USA > Maine > Waldo County > Unity > History of Unity, Maine > Part 7
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History of Unity, Maine
Other great issues, such as internal improvements, the Monroe Doctrine, tariff system, and the United States bank, were also powerful educators. The clos- ing of the United States Bank by Jackson, in particu- lar made an impression upon the people of Maine, and the $2 or more received by every inhabitant of the State in the distribution of the surplus still further endeared Old Hickory to the hearts of our people.
The Presidential elections played an important part in helping the people to feel the unity of their govern- ment and its direct relations to themselvs. Possibly there are persons in this audience who can remember the wild excitement that prevailed in the Harrison campaign of 1840, when log cabins, cider barrels and raccoons were carried about in procession and the ral- lying cry was, "Old Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!"
But it was the slavery question, its various phases, that most steadily held the attention and summoned to its discussion, in protest or apology, the whole peo- ple. The Mexican War, with its results, derived its chief interest from its relation to this question, and the brilliant orators who opposed it furnished another supply of fervid declamations to the school boys. From 1845 to 1860, political discussions superseded in large part the ordinary themes of conversation. They were in vogue not merely at the caucus, the convention and the election, but at the dinner table, the neighbor- hood party, in the corner grocery, and even in the shop and the field. During this period, references to the Wilmot Proviso, Mason and Dixon's Line, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott Decision, Squatter Sovereignty, the conflicts and troubles of "bleeding Kansas," the threats of such ultra southerners as Toombs of Georgia, and citations from Webster's Seventh of
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March speech, together with Theodore Parker's terri- ble denunciation of our foremost stateman gave color and direction to public speech, newspaper criticism, and ordinary conversation. Although I was but six years old at the time, I distinctly remember hearing my father read aloud in the family sitting room one evening Parker's scathing rebuke to Daniel Webster and his unmeasured invectives in character. Greeley through his Tribune gained his greatest power. In half the farm houses in Maine, the Weekly Tribune was awaited with an eagerness only less intense than that with which we watched for the news from the Potomac.
It was in this period that the various organiza- tions formed in opposition to slavery were at length concentrated in the new Republican party. The cam- paign of Fremont and Dayton versus Buchanan and Breckinridge repeated the excitement and enthusiasm of the Harrison campaign, but there was much more seriousness in discussion and a far profounder appre- ciation of the issue involved. How well I can remem- ber the clear and logical and yet impassioned discus- sion in which leading Democrats and Republicans of Unity engaged when on town meeting days they gath- ered in an open spot or in some angle of the fence near the old town house. I received no small part of my education during some six years of that period in listening to these discussions and in reading the Tribune.
In '59, the audacious invasion of Virginia by John Brown startled the whole country, and in '60 came the nomination and election of Lincoln. And with these events came the premonitions and beginning of secession. Never was the newspaper of more absorb- ing interest to the people of the north than in that
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eventful winter, spring and summer of '61. Practi- cally the whole body of northern people were awaken- ing to a great purpose to crush the rebellion, the determination to save the Union. How vividly it all comes back, the rapid organization of volunteer com- panies and regiments! I seem to hear now the stir- ring music of the fife and drum as through our own streets and past our own doors marched the first com- pany formed in Unity. It was getting to be serious business and the nation grew in a few months more than in many years previous. Everybody present past fifty years of age has at least some memories of the tragic events of the war for the Union.
People of Unity, along with the people of the whole north, attained during these brief four years to a stature as patriots, to a mental and moral growth as men and women, to a conception of the purpose and destiny of our nation of which they had not dreamed themselves capable. They had learned to subordinate individual interests to great public ends; and with the people generally they attained a moral elevation that has not been wholly lost in the nearly forty years that have passed since these stirring scenes.
The fortunes of our nation since the period of war and reconstruction have been less fascinating and absorbing, but they have constantly been contributing to the development of our people, to an appreciation of the inheritance bequeathed to us by our fathers. The discussions over the issue of paper money and the resumption of specie payments, the arguments by our political leaders for and against the protective tariff, the theories presented respecting the function of gold and silver in meeting the monetary needs of the people, the sympathy of our republic with the oppressed Cubans, the Spanish war followed by the
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dwindling power of Spain-and the reconstruction of the political map of our territories, the returning loyal- ty of the people of the south, the interminable discus- sions as to the nature and value of the fifteenth amend- ment-and the status of the negro, the rapid develop- ment of the material resources of our country follow- ing the construction of the great railroads to the Pacific, the agitation over the construction of an inter- oceanic canal, the modifications of our treaties with England in order to secure this result, and the adop- tion at last of a definite plan for the realization of this great ocean highway-all these movements and events have been upon a scale quite in contrast with the humble beginnings of our national life, and have fur- nished themes rich, varied and stimulating for the further education of our people.
Within the last fifteen years the rapid consolida- tion of wealth, the enormous and still growing power of corporations and trusts, the more than princely fortunes acquired by individual citizens, the extremes of poverty and wealth more marked than at any previ- ous period of our history, and great questions respect- ing the ownership of the means of production and the moral rights to the soil have brought to us questions largely still unsolved and requiring for their solution the broadest popular intelligence, the most construc- tive statesmanship, and the highest order of patriotism to which we can hope to attain. That with the bless- ing of God the agitation of these questions will result in still further strengthening and enriching the popu- lar mind and developing the spirit of philanthropy and mutual helpfulness, and will in due time lead to their successful solution, history, experience, the evident providence of God in the unfolding of our nation hith- erto, and the world's need of the blessings that we
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alone seem prepared to give, afford reasonable ground for inspiring hope.
Citizens of Unity: Amid all this growth in the wealth, power and influence of your country, you and your predecessors have been no passive spectators, no selfish and satisfied receivers. Freely indeed have ye received, but you have also freely given. The example and influence of this town have on the whole contrib- uted to the welfare of your State and your country. From the beginning, industry, thrift, intelligence and morality have in the main been characteristic of our population. You have been faithful to the inheritance bequeathed to you by your ancestors. You have shown a commendable energy, wisdom and skill in developing the resources of the town, you have taken a notewor- thy interest in the education of your children. Through your fidelity in these and in other respects, the town has always borne a good name. You have contributed your quota of reputable men to the various callings and professions. You have done your share in providing wise and prudent political counsellors, patriotic and efficient legislators, public-spirited men and women.
One of the most honored and useful governors of our State, afterward for years a recognized leader in the national Congress, a writer, a thinker, an econo- mist of international reputation, passed his youth and early manhood and received his elementary education in this town. His brother, the leading journalist of our State, and one of the trenchant and vigorous writ- ers of our time, passed a still longer period of his life' in this community. Still another of your sons has won distinction in journalism in another State. You have reared one United States senator, five State senators and two counsellors to our chief executive. Your sons
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and daughters are not unknown in educational work. You have sent out lawyers and physicians who will become distinguished in their professions, business men who have reflected credit in the training that you gave them. The great body of your citizens have been honest and true in all the relations of life. You have contributed soldiers to all of the wars in which our country has been engaged. More than 80 of your sons represented you in the war for the Union.
Unity, like Maine, has been a good place from which to migrate, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of your children since our town was incorporated have become citizens in remote parts of the country. Some of the most enterprising and energetic of your sons made their way around Cape Horn to California in 1849. And others subsequently reached the same destination by means of the isthmus. Within the last twenty years, large numbers of your most vigorous young men have gone to the far west; 100 of them, I am told, to the single State of Montana.
As civilization advances and pioneer conditions dis- appear, families diminish in size. This is a law co- extensive with the human race. Instead of families of twelve, fifteen, and even of twenty-one, records of your early life which I do not exaggerate, the parents of this town now number their children by twos and threes. The remarkable change in the great industrial enterprises of our century which has occurred within the last forty years has still further reduced your pop- ulation. The butter factory and the creamery have superseded the home dairy, and a hundred domestic duties once assigned to women have wholly disap- peared. The development of the vast grain fields of the west has made it uneconomic for the farmers of Maine to raise wheat and other cereals. The applica-
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tion of inventive skill to the production of farm im- plements now enables one man to perform in planting, hoeing, haying and harvesting what formerly required three. These and other industrial changes enable a population scarcely one-half of that once credited to our town to develop its resources and protect its busi- ness interests.
Under circumstances like these, it is not strange that the census of 1900 reported a population of a little less than 900, in contrast with the 1557 reported forty years earlier. But if the population of our town has declined, not so its wealth. In 1860 its valuation was $297,564. In 1900 its valuation was $364,683. Since the warm rays of the July sun found their way into the first clearing in 1782, never has it looked down within the boundaries of this town upon families so prosperous and happy, upon material comforts so gen- eral and pronounced, upon fields so well filled, school- houses so tasteful and substantial, evidence of thrift so. significant.
In only one respect does it seem to me that we have occasion for serious concern. Unity, so far as I can learn, still maintains worthy moral standards. Her people as a whole are still honest, neighborly and just. These results, must we not confess, are due in great part to the sturdy moral character, and, I may add, to the piety, reverence and practical Christian lives of many of her earlier settlers. We cannot lose in one generation or in two, the fruitage of the noble lives that have preceded us. But if Unity is to maintain her reputation for thrift, intelligence and character, she must look carefully to the sources of all that is good in modern civilization-to the Bible, to the church with its doors open every Sunday and its pulpit occu- pied by an intelligent and efficient pastor. Unity can
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prove herself and her citizens no exception to the great law that "the fear of God is the beginning of wis- dom," that reverence and the inculcation and practice of the golden rule are essential alike to manhood and womanhood and to material prosperity.
Citizens of Unity: As you gaze upon the goodly prospect before you, wherever you turn your eyes you find evidence of the toils, the sacrifices, the devotion to home and family, the wise foresight, the generous public spirit, the care for education, the respect for character, and the reverence for God that have brought you this choice inheritance. As you ride with your families in comfortable carriages along your highways, do you try to recall and imagine the patient toil, the energy, the inventive skill that constructed these roads, built these bridges, and made the homes of this town accessible one to another? As you walk over your fertile fields and your beautiful pasture lands, as you wander amid the fruitful orchards that bring you wealth and happiness, do you think of the men and women who first came to this town? Into these fields, into these homes, they wrought their very lives. Many of you bear the names which they bore, and retain the distinctive family features, the peculiar mental traits of your fathers.
We all owe a debt to them that we can never pay, save as in the spirit with which they wrought we maintain, improve and enrich the heritage that they have left us, and in turn bequeath it to our children, that they with energies unimpaired by us, but rather increased, intensified, and ennobled, may in turn pass on to their descendants a legacy ever more ample, more precious, more helpful to our country and to mankind.
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CENTENNIAL POEM
BY MISS MURIEL CHASE "The Song of Freedom"
Not in the present we live, today, but in the past The past, whose glorious echoes shall resound Through the far, unfooted sands of time. Though we celebrate
No lustrous history of the race, but the growth Of a single town, we yet do homage to
The cosmic plan for all the years in this, That the vast mosaic time is fashioned bit By bit and each part needful to the perfect Pattern of the years. The centuries live, Though they who trod their paths are dead, they live In the blue sky, the golden light, the gray hills, In the deep sea, the weary wind, and the dark night. The centuries live though whole peoples pass away. Yet do they pass? Nay-in the warm lineaments Of a face, we view the beauty of a thousand Years, the subtle secrets of a buried race, The deep browed intellect that has made A nation great. Rome still lives in some ampler
Forum of today. In a hillside temple
Greece survives. The cold ruin of decay
Chills not the new wrought in the mould of yesterday, Though thy children sleep above thy calm pond, beneath
The soft canopy of the sky, oh Unity,
Though they lie 'neath some far off plain, or rest
In aliens' graves o'er sea, though their bones lie bleached
On unrecorded battlefield, or tangled 'Mid the dark secrets of an ocean cave,
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Though dead, they live in thee-in the open, sunlit Meadow, the winding road, the broken forest, The church, the school, the home.
Though dead, their dumb lips, eloquent,
Shall still bespeak their toils, their hopes, their fears. Perchance where now runs the peaceful road, once Some unquiet heart prayed heaven, in the forest
Solitude, for strength to bear the toil,
The sacrifice, the loneliness that the life
In the untrod woods entailed.
Here hath been the ringing of the ax,
In the deep woods, from the tender, tremulous
Morn, from the hot noonday to the dusky night.
Here eyes have watched for the first low-lighted gleam
Of dawn to sweep the starry hosts away
And bring hope to hopeless hearts. Here the weary Sower hath split the grain on the warm slope
Through the long day. Here the huntsman hath 'Shot the deer, and here hath been the whir Of the loom, the hum of the busy wheel, and here Such peace that thy children called thee Unity. From a scattering hut to a busy
Town was the dream of more than a score of years, Was the life of men who toiled and won their way. The spots where their feet have trod-
Dead sons and daughters of these woods and stream's
:. And hills, let the living feet press reverently.
By the altar of their prayers and toils and fears May the living consecrate a sacred shrine Of their souls' best to stand throughout the years. Today the independence bells
Shall peal, her drums resound, her cannon Boom to celebrate our Union's birth
And thine own, fair Unity, with freedom's song.
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History of Unity, Maine
Truth to thy country and thy God And the whole world beside- For this our fathers toiled and bled That in peace we might abide; And far-off peoples heard the cry Of freedom ringing wide.
From far beyond the seas they came 1
To dwell in this fair land, To till the soil and plant the plain As had our fathers planned ; And still they come from overseas, Led hither by God's hand.
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America is free-for this Her rocks and hills flowed red with blood. They fell, her sons, on her wide plains, By her swift streams, in the green wood. ' They gave their lives for freedom, And ours, not theirs, the good.
They gave their lives for freedom, And we, what have we done- Do the stars and stripes still float O'er the land of freedom's sun ? We shall know it by her people If our land be a free one.
There each man shall be neighbor And no man wear a crown; And each man shall be happy And live in a free town, And his toil shall bring him comfort And his worth shall bring renown.
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History of Unity, Maine
And they that come from overseas, Bowed by the oppressor's hand, To win a name and find a home In the freedom of God's land, Shall not be serfs to bear the yoke, But brothers to command.
What have we done for freedom, That the deeds of our sires shall stand Till the last star set in heaven And the last wave wash the strand- Have we held fast the purpose Our exile fathers planned ?
Men are starving in the cities, Fall like beasts upon the plain ; Waste their lives with toil and grieving That their striving may attain What the soul within them pleadeth, Die, and seem to strive in vain.
God knows if our aims be noble, Our leaders false or true ; He knows if our hearts are loyal To the faith of the red, white and blue; He knows if we love His children In His kingdom the wide world through.
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Then up for the cause of freedom; Let wars and wrangling cease, And the stars and stripes forever Wave o'er a land of peace, Till the world shall join together As brothers to the race.
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A band concert and a reception now followed. At eight in the evening the fireworks were set off, under the management of F. M. Fairbanks, aided by E. D. Chase, Geo. E. Grant and John Hamilton, and at a late hour the grand ball was opened in the new hall of Adams & Knight. Morning came and the Unity Centennial was over.
THE UNITY OF 1916
The Unity Centennial has long since passed. More than a hundred and thirty years have gone by since Ware and Carter tramped through the forest and began their little settlement. The forests have gone, few traces are left of the rude beginnings from which our town was shaped, the twentieth century is all around us.
A stranger passing through our town sees every- where evidences of skill and prosperity, fine farm buildings, carefully cultivated acres, up-to-date ma- chinery, good roads. Everything is well kept. It speaks of New England order and thrift. It suggests wholesome, wide-awake men and women. In the vil- lage a broad, level, straight street, shaded by noble trees, extends the entire length. The streets are light- ed with electricity, there are telephones and electricity within the homes. Old homes are here, built nearly a hundred years ago, with broad fronts and colonial doorways, suggestive of early days when the home was the center of all social life; trim, modern homes are found, too, better suited to the needs of the modern family. Within the limits of the village are twelve stores, a church, high school building, bank, hotel, central telephone station, two public garages, black- smith, tin and shoe shops, two steam mills, two cream- eries, corn factory, grist mill, and two large public
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halls. Property values have increased rapidly in the last few years. Many strangers have found homes among us and have received a genuine welcome. They have found our people honest, upright and industrious.
Transportation and mail service is no longer a problem. The rural free delivery visits all parts of the town. Automobiles for business or pleasure are at one's call. The railroad affords quick transporta- tion for all products with three daily trains to Boston. This is the Unity of 1916.
Our town has an honorable past, a prosperous pres- ent, its future will be as broad and worthy as the vision of its citizens permits.
DESCRIPTION OF REAL ESTATE
Adams, C. A., built his store in 1914, lot from J. A. Adams. .
Adams, J. A., had his place from Ellen M. Taber, she from her father, Eli Moulton, he from Austin Thomas, M. D., he from John T. Main, M. D., he from heirs of Rufus Burnham, M. D., they from Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Winslow, who built the house in 1842. The lot was from Rufus Burnham, the masonry was done by Henry Kelly.
Ames, Jacob, had his place from his father, he from E. E. York, he from E. L. Woods, he from John White, he from Amos Webb. Some of the land was formerly owned by Benj. Fogg. The barn was the carriage shop owned by Harrison G. Otis, and stood opposite G. T. Whitaker's residence.
Bacon, Alonzo, from J. H. Farwell, he from O. J. Farwell, he from Weston Whitten, he from his father, Oliver Whitten, he from Jonathan Stone, who bought the Doctor Knowles place and moved the barn onto
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this place. The Knowles house was torn down. Stone bought the north half of the Peter Jackson place, and moved the large barn down to this place. The Jack- son house was torn down. Stone bought one acre of ground where the buildings now stand, of Otis Star- key, a shoemaker. Starkey had it from John W. Ames, he from Robert Jackson.
Bacon, George, from Melville Willey, he from R. R. Spinney, he from John Royal, he from Ansel Perkins.
Bacon, Henry A., from heirs of Mrs. A. H. Clark, they from L. H. Mosher, he from Wm. Hamilton, he from Sarah, widow of Hoyt Hunt, she from Albert Watson, he from the Roberts heirs, Roberts from Josiah Harmon, he from Sherwin Crosby, who built the original house. A. H. Clark built the stable. The house has recently been remodeled.
Bacon, Joseph A., from Hezekiah Stevens, he from Nathaniel Stevens, he from the proprietors. The house Mr. Bacon now lives in was built by Amos Bil- lings. Levi Bacon, father of Joseph A., purchased the buildings on the east side of the road from James Banks. He built two sawmills and had four brick- yards; the buildings were destroyed. The land is now owned by H. B. Rice and G. A. Stevens. Daniel Whit- more first settled the Bacon place, but the proprietors shifted him into the village. The White Indians made more or less trouble at this time and drove the sur- veyor out of the woods.
Bacon, Walter, from Eleanor Perkins, she from Benj. March, he from Chas. Taylor, who purchased the lot from Jesse Whitmore and moved the Nathaniel Rice house onto it.
Bagley, Elmer, from Mrs. Julia Mitchell, she from Eugene Reynolds, he from William Bither, he from Jerry Connor.
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History of Unity, Maine
Bagley, Leon, from J. S. Bither, he from Lemuel Reynolds, he from Russell Reynolds, he from Blin Fuller of Albion. Russell Reynolds bought the cheese factory from J. R. Taber and built the present house.
Barlow, William, from James Libby, he from the Clough, Fogg and Moulton syndicate, by which the house was built, lot from Benj. Fogg.
Bartlett, Chas. J., from his father, Jefferson Bart- lett, he from his father, Lemuel Bartlett. Jefferson built the house and stable; Charles, the large barn in 1880.
Bartlett, F. A., from his father, Benj. Bartlett, he from his father, Stephen Bartlett. The brick house near the station was inherited from his father ; he had it from Stephen Dyer, he from John Chase, he from his father, John Chase, who built the house and barn. The new stable was built by F. A. Bartlett. This farm originally embraced all the land where now stand the Bartlett & Chase steam mill, the railroad station, the Leonard property, the Hood and Turner Center cream- eries, the bank, the Ward place and the western part of E. D. Chase's place.
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