USA > Maine > Oxford County > Rumford > History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, from its first settlement in 1779, to the present time > Part 2
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
animal came quite near, threw down his bag of potatoes which stopped him a few moments, and afterwards threw off his coat for the same purpose, and with the same effect. After. satisfying his curiosity, the mammoth cat on each occasion, set up his fearful scream and followed on. Macomber's escape was marvelous, and the incident was talked over at the firesides of the settlers for many a day and year.
CHAPTER II.
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE PARENT TOWN.
THE parent town of Rumford, beautifully situated on the banks of the Merrimac, was Concord, in the State of New Hamp- shire, and from that town came many of the early settlers. A brief sketch of early Concord, is therefore essential to a clear compre- hension of the canses that led to the settlement of Rumford. The long controversy between the Masonian Proprietors of New Hamp- shire and the Government of the Massachusetts Bay, respecting the division line between the two Provinces, is recorded in history, and an epitome of this controversy is briefly as follows : The terms of the Massachusetts charter, granted in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-eight, and confirmed in one thousand six hun- dred and ninety-one, established the northern boundary of the Prov- ince, three miles north of the Merrimac river, and each and every part of it, obviously meaning, three miles beyond the river. It was then supposed that the general course of that river was from west to east, while, as a matter of fact now well known, at a point about thirty miles from the sea, it makes almost a right angle and from that point stretches almost due north. There was no mistake as to the meaning and intent of the grant in fixing this northern bound- ary, but when Massachusetts wished to find a pretext for taking possession of a large proportion of the grants to Gorges and Mason, a new interpretation was given to the language describing the boundary, and instead of a line three miles across the river at its mouth, a point was taken three miles north of its headwaters, and from that a line easterly to the sea. If this interpretation had been sustained, nearly the whole territory of New Hampshire would have gone to Massachusetts. The Masonian proprietors stoutly resisted
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
this eneroachment, and in the settled towns on the disputed terri- tory, there was constant trouble. Governor Belcher in a letter to the Lords of Trade in London, said : "the borderers on the lines, (if your Lordships will allow me so vulgar an expression), live like toads under a harrow, being run into jails, on the one side and the other, as often as they please to quarrel, such is the sad condition of his Majesty's subjects that live near the lines. They pull down one another's houses, often wound each other, and I fear it will end in bloodshed, unless his Majesty, in his goodness, gives some effectual order to have the bounds fixt." While this controversy was going on, the Massachusetts Bay government was annually making grants within the limits of the contested territory until no less than thirty-seven townships were granted.
Petitions for a grant from the territory on the Merrimac known as Pennacook were presented to the Massachusetts General Court, as early as one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine, and periodic- ally from that time to one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five. The petitions were mostly from Haverhill, Andover, Ipswich, Methuen and Salem. On the seventeenth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six, the general Court decided, "that it will be for the interest and advantage of this Province that part of the lands petitioned for be assigned to the petitioners for a township, and to contain seven miles square." The usual condi- tions were inserted in the grant. The township was surveyed in May of this year. Meetings of the proprietors were often held, sometimes in Andover and sometimes in Ipswich. The proprietors took active measures for carrying their purpose into effect. The first settler, Ebenezer Eastman, was located within the plantation in one thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven.
While these proprietors were thus vigorously bringing forward their plantation under the auspices of the government of the Massa- chusetts Bay, the government of New Hampshire, on May twen- tieth, one thousand seven hundred and twenty seven, made a grant to ,Jonathan Wiggin and one hundred and six others, of a traet of land covering the greater part of the grant just made by Massachu- setts, and including also parts of the present towns of Pembroke and Hopkinton. The settlers of Pennacook were not at first molested by the New Hampshire grantees, and the plantation grew and pros- pered. The first settled minister was Rev. Timothy Walker of Woburn, who was the great grandfather of Hon. Timothy Walker,
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
late of Rumford. Among the other early settlers, were Virgins, Elliots, Abbots, Farnums, Colbys, Martins, Hutchins, Wheelers, Rolfes and Halls, all of whom have decendants among the settlers of Rumford. In February, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three, by an act of the Great and General Court of the Mass- achusetts Bay, the plantation of Pennacook was incorporated into a town by the name of Rumford. The origin of the name is in doubt, but it is generally supposed that the town was named for a place in England, from which some of the early settlers or their ancestors came.
Meanwhile the contest between the two Provinces concerning the disputed boundary was sharply carried on, and after commissioners appointed for that purpose, had failed to come to a decision, the matter was referred directly to King George the second, whose royal decision promulgated on the 5th of March, 1740, was far better for New Hampshire than ever the Masonian proprietors claimed. It established a curved line, "following the course of the river Merrimac at the distance of three miles on the north side, be- ginning at the Atlantic ocean and ending at Pawtucket Falls (now Lowell), thence due west to His Majesty's other governments." This is the present line between the two States. By this decision, all the grants made north of this line by Massachusetts, were ren- dered null and void. Nearly forty towns were involved in the issue ; some of the grantees made terms with the Masonian proprie- tors, and remained upon their lands, while others abandoned them. The territory granted by New Hampshire in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven, to Wiggin and others, was nine miles square, and by the same authority, it was incorporated into a town by the name of Bow. As already stated, this grant embraced a large part of the town of Rumford, and soon after the boundary question was settled in favor of the New Hampshire claimants, legal steps were taken to test the rights of the rival claimants to the soil. A test case was made "by the proprietors of the common and undivided lands lying and being in the town of Bow," in an action commenced November fourteenth, one thousand seven hun- dred and fifty, against Deacon John Merrill. Many other suits were afterwards instituted, but the one against Merrill involved the principle on which all the cases were finally adjusted. The town of Rumford (Concord) voted to pay the cost in this case, and to meet these expenses, the proprietors from time to time, ordered the
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
sale of so much of the common and undivided lands as should be necessary for that purpose. In the autumn of one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three Rev. Timothy Walker sailed for England, and presented "to the King's most Excellent Council," a petition drawn up by himself in which the claims of Rumford were concisely set forth. Mr. Walker went in the capacity of agent of the pro- prietors of the town. A grant of one hundred pounds sterling was made by the General Court of Massachusetts, to defray Mr. Walk- er's expenses. Not much was accomplished by this visit to Eng- land, and it became necessary for Mr. Walker to go again. Mean- while, the government of New Hampshire took up the quarrel in behalf of Bow, and advanced one hundred pounds to defray ex- penses. Judgment had been rendered against the proprietors of Rumford in the courts of the Province, and at length, after long and anxious delay, December twenty-third, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two, Mr. Walker announced from London, that at the Court of Saint James, before King and Council, the judg- ment against the proprietors of Rumford had been reversed, and that the appellants were restored to what they had lost by means of the judgments rendered against them. Yet notwithstanding this favorable decision, the controversy had become so complicated, and involved so much interest and feeling, that it was not until the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy two, that the difficulty was finally settled. The troubles of the proprietors with regard to the validity of their titles to their homes, were now at an end. They had established their right to the soil, but instead of living under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, as they at first supposed was the case, they were declared to be in New Hampshire. On the twenty- fifth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five, an act was passed by the New Hampshire Legislature, "setting off a part of the town of Bow, together with some lands adjoining there- to with the inhabitants thereon," investing them with "such privi- ledges and immunities as towns in this Province have and do en- joy." To this new town was given the name of Concord, said to have been named in commemoration of the adjustment of their per- plexing and protracted difficulties. The bounds of Concord vary considerably from those of its predecessor, Rumford, the change resulting in two gores, long known as "Bow Gores," but which were finally annexed to Concord. As a compensation for their trouble and great expense in settling their status in Concord, the
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
first set of proprietors petitioned the General Court for a grant of eastern lands, the particulars of which are set forth in their petition which begins the next chapter.
CHAPTER III.
PAPERS RELATING TO THE GRANT .- PETITION OF COL. TIMOTHY WALKER AND ASSOCIATES.
To His Excellency, THOS. HUTCHINSON, EsQ., Capt. General and Governor of the Province of the Mass. Bay :
To the Honorable His Majesty's Council and House of Represen- tatives of said Province in General Court assembled, Jan. ye 26, 1774. The petition of Timothy Walker Jr., on behalf of himself and associates, hereby, sheweth that they and their associates in the year 1725 for a valuable consideration, purchased a Township of a little more than seven miles square, of this goverment at a place then called Pennicook, afterward Rumford on Merrimac river. That not at all doubting the authority of this government to make the said grant the Grantees not with standing the extreme difficulty and cost of effecting a settlement, so far up in the Indian country at that time, yet so vigorously applied themselves thereto that in the year 1733 consequent upon ye report of a comittee sent by them to view the same, the General Court of this Province de- clared that the Grantees had to full satisfaction fulfilled the terms of their grant, and incorporated them by the name of Ruinford, that by the determination of the boundary line between this Province and that of New Hampshire, by his late Majesty in the year 1740, the said township fell near four miles to the northward of the divid- ing line. That about the year 1749 a society under a grant from the Province of New Hampshire began to molest us in our posses- sions and sued us in several actions of ejectment and always re- covered against us in the courts of New Hampshire. In this dis- tressed state of our affairs we applied to the government to enable us to lay our case before his Majesty by way of appeal that of several grants from the government amounting in the whole to about the original purchase consideration together with simple interest for the same, and also by much larger sums raised amongst ourselves we have been enabled to prosecute two appeals to His Majesty and although in each we obtained a reversal of the judgment that stood against us here, yet the Royal order extending in express terms no further than the lands sued for, the advantages fell far short of the expense and our adversaries went on troubling us with new suits. Thus exhausted and seeing no end of our troubles we have been reduced to the necesssity of repurchasing our township of our adver-
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
saries at a rate far exceeding its value, in its nude state. That we have been at a considerable expense in taking a view of a tract of land on Amoroscoggin River on the easterly side of Sudbury Town- ship (so called) which we apprehend would answer for a Township. We, therefore, pray that your Excellency and Honors would be pleased so far to pity our hard case, as to make us a grant of a Township at said place to lie on each side of Amoroscoggin River of equal extent, with that formally granted us by this Province on such reasonable terms as you shall think proper, and your Petition. ers shall as in duty bound ever pray.
(signed) TIMOTIIY WALKER, JR.
In behalf of himself and associates.
THE PETITION GRANTED.
In House of Representatives, Feb. 3, 1774.
Whereas, It hath been represented to this court, by Timothy Walker Jr., in behalf of himself and associates that in the year 1725, they purchased of this Province a Township of land of seven miles square which by the running of the line between this Province and New Hampshire in the year 1740, was cut off to that Govern- ment, by which means the Original Purchasers have been vexed with many expensive law-suits, and at last were obliged to purchase the same lands of claimers under New Hampshire, having enquired into the matter, this court find that the facts set forth in said peti- tion are true. And that the cost of defending their title at the Court of Great Britain have exceeded the grants made to them by this Government, to enable them to carry on the prosecution there.
Therefore, Resolved that there be granted to the original proprie- tors of the Township granted by this Province by the name of New Pennycook, their heirs or assigns who were sufferers by said town- ship falling into New Hampshire, a township of seven miles square to be laid out in regular form on both sides of Amoscoggin River, and easterly of and adjoining to Fullerstown (so-called), otherwise Sudbury Canada laid out to Josiah Richardson Esq. and others, Provided the grantees within six years, settle thirty families in said township, and lay out one full share to the first settled minister, one full share for the ministry, and one full share for the school, and one full share for Harvard College ; and provided the petitioners within one year, return a plan thereof taken thereof by a surveyor and chainman under oath, into the Secretary's Office, to be accepted and confirmed by the General Court
And in order that justice may be done to the sufferers, it is further
Resolved, That Mr. Webster and Colonel Gerrish with such as the Hon. Board shall join, be a Committee to repair to the said township of Pennycook who shall there enquire into and make out a list of the sufferers, and that they return a list for confirmation to
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
the General Assembly, and that said committee give suitable notice of the Time of their meeting by publishing an advertisement in the Essex Gazette and one of the Portsmouth Newspapers, three weeks successively, two months before the time of their meeting; that any person claiming right to the grant aforesaid, may appear and lay in their claim.
Sent up for concurrence,
T. CUSHING, Speaker.
In Council Feb. 3d, 1774 ; Read and concurred in, and Samuel Phillips, Esq., is joined in the affair.
JNO. COTTON, Dept. Secretary.
Consented to, T. HUTCHINSON.
ASSIGNMENT OF RIGHTS OR SHARES.
The committee appointed by the Great and General Court at their session in Boston, Feb., 1774, (upon the petition of T. Walker, Jr., and his associates) to enquire into the sufferings and make out and return a list of said sufferers, having notified, met and heard said sufferers, as directed by said Court, Report the following list of names to whom Rights are to be assigned, viz. :
Timo. Walker, Jr., of Concord, N. H. Three Rights.
Geo. Abbott of Concord, N. H .. .'Two
Thos. Stickney of Concord, N. H. Three
John Chandler of Concord, N. H Three
66
Wm. Coffin of Concord, N. H. One
Ebenezer Hall of Concord, N. H. One
Jona. Merrill of Concord, N. H. One
. Two
Edward Abbott of Concord, N. H. Two
Ephraim Farnum, Jr., of Concord, N. H. · One
Benj. Farnum of Concord, N. H ... Two
Joseph Farnum of Concord, N. H. One
Timo. Bradley of Concord, N. H. , One
Rev. Timo. Walker of Concord, N. H. Two
Joseph Eastman of Concord, N. H. One
Aaron Stephens of Concord, N H. Two
Moses Hall of Concord, N. H .. . One
Philip Kimball of Concord, N. H. . One
Ebencz. Eastman of Concord, N. H. One
David Hall of Concord, N. H. One
66
Philip Eastman of Concord, N. H Two
66
James Walker of Concord. N. H. One
Chas. Walker of Concord, N. H ... One
66
Richard Hazeltine of Concord, N. H. One
Paul Walker of Concord, N. H .. One
Jeremiah Bradley of Concord, N. H. One
Hannah Osgood of Concord, N. H. Two
Asa Kimball of Concord, N. H. One
Moses Eastman of Concord, N. H One
66
John Bradley of Concord, N. H. One
Jona. Stickney of Concord, N. H. One
Reuben Kimball of Concord, N. H. One
Benj. Abbott of Concord, N. H. One
Amos Abbott of Concord, N. H.
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
Joshua Abbott of Concord, N. H . One Right.
Abiel Chandler of Concord, N. HI .. . Five Rights.
Timothy Walker Tertins of Concord, N. H. . One
Nath't Eastman of Concord, N. II. Two
66
Peter Green of Concord, N. H. · One
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Ephraim Carter of Concord, N. H. . One ١٩
Heirs of Jeremiah Dresser of Concord, N. H. One
Nath'l Rolfe of Concord, N. H, One
John Chase of Concord, N. H .. . One
Benj. Thompson of Concord, N. II. .Six
Paul Rolfe of Concord, N. H .. Five
Ebenez. Harden Goss of Concord, N. HI. Four
One
Gustavus Adolphus Goss of Concord, N. H.
. One
Amos Eastman of Hollis, N. H
One
66
Abraham Kimball of Bradford. . One and three-quarters
Timo. Walker of Conway One and three-quarters
Ebenez. Hall of Sanford. One
Jeremiah Eastman of Sanford. . One
Dr. Chas. Chauncey of Boston One
The Heirs of Rev. Sam. Phillips of Andover. . One and one-half
Stephen Farrington of Fryeburg, . One
The Heirs of Abner Fowler of Coos One
One
Caleb Smart of Hopkinton.
One
Jona. Straw of Hopkinton.
One
Benj. Gale of Haverhill.
One
Cutting Marsh of Haverhill.
. One-quarter
..
Nath'l Marsh of Haverhill.
· One-quarter
..
James McHurd of Haverhill
. One-half
Robt. Davis of Concord, N. H Three-quarters
Anna Stevens of Concord, N. II.
Henry Lovejoy of Concord, N. II.
One-quarter
Phineas Kimball of Concord, N. II. · One-quarter
Henry Rennals of Boxford .. One-quarter
Sam'I and Win. Dana of Groton .. One-half
Dudley Coleman of Newbury . One-half
N. B. Hon. Joseph Gerrish, Esq., (one of said Committee) was present at said meeting and consented to the foregoing report.
Haverhill, Nov. 18, 1774.
(signed.) SAM. PHILLIPS, Committee. JONA. WEBSTER,
PETITION FOR RE-CONFIRMATION.
To the Honorable General Court of the State of the Massachusetts Bay, convened at Boston, April 7, 1779.
The Petition of Timothy Walker, Jr., on behalf of himself and associates, humbly sheweth, that in February, 1774, your petitioners obtained of the General Court a grant of a township of the contents seven miles square on Ammenoscoggin river, by way of compensa- tion for the trouble and expense they and their ancestors had been at in endeavoring to defend and finally repurchasing a Township formerly purchased by them of this province at a place called Pennycook, on Merimaek River, on certain conditions, some of
6.
Elijah Durgin of Hopkinton
66
Nathan Abbott of Concord, N. H.
66
The Heirs of Ebenez. Virgin of Concord, N. H. Three
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
which were the following : that your petitioners returned into the Secretary's office here, a plan of the granted premises taken by a surveyor and chainman under oath, within a year from the grant, as also a list of the sufferers who were to be benefitted thereby, certified by a committee appointed by the said court, to enquire into and ascertain the same, which conditions your petitioners punctually complied with, within the limited time, but by the great confusion this metropolis was very soon after thrown into, the said papers are lost, and the surveyor who drew and returned the plan is dead ; whereupon your petitioners have been at the trouble and expense of procuring a new survey and plan of the premises which, together with a list of the grantees certified by a major part of the committee appointed to that service (who still survive). Your Petitioners pray you will please to accept this instead of that for- merly returned but lost. And whereas the term allowed for settlement will expire next February, and the cares and efforts of your petitioners have been so entirely absorbed in the general Defence of the country during the present Distressing War, as to render them incapable of taking the least advance in towards com- pleting the same, they therefore pray that the said period may be extended to such future day as your honors shall please to appoint : and also that you would appoint some suitable person to warn a meeting of said Grantees at such a place, and in such a manner as you may judge legal, in order to adjust accounts of past expenses, and to transact any matter or thing necessary to forward the settle- ment of the said Township, and also to order where and how future meetings of the said Grantees shall be warned, and your petitioners shall as in duty bound, ever pray.
TIMOTHY WALKER, JR.
RE-CONFIRMATION OF TIIE GRANT.
In the House of Representatives, Apr. 13, 1779.
Upon the Petition of T. Walker Jr. in behalf of himself and associates, praying that this Court would accept of a second plan and list of sufferers instead of the first that was returned into the Secretary's Office agreeable to the conditions in the original grant of a Township of land to the said Timo. Walker Jr. and others upon Amoscoggin River in Feb. 1774 which plan and list of sufferers are since lost ; also praying that a longer time may be allowed for settlement and that some suitable person may be appointed to warn a meeting of the Grantees &c.
Resolved, That the prayer of the Petition be granted and that the plan of a Township taken by Wm. Chamberlain's survey under oath bounded as followeth, namely, beginning at a tree upon Sudbury Canada line, &c., &c.
Be and hereby is accepted in lieu of a Plan returned into the Secre- tary's Office by said Walker agreeable to the grant of said Town- ship, and it is further
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HISTORY OF RUMFORD.
Resolved, That the said list of sufferers as agreed upon by Joseph Gerrish, Sam. Phillips and Jona. Webster, Esqs., the committee appointed by the General Court Feb. 1774, to enquire into the sufferings of Pennacook Grantees and make out and return a list of such sufferers, Be and hereby is accepted instead of the first list returned into the Secretary's Office and since lost. And be it further resolved that the time limited to said Grantees for settling thirty families within said Township, be extended to the term of five years longer. And it is further resolved that the Rev. Timo. Walker be and hereby is empowered and directed to call a meeting of said Proprietors to be held in the town of Haverhill in the County of Essex, at such time as he shall think proper for publishing the same with the business with which they are to meet in Willis' newspaper three weeks, successively ending at least one week before said meeting and posting the same at the several public houses or taverns in the town of Concord, in the state of New Hampshire, one month before said meeting. Also when met to agree upon and determine the manner of warning and place of holding future meetings in any town within this State, or if more convenient in any town within the State of New Hampshire.
Sent up for concurrence,
JOHN PICKERING, Speaker.
In Council, April 13, 1779. Read and concurred,
JOIN AVERY, D. Sec'y.
Consented to,
(signed)
JER. POWELL,
W. SEVER,
A. WARD,
T. CUSHING,
B. WHITE,
B. AUSTIN,
TIMO. DENNISON,
J. STONE,
H. GARDNER,
JNO. PITTS,
O. WENDALL, SAM. NILES,
E. BROOKS, N. CUSHING,
A. (?) FULLER.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PROPRIETARY .- CALL FOR THE FIRST MEETING.
Whereas, The Honorable General Court of the State of Massa- chusetts Bay, has authorized the subscriber to warn a meeting of the Proprietors of a new Township on Amoscoggin River, granted by a former General Court of the said (then) Province, to Timothy Walker, Jr. and Associates by way of compensation for the loss of Pennycook ; said Proprietors are hereby notified and warned to assemble and meet at the Dwelling House of Capt. Daniel Bradley in Haverhill, on the last Wednesday in May next, at three o'clock in the afternoon, for the following purposes, viz :
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