USA > Maine > Waldo County > Belfast > History of the city of Belfast in the state of Maine v.I, 1770-1875 > Part 13
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131
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
Land By the Acre, we have thought that Twopence pr. Acre Law- full, is as Little as we Think will Do yearly, For Some Term of Years, or as Long as your Honnours would Think Proper. .
And we Who are your Humble Petitioners who are in Duty Bound will Ever Pray.
BELFAST, May ye 16th 1774.
JAMES GILMORE.
TOLFORD DURHAM.
JOHN TUFFT.
JOHN DURHAM.
DAVID HEMPHILL. NATHANIEL PATTERSON.
BENJN NESMITH. WILLIAM PATTERSON.
JOHN BROWN.
DAVID GILMORE.
JOHN BARNETT.
JOHN DAVIDSON.
WILLIAM NICKLES.
SAM! HOUSTON.
JAMES PATTERSON.
ALEX! CLARK.
JAMES MURRAY.
WILLIAM PATTERSON.1
JAMES MILLER.
In due time John Tuft reached the General Court, and the following action was had upon the memorial : -
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, June 11th 1774.
Resolved : that the Petitioners notify the Proprietors of the Lands in the Town of Belfast with a Copy of this Petition By Insert- ing the Substance thereof in Two of the Boston newspapers Three weeks Successively, and also by serveing the Clerk of Said Propriaty with a Copy of Sd. Petition, & this order, forty Days before the next Siting of the General Court, that they Shew Cause (if any they have) on the second Wednesday of the next Sitting thereof, why the Prayer thereof should not be granted.2
Sent up for Concurrence.
T. CUSHING, Spk.
In Council, June 14th 1774. Read and Concurred. JN.º COTTON, D. Sec'y.8
The proceedings of the General Court do not show any sub- sequent action upon this matter.
At the town meeting last mentioned, John Tuft was instructed " to procure a Book to Record the transactions of the town meet- ings in, and that the Town pay said Tuft Two dollars for said Book." 4
1 Documents in office of Secretary of the Commonwealth of Mass., Vol. 118, p. 821. 8 Ibid.
2 Journal of Mass. House of Rep.
4 The first volume of records contains three hundred and fifty pages. It embraces all the municipal proceedings from the organization of the town to Jan. 29, 1807.
132
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
The first official act of the town clerk concerning marriages appears as follows : -
BELFAST, Sept. ye 28th 1774.
This Certifies that the Intention of marrage Between Mr. John Barnett and Mrs. Issabel Durham was Lawfully Published By me, JOHN MITCHELL, Town Clerk.
Mr. John Barnett and Mrs. Issabel Durham, Both of Belfast, were joined in marriage, Sept. 27, 1774, By me,
DANIEL LITTLE.1
In 1775, the first taxes were raised ; viz., thirty pounds in cash for highways, and fifteen pounds for preaching. Deacon Tuft was appointed "to Indavor to procure a minister." Four sur- veyors of highways were chosen this year, three of whom resided on the eastern side of the river. It was also voted to lay out a road from the eastern line of the town, at Half-way Creek, to the saw-mill erected by Mitchell on the Wescott stream, and on the western side from Little River to Sandy Beach, or the "town landing," as it has been since called, near the foot of Main Street.2
Under an old colonial law, which was afterwards incorporated into the statutes of Massachusetts, no person could become a citizen of any town, unless he had obtained the public approba- tion, at a meeting of the inhabitants regularly assembled, or the approbation of the selectmen. Towns were authorized to warn all obnoxious persons, or those who were likely to become pan- pers, to depart ; and, upon refusal, to eject them, the costs and charges arising thereby " to be paid and defrayed by those who received and entertained such persons in their houses."& The first instance of warning out in Belfast appears from the follow- ing record : -
It is well preserved, although somewhat discolored, probably by exposure to the · weather upon the sudden flight of the inhabitants after the defeat of the Penobscot expedition during the Revolution.
1 This was undoubtedly the first marriage, although White's History, p. 35, says that " William Patterson, 2d, and Mary Mitchell were the first to be joined in marriage." Rev. Daniel Little, who solemnized it, was a minister at Kennebunk. He was accus- tomed to make frequent missionary tours to the eastern settlements, and as early as 1772 gathered a church at Bluehill.
2 Town records.
8 Colonial Laws, 1700 : revised in 1736 and in 1794.
133
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
BELFAST, June 10th 1775.
This is to Certify that we the Subscribers have Warned Joseph Dow to withdraw from this town forthwith, for we would not accept him as a Town Inhabitant.
To Mr. JOHN MITCHELL, Town Clerk.
BENJ. NESMITH, - JOHN BROWN, Selectmen. JAMES PATTERSON,
After the Revolution, resort was frequently had to this rem- edy, as late even as 1798.1 The law was soon after repcaled.
Although the powers and duties of towns were as distinctly defined by the provincial laws as at the present day, the early inhabitants assumed to themselves a control over the manners and customs of the community, which was unauthorized by any statute or precedent. Among the votes passed in 1775 was one " that, if any person makes unnessaserry vizets on the Sabbeth, they shall be Look: on with Contempt, untill they make acknowl- edgment to the Public."2 The record of 1776 informs us that " ten pounds were appropriated for preaching this year," and also " that swine are to go with sufficient yoakes, and without Rings." At the same meeting, it was voted " to send to S: Georges to trye to Have their Minister one Sabath to Preach and Baptize Chil- dren." 8 If any person absented himself from public worship, when any was held, he was liable to be fined. Tithing-men, who were chosen annually, were required to enforce all the regulations
1 A copy of the precess fer this summary banishment is preserved on the records : COUNTY OF HANCOCK. Te SOLON STEPHENSON, Censtable ef the Town ef Belfast, in s'd Ceunty, Greeting :
You are in the name of the Commenwealth ef Massachusetts Directed to warn and Give. netice unto Themas Gurdon & wife, of Belfast, in the County of Hanceck, Laborers, whe have lately ceme into this Town for the purpose of Abiding therein, not having ebtained the Town's Consent: therefore that he and she Depart the Limets thereof with there Children within fifteen days, and of this Precept with yeur doings thereen you are te make Return into the Office of the Clerk of the Town within Twenty days next Coming, that such further Proceedings may be had in the Premises as the law directs.
Given under eur Hands and Seals at Belfast, aferesaid, this eighteenth day of September, 1790.
JOHN COCHRAN, ROBERT STEELE, Selectmcn. JONA WILSON,
2 Tewn records.
8 Ibid.
.
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HISTORY OF BELFAST.
for observing the Sabbath. Generally, all the public proceedings were conducted with perfect unanimity. The location of high- ways occasionally interrupted this harmony, as has been the case at later periods of the town's history. At a town meeting in October, 1775, " the Inhabitents after viewing where the High- way was laid out by the Committee, and where William Patter- son and George Mitchell wanted to have the Highway Cross their Lotts,1 it was put to Vote by the Moderator where the Inhabi- tents would have the Highway Cross said Patterson's and Mit- chell's land, and when the vote was Passed, it was a Tay, for there was Equal Voters on Each Side Declared by the Moderater to the Clerk, and then the Clerk asked the moderater if he would adjourn the meeting or Disolve it; the moderater answered he would Do neither. Then the Clerk asked the moderater what he Should Do when he recorded what was transacted at said meeting ; the moderater answered you may Do as you Plese." 2
In June, 1779, a British force took possession of Maja-Bagaduce, now Castine, which they held until the close of the Revolution. And although, as will appear in another chapter, nearly all the people of Belfast subscribed to the oath of allegiance to Great Britain, as a condition of safety, yet after the defeat of the ill- fated Penobscot expedition, in August of that year, they aban- doned their homes, and sought an asylum beyond the reach of the enemy. The municipal organization was therefore suspended until after peace.
In 1784, doubts having arisen as to the legality of resuming municipal government without additional legislative authority, the following petition was signed by several of the inhabi- tants : -
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled : -
The Petition of the Inhabitants of Belfast, in the County of Lincoln & in the Commonwealth of ye Massachusetts, Humbly sheweth that upon the Enemy's taking Post at Machabagaduce, That we were under a Necessety to leave our Places and move off, and is now Begun to Return, and as we have held no annull Town meeting since ye year 1779, and is at Present but a small party, not more than Fourteen Families, & thinks we are Divested
1 First Division lots, No. 21 and 22, on the east side of the river.
2 Town records. Deacon John Tuft was moderator.
135
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
of Power to Hold Town Meetings according to Law, Therefore we Pray your Honnours to take us under consideration, and give us Directions How to Proceed in Regard to the same, so that we may Hold Town Meetings as Formerly. And as in Dutty Bound shall ever Pray.
N. B. We would Acquaint your Honours that we Did not Rec! your orders to give in a vellouation of our Estate Real and Personal with the Number of our People until y: 9 of Nov!
BELFAST, ye 18 Nov! 1784.
JOHN COCHRAN. WILLIAM PATTERSON.
BENJAMIN NESMITH. JOHN BROWN.
SAMUEL HOUSTON. JOHN GILMORE.
ROBERT PATTERSON.
TOLFORD DURHAM.
JAMES PATTERSON. JOHN DURHAM.
NATHANIEL PATTERSON. JAMES MILLER.
This petition was favorably considered, and on the twenty- fourth day of February the following resolve passed both branches : -
Resolve on the petition of the inhabitants of the town of Belfast, authorizing Jon. Buck, Esq., to issue his warrant for the purposes mentioned.
Whereas, it appears to this Court that, from the events of the late war, the inhabitants of the town of Belfast, in the County of Lincoln, were obliged to abandon their dwellings, and for a num- ber of years seek refuge in the western parts of this Common- wealth, & by that means have been deprived of the legal method of calling town meetings for transacting the public business of the same town, -
Therefore, Resolved, that Jon. Buck, Esq., be, and he is hereby, authorized and empowered to issue his warrant to some principal inhabitant of the said town, requiring him to call a meeting of the said inhabitants, in order to their chusing such officers, as by law towns in the said Commonwealth are empow- ered to chuse in the month of March, annually : which officers, so chosen, shall respectively hold and exercise their offices until March meeting, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, or until others may be chosen in their stead, as by law directed.
In accordance with this resolve, Mr. Buck issued his warrant to John Tuft, as follows :-
136
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
LINCOLN. TO JOHN TUFT, Esq. , of Belfast: -
Pursuant to the foregoing Resolve, I Do hereby Require you to call a meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Belfast, qualified to Vote According to Law, to meet at some convenient Place in S.ª Town of Belfast, on the Last Tues- day in March Currant, at Ten of the Clock, forenoon, to chuse such officers as by Law they are Intitled to chuse, and to act on such other matters as by Law they are Impowered to do.
Given under my hand and seal, at Penobscot, this seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five.
JONATHAN BUCK,1 Justice of the Peace.
The inhabitants were duly notified by Deacon Tuft to assemble at the Commons at the time indicated in the foregoing warrant, when the customary town officers were elected ; and, after an intermission of nearly six years, the corporation was restored to its original powers. From this date the records are uninter- rupted.
After the reconstruction of the town, the matter of taxation again became agitated, and a second petition upon the subject was presented : -
The Petition of the Inhabitance of the Town of Belfast to the Honorable the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts humbly Sheweth : -
That we the Long Distressed Inhabitance of Belfast beg leave to Informe this Honorable Court that it is but two Years Since a number of the Inhabitance Returned to this Town, and Some but one year : Our ordinary Houses gone to Destruction ; our fences entirely ruened ; our Land grown over to brush. Numbers of these Fammelies have neither ox or Cow to this Day, and Some have been obliga to Carry out a Sloop load of wood on their Shoulders to Purchase ye Necessary Comforts of Life. And Such is our Circumstances at this time that wee have no Commodity for a Market but Cordwood; and that will not fetch money at any price. There is some in this Town that can assure this Honorable Court that they have not had two Dollars of their
1 Colonel Buck was one of the first settlers of Bucksport, which was originally called Buckstown in his honor. During the Revolution, his buildings were burnt by the Brit- ish. After Goldthwait joined the enemy, the Provincial Congress appointed him com- mander at Fort Pownall. He died in 1826.
137
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
own for two years past. Wee are not pleading from any unwill- ingness to pay Taxes : for we are Intirely willing to do all that we can to pay the Public Charges ; but as there is no Currency among us, we beg that this Honorable Court would take these our Distressed Circumstances into their most Serious Consideration, and Spare us from Public taxes for some time, as your Wisdom Shall See fit, and our Distressing circumstances Call for; This Honorable Court Granting a Gracious hearing to this our Humble Petition, Your Petitioners as in Duty bound Shall ever Pray.
BELFAST, July 12, 1786.
JOHN TUFFT. JOHN COCHRAN.
SOLON STEPHENSON. JOHN BROWN.
JOHN DURHAM.
SAMUEL HOUSTON.
TOLFORD DURHAM.
ROBERT PATTERSON.
SAMUEL MC KEEN.
WILLIAM PATTERSON.1
JAMES PATTERSON.
This petition met with the following response from the General Court : -
NOVEMBER 11, 1786.
On petition of the inhabitants of the town of Belfast, shewing that during the late war they were obliged from their exposed situation to the enemy to desert their possessions, and suffered great loss in their interest, whereby they are ren- dered unable to pay the public taxes assessed on them, and pray- ing for a remission of the said taxes :
Resolved, That the prayer of the said petition be so far granted that the said town of Belfast be and hereby is discharged of all the public taxes assessed on the said town, except the tax issued in March last ; and the Treasurer of this Commonwealth is directed to govern himself accordingly.
In a few years, the truth of James Miller's prediction, which he made to John Mitchell at the time of the first settlement, in 1770, that the village would be on the western side of the river, began to be realized. The earliest recognition of the claims of this section appears by the record of 1791, when it was voted that future warrants for town meetings " be posted on the other side of the river as well as this." In 1792, the growing importance of the western portion was more distinctly acknowledged by a vote " that Meetings shall be held on both Sides of the River according
1 Original petition in Secretary's office, Boston.
138
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
to their Taxes, and to Build two Meeting-houses, one on each side, at the Expense of the Inhabitants of Each Side Seperately."1 The contentions which attended the introduction of this measure, as well as that of the first ministry, occupy so large a space in the history of the town that an account of them must be reserved for a chapter devoted to ecclesiastical matters.
Both meeting-houses were erected in the summer of 1792. The last town meeting at " the Commons, on the south end of lot No. 26," was held on the 26th of June; and the first ever held on the western side was in the new meeting-house, on the 20th of September of that year.
In 1794, when the population could not have exceeded four hundred persons, a project to separate the eastern and western portions of the town by the river, and to form two distinct towns, was quite strenuously agitated ; but, at a meeting called for its consideration, it was negatived.
In 1798, it was voted " to have no regulation of the width of sledges."
For several years after the Commons ceased to be publicly used, the lot was rented to the highest bidder. In 1795, William Houston bid it off for seven dollars and a half. The next year, Jacob Eames paid ten dollars. The fish-weir, or fishing privilege at Fish Cove, near the mouth of Wescott stream, which was reserved in the division of the town for the use of all the inhabitants, continued to be disposed of in the same manner, at the annual meetings, until 1824, when it was conveyed by a vote of the inhabitants, to Robert Miller, in part payment for the common on Church Street.
No provision for pounds seems to have been made until 1798, when it was voted to build one on each side of the river, where " found most commodious by the Selectmen."
The town continued to increase in wealth and population after its reorganization, and at the commencement of the present century contained six hundred and seventy-one inhabitants. In 1800, the taxes were first raised in Federal currency, instead of in pounds and shillings. The sum of two hundred dollars was voted for schools, two hundred dollars for incidentals, and two hundred and thirty dollars for the ministry. Eight hundred dollars in labor was appropriated for highway taxes.
1 Town records.
139
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
In 1802, Moses Varnum 1 and James Badger, both citizens of Belfast, gave "to the inhabitants and their posterity for ever, to be used as a Common or Market," the triangular piece of land at the foot of Main Street, bounded westerly by Common Street, and long known as " Puddle Dock," or "Dock Square." This lot adjoined the town landing, and, comprising a portion of what was long known as "Sandy Beach," constituted the principal place of business until about 1803, when stores and shops began to be erected at Nesmith's and Hopkins's Corners. No formal public acceptance of the gift appears to have been made, and the town records contain but few references to it. In 1810, the inhabitants voted that " William Crosby, William Moody, and George Watson, Esqs., be a committee to make report concerning the title of the town to the common on Sandy Beach." Their report, if ever made, is not to be found of record or on file. In. 1816, a vote was passed "not to sell the Common." Eight years afterwards, the selectmen were authorized to lease it. In 1829, the surveyor of highways for the village district was instructed "to cause the common or beach to be cleared of timber, lumber, &c., and also cause a blacksmith's shop erected thereon by Captain Hutson Bishop to be removed." In 1835, the selectmen were again empowered " to rent the common or the beach for the ensuing year, and apply the proceeds of such rent to the filling up and improving the common." 2 From that time up to the disposition
1 Varnum was a trader, and had a store and house fronting the " Common." He was the principal proprietor of lot thirty-five, and through him are derived titles to some of the most valuable real estate in our city. Soon after making this conveyance, he removed to Oxford County, where he died. Badger owned only a small portion of the lot.
2 The original deed is lost. A description of the lot, taken from the Hancock Registry, is as follows : " Beginning at a stake four feet westwardly of the south-west corner of said Varnum's house or store in which he now lives, four feet in front of the same, running south, fifty-five degrees east, fourteen rods and nineteen links, to a stake and stones ; thence south, six degrees east, to the north-westwardly corner of said Badger's dwelling-house, one rod and thirteen links ; thence, south, eighty-two degrees west, twenty-six rods and sixteen links, to Market Street, so called, at a stake and stones ; thence, north, two degrees west, four rods and fifteen links, to a stake four feet southwardly of the south-westwardly corner of Nathan Smith's house; thence, north, fifty-eight degrees east, sixteen rods and ten links, to the bound first mentioned." A petition relative to the Common, without date, signed by Thomas Bartlett and forty others, is among the town papers. It is as follows : "We, the subscribers, are satisfy'd that it was not the intention of the Donors of the Town's common, at the foot of the village, that the same should be encumbered as it now is and for a long time past has been, and that the town has no other right than that of a free passage over it, and that the inhabitants who have built and have their house and store lots adjoining it have a just right to complain of said incumherances. They therefore pray you, gentlemen, to cause the same to be cleared."
140
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
of the premises for railroad purposes, the municipal authorities ceased to exercise any control over the land, which indeed remained both common and unclean. But in 1865, by vote of the aldermen, a surveyor ran the lines anew, and "put stone bounds at five different points."
The last vote upon the admission of inhabitants was in 1803, when one Laughlin McDonald became a citizen.
In 1807, the town sustained serious embarrassment by the defalcation of Abel Baker, who had been for several years collector of taxes. He embezzled what was then regarded a large sum of public money, and absconded. Robert Miller was one of the sureties on his official bond. Judgment was recovered against the parties liable,1 and by a levy upon the real estate of Miller the town acquired a lot of land adjoining the garden of Judge Crosby, where the custom-house now stands. When the erection of a new meeting-house was determined upon in 1818, it was voted to sell and convey this lot to the First Parish, " provided said Parish will purchase of Robert Miller one hundred and twenty-six rods of land in a suitable location, and will erect a meeting-house thereon, and will appropriate one-fourth part of the galleries of said house to the use of the town on Sabbath days, and will permit the inhabitants of the town to build a town-house thereon in such a situation as not to incommode said meeting-house, of which the Parish are to judge, and will further permit said inhabitants to erect such other buildings thereon as the town and Parish shall mutually determine to erect, and shall lay open the residue of said lot to be enjoyed in common by said town and Parish as a Town Common." 2 The Parish voted to accept the land upon these conditions; and on the 7th of April, 1818, by some arrange- ment which does not appear of record, Miller received a release from the town of the land covered by their levy, and by his deed of warrantee conveyed to the Parish, without reservation or restriction, the lot now enclosed for the meeting-house, containing one hundred and twenty-six rods, having a frontage of nine rods on Church Street and a depth of fourteen rods.
In 1823, a voluntary subscription of three hundred dollars secured the conveyance to the town, from William Avery and Philip Morrill, of the land in front of the present school-houses, measuring ten rods and fourteen links on Church Street and five
1 The amount recovered against Miller was $1,763.03.
2 This arrangement was suggested by George Watson.
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
rods on Miller Street. The same year, the town purchased thirty- two rods, where the high school-house stands, for $300; and in 1828 the lot where the select school-house was built, containing forty-one rods, was conveyed to school district No. 5, for a like sum. A strip in the rear of these buildings and of the meeting- house, measuring two rods and twenty links on Miller Street and twenty-one rods and nine links on Court Street, was also conveyed to the district, with the proviso that no house, out-house, or other building should ever be erected on the premises. A similar con- dition is contained in the deed from Avery and Morrill. Spring Street, first called Charter Street, was not extended through the Common until 1837. As has been before stated, for over fifty years the inhabitants were destitute of any hall large enough for public occasions. The meeting-houses, and sometimes the academy, were used. But these buildings were inconveniently located, and not adapted to the wants of a rapidly growing town. The matter appears to have been agitated, and the want appreciated, at every annual town meeting from 1817 to 1823, without decisive action. In the latter year, Philip Morrill and William Avery were chosen a committee to investigate it, and to communicate the result to the town. Accordingly, they made the following report : 1 -
1823, June 30.
The Committee to whom was referred the duty of " seeing on what terms the Town can be accommodated with a con- venient building for holding its public meetings, and also to estimate the probable cost of procuring a site, and erecting a suitable edifice for that purpose," have attended to the business assigned them, and herewith submit the result of their doings.
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