USA > Maine > Oxford County > Rumford > History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, from its first settlement in 1779, to the present time > Part 11
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of their inheritance rightfully or not, matters little now. It may be remarked here, that one of the captives taken by the Indians at York, was Joseph Bean or Bane. He was with them several years, and learned their language. After his release his services were in great demand, as an interpreter, at Councils with the Indians. He was a relative of Josiah Bean, an early settler of Bethel, two of whose daughters married and lived in Rumford.
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CHAPTER XVI.
HOW THE FIRST SETTLERS LIVED.
T is impossible for any person without some experience in the same school, to form an adequate conception of the privations and hardships incident to a new settlement in this high northern latitude. The first settlers of Rumford were not accustomed to luxury in the homes they left behind, for they had little wealth, nor were they inured to privations for they had lived where labor and prudence had kept the wolf from the door. They were plain people who were accustomed to getting their living by the labor of their hands, and they were not ashamed of their occupation. But when they made up their minds to leave their old homes in New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts, homes which their fathers had reared under circumstances very similar to those in which they themselves were to be placed, and come into this eastern wilderness and make homes for themselves and their posterity, they had need of strong hands and stout hearts to carry their purposes into effect. The usual practice at the period when Rumford was settled, was to take the family and the few household goods to the nearest settlement where they could find temporary accommodations, leave the wife and the younger children there, while the father with his older sons went through the woods to the site of the proposed clearing, felled trees and burned them, erected a log house and made other prepa- rations for receiving the family. For the settlers in Bethel, Frye- burg was the rallying point the same as Standish had previously been for Fryeburg. For Rumford, Paris and Dixfield, the usual stopping place was New Gloucester, while for Turner and Liver- more, it was North Yarmouth or Freeport.
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Jonathan Keyes, the first settler in Rumford, left his family in New Gloucester and fled to that place when the Indians threatened the Androscoggin settlements. Other settlers made this their rally- ing point until the settlement became large enough to accommodate temporarily, the new comers. The first log houses were of the simplest kind. Straight trees were felled of the right size, and when cut to the right length they were notched at the ends and laid one upon another, and in this way the four walls were laid up. Places were cut out for small windows and a door. The interstices between the logs were filled with clay or mud, which in a short time would harden and render the walls impervious to cold. Rafters were then put up and the roof covered with bark. Various kinds of bark were used for this purpose, but that of the canoe birch was considered the best. The bark of whatever kind had to be peeled when new wood first began to form, usually early in June, when it could easily be taken off. Nails were then expensive, as it was be- fore the days of cut nails, and all had to be hammered out by hand ; the bark was generally placed upon the roof and kept in place by weights of either stone or timber. Oiled paper was used for win- dows, for there was no glass. The naked earth formed the floor of the cabin, and under constant use, this soon became almost as hard as pavement. The fire was built upon the ground and the smoke found its way out through a hole in the roof. For cooking purpose, two forked sapplings were eut and put up, one on each side of the fire, a cross piece put on and to this were suspended pots and ket- tles by means of hooks and trammels. All the work was carried on in this one room, and at night the entire family retired to rest here. A similar log building was put up for the little stoek which the first settlers brought along with them. It was some years after the first settlers came before the mills on Concord river were completed, and until then there could be no boards for floors or for other building purposes. Some of the more enterprising laid floors of hewn tim- ber, and re-covered the roofs of their houses with long shingles rifted from the clear white pine and shared by hand, while others lived upon the earthen floors until they could get a supply of sawed boards.
The first chimneys were built partly of stone and partly of wood. The fireplace was made of stone and the chimney up to the chamber floor. Then small pieces of wood laid "cob-house" fashion were used to complete it, and the inside of this, as fast as it was laid, was
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covered with clay mortar. There were no ovens, and bread was baked in a spider before the fire. Hard wood coals were placed under the spider to bake the bottom of the bread, and then the spider was turned up in front of the fire to bake the top. Corn and rye bread were baked in this way, and flour when it could be had, but flour was very scarce. When the Dutch oven came it was a great improvement. The common tin baker followed, and then the brick oven which was regarded as perfection. In the early days, food was not cooked for several days in advance as it now is, but every meal was newly prepared and rarely was anything left over. The food was of the plainest character, but labor and a good appe- tite gave it a relish which the costliest viands fail to have under different circumstances. The family retired early and were astir with the birds in summer and long before daylight in winter. Sheep were kept as soon as possible, and flax was an essential crop in the system of agriculture of the early settlers. Flax was dressed, carded, spun and woven at home, the product being used for sum- mer clothing for both sexes, for towels and table linen. Wool also was carded, spun and woven by the thrifty housewife and her daughters, and little save homespun clothing was worn in the settle- ment. Cotton was but little worn in those days and was too expen- sive for the family of the pioneer settler. Calico, called India cot- ton, was worth seventy-five cents per yard, and plain cotton cloth fifty cents. They wore better than prints and sheetings do in our day.
The early settlers were neighborly and kind to each other. In case of sickness of the head of a family, all the neighbors turned out and gave his work a lift, and took care that his family did not suffer for fuel. The mode of traveling for some years, was either on foot or on horse-back. Women thought little or nothing of traveling miles through the woods to visit a neighbor, and men often made the journey to Paris, Turner, New Gloucester and even to Portland, on foot. The first settlers went to Bethel Hill to get their corn and rye ground, and when this mill was out of repair, as was frequently the case, they were obliged to go to Paris. There was no miller at Twitchell's mill in Bethel ; when a person came to mill he hoisted the gate, ground his grist, deposited the toll for the use of the mill, and taking the balance went his way, and there was no one about to molest nor make him afraid. Hay was hauled in on sleds the same as those used in winter. Carts were not introduced
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for sometime. The first wagon in town, though rudely constructed, created a sensation. The body rested on the axles and was nearly as large as a modern cart body. The first improvement was a thor- oughbrace made of leather, and this was a great advance ; steel springs with light and neat body and wheels were a much later pro- duction. In those days children were obedient to their parents, and it was considered the proper thing for children to assist their par- ents until they became of lawful age to act for themselves. All this is now changed, and parents are expected to give their children such a start in life as shall obviate the necessity of hard work ; this is no improvement.
The early settlers were descendants of the Puritans and Pilgrims, and had been taught to respect the Sabbath and its institutions. The masses, as soon as meetings were established, attended them, none but the sick and those having the care of them, ever remaining away from the Sabbath service. Mothers carried their babes in their arms, and the aged were always there, the two extremes thus meeting at the house of worship. The early meetings were held at private houses in winter and in barns or groves in summer. The school-houses were much utilized for Sunday meetings and then the churches came. At meeting, strict attention was paid to the words of the preacher, and sleeping in church was considered a great mis- demeanor. The utmost decorum was observed in going to and from church, and nothing was allowed to be said or done either in church or at home that was incompatible with the sacred day and its proper observances. They may have carried their puritanical notions somewhat too far, but certainly not as far as modern practices are carried in the opposite direction. It will be a sorry time, if it ever comes, when the puritan Sabbath shall be abolished or materially modified.
When young men went to work out by the month, eight dollars per month for the six busiest months in the season, was considered good wages, and not more than ten dollars was ever paid for an extra hand. The labor day was a long one, from four o'clock in the morning until dark. Every sick day and every holiday was de- ducted at the time of settlement. It was stipulated at the beginning that no money should be required. The legal tender in those days was the product of the farm. Girls who went out to service re- ceived from fifty to seventy-five cents per week. If their work was spinning wool, the "stint" or day's work was five skeins of warp or
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six of filling. They would generally do this and gain a little time to work for themselves, but with India cotton at fifty to seventy-five cents a yard, it took several weeks' work to secure a calico dress, though it required much less for a dress then than it does now.
Farming utensils in the days of the early settlers of Rumford, were rude and bungling, and labor saving machines were unknown. Plows were made of wood, covered with strips of iron, had straight handles and were very unwieldy. Hoes, shovels and pitchforks were of iron and three times as heavy as they need to have been. Scythe snaths were nearly straight and the scythe bore little resem- blance to the elegant implement of to-day, although it cost many times more. The horse-hoe and rake, the mowing machine and harvester, were all unknown and undreamed of, and even the handy grain cradle had not then come. The sickle was the implement used for cutting the grain, and back-aching work it was. Yet un- der all these disadvantages, large areas were cultivated and good crops raised. It required long days of hard labor to accomplish this, but the fathers were equal to the emergency. The carly set- tlers were not free from the superstitions peculiar to their day and generation. They observed the signs of the zodiac, and regulated the planting of the seed, the harvesting of their crops, and the kill- ing of domestic animals for food by what the almanac said of the position of the "sign." Many of them believed in hobgoblins, in witches, and demonology generally. Friday with them was an un- lucky day in which to engage in any new business or enterprise, and it made some persons exceedingly unhappy to get the first sight of the new moon over their left shoulder. Persons could be found who claimed the power of charming wounds, thereby easing pain and hastening the healing process. In fact there was scarcely any end to their fancies and foibles, and traces of these superstitions are still found in some localities.
But the early settlers of Rumford were grand people in their way. They were heroes and heroines. They did not make war on their kind and subdue cities, but they subdued the howling wilderness and caused it to bud and blossom as the rose. By their hardships and privations, by their energy and perseverance, they paved the way and made it easy, for the peace and plenty which their poster- ity enjoys. They not only left a goodly heritage in cultivated and productive lands, but that unparalleled patriotism which showed itself in the late war for the perpetuity of the union, and which sent to
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the front nearly half of the legal voters of the town, was but the elaboration of that spirit which ineited the fathers to take up arms in the war for independence ; it was a determination to preserve what the fathers achieved, the perpetual union of these States. The fathers have passed away. The Abbots, the Ackleys, the Adamses, the Farnums, the Martins, the Howes, the Virgins, the Colbys, the Lufkins, the Kimballs, the Silvers, the Keyeses, the Rolfes, the Eatons, the Moors, the Dolloffs, the Dolleys, the Bart- letts, the Morses, the Richardsons and scores of others who came to this town when it was a wilderness and who aided in making it what it now is, have long since mingled with the soil upon which they trod, and few, very few of their sons or daughters survive. But their memory lives, and let it live, and ever remain green and fragrant, and let their achievements be repeated to their children's children through succeeding generations, and if this volume shall in any degree contribute to that end, its mission will not have been in vain.
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CHAPTER XVII.
POST-RIDERS AND POST OFFICES.
N 1815, the first Post Office in Rumford was established, and until there was a Post Office, mail carriers were, of course, unnecessary. A Post Office was established in South Paris in 1801, and in Norway Village the same year. One had been established in Waterford the year previous, and in Fryeburg in 1798, and for many years these offices supplied all the back towns in the county. There were comparatively few papers printed then, and in Maine no dailies ; postage and stationery were expensive, money very scarce, and very few letters were written or received. What a con- trast in this regard, between 1800 and 1890! Now a daily mail from Boston is supplied to nearly all the interior towns of the State, and on all the lines of railway two or more mails daily. In Rum- ford, where seventy-five years ago scarcely half a dozen weekly papers were taken, and a letter was seldom seen, large pouches are now required to convey the numerous papers and periodicals and the scores of letters daily received and sent out by the people. What would a citizen of Rumford say to-day, if he had to go nearly twenty-five miles to the nearest Post Office, but sudh was the case at the beginning of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, and prior to one thousand eight hundred and one, the nearest offices
were at Fryeburg and New Gloucester. When the first office at the Point was opened in 1815, the mail was brought through on horse- back. The Post-rider came from Portland by way of Baldwin, and after distributing the mails in western Oxford, on Monday, he would come by way of Norway to Paris through Woodstock to Rumford. The mail was supposed to arrive here once a week, but there were many lapses and failures to do so owing to severe storms, tlie bad condition of the roads, and other, and sometimes trivial, causes. About the year 1812, a carriage was put on the route between Portland and Paris, and in 1820, a four horse coach was needed and put upon the route. After a few years, as offices were
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established, the route was extended to Andover, and down the river to Dixfield and Peru.
The first Post Office was established at Dixfield in 1817, with John Marble, Jr., as Postmaster; at Andover in 1824, with Syl- vanus Poor as Postmaster; at Mexico in 1829, with Isaac Gleason as Postmaster; in Hanover in 1850, with Phineas H. Howe as Postmaster ; in Peru in 1833, with Hezekiah Walker as Postmaster ; at North Bethel (Bean's Corner) in 1831, with Phineas Frost as Postmaster; in Newry in 1828, with John Kilgore as Postmaster. The first Post Office in this town was near Rumford Point, which was then the principal business center. It continued to be kept here until 1849, when it was moved across the river to Rumford Corner. The following year an office was established called Rumford Point, with Otis C. Bolster as Postmaster. There are now five Post Offices in town, and the date of their establishment, with the names and date of appointment of the earlier Postmasters, are given below :
RUMFORD. Nathan Adams, Jr., Jan. 12, 1815: Stephen G. Stevens, Mar. 23, 1830: Moses F. Kimball, Feb. 24, 1831 ; Otis C. Bolster, July 23, 1841 ; Lyman Rawson, July 29, 1845 ; Edward Stevens, June 9, 1849 : Timothy Walker, June 6, 1853: William J. Hayden, Dec. 24, 1856 ; Peter C. Virgin, May 8, 1861 : Elipha- let H. Hutchins, April 5, 1870. Postmasters since appointed : Fred A. Barker, Otis Howe and John H. Wardwell.
RUMFORD POINT. Otis C. Bolster, June 20, 1850: Warren Mansur, Apr. 6, 1855 ; Charles A. Kimball, Oct. 4, 1862. Post- masters since : Charles W. Kimball, HI. Eloise Abbot.
RUMFORD CENTER. Joshua Graham, Ang. 1, 1849; Patrick Hoyt, Apr. 6, 1853 ; James M. Dolloff, July 31, 1854 ; Francis A. Bacon, July 6, 1861 ; Betsey Eaton, Nov. 8, 1866 ; Henry A. Small, June 17, 1867 ; Nathan S. Farnham, Mar. 31, 1881. Ap- pointed since : Ronello C. Dolloff.
EAST RUMFORD. William Wheeler, Jan. 31, 1823 ; Alvan Bol- ster, Feb. 12. 1825, Dennison S. Marble, Apr. 5, 1857 ; Clarendon D. Marble, Nov. 16, 1859 : Nathan Abbot, Oct. 23, 1860 ; Phebe S. Mitchell, Dec. 17, 1863 : Augustus J. Knight, June 20, 1864 ; Henry S. Hall, Sept. 21, 1868; Wilson Thomas, Oct. 26, 1868 ; Charles E. Virgin, Apr. 26, 1871 : Charles F. Wheeler, June 3, 1872: Wilson Thomas, July 30, 1873 ; Ebenezer Virgin, 2d, JJan. 24, 1876 ; Floretta L. Virgin, Dec. 5, 1877 ; Daniel F. Putnam, Sept. 11, 1879. Since appointed : Wilson Thomas.
NORTH RUMFORD. Simeon F. Frost, Jime 5, 1868 ; Thomas L. Smith, Apr. 22, 1870 ; Frank E. Hoyt, July 11, 1872.
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
The first mail-carrier or post-rider to bring the mails into Oxford county was Jacob Howe, a native of Ipswich, Mass. He com- menced in 1799, and for two years his route was from Portland to Bridgton. Then he extended it to Norway and Paris, and in 1802, he commenced going weekly rounds, starting from Portland and passing through Gorham, Raymond, Standish, etc., to Bridgton and Waterford, and returning by way of Norway, Paris, Hebron, Poland, New Gloucester and North Yarmouth. Mr. Howe was succeeded by Seba Smith of Bridgton, and he by William, son of General Benjamin Sawin of Waterford. Joshua Pool of Norway was also an early post-rider. James Longley of Waterford, was the first to run a stage direct from Paris to Portland, and return by the same route. He was succeeded by John B. Stowell, and he by Grosvenor G. Waterhouse. When Mr. Waterhouse became pro- prietor of the route, he run a daily stage from Portland to Paris, where he connected with two tri-weeklies, one for Lancaster, N. H., by way of Bethel, and the other for Rumford, Andover and Dix- field.
The early post-riders went on horseback, having their mail pouch strapped on behind the saddle. They also carried mail matter in their pockets and in their hats, which they kindly distributed along their route. They were not obliged to do this, but it was a great convenience to the scattering settlers in a new country, where the Post Offices were far distant. The post-rider generally carried a tin horn, and a blast from it would warn the householders of his approach so that he would be delayed as little as possible. When people lived off from the route, a little box fastened to a post where their road turned off, became the depository of their letters and papers. The post-rider was well known to every man, woman and child along his route, and his arrival and departure were the chief incidents of the week. When a tri-weekly mail between Portland and Rumford was established, it seemed as though the ne plus ultra in mail arrangements had been reached, and the people along the route felt themselves highly favored. The principal drivers at this time were Mr. Waterhouse himself, Oren Hobbs, William Gallison and Addison A. Latham. From Rumford. to Dixfield, and also to Andover, extra drivers were employed. .
The building of the Atlantic and Saint Lawrence railroad through Oxford county in 1850 and 1851, wrought a great change in staging and mail facilities. Bryant's Pond station on this road was opened
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
in 1851, and since that time a daily stage to Rumford, Andover and Dixfield, has furnished the towns on its route with a daily mail. The old through drivers of stage coaches, Waterhouse, Latham, Hobbs and Gallison, all became conductors on the railroad, and have long since been dead. Some of the drivers on the new route between Bryant's Pond and Rumford and beyond, have been James W. Clark, James Dingley, Stephen Seavey, Edmund M. Hobbs, Joseph Tuttle, John F. Wright, Henry Abbot, Azel Tuttle and John Wood- man. The early post-riders from Paris to Rumford and Andover, were hired by the contractors between Portland and Paris, and their names have not come down to us. Among the early carriers down the river was Grosvenor Farwell, who rode on horseback and deliv- ered the mail to the settlers along the route. But all such primitive methods have long since passed away, and are remembered only by a few aged people. In newly settled regions, remote from railroad facilities, the same thing is now going on, and in our extended country it will be a long time ere the log-house and the post-rider will be everywhere numbered with the things of the past.
CHAPTER XVIII.
RUMFORD SURNAMES AND THEIR ORIGIN.
URNAMES are of comparatively recent origin, and were only adopted when they became necessary to distinguish families as well as individuals. The adoption of Hebrew names, such as David, Moses, Joshua, etc., which followed the spread of Chris- tianity, rendered these naines so common that it became necessary to have some other name to distinguish persons, and at first and for some time soubriquets or nicknames were used for this purpose. Surnames began to be used in France in the tenth century, and in England immediately after the Norman conquest, and some say a little before. Surnames are derived from objects in nature, from color, quality, professions or occupations, from the seasons and other subdivisions of time, from arms, costumes, and there are many the origin of which cannot now be given, though there were doubtless good and sufficient reasons at the time of their adoption. The prevailing names in Rumford are the same as those in other towns in the county, though there are a few exceptions. A list of Rumford surnames, with the origin of such as are known, is given below.
ABBOT, the head or chief of an abbey.
ADAMS, same as Adamson ; son of Adam.
ACKLEY, from ack, oak, and leigh, land ; oakland.
AUSTIN, a contraction of Augustine ; great ; renowned.
ANDREWS, son of Andrew.
ARNOLD (German), faithful to his honor.
BISBEE, originally BESBEDGE, derivation not known. BARTLETT, little Bart.
BLAKE, a corruption of Ap Lake ; son of the lake.
BERRY, from Berri, a province in France.
BRAGG, eloquent ; also, accomplished ; brave.
BOLSTER, an intrenchment ; also, a place in Wales.
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
BAXTER (Anglo-Saxon), bagster, a baker.
BUNKER (Gælic), a strong foundation.
BLACK, color. BROWN, color.
BLANCHARD, or BLANCHER, a bleacher.
BAKER, a trade ; a baker.
BARKER, same as Tanner ; a tanner.
BURKE, a corruption of Burgs ; a fort or castle (Norman).
BOSWORTH (Galic), bosch, a wood, and worth, a place or farm. BRACKET, a bracket.
BEAN, meaning obvious.
BRYANT, dignity, honor.
BOWKER, a Swedish name.
BUCK, armorial bearings.
BROCK (Saxon), a badger.
BODWELL (Cor. Br.), bod, a house ; house by the well or spring.
COBURN, a high hill. CURTIS, courteous.
CUSHIMAN.
COBB, meaning obvious ; also, a harbor.
CROCKETT (Danish), crooked, bowed or bent.
CHILD, a child.
CARTER, name of a trade.
CHAMBERLAIN, a chamberlain.
CHAPMAN, a trader.
CLEMENT (Latin), mild, gentle.
COLBY, local ; a town in Denmark.
CALDWELL, Colwold; wood of hazels.
CHEW.
CHASE, obviously, the "chase."
CHANDLER, originally a maker and seller of candles.
DOOR, a door. DALLOFF, or DOLHOOF. DELANO (French), De la Noye. DOLLY, same as Doyle ; D'Oily, a place in France. DURGIN (Gælie), duirche, dark ; hence swarthy. DWINAL. DOUGLASS (Gælic), the dark, green river.
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
DUNLEY, from dun, a castle, and leigh, a pasture. DAVIS, son of David. DRAKE (Gælic), a drake. DUNN, a parish in Scotland. DEARBORN, well born. DUSTIN (Welsh), steward of a feast.
ELLIOT (Welsh), Heliot, a huntsman. ELLIS, contracted from Elias. EATON, ea, water, and ton, a town. EASTMAN, an eastern man. EVANS, the Welsh for John ; same as Johns. ETHRIDGE (Saxon), a range of high hills. ELKINS, little Eli, or son of Eli.
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