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 36
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 36
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 36
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From these interesting letters of this unfortunate daughter of Gen. Knox, I would gladly make further extracts; but want of space compels me to forbear. Grenville Mellen, so frequently mentioned and eulogized, was the eldest son of Chief Justice Mellen of Portland, born at Biddeford, June 19, 1799. He graduated at Harvard in 1818, commenced the practice of law in Portland, removed to Thomaston in Dec. 1822, sup- plying the place made vacant by the removal of Mr. Wilkin- son, and with a fair prospect of success. But, after remain- ing about a year, he left for North Yarmouth, where he re- sided about five years, and married Mary Southgate of Portland. Having, in Oct. 1828, buried his wife, and, in the following spring, Lis only child, he became depressed in spirits and removed to Boston, continuing to write, as he had done from his college days, poems and other articles for the U. S. Lit- erary Gazette and the various periodicals of the day. From Boston he removed to New York, where his delicate health still further declined, and where, after an attempt to regain it by a voyage to Cuba, he died of consumption, Sept. 5, 1841, - having established a name and a fame among the poets and prose writers of our country.
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CHAPTER XVII.
ADVANCING STEPS; FIRST TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, FIRST PRINTING OFFICE, FIRST BANK, &C.
AT a meeting April 7, 1823, the selectmen were appointed a committee to remonstrate against the division of Lincoln and the formation of a new county, west of the Kennebec, with Bath for its shire town. The project failed, and was al- lowed to rest until consummated by the erection of the coun- ties of Sagadahoc and Androscoggin in 1854.
In consequence of a new law requiring real estate to be taxed for the building and repair of school-houses only in the districts where the same is situated, it became necessary to define the several school districts of the town by territorial limits, instead of by families and dwellinghouses. This sub- ject was referred to the selectmen, together with J. Gleason and W. Heard, whose report with certain amendments was accepted, May 5th; at which time it was voted " that the Se- lectmen be authorized to agree with Esq. Gleason to furnish a plan of the town." Such plan, however, the compiler of this work has never been able to find.
A committee, consisting of Dr. Daniel Rose of Boothbay, Hon Benj. Ames of Bath, and Hon. Thos. Bond of Hallowell, having been appointed to purchase a suitable site for a State Prison, -which the legislature, on report of a previous view- ing committee, had determined to locate in this town, and which was to be constructed under superintendence of Dr. Rose, -met, Feb. 18, 1823, and, after inspecting the several localities of the place, decided, May 7th, in favor of Lime- stone Hill. The site, consisting of ten acres of land, including the quarry of limestone so long used by the first proprietor and his successors, Wheaton, Knox, and others, and extend- ing from Main street to George's river, was purchased of Ex- Gov. King, at a cost of $3000, and the building, as far as its eaves, contracted for at $12,000. The contractors (from Quincy or Boston) had, by the middle of July, no less than fifty men employed on the ground, with two lighters trans- porting the granite from St. George; and, after Gov. Parris and one of the council had inspected the work, Oct. 15th, they finished their job and left by Nov. 24th. Other contracts were made ; among which Jos. Berry was to cover the top of the hospital with rock for $500, which, with the house for the . warden, was finished within the year. In June, 1824, all being in readiness, and Dr. Rose having been appointed war-
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den, convicts began to arrive, fourteen having been brought by water from Charlestown, Mass., July 14th, making, with those previously received, a total of 35, -mostly employed . in the lime quarry. In 1828, the western wing was enlarged by the construction of 20 additional cells. The original plan of the prison, by which the convicts were nightly let down through an opening in the stone floor to cells ill-ventilated, damp, and cold, not proving satisfactory, a great improve- ment on the side of humanity was made in repairing and re- modelling it, in 1843, by constructing three tiers of cells, one above another, substantially built of stone, entered by iron doors of open grates, secured by an iron bar running the whole length of each tier and simultaneously bolted. This alteration was planned and executed chiefly, we believe, by agency of Dr. B. F. Buxton of Warren, at that time one of the inspectors, at a cost of $13,177, -the sanction and ap- propriations for which were greatly aided by Hons. A. H. Hodgman and B. Fales of the House together with J. L. Pat- terson of the Senate. The limestone got out by the convicts not meeting with sufficient demand, the hewing of granite, brought up the river from a quarry which the State purchased in St. George, was to a considerable extent substituted later ; but the shoe and carriage makers' shops having eventually been found the most profitable, at present employ the greatest portion of the inmates. A large part of the prison having been destroyed by fire, Dec. 22, 1850, the warden took imme- diate measures for repair ; and being visited, Jan. 2, 1851, by Gov. Hubbard and council, his doings were approved and $5,500 appropriated to conclude the work. A main building of stone was erected, and nearly completed in May, 1851. The stone wall around the whole yard, in progress some years, was finished in 1854. In 1855, a guard-house was built on the south-east corner of the wall and a story added to the wheelwright's shop - $3000 having been appropriated. In 1858, the number of prisoners had so much increased (num- bering 128) that there was a great want of room ; and, though $13,000 were appropriated in March of that year, nothing was done, in consequence of the sum being supposed insuf- ficient for the plan proposed by the architect employed to make examination. Warden Rose's successors have been Joel Miller of St. George in 1828, John O'Brien of Thomas- ton in 1836, Benjamin Carr of Palermo in 1839, Wm. Ben- nett of Ellsworth in 1850, Thomas W. Hix of Rockland in 1855, Wm. Bennett again in 1856, Thomas W. Hix again in 1857, and Richard Tinker of Ellsworth in 1861. The last
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of these met a tragical death, May 14, 1863, just before the close of his term, from the hand of Francis Spencer Couil- lard, one of the convicts, who, without any known cause or previous altercation, struck him with a knife, in passing, upon the right side of the throat, severing the carotid artery and producing death in a few moments. The murderer was im- mediately secured, indicted for murder, pleaded guilty, and received at Rockland, May 19th, the sentence of death, which was executed in the prison-yard, June 24, 1864. Before Mr. Tinker's murder, Warren W. Rice, a native of Union, was appointed to the office of warden and entered upon its dutics June, 1863. This prison, unless the time since Mr. Rice's appointment be an exception, has never been self-sustaining, the annual appropriations for its support having varied from $2,605 to $26,360 .*
The flames of party spirit having been allayed in a good degree by the conciliatory and prosperous administration of President Monroe, fewer occasions than usual had been sought for political demonstration. Signs of a change, however, now began to exhibit themselves, in view of a coming Presi- idential election. At the annual meeting, in this town, a new board of selectmen and assessors, consisting of democrats only, was chosen. This disturbance of the political calm be- came still more manifest on the Fourth of July, when a dou- ble celebration was held in the place. One of these, styled the republican, was at the brick meeting-house, which was neatly and handsomely decorated. The clerical services were performed by Rev. J. Washburn; the declaration read by Wm. J. Farley of Waldoboro'; and an oration, which was received by the audience with much applause, delivered by Mr. Ruggles. A procession was then forined and moved to the house of Jacob Ulmer, where a company of about 300 took dinner, Gen. Denny McCobb of Waldoboro' presiding.t The other or Federal celebration was held at the North Parish meeting-house, and is thus described by Mrs. Swan in a letter to her friend Mrs. Clark, whose husband, Dr. Daniel Clark, after spending a few years here as physician, had recently removed with his family to Portland. "We had quite a brilliant celebration here on the Fourth, I assure you. The division of parties in such a village as this, was doubtlessly a ridiculous affair. It could not be termed a political division. as we had many of the most respectable democrats on our
. Wardens' Reports ; Journals of the day, &c.
t Diary of H. Prince, Jr., Esq. VOL. 1. 29
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
side. The question was I believe, rather between the Rug- glesites and their opponents. Mr. Cleland of Waldoborough gave us a well written oration. Mr. Ingraham made an im- pressive and appropriate prayer and looked like a perfect beauty. The Declaration of Independence was read in a prodigiously fine style. Of course, you will say, seeing it was Mr. Mellen who read it, -and of course likewise the singing, notwithstanding a great deal of previous practising, was but indifferent, because Mr. Mellen was transferred from the Choir to the Pulpit." The following toast by Col. Healey is given as characteristic of the feelings on the occasion. "Party spirit; - its fires having been securely raked up, may whoever attempts to open them again, burn his own fingers."
This incipient political division was further aggravated by the personal animosities which grew out of the Post Office affairs. Early in 1821, J. D. Wheaton who had held the of- fice of postmaster ever since its first establishment, was un- expectedly superseded by the appointment of H. Prince, then Dept. Collector and also a merchant here. Wheaton, al- though accused of being petulant and somewhat behind the times, was esteemed as an honest, free-hearted, generous citi- zen, and, being of the same Democratic party, many of his friends felt indignant that he should be thus suddenly super- seded by one who certainly did not need the office. From the agency which Mr. Ruggles had in procuring this appoint- ment, he of course shared in the odium which arose from it, and which his political adversaries endeavored to make the most of. Prince, however, by his superior management of , the office, was gradually disarming hostility, when in Jan. 1823, three different sums of money, amounting in all to about $200, directed to one Pierce of Boston, and mailed .at this office, failed to reach their destination. As at that time all letters for places beyond Portland were put in a separate package, marked " Westward" and not opened short of that place, inquiries were made and no account found of the missing packages ever having arrived. Under these circum- stances, an action was commenced April 4th, by Pierce, for the recovery of the money, against Prince and Ruggles, the latter having sometimes assisted in the office; and they, conscious of their own innocence, resolved to stand trial and have a full investigation. - Five days later, Prince commenced an action for defamation against Dr. Clark, who, as the pro- fessional rival of Kellogg, Prince's son-in-law, was thought to have made himself liable by circulating for facts many
.
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groundless surmises. To increase this state of exacerbation, on the return of Judge Thatcher from Washington, Mr. Wheaton entered the post office April 22d, and informed Mr. Prince that he had an order to resume its duties and should like to take possession the following morning. This was done, accordingly, on the 24th, Thus Mr. Prince found him- self deprived of the office which had proved such a source of trouble and vexation ; his character traduced by his enemies and perhaps brought into doubt in the minds of his friends ; his assistant and friend involved with himself in lawsuits, to the uncertain issue of which and an overruling Providence he could alone look for redress and the elucidation of truth. But the cloud that hung over him was broken June 3d, by the news, that two mails from Wiscasset had been missed in the same way as those from this town ; and wholly dissipated, before the end of the month, by the detection of the culprit, (a young law student at Bath) by means of a draft from B. Green of this place to his partner, R. N. Foster, stolen in the same way. The feelings engendered, both personal and poli- *tical, still remained, however, though the election of Mr. Ruggles as representative was secured in September, by a vote of 169, against 140 for David Crockett. On the 25th Dec. judgment in the action of Pierce vs. Prince and Ruggles was entered against the plaintiff, and, on his appeal to the Supreme Court, was finally disposed of Oct. 1, 1824, by a verdict in favor of the defendants, whose characters in pub- lic estimation no longer needed this triumphant vindication.
In the winter of 1822-3, an association of young men of promise, headed by Richard and Demerrick Spear, G. Marsh, and others, called the Alpha Society, was formed for declama- tion and kindred branches, held interesting weekly meetings in the Ulmer school-house and other places for two years, and was again revived in 1826. Its first president was Rev. J. H. Ingraham, succeeded by J. Ruggles, E. Thatcher, H. Prince, Jr., and J. Cilley.
Among the gala days of the year, attracting crowds of spec- tators, were a regimental muster at Blackington's Corner, Sept. 9th; and July 24th, a caravan of wild animals includ- ing two bisons, exhibited two days at Esq. Gleason's, - be- ing the first collection of any extent ever brought to the place.
In regard to weather, the mercury fell. Jan. 8th, to 8º below zero; when Georges river froze up as far down as MeCobb's Narrows, and did not open till after the equinox. The tem- perature was again 6- below, Feb. 7th, and 5º below, March 4th, after a storm of snow and wind which left hard-crusted
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drifts ten or twelve feet deep. Another snow storm, still more violent, March 31st, destroyed many vessels along the coast. In consequence of severe winters, with the growing scarcity and higher price of wood, many contrivances were resorted to about this time for the saving of fuel. Among these, the most important was the introduction of cook stores, one of which, believed to be the first in town, was used by the family of H. Prince, as early as 1820. Lucifer matches, air-tights about 1838, furnaces, the use of coal, and other im- provements, have since succeeded and made great changes in the dwellings of the people. On the night of May 25th, when the moon was a little past the full, during a gale of wind from the N. W., a bright lunar rainbow was observed about midnight by such of the people here as had the good fortune to be out and witness so rare a phenomenon. On the 18th of June, early in the forenoon, a sudden shower of a few minutes' duration, was attended with the heaviest thunder ever heard in this town. The lightning struck near Mr. Ev- erton's, at the toll bridge ; shattered the fence on Maj. Rob- bin's place ; descended on the barn of Daniel Palmer, which . was burnt to the ground; passed down the N. W. corner of James Eaton's house, tearing off boards, near which, in a bed- room, lay a child uninjured, though the bed was covered with fragments of plastering ; struck and utterly demolished a tree in the corner of the burying-ground, near which William Stevens, senior, was at work,-shattering a jug under the tree, and stunning him considerably. The next day, though the wind blew fresh from the N. W., the mercury stood at 85". In July, a drought commenced, and was very severe till Sept. 18th; in consequence of which a fast was kept by the North parish church Sept. 11th. Extensive fires prevailed at Owl's . Head and other woody parts of the town, and several houses were at times thought to be in jeopardy. These were as nothing, however, to the conflagration at Wiscasset and Alna ; to relieve the sufferers from which, this town voted, Oct. 4th, to give $200. On the night of Dec. 4th and 5th, a violent storm did considerable damage on the George's River side of the town, to the shipping moored at the wharves, sinking gon- dolas loaded with lime, and blowing over some old buildings.
Navigation was tolerably prosperous, one vessel only from this port, the Thomas & Edward, being lost; and one, the Hercules, with a crew of young men from this vicinity, miss- ing since the preceding autumn, was never heard from. Lime brought only 95 cents in Boston ; but large quantities of it were burnt, furnishing constant freight to 12 or 15 coasting
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vessels, which, not having to wait for lading, made great dis- patch. The year is notable for the commencement of a reg- ular line of steamboats along the coast. The steamer Maine of 125 tons, Capt. D. Lunt, plied from Bath to Eastport, regularly touching at Owl's Head, South Thomaston. Mr. Bussey, now in possession of considerable property obtained by mortgage out of the Knox estate, engaged in extensive im- provements by Bryant and N. Rice his agents, built kilns and a wharf at the mouth of Mill River, caused a new road to be laid out by Morse and Ferrand's to the wharf, and ex- pended large sums in clearing up and improving his lands, divesting them of unsightly stumps and the upspringing growth of young evergreens.
Among the removals by death, may be mentioned those of Col. Geo. Coombs, a valued citizen and military officer of Wessaweskeag village, who died of consumption May 13th, and was buried the 16th with masonic honors, more than 300 persons walking in procession to the grave; and, on Sept. 2d, after an illness of five months, Dr. Isaac Bernard, who had been a distinguished citizen and successful physician in the place for more than thirty years. He was buried on the 4th with masonic and military honors, also, -the occasion calling together a very large concourse. His successor as a physi- cian in that part of the town, now Rockland, was Dr. Jacob S. Goodwin, who had received a good education, and soon ob- tained considerable practice; which, from lack of attention, or other cause, he gradually lost, removed to Mill River, and subsequently died.
The year 1823 was distinguished by the formation, Dec. 25th, of a Temperance Society at the Shore village, now Rock- land; - the first ever formed on the principle of total absti- nence in the territory of Old Thomaston, and probably the first in the State, or the United States. Its earliest recorded meeting for choice of officers was held at the house of John Spear, Esq., Jan. 7, 1824, when Jos. Hasty was chosen pres- ident; Knott Crockett, treasurer; and C. Holmes, secretary. It advanced firmly and successfully on in its career of useful- ness, and, Feb. 19th, the first public temperance address was delivered in its behalf by Demerrick Spear, and listened to with equal curiosity and satisfaction. This took place in the old or earliest school-house in the district, if not present city ; it stood on the site now occupied by the Spear block at the corner of Main and Park streets, and has since been removed to Holmes street, and occupied as a dwelling. In this, or the brick meeting-house, and sometimes in private houses, fre-
29*
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
quent meetings were held, and addresses delivered by Revs. Lovell and Ingraham, with one at Christmas by. Richard Spear, -the whole number of members admitted during 1824 being sixty-three. This society obtained an act of incorpo- ration under the name of the Thomaston Temperate Society, Feb. 26, 1825, and continued to thrive with more or less success at different periods. The persons named in the act were, Knott and David Crockett, John and Elkanah Spear, Iddo Kimball, Freeman Harden, and Oliver Fales, with their associates; the first being president, and the last, secretary. The conditions of membership were, the payment of $1 ad- mittance fee, fifty cents at each annual meeting, and the same sum as a fine for every transgression of their rule to abstain from ardent spirits unless prescribed by a physician. From these sources funds accumulated, and were invested by a com- mittee in flour, corn, and other speculations for the benefit of the society .* An able and eloquent address in its behalf was delivered March 30, 1830, by J. A. Lowell, a native of the place, then established in the profession of the law at East Machias. At that time, 1830, the cause of temperance had got to be a general topic of interest through the community. Temperance lectures were everywhere exciting attention, and there were already said to be not less than 1015 temperance societies in the United States, of which sixty-two were in Maine. One at South Thomaston, in connection with a read- ing room, was formed Dec. 23, 1829, of which G. Emery was secretary; and succeeded in 1832 or '3 by another on more stringent principles, commenced under inauspicious, al- most ludicrous circumstances, but productive of great good, of which Chas. Glover was president, Ezekiel D. Hall, vice pres- ident, Joshua Bartlett, A. Coombs, and R. Rowell, prudential committee, and B. Robinson, secretary. A call was made on the citizens of West Thomaston also, to meet at the Bank Hall on the evening of April 12, 1830 for the purpose of forming a similar society ; - which was accordingly done, and T. P. Vose was chosen secretary. To this society Mr. Wood- hull gave an address Oct. 14, 1830, Hon. I. G. Reed of Waldoboro', March 4, 1831, Dr. Holman of Gardiner, in 1837, and other lecturers of the day. This society continued its labors with alternate success and discouragement, till by increased exertions its numbers in 1837 amounted to more
* Printed Constitution and By-Laws in possession of Mrs. K. C. Perry ; Editorial in Rockland Gazette, Ap. 30, 1864; which says it was familiarly known as the Humility Society.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
than 300, at which time Abner Rice was chosen president. But its pledge by many being deemed defective in allowing the use of wine, a new society was formed upon more strin- gent principles, called the 2d West Thomaston Temperance Society, to which able addresses were delivered by Rev. Mr. Woodhull, Feb. 27, 1838, Hon. J. Holmes, Jan. 11th, and by Prof. C. Newton, Oct. 22, 1839. A course of six lectures, in Jan., 1839, was given to the citizens of West Thomaston in general, by Rev. Mr. Caldwell; and a second course by the same gentleman the following year; before the close of which between 300 and 400 persons signed the pledge. Then arose a general excitement on the subject here and through the country by means of the Washingtonians, as they were called, who, by recounting their own tragic and comic ex- periences, electrified the community, and drew immense num- bers into the ranks of temperance. In June, 1841, a delega- tion of this order arrived here from Bath, and by their efforts a Washington Temperance Society was formed both in the Eastern and Western parts of the town, embracing some of the most confirmed inebriates of each, as well as other friends of temperance. Of the W. Thomaston society, Wm. Singer, Jos. Berry, and J. D. Barnard, were officers, as were Larkin Snow, Benj. Berry (2d), and M. E. Thurlo, of the East Thom- aston society. One at South Thomaston soon followed; and early in 1842 there were Martha Washington societies in each section of the town. By the exertions of all these, a great change was produced in the customs of social inter- course, the fare of laborers and mechanics, and the fitting out of vessels ; in all which spirituous liquors were dispensed with, except for medicinal purposes. The principles adopted at home, our mariners carried with them to distant ports; Washingtonian meetings were held by them at New Orleans ; and Capt. S. M. Shibles, Dec. 25, 1841, held a grand ball on board his ship Massachusetts for the seamen there, who found no difficulty in keeping up their amusement and spirits to a late hour on the strength of cold water alone.
1824. The year began so mildly that George's River did not freeze up till Jan. 20th, and was open before the end of February. A small comet was seen in the east by many here about 3 A. M., Jan. 8th, and was still visible in the N. E. on the 23d at 10 P. M. The temperature, Feb. 5th, was 10° below zero ; and on the 12th a S. W. gale did consider- able damage in the place, unroofing sheds and prostrating fences. On the 5th March, half grown grasshoppers were picked up in sunny places and brought in by the pupils of the
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
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