USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 8
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This committee was empowered "to erect smoke houses where to them may appear necessary," in order that any citizens in doubt on the question of his contacts might receive a thorough smoking. In line with its ancient prejudice the citizens in this meeting voted unanimously not to permit any inoculations. The measures taken by the committee including the creation of smoke houses totalled $217.69 in cost, a most unexpected, and to the thrifty Dutch as well as to their little less thrifty Puritan neigh- bors, a most intolerable outlay. Consequently at a May 5th meeting it was voted that "the Selectmen call on all those persons infected with small pox for such parts of the Committee's accounts as the town by law are not obliged to pay."1
As the spring advanced there was no abatement of the plague and again the town acted in its customary penny-hugging way. It was voted that "William Sproul, Ezekiel Barnard and Abner Keen be a committee to correspond with the town of Bristol respecting erecting a Hospital and not to charge the town for their time." This move apparently led to naught, and finally, con- fronted by an emergency against which no headway was being made, the town on June 9th consented
that Dr. Benjamin Brown be permitted to erect a hospital for the pur- pose of inoculating persons for the small pox on Isaiah Cole's Hill,2 so called in this town, which hospital so erected, to be under the direction of a committee of this town to be appointed for that purpose at the expense of said Brown, and that the said hospital be conducted in every respect agreeable to the laws of the Commonwealth, provided all this be without any expense to the town.3
This action waived a long-standing medical prejudice, and per- haps for the first time in its history Waldoboro was a jump ahead of legal requirements, for in 1809 a statute was enacted directing all towns to introduce and practice vaccination at the corporate charge. The town committee appointed to supervise Dr. Brown's experiment was made up of Joshua Head, William H. Thompson, George Demuth, Jacob Winchenbach, and Ezekiel Barnard. The Doctor was compelled to give $1000.00 bond, two sureties of $500.00 each, "for the faithful performance of his duty respecting said hospital."
This first hospital, if we ignore the element of compulsion, marked something of a moral milestone in Waldoboro history, for the town down to more recent times has ever been insensitive to change and rigid in its conservatism. Even with the dark threat of disaster hanging over it, it behaved true to form. It was sus- picious of hospitals; it was skeptical of scientific innovations, and
1Clerk's Report of the meeting of May 5, 1800.
2The hill back of my residence.
3Clerk's Minutes, meeting of June 9, 1800.
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it approached new methods cautiously, and in this case only when all other ancient medical lore proved unavailing and the plague had taken a considerable toll of life, after claiming little William Fitzgerald as its first victim.
Roads have ever been the rat hole of Waldoboro taxpay- ers, primarily because families tucked away in remote and inac- cessible spots in the town's great geographic area have successfully "stood on their rights" in this matter. In the beginning of the new century the town continued its unchanging policy of developing its road system. Its appropriations for this item rose from $1200.00 in 1801 to $2500.00 in 1822. Around 1800 wages paid for road work were twelve and one half cents per hour for "each man who dili- gently works." A yoke of oxen received sixty-six cents per day, and twenty years later $1.00 was paid for oxen and seventy-five cents per day for the use of a plow. În 1806 the road on Jones' Neck was laid out to join the town road at Back Cove; in 1815 the road "from Charles Feyler's Corner near the schoolhouse leading to- wards Union" was put up at auction and its construction bid off to Jacob Benner for $190.00; in 1816 the Lovell Road joining the Augusta Road to Jefferson Street was laid out.
The main feat in road building, however, was the trunk line over Benner Hill to the bounds of Nobleboro. This road from Joshua Head's house4 to Hall's Mill in Nobleboro was allocated for building to the men through or along whose property it ran and was constructed in 1817. The following landowners each built their part and were paid by the town as follows: John Lash $119.00; John Kinsell $215.00; Charles Kaler $331.00; Charles Umberhind $290.00; William Sproul $296.00, and George Kaler $171.00. In addition to this outlay the town expended $711.00, making a total expenditure of $3133.00. On August 22, 1818, "the new county. road was accepted," and a petition was addressed to the Circuit Court of Common Pleas "to have the old county road from McGuyer's to the Nobleboro line discontinued." This move, how- ever, was blocked by the subsequent action of Friedrich Kinsell, and to this day the town is still maintaining a portion of this road.
In these days people built homes in most inconvenient and out-of-the-way places, and wherever a citizen had his home he Wanted the town to make him a road leading thereto. The resolu- tion of some of these back-district people in this matter is a phe- nomenon to marvel at. Such untempered audacity is clearly illus- trated by a curious bit of wildcat road building involving a high- way, across the farm lately owned by William Kelley, to the Nobleboro line. Against the vote of the town but backed by sanc- tion of the Court, the parties interested went ahead and laid out
4The Brook's residence at Kaler's Corner.
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the road they desired, and at the meeting of May 8, 1820, the sub- scribers reported to the town their action in laying out the road "on the land of John Light on the Nobleboro line, then on the land of Henry Winslow, Jacob Schwartz and joining the present Jefferson Road near the house of John M. Schwartz." They as- sessed no damages on anyone as they considered "none sustained," and added, "we consider said road to be a public benefit."
Such license on the part of a few men confronting the town with a fait accompli angered the prudent citizenry, and on August 22nd Gorham Parks and Colonel I. G. Reed were appointed agents "to use all means in their power to oppose the action of the lower court." In December the Court was petitioned to have the road discontinued "as said road will involve the town in very great ex- pense." In January 1821 the selectmen were instructed "to petition the Court of Sessions to have the road lately laid out through the upper part of the town discontinued, and to employ counsel in addition to the two attorneys in this town if they deem it neces- sary." All this action was unavailing and the town was compelled to accept the road. On May 14, 1821, it reluctantly appropriated "$50.00 for road from Black's Mill to John Light's." In these times ironclad mulishness was the common denominator to a great part of the dealings of man with man as well as in the corporate life of the town.
This period was also one of bridge building, some of it vol- untary and some not. The villagers were quite willing to take all they could get for themselves but were reluctant to incur expense for the benefit of the folk in the back-districts. So it was that the Borneman bridge, now known as the Wagner bridge, was built under compulsion, for on May 8, 1820, this bridge "near Borne- mann's Mill" was ordered built by the Court of Sessions. The Goose River bridge was a somewhat different matter. It was a main connecting line to the coast and the lack of a bridge across this stream was an inconvenience to the villagers who were now trav- elling by chaise. Accordingly on April 1, 1822, it was voted "to build half of the bridge over Goose River" at a cost of $70.00.
The bridge across the outlet of Medomak Pond was author- ized on December 26, 1805. When the bridge was built at the sec- ond falls of the Medomak is not known, but it must have been prior to 1811, for on April 21st of that year it was "voted to build a road from the road on the west side over a bridge to the road on the east side." The life of these early bridges was of short dura- tion, and on July 18, 1818, an article was inserted in a town warrant "to see what action the town will take to repair the bridge near the Rev. Mr. Mitchell's house." Apparently the little Cape Cod cottage house on the corner adjoining the mill lot at the second falls
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was the home built by the Reverend David Mitchell for himself during the early years of his pastorate of the Congregational Church.
The early bridges were flimsy structures unable to cope with the ice and water of the great spring freshets, and in consequence were always under repair. The bridge below the First Falls was repeatedly washed away, and it was years before a structure was built that possessed any considerable degree of permanence. The eccentric weather of 1802-1803, had put the bridge to the test and on New Year's Day, 1803, a Town Meeting at John Head's store had allowed Thomas Willett $3.50 to make the Medomak bridge passable for the balance of the winter. Before the storms and fresh- ets of another winter came it was tardily voted at a meeting of November 7, 1803, "to rebuild Medomak bridge of stones." The contract was given to George Ried for $480.00. But the season was late and Ried made little headway during the winter. Furthermore, he refused to give bond for the quality of the job, or a time limit when it would be completed. Accordingly, at the meeting of March 5, 1804, Jacob Ludwig, Peter Gross, and William Sproul were appointed a committee "to call on George Ried and demand his bond according to his agreement with the town for building the bridge." Unable to overcome Mr. Ried's recalcitrancy in this way, the town countered by warning him "to remove all rocks he has placed in Medomak River within twelve days." It is no false observation to aver that these were cantankerous times, and that to turn the other cheek never became the vogue in Waldoboro history until recent times.
In the spring of this year the services of an outside bridge builder were secured. Mr. William McMonagle was to build the bridge for $650.00 and have it finished by August 31, 1804, "he being present and agreeing to arrangements," whereunder he was "to keep a free pass while building and to have free use of all rocks in the river." Joshua Head, Peter Gross, Jacob Schwartz, Ezekiel Barnard, and William Sproul were to be the committee of Inspec- tion, and the building was to be paid for by a bond issue, the first such in the history of the town. On September 13th the committee reported that the bridge be not accepted for the following reasons: in the first place it was not sufficiently underpinned, and in the second place it did not have sufficient gravel, the west end not being as high as laid down in the plan. As to its length, the bridge was found acceptable, but otherwise it was agreed to hold McMon- agle to his bond until the bridge was accepted. In 1805 McMon- agle's bondsmen attempted to get the town to compensate them "for extra work done on the bridge and other losses sustained by building the same," but the town, true to tradition, held the con- tractor and his bondsmen to the contract.
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In 1813 the bridge was again under repair and "the privilege of repairing and covering the bridge . . . at the head of tide" was bid off to William Sproul for $50.00. From this it would seem that, for a number of years at least, Waldoboro's main bridge was an old-time covered structure. In 1818 the bridge was fur- ther strengthened "by building up two stone butments against the stream as they formerly were when the bridge was first built." This work was struck off to the lowest bidder, John Achorn, for $212.00.
Since the more normal and settled days following the French and Indian War, every farm had its full quota of cattle, sheep, and swine, which in a considerable measure enjoyed the freedom of the town. Before stonewalls had been completed around field and pas- tures, a long and laborious building task, fences were made from rails or from brush which were too flimsy to restrain the errant quadrupeds. Pigs enjoyed the freedom of the city, of highways, and public lots, where they fended for themselves for a consider- able portion of the year. Each neighborhood had its hog reeve to assume custody of these animals whenever they overstepped their ancient privileges. By 1820 such freedom had been curtailed and hogs were very generally confined to sties. Herewith the office of hog reeve became largely titular and a distinction humorously re- served for newcomers to town and the newlyweds. It was an office that waived all social distinction and was conferred on the newly- wed back-district lad as readily as on the greatest of the village grandees; in fact, it was an office with which the common run of citizens used to remind the great village squires of the scriptural injunction, "He who is greatest among you let him be the servant of all." In 1808 there were twenty-seven hog reeves elected and among them was Deacon Samuel Morse, Colonel I. G. Reed, Thomas Willett, Joshua Head, Joseph Farley, Charles Samson, and Charles Razor.
Cattle and sheep posed a problem somewhat different from that of swine. They could not be confined to sties as were hogs, and in consequence an elaborate system of marking and impound- ing estrays was in vogue to protect the owners against loss, and to make identification possible. In earlier chapters mention was made of the pounds on the east and west sides, and later of a central pound on the property of William Sproul between the present Main Street and Dog Lane. As the village area became more densely populated an enclosure at the very center of the town filled with bellowing cattle was too heavy a tax on the public nerve, and a new location for a pound was sought. Hence at the meeting of May 12, 1810, it was voted "that the Selectmen should take a lease of Mr. William Sproul for a convenient place to set the town pound for the use of the town as long as used for that purpose;
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to move the pound to this location," and to dig a well under the pound. While details are lacking, it seems that at this time a lease was taken on land purchased for a pound on its present site.
The first structure here erected was apparently of wood, for at the meeting of May 15, 1819, it was voted "to receive proposals for rebuilding the old town pound." That the present structure was built of stone around 1820 seems probable. The present pound, so beautifully built as to be still standing, is one of the most unique local monuments still in existence memorializing the life of an ear- lier day.
In the year ending in March 1802, four hundred and sixty-one estrays were reported for the period of a twelvemonth. To prevent loss and to insure the identification and claiming of such stock an elaborate system of markings was in use. These could be, and in many cases were, a matter of record with the town clerk in order to enable the owner to establish a legal claim to his property, and to provide a clearing house against the duplication of markings. For example, among the recorded markings for the year 1810 were the following: "For cattle and sheep Dr. Benjamin Brown," a hole through the right ear and a crop of the left ear; Nathan Sprague, "both ears cropt off"; Henry Orff, "cropt off the right ear"; Peter Gross for sheep, "both ears cropt and a slit in the right ear"; Ezekiel Winslow, "a slit in the left ear." For the year 1812 Joshua Head's mark on sheep was marked through the right ear thus A, while John Orff's sheep had "the tail cut off and the right ear cropt." That the perennial question of errant rams had not been entirely solved at this late date, the following notice of October 18, 1815, bears witness:
To Henry Flagg, Esq., Clerk of the Town of Waldoboro. The subscribers hereby give notice that on the 17th day of October instant in the afternoon, we found and took up within our enclosure in said Waldoboro, three white rams, two of them with a small crop on the left ears, and a large piece cut out obliquely from the right ear, the other with a slit in the left ear, and a halfpenny, so called, on the under side of the right ear.
Isaac Reed Joshua Head
This somewhat elaborate system of identification to a de- gree rendered fences superfluous, and it provides an added insight into the shrewdly inventive character of the early economy.
Beginning with the new century the present village as the central and most populous part of the town became the scene of all Town Meetings. With the rapid increase of population even the largest houses or stores had become too small to provide room for these meetings. Thus there arose the urgent need for a central town
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house. The old Court House on Kinsell Hill had served this pur- pose for a number of years, and since the Court had been moved to Warren late in the last century the old building was lacking a specific usefulness. In the face of such a condition the Head broth- ers figured that it would be good business to move the Court House to a location near their store and to have it used as a town house.
Accordingly an article was placed in the warrant and at a meeting held on July 25, 1803, it was voted "to procure a town- house." A committee was appointed to consider ways and means of meeting this need, and at a meeting on October 13th of this year it submitted an account of its doings as follows: "Your Committee reports that considering the present need the town has of a house to do public business in, we have agreed with Mr. Joshua Head, agent to the proprietors of the Court House, and purchased the same for $230.00, he giving a deed of sufficient land to accommo- date the Building, and he to secure his pay in the next year." The report of this committee headed by Doctor Benjamin Brown was accepted. In 1805 a stone underpinning was placed under the town house and "the building levelled." Here Town Meetings were held for many years. It is a matter of doubt, however, if the building used in recent years by Merton Winchenbach as a garage was the original Court House. This doubt is based on a reference in the Reed correspondence, a reference made in a letter written by Colonel Isaac G. Reed.
In the early days following the French and Indian War and the Revolution all towns in Massachusetts were required by law to maintain on hand adequate supplies of ammunition. The rea- son for the requirement was that in case of emergency a sufficient supply of powder would not otherwise be available for defense. In the years following the Revolution Waldoboro, in common with other towns, was lax in this respect, but to avoid the fines imposed on towns by the General Court the stock was replenished from time to time. On May 7, 1804, it was voted that "the select- men purchase the town's stock of powder at the expense of the town." By 1811 it was necessary for the state to remind the town of its laxness in respect to preparedness and this year $200.00 was appropriated "to supply the deficiency in the town's military stock," and in addition $50.00 "to pay for the indictment of the town for deficiency in military stock."
The War of 1812 was close at hand, and this fine, apart from the shock it undoubtedly imparted, considerably improved the town's readiness for war. Thereafter the question of the town's powder supply became more acute, and the stock accumulated as the result of the war created the problem of a storage place that would not endanger any part of the community. This question
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
was rightfully agitated and as a consequence an article was in- serted in the warrant of December 5, 1817, "to see if the town will build a house for the safe keeping of the Town's Stock of Ammu- nition." In the following meeting Payne Elwell, Charles Kaler, and Gorham Parks were named "to draft a plan of a Powder House and to report at the next meeting." Not until September 20, 1819, was the committee report acted on. At this meeting the selectmen
TOWN POWDER HOUSE PROCK'S LEDGE 1820-1885.
were authorized "to contract for and get a conveyance of a suit- able place whereon to set a Powder House, and that they cause to be built thereon a Brick Building in which to deposit the Town's stock of ammunition." On May 8, 1820, $175.00 was appropriated for land, and a site was purchased from Peter Prock.
To this day the site due west of the old William Storer place is known as Prock's Ledge, and here the Arsenal was erected. This structure is described by those older people who saw it in child- hood as a circular building about fifteen feet high and seven feet in diameter with a concave wooden roof. In later years, after its need had passed, it fell into disrepair and in 1885 the brick was removed and used to construct the chimney in the building until recently used by the town officers. Here again the town officers
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were true to the old "Dutch" tradition that nothing deserves to survive except as it may serve present usefulness.
In the first and second decade of this century there were many happenings in the town which do not admit of extended elaboration, but which because of their human interest are here set forth in miscellaneous array mainly in language as recorded in the town records.
May 8, 1801. "Voted John Head as town's representative to the General Court."
Aug. 12, 1805. "Voted in future all persons who are upwards of 75 years of age in this town shall not pay a poll tax."
May 9, 1808. "Voted that Conrad Heyer be exempted from working on the town roads," an indication that this old patriarch was becoming a landmark and a legend, one of the very few to which Waldoboro people have ever shown any deference. On December 13, 1811, Mr. Heyer acquired the farm on the North Waldoboro road owned by Everett Teague in more recent years, and here passed the rest of his days.
February 15, 1809. "Voted to appoint a committee to wait on Mr. Cutting and request him to open the meeting with prayers," the first record of such a procedure at Town Meetings.
May 15, 1809. "Voted to allow the Town Treasurer a com- mission of one cent on all monies received and paid over."
May 12, 1810. Lists of delinquent taxpayers were made pub- lic for the first time at this meeting. These included some of the better known and wealthier citizens, among them Christopher Crammer, Jacob Winchenbach, Isaac G. Reed, Jacob Ludwig, Waterman Thomas, and John Head.
March 2, 1819. Thirty-six hog reeves were elected at this meeting, including Joshua Head, Doctor Brown, William R. Webb, and Alfred Hovey.
December 6, 1819. At this meeting the first firewardens in the town were chosen. They were all village men, Payne Elwell, Isaac G. Reed, and Avery Rawson. In 1812 this number was in- creased to five.
September 27, 1823. The town voted $200.00 to relieve the distress of citizens in Wiscasset and Alna "arising from late fires."
The village site changed rapidly in the early century. In 1813, Ezekiel Barnard, failing in health, conveyed the power of attor- ney to his wife, Mary, who inaugurated a policy of selling off the Barnard portion of the Barnard-Sproul properties in small lots.5 After Mr. Barnard's death in 1816 this process was speeded up. Charles Miller and Henry Flagg added Åbner Keen's blacksmith property north of their corner store site6 to their village holdings,
5Lincoln County Registry of Deeds (Wiscasset, Me.), Bk. 90, p. 169ff. "Ibid., Bk. 90, p. 165. Site of Elsa Mank's store.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
also certain mill lots purchased of Robert Chase, clothier, on the upper Medomak.7 In 1816 John and James Trowbridge acquired the Aunt Lydia Tavern site on the post road in East Waldo- boro, and William Sproul sold to Charles Samson the south- western site of the "four corners" now occupied by the Samson block.8
In these years many newcomers appeared in town. Among those to become prominent later were Joseph Farley, Payne El- well, Jerome Marble, Benjamin Farrington, Alfred Hovey, Gor- ham Parks, a lawyer, Isaac Hibbard, the hatter, James Hovey, Dr. John Manning, Avery and Horace Rawson, Charles Bruce, who kept a general store, Henry Flagg, Robert Chase from Newcastle, who operated a mill at the second falls, John Brown, a saddler, and John Ayers.
The Hoveys were early settlers in Boxford, Massachusetts, where Joseph, the first Hovey in New England, died December 23, 1785. His grandson, Alfred, born December 12, 1788, married Eliza Samson of Waldoboro and was active as a merchant in Alna, Warren and Waldoboro, where he resided, built the old Hovey homestead on Main Street, and died September 14, 1868. It is from him that the Hoveys of present-day Waldoboro are descended.
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