USA > Maine > Knox County > South Thomaston > History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, from their first exploration, A. D. 1605; with family genealogies, Vol. I > Part 20
USA > Maine > Knox County > Rockland > History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, from their first exploration, A. D. 1605; with family genealogies, Vol. I > Part 20
USA > Maine > Knox County > South Thomaston > History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, from their first exploration, A. D. 1605; with family genealogies, Vol. I > Part 20
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
Snow, two or three feet in depth, again fell in April of this year ; and the following winter was distinguished for deep snows and severe weather.
1786. For support of highways, the town this year re- turned to taxation in money, sub ject to a deduction to those who chose to work at the rate of 5s. per day for a man, 3s. for a yoke of oxen, 1s. 6d. for a cart, and 2s. for a plough - from which it would seem the value of ox-work compared with human labor had greatly risen since 1777; and, among other symptoms of poverty and want of employment, the col- lector's commission was in July increased from the usual ninepence before voted, to one shilling on the pound.
The first vote of the town, so far as appears from the records, in which the ballots were regularly counted and re- turned, was that of 26 votes, this year, for Thomas Rice as county register.
May 8th, it was voted to procure a lot of land for the town's use as a Parsonage, and N. Fales, J. Simonton, and O. Robbins were appointed a committee to select and lay out a suitable lot of 200 acres, and make report at the next town meeting. It was also, for the first time, voted to build a pound, of good logs, on the land of James and David Fales, and that " one or both of the said men be pound keepers."
At another meeting, July 25th, Capt. Jona. Spear, Lieut. 15*
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
Hugh Killsa, and D. Morse, were appointed a committee to view the ground on the west side of Mill River to the south- ward of Wheaton's mill, and consider the propriety of the town's laying out a tract there to the distance of fifty or sixty rods, for the use of the town, as a common landing-place for lumber and lime. In the following year, such a tract was laid out by the selectmen, and accepted May 7th. This land- ing proved a great convenience to the inhabitants, who made it a common depot for lime, lumber, and other articles ; and it still remains the property of the town of Thomaston.
Among the new arrivals, William Rowell, from Notting- ham, N. H., one of the returned soldiers of the Revolution, who had been present at Bunker Hill battle, now came to Wessaweskeag, married a sister of Lieut. Mathews, resided for a time on the Mathews farm, and became the first settler on the Ephraim Snow lot, so called. His son, the late Rice Rowell, became the owner of the Mathews lot, which he oc- cupied till his death, and on which, in 1813, he erected a saw-mill, near that of Snow, at Wear Cove. Nathan Pills- bury, also a Revolutionary soldier, came, not far from the same time, from Kittery ; married, and settled at Owls' Head ; where he carried on his trade as a blacksmith. Win. Chap- man, a Quaker or Friend, the first if not the only member of that denomination in the place, came from Scituate and set- tled near the head of Owl's Head Bay. His father also re- sided here awhile, but returned and died in Scituate.
Of new roads, accepted this year, were one from James Brown's to the S. line of the town, one from the head of Owl's Head Bay to Jona. Crockett's, and one from the Warren road to N. Fales' or the Beech Woods; besides others recom- mended, from the bridge at Owl's Head Bay to Rendell's at Owl's Head Harbor, from the same bridge to Heard's at Ash Point, from near N. Crockett's at Ash Point to Wessawes- keag, and from the bridge near Coombs' to the S. line of the town.
In the first steps toward a separation of Maine from Mas- sachusetts, taken by conventions this year held at Falmouth, this town, though invited to send a delegate by an article in the March meeting warrant, appears to have taken no part and was not represented.
The remarkably cold and dry winter of 1786-7 set in so early that, on Nov. 14th, the George's river froze hard enough to bear a horse and sleigh as low down as Watson's Point, and, on the 15th, even to its mouth. In the same month, the drought was so severe that, at low tide, the same river in
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
many places ceased to flow. Other streams and springs wholly failed ; and it was difficult to get water for cattle or for grinding purposes, except at tide mills.
1787. In conformity with an act passed in 1785, the town this year chose a committee of five persone " to open ways and prevent the stopping of the fish, agreeable to law,"- probably meaning the shad and alewives of Mill river.
In April a warrant was issued for a town meeting, to give in votes for Governor, &c., in which was an article to see what the town will do about building a meeting-house ; but, as the records of the meeting did not get entered in the town book, we can only infer from the vote at subsequent meetings . that a committee was appointed to look out a suitable site for such a purpose. In May, a new committee, consisting of J. Simonton, J. Crockett, T. Hix, W. Heard, J. Bridges, M. Wheaton, and D. Fales, was appointed for the same purpose and also to " search for convenient Lands for Personage, Min- isterial, and School lots." From this vote it would seem the town was disposed to act as individuals had been in the habit of doing, in the absence of the proprietors of the soil; and take up such unoccupied lots as they might select, occupying by the right of possession until their title should be perfected by time or a settlement with the owners. Flucker, the pro- prietor of this part of the Waldo patent, having espoused the royal cause and forfeited his estate in consequence, Gen. Henry Knox, his son-in-law, (who had, as early as 1784, been appointed agent or administrator to settle the estate, and who, in right of his wife, a daughter of said Flucker, claimed to inherit one-fifth part of it,) was now, with other heirs in- terested, looking up their rights in the Patent, and had in 1785 obtained a resolve of the legislature extending its boun- daries, on condition, as before mentioned, that he would quiet all the settlers on the lands they had taken up prior to 1775. This was satisfactory so far as it went; but, making no pro- vision for those who had taken up lands during the war, (a measure which the difficulties of the times and the absence of the proprietors had compelled many to adopt as the only means of gaining a livelihood,) fell far short of their expecta- tions. As these claimants were now expected to be here for the purpose of making some arrangement with such settlers, a large committee consisting of S. Brown, J. Crockett, Robert Jameson, J. Tolman, and T. Hix, was appointed at a town meeting. May 7th, of this year, " to discourse with any Claimers of Lands that may appear."
Whether any such " claimers " appeared or not, we are not
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
informed ; but it is probable that Knox did not neglect the proprietary interest, but intrusted the oversight of it to some former agent here, or induced some other to come to the place for that purpose. At any rate, several of his friends, or em- ployees. emigrated hither about this time or a little later. Capt. Thomas Vose, who had early gained his acquaintance and good opinion in the army of the Revolution in which he had commanded a company of artillery, came from Milton, Mass., for the purpose of fencing out the Fort farm, which had, prior to the war, been in charge of Col. Wheaton. This he did with juniper posts and clear pumpkin-pine boards, the best and most costly in the market; commencing at the river and running up what is now Wadsworth street, Thomaston, and down the present Main street to Mill River. Of this farm, Vose now took the oversight; and, being a man of judgment and decision, he became a useful citizen and for many years, either by himself or as partner with Gen. Knox, did an extensive business at the present O'Brien store and wharf. He lived some years in the Wadsworth house, till he purchased and removed to that in which he spent the re- mainder of his life, and in which his son William still resides, at the foot of Wadsworth street. Spencer Vose, a relative of Capt. Thomas, came from Attleboro' about 1790, and commenced the tanning and shoemaking business on the south side of what is now Main street, Thomaston, near the western termination of the Mall. John Bentley came from Boston, burnt lime for Knox, and, being a man of good education, was also employed in teaching school. He was, we believe, for a time deputy sheriff; married here, and settled at the Meadows. William McIntosh, a young man from Scotland, employed by Knox in his personal service at Philadelphia, came hither at this time or a little later, and settled west of the Meadows, in consequence of an offer of his employer to give him a hundred acres of land on condition of his settling. Neglecting to get a deed, however, till after the death of Knox, he lost his land and a portion also of what was due him from the insolvent estate. Timothy Spalding also, with his sons Jedediah and James, came from New Meadows this year, and settled at Ballyhac, on the eastern side of the mouth of the Wessaweskeag ; - leaving his name there to a Point and island or peninsula, of about 30 acres, not included in the Snow purchase.
Coasting vessels built on the George's River were now making frequent trips to Boston from this place; one of which was commanded by Capt. Thomas Mclellan, senior, of
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
this town, and another by his brother Simon of Cushing. But we have no certain account of the building of any with- in the limits of Thomaston, prior to this year, when Mr. Snow built a small Boston coaster, -the first vessel ever launched on the waters of the Wessawoskeag, or, so far as is known, in any part of the old town whose three divisions have since sent forth so many stately structures of the kind.
All the town meetings except one, at Jas. Stackpole's, had thus far been held at the house of Oliver Robbins. And now, in the warrant for the May meeting, an article had been insert- ed " to see if the town will allow" said Robbins " something for the trouble and for the use of his house as a Meeting House for sometime past." But, as Capt. N. Fales had built, or was building, a new house which might serve their purpose, the town, with the characteristic economy of corporations, which are said to have no souls, voted " that the town thinks that the article is not convenient." Accordingly the next meeting, Sept. 3d, was convened at " the New House of Capt. N. Fales." Framed buildings of any description were still a rarity in all parts of the town. Two barns, the first framed ones in what is now Rockland, were built about this time, and are still standing; one by J. Barrows, now owned by Otis Barrows, and the other by Jeremiah Tolman, now that of his son Jeremiah - both framed by Waterman Hewett.
At that meeting the contemplated division of the county of Lincoln was taken into consideration, in compliance with resolutions of the General Court in the preceding June, when the town voted that the Selectmen prefer a petition to that body, praying that this town may be annexed to the first of the three new counties. This request was ultimately com- plied with, and Thomaston as well as Camden was suffered to remain in the old county of Lincoln, whilst the territory. to the eastward of these was, June 25, 1789, formed into the two new counties of Hancock and Washington.
At the same meeting, the record says, " voted and chose D. Fales, Jr., to serve on the Petit Jury for trials at the next Court to be holden at Waldoborough, on the second Tuesday of Sept. inst." This form of record was uniformly followed in all the selections of jurors ; and there is no hint given that any of them were drawn by lot, until March 31, 1788, when I. Lovett was chosen Grand Juryman and Samuel Bartlett drawn from the box as Petit Juryman.
Three different subjects of special importance gave occa- sion to a town-meeting, Dec. 19th, of this year. One was the election of a delegate to attend the Convention that was
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
to assemble at Boston, on the second Wednesday of January following, to take into consideration the new federal Consti- tution then recently reported to Congress and awaiting the assent and ratification of the several States. The vote on this article resulted in the election of David Falos, Esq. as delegate.
Another subject was that of Schools, which had, indeed, been casually included among the purposes for which taxes had been voted, but on which no money appears, thus far, to have been expended. The town was now required to de- cide whether they would " ratify the agreement of the Select- men with Mr. William Walsh, for keeping a Town School for the term of twelve months;" he having already com- menced, Dec. 17th, for one month, on trial. On the vote being taken, the question was decided in the negative. But this vote, at a meeting called for the express purpose on the 3d of January ensuing, was reconsidered ; and yet, the ques- tion being put, the town again voted "not to approve the proceeding of the selectmen, in hiring Mr. Walsh." This gentleman was a native of Dublin, somewhat irregular in his habits and temperament, but who married and became a per- manent resident of the place, settling at the Meadows, and leaving descendants among whom are found much enterprise, wealth, and activity. Another teacher employed about this time in this and some of the adjacent places, was Thos. Em- erson, - a man of good education, an excellent penman, and of respectable family in or near Limerick, Ireland. Remain- ing here a few years, he married in 1789 a daughter of D. Morse, afterwards visited his native country, and was lost or died on his return passage. John Fairbanks also, the first singing-master in this vicinity, was at times employed as a common school teacher here as well as at Warren, and, being fond of hunting and trapping, employed his vacant time in those pursuits. Most boys and young men resorted to the same business, to replenish their stock of spending money. But the more valuable furs were now becoming scarce ; and hunting as an employment had ceased to bé profitable even before the death of its chief votary in this region, Jacob Keen, who died Oct. 10, 1788. Still the dogs, which had been trained and were so serviceable in the chase, were retained as guards against the bears and other beasts of prey which continued occasionally to kill sheep and cattle. Few or no particulars of these faithful animals' exploits have been handed down; but one instance of their almost human sagacity, occurring about this time, though in a neighboring
سير ميت
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
town, may here be given. Capt. R. Norton of Cushing had a favorite dog which he took on board his vessel and sailed for Wilmington, N. C. No sooner were they at sea, than, from sea-sickness or other cause, the dog became uneasy and remained inconsolable through the whole voyage. On land- ing at Wilmington, the dog was soon missing and nothing further was seen of him. But, on the Captain's return from his voyage, he found his dog safe at home, whither he had arrived just 14 days from the time of landing at Wilmington. How he had made his way, - whether across or around inlets and bays, passing circuitously by the coast or following the travelled road, and what was his fare on the route, he could not communicate .*
A third subject to which attention was called at this meet- ing and, so far as appears, for the first time, was the main- tenance of the poor. A Mrs. Clark, widow of Thomas Clark, deceased some four years or more, was now chargeable ; and the town chose a committee " to take methods for relieving the town of that Burthen, if any justifiable ways may ap- pear." The next year the Selectmen were empowered to commence a suit " in respect to Mrs. Clark, Elisha Snow, or whoever else had or confiscated her estate ;" and voted to re- imburse, with interest at 25 per cent., out of his future taxes, any one advancing money to carry on said suit. It seems from the warrant, that another person by the name of Stevens had been placed by the town authorities, on a lot of. land and maintained there, in order to keep possession of it as a pub- lic lot for use of the town, but had of late, as was reported, " sold part of said lot;" but no action was taken.
The drought and severe weather of the preceding autumn continued with scarcely any signs of relenting till into March ; on the 26th day of which the lower Georges broke up suf- ficiently to release the sloop Warren, which, when loading for the West Indies, had got frozen in and lay all winter at her moorings. The ice in the upper waters of that river did not break up till May ; while deep and hard crusted snow cover- ed all the fences as late as the 10th of April.
1788. For the first time a separate tax for schools, viz., £20, was this year voted. Mr. Brown, the town clerk of this and several previous years, seems to have kept his records on loose sheets and with so little care that some of them were entirely lost, and others were supposed to be so for a time ; in consequence of which the town this year, May 6th, re- accepted the three several roads already accepted in 1786.
* H. Prince, Esq.
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
The acceptance also of two of the roads recommended in 1786, indicates some increase of settlers along the sea margin of the town. On that from Owl's Head to the head of the Bay, at this time, or perhaps in regard to some a little later, . wore the following residente; Ist, Benjamin Packard, who, after having first resided in Cushing and then a year or so in Union, where in 1775 he built the first log-house in the place, had now come to this town and was living at Owl's Head, if he had not already removed to a part of the Crockett farm at Ash Point; 2d, Rosamus Lowell, who became a farmer and valuable citizen; 3d, Benjamin Cooper, a tailor, from Cambridge, who came in 1789; 4th, Nathan Sherman from Marshfield; 5th, Wm. Chapman, on the south side of the Head of the Bay; 6th, Joseph Perry; 7th, Benjamin With- am; 8th, John West; 9th, Thomas Hix; 10th, Samuel Bart- lett; 11th, Job Perry ; 12th, 13th, and 14th, the Ingrahams already mentioned; 15th, John Godding; - from whence there were no more settlers, but an almost impenetrable spruce thicket and miry alder swamp, up to the log-house of John Lindsey, before mentioned. Israel Davis, then a boy living at Joseph Ingraham's, used to catch minks at Ingra- ham's Point where the present steamboat wharf is, often finding them devoured by foxes before he could get time to visit his traps; and remembers the whole vicinity as a woody, lonely region, where he suffered much from homesickness. Ingraham had then a small framed house, and, amongst his lumbering operations about this time or later, was getting out a frame for the house which William Tilson erected on the old Camden road, near Brown's Corner in the present Rock- land, and in which he afterwards set up and long kept a house of entertainment. The first coasting vessel, that ran to and from this embryo city of Rockland, was that commanded by Capt. Dexter, brother to Mrs. Wheaton; but at the time of which we are now writing, Capt. Vickery of Beverly was the only coaster froin that part of the town. George Ulmer, a young man from Waldoboro', was now also here as a small trader near Lermond's Cove, and was engaged from 1785 to 1789 in the business of lime-burning ; - so that to him, probably, belongs the honor of being the first lime-burner in what is now Rockland. He probably came as early as 1784, when he was chosen a hog-reeve by the town; and in 1790 his brother, John, Jr., is mentioned.
In the annual State election of April 7th, the people of this town participated for the first time; and it is a coinci- dence that the people of Warren on the same day, for the first time also, and with the same unanimity, gave in the same
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
number, 23 votes, for each of the same candidates. These were regularly recorded ; yet it is singular that, on the same day, the record reads "voted and chose Nathaniel Thwing, Esq. County Treasurer ;" as if the election depended on this town alone.
1789. A new road was established this year from Lieut. Coombs's to the south line of the town; and another from Abiathar Smith's house down to Watson's ferry, which is now known as Wadsworth street.
It was probably about this time that Dr. Ezekiel Goddard Dodge first took up his abode in this town ; for his name ap- pears in the census of 1790, and as surveyor of highways and one of the committee for examining town accounts in 1791. He had, a few years before, established himself as a physician at the house of Micah Packard in Warren. He was the son of Rev. Mr. Dodge of Pembroke, and had the reputation of having been a wilful and unmanageable boy, whom his father, among other means for giving him an edu- cation, intrusted for a time with the Rev. Mr. Jones of N. Yarmouth. There, his wayward disposition was manifested in various mischievous tricks ; such as wrapping up a pack of cards in a pocket handkerchief and putting it in the parson's Sunday coat, to be scattered from the pulpit before the whole congregation ; with other feats of a like nature. He pos- sessed some literary taste, however, even then, and, though averse to the sciences, especially to arithmetic, imbibed enough of the languages and other branches required, to enable him to enter college; but, for some dramatic representation, got up as a burlesque on the government, was early expelled. Ca- pable of a polite and pleasing exterior, though often indulg- ing in irreverence and profanity, prompt at every call, bold and decided in his practice, he soon, flashed into unbounded favor, and continued for thirty years to enjoy the most ex- tensive professional business of any physician in this and all the adjoining towns.
One of his earliest acquaintances whilst residing on the western side of the river, was Benjamin Webb. This gen- tleman came from Boston with a small assortment of dry goods, which he commenced selling at Packard's before Dodge set up there as a physician. Webb subsequently removed his business to Union, but taking lumber in payment for goods and meeting with some losses in getting it down the river, he became discouraged and was persuaded by Dr. Dodge to commence the study of medicine with him. Soon after, the two went into partnership, and were at this time established VOL, I. 16
د- طح المقه
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
in Thomaston on the farm of Wm. Watson, Jr., near the present dwelling of Mrs. Elisha Snow. Here their household was superintended by Miss Catharine Gregg, or rather Mrs. Webb, as she was reputed to be by what she believed a legal marriage, but which she was ultimately induced by these physi- cians to acknowledge as invalid, and died not long after, - a beautiful, weak, and ill-used woman. Two of her children were adopted and brought up as his own by Dr. Dodge.
Dr. Webb remained here till about 1795, when marrying a daughter of Samuel Boggs of Warren, he removed to that place, and, without relinquishing his practice, managed the farm on a part of which his brother, Dea. Wm. H. Webb, still resides. About 1802, he returned and opened a store at Mill River, in the building now occupied above by Joshua Brackett, at the same time taking charge of Dodge's business during his temporary absence in New Brunswick. In 1806, he removed to the Rendell house near Owl's Head Point, where he kept a store and tavern, sometimes boarded the town's paupers, and continued his professional practice till 1813, when he removed to Zanesville, Ohio.
Another of Dodge's medical students, about or before this time taken into practice as a partner, but ostensible rival of his master, was Dr. Isaac Bernard, who after a short prepara- tion went into practice at Union, Camden, and perhaps other places, for a time, and finally in the eastern part of this town, -as best suited the int rest of Dodge in guarding against the inroads of more formidable rivals in the profes- sion. Having a ready perception of symptoms, he used to consult Dodge as to the remedies, and in time became a skil- ful physician, -succeeding to much of his master's practice, though, we believe, without any unfriendly rivalship. Dodge used to say of the two, when students, that Bernard was gifted with a good eye to discover disease, but had little knowledge of the proper remedies, whilst Webb was skilled in the knowledge of medicine, but had no faculty for discern- ing the symptoms; so that if he "could send both together, they might make one first-rate physician." After Dr. Ber- nard's second marriage, he was in possession of considerable property; but, investing it in ship-building which proved un- fortunate, he was never wealthy. He lived at Blackington's Corner, or the North End of what is now Rockland; where he continued in practice, held many town and military offices, and was repeatedly chosen representative.
Jonas Dean, who came from New Meadows to Wessawes- keag and worked some three or four years in Mr. Snow's
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