USA > Maine > Waldo County > Belfast > History of the city of Belfast in the state of Maine v.I, 1770-1875 > Part 2
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When past Goose River Point Ledge, there are no dangers until up with the town, when, if intending to anchor above the Steamboat Wharf, look out for Wharf Ledge, which lies off Foundry Wharf (the first above the Steamboat Wharf), and about twenty yards from it. It is bare at low spring tides, and is marked by a black spar buoy (No. 1) placed on its north-eastern end.
2. Coming from the Southward through East Penobscot Bay .- This passage leads between Sears's Island, on the north, and Long Island, on the south. The northern extremity of Long Island is called Turtle Head ; and about one hundred yards to the north- ward of it lies Turtle Head Shoal, - a detached ledge, with thir- teen fcet at low water. It is not buoyed, but is easily avoided, as the channel is about two miles wide; and it is only necessary to
1 According to the chart published by the United States Coast Survey, the rise of mean high water in the harbor is nine feet and seven inches.
9
PHYSICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY.
keep in the middle. There is deep water between .this shoal and Turtle Head ; but it is not advisable for strangers to attempt this passage.
On the north side of the channel, and off the southern extrem- ity of Sears's Island, will be seen a black spar buoy. This is off the southern end of Brigadier Island Ledge, which extends off in a south-westerly direction, from the south-west end of Sears's Island, for one-third of a mile, and is bare two hours before low water. Sears's Island was formerly called Brigadier Island, and the name still clings to the ledge. The buoy is marked No. 1, and is placed in seventeen feet water on the southern end of the ledge.
When past Brigadier Island Ledge, there are no dangers until up with the stone monument on Steele Ledge.
SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR APPROACHING AND ENTERING BELFAST HARBOR.
1. Coming from the Southward through West Penobscot Bay .- The course through West Bay from off Camden is north-east half north, until abreast of Great Spruce Head ; after which, it is usual to haul to the northward, keeping about three-eighths of a mile from shore, until up with Brown's Head, when the beacon on Steele Ledge will be seen, with the red buoy on Harbor Shoal Ledge, to the southward of it. Pass to the south-westward of the buoy, and steer north-west-by-north, which course will lead past Goose River Point Ledge and up with the Steamboat Wharf, when anchor in good water, or proceed farther up, at discretion.
2. Coming from the Southward through East Penobscot Bay .- From off Dice Head (the north point of entrance to Castine Har- bor), steer north-west three-fourths north, until the extremity of Turtle Head bears south-west-by-west-half-west, when steer north- west by west-half-west, until up with the monument on Steele Ledge ; after which, follow the directions given for the harbor.
PLANS AND MAPS.
Joseph Chadwick made a plan of the township,1 about thirty inches square, in 1768. It is drawn upon paper, and is much worn and obliterated. It is entitled "Plan of Lands belonging to the
1 A copy of this plan, with some additions, accompanies the first chapter upon pro- prietary history.
10
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
GREAT FALLS
SAW MILL
HEAD OF TIDE
O WESCOTS BROOK
PONDS
& BOGS
THE NARROWS
BELFAST
TOWNSHIP.
FERRY
MEETING HOUSE
BRIDGE
GOOS R.
SAW MILL
COUNTY ROAD
MEETING HOUSE
COUNTY ROAD
MOOS POINT
LITTLE RIVER BRIDGE
SAW MILL
ROSSELL-ACHMADSON EL
FISH COVE
PASAGASAWAKEEG R.
HALF WAY CREEK
11
PHYSICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY.
Heirs of Brigadier Waldo, laying on that part of Penobscot Bay called Passasawackeeg. In the Lat. of 44, 11. Plotted by a Scale of 20 chains, or 80 rods to an inch. By Joseph Chadwick, Surv. Fort Pownall, December 10th; 1768."
In 1794, the town voted that " Alexander Clark take a survey of Belfast, and make a plan to be lodged in the Secretary's Office, agreeable to a resolve of the General Court at their last session, and to have said plan completed by the fifteenth day of April, 1795." The accompanying is a reduced copy of the original, now in the State-House in Boston.
At a town meeting held April 7, 1806, it was voted that " Robert Houston, Esq., Mr. Alexander Clark, with the assistance of the selectmen, complete a plan of the town, to be taken on parchment, wherein the original lots, all roads legally laid out and accepted by lawful authority, surveyors' limits, and school dis- tricts, shall be propriated, to be kept by the town clerk for the use of the town." This plan, together with that made by Chad- wick, is now in the possession of Nathan F. Houston. A copy of the former is in the assessor's office.
In 1856, a map of Belfast, from actual survey, was published by E. M. Woodford, of Philadelphia. It embraced the boundary lines, location of the roads, streams, mills, manufacturing establish- ments, public buildings, and private residences, with the names of real estate owners. It also contained twenty-four engravings of buildings and interesting localities. There was an enlarged plan of the business and thickly settled portions of the city, giving the location of every building, and an accurate survey of the streets. This plan, with some alterations and additions, was reproduced on the map of Waldo County, which appeared in August, 1859.
An elaborate chart of the harbor, seventeen by fifteen inches, on a scale of one-fifteenth thousand, - the result of the operations of the Coast Survey for several seasons, - was issued by that de- partment, in 1874. The streets and buildings are designated with- out being named, as well as the roads and elevations for several miles from the water line.
The plan of 1856 having become obsolete, in 1874 Messrs. E. F. Sanford and Charles T. Leggett made surveys for a new one, which was issued to subscribers early the next year. It is on a larger scale than that which appeared eighteen years before, and does not embrace any portion of the city beyond a mile from the river.
I
12
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
ENGRAVINGS AND VIEWS.
George H. Swift made a pencil sketch of Belfast, from Rogers's Hill, on the east side, in 1853. It was lithographed, and sold by subscription, but was neither meritorious nor accurate.
At the County Agricultural Fair, in 1853, a painting of High Street, from Spring Street, was exhibited by Miss Wood, an artist.
M. Andrieu, a Frenchman, painted a panorama of Belfast in 1857. It gave pictures of many of the streets and buildings, and portraits of several well-known citizens.
The map of Waldo County, before mentioned, contained a photographic view of Belfast, as did Mansfield and Coolidge's " History and Description of New England," published in 1859.
DIRECTORIES.
The first one published was by Langford & Chase, of Boston, for 1868. It included, also, Rockland, Camden, and Thomaston, and contained thirteen hundred and eighty names of Belfast citi- zens. Another directory, on a larger scale, was published in 1874 for the following year. The whole number of Belfast citizens and firms enumerated was sixteen hundred and thirty-three. Two small directories, in rhyme, giving the name of every business man, had previously appeared, -onc in 1857, the other three years later.
GEOLOGY.
According to the third annual report upon the geology of Maine, made in 1839, by Dr. Charles T. Jackson, Belfast presents but few geological peculiarities. It is founded upon that variety of argillaceous slate which is impregnated with plumbago, and is. hence called plumbaginous slate. The strata of this rock have been remarkably disturbed by the upheaving forces which acted during the period of the eruption of granite. The rock forms, by its de- composition, a blue soil, full of small particles or scales of the slate. But the soil resting on its surface is all of foreign origin, it being diluvial deposition, and having been swept to its present rest- ing-place from the north. The strata of talcose and argillaceous slate are observed running north-east-by-north and south-west-by- south.1
1 Dr. Jackson's Geological Report, I. 57; III. 68.
13
PHYSICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY.
In excavating for a well connected with the shoc-factory, on Pleasant Street, in 1872, the impression of leaves upon clay was found at a depth of twenty fect below the surface of the ground. Professor W. D. Gunning, who delivered a course of geological lectures here in 1874, discovered fossil clams, muscles, and ledas in the clay of the old Peirce brick-yard, which was on a decliv- ity near the western end of the lower bridge, high above tide- water. " The clay in which these fossils occur," said the lecturer, " overlies the glacial drift, - unsorted gravel left by the ice-sheet which once buried New England to the depth of a mile. We must infer that, since the invasion by the ice, the face of the earth at Belfast has stood so low that the top of this hill was overflowed by the tides. . .. If any one will examine the splendid topographi- cal maps of the shores and islands of the Penobscot, he will see, from the curves and slopes of every knoll and every hill which is less than three hundred feet high, that all the irregularities are the result of water sculpture. Now the sea has not fallen away from the coast, but the land has risen up from the sea. The site of Belfast has been on the sea-bed, and may be there again."
SOIL AND TREES.
The soil is a blue clay mixed with loam and a coarse, dark gravel. On the borders of Little River it is sandy and dry. The maple, the birch, and the beech were the prevailing forest trees : the spruce, the hemlock, and the pine were sparingly inter- spersed.1
INDIANS AND THEIR RELICS.
There are no indications that our territory was ever the fixed abode of Indians. During the summer months, the Penobscot tribe, as at present, resorted to the salt water, and erected tempo- rary wigwams on the shore of our river and bay. The well-known relic of that tribe, " Molly Molasses," who died in 1868, at an age known to exceed a century, and supposed to reach from one hun- dred and five to one hundred and ten years, claimed to remember being here before a house was erected. In 1792, there were four Indian camps, constructed of birch bark stretched upon poles, at the corner of Main and High Streets. William Quimby says that, for
1 White's History.
14
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
eight or ten consecutive summers after he came here, in 1804, In- dians, to the number of about one hundred, were encamped near Little River. They were dressed in aboriginal costume, wearing skin moccasons, frocks and belts. They depended upon game and fish for subsistence. The spot on which the Indian, in recent years, pitched his tent unmolested, near Sanford's Wharf, was dis- turbed by the construction of Bay View Street, in 1873; and he has since been obliged to recede further down the bay.
Only a few of the stone implements used by the Indians have been found in this vicinity. Robert Steele has an axe, found on his lot ; and George Patterson, who lives near him, several years ago disinterred upon his grounds a hoe and a gun-barrel. The latter were probably of French manufacture. The valuable col- lection of relics made by Dr. Lewis W. Pendleton 1 contains two spear-heads, - probably for spearing fish, -found between City Point and the Head of the Tide ; a hornblende chisel, six inches long, exhumed near Gurney's Mills ; a pipe of the same material, from the same vicinity ; and two smaller chisels, one of which was found on the farm owned by the late Major John Russ, at City Point.
LOCALITIES MENTIONED IN THE COURSE OF THE HISTORY.
1. Batteries. The western, on land of Erastus D. Freeman, about a mile below the city. The eastern, opposite Steele's Ledge. Both were erected in 1863, and dismantled two years after.
2. Beach. The same as Sandy Beach, where the railroad buildings are. It was formerly known as " Puddle Dock."
3. Beaver's Tail. A cape which formerly made out into the river, just above the upper bridge. Tradition says that it was once the resort of pirates, and about ten years ago excavations in search of hidden treasure were made in the night by unknown parties. When the railroad was built, the whole cape was re- moved.
4. Bluff. A hill in Northport, about three miles from the southern part of Belfast. It is four hundred and eighty-six feet high.
5. Board Landing. Below Kaler's Mills. Boards from mills on Goose River and other streams were formerly brought here for shipment.
1 It comprises over one hundred perfect specimens.
1
15
PHYSICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY.
6. Brigadier's Island. East of Searsport Harbor. So called from Brigadier-General Waldo, who once owned it. It is now known as Sears's Island, and until 1872 was covered with a heavy growth of wood.
7. Brown's Mills. At what is now Poor's Mills, in the north- west corner of the town. The name is derived from Samuel Brown, who came from New Hampshire, and built a saw-mill here about 1805.
8. City Point. A projection formed by the western branch of the river, about two miles and a half above the wharves at the foot of Main Street. It was called Clary's Point from 1798 to 1826, and Russ's Point from 1826 to 1850, when the present name began to be used.
9. Clary's Point. Now City Point. Named from Daniel Clary, who lived there several years after 1798.
10. Cobble Hill. A declivity on Northport Avenue, this side of Little River. William Quimby says the designation was given by Reuben Kimball, about 1805.
11. Cochran's Bridge. At the Head of the Tide. So called from Robert Boyd Cochran, who had a saw-mill there in 1800.
12. Common. Three parcels of land have been thus designated. The first, on the south end of lot No. 26, on the east side of the river, was reserved by the proprietors " to build a meeting-house, and for a grave-yard and training-field." Town meetings were held there for several years, probably in a log hut. The second was the triangular piece where the railroad depot stands, being granted to the town in 1802, by Moses Varnum and James Badger, as a common or market-place. The third is the square between Church and Court Streets, which was dedicated to public uses in 1823.
13. Cremer's Hill. The lower part of Main Street. So called from Dr. Edward Cremer, who formerly occupied a large house at the corner of Common Street, which was burned in the great fire of 1865.
14. Crosby's Hill. Where Governor Crosby's house stands. In 1805, the underpinning of this house was only about five feet above the level of the street.
15. Davistown Road. What is now Main Street, above High Street, continned by Belmont Avenue. It was so called from leading to Davistown Plantation, now Montville.
16. Field's Hill. On High Street, and named from Bohan P.
16
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
Field, who erected his house there in 1807. It is now better known as Primrose Hill.
17. Fish Cove. Between the east side of the river above City Point and the Wescott stream.
18. Foot Bridge. The earliest bridge across Goose River, on the shore road.
19. Garrison Hill. On the shore road to Searsport. At its base is the dividing line between that town and Belfast. The designation is arbitrary, as no garrison ever existed there.
20. Goose River. An unnavigable stream, which empties into the river on the eastern side, opposite the wharves.
21. Great Falls. Above the Head of the Tide. First desig- nated by that name on Clark's plan, in 1794.
22. Half-way Creek. The stream in Searsport village, formerly the dividing line between Belfast and Prospect, so called from being about equi-distant from the rivers Penobscot and Passa- gassawakeag.
23. Head of the Tide. Where the tide ceases to flow, at the foot of the first falls above City Point. The name is generally applied to the village above, sometimes called North Belfast.
24. Hemlock Hill. On Belmont Avenue, this side of Harrison Hayford's. Its name is derived from a large growth of hemlock trees, which once covered it.
25. Hiram Dale Falls. On Goose River, below the lower paper-mill. So called from the given name of Hiram E. Peirce, their owner. A view of these falls is given on the map of Belfast, published in 1856.
26. Kaler's Mills. On the Wescott stream, where in 1770 Jobn Mitchell built the first saw-mill in town.
27. Little Meadow Brook. On the Augusta road, this side of Hayford's. It is first mentioned in the town records, in 1793.
28. Little River. In the south-eastern corner of the city, where it joins the bay. For a short distance, as far as salt water flows, it forms the boundary of Northport. Having its source in Belmont, it is fed by small branches, two of which cross the Augusta road. Chadwick's plan, made in 1768, designates it as " Small River."
29. Meadow Brook. The same known as The Spa.
30. Minister's Point. On the eastern side of the harbor, desig- nated in the "Coast Pilot," published by the United States Coast Survey, in 1874, as Sawyer's Point.
17
PHYSICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY.
31. Mason's Mills. On Goose River, where the Swanville road intersects that running to Kaler's Mills and the Upper Bridge. They were once known as " Little's Mills."
32. Monument. A large square stone beacon, surmounted by a pole and barrel, on Steele's Ledge, off the north shore of the bay. At high tide, vessels and steamboats can pass between it and the shore.
33. Moose Point. The point which makes out into the bay in Searsport, on lot No. 11. It is thus designated on the original plan of Belfast.
34. Morrison Brook. A small rivulet which crosses the North- port road, this side of Joseph Wight's. Named from John Mor- rison, one of the first settlers, who occupied lot No. 43, which it passes through. It formerly was large enough to be bridged.
35. Muck-hole. A deposit of decaying vegetable matter at the upper end of Miller Street, near the Stanley road, overflowed in wet weather. The plan of converting it into a reservoir to supply the city in case of fire was made the object of a public meeting in 1872.
36. Narrows. Where the Upper Bridge crosses the river : there was a ferry here before the bridge was built.
37. Navy Yard. A collection of small honses near the shore, on the eastern side of the river, between the Upper and East Bridges. It is sometimes called the " Robbins Settlement."
38. Negro Island. A few rods above City Point bridge, towards the Foundry. So called because a negro belonging to a coasting vessel, who died of the small-pox, was buried there.
39. Nesmith's Corner. The intersection of Main and High Streets, where the store of David Lancaster now stands. So called from James Nesmith, who traded in a building which he erected there, from 1799 to 1809.
40. Old Steamboat Landing. Where McGilvery's ship-yard now is, at the foot of Allyn Street. Until 1842, the steamer "Bangor " landed and received passengers there by means of a small boat.
41. Pitcher District. A school district on the back road to Northport and Lincolnville, where many prominent citizens by that name were born or now reside.
42. Poor's Mills. On the Knox and Morrill road, four miles from the corner of Main and High Streets. So called from Benjamin, James, and John T. Poor, who had mills there in 1804. 2
18
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
43. Pound. For many years a prominent object on the Northport road, at the corner of Allyn Street. It was built of stone in 1810, was occupied by the British in 1814, and demolished in 1853.
44. Primrose Hill. On High Street, between Bridge and Green Streets. Sometimes known as Field's Hill. In 1807, the founda- tions of the house of Bohan P. Field were nearly upon a level with the street.
45. Puddle Dock. Sandy Beach, where the railroad buildings are. Prior to 1805, a portion of the premises was used for dockage purposes, the water being let in at high tide through a sluiceway.
46. Quimby's Hill. On Spring Street. Called from the Quimby House, which occupied its summit. As late as 1814 it was so much of a hill that people gathered there for better observation of the British frigate as she hove in sight on her way from Castine to Belfast.
47. Robbins Settlement. Between the Upper and Lower Bridges. Sometimes known as the Navy Yard.
48. Russ's Point. The same as "City Point " and "Clary's Point." It took the former name from Major John Russ, who lived there from about 1825 to his death in 1849. The name first appears on the town records in 1831.
49. Ryder's Cove. On the western side of the river, just above the Upper Bridge.
50. Sandy Beach. The flat of land at the foot of Main Street, where the railroad buildings stand ; more recently called Puddle Dock and Dock Square. It is first mentioned in Chadwick's survey, made in 1768.
51. The Spa. A spring on Belmont Avenue, in the valley between Hemlock Hill and Harrison Hayford's.
52. Stanley's Mills. On the Wilson stream, a branch of Little River, where it crosses the back road. to Northport, near the farm of Hon. A. G. Jewett. Nathaniel Stanley had a grist-mill and a saw-mill there seventy years ago. Hon. John Wilson afterwards became the proprietor, and they were then called Wilson's Mills.
53. Stanley Road. From Belmont Avenue, just above Con- gress Street, to the Northport line. Named after the owner of Stanley's Mills.
54. South Belfast. On the back road to Northport. Some- times known as the " Pitcher District."
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PHYSICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY.
55. Steele's Ledge. On the eastern side of the harbor. So called from Johu Steele, one of the first proprietors, whose lot was opposite. It is marked by a stone beacon, known as the Monument.
56. Turtle Head. The north end of Long Island, in the bay. It is rocky and of moderate height, its edges fringed with a thin growth of scrub, and its summit crowned with spruce and fir. It is joined to the island by a neck of low land.1 The name was given by Governor Pownall, in 1759. " About opposite the ridge called Megunticoog," he says, "begins the south point of an island which lies lengthwise in the middle of the bay, is about twelve miles long, and is called Long Island. The north point, from the shape which it makes from the sea, exactly resembling a turtle, we called Turtle Head."
57. Upper Bridge. At the Narrows, a mile above the East Bridge.
58. Webster's Hill. Market Street, from High Street to Sandy Beach. So called from Washington Webster, who built a house 2 at its foot, about 1805.
59. Wescott Stream. Empties into the main river below Kaler's Mills, above Fish Cove, and nearly west of City Point. It is designated as " Wescott Brook " on the original plan of Belfast, made in 1769. The derivation of the name is unknown. No person called Wescott ever lived here.
60. Wilson's Hill. The upper part of Main Street. First called by that name in 1806, when Hon. John Wilson erected his house on its summit, at the corner of the Stanley road.
61. Wilson's Mills. The same as Stanley's Mills. Named from Hon. John Wilson, who at one time owned them. They were burned in 1828. For many years the mill-pond was a favorite fishing place. In the town records under date of 1817, the mills are called Durham's Mills.
62. Wilson Stream. That part of Little River where Wilson's Mills were situated. Fifty years ago, there was sufficient water for motive power during the whole year. The stream is now almost dry.
1 Coast Pilot, United States Coast Survey, 299.
2 It was burned in 1875.
20
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY VOYAGES TO PENOBSCOT BAY.
Verazzano. - French and Italian Adventurers. - Researches of the Maine Historical Society. - Gomez. - Chart of Rihero thought to indicate Penobscot Bay. - Maps of Cabot, Dee, and Hakluyt. - Andre Thevet. - Supposed Appearance of Long Island in 1556. - Fishermen. - Waymouth's Voyage. - Monhegan. - Rosier's . Journal. - George's Islands. - Indians. - Discovery of a Large River. - Description. - Exploration of the Country. - Camden Mountains. -- River believed to be the Pen- obscot by Dr. Belknap. - Investigations of Captain Williams. - Belfast Bay. - " The Codde." - Belknap's View adopted by Bancroft. - Other Historians suppose the River to be the Kennebec. - Inconsistencies of each Theory. - Rosier's Extravagance of Description. - Probabilities in Favor of the River Georges. - Champlain visits Norumbega. - Accurate Account of Penohscot River. - Captain John Smith explores Penobscot Bay in 1614. - English Trading House at Pentagoet. - The French oc- cupy this Region. - D' Aulnay. - Saint-Castin.
A LTHOUGH, in 1524, Verazzano,1 a Florentine navigator, sailed along the whole coast of Maine, it has not been claimed until within a few years that the waters of the Penobscot were explored for nearly a century afterwards. Recent investi- gations, however, published under the auspices of the Maine His- torical Society, indicate that French and Italian voyagers were familiar with this section at a much earlier period, and that the magnificent entrance of our bay had not failed to attract their at- tention. Among these voyagers was Estevan Gomez, an experi- enced naval officer, who, in 1525, before the results of Verazzano's expedition had become known in Spain, sailed from Coruña in search of the northern route to India, which was then universally believed to exist. His ship first touched at Newfoundland, and then proceeded as far south as the fortieth degree of latitude.2 On a chart of the east coast of North America, made four years later by Diego Ribero, a celebrated cosmographer of that day, that portion of our continent which borders upon the Gulf of Maine is designated as the land of Gomez. This chart depicts a
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