USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 48
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
Economic betterment was the main objective of the German and it had come in some cases rather glamorously to his very threshold. The fine houses of Mr. Waterman and Colonel Farns- worth, the princely character of Squire Thomas' ménage and the grand scale of his business offered a pattern of life so attrac- tive that the Teutons could do naught but envy and imitate. Their own leaders were the first to feel its lure. Charles Leisner, Jacob
428
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Ludwig, Captain John Ulmer, Matthias Remilly, Andrew Schenck, George Smouse, and George Demuth were soon in the sphere of Puritan influence. They accepted and learned his language and in the end some even adopted his faith and prospered by so doing. Just as the housemaid imitates the manners and modes of dress of her mistress, so did the Broad Bay Germans, so far as their means allowed, tend to become undistinguishable from the Puritan.
In the face of new social and economic norms their own specific culture started on its slow course of disintegration. It was not a rapid transformation, but it was one that continued with increasing acceleration. Later, when the Germans realized what was taking place, some struggled to check the movement, but it was too late. The younger generation had become anglicized and in the face of this fact not even their language or their faith were able to survive. These were the last two phases of the old life to disappear, and quite naturally so. Whereas the men met the Puritan in the tavern and market place and in doing business with him learned and used his language; the women, busied in the home from sunrise to sunset, had little occasion to learn English and clung to their native German. The children learned it from their mothers and it continued as the language of the home. Then, as their contact with outside life increased with age, the children became bilingual.
The wife of Frank Miller never learned English and on her death in 1820 had the passport and the German church records, brought from the homeland, buried with her, unconsciously sym- bolizing in her mind perhaps the end of an epoch, and expressing her realization that these papers would never again be regarded as significant by a new generation which had discarded its former heritage. There are those still living who recall hearing their grandparents speaking in the old language. A niece, now ad- vanced in years, still recalls "Uncle Gideon Hoch" reading aloud from his German Bible in the last years of his life. From 1800 Waldoborough was largely bilingual, and the old language con- tinued to be spoken down to the Civil War. Both Conrad Heyer and the Reverend John Starman were gathered to their long rest in the 1850's and with their passing the old gutteral sounds were heard no more in the streets and homes of Waldoborough, save perhaps from the lips of some ancient grand-dame immolated in the back-district, who spoke it occasionally to amuse the grand- children, even down to the closing decades of the nineteenth century.
The Lutheran faith struggled more determinedly for sur- vival. It became acutely aware of what the presence of the Puritan meant, and it battled manfully to hold its ground when every other phase of the old life was disappearing.
XX
BROAD BAY BECOMES WALDOBOROUGH
Exegi monumentum aere perennius.
HORACE
O N JANUARY 9, 1769, death came to Karl Christopher Gottfried Leisner. He died a comparatively young man of forty-five years and was buried in a solitary but beautiful spot on the shore of his home farm, the present Jonas Koskela place. Here for upwards of two centuries now his dust has remained within the shadow of an oak, on the tip of a little promontory jutting out into the waters of old Broad Bay; and when Medomak tides are in, a place of greater peace and beauty no human heart could desire. For nearly two decades Leisner was the first citizen of Broad Bay, the local regent of the "hereditary Lords." Until the end of the French and Indian War his judgment had the weight of law in the colony, in part by virtue of the feudal principle of fealty given and power conferred from above. His death marked the peak in the continuation of a specifically German culture at Broad Bay. With his passing the last symbol of the old order virtually disappeared from the scene, and the tide of Puritan influence set in, in its slow flood.
The first major push in the new direction was felt when the Plantation of Broad Bay became the Town of Waldoborough. This move transplanted the Teuton from his feudal milieu into the soil of a democratic social system. It set up a pattern which was the complete negation of anything that he had heretofore known and experienced. It compelled him to think in terms which were utterly alien to him and to adjust himself to procedures which in his experience were utterly new and strange. This shift, of course, took place under the aegis of those recent migrants from Massachusetts whose backgrounds were sketched in the preceding chapter. Without the spur which they furnished and the guidance which they gave in these days of transition, the quaint, old, and colorful culture on the Medomak would have faded far more slowly from the scene.
430
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
The new social and political framework set up by the Puri- tans at Broad Bay was essentially English. In substance it sprang from traditions that had been developing from the time of Magna Charta, and in part it was also an outgrowth of legal forms and practices, loosely embodied in principles which have remained in effect in our times. These were the sanctity of the individual, with arrest or apprehension only on a definite charge and by due process of law; the right of individuals to be taxed only by their
Here lies buried the body of Charles Christopher Godfrey Lissner; EsQ who died Jan. 9. 1769. Aged 45 years. The wide mouth grave proclino road ? Attend ve mortals to the sound . How is the time for Death , prepare. Work , wisdom nor Design is there.
The End of an Era Grave of Charles C.G.Leisner
own representatives; protection by the civil arm against violence or injustice; the right of protest or of petition against grievances or wrongs, and the right of the individual against all extra-legal practices affecting his own person or property. These principles formed the basis of the political philosophy which the Puritans had brought to New England as an acknowledged and valued possession. Their ancestors had come to these shores at the time when the commoners in England were wresting powers from
431
Broad Bay Becomes Waldoborough
the Stuarts and investing them in the Parliament, hence the tra- dition of their lower and middle-class status was definitely that of self-government and representative institutions. In the freedom of a new world, far removed from the watchful eye of the Crown and its vassals, their theory of basic human rights had further ex- panded with only an occasional check. This philosophy, new at Broad Bay, was like a blood transfusion into the sclerotic veins of its ancient feudal culture, and the Teutons began orienting themselves to entirely new conceptions of human society.
There was also a new political configuration, the township, with its manifold social implications. This too was essentially English. Its prototype in England was the parish, the smallest unit of civil government. From the time no can man remember, its control was in the hands of the common people. "They are commonly made church wardens, sidesmen, aleconners, now and then constables,"1 says Harrison, using terms so long obsolete that their meaning is only known from dictionaries. These con- stables were those authorized to take over the main duties of local government. They derived their power from the general assem- bly of the parish folk, which was "the vestry," in which mem- bership was held by all those who owned houses or land in the parish, (the "freeholders" of our town warrants). This body had certain powers which it could exercise within the larger frame- work of the state. It could define the duties of its officials, or even impose them (a power formerly used in the early history of our town), appoint committees, and require service of them, enforce its ordinances which were binding upon all the inhabi- tants, and levy taxes on the real estate of the parish. In this an- cient English social unit and its governmental practices we have the nucleus of the control patterns which the Puritans brought to Broad Bay, many of the forms of which are still recognizable in current practices. Relieved of centralized pressure from the top, this parish form of local control was expanded by the Puritans in Massachusetts into the New England Town Meeting. To it was gradually added a host of additional offices required by the exi- gencies of life in the New World. Such conceptions and forms, planted in the feudal soil of Broad Bay, initiated what might be called the beginning of a democratic revolution.
From the arrival of the first Puritans in the mid 1760's the question of a township had become common talk. Georg Soelle, writing to Bishop John Ettwein on November 2, 1767, observed "and when they become incorporated which they are working for now,"2 indicating that plans were well under way as early as 1767. Whereas the Puritans furnished the stimulus, the encourage- ment, and the ideas involved in the procedure; they were ably
1Description of England.
2Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pa.
432
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
seconded and supported by the abler Germans, who in the early and troubled days of the colony had moved about in the English world beyond the Broad Bay periphery. To this end Jacob Ludwig was the most active, and early in 1773, when plans had been fully effected and the petition drafted requesting township status of the General Court, it was Jacob Ludwig, who, with the petition in his pocket, embarked on a coaster for Boston to present the matter to the Court. He was the logical man for this task, for he was the furthest anglicized of the Germans and by patient prac- tice had become in a measure bilingual in his own humorous and inimitable way. The Germans in the colony liked and trusted him, and the English had confidence in his good faith and ability. The Ludwig mission was a success and on June 29th the Court passed an act incorporating the Plantation of Broad Bay into the Town of Waldoborough. Why at this time the name was changed remains a mystery with no shred of evidence available to provide even the faintest clue. This act occurred under Thomas Hutchin- son, the last of the civil governors of Massachusetts Bay, and in the same year that the famous tea was spilled by the Indians into Boston Harbor, all of which presaged rough water for the fathers of the new town.
Waldoborough was the thirty-second town incorporated in the Province of Maine, and the first in the old Lincolnshire or Waldo Patent. In the immediate neighborhood Newcastle had attained township status in 1753 and Bristol in 1765. The charter of township which Jacob Ludwig bore back to Waldoborough defined the first, but not the final bounds of the towns as follows:
AN ACT FOR INCORPORATING A PLANTATION CALLED BROAD BAY INTO A TOWN BY THE NAME OF WALDOBOROUGH
Whereas the inhabitants of the Plantation of Broad Bay, in the County of Lncoln, have represented to this Court that they labour un- der great difficulties and inconveniences by reason of their not being incorporated into a Town, therefore:
Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and House of Representa- tives, the said Plantation, commonly called and known by the name of Broad Bay, bounded as follows, viz, to begin at the northwest corner bound of the town of Bristol, in said county, at a stake standing on the bank of the Duck Puddle Brook, so called, thence running northerly by said Brook and Pond to the northerly end of said Pond to a Pine Tree marked on four sides, thence to run north 560 rods to a Pine Tree marked on four sides, thence to run north 22° and 30' east, seventeen hundred rods to a Spruce Tree marked on four sides, thence to run east southeast eleven hundred and twenty rods to a Birch Tree marked on four sides, thence, to run south, seven degrees east, sixteen hundred rods to a Maple Tree marked on four sides, thence to run south nineteen degrees west, nine hundred and six rods to a Spruce Tree marked on four sides, thence to run southeast one hundred and sixty rods to a Fir
433
Broad Bay Becomes Waldoborough
Tree marked on four sides, thence to run south fifteen degrees east three hundred and twenty rods to a stake standing on the bank of Little Pond, so called, thence easterly by the shore of said Pond to the easterly part thereof, thence south fifteen degrees east, to a stake standing on the bank of Southerly Pond, so called, thence easterly by the shore of said Pond to the easterly part thereof, thence south fifteen degrees east, one hundred rods to a Spruce Tree marked on four sides, thence run- ning south twelve degrees west, three hundred and twenty rods to a Spruce Tree marked on four sides, thence running northwest four hun- dred rods to Goose River, so called, thence southerly down said River, in the middle thereof, to its entrance into the Bay, thence running to Back Cove, so called, thence to continue by the shore southerly and westerly to the Southerly Part of Passage Point, otherwise called Jones's Neck, thence westerly across the Narrows of Broad Bay River until it strikes the southerly part of Haverner's Point, so called, thence westerly around the shore of said Point and northerly by the shore of the eastern branch of Broad Cove, thence round the head of said cove westerly and southerly until it comes to a Red Oak Tree standing on the land of Jacob Eaton, being the easterly corner bound of the Town of Bristol aforesaid, thence to run Northwesterly on said line of Bristol to the first mentioned bounds: - be and hereby is erected into a township by the name of Waldoborough, and that the inhabitants thereof be and hereby are invested with all the powers, priveleges and immunities which the inhabitants of the Towns within the Province respectively do or ought to enjoy.
And be it further enacted that Alexander Nichols, Esq., Be and he hereby is empowered to issue his warrant directed to some principal inhabitant in said township, to notify and warn the inhabitants in said township to meet at such time and place as shall be therein set forth, to chuse all such officers as shall be necessary to manage the affairs of said town. At which said first meeting all the there Present male Inhabitants arrived to twenty-one years of age shall be admitted to vote.
A true copy of an act passed the General Court the 29th day of June 1773.
Thomas Flucker, Secretary
A true copy attest Jacob Ludwig, Town Clerk3
It is one of the ironies of history that the secretary recording the passage of this act was the son-in-law of the original proprie- tor, and the title holder of unassigned lands in the grant. The bounds listed in the act of incorporation were laid out by John Martin, Jr., "sworn surveyor of Broad Cove," and are rather charmingly naïve in their vagueness and in the assumption that pine, fir, spruce, maple, and oak trees with their markings would delimit these bounds in perpetuity. They did, however, serve the immediate purpose, having been run before the petition for in- corporation was presented. They were offered by Jacob Ludwig as a part of the petition and were incorporated by the General Court in the act creating the township. The eastern bounds soon became the subject of a good deal of criticism and jest.
3Records, Town Clerk, I, Waldoborough.
434
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
On September 2, 1773, Alexander Nichols of Bristol issued the warrant for the first Town Meeting, whereunder "Andrew Shanck" was empowered to notify and warn the inhabitants to meet on Tuesday, the 21st day of September at "the westerly meeting house" in order "to chuse all Such officers as shall be necessary to manage the affairs of sd. town. At which sd. first meeting all the there Present male Inhabitants arrived to Twenty- one years of age shall be admitted to vote .. . for all Town officers as the Law Directs." Contrary to the weekly declaration of the Waldoboro Press it is interesting to note that the new meeting- house on the east shore (the present Lutheran Church) was in existence at this time.
The first panel of offices is a matter of interest as there was not one at that time that did not meet a vital social and eco- nomic need. Clerks, treasurers, selectmen, and constables are still a necessary part of our machinery of government, whereas fence viewers, tithingmen, wardens, deer reeves, leather sealers, sur- veyors of lumber, haywards, pound keepers, hog reeves, and cullers of fish have these many years now been functionless and ceased to have meaning, save as marks of humorous recognition, as when Horace McIntyre, for many years first selectman, was for as many successive years elected pound keeper. But now even this meritorious custom has died out, and these offices are merely a matter of historical record.
In the elections at the first Town Meeting the Puritans re- ceived generous recognition at the hands of the Teutonic majority. In fact, it could not have been otherwise since the Puritans were the only ones who knew what the major offices entailed. They had to shoulder the burden of the important posts and teach the Germans to function in minor offices. The first slate of elected officials represents a fine balance between German and Puritan, and demonstrates in these difficult years the sound judgment of the Germans in correctly evaluating the situation and recognizing the importance of intelligent choice. Squire Thomas was chosen moderator and presided over the first meeting. Surely there was no one in a mixed racial community, where each move in the meeting had to be clarified in two languages, who could have discharged this function with greater tact or finesse. But this burden was probably borne by Jacob Ludwig, the first town clerk. At this time Ludwig was competently bilingual, and with the moderator free to make use of his services, matters proceeded admirably.
With the exception of the year 1775, Ludwig held this post for the next twelve years, and in this period he was an indispensable agent in the meetings as an interpreter. He was a most methodical man, with the German passion for detail. Everything he under- took was meticulously finished. The town records written in his
435
Broad Bay Becomes Waldoborough
beautiful and minuscular script are models of neatness and exact- ness. The English, too, is surprisingly good, though the spelling at times is amusingly "Dutch." "Sevear" for surveyor, and "poun- keeber" for pound keeper provided no obstacle, but I admit paus- ing in wonderment at "tockpottle," and not until I pronounced it aloud did I recognize it as Duck Puddle Pond, dutchefied.
Captain David Vinal was the first Town Treasurer. His years as captain of a coaster gave him some knowledge and ex- perience in rough bookkeeping, and his long acquaintance with the settlement from frequent visits on the river had built up for him a reputation of confidence and trust which made him a natural choice for the first selectman. His colleagues on the board were Christoph Newbert and John Weaver. Whether the latter was of English or German strain is not known. With this frame- work of government laid, the meeting adjourned until the next day, when it met at ten in the morning to elect the other officers required by law. In these days travel was by foot, by water, or on horseback, and time, much of it, was required for a man to get from one point to another. This condition was recognized, and allowance made for it in the division of offices. For example, the first constables were two, Philip Shuman and John Hunt. The latter lived on the middle west side and Shuman on the east side between the present village and its railway station. Hence duties could be discharged in both areas without waiting for tides in order to cross the river, or being blocked by darkness, by storms, or by ice.
This same principle seems to have been applied to all offices and was particularly relevant to the question of roads, hardly a problem in early days when there was one north and south road on each side of the river and one main line running east and west. These were little more than the bridle paths which led into them from any direction. The first surveyors were quite properly chosen on a geographical basis. Frank Miller lived on Dutch Neck, Jacob Achorn in upper West Waldoborough, while John Adam Levensaler was on the upper east side and Abijah Waterman in the southeast section.
Fence viewer was an important office in early days. Every- body kept livestock and everybody in consequence had to build fences. It was a constant subject of controversy between neighbors as to where, how far, and who was to construct a line fence, or whether a fence should be constructed at all. The services of these fence viewers were in constant demand, compelling on ap- peal the erection of fences and each man's rightful share of their construction. The early town records are full of such appeals, of the ensuing survey, and the fence viewers' decisions. Elected to this important post in this first Town Meeting were Henry
436
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Stahl and Henry Creamer on the west side, and Christian Klein and Nathan Soule on the east side.
The tithingmen were old English functionaries or parish officers annually elected to preserve good order in the church during divine service, to make complaint of any disorderly con- duct, and to enforce the observance of the Sabbath. At Waldo- borough they were a kind of Sunday constable, a main function of which was to keep dogs out of the church during worship, to quell their disorderly conduct outside the building, and to silence any that were disposed to join in the stately Lutheran chants. Jabez Cole from the east side and Conrad Seiders from the west side were the first to be empowered with this authority. The first wardens were Daniel Filhauer of West Waldoborough and Ludwig Castner in the eastern section of the town (the old Walter Boggs place). Their duties were of the nature of a keeper, watchman or guard, whenever such duties might be necessary. These posts were probably the greatest sinecures in the early portfolio of Waldoborough town officials.
The office of deer reeve was a peculiarly difficult and oner- ous one. As early as 1764 laws were passed in the General Court of Massachusetts for the protection of deer and moose. The penalty for killing such game between December 21st and August 11th, or for being in possession of the raw hide of any deer or moose within that period was £6 plus the cost of prosecuting each offense. Towns which neglected to choose deer reeves annually incurred a penalty of £30, and every person so chosen was re- quired forthwith to declare his acceptance or refusal of the office. If he refused to accept the trust or to be sworn to discharge his duties faithfully he was fined £5. Refusal to pay meant committal to jail. In Massachusetts proper, this law was doubtless necessary for the protection of the game. In the Province of Maine deer and moose had until very recently been a major source of the meat supply, and were still depended on by many Broad Bay families. Hence such a law was most unacceptable here and throughout the Province and was observed pretty largely in the breach. Many towns never elected such an officer. At Waldo- borough the serious "Dutch" went through the formality and elected Jacob Achorn. His record as a law enforcement officer would afford a topic for an interesting review, if history on this particular point were not so utterly silent. It is significant that the office survived only a few years in Waldoborough and was the first to disappear from the town records.
Matthias Seitenberger was the first leather sealer, which was also a busy chore. Waldoborough used a tremendous amount of leather for boots, shoes, harnesses, saddles, aprons, and for numer- ous other domestic purposes. All that it used was provided locally
437
Broad Bay Becomes Waldoborough
and tanned locally. There were several tanners in the town and many farmers were their own tanners. Every piece of leather that came from the tanneries for sale had to be passed on and certified by the leather sealer. The situation was similar in the matter of weights and measures, or as Jacob Ludwig recorded it in his quaint spelling, "waths and mashers." A standard of weight and a standard of measure had to be maintained in each com- munity, and all measures and weights used by individuals engaged in business were tested by it and certified by the sealer, who in the first year of the township was Nathaniel Simmons.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.