USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 27
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 27
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304
CHAPTER XIX HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
When the settlement of York was begun by the pio- neers they found the territory a trackless forest through which ran the footpaths of the Indians; one of these con- stituted their trail from the Wells border to the head- waters of the Agamenticus. This trail ran parallel with the seashore, diverting to easily navigable fords of Little River, curving upward through the present village, cross- ing Meeting House Creek at about the location of the present bridge and then going northwestward to New Mill Creek, past Cider Hill to Bass Creek, which they forded, and thence in a direct line to the Northwest Branch after which they were able to cross over into the bound- aries of Kittery. Generally speaking, the old Indian trails in New England were adopted as locations for bridle paths and, later, wagon roads for the English settlers, as they were practically the shortest routes. Town roads, as we now understand them, had no part in the life of the settlers during the first century of the town. Overland travel was usually by horseback and even cattle were used as beasts of human burden. Journeys of any distance outside the town were usually made by water as in favorable seasons it was the quicker and safer method. As the population increased and business grew, small coasting vessels were built in the town to facilitate this means of communication with Portsmouth, Ipswich, Salem and Boston. It has been noted that the Rev. John Ward, who was coming to York to settle as pastor, was lost for three days after leaving Portsmouth. Doubtless at that date there was not a semblance of a beaten road to the Piscataqua. The first mention of a road in the town occurs in 1642, in a deed which refers to the "highway lately sett out" where the present road now runs in front of the Meeting House (Deeds ii, 177). This was the present main thoroughfare running northerly from the ferry landing at Stage Neck. These primitive roads were merely staked out a definite width and nothing was done towards improving them as highways. Two rows of cart-wheel ruts with a horse path in the middle constituted the King's Highway in York for
.
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HISTORY OF YORK
several generations. Travel through the forests was a slow and uncomfortable ordeal. In summer the heat was oppressive and in winter the snow was a barrier. A dozen miles a day was good progress and, as a consequence, inns early became a public requirement for the accommodation of travelers arriving in towns at sunset. Horseback travel- ers were not always single riders as the pillion was invented to give milady a rear seat on this unstable platform. Attendance at church was usually accomplished in this manner. There is no record of a wheelwright in the town in the first hundred years, but it may be presumed that rough wagons of two and four wheels were in use before 1700. The main highway between the eastern settlements and Boston passed through the town near the beaches. Travelers were ferried across the river at Stage Neck, to continue over the head of Brave Boat Harbor into Kit- tery and so on into Portsmouth.
Highways, as originally used by the settlers, existed by a sort of sufferance, having nothing more than common public use to justify their existence. The evolution of the trail into a public highway required that it be formally measured, staked out a definite width and be adopted by the settlers in town meetings. When these formalities were completed the old cow-paths and trails became a part of the King's Highway and it took the same process reversed to abandon any part of a road officially accepted. Under the old English law a path or cart-way used for a period of twenty years without protest became a public way without formal official sanction. A town road was of not only local concern but it was under the jurisdiction of the Province as well, for it was a part of the King's Highway connecting with other towns in the Province. The Provincial Court frequently ordered towns to lay out roads, repair them when they became dangerous or alter their courses. The first example of this occurred in 1649, when the Provincial Court passed the following order:
It is Ordered this court: That ther shall be a hieway cutt from the head of Rogers Cove unto the head of Braybote harber & so to the little marsh ner Unto Capt. Champanownes howse & so to Mr William Hiltons: the Inhabitance of Gorgeana to cut: Unto a Cove neare Unto Jon Andrews: and the Inhabitance of Pascataquacke to cut from Wm Hiltons to that cove by so many of each towne as they shall thincke fitt: and this to be done by the 30th Octor. 49.
(Provincial Court Records i, 6.)
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HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
In 1658 a road was ordered to be built "from a Lott Called Inglesbys from Yorke right through the woods to the house of Hugh Gunnison" in Kittery, but it is not probable that it ever reached its destination, as the through route was changed many times. In 1668 the town was "presented by the Grand Jury for not makeing theyr way good to Newich-a-waneck," so we were being pressed continuously for the completion of our through roads as an important section of the route to the east and the west.
In 1671 the County Court tried to induce the "Officers & Souldgiers of the Trayne Bands of Yorke & Kittery" to engage in a sort of friendly competition in constructing a road through the two towns, as part of a King's Highway from York to Boston. It was to be nine or ten feet in width and Lieut. Job Alcock was advised to arrange with the officers of the neighboring town to order out the bands at a convenient time to undertake this commendable work. It was suggested that "when they face each other in the Centure thereof being middway between Yorke & Kittery, it will give matter of good content both to themselves & others who have been solicitously Instrumentall in soe good a worke" (Provincial Court Records ii, 273). It is not probable that this appeal to the militia to engage in road- building was productive of much of a highway as is appar- ent from subsequent orders within a few years relative to the neglect to build the proposed through road from this town to the westward.
Again, in 1687, is an instance when the court took cognizance of placing obstructions on roads:
We present Jeremiah Moulton for stopping up an ancient highway to the corn mill in the town of York.
As an example of the method of action taken by the county authorities regarding the bad condition of town roads, the Grand Jury in 1699 returned the following:
We present in York the highway between broad boat harbor & Thomas Mores. (Deeds v, pt. 2, p. 126.)
It is somewhat of a surprise to learn that as late as 1679 there was no established road from York through Kittery and that most of the travel to Portsmouth was by boat. This is established by the following record :
The Court being informed of a new way practicable instead of going by water from York to Piscataqua ordered the towns of York and
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HISTORY OF YORK
Kittery to cut a road from the house of John Stover at York directly to Spruce Creek and thence to Mr. Tho: Wills his house or some better point to go for Strawberry Bank.
In 1684 the court directed that this road be shortened and that a committee from the two towns meet at the dividing line "to cut away the brush and mark out the most convenient way they can find from William or John Freethy's of York to Mr. Shapleigh's mills at Spruce Creek and from thence to Mr. Wills his house or to some other place that may be thought meet to keep a ferry to Straw- berry Bank." Four years later this road was changed to terminate at Boiling Rock, Piscataqua River. These quo- tations indicate the general supervisory character of the county over the main highways. This road was apparently completed to the satisfaction of the court four years later as appears by the following record :
The new Highway lately cutt by order of Major Hutchinson between Yorke & Pascataque river from Thomas Traftons to John Woodmans is approved of. (Deeds v, pt. 2, p. 14.)
The loss of the town records makes it difficult to get definite information of the establishment of roads before 1700, and it was not until 1699 that the first official layout of the principal existing roads was recorded in the town books. As it is the basis of all subsequent legislation respecting roads it is important to print it in full:
Country Road through the Town:
We the Select Men of the town of York have Layd out the Countery Rodde throughe the town of York as followeth from Wells to Barwick Bounds:
begining att Wells bounds: att the Markt tree: and from thence to Cape Neddick as the path now Goes Coming down the hill By Mis Waeres orchard and over the Bridge and so over the river att the point: and so A Long as the way now Lies: betwen Stovers Fort and the orchard: and so A Long to the Short sands, and then cutting A Little bough by the head of the pond: where we have Marked A Small pitch pine tree and also A white oke: and so A Long as the way now Goes by John Stovers house and so A Long upon the Sea Wall or Ridg that lies betwen the Sands: and the frish Medow, Whilst we Come to a Lane Betweene John Bankses and Joseph Carliels, and A Long by sd Carliels house A Long as the way now Goes whilist it Comes to Lieut: Abraham Prebles Senr: and as the Lane Leads up to Lewis Banes, and the Way Goes to Mathew Austens: And So upalong to Mastursons Land: and go over Base Cove att the Usall Waiding plase and so A Long throug Scotland By Arther Bragdons and By Mr: Maxfields, and So by the head of Curtisis Cove: and so A Long as the way Gose to the Bridg and So to Barwick Bounds Aforesd:
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HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
As allso the highway from the Lower End of the Towne to the Mill: turning out off the Roode aforesd A Little Before they Come att Alewive Brook and the Countery Roode to Thomas Traftons Gose out of the Mill Roode Betwen the place where the ould barne stood and the Orchard: and along Just behind Richard Brays and So A Long as the way Gose to Thomas Traftons ferrey as aforesd:
And the Contery and town Roode att the Lower End of the towne A Long as has Bin formerly Begining and Going from the Roode that Gose to Cape neddick att the Corner off the Fence a Little above the Beareing place and so A Long whilest it Comes to Joseph Weares fenc and so down that Lane and so along over the hill, and as the way is by Goodman Moulton's field, and betwene sd Moultons field and Jasper Pulmans orchard and so A Long By Mr Samuel Doniels as the Way Goes While we Come to the Stage point or ferrey place:
And the town way turns out of the Cuntery rode by the Buring place and so to the Meeting House and from thence to the Crick, and over where the Bridg ust to Be: and up along that Lane by John Parkers and so as the way Goes by the head of bas Cove Crick to Rowland Youngs :
These Ways Laid out by Us the fifteent day of May in Year one thousand six hundred Ninetie and nine:
as Witness our hands JAMES PLASTEED ARTHUR BRAGDON DANIEL BLACK JOSEPH BANKS RICHARD MILBERY (T. R. i, 431.)
The principal highway to the East led through Cape Neddick Village along the coast to Wells, and in 1688 the town of York was presented in the Grand Jury indictment "for not having a sufficient highway between Samuel Webber's mill and Thomas Avery's." Eight years later this same road was the subject of a further direction by the court:
It is ordered by this Court that the Selectmen of York shall lay out a convenient highway or County Rode from York Town through the woods to the head of Cape Nuddeck River by the Mill and from thence to the back side of Averill's Pond or where they shall find it most convenient to come to the old Road. (Deeds , pt. 2, p. 70.)
Notwithstanding the elaborate layout of the "country road" through the town leading to Berwick, it would appear from a court order of 1707 that its value existed only on paper:
We present the town of York for not making a common road suffi- cient according to law from the Lower Ferry through the town to York Bridge.
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HISTORY OF YORK
The most charitable description of these highways at that period would be to say that they were primitive dirt roads with no pretense of grading or artificial surfacing to prevent the formation of ruts or any attempt at drainage to prevent washouts in stormy weather. It has been a long and dreary process of educating the people of this country to the economic value of good roads. The indif- ference of the settlers is difficult to understand as they came from England where the old highways, built by the Romans in the Middle Ages, yet exist as examples of an enlightened public spirit. It has taken nearly three cen- turies for the descendants of the settlers to come to this practical decision. The pleasure-driven automobiles must be thanked for this improvement which business necessity never recognized.
After 1700 subsidiary roads tributary to the King's Highway began to be surveyed, laid out and accepted. At the annual town meeting, March 1708, the following vote was passed:
Capt. Lewis Bane, Mr. Joseph Banks, Mr. Samuel Webber and Abra: Preble, Jur., as a Comitty shall here the Complaints of such Person or Persons as are a Greved for want of Conveancy of Way into the Comands, or in such way or ways as may be of Nesessity; the above sayd Persons or the Major Part of them shall have Power to act in any Matter or Matters of that Natuar in Laying out and Staking such way or ways as they shall see to be of Nessesity and make Report of their doing to the Town in Town Meeting from time to time.
This resulted in the laying out of several new ways or the acceptance of old ways hitherto used but not accepted. These were as follows: first, a way at the lower end of the town leading directly from the main road between the lands of Samuel Donnell and William More "as the way formerly went" in a northeast line towards Little River to meet "the highway that Leads from the town towards Cape Neddick." Second, "have Stakt out a way of twenty and two foot wide throw Mr Jeremiah Moultons Pastur: for- merly Samson Angers as neer as Possable where the way formerly went to the River of York: ordered that in the year 1710 said way Shall be left open as it is Stakt out." Third, a lane three rods wide from the main highway start- ing from Capt. Lewis Bane's orchard to the river. This was known as "Cooper's Lane" and was a new layout of an old way. Fourth, a lane two rods wide between the
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lands of Daniel Simpson and Ebenezer Coburn "into the Woods." Fifth, a road twenty feet wide in Scotland, "att the uper end of this town, to say, betwene the Land of Mr. Petter Nowel att his farme, and the land of John Micomtier laid out a way from the Cuntry Rode or high- way of twenty foot wide: to say ten foot on Micomtiers Land and ten foot on sd Nowels Land: and a Landing Place of Eighteen yards in breadth from the bank of the River: and twenty six yards in lenth of sd Nowels Land: and sixteen yards by the River: Macentier ten yard." The "Landing Place" still exists but only as a decayed relic of the past; the wharves rotted, the activities gone. Here vessels of fifty to one hundred tons loaded with hay, wood and potatoes for the Boston market or with miscellaneous cargoes for Salem and Newburyport.
MAINTENANCE OF ROADS
Keeping the town roads and main thoroughfares in repair became an annual charge on the town, and super- vision of this work was entrusted to surveyors of highways annually chosen for this purpose. Originally, in 1700, there were three. A century later the town was divided into twenty-three districts with a surveyor for each section. In order to prevent encroachment on these highways, fences were required to be constructed by the abutting owners, and the duty of seeing that this was enforced was entrusted to fence viewers whose function it was to see that the fences not only were erected but kept in repair. This became necessary to prevent the straying of domestic animals on the highways and the liability of the town for their loss or injury. Another kind of work relating to the safety of the highways devolved upon a set of officials known as "field drivers" and these officials were later combined in one committee of three. They were charged with driving animals straying on the highways to the public "pound" if ownership was unknown, or if the owner was a persistent violator of the law. An exception was made in favor of swine upon the public highways. They were permitted if they were yoked and ringed. From the primitive character `of these early roads it can be said that they were never in good condition as summer rains and winter frosts com- bined to keep them in a chronic state of disrepair. Spring freshets ended in washouts and summer travel produced
3II
HISTORY OF YORK
continual ruts. There was no intelligent system or control of repairs. Residents along these roads worked out their town taxes by day's labor in shoveling dirt back into the ruts and making a pretense at leveling the inequalities of the surface. These amateur "highwaymen" were allowed three shillings per diem for their own labor; two shillings for a yoke of oxen and eight pence a day for a cart in 1762, but this was immediately reconsidered and it was voted that "amending the High Ways be done in the former Method" -whatever that was. Probably something worse than the one suggested. That this kind of waste went on for nearly three centuries is a tribute to the per- sistence of the Anglo-Saxon in his devotion to traditions.
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CHAPTER XX TRAVEL AND TAVERNS
TRAVEL
The circumstances and method of travel in York were not essentially peculiar in the early days. The means of getting from place to place then were fundamentally primitive - by "Shanks' mare," generally, and next by water. The latter method was the simplest for long dis- tances. The Colonists went in canoes or pinnaces, accord- ing to the distance traveled, and the birch bark canoe of the Indians was early adopted for river transportation.
"All its mystery and magic; All the lightness of the birch tree. All the toughness of the cedar; All the larch's supple sinews, And it floated on the river Like a yellow leaf in Autumn."
Travel through the forest was hazardous without a compass, as the Indian trails spread in many directions not needed by the whites. The settlers blazed the trees for their paths, chopping off the bark of tree after tree and these blazes stood out clearly, in the dark shadows of the forest, like guide-posts. Travel by horseback followed this age-old pedestrianism as the paths were cleared and wid- ened. The lone horseman went on his journey with only the crackling of leaves and boughs reverberating through the forest in the stillness of summer, or the crunching of snow on winter nights. When horses were scarce, a party of four with two animals would undertake their journey on the "ride-and-tie" system: two riding a mile or more would tie the horses and walk on to be picked up by the other two and so on throughout the journey, thus resting both horse and traveler. Horseback riding survived for many decades as the development of highways was very slow. Indeed, it was not until shortly before the Revolu- tion that the two-wheeled "one horse shay" came into use, and then it was mostly used in towns rather than for long distance travel. Judges and lawyers rode their circuits, and
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HISTORY OF YORK
physicians and clergymen made their visits on horseback. The saddlebags were a part of their equipment up to the time of the Revolution. Pillion riding was adopted for the benefit of the fair sex and consisted of a padded cushion with straps which had on one side a sort of platform stir- rup. As a part of this system of democratic travel horse- blocks were set up before village residences for the con- venience of women in alighting from the rear pillion. In 1783 Jonathan Sayward speaks of buying a "new chaise," which permits the conclusion that he owned one previ- ously. As he was the richest man in the town, it probably indicates that this fancy method of travel was confined to the wealthy classes. It is further probable that they were not utilized for daily service, but rather, like the best suit of clothes, reserved for travel on the Sabbath to and from church. It was for that reason that the "Deacon's Master- piece," celebrated by Holmes, ran a "hundred years to a day." It was not until the beginning of the last century that the natural development in carriage travel came in the form of a four-wheeled carriage for private use. By this time the main roads connecting York to the east and west had become sufficiently passable for the heavier travel which shortly followed.
THE STAGECOACH
The old King's Highway lost its title in the patriotic nomenclature of the period and became the Post Road used by the post riders. About 1760 a weekly mail service was established east of Portsmouth, carrying mail from Boston as far as Falmouth. In 1764 Samuel March was the post rider, leaving Portsmouth weekly on Fridays. York was on this main Post Road, and out of it grew facilities for public travel between Falmouth and Boston. In 1787 the first mail coach carrying passengers on this route drew up in front of the old Green Dragon Tavern in this town. It was a wagon drawn by two horses driven by Joseph Bar- nard, the old post rider. His conveyance left Portsmouth in the morning, passing through Kittery, York and Ken- nebunk, arriving in Falmouth on the morning of the third day. Knowing what we do of the character of the natural roads, in the recollection of the present generation, it may be believed that the "rocky road to Dublin" could not have been much worse for passengers and coach. At first
314
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BOUND FOR STAGE NECK
THE FUNERAL CORTEGE
TRAVEL AND TAVERNS
this mail and passenger service was irregular, waiting for sufficient accumulation of mail or occupants to warrant the trip. In 1788 a regular schedule of trips three times a week each way was adopted and followed with as much regularity as season and condition of the roads permitted. In winter this service was done by sleigh. These wagons were open to the elements and the long journey in sun or rain often made the trip a memorable experience in a life- time. Covered vehicles followed. They were developed from the old Conestoga wagon of the Middle States, and became the picturesque stagecoach of our grandfather's time. Four horses were now required to draw this increased burden over the heavy pike. The arrival of this dust- or mud-covered vehicle was the day's event in York. The occupants were objects of curiosity and envy. These new bids for the patronage of adventurous spirits appeared about 1818 and held their supremacy for four decades. They developed from the rough construction of the early years to elegant equipages, painted and decorated, with seats atop and the old board benches cushioned with tufted leather and stuffed with hair. In winter a closed wagon- body was mounted on runners and accomplished the schedule when the roads required its use. A local stage- coach service between Kennebunk and Portsmouth sup- plemented this through passenger service, and under the management of Isaiah Farwell furnished York with a tri- weekly service each way. Farwell was followed by John P. Grant, who drove an "Accommodation Stage Line" between Portsmouth and Cape Neddick; later William Grant and finally by Grant & Stewart. But the end of the old stagecoach days was approaching, although as late as 1887 Joseph W. Bragdon was driving a "stage coach" to accommodate travelers.
RAILROAD TRAVEL
The development of travel by a machine using steam as its force found its usefulness in furnishing power to a carriage fitted to run on permanent tracks, invented by Stephenson, an Englishman. In 1830 this strange iron monster made its appearance in America and the first railroad operated by steam power was built in this country to run from Baltimore. This was destined to revolutionize travel throughout the United States and was the main
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HISTORY OF YORK
agency in driving the stagecoach into disuse, so that today the latter is a museum exhibit. In 1837 the first railroad line was projected to connect Boston and Portland, and in the survey for its roadbed, York was left out of the calcu- lations of the promoters. Whether any effort was made by the people of this town to be accommodated in the new scheme is unknown. At that time the Maine towns gen- erally fought shy of the entrance of these noisy iron horses, and stations were set as far as possible from the convenient centre of population. Whatever the reason, the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth Railroad went through Kittery, Eliot, and South and North Berwick in 1842, and thence on to Portland. York still had to depend on the post roads for its outlet to Portsmouth, where travelers could reach a depot of the Eastern Railroad, which had been completed in1 841. York was thus condemned to remain off this new highway of travel for years, until the growth of the town, especially after 1860, when the first ripples of the stream of summer tourists began to develop into an annual tidal flow, re- quired the facilities enjoyed by other seacoast towns. These annual visitors demanded better facilities for reach- ing our famous beaches than was possible by the antique method long since abandoned by other towns.
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