USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 28
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 28
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In the fall of 1882 a meeting was called at the instiga- tion of public-spirited citizens of York to discuss the prob- lem of securing better facilities for transportation of per- sons and freight. As a result Edward S. Marshall, John E. Staples, Henry E. Evans and John C. Stewart were chosen a committee to confer with the President of the Eastern Railroad and present facts relating to the increasing busi- ness of the town and urge upon him the advantages of con- structing a branch of that railroad from Portsmouth to York. As no encouragement was obtained from him these four gentlemen decided to become independent railroad magnates and build the necessary connecting line. In 1883 the state legislature granted a charter of incorporation to the York Harbor and Beach Railroad Company. The incorporators were Jeremiah P. Simpson, Edward S. Marshall, Samuel W. Junkins, John C. Stewart, Henry E. Evans, John E. Staples and Evan B. Hammond, the last of Nashua, N. H. The company was organized with Mr. Marshall as president and Mr. Stewart as clerk, the other
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incorporators being chosen directors. Mr. Junkins was subsequently chosen treasurer.
At this time the old Eastern Railroad was slowly being driven to the wall by its competitor, the Boston & Maine, and its shares of stock were peddled around for a few dol- lars each. The Boston & Maine Railroad acquired con- trol, and the Hon. Frank Jones of Portsmouth, one of its most active directors, became interested in this proposed line to York. Surveys only had been made for its construc- tion. Extension of the franchise was effected in 1885 by filing plans of location, but nothing was done towards grad- ing the roadbed or exhibiting other visible evidences of progress. The town refused to give any aid in financing the venture either by direct appropriation or by endorsing bonds with the road as security. The persistence of Mr. Marshall and his willingness to lend his private funds kept the scheme alive, and when specifications and bids were called for in October 1886, Mr. Jones, evidently finding
A RELIC OF THE RAILROAD AGE
that a narrow-gauge road was proposed, and considering that such an irregular trackage, which did not permit of interchange of freight and passenger cars with the Boston & Maine, would cause inconvenience and added expense in transporting passengers and freight, proposed a sus- pension of the building program pending a conference of the directors of the two roads. As a result of this the Bos- ton & Maine agreed to complete a standard gauge road, provide the rolling stock and equipment and furnish the balance of funds necessary to complete it when the local
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corporation should take fifty thousand dollars of stock in the York Harbor and Beach Railroad Co. Reciprocal privileges were granted the branch company to use the road of the Boston & Maine from Kittery to Portsmouth with all terminal facilities, and in December 1886, the work of construction was begun. On August 8, 1887, summer visitors were landed, for the first time, by this modern method of travel at Long Beach, and soon after at the terminal, which was called Union Bluff. The cost of construction was over three hundred thousand dollars, and for the first time York was put on the railroad map of the United States.
For nearly forty years this modern style of travel, supplemented for a time by the electric railroad, served the town and its annual guests, until a new competitor entered the field. Discovery of petroleum was followed by the invention of the internal combustion engine, and eventually the "horseless carriage," perfected in the first decade of this century, began to draw travel from the iron road to the macadam and asphalt surfaced highways. Since the beginning of this century thousands of automo- biles have crowded these magnificent thoroughfares like a plague of locusts in Egypt, each one loaded with human and other freight. Against this latest rival in transporta- tion the bravely begun protest against the isolation of York succumbed to the inevitable. The Boston & Maine System was obliged to discontinue service on all such local spur tracks and in June 1925, the last passenger train screeched its farewell to the Harbor and Beach. A line of railless sleepers, fast disappearing, is the only relic of York's first and last steam railroad. How long the auto- mobile will hold supremacy is a problem, and whether the aeroplane will later furnish satisfactory means of travel to the thousands who wish to get here quickly is a problem in the lap of the Gods.
THE ELECTRIC RAILROAD
The electric railroad of York was started in 1897 and put in operation in 1898, being built by Gerald and Libby. Like all new things, it was fought by certain elements of the town, particularly in York Harbor, where it was thought this common form of travel would ruin the ex- clusiveness of this popular resort.
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2
THE GREEN DRAGON TAVERN
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HISTORY OF YORK
This railroad was known as the Portsmouth, Kittery and York Street Railway. It ran from Badger's Island in Kittery via Kittery Point, across Brave Boat Harbor to Seabury, Sewall's Bridge and York Corner, then through York Village and Harbor, following the highway across Long Beach to York Beach. The connection to Ports- mouth was made via ferry from Badger's Island.
Shortly after this railroad was started, a branch was run up into Eliot. This line was extended to Dover and South Berwick, and then a cross-country line was built from "Rosemary," in Eliot, to York Corner to join the original line. The road name was now, after these exten- sions, known as the Portsmouth, Dover and York Street Railway.
The railroad was operated in this form for a few years, when a line was built from York Beach to Kennebunk, via Ogunquit and Wells, to connect with the existing line which operated from Springvale to Sanford to Biddeford, with branches to Cape Porpoise and Kennebunkport. When this connecting link was completed the different lines were consolidated under one head, and known as The Atlantic Shore Line Railway.
This railroad operated for a few years, went into a receivership, and was reorganized as the Atlantic Shore Railroad, but this was the time of the decline of electric railroads, and the advance of the automobile. It was only a short time before another receivership occurred. The railroad was divided at York Beach, in April 1917, and the western division went back to its original name of Portsmouth, Dover and York Street Railway, commonly known as the P. D. & Y., which the public said stood for Pull, Drag & Yank.
This P. D. & Y. Street Railway operated under a re- ceivership until 1920, at which time it closed up, was dis- continued and sold for junk. The carbarn at South Berwick burned, the one at Kittery Point was torn down, the rotary station at York Corner was made into a house and the carbarn at York Beach into a dance hall, and at this writing in 1932 there is hardly a sign in the town of York to remind us of a once flourishing electric railroad.
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TAVERNS
As a matter of reciprocal convenience for the public every town in the Province was required to have a licensed house of public entertainment for the convenience of travelers. Licenses for taverns were issued by the county judges to approved persons. With a tavern license usually went a license to sell liquor on the premises. The first known tavern keeper in York was George Puddington who in 1640 was landlord of an inn situated near the loca- tion of the present Sayward Hall. The little that we know of his life consists in part of his conviction for drunkenness at the house of Mrs. Sarah Lynn, who lived near the east end of Rice's Bridge. His selection of a private house for a "spree" may be attributed to a better kind of rum kept by Mrs. Lynn for friends, but more likely to his domestic troubles which later found airing in the courts. At his death about 1648 his widow succeeded to the estate as well as to the continuance of the business.
Contemporary with Puddington, Henry Donnell kept a tavern, as he lived in Lower Town in a convenient location for travelers by the lower ferry. How early he combined his trade of fisherman with innkeeping is not known to the author. He was here as early as 1641, and probably catered to transient fishermen and travelers soon after. In 1649 his name is found in a list of those paying the excise tax for drawing liquor. He was charged with two pipes or butts of wine and fifty-four gallons of "licquers," an amount equal to Wardwell, the taverner of Wells, and his tax exceeded that of the Widow Puddington for that year. It is probable that he continued to follow this business year after year.
Immediately after the death of Puddington, Nicholas Davis of Woburn came to York and opened a tavern in Lower Town on the Country Road to the ferry, near to the Sunken Marsh where the town highway led to Stage Neck and the ferry. This inn, being on the main traveled road convenient for travelers, held its place in the life of the town for nearly a quarter of a century, and mine host Davis entertained there the Judges of the Quarter Session and Common Pleas. His tavern is historically famous as the meeting place of the townsmen in 1652 when they were forced to submit to the government of Massachusetts. In
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the absence of any record to the contrary it is supposed that he continued to keep this tavern until his death.
The next tavern keeper in the town was John Davis who came here in 1650, probably from Hampton or Rye. He was a trader, of an energetic personality, and probably was solicited by the Widow Puddington to manage the tavern formerly conducted by her deceased husband. Whatever the cause, John Davis was licensed to keep an ordinary in 1652 at the old Puddington Inn where he doubtless had resided since coming to town. He had a shop and warehouse nearby on the site of Keating Wharf. He kept this tavern until his death in 1691, and in 1690 a political opponent called him a "common Alehouse Keeper." (P. R. O. Board of Trade v, 32.) It is not always possible to distinguish between those who combined inn- keeping and the selling of strong drinks and those who had a license only for retailing.
Frances Donnell, wife of Henry, was granted a tavern license in 1669, about the time of the death of Nicholas Davis, and as they were next-door neighbors she may have assumed management of his old inn. The Court records indicate that she was living apart from her husband at that time. Her son Samuel bought out some of the Davis heirs in 1680, and in 1689 he was granted a tavern license which may have been applicable to this ancient hostelry. He continued to hold a license until his death in 1718 when his widow, Alice Donnell, was granted a license to continue his tavern. She renewed this for five years when her son Nathaniel was granted the permit as successor in 1726 which he kept for the next four years.
In 1678 there was no licensed tavern in the town and York was presented to the Grand Jury for this neglect. Joseph Moulton, who had bought the Twisden lot at the northern end of Scituate Row in 1685, was keeping a house of public entertainment there at the time of the Massacre. In 1692 Matthew Austin had a tavern license and another to sell liquor which were renewed for the following six years. He was a grandson of Nicholas Davis and his tavern was located on Cider Hill.
The Woodbridge Tavern, so-called, was inherited by Paul Dudley Woodbridge, son of John, and by him used as a tavern, with a sign displaying the countenance of William Pitt, Esq. above the words "Entertainment for
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the Sons of Liberty."1 He was capitalizing the political sentiments of the times to attract the tippling Whigs to his tap-room. John Adams was a guest there in 1770, and noted this fact in his diary, with the comment: "Thus the spirit of liberty circulates through every minute artery of the Province." During one of his sojourns he gives this picture of the inn and the landlord :
Came home and took a pipe with landlord, who is a staunch zealous son of liberty. He gave a sad account of the opposition and persecu- tion he has suffered from the tories for his zeal and firmness against their schemes: says they contrive every way to thwart, vex and dis- tress him, and have got a thousand pounds sterling from him at least; but he says that Providence has seemed to frown upon them, one running distracted, and another &c and has favored him in many ways that he did not foresee.
From this tale of woe, solemnly related and recorded, Adams went on to Falmouth and on his return again sampled Woodbridge's "Entertainment for the Sons of Liberty." At this visit Woodbridge "was much elated with his new license, and after dinner was treating his friends - some of them." But this elation was of brief duration as the tavern at the Sign of Billy Pitt passed into the hands of a mortgagee, one Capt. Matthew Ritchie, in 1771, and the next year when Adams returned he "put up at Ritchie's."
Captain Ritchie was a retired master mariner when he came here. He served as a town warden, constable, sur- veyor of highways, a member of the committee to inter- view Sayward on his "Tory" correspondence, and one of the committee of Safety. He removed to Penobscot, Maine, about 1785 and was living there in 1790. His wife Freelove died here November 8, 1779.
Miriam Preble, daughter of Abraham, was married in Boston May 28, 1712, to Benjamin Stone of that town. He was son of Benjamin and Joanna Stone, born January 16, 1689-90, and after their marriage he came here to live. Caleb Preble, his brother-in-law, sold to him three acres near the Meeting House in 1715 and here he set up busi- ness as an innholder (Deeds x, 187). In 1729 the property
1 Woodbridge was first licensed in 1719 and renewals were made 1720, 1722, 1723, 1724 and 1727. In 1728 Abraham Perkins was given his license. Paul Dudley Wood- bridge was licensed 1757-1760 and license was not renewed until 1770 which he held for four years. It was not renewed in 1775 but from 1776 he held it for the next fourteen years, the last time in 1789.
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was sold to Dr. Alexander Bulman. It is probable that the sale marks the end of Stone's connection with this occu- pation as he was engaged later in shipbuilding.
Caleb Preble, his brother-in-law, is first designated innholder in 1730, the year after Stone sold his three acres, and he gave the first colorful atmosphere to the tavern business in York by calling his house "The Green Dragon." Doubtless this name represents today in the minds of many an appropriate designation for a place where the hospitality he dispensed there was supplementary to room and meals for travelers. In 1730 Preble brought suit against Nathaniel Ramsdell for throwing stones or brick- bats against the plaintiff's sign, known "by the name of the Green Dragon," claiming damages to the amount of five pounds. He said it had been split in several places and otherwise defaced. Mr. Justice Pepperrell gave judgment for the defendant, which was sustained on appeal. The name may have been brought from Boston by Stone, as a tavern of that name existed in that town many years before. Caleb Preble was son of Abraham, born July 7, 1689, and married Jemima Storer. He died January 7, 1734, and his widow married (1742) Andrew Gilman of Exeter. In 1743 Gilman applied for a renewal of the old license, stating that his predecessor "for many years kept a Tavern in said Town to general satisfaction." He asked for a license "in the House where the said Prebble kept" (A & R xiii, 181), and was the landlord for the next twenty years.1
Contemporaneous with this hostelry was one opened in 1730 by Moses Ingraham on the road leading from the Meeting House to Cape Neddick, near the site of the Judge Sewall mansion. He was a newcomer to York, formerly residing in Portsmouth, perhaps also in Berwick.
In that year he bought of John Woodbridge a brick house and nine acres of land adjoining the ministerial lot and opened the house as a tavern under the shadow of the Meeting House, which seemed then to be the guardian spirit of these Colonial tap-rooms. He dispensed good
1 The succession of licensees for the Green Dragon Tavern begins in the year 1720 with Benjamin Stone who was last licensed in 1725. Caleb Preble succeeded in 1726, holding the license until 1734 when he died. His widow, Jemima Preble, succeeded as landlady licensee 1735-1741 inclusive. Her second husband, Andrew Gilman, received a license to continue the tavern in 1743, which was renewed until 1757. Jemima Preble again had a renewal in 1758-1763, with Andrew Gilman again receiving it in 1764 and Jemima again in 1765 and 1766. She died January 8, 1780.
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cheer for nearly a score of years, and was succeeded in 1746 by his son, Edward Ingraham, who continued the business until 1766. It was the principal tavern of that period and public gatherings and official meetings were appointed to meet there.
Another member of the Preble family engaged in tavern-keeping before the Revolution - Esaias Preble, son of Samuel and Sarah (Muchmore) Preble, who was born April 26, 1742. He married Lydia Ingraham, daughter of Col. Edward Ingraham, in 1766 and succeeded to the family occupation in 1767. "Preble's Tavern" is mentioned in 1778 in the autobiography of Stephen Jones (Sprague, Journal iii, 213). He continued as late as 1789 and died in 1813, leaving a family of fifteen children.
THE WILCOX TAVERN
The Stacey Tavern, which stood on the road from the village to Sewall's Bridge, on the brow of the hill over- looking Meeting House Creek, was on historic ground - the site of the first house built in York by Edward Godfrey. Circumstantial evidence indicates that it may have been the original frame of Godfrey's house with such additions and replacements as time made necessary for preservation. When demolished in 1870 an old timber taken from it marked "1634" favors this inference. Stacey was from
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HISTORY OF YORK
Kittery where he was born in 1755, and was a saddler by trade. He acquired the property by inheritance from the Harmons through his wife Hannah, daughter of Judge Simon Frost, whose mother was the widow of Joseph Harmon. His grandfather, William Stacey, of Berwick, was described as "a man of some Learning & understand- ing more than common among Mechanicks, yet a very Loose, Irreligious man." The grandson had an interesting career during the Revolution, serving on the "Ranger" with Commodore John Paul Jones in his famous raidings of the English coasts. This became a favorite topic of rehearsal for his guests, and the stories did not lose any- thing in quality as age lengthened out his sea yarns. He died in 1840, and was succeeded by his son of the same name, also a harness maker. The old tavern sign "RUM, WINE, BRANDY SOLD HERE" is now in the posses- sion of the present owners of the site of this famous inn.
John Clements was granted a license to keep a tavern in the years 1753-1757, but it is not clear where it was situated nor is his origin known. His wife was admitted to the church in 1754, but beyond that nothing relating to them is found in the town records.
Josiah Bradbury was granted a license as tavern keeper in 1759 but does not again appear in that capacity.
Robert Rose, who was a barber by trade and resided in the Little River region on the road to Cape Neddick, was granted an innkeeper's license in 1759 which was renewed annually until 1783. He married Dorothy, daughter of William Moore.
John Junkins of the Scotland family was granted an innkeeper's license in 1765, which he held for ten years.
John Nowell held a license from 1776 to 1784, but the location of his hostelry has not been determined.
On land leased from the parish in 1766 for a thousand years, less one, the house built by the lessor, Edward Emerson (yet standing as the summer home of Mrs. Esther Hungerford), was a tavern from 1781 to 1788. After the death of Edward Emerson, the property was owned, in succession, by Bulkeley Emerson and Jonathan Sayward Barrell. Barrell was followed by Capt. David Wilcox, from whom it derived its well-known name in recent times. Captain Wilcox was from Connecticut and came here about 1816. He was a useful and public-spirited
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citizen, serving the town, County, and Federal Govern- ment in various ways. He was Deputy Sheriff, 1821-1825; Weigher in the Customs District, 1823-1827; Inspector of Customs, 1829-1830; Justice of the Peace, 1823-1832; and Coroner 1830-1832. William Emerson, son of Edward, had a license for like purposes in 1784 and 1785.
This record of public taverns brings the narrative down to the beginnings of York as a summer resort and its enor- mous development in hotel facilities and attractions for the vacationers. This will be treated in a subsequent chapter.
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CHAPTER XXI DOMESTIC LIFE IN PROVINCIAL TIMES
The eighteenth century opened with York slowly rising from the ashes and sorrows of the past. Mourning in almost every family gave life a solemnity which time only could assuage. For many years the sight of garrison houses revived the dread of savages lurking in the forests, coiled and ready to strike unawares like the deadly rattler. Six formal wars, aimed against these savages and their French coadjutors, rendered life in the first half of this century a recurring panorama of military alarums with short periods of disturbed peace intervening. Each decade found the town growing, and it became less of a frontier settlement as the years went by. Berwick on the north and Wells on its eastern boundary became the buffers that gave an increas- ing sense of security. Yet with demands on the people in the first half of the century to offer themselves and their sons as cannon fodder in the local repercussion of European wars devised for the "glory" of the Hanoverian and French royal families, the social development of this cen- tury was retarded much more than in the previous one. The original settlers had practically fifty years of peace to lay the foundations of a settled community. It was not till 1763 that the last quota of men from this town were called upon to do military duty beyond its borders for the security of the Province and the country at large.
Under these circumstances the thoughts and activities of the townspeople were engaged in the pressing work of conserving life and maintaining the civilization and culture of English institutions which their grandsires had planted. They had slowly overcome the aboriginal menace and at the last were in conflict with their ancient French rival for supremacy. If it was not conducive to the development of the higher values of art, science and literature, it was contributory to the future of the continent. To this im- portant result York contributed her blood and treasure.
With these inevitable events which turned the thoughts of a small community into the atmosphere of military quarters and barracks, the stimulus of conflict kept it alive to its possibilities and prevented that stagnation which is
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the handmaid of profitless inactivity. York did not give up to a vegetable existence and watch itself grow. As soon as it emerged from this half century of conflict it began to take on rapidly the habiliments of a fully developed Colonial community. Victorious in war, it became expan- sive in peace. Although still on the extreme northern edge of English settlements, the developments in the comforts and amenities of life in the colonies south of us (where the conflicts rarely disturbed material progress) rapidly found an appreciative acceptance here. It will be asked what problems engaged their daily existence and in what way did they meet the new day that had dawned? To the present generation with all the devices and diversions which embellish modern living it is an unanswered wonder how our ancestors in that era kept themselves from yawn- ing for lack of excitement. The answer is that they were a self-contained people and never knew the need of external means to keep them refreshed.
In 1765 York was a community just as large as it is today, numerically, and it is easy to see that enough was going on in their ordinary routine of life. The "country road" of 1699 was lined with houses as it is today from Stage Neck to Brixham. The village had as many people busily in and out of its houses and shops as can be seen at present, while the water front and the harbor could show more vessels entering and leaving and more activity than exists now. Visualize the roads, without their present finished surfaces, and with ponderous wains being slowly dragged by deliberate oxen, and an occasional horse-drawn wagon toiling along through the sandy ruts, and the ex- ternal picture of the town is before us. There was nothing much to distract the attention of the people, or to help them "kill time" beyond the ordinary happenings of the human race in its seven stages of existence. They were dependent on themselves for topics of conversation and mental development. "Learning" as such was not a com- mon privilege, although in the chapter on schools evidence from the records will show that the standards set by the Province at large were available here. It is not known that any lay resident of the town had acquired a college edu- cation,1 though the ministers provided examples of lib-
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