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 42
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 42
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 42
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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
* Sketch of remarks in the Recorder of March 13, 1833.
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
The week following, a similar meeting of his political and personal friends was held in the new church at E. Thomaston for " noticing in a suitable manner the murder of Mr. Cilley." It was called to order by H. Stevens, organized by H. C. Lowell chairman. N. Meservey and Wmt. Masters secreta- ries, with prayer by Rev. Mr. Bryant; and similar resolu- tions but more decidedly criminative of the " conspiracy" were adopted. The remains of Mr. Cilley, after a public fu- neral at Washington, were transported to Thomaston, and there re-interred with suitable public solemnities, on the 19th of April. The ode before mentioned was sung, and, to add to the deep pathos of the occasion, the hymn, which some strange influence had so strongly impressed on the mind of the widow, as she casually opened the page on the Sabbath after the duel before the dreadful news had reached her.
"Far, far o'er hill and dale, on the winds stealing, List to the tolling bell, mournfully pealing : * *
* * Hark ! hark ! it seems to say, How short ambition's sway, Life's joys and friendship's ray, In the dark grave ending. *
Prior to these obsequies, a meeting of democrats was held at the Mill River meeting-house, April 13th, and measures . adopted for erecting a monument in memory of their late able and beloved leader. Messrs. B. Fales, A. Levensaler, J. Hewett, E. Wilson, now established as a lawyer in the west- ern village, N. C. Fletcher, Jos. Berry, J. Merrill, J. G. Paine, and J. P. Cole, were appointed a committee to consult with their brethren in the State, and take such other measures as they judge expedient for the purpose. These efforts were crowned with success ; and in 1841 a granite monument 17 feet in height, surmounted by a marble urn, was completed at a cost of about $500, and placed above his grave in the Elm Grove cemetery in Thomaston.
The first legal meeting of the town, this year, was called April 2d, for the purpose of voting for a successor to Mr. Cilley in Congress. The democratic candidate was John D. McCrate, who received here 474 votes ; whilst the whig vote was divided between two citizens of this town, Capt. Edward Robinson, who received 151, and Wm. J. Farley, Esq., who had 128 votes. This division of the whig vote, which extended only to this town and vicinity was caused by the unexpected fail- ure of Farley in obtaining the nomination of the whig con- vention at Wiscasset. Some objections had been made to
395
ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
him in the nominating committee, on account of his standing in relation to the temperance question, and the scale was turned against him by an unfortunate and violent fit or attack of illness with which he was seized in the court-house there, and from which serious doubts were entertained of his rocov- ery. 'The nomination was thereupon, unfairly as Mr. F. and his friends thought, given to Robinson, who was elected and served the remainder of the term. In the following autumn, at the convention for nominating a candidate for the next en- suing term, the friends of Farley urged his claims so strongly, and his character, talents, and reputation as an advocate and orator were so high, and those of Capt. Robinson, different, but equally and in some respects more estimable, were so highly appreciated by his friends, that no compromise could be made between them but by selecting another candidate from the opposite part of the district. Thus, Mr. Farley lost the only favorable opportunities he had ever found for attain- ing the high object of his ambition ; and, having now arrived at the meridian of life and the very zenith of his profession, being generally employed on one side or the other on almost every trial in Lincoln and Waldo counties, and having ex- perienced domestic affliction in the loss of one most amiable wife and all his children, he died the following summer, 1839, at the early age of 37. His dust slumbers in the peaceful silence of the same consecrated grounds with that of his friend and competitor
396
. HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
CHAPTER XXI.
REMAINING INCIDENTS, DOWN TO THE DIVISION OF THE TOWN.
1839. A WEEKLY newspaper, published in what is now Rockland, called the THOMASTON REPUBLICAN, was com- menced in Jan. 1839. It was whig in politics; published by Richard B. Caldwell, at $2 a year; and continued till Feb. 1841, when it was removed to Wiscasset.
In the Aroostook war, so called, after the defeat of the secret expedition sent to the disputed boundary of Maine and the capture of our Land Agent by the Governor of New Brunswick, orders for a draft of militia to repel the aggres- sion were issued, received here by the commander of the reg- iment at 4 o'clock afternoon of Feb. 23d, and, before 9 o'clock, transmitted to all the under officers. On Monday, the draft was made at the Mill River church, with an. alacrity, on the part of officers and soldiers, truly honorable. The officers detailed from this town were Col. E. C. Tilson, Lt. Col. G. A. Starr, quartermaster I. Fogg, surgeon M. R. Ludwig, captains I. K. Kimball, Wm. S. Ulmer, Jas. Dow, and P. Tilson; lieu- tenants T. Williams and Ephraim G. Hewett, and ensign Samuel H. Fales. The difficulty however having been ad- justed for the time by the agency of Gen. Winfield Scott, these troops were never called for.
Independence was this year celebrated at West Thomaston by an oration from E. Wilder Farley, then recently estab- lished here as a lawyer and the partner at first then the suc- cessor of Wm. J. Farley; prayer by Prof. Newton; the dec- laration by A. Levensaler; and dinner prepared by Mrs. E. Rose.
About this time another petition for alteration in the lime inspection law was got up by Dea. I. Kimball and others, au- thorizing the town to choose its own inspector general, with the usual power of appointing deputies. This was favorably reported on by a committee, and received the approbation of the town, but was rejected by the Legislature, and noth- ing came of it. The lime business at East Thomaston was this year very prosperous ; and there was much building both of ships and dwellings. In consequence of expenditures on the sea-wall at that place, by Harvey H. Spear, agent, and on Oyster River bridge, which, in concert with Warren, was rebuilt with stone piers and abutments, by Joel Miller, G.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
Lermond, and Jos. Berry, the town, Aug. 12th, voted to au- thorize a loan of $4000; and, either not succeeding in this or not finding it adequate, subsequently authorized borrow- ing whatever sum should be wanting, adding, in 1840, a fur- thor gum of $1500. A new facility to the navigation inter- est of West Thomaston was this year made. As early as June 30, 1834, Congress appropriated $3000 " for the erection of a beacon on the end of a shoal in Georges River, round which is formed what is called the Great Bend," or Turn. But, from some cause, nothing was done under this appropriation till the present year, when, under a new one obtained by ex- ertions of Hon. E. Robinson, then in Congress, a substantial structure of granite was put up, -an advantageous and en- during work. It was built, on contract, by Capt. L. Andrews, before mentioned, then of Warren, who subsequently put up a steam grist-mill at what is now Rockland, where he spent the rest of his days.
The house of Jeremiah Philbrook, near the Head of the Bay, S. Thomaston, was, Feb. 15th, destroyed by fire, with all its contents ; but so prompt was the active sympathy of his friends and neighbors that, in four days, another frame taken from the forest, was raised on the spot, and in six weeks the dwelling was ready to receive the grateful occu- pants. Two fatal accidents occured at E. Thomaston on one day, Aug. 21st. M. Van Buren, son of I. J. Perry, was drown- ed at the age of four years; and Julia Ann, daughter of Jo- seph Condon, of the same age, while crossing the street, was run over by a horse-team and instantly killed. In Oct. a case of small-pox occured at W. Thomaston, in the person of a colored seaman, and accommodation was obtained for him in an unoccupied house on Watson's Point.
Though the first of the season was wet and backward, the crops, with some few exceptions, were good. In the disas- trous storms that closed the year and marked the beginning of "the next, at intervals of about two weeks, no lives here were lost. In that of Dec. 16th, one brig was driven ashore at Wessaweskeag and bilged, and two vessels wrecked on Owls' Head; while in that of Dec. 28th two or three vessels were driven ashore at E. Thomaston.
1840. The road between Brown's Corner and the Shore village was this year indicted ; and a fine of $811 was paid by the town. The Fourth of July was chiefly celebrated by the Sabbath school children, associated and marshalled by their teachers. Political excitement was, in 1840, carried to a high pitch ; and processions, songs, and other novel demon- VOL. I. 34
398
HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
strations, first came into vogue. On the 11th August, a large boat mounted on wheels, with a full cargo of whigs, pro- ceeded from E. Thomaston to Wiscasset to attend a polit- ical gathering; and, prior to the September election, an able and courteous discussion took place between Chandler of Thomaston, whig, and Moore of Waterville, democrat, held in the open air in front of the Congregational church, at the eastern village.
ยท
A comet, quite brilliant, but without a train, was observed in the N. E. by a number of our citizens, about Feb. 20th, apparently flashing up at times, and with an eastward mo- tion. August 23d, a tremendous storm of rain, thunder, and lightning, passed over this town, in which a store was struck at East Thomaston, and Mr. Liddy, of the Beech Woods, was knocked down while sitting at the window, but recover- ed. The year was somewhat remarkable for its uniform, agreeable, productive and healthy, character. On the 19th May, Capt. Burton Vose, an active mariner of this town, while descending the Mississippi in the brig Caucasian, in assisting to let go an anchor on a sudden emergency, had one of his legs caught in the chain cable and badly crushed. Being thirty miles above New Orleans, he was taken down in a small boat under a scorching sun ; and although, on his ar- rival, amputation was performed as speedily as possible, mor- tification ensued, and, in about four days after the injury, he expired.
At the close of the year died Hezekiah Prince, Esq., who had honorably mingled in most of the transactions of this place for the preceding half century. After his removal from St. George, of which he had been the first selectman, 1803, and many years afterwards, representing it in the General Court from 1808 to 1811, he had removed to this place and, besides the varied business and offices before noted, was agent for receiving and paying out pensions to most of the old sol- diers of the Revolution here, and was, in 1831, a member of . the Senate, and once or more of the Executive council. He was an active and exemplary member of many moral and charitable institutions and especially of the Baptist church, which he first joined in St. George, having been baptized with his wife and five others in George's River, April, 1808. He was fortunate in his marriage with one who was a ready par- ticipant in all the amenities and charities of social, religious, and domestic life. Their home was prized alike by the transient visitor and constant boarder, and the union so au- spiciously begun here, could scarcely be said to have been
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399
ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
suspended by death, -husband and wife both passing away in the course of one month.
1841. No licenses having for the last dozen years, ac- cording to the town records, been granted for the sale of in- toxicating liquors, an article was this year inserted in the warrant to see if the selectmen should grant such; but the question was decided in the negative, almost unanimously. Many voluntarily relinquished the traffic; and the cause of temperance was never more promising. The same vote was again passed in 1842; though the town then voted, (in defer- ence to the Washingtonian principles, at that time coming into vogue,) to pass over the article to prosecute for all violations of the license law. Independence was celebrated at West Thomaston by the Washington Temperance society, consisting of 99 zealous and enthusiastic members. Formed in proces- sion, with banners, each wearing on the breast a badge of Washington, they marched to Mill River and back to the Congregational church, where prayer by Mr. Woodhull, the Declaration by H. P. Coombs, and an oration by Rev. F. W. Baxter, were listened to; thence to the unfinished Unitarian church, to a dinner provided by Capt. T. A. Snow, on tables well supplied with sparkling glasses of clear cold water, and richly decorated. Before the end of the month, the members of this society amounted to 130; and on the 4th August a second celebration, more numerous and enthusiastic than be- fore, was held by the two Thomaston societies with those of Warren, Waldoboro', and Cushing, who, after appropriate ex- ercises at the Congregational church, marched to the music of the East Thomaston band to a spacious field above the Prison corner. Here, around a lofty liberty pole erected for the oc- casion, their new Declaration of Independence was read, adopted, and signed by the officers of the several societies; and, after appropriate speeches, the vast assembly retired full of gratification at the present, and hopes for the future suc- cess of the cause.
A Bible Society seems to have been in existence here, and, probably at an early date; but no records are found. The society, however, Sept. 26, 1841, was revived at W. Thom- aston, the old constitution amended, active officers appointed, and, during the year, $45 expended in bibles for distribution, or sale at cost, among the citizens, seamen, and sojourners. After five or six years, interest in it gradually languished, and the old officers held over till 1856; when Rev. R. Woodhull, being about Icaving town, called a meeting and resigned as secretary and treasurer; his reports were accepted, but, not
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400
HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
being recorded, no further doings can here be given, except that he was succeeded by D. J. Starrett.
The house of the First Universalist Society in West Thom- aston (the frame of which was raised June 22, 1841,) being now completed, was dedicated to the service of God on the 28th Oct , -on which occasion the exercises were by Rev. Messrs. H. C. Leonard, M. Dudley, M. Forbes, F. Hodgdon, and F. W. Baxter. The society had been formed in 1833, and held their meetings in the yellow school-house near Mill River. Rev. F. W. Baxter preached a part of the time, and, though also engaged in teaching, was considered the pastor, -remaining with the society until 1842, when he took charge of that in Rockport. But, in 1840, Col. E. C. Tilson and others started the project of erecting a meeting-house for the use of the society ; and, a sufficient number of subscribers having pledged themselves to take pews in a house to be located between the Mill River bridge and Prison corner, Horatio Alden, L. Levensaler, and E. C. Tilson were ap- pointed a committee to select a site and superintend the building of the same. This committee subsequently engaged Col. Tilson to build the house and take his pay out of the pews sold. Ground was broken in the spring of 1841, and the house completed and dedicated as before mentioned. A church was formed and the ordinances administered by Mr. Baxter and his successor, Rev. Henry C. Leonard, who was installed as pastor Dec. 25, 1841, when the sermon, charge, and right hand of fellowship were given by Rev. N. C. Fletch- er of East Thomaston. Mr. Leonard continued his accept- able services two years ; after which the pulpit was supplied by occasional preaching only, until the coming of the Rev. O. J. Fernald; at which time the old society was dissolved, and a new one formed. Mr. Leonard removed and was a settled minister 12 or more years at Waterville, and, since the pres- ent rebellion commenced, has been chaplain of the 3d and subsequently of the 18th Maine regiment .*
Education was at this time advancing towards its present encouraging condition; and a high school at E. Thomaston was this year taught by James Fogg, Esq., as it had been the preceding year by Lewis W. Young. Mr. Fogg was a native of Berwick, attended the academy there and studied medi- cine for a time, but, after overcoming many obstacles, entered Bowdoin College and had graduated the present year, 1841. Here, besides being a successful and popular teacher, he read
" Abstract from the records, furnished by Hon. B. Fales.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
law, probably with Mr. Lowell, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice; but, after marrying a daughter of O. Fales, he left the place and many warm friendships, in Feb. . 1847, to enter upon the mercantile career in Boston ; resided in Charlestown, Mass., where he filled many offices of trust ; and died in Hudson, N. Y., July 26, 1855. To his High School succeeded that of Henry Paine, a graduate of Water- ville, whose faithful services in the cause of education here have been continued more or less down to the present time. A young ladies' private school of high order, by Miss S. Spofford, for several years preceding 1851, was also taught in the same village ; and the city, into which that village has been transmuted, still enjoys her highly appreciated labors.
A regimental muster was held in Ingraham's field, under command of Col. Wm. S. Ulmer ; and the East Thomaston Artillery company was organized this year, -the first officers of which were Jona. Crockett, F. Cobb, and Wm. T. Say- ward.
During a thunder shower on the night of April 2d, the house of Rice Rowell, in South Thomaston, was much shat- tered by a stroke of lightning, which appears to have entered the western sill, passed circuitously under the floor, through which it forced a passage by raising and demolishing two boards in a sleeping apartment ; thence, passing by a bed resting on the floor, it found its way up the chimney, knock- ing out several bricks into other apartments and breaking almost every pane of glass in the house. In the apartment mentioned were two beds, besides the temporary one of straw before named, on which last two of Mr. R.'s daughters were reposing, who were both so badly injured, and their flesh lacerated as if by a knife, that one of them, Margaret, aged 14, died after two hours of extreme-suffering, and the life of the other was for a time des paired of." May 16th, a fire broke out between two and three o'clock in the morning and consumed two shops in the yard of the State Prison, which, with the leather, carriages and corn stored in them, amounted to a loss of about $9000 ; supposed to have been the work of a discharged convict. On the 18th August, Samuel Par- tridge was struck on the head by a board, which fell from the top of a building at East Thomaston, and caused his death in forty-eight hours. The year was marked by an abundance
. Thomaston Recorder, R. Rowell. and Hon. D. Fales; the last con- siders the fluid to have first passed down the chimney, and returned through the floor of the room.
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, HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
of caterpillars, grasshoppers, and a summer drought, during which a fire raged on the company lot, so called, in this town, and which was broken up by a short but remarkably copious shower, September 4th.
1842. The birthday of Washington, Feb. 22d, was cel- ebrated at East Thomaston by the Washington, Lafayette, Martha Washington, and Juvenile Washington temperance societies of that place, -- the two latter in procession meeting the two former in the Baptist church, which was tastefully decorated with banners, portraits of Washington and the other Presidents, and overflowing with interested auditors of services by Revs. Fessenden and Fletcher, an address by Jas. Fogg, and reports of the several societies. The fourth of July was also celebrated in the same village by these soci- eties, when, after a banner presentation by Miss E. Holmes, in behalf of the Juveniles, prayer by Rev. Mr. Atwell, read- ing of the two Declarations, - one by H. Burpee, the other by James Crockett, - an oration was delivered by James C. Madigan, a young lawyer at West Thomaston, who soon re- moved to Madawaska. An excellent dinner, served by Wm. T. Sayward, was then partaken of by over 400 guests, and suitable sentiments drank in Nature's purest wine. At a town meeting held at the same village July 14th, it was voted to instruct the selectmen to enforce the law relating to the vending of spirituous liquors, and similar instructions were. reiterated in 1843
The surface of affairs was, about the first of September, slightly ruffled by the arrival at East Thomaston of the U. S. steam frigate Missouri, -a spectacle at that time so novel that it drew together immense crowds of visitors from all the surrounding region, crowding her decks and admiring her neat, orderly, and formidable arrangement.
On the 16th and 17th Feb., occurred a most violent gale or hurricane, with some rain. A large portion of the balus- trade on the Knox mansion and many of the trees were de- stroyed ; greatly injuring the appearance of that venerated spot. A barn at Blackington's corner was prostrated ; three others, at the head of Tolman's Pond unroofed; and not less than six chimneys blown over at East Thomaston village, where, as also at Owl's Head, Georges River, and at various other points between here and Cape Cod. the shipping in gen- eral of this place was more or less damaged, driven ashore, bilged or sunk. On the night of Nov. 30th, also, a severe S. . E. gale drove two vessels ashore at Owl's Head, one at Heard's beach, Ash Point, and caused many to drift from
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403
ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
their moorings at East Thomaston; one of which, the sch. Enterprise, Capt. Stanley, in attempting to go round from Crockett's wharf into the Cove, with a full cargo of lime, went ashore on Ingraham's Point and bilged, - the crew nar- rowly escaping with their lives, except a brother of the cap- tain, who was drowned.
1843. The succeeding winter was divided between mild weather and violent storms, bare ground and deep snows. For the whole distance from the Head of the Bay to Ash Point, as well as in other places, the snow was above the road fences ; remaining till late in the spring. Travelling was so impeded about Feb. 11th, that the New York mails were eight days in reaching here. Among other disasters, the brig Raymond went ashore at Absecom Beach, N. J., on the morning of that day, when the captain, Orris Levensaler, the first mate, George W. Mclellan, both of this town, and four of the crew were drowned; whilst only two, John Howard of Warren, second mate, and Wm. Comery, escaped. It af- terwards appeared that all might have been saved had they remained on board, instead of taking to the long boat. The cold weather and badly drifted snows continued till late in April; the whole number of the latter as noted by D. S. Fales at Mill River being forty-one, and the total depth by his estimate ten and a half feet, while by that of Prof. Cleave- land at Brunswick it was said to be fifteen feet. This un- usual quantity of snow, together with the sublime spectacle presented in the heavens by a comet which was at first, Feb. 28th, visible at noonday near the sun, and whose train con- tinued to adorn the evening sky through most of March, ren- dered this a memorable season. In one of these storms, that of March 13th, the U. S. schooner Grampus, the purser of which was Jas. S. Thatcher of this town, a grandson of Gen. Knox and an accomplished and promising young man in whom the hopes of that name and mansion centred, is sup- posed to have foundered at sea, - she having been spoken the 11th, off Charleston, S. C., and never since heard from. An additional chasm in the society of West Thomaston was made this summer by the death of two prominent citizens, Hezekiah Prince, Jr., and Hon. John Holmes, -alike distin- guished, the former by his unassuming worth and active be- nevolence, and the latter by his natural talents and eminent public services. After the election of President Harrison, an old acquaintance and friend when in the U. S. Senate, Mr. Holmes had been appointed by him district attorney for Maine, and divided his residence between this town and Port-
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
land. In that city, while attending to the duties of his office, he died July 7th, in the seventy-first year of his age. On the 18th of January, the house and barn of Capt. Oliver Robinson (2d), occupied by himself and Capt. H. Peabody, were consumed by fire, caught from ashes placed in the barn. The fire was discovered by Capt. C. Levensaler who aroused the inmates only by breaking into the house, and then the neighbors, by whose aid much of the furniture was saved. The loss was $2,500; $1000 insured. In the same village July 20th, the house of George Gleason, occupied by him- self and Capt. J. M. Coombs, was consumed, with the barn, shed, carriages, tools, and other furniture except that of Mr. Coombs. This was the house erected by John Gleason, Esq., in which he many years kept the principal tavern in the place, west of the Thomaston Bank, the roof of which latter took fire a number of times, and other buildings narrowly escaped. Loss $5000, insured $1900. The hay crop, this year, was good. In July a severe influenza, named the Tyler grip, pervaded this community and indeed a greater part of the Union. Many newspapers suspended for want of hands ; and the Thomaston Recorder appeared in a half sheet.
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