunkhaze, now Milford. . This was most probably in the summer of 1802, as Mr. Ly- ford did not move his family into Atkinson until the spring of 1804. The Snows were then single men, but Mr. Sargent had a family. He and his oldest son Theophilus spent the next spring and summer on his clearing, putting in seed and raising his first crop, camping out as was usual. The next August he returned to Methuen to visit his family and to bring his oldest son, who had before returned home, to aid him in harvesting his crop, in building a log-cabin, and in preparations for moving his family the next spring. But his wife insisted on removing then, knowing little of camp life so remote from the common conveniences of established neighborhoods, and of accessible markets. And move they did. They hastily broke up and made their way to Boston. Looking for a passage by water, they found a schooner, a Pe- nobscot Packet, then plying between Boston and Bangor. In this they took passage, but it was a " logy " sailor, the winds unfavorable, and the passage long and tedious. In about two weeks, Bangor was reached, articles indispensable to the simplest mode of life were selected to be taken with them, and the remainder stored for future removal. At this season of the year the rivers were too low for boat navigation, so two pack horses were hired to convey such as could not walk, and the necessary outfit, and with these heavily laden, they
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
commenced their thirty-five miles' journey to that lone clear- ing. They moved slowly and wearily on, finding rougher and muddier paths as they proceeded. The wife and mother on horseback, carried the youngest child, Nathan, in her arms, then three and a half years old (as my dates above make it). An occasional fall was unavoidable, and once both mother and child were dumped into a deep slough. A sym- pathizing settler on the way, with whom they had stopped over night, took his oxen and sled, and carried the weary company several miles, to rest both persons and horses. Northward of Charleston, the forest had not been broken, till they reached the Piscataquis River. Most of the streams were fordable, but across Alder Brook, the unladed horses were swum, the people crossing it upon a fallen tree, and carrying their baggage over. At length they stood upon the bank of the Piscataquis, opposite the opening of Capt. Eze- kiel Chase, in Sebec. With his log canoe they crossed to his cabin, then empty, and in this they lodged for the night. The next morning the eldest son started back to return the hired horses, but the family remained through that day, to take a little needed rest. Before it closed, Capt. Chase ar- rived with his family, and they spent the night together. As Eli Towne ever dated his family's arrival, May 8, 1803, and as the Chase family always admitted that Mr. Towne came before them, it seems to be conclusive that the Sar- gents mistook the year, in their statements made some years later, and that Chase and Sargent moved their families in September, 1803, and were the second and third families that moved into the county. Or they may give the date of Mr. Sargent's coming to fell his opening, not that of his removal.
The next morning Mr. Sargent borrowed Capt. Chase's canoe, and boated his family and their effects about five miles down the river, to his own camp, and then and there settled the first family in Milo. The next two months were full of hardship and suffering to these lone pioneers. An open camp was a frail shelter from the chilling blasts and the pitiless storms of autumn. The harvest was ripe and must
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MILO.
be secured before cold and snow overtook them. They had no teams to aid them, no cellar, no roofs nor barns to afford shelter, no boards to make either house or barn. Grain, therefore, must be stacked, corn placed in cribs built of round poles, and potatoes put into large holes dug in the ground, and covered over so as to exclude frost and snow. The cold of November overtook them before they had a log-cabin with tight walls and a rain-shedding roof, to house. them. For a year or so, their nearest grist-mill was at Ken- duskeag, twenty-five miles distant. In this family the first birth in Milo occurred. Alice Sargent, now Mrs. Alice Fisher of Cooksville, Wis., was born Dec. 28, 1804. This family act- ed an important part in the early organization of the planta- tion and town. Henry B. Sargent, mentioned above, de- parted this life in August, 1877, aged about eighty. But few of that name now remain in town.
Mr. Boobar was probably the next to bring in a family. He settled on a lot adjoining Mr. Sargent's, and is known to have had his family there in March, 1805. He afterward moved to Medford, and was an early settler there. His advent was of great value to the new settlements. His wife was skillful in cases of child-birth, and they also brought a hand-mill, in which corn and grain could be ground, after the manner of Bible lands in both past and present times.
The settlement increased slowly. In 1810, there were but thirty-four persons in the township. The Snows continued to clear land and raise wheat, which was produced in great abundance upon those fine intervals. They remained single for several years, Moses, marrying in 1811, and Stephen in 1813. This last event took place in Brownville, April 13, and the next day he brought his bride, by sleighing, to her new home. She is still living, but her husband died on the farm that he cleared up, in 1871.
The building of mills in Sebec and Brownville essentially aided the new settlers of Milo, as they could get their grain ground, and obtain boards for buildings. Dea. Lemuel Shep- ley was among the early settlers. He reared up a family
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HISTORY OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY.
here, but now they are all gone to other parts. The names of other early settlers cannot be accurately given.
But little is known of the progress of this settlement for several years. In 1820, it had a population of ninety-seven, an increase of sixty-three in ten years. In 1825, it had one hundred and nineteen, of school age, and it was then esti- mated that the entire population would be three hundred.
INCORPORATION. Previous to 1820, it was organized as Plantation Number Three, Seventh Range, and, Jan. 21, 1823, incorporated as Milo. Lemuel Shepley issued a warrant to Theophilus Sargent to call the meeting of organization. It was held March 3, 1823, and Luther Keene was chosen town clerk. There were then twenty-eight voters, none of whom now remain in town,-Mr. Elisha Johnson, the last one, dying in 1878, more than eighty years of age. About this date, Capt. Winborn A. Sweat built the dam across Sebec River, at Trafton's Falls, and erected the first saw- and grist- mill in town. A store had already been opened there by a Mr. Estis. He left, and was succeeded by Amos Davis.
There was from this time a steady increase of inhabitants in town. Mr. Thomas White, afterward a merchant in Ban- gor, put in a fulling-mill and carding-machine; mechanics settled in; and physicians and lawyers began to locate here. In 1829, Allen Monroe commenced trade in the village, and he or his son has continued it till the present time, with one or two suspensions. In 1831, Mr. Daniel Dennett came to Milo, purchased a part of the Snow farm, and he and Ste- phen Snow bought the saw- and grist-mill, and the unsold land originally belonging to the mill lot. From this time · the village had a steady growth. Mr. Dennett afterward moved into the village, and reared an enterprising family. Dea. William S. Dennett of Bangor, and Daniel Dennett jr. of Louisiana, are his sons. Daniel conducted and published a newspaper in Louisiana, for a season, and is still connected with the press. He also prepared and published a book upon the natural resources, climate, and prospects of his adopted State. The elder Mr. Dennett was a man of wealth and in-
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fluence, and died recently in Milo, at an advanced age. Col. Joseph Lee came to this place from Bucksport, and he was a prominent and highly esteemed citizen. Maj. P. P. Furber also dwelt here, known as a land survevor, a county officer and a Free-mason. He eventually moved out West.
In 1842, Joseph Cushing & Co., formerly of Sebec, built a woolen factory here, but in 1848, it was destroyed by fire, and not rebuilt. But Gifford & Co. erected one on the other side of the stream, and this is still running successfully. All the land reserved for public uses was sold and devoted to a school fund, amounting to $1300. High schools have been often taught at the village, both with and without State aid. Milo village has now become quite large and flourish- ing, having the greatest number of stores of any place in the county, except Foxcroft and Dover. It has also made com- mendable advances in its social, moral and religious state.
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