USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 62
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The Last Decade of the Century
The weather was freaky and troublesome during the decade. On October 29, 1793, a foot of snow fell. Corn and potatoes had only been partially harvested. The storm was followed by weather so cold as to freeze brooks and ponds, and there was good sleigh- ing for several weeks. Warmer weather enabled people to complete their harvest, but ponds did not break up until spring.2 The year 1794 was unusual by reason of an extensive and severe frost as late as June 17th, with the rime so copious that it might be gathered up in snowballs. Corn and all small fruits were destroyed, and the hay crop was so small in consequence of cold and dry weather that the following spring people had great difficulty in securing fodder for their stock.3 The season of 1795 was also a cold one. Between January and the autumn the mercury did not rise above seventy-two degrees fahrenheit.
Repeated freshets inundated crop lands and raised hob with the new bridge across the Medomak. In fact, in the spring of 1791 high water carried away all the dams and the bridge. The town authorized the selectmen "to set sum men to work and make a passage so as foot people may pass over the river where the bome [boom] is now," but further in new construction they were reluctant to go at this time. The back-district folk had little use for a bridge and more use for their little money. Consequently in their July meeting at the house of Captain Andrews they voted "not to raise any money for rebuilding the Bridg. . .. att present." The selectmen went ahead, however, and laid down the following specifications for the structure:
The aforesaid Bridg is to be built in the manner following: to be in the form of the old won [one], the old timber belonging to the Bridg belongs to the builder of the new Bridg, the builders to find and put on two Iron straps on the two celes [sills] and to build two pears [piers] above the Bridg and to lay two Boombs [booms] above the pears, the town to find chains to fasten said Boombs, the Builders to fasten ye Boombs and to fit on Rails on the Bridg - the whole to be performed in the manner of the old Bridg.
In the May meeting of 1792 (planting time in the back- districts) enough votes were gotten out centrally to finance the plan, £34 were raised for building the bridge and its construction was "bid off to Charles Kaler, Jr., for £34." A bridge so low and close to the water level was an easy target for the freshets and the ice, yet at this time the public would support nothing more than a makeshift structure. In 1797 the problem of a damaged bridge was again an issue, and an article appeared in the warrant "to see what measures the town will take for repairing Medomak
2Cyrus Eaton, Annals of Warren, 2nd ed. (Hallowell, 1877), p. 257. 3Idem, History of Thomaston, etc., p. 200.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Bridge, as said bridge is dangerous for passengers to cross." As the use of teams and vehicles increased it was only a question of time before public needs would demand a lasting structure.
The old problem of rams at large was a perennial one. Each year the fathers fumed and legislated, and each year the rams would violate the ordinances of man and abide by those of nature, and each year confusion reigned in the spring lambing season. The following are characteristic acts of the fathers as they wrestled with this problem: 1793, "to see if the town will make a law for Rams not to run at large until a particular season"; 1794, "rams not to run at large before the fifteenth day of November on penalty of 30s."; 1797, "rams shall not run at large after a certain season." Finally in 1798 in a burst of desperation the ordinance was given some teeth by voting that "the law governing the move- ment of rams to be executed in full force by the Surveyors of Highways." Thus the battle with the indomitable ram ran through another decade.
In 1792 the town had its first recorded epidemic of small- pox. This was the most dreaded disease of early days. It was an evil visitation which no one understood, and which tortured, dis- figured, and frequently killed its victims. Everywhere its advent was the signal for panic. On Wednesday, the 21st day of Novem- ber, 1792, Constable John Godfrey Bornemann went from house to house warning the freeholders "to meet tomorrow being Thurs- day at the Court House on the western side of the river to see what the town will do to prevent the spreading smallpox." The disease had broken out on the Winslow's Mill Road apparently in the homes of two neighbors, Captain Joseph Ludwig and Asa- mus Lash, who lived in a nearly direct line across the river from the old stone quarry. The real flavor of this episode, the con- fusion, excitement, pathos, humor, and the crude modes of fight- ing this unseen foe cannot be viewed better than in the language used by the Town Clerk, Jabez Cole, in his entries in the official records. They follow:
Nov. 22, 1792. Voted that if any person should by any means ofer to spred the smallpox in this town, he shall immediately be taken care of and prosecuted by the Selectmen of the town for said offence. Voted that Capt. Joseph Ludwig and Asamus Lash's Houses be appointed as Hospitals and to be improved as such by Removing such as there be good Reason to suspect have the smallpox. Voted that the road be fenced across and stopt from Mr. Talham [Dahlheim] to John Achorn's op- posite to his house.4 Voted that if any person shall presume to goe within ye bounds without Leave from the Selectmen, he shall pay a fine of £30 for said offence, the fine so arising to be appropriated according
"John Achorn's was the house first south of Capt. Ludwig's, and 'Mr. Dahlheim's the second house north of Mr. Lash.
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to law. Voted four men be Chosen to attend att the houses of Capt. Lud- wig and Mr. Orasmus Lash, - two of them to be Capt. Ludwig and Mr. Orasmus Lash, and the other two to be appointed by the town or Selectmen - to prevent people from going to the above houses and from travelling within ye bounds. Voted the last two men to be under pay att 4s. pr. day, to find themselves and be under oath for the true performance of their duty to prevent the spreading of the smallpox. The last two men mentioned to build a Smoak House and if any Doctor or any other per- son coming out of the above Houses shall be obliged by the tenders to goe in and be weel smoaked and cleansed by Smoak before he comes abroad.
In all difficult situations there is an unfailing urge in the human animal to locate the active agent responsible for his trouble, and in the absence of evidence the imagination usually stands ready to furnish the requisite aid. At this meeting a possible answer to the mystery of the epidemic was at hand and it was voted "that Mr. John Hopt [Haupt] is suspected of spreading the smallpox in town, the Selectmen goe to him and take all proper methods as they think proper with him from spreding the same in this town." The same day Christian Smith and John Martin appeared as the two additional men for duty and "were sworn to be true and faithful to the trust." John "Hopt" apparently was surprised to learn in his South Waldoborough home that he was a smallpox carrier and was not disposed to be handled as such, which may be inferred from the fact that at a later meeting the town voted "to allow Esquire Thomas his account of four shillings for Ishuing out a warrant on Mr. John Hopt."
The disease continued to spread through the early winter, and in January new plans were made to check its advance. Ac- cordingly at the Town Meeting of January 4, 1793, three men were chosen "to prevent the spreding of smallpox, they being assistants to the Selectmen for that purpose." These were Stephen Simmons, Geo. Demouth and Peter Gross. It was also voted "to choose a committee of five men to egree on some mode for ye town to act upon." Their solution of the existing condition is not known, but it is known that at a meeting held January 23, 1793, a motion to establish a Hospital "for Inoculating with the smallpox and removing them that are already infected therewith in this town to the same," failed of passage, as did also a motion "to see if this town would hire Mr. Peter Gross House to remove persons infected with smallpox into the same." It was voted, how- ever, "to choose a Committee to bury Pigge Sidenspire, Mr. Smouse, Mr. John Shuman, Mr. John Benner, and John Varner to be the Committee with Leave for Charles and John (Siden- spire) to attend" the burial.
The meeting of February 11th convened "att the meeting house on the eastern side of the river" which being unheated "led
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them to adjorirn to Church Nashes House."5 Here it was "voted to choose a Committee of two men to see the Houses clensed that may be in Danger of having the Infection of the Smallpox in them." Stephen Simmons and Christopher "Newbot" were the men selected for this purpose and it was voted that they
proceed to Mr. Sidenspire's and view the House and things therein and if they should find that the house can't be cleansed so but there will be Grate Danger of persons takeing the smallpox from the same, .. . then if they can egree on Reasonable terms with ye Mr. Sidenspire, to Destroy ye House and such things as they think can't be clensed.
The willingness to burn a house down and indemnify the owner makes all too clear the horror felt toward this scourge. At this meeting it was also voted that Esquire Ludwig and Capt. Ulmer be a committee to goe to "Mr. Smous and see if they can egree with him to let his House for an Hospital." The Com- mittee returned and reported
Mr. Smous will let his House for 12 dollars pr. month. Voted to reserve ye House and to improve the same for an Hospital if there should be ocasion for the same, and to remove all persons who in plain Demonstra- tion have the Infection on them to ye House. Voted to choose a com- mittee of seven men to prosecute any person that shall come to their Knowledge who violate the law by any means spreding the smallpox. Committee: Mr. George Damouth, Capt. Samson, Charles Kealor, Mr. McGuyer, Mr. Peter Cremar, Mr. Peter Gross, and Esquire Ludwig. Voted the committee to goe to the town treasurer and Draw on him Matereils to Cleanse Houses and things infected with smallpox.
During the late winter the plague died down and disap- peared, probably from causes other than those improvised by fiat. Be it recorded that the voters held out to the end against the only effective check at their disposal, to wit, the new practice of inoculation.
In the year 1794 the General Court passed an act requiring all towns to furnish a survey of their territory for a state map. This task was bid off at the meeting to Captain Cornelius Turner who secured the services of Nathaniel Meservey for the survey. The result is a colorful old map in the Massachusetts Archives with cleared land indicated by blank spaces; the water is blue and the forest spaces are shown in myriads of little green trees. On the west side the cleared land extends from about a mile above Wins- low's Mills southward, widening considerably from the mills down to and including the whole of the Dutch Neck.
On the east side a similar strip, narrower in breadth, runs south to about the present site of the Ledge School. In the Back Cove section Jones Neck was completely cleared. On the Slaigo
"The site of the present Merle Castner Homestead.
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The Last Decade of the Century
brook, Squire Thomas' grist and sawmill are shown just below the present bridge and farther up along the stream are two more sawmills.6 On the Medomak at the lower falls east side are a gristmill and a sawmill; at the second falls is a gristmill and at the Great Falls a sawmill. At the present-day Winslow's Mills is a sawmill and farther up the river in the wooded country another sawmill. The only road shown is the trunk road east and west, which crosses the river by the bridge below the First Falls and running into West Waldoborough strikes a right-angle turn and runs northwest over the Old County Road to Nobleborough. The Lutheran Church occupies its present site westerly from the Bris- tol Road. This map is primarily an outline document, and un- fortunately reveals little more of the town's development at this time.
During this decade Waldoborough was becoming politically more alert. This tendency had been strengthened somewhat by locating the Court of General Sessions in the town during the preceding decade, and by holding sessions of the Probate Court in the town. In September 1790 the Court sat at the house of Cornelius Turner, and during the following year Court was again held at Turner's and at the house of Captain Charles Samson. State and national elections were not yet matters to excite the electorate, and the vote was small. Such elections, however, were not ig- nored as at an earlier date, and if they coincided with the spring Town Meetings the vote was considerably larger than at the meetings convened at any other time of year for such purposes. In April 1790 a total poll of sixty-four votes was cast in the state election. Of this number Squire Thomas received thirty- eight for the office of senator, while in October of the same year only twenty-five votes were cast for a congressman.
The question of the separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts was recurrent in this decade. In May 1792 twenty-one votes were cast for separation and fifty-four against it, while in September 1797 eighteen voted for and thirty-three against separation, showing that under the constant agitation of the Falmouth Gazette separatist sentiment was to some degree on the increase. In November 1792 the town cast its first vote for presidential electors, a total of forty-six votes being polled. There- after it participated regularly in every quadrennial election.
In 1793 new qualifications were laid down for voters as fol- lows: "Inhabitants to be 21 years of age, in residence in the town for one year and having a freehold in estate in said town with an annual income of three pounds, or any other estate to the value
"This map does not show a third sawmill on the brook at the back end of Isaiah Cole's farm (my residence). See Jabez Cole deed to Andrew Schenck, Feb. 14, 1794, Lincoln County Registry of Deeds, Bk. 31, p. 250.
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of sixty pounds." This stipulation unquestionably reduced the number of the polls and left the conduct of town affairs in the hands of the more conservative and responsible interests in the community. It is of interest to note that the revision of the Massa- chusetts Constitution in 1794-95 was a most popular undertaking, and in Waldoborough fifty-five votes were cast in its favor and none against it. The county likewise supported the restricting of its own geographical limits, and at a Convention held in Hallowell on the fourth Tuesday of October, in which Waldoborough was represented by Thomas McGuyer and Jacob Ludwig, the whole northwestern part of the county was lopped off and the new County of Kennebec was formed from it.
In this decade the thought and activity of the town was to an increasing degree becoming concentrated on the sea. This fact was reflected in the unanimous endorsement given to Jay's Treaty. At a meeting on May 9, 1796, it was voted unanimously "that the earnest wish of this Meeting be that the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation Lately Concluded between the United States and Great Britain be carried into effect." This vote in the form of a memorial was sent to the Congress, and it clearly shows how vital it was to the interests of the people at this time to level all barriers involving restraints in trade. The endorsement also reveals the strong Federalist leanings of the town, for the Treaty was essentially a Federalist baby, the Democrats condemning it as a monopoly conceded to a nation whose politics should always be viewed with suspicion.
This same year, in consequence of a state law passed in 1795, the Federal currency of dollars and cents came into use, although pounds remained something of a vogue in the town records for some time following. The United States mint had been established in 1793 and its coins to some degree were already in circulation in this area. Other coins still in use were the Massachusetts cent, the English half-penny, English and French guineas at 28s., Eng- lish and French crowns at 6s. 8d., the Spanish dollar at 6s., along with halves and quarters at the same rate, and piasters at twenty cents each. Paper bills, too, entered circulation at this time.
There are a number of miscellaneous items connected with the history of this decade which have no large significance, but which do reveal attitudes and developments of interest to the local and social historian. They follow here as a list of unrelated facts:
In 1792 the town provided itself with a standard of weights and measures at a cost of six pounds.
In 1793 the practice was begun of "putting up the collector- ship of taxes at vandue [vendue ]. Captain Ludwig takes the Col- lecting on the western side for 11d. 3 far. on ye pound, and Jacob Winchenback on the eastern side for 16d. on ye pound."
THE REV. JOHN W. STARMAN
SQUIRE JOHN J. BULFINCH (1791-1884)
THE REED MANSION (1816)
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In April 1793 an article was inserted in the warrant "to see if the town will make a law to prevent firing on New Year's nite." From this we may infer that Waldoborough at one time ushered in the New Year with loud and boisterous rites which apparently did not appeal to the conservative faction, since it was "voted not to fire no guns on New Year's nite on penalty of six shillings on each gun so fired."
Among those published as intending to marry in the period from April 1796 to April 1797, occur the names of John Shepard (anglicized from Schaeffer) and Barbara Hahn, Rev. Augustus Ritz and Margaret Hahn (May 20, 1796), Charles Ewell and Polly Borkart (Burkett), Christian Stahl and Jane Lash, John Orph and Polly Snowdeal, Charles Weber (Weaver) and Polly Kinsel.
In 1798 the name of William Sproul appears for the first time in the town records and as a fence viewer. This year the problem of hog vagrancy called for the election of ten reeves, reflecting in part the number of men recently wed or newcomers in the town.
In the year 1797 the taxes levied were as follows: East side, state tax $192.15; county tax $69.74; west side, state tax $114.66, county tax $57.33; town, school and ministerial tax, east side, $596.99; west side, $323.23. These totals gave the town a budget of $1309.77, which in 1798 rose to $1545.88.
Apart from taxes a minor plague of the yeomanry in these years seems to have been thistles and wolves. They were im- portant enough to require legislation, and so it was voted on April 3, 1797,
that each and every person owning, holding or improving land in this town shall cut or cause to be cut all the thistles growing on sd. land once before the last day of June next, and once again before the last day of August next under the penalty of the sum of ten dollars to be paid by each person neglecting to do the same to the use of this town. Voted that a Committee made up of the surveyors of highways [thirteen in number] to see that the above be carried out and to prosecute the persons so neglecting.
As for the second plague it was voted "that a bounty of 10 dollars be paid by this town for every Wolf's head and five dol- lars for every Wolf's Whelp's head that is killed in this town the present year."
In early days the fish in the Medomak had carried settlers through dire days and at times had been their main source of sustenance. In later and more prosperous days the plenitude of fish had led to abuse and waste. Diminishing supplies had alarmed the inhabitants and led them in the preceding decade to take con- servation measures. The war between the millmen and the in-
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habitants continued into this decade, and the coming of the fish in the sawing season made the problen a vexing one. Each year the town required the dams to be opened and it set the date. In 1790 they were opened for the passage of fish on May 12th. The following year all dams had been carried away by the freshets and in consequence the fish could run in fullest freedom. In 1794, however, the town was again compelled to curb the spirit of lawless waste ever characteristic of Americans in reference to their natural resources. On June 2nd it voted
that Friday, Saturday, or any part of said nites, Sunday and Monday are forbitten to ketch or take any fish at or near Medomak fall or falls in said town of Waldoborough, and no sean, nets, pots, or macheans shall be used or set on said days or nites under the forfeiture of twenty shillings to be recovered by complaint made to a Justice of the Peace of said County of Lincoln, one half to the Complainer, and the other half to the poor of said town.
The principle of the complainer receiving one half the fine seemed to give teeth to the ordinance, and so far as the records show no further difficulties were experienced in this decade.
The memories of the Indian wars and of the long struggle for independence were still fresh in the minds of all those of the first and second generation in the settlement. This served to maintain a company of militia in the town and to foster interest in drills and musters. In fact, both the local and county musters, maneuvers and parades, were gala days in the communities, and everyone turned out for the social aspects of such occasions as well as for the spectacle of marching men and gay uniforms. The Indians, of course, had long since ceased to be a menace and only an occasional wanderer came to the settlement, although in the autumn of 1790 a considerable band of them appeared and went into encampment at Broad Cove just south of the Waldo- borough line. Their distressing condition through the winter has been recorded by an eyewitness in the following words:
Last month I happened to be at Broad Cove in the town of Bristol [now Bremen] and there saw the most distressing sight that it is pos- sible to describe. I there met with about thirty Indians who came there last fall just at the time winter set in, which immediately deprived them of fish and clams, their usual food when upon the seacoast. The rivers and coast being frozen for many miles which prevented their returning home. They have been obliged to feed upon horse flesh and cattle which have died through the intense coldness of the winter. . . . All the people here did what they could for them. They complain that the white peo- ple hunt on their lands and that the government has taken from them part of these lands which prevents their getting a living from them ... . 7
7Letter from Wiscasset dated 17th, ult., Mass. Centinel, Nov. 2, 1791.
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These savages molested nobody and caused no distrust among the whites. Trouble, however, did seem to be rising in the French quarter owing to the hostility of that government and its consistent seizure of American ships as prizes, especially those engaged in the West Indian trade. Waldoborough's grow- ing interest in commerce was extremely sensitive to these out- rages committed on ships hailing from this coast. The people were ready for a fight, and when on October 7, 1797, the town met at the west meetinghouse "to see what measures the Town will take for Getting twenty-five men out of the training band to be held as minuit men," there was no hesitation. It was "moved and there upon voted that the Captain and officers of the Militia in this town draw up their Company and Beat up for volunteers" then, and there the officers "reported to the meeting that a suffi- cient number of men had turned out as volunteers for to be held as Minute men." This quick response reflected the temper of the occasion and the pitch of feeling.
Waldoborough had not been without its militia since 1744, and in the 1790's the company was a popular organization in which membership was valued and promotion eagerly sought. The muster roll as of May 2, 1797, showed the following leader- ship: Captain, Joseph Ludwig; lieutenants, Gottfried Bornheimer and John Kintzel; sergeants, Charles Walch, Charles Hiebner, and Charles Kaler; musicians, Conrad Gross and Spooner Sprague. In addition to these, the rank and the file was made up of fifty-six men, which represented at least one out of every eight fencible men in the town.8
In early times the dispatch of mail was a private matter. It was in the main entrusted to the captains of coasters, taken by them to Boston and there mailed. In 1791 the nearest post office was at Wiscasset. The postage collected in this year was $63.40 and the compensation for service was $41.00. Wiscasset was con- nected with Portland by a postrider. In 1790 this contract was awarded to Richard Kimball for $150.00 per annum. He travelled these fifty-nine miles once a fortnight. Wiscasset thus became a distributing center for points farther east. In 1793 a person by the name of George Russell was hired by private individuals to go from Castine to Wiscasset to carry letters and on return to deliver letters and newspapers along the route. He made the trip once a fortnight on foot and at first carried his mail in a yellow silk kerchief, later in saddlebags. The next year, 1794, in conse- quence of petitions, postmasters were appointed and the mail was sent by the Government. It was then carried on horseback once a week to the end of the century. The first postmaster in
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