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 26
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 26
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 26
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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
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Yet his love of science was pure, and he was ever ready to aid others in its pursuit. Having led Dr. Dodge to com- mence or revive his arithmetical studies and indoctrinated him into the mysteries of compound interest, the latter exclaimed with animation " if I had only understood this rule suun enough, I would have owned half Thomaston by this time !" Whiting, on the contrary, availed himself of Sullivan's aid to gain a deeper insight into the higher branches of mathemat- ics from the mere love of science and the conscious pleasure of overcoming difficulties. Others, by one or the other of these two, were gradually initiated into the secrets of geome- try and algebra, sciences little understood in those days, even by graduates; and the mutual proposition and solution of problems became with Whiting, H. Prince of Thomaston, James Malcolm of Cushing, and others, a favorite amuse- ment for leisure hours and a refuge from the infirmities of age, to the close of life.
Sullivan's strong love of science, connected with his im- patient and irritable temper, led him into much unjustifiable harshness and severity towards his intractable pupils, especial- ly the petty darlings and favorites at home, whom he used to designate as the " silver spoons." One of these victims, who still remembers him, cannot, without the keenest feelings, re- call the treatment he was doomed to suffer and the sickness which, while playing with his companions on the bridge at Wessaweskeag, came over him at the sight of " the master," and compelled him to go home and betake himself to bed. Even that refuge proved unavailing. The master's voice was soon heard in the house inquiring, "where's Asa?" "He has gone to bed, sick." "I want to see him"; and he walked into the bedroom. After casting a look at the boy, he turned to the mother with "no more sick than you be"; and, to his fiat, both boy and mother were forced to succumb. A school- master's authority in those days was something tangible, and his anger terrible. Yet "Master Sullivan's" most violent exacerbations would readily subside whenever an opportunity was presented for a bitter pun or cutting sarcasm. On one occasion, a tall gawky lad, remarkable for a hump back and stooping form, whilst being reprimanded for coming late to school, said, " I came straight from home." "Straight from home!" replied Sullivan, with a pleased look, and sending him to his seat, "then you must have got confoundedly warped by the way!" Keen at discerning the thoughts of people, he could more easily bear an open rebuke than a secret dislike or silent disrespect. Calling at Mr. Coombs's one day,
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
and seeing Isabella spinning on the foot-wheel, he asked, "where's your mother, my dear?" She answered, with an air of indifference, "I don't know where she is." Blandly repeating the question, " where's your mother, my dear ?" and receiving the same petulant answer, he exclaimed, " why don't you tell me it's none of my business, you son of a bitch ?" This last inelegant phrase was an habitual expres- sion of his, and, even when applied to females, as it indis- criminately was, meant nothing with him in any high degree offensive, -little more, indeed, than when a fond mother calls her little darling a rogue. To give it a more offensive sig- nification, the epithet "lousy" was usually added. Thus qualified, he had, on some occasion, applied it to Capt. Israel Jordan ; and, from the manner in which it was received, or the remembrance of the first cause of the offence, he continu- ed to use it whenever he fell in with him. At length Jordan told him that whatever his expressions to him in private might be, he would " not bear such opprobrious epithets any longer in public, and, as sure as you repeat it again before people, I shall knock you down." Sullivan, in consideration of something to drink, promised to abstain. Not long after, however, on a town meeting day, when the crowd was thick- est, he called out, " Israel ! I want to speak a word with you !" and, taking him a little on one side, he whispered, far from inaudibly, " you are a dirty, lousy, son of a bitch," - and continued to do so at each subsequent meeting. Treated in this way, the feud, instead of being healed, gradually be- came chronic, and assumed a more serious aspect. One day Sullivan, in a state of excitement, went up where Jordan was breaking flax, and insisted upon fighting him. His danger being seen by a neighboring woman, who, from his feebleness and the strength of his adversary, feared, in her benevolence, that he would be killed, she despatched Mr. Post, a neighbor who happened to be present, to bring off Sullivan before he should get the punishment which he certainly deserved. Post bring a stout man, took him up in his arms and carried him off to the house; when, instead of thanking his benefactors for their rescue, he commenced a tirade of abuse for their in- terference with other people's affairs, adding, that "all that buting of Jordan's was nothing." Having to deal alike with whigs and tories, the schoolmaster avoided taking sides with either, and did not profess any knowledge of the merits of the contest; but, having a grudge against Mr. Dillaway, a warm whig, he could not let so favorable an opportunity as the Biguyduce defeat pass without an attempt to add a fresh
n
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sting to his already lacerated feelings. So, going up to him, as if to deliver a message, he said, with a grave and serious air,
" We burnt up all our shipping, Gave o'er the jolly cruise, And through the woods came tripping From captured Bagaduce."
Ephraim Hall, a brother-in-law of Elder Snow, though fa- vored with little education, became, soon after his conversion, desirous of improving his gifts as a preacher ; and, by steady perseverance succeeded in his efforts and was long the worthy pastor of the Baptist church in St. George. In his early at- tempts, he, not unnaturally, felt solicitous to know how well he succeeded and what people thought of him. Accordingly, after an association of the order was held at Wessaweskeag, he sought to take advantage of Sullivan's intimacy with Snow to find out how he stood in the estimation of that distinguished minister. Cautiously inquiring at first what he thought of the performances and what brother Snow thought of them, what he thought of this speaker and how he liked that one, and at length coming to himself, he said, "and what did brother Snow think of me and my poor performance?" "I don't know" said Sullivan "what he thought ; but I know what I thought he thought." " Well," said Hall, what did you think he thought?" "I thought," said Sullivan, " that he thought that fool had better sit down and hold his tongue."
But enough of the Irish schoolmaster. It is a little re- markable that in this as well as the year preceding and year following, no taxes were voted for schools, - apparently from some supposed or real injustice, or partiality in the expendi- ture of former appropriations. The new or federal currency being now legally established, $600 were voted March 7th, to repair the highways; payable in labor at an advance of one-fifth upon prices of 1795, and of one-third upon those of many years anterior to that; from which we readily in- , fer that an equal advance had been made in business and the demand for labor. Surveyors of lime were this year chosen for the first time, viz .: Thomas Shibles, John M. Wight, John Crockett, and James Fales, Jr.
1797. Of the meeting, Nov. 7, 1796, for the election of a Congressional representative and an elector of president, nothing appears on record but the warrant for calling it; as is the case, also, with the May meeting, 1797, for choice of a representative in the General Court.
Some of the aged and early settlers were, this year, called
I
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
away by death ; among them, Capt. Nathaniel Fales, a warm and active patriot in the Revolution, a useful citizen and me- chanic, who had mingled much in town affairs, died on the 13th of April in the 71st year of his age. Connected with his death and burial, was one of those singular foreshadowings in a dream, which sometimes closely correspond with succeed- ing events. He related before his death, that in his sleep he appeared to have died, was carried to his resting-place, de- posited in the grave, and left there uncovered till the bearers went back and brought another corpse to be interred in the same ground. This actually happened ; Mrs. Judith, wife of James Stackpole, having died the same day and been buried as predicted. These interments were made at the small bury- ing-ground down the bay, on the Lovett lot. The town this year, March 6th, appointed Capt. Jenks, Capt. Ephraim Snow, Wm. Heard, B. Cooper, and O. Robbins, a committee to look out a suitable place for a burying-ground in the westerly part of the town ; but as no further proceeding is on record, it is presumed their action resulted in the choice of the present burying-ground in Thomaston and its donation to the town by General Knox. The first burial in this gift of the General, was that of Dea. Barnard's daughter, who died Jan. 31, 1800 ; the second that of Nat. Fales's daughter, in February following.
Mechanics still continued to arrive. Adam Levensaler, a cooper from Waldoboro', after working some years for Knox, married, purchased and built where he passed the remainder of his life in the house recently occupied by his son Lincoln, toward Oyster River. In 1797, or the preceding year, Row- land Jacobs, a young blacksmith, came from Scituate, or Hanover, Mass., and was hired by Gen. Knox to take charge of his blacksmith shop on Vose's wharf, previously occupied by Major N. Parsons. Being a skilful, energetic, and faith- ful workman, he continued in Knox's employ till 1801; in which year, according to written agreement of Nov. 1, 1800, now before me, he was to receive $1,25 per day for himself, and 66 cents for his apprentice James Partridge; - Knox to provide " board, lodging, and washing, but not their liquor." At the close of that year, Dec. 24th, Jacobs took a lease of the shop and tools, and managed the business on his own ac- count till June 13, 1805, when he delivered up the tools to J. (ileason, Knox's agent, and removed to an establishment of his own. still occupied by his youngest son. He had pre- viously lived, with his newly married wife, in one of the tene- ments of a large house, since that of R. Young, built by
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Knox in Wadsworth street, which he hired Dec. 24, 1801. He was naturally humorous, witty, and fond of convivial en- joyments, but possessed taste for reading and literature, and, after a half century spent in successful acquisition of property by industry and economy, died of a cancer in the car at the age of nearly eighty-six. An instance or two of his blunt and tart humor may be worth narrating. Returning with his neighbor, from a protracted and exciting town meeting, in which the two had taken opposite sides on some sharply con- tested question, he found himself unable wholly to discontinue it on the way; and his neighbor, equally excited, began to heap upon him abusive epithets and call him all the oppro- brious names at his command. " Well," said Jacobs, when about taking leave and turning from the road toward his own house, "call me anything and everything you please, only don't call me by your own name, neighbor!" On another occasion, two ladies were bantering upon the respectability of their different families. At length one of them appealed to Mr. Jacobs, saying, "You, sir, were acquainted with my father ; you never knew any hurt of him, did you?" " Mad- am," replied he, in slow and measured words, "I never knew any good of him." This humor of his, was not unlikely to elicit humor in return, and in one instance, at least, seems to have met with its match. Whilst shoeing a mettlesome horse for the Rev. Mr. Cheely, on being interrupted and nearly prostrated by a sudden start of the animal, he in his confu- sion exclaimed " the deril !" then looking up at the parson he added apologetically, " Mr. Cheely, is there any harm in a man's saying the devil?" "There is no harm," coolly re- plied the clergyman, " in a man's talking about his own rela- tives."
This year, also, Darius Brewster, though a son of one of the earlier settlers, came to the place for the first time. and settled on a rich, mountainous tract of land in the north-east- ern part of the town, on a part of which his descendants still remain. In the absence of the Proprietors, and at other times when not forbidden, it had been the custom for persons wishing to settle, to squat on the land, as the phrase is, or in other words, to select a lot for themselves, get a survey and plan made, and take possession. If, in addition to the sur- vey, a fence, however slight, was made to enclose the land. it gave the occupant a title sufficiently good against all inter- lopers but not against the original proprietors, or persons claiming under them. Even without fencing, such lands were often transferred by quitclaim deeds; and titles thus
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
acquired were considered valid until better ones could be shown. Prior to the coming of Knox, many such squatters were found here, and their claims to the right of pre-emption usually allowed by him ; but the want of a previous regular survey and general laying oui of lots frequently caused con- flicting claims, from which much animosity, family feuds, and expensive lawsuits arose, -sometimes ruining one or both of the parties, and, perhaps, leaving neither of them the means of settling with the true proprietor and perfecting a title. Mr. Brewster soon found himself involved in one of these disputes, which came near being attended with very serious consequences. Dr. Dodge had also procured some title and laid claim to the same, or at least a portion of the same, tract of land taken up by Brewster, at Madambettox Mt. - including a piece of meadow near by. Brewster, we believe, had cut the grass before ; but, on this occasion, Dodge gave him notice of his determination to cut it himself. Brewster, who had been a soldier of the Revolution, said if he did he would certainly shoot him. Not putting much faith in the threat, however, the Doctor, with a gang of men well sup- plied with implements and ample stores both for eating and drinking, repaired to the disputed territory, hoisted a flag of defiance, and commenced work. After some hours, Brews- ter, finding what was going on, came down and ordered them to desist. This command not being complied with, he subsequently returned through the bushes, armed and unper- ceived, and leveled his musket, aiming at the legs of Dodge, who, happening to stoop down at the same instant, received a charge of slug-shot in the fleshy portion of his posteriors. Surprised and confounded, the men screamed with affright ; Dodge, perceiving Brewster about to re-load, begged for quar- ter ; while Abiathar Smith thought himself already half killed, and unable to move. On closer inspection, however, he was unable to discover the place of injury, and the Doctor was found to be the only sufferer. Though perhaps possessing the better title, Brewster, in consequence of this violence, and after concealing himself in the woods, where he was secretly supplied with provisions by his family, till it was ascertained whether the doctor would recover or not, was at length com- mitted for trial, sentenced to imprisonment for a time, and was ultimately forced to yield a valuable portion of his pos- session. Here, on the declivity of the mountain, Dodge erected commodious buildings in a commanding situation overlooking most of the town, cleared up the land, and car- ried on extensive farming operations for some years, with a VOL. I. 21
4 .
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
relish and a success which showed at once his taste and skill in agriculture .*
Several new roads, for which the reader is referred to Ta- ble I, were accepted by the town, this year; and, among them, one from the Meeting-house, between the respective lands of D. Fales and D. Fales, Jr., through J. Butler's land to Josiah Ingraham's at Owl's Head Bay, two rods wide, subject to gates. Humble and unpretending as this road was, and chiefly designed to accommodate the church-going people from the Shore, it not long after became much used, was, in 1806, made an open road, three rods wide, and remained till 1855, the principal medium of communication between the Shore and River villages, or, as they soon began to be called, East and West Thomaston.
On the 10th of May, 1797, the sense of the town was again taken on the expediency of applying to the Legislature for their consent to the separation of Maine into a distinct Commonwealth ; when 49 out of 50 votes were cast against separation.
1798. The town having, during this interval of peace, grown negligent of military matters, and being under indict- ment for not having the stores of gunpowder, musket balls, flints, and tin or iron camp-kettles required by law for its militia, voted, Jan. 30, 1798, Sam'l S. Wilde, Esq., of War- ren, its attorney, to answer thereto before the Court of Ses- sions, at Augusta. The militia ch' the town having now be- come too numerous for a single company, was about this time divided into two, -the North and South companies. Of the former, David Fales, Jr., was chosen Captain, John M. Wight, Lieut., and Phinehas Butler, Ensign ; and of the lat- ter Ephraim Snow became Captain, Joshua Adams, Lieut., and Jonas Dean, Ensign.
The indictment, before mentioned, was not the only occa- sion the town had for the employment of an attorney, about this time. One John Ramsey, who had been employed in teaching school in the N. East Meadow District in 1794 and 1795, and for which he had received a town order, dated June 9, 1795. for £12 or $40, now, on refusal of payment, for some cause not handed down, brought a suit against the town, and, after a vigorous but ineffectual resistance on its part, recovered $57 39cts. debt and cost.
The people this year seem to have awakened to the impor- tance of education, and voted a tax of $300 for schools. John
* Messrs. B. Webb, B. Brewster, and tradition.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
Remington received $75, Aug. 29th, for three months teach- ing in the Western district. Rev. Daniel Weston, who was preaching in this town in October and November of this year, was probably employed also as a teacher; as he was after- wards, Nov. 6, 1800, applied to by Jenks, D. Fales, Jr., Stackpole, and P. Tilson, to teach four months at $25 a month, boarding himself out of it, and to preach at the same time; to be paid for by contributions. But whether he actu- ally taught in either of these years, does not appear.
The vexatious affair of the widow Anna Clark, whose es- tate and the place liable for her support had so long baffled the authorities of the town to discover, was this year brought to an end by her death and the admission of her claims as a State pauper. Only $66 50cts. were received from the State treasury, - the annual allowance which had been made to Mr. Porterfield for her support.
William and James Watson, with their estates lying on the western side of the river and originally included within the limits of Warren, had up to this time, at their own re- quest, remained a part of that town, where they had many friends and family connections. But, as Thomaston had now become a place of active business, and as they found it much more convenient to attend worship here than at the new meeting-house in Warren, they had now made application to the General Court to set off them and their estates to Thom- aston. This application having been referred to the town at the annual meeting, a unanimous vote was passed in favor of the measure, and the General Court enacted, June 28. 1798, " That William Watson and James Watson of Warren, in the county of Lincoln, together with their real estate within the following metes and bounds, to wit : Beginning at a stake at the head of the Narrows, so called : thence east-south-east to St. George's River ; thence northerly up said river, to the first bounds, be, and hereby are set off from said town of Warren and annexed to the town of Thomastown in said county." Thus the important locality of Watson's Point was now legally united with Thomaston, as it had formerly been by a ferry and has since been by the toll-bridge leading towards Cushing.
Spencer Vose was succeeded in the tanning business, about 1797 or 1798, by Josiah Keith, at the same stand ; and Abra- han: Lushe from Boston, known here by the soubriquet of Dortor Lushe, was the principal hand in the tan-yard, em- ployed, we believe, by each of these gentlemen. Keith was from Bridgewater, and an active man of business, which he
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
carried on with energy and success during his life-time. It is related that, at the birth of his oldest child, Wm. R. Keith, Esq., a silver dollar was put into each hand of the infant by his uncle, Wm. Robinson; whilst Dr. Lushe, who had been despatched for the physician, and, to quicken his horse's speed, had donned a pair of spurs, which he was unused to and forgot to take off, on going down cellar for a pitcher of cider to treat himself and the company with, got his feet en- tangled with the spurs, and pitched headlong into the cellar, to the alarm of the household and manifest danger alike of the pitcher and his own life. But, whether these circum- stances had any influence on the new-comer's future procliv- ities for good and fast horses and the management of pro- perty, is not averred. This year, also, we find the names of E. Scott Young and Ebenezer Vose, among those selected to be put in the jury box, -the first time they are men- tioned, though, being single men, they probably were here a year or two earlier. Young was a mason from Scitu- ate, and settled on the Healey part of the John Alexander lot, on which he built, north of the road, the house which he lived in during his life, and which has recently been purchased and rebuilt in costlier style by Capt. D. Oliver. That part of the land south of the road was, not long after, taken by John Barnard, a ship-carpenter from Newburyport, who first came to the river in 1795, but worked some years at Warren and elsewhere. Vose was a joiner from Cushing, purchased and lived many years on the place now occupied by Capt. Simon M. Shibles, but removed to and ended his days in Montville. Philip Fogler, a blacksmith from Waldoboro', was also here, and had a shop at Blackington's Corner, but subsequently re- moved to Camden and other places.
In May, 1798, another change was made in the school dis- tricts; all the territory from the line of Warren including the Beech Woods and extending to David Creighton's and. Ebenezer Thompson's to the N. E., John and Phinehas But- ler's to the E. and to James Stackpole's on the South, form- ing one district ; and all that at Owl's Head Bay from and including Thomas Hix's to the line of Camden north-east- wardly, including Robert and Charles Jameson, forming another.
Wessaweskeag had now become a thriving place of busi- ness ; and, notwithstanding many annoyances from the spolia- tions of French cruisers, ship-building was actively and suc- cessfully carried on. Besides Snow and Coombs, who still · pursued the business, Dea. Richard Keating had the pre-
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ceding year built the sloop Miriam, and, four or five years later, built one or two other vessels. This, and the lumber business, attracted further emigrants to the place ; among whom were John, William, and Samuel Paul, shipcarpenters from Bristol, who about this time built several vessels further down the river. One of the hands this year employed by Wm. Paul was Jacob Demuth of Waldoboro', then 18 years old, who, two years before, had been employed by Dr. Webb in carrying messages and accounts in the lumber business from Union to Knox's overseer, Mr. Lowe, in Thomaston, and who, after working many years in different ship-yards, became a resident of Thomaston. William McLoon, another young mechanic from Bristol, commenced, also, about this time, his successful career of ship-building; working on different ves- sels here, at the Shore, and Clam Cove. At the latter place, he had built a house as earlyas 1796, which he subsequently exchanged with Elisha Snow (2d), and settled on Snow's lot at Wessaweskeag, now owned by his son, Charles McLoon, Esq. About this time, perhaps a few years earlier or later, several vessels were built down the Bay on George's River; among them the schooner Rebecca by Dea. S. and Jas. Brown and Capt. I. Lovett, which was lost when going into New London; a sloop of 80 tons by Dea. Weed and others, aban- doned in a gale on her return from Boston; and the schooner Columbus ; followed by the schooner Increase and other ves- sels by James Stackpole. Something was done, also, in this business, at the Shore. One vessel, besides those previously mentioned, had been built there by an Englishman who soon left the place ; and his name, as well as that of his vessel, with the date of building, is not ascertained. In this or the subsequent. year, 1799, the sloop Dolphin was built there by Wm. Spear and Mark Dexter ; both of whom followed coast- ing and probably shared in the management of her.
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