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 34
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 34
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 34
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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
In the eastern part of the town a melancholy casualty de- prived that place of one of its primitive settlers. John God- ding, near the Head of the Bay, whilst employed, Dec. 30th, in hauling out manure on the ice, slipped, fell, and was crushed to death by a heavily loaded sled. It is something of a coincidence that his wife, who survived him nine years, came to her end by a somewhat similar accident. Having fallen upon the ice, she expired a few minutes afterwards.
1817. The maritime and commercial business of the town having now considerably increased, a Deputy Collector's office in connection with that of Inspector, was established at Mill River in the fall of 1817; and H. Prince appointed to fill the same. This office he continued to hold up to the time of his death in 1840, -a period of 23 years, under the successive administrations of Presidents Monroe, J. Q. Ad- ams, Jackson, and Van Buren. He was succeeded in March, 1841, by John T. Gleason; the office has since been filled .by Edmund Wilson, in 1845 (who in March, 1846, was appointed Collector of the District) by James H. Rivers in 1849; by Henry T. Rivers, 1851; Edwin Rose, 1853; A. Levensaler, 1857; Sam'l H Allen, 1861; Christopher Prince, the same year ; and Geo. W. French, 1863.
This year was made somewhat memorable by the arrival in town of the Rev. John Henniker Ingraham, a native of Port- land, and student, but not graduate, of Bowdoin. He preach- ed some weeks in the North Parish as a missionary, and, by his eloquence and zeal so captivated the minds of the people and waked up that parish, that, at a meeting held Aug. 5th, it was voted to give Mr. Ingraham a call to settle as their pastor, to pay him $450 annually towards his salary, and to ascertain what further sums could be obtained from the several Mission- ary Societies and by private subscription, for his support. The call was accepted, and the ordination took place Oct. 15th : when the sermon was given by Rev. Mr. Payson of Portland, and the other services by Rev. Messrs. Ellingwood of Bath, Bailey of Newcastle, Gillet of Hallowell, Ward of Alna, Mitchell of Waldoboro', and Tappan of Augusta. From the churches and ministers thus invited, it is easy to perceive that the new pastor's sympathies were with the Hopkinsian
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party then struggling for ascendency in the Congregational order, and that the older churches in this vicinity were not to be held in christian fellowship. Accordingly, April 3, 1818, the church voted that members recommended from other churches should, before being received into this, be required to sign the articles of faith and give satisfactory evidence of their religious experience.
The military spirit kindled by the late war continuing to burn, and the militia companies of the town containing more than their complement of men, an independent company of Light Infantry was this year formed, called, from the color of their uniforms, the Silver Grays. Of this company Sullivan Dwight was, July 30th, chosen captain, Eusebius Fales, lieu- tenant, and Wm. Pope, ensign. Under these and succeeding sets of officers, it kept up a fine discipline and efficiency for many years, but finally declined and was disbanded June 21, 1834.
A pound was this year ordered to be built; and the prac- tice of dram-drinking in stores, having increased to such a pitch as to be considered a public nuisance, the town, in April, voted "that the law forbidding the sale of liquor to be thus drank, should be duly enforced," the selectmen to carry this vote into effect.
The gloom spread over the community by the disastrous season of 1816, was in some measure relieved by the warmer summer of this year, which proved to be the commencement of a series of favorable seasons for Indian corn. With returning harvests and productive seasons, also returned the former ac- tivity of business and the general prosperity of the country.
1818. About this time Dr. David Kellogg came from Framingham, Mass., and after consulting with Dr. Dodge amongst others, agreed to commence practice here in part- nership with him; but the two disagreeing in the very outset on the first case that presented itself, they parted in ill-humor and had no further intercourse with each other. Kellogg then commenced on his own account at the Mill River village, and had a successful run of practice till his removal about 1842 to Waukegan, Illinois, where he still resides. The le- gal profession here, also received a new accession in the per- son of John Ruggles, Esq .; who after studying law in his native Westboro' and graduating at Brown University, finished his legal studies with Gov. Levi Lincoln of Worcester, Mass., and in 1815 commenced practice at Skowhegan, but this year removed to Thomaston and entered on his long and success- ful career as a lawyer, magistrate, and statesman, - opening
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an office at Mill River. Among the students initiated at his ofice in the profession, may be mentioned Demerrick Spear of Rockland, whose early promise was soon blighted by.con- sumption ; Nathaniel Haynes, who became a lawyer and editor in Bangor, deceased in 1838 ; Jonathan Cilley, whose history is blended with that of the town and the country ; Wm. Tyng Hilliard, since a lawyer in Bangor and Clerk of the Courts in Penobscot county ; Abner Knowles, who removed hence to Bangor and has acquired some distinction, by his ability and urbanity, at the Penobscot bar ; and George W. French, now in the practice of law in Thomaston.
In October of this year, Major Archibald G. Coombs, then in command of the sloop Asa, which was built by him and his father, going with a cargo of lumber from Brewer, bound to Boston, after leaving Townsend harbor was overtaken by heavy snow-squalls and never heard of, after. He was last seen reefing, by Capt. S. Fuller, who sailed in company, and with great difficulty, by aid of stanch sails and rigging, made good his passage. On board the Asa, were the captain, his son of the same name aged 16, and Jordan Lovett, all of the present South Thomaston, together with one Crawford, sea- man, and a woman with her three children, from Brewer, on her way to meet her husband in Boston.
The cause of religion and the church in the South Parish having flourished for about three years under the united min- istry of Snow and Baker, the junior pastor again in 1818 broached doctrines which were deemed to be unscriptural ; and, after an ineffectual effort on the part of the church, aided by a council, to restore harmony, he was excluded from their fellowship a second time, and dismissed April 15, 1818. After the lapse of several years he again sought and obtained admission into the church, but was never after restored to the pastoral office. Rev. L. B. Allen, to whose historical sketch of this church, published in the Zion's Advocate of Oct. 15, 1844, we have been greatly indebted, remarks that "those who are best acquainted with Mr. Baker very generally con- sider his errors to have been those of the head, not those of the heart." The truth seems to be that he entered the min- istry with very slender educational qualifications. His taste and style, as well as his opinions, were crude and imperfectly formed; his early discourses were more voluble than solid, abonnding with elegant and sublime passages from Young and Milton, mixed in with his own extemporaneous matter, "like rubies and diamonds," as Sullivan, the schoolmaster, used to say, " in a basket of chips." But he had candor, 27·
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sincerity, and a spirit of inquiry. He read, and thought, and, as new ideas and seeming truths broke in upon his mind he was led to embrace them, and impulsively hastened to share them with others. The consequence was, that, though always sincere in his opinions and rigid in the discharge of what he deemed to be duty, his mind was too vacillating to retain the confidence of his people or regain his influence over them. He continued to preach whenever and wherever requested ; to study, consider, and think; to grow in candor, learning, liberality, and charity,-even late in life he is said to have studied the Greek language, spent some time in the Theological Seminary at Bangor, and, altogether, so far im- proved himself in matter and manner, that the earliest and latest sermons which it fell to the lot of the compiler of this work to hear from him, formed as strong a contrast to each other as could well be found or imagined. It is not strange that such a contrast between his youth and his age, so wide a departure from himself, together with his total disregard of outward observances, and his gratuitous preaching in the streets to any or all who chose to hear, should have led many to consider him partially insane. Neither is it wonderful that such a man should be often destitute of worldly wealth and relieved only by the hand of Christian benevolence. His death occurred at Rockland.
1819. This year was marked by the death of two of Thomaston's most eminent physicians. Dr. Isaiah Cushing, having in great measure lost his practice, buried an excel- lent wife, and become a great sufferer in health and in spirits, was, in June of this year, found dead in a field or pasture north-east of the Knox mansion. As quantities of laudanum or opium were found with him, it was presumed to be a case of suicide. Dr. Dodge, who, from the time of Cushing's first com- ing, had been alternately on terms of professional enmity and friendship with him, now, under the influence of the former, objected to his being interred in the burying ground, -de- claring that if he were, neither himself nor any of his family should ever be buried there. Tradition adds, however, that his was the next burial that took place in that cemetery. On the 4th of July, after dining at " Aunt Polly Spear's" tavern at the Shore, he was taken with a fit of apoplexy, of which he lingered speechless, but apparently sensible, till the 5th of August, when he expired, -greatly lamented by his friends, and especially his family, to whom he was uniformly kind and affectionate. Thus these two rival physicians ended their lives, clouded, indeed, by evil passions, but by no
1
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means destitute of virtues, and were allowed to deposit their remains and resentments in the same common resting-place.
A short time before his death, Dr. Dodge had made pre- parations for going into the tanning business, then a very profitable investment for capital, and had induced David Gloyd of Abington, Mass., who, in the militia service of the preceding war, had risen to the rank of Colonel, to remove hither for the purpose of taking charge of the establishment. Disappointed in his expected engagement as a tanner, Gloyd took charge of the late Doctor's mountain farm, and continued there some three or four years, he and his family becoming permanent residents. Abner Rice, also, with his newly mar- ried wife, from Kingston, came to the place and commenced a prosperous business as a blacksmith, at Mill River, which was then the most fashionable and busy part of the town, containing about 20 buildings. To emigrants approaching the place, by the river, the first objects presented were still only the- Knox mansion, the house of Dr. Fales, the North Parish meeting-house, and Madambettox Mt. rising and over- looking them from behind. There was then but one wharf fit to moor a vessel to, near which were the Vose and four other houses ; at Paine's corner were three buildings ; and, from thence to Mill River, were eight others." Ballard Green and Eli Merrill were now doing an extensive business in Eng- lish and West India goods, as tenants under Hon. Wm. King of Bath, who then owned the upper Knox wharf, the Prison quarry, and other valuable property here, carved out of the Knox estate.
At the annual town meeting held on the first Monday of April, instead of March as heretofore, C. Spofford was re-elect- ed town clerk, but, being debilitated by sickness and unable to attend, was succeeded by J. Ruggles, who was chosen clerk pro tem. Sept. 20th, and filled the office to the end of the year.
Although, since the late war, business had been gradually reviving, and the unpropitious seasons which followed were now somewhat ameliorated, yet the effects of these two causes of distress and poverty still remained. For alleviating these, J. H. Ingraham, J. Washburn, and 23 other principal citi- zens, were incorporated, Feb. 18, 1819, as the Thomaston Charitable Society. The first meeting was held at Mill River school-house, March 26, 1822 ; by-laws were adopted ; offi- cers chosen ; one dollar admittance and one dollar annually
* A. Rice, Esq.
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
required of each member, besides contributions at the annual June meeting ; at which an address was to, be delivered. But, after one such address by Rev. Mr. Ingraham, and the probable expenditure of the funds on hand, the records are silent.
The question of Separation having again been mooted, the Legislature required the several towns in the District to ex- press their minds anew on the expediency of the measure; and an act of Congress having been passed removing the principal objection, as to entering and clearing of coasters, the inhabitants here now voted, 121 in favor of the measure, to 89 against the same. The whole District having given a majority on the same side, this town chose Isaac Bernard, and John Spear delegates to the convention at Portland in October, which, after a prolonged session, framed the present constitution by which the district became the State of Maine. This was submitted to the people, Dec. 6th; when those of Thomaston gave 74 votes in favor of its adoption and none against it. 1820. Thus was the year 1820 permitted to dawn auspiciously upon our new-born Commonwealth; and, agreeably to the provisions of its adopted constitution, the first annual election of executive and legislative officials was held April 3d, and resulted with unusual unanimity in the choice of the Hon. William King of Bath, for Chief Execu- tive magistrate; although in filling up the Senate and House of Representatives there was o course greater diversity of opinion. Isaac Bernard was chosen Thomaston's first rep- resentative in the new State of Maine; he receiving 102 votes, John Ruggles 51, Jos. Sprague 13, and John Spear 4.
The population of the town having now greatly increased, especially in the north-eastern part, a house of worship for the accommodation of the residents there was felt to be de- sirable. A subscription was accordingly got up and an edifice of brick, the first meeting-house ever built within the pre- cincts of what is now Rockland, was erected this year, 1820, on land of Isaac Brown upon the old post road leading to Camden. The pews were sold to defray the expenses, and the house was intended for and used by any and all denomi- nations according to their several wants. It was mostly oc- cupied by the Methodists and Universalists, till after the in- creased population nearer the Shore and principal place of business had led to the holding of meetings and final erection of separate churches there by those two denominations ; when, having gone somewhat to decay, it was purchased and taken down by B. A. Gallop, -the proprietors having been author-
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ized by a law of March 20, 1837, to dispose of it for the benefit of the pew holders.
The location of this edifice was probably decided upon in order to draw in and accommodate the large number of Meth- oulisis then in its vicinity. The first introduction of this sect into these parts, was, according to tradition, made by one Mayo, who had been a blacksmith at Cape Cod, was converted by Rev. Mr. Lee from England, came to Vinalhaven, preached there and occasionally at what is now Rockland, Camden, and Brownsville, where he died at the age of 84. From an inju- ry in his head, his latter days were more or less marked by insanity ; but he still continued to preach, oftentimes without sensible aberration. The first converts made here, were Oli- ver Beals and Ebenezer F. Newell, two joiners then tempo- rarily employed on the new house of Jacob Ulmer. Through these, who joined the church at Vinalhaven about 1797, and became preachers, others were led to embrace the same faith ; and, in the spring of 1801, the first Methodist class was formed here, by Rev. Aaron Humphrey, then at Vinalhaven, and his assistant Rev. Reuben Hubbard. It consisted of Nathaniel Fales (2d) and wife, Samuel Brown and wife, Jas. Brown and wife, Jas. Partridge and wife, Hannah Loring, afterwards Mrs. Butler, Wm. Brown, and Lucretia Brown, af- terwards Mrs. Thompson. Though it is said that in 1811 the class here contained 30 members, we find no record of any appointment for the Thomaston station till that of Samuel Plummer in 1820 He was succeeded in 1822 by Joseph S. Ayers, and in 1825 by Sullivan Bray. At a quarterly meeting conference, March 1, 1828, a board of trustees, viz .: B. A. Gallop, J. Colson, V. B. Robbins, J. Partridge, Jas. Spear, Jas. Morse, J. Ulmer, S. Manning, and A. Ulmer, were ap- pointed to build a Methodist meeting-house in Thomaston, according to discipline ; and J. Colson, V. B. Robbins, B. A. Gallop, S. Albee and J. Partridge were chosen a committee to estimate the expense of said house. In accordance with this vote, a chapel was shortly after, in this or the following year, built at the Shore on land of Andrew Ulmer, and fur- nished with a steeple and bell; constituting, with subse- quent additions, their present house of worship in Rockland. In 1827 a class seems to have been formed at Mill River by Greenleaf Greeley, who, with Philip Munger, had charge of this circuit. "The succeeding appointments for the Thom- aston station, were, in 1835, Chas. D. Bragdon ; 1836, Moves Palmer; 1837, Benjamin Bryant, assisted in 1838 by S. W. Partridge, under whom a new society was formed in the
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
western part of the town, whose history, with that of the East Thomaston or Rockland church, will be resumed under the head of the respective municipalities to which they be- long. *
1821. At the annual town meeting, May 14th, it was voted "that the selectmen build, hire, or purchase, a work- house, as they may judge proper." The election for State officers was this year, in accordance with the new constitu- tion, held, as at present, on the second Monday of September, instead of April. Licenses to inn-holders and retailers, which had hitherto been granted by the county authorities, were this year, under a new law, granted by the selectmen, treas- urer, and town-clerk of each town, within its own limits. The number thus granted in Thomaston was 25; all of them, we believe, retailers, except Wm. Tilson, an inn-holder.
Not far from this time, a project was formed for keeping up the price of lime and prevent its reduction by the natural effect of competition. To this end, a mutual obligation was entered into by the producers, not to undersell each other, nor have more than one kiln of it on sale at once, - each kiln, as soon as put up in casks and inspected, to be entered with the town clerk, and not sold till its predecessors had been dis- posed of. This scheme worked well for a short time, and brought the price of lime up to $1,50, and even $1,75 ; but, like all plans for sustaining artificial prices, it was evaded in one way or another, and soon abandoned.t
After the dismission of Elder Baker, the South Parish, or First Baptist Church, remained under the single administra- tion of the stable and inflexible Snow for three years; till, June 21, 1821, the Rev. Samuel Fogg was ordained as his colleague. He was then recently from the Theological Sem- inary in Waterville, and remained about five years ; during which time 32 were baptized into the church. The affairs in the North Parish, also, since the ordination of Mr. Ingraham, had been managed with increasing prosperity. His ministry was very successful ; his salary of $450, annually raised with- out difficulty ; and an order for $48, now voted to him for services six Sabbaths prior to his ordination, with the interest due on it, he voluntarily gave to the parish, Dec. 14, 1820, as a present to his people.
1822. In consequence of the many disorders and vices
" Mrs. James Morse, daughter of Rev. Mr. Mayo ; Records of the So- cietv, and Hist sketch by Rev. S. Albee, &c.
+ J. Bird, Esq.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
which, from the seeds sown during the late war, had grown up with the years of prosperity that had succeeded, and were fast coming to maturity, an association signed by Jos. Sprague and 26 others, was formed called the Thomaston Moral So- ciety. His purposes, as we gather them from the preamble and by-laws, were to suppress vice and immorality in general, especially among the young; to prevent violation of the Lord's day, the useless and wicked habit of profanity, and · every kind of rudeness and indecency towards strangers and others; with a mutual pledge to stand by each other and the proper officers in restraining and punishing all offenders. This society held its preliminary meeting at the house of Mr. Stimpson, Feb. 7th, and continued to flourisli, -frequent meetings being held; addresses delivered by Messrs Ingra- ham, Thatcher, and probably others ; and a salutary influence exercised till 1824-5, when an extensive excitement under the united ministrations of Revs. Washburn and Ingraham, overshadowed or rendered unnecessary its further labors; and Its written record closes without formal dissolution.
On the 16th of June, 1822, the North Parish assessors gave an order for the payment of $12 "to Eusebius Fales, executor to the estate of David Fales, Esq., deceased, for ringing the bell and tending the fire in the meeting-house, by that aged gentleman, the year past." Thus it appears that he who had filled so large a place in the annals of the town and the parish, and left so fair a mark on the records of them all, had not wholly ceased from his faithful public labors till the very close of his long life; - which lacked but little of fourscore and nine years. He died on the 4th of April ; - leaving 17 children, 69 grand-children, and 5 great grand- children, then living. The descendants of his twenty-four children form no inconsiderable part of the population of the three corporations which, before their separation, he repre- sented in the State Convention for ratifying the Constitution of the United States. As a man he was not popular, as we have elsewhere said; but his correctness in business, his firmness in adhering to principles, and his attachment to the institutions of religion, cannot be questioned. Conservative in character and faithful to his employers, he hesitated, as agent of the Proprietors and a magistrate under the king, to rashly commit himself in the revolutionary struggle ; but we are not aware of his ever having been accused of aiding the enemy, or plotting against the colonies. As a physician, his judgement was reliable and his practice safe; but he was wanting in promptness, and hence easily supplanted in prac-
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tice by young, energetic, and bold practitioners. As a sur- veyor, a justice, a clerk or attorney, he was equally care- ful ; and no necessity of haste could prevent him from doing his work correctly as far as he went. If he had faults, if he was opinionated, if he treated with some contumely the ob- scure penmanship, the false orthography, and intolerable syn- tax of some of his successors in the office of town clerk, those, who, like the writer, have occasion to consult the records, will easily pardon him and sympathize in his feelings. In the parish, whose interests he cherished with a kind of pa- ternal devotion, his services were duly appreciated and not wholly dispensed with till his final departure from the scene of his labors.
The North Parish bell, still the only one in the place, hav- ing become disabled, was this year sent to Boston and re-cast. It was brought down from thence by Capt. W. J. Fales, in the sch. Dodge Healey, and re-hung, June 15th; after which the house was re-painted by E. G. Dodge, Jr.
In consequence of an early drought and a fire at Jenks's kilns, on Sunday, the 16th of June, consuming large quanti- ties of kiln-wood, threatening Luther Lincoln's store, and raging in the woods before a violent gale, till the calmness of night allowed its partial arrest, Rev. Mr. Ingraham recom- mended the observance of the following Thursday as a day of fasting and prayer. It was accordingly kept as such ; and, says the diary of H. Prince, Jr., " the exercises of the day had not been over more than one hour, before it came in thick and foggy, and in the night we had a most refreshing rain." This was followed by copious showers, and the crops of hay, maize, and grain were good; as were all fruits and vegetables.
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