USA > Maine > Waldo County > Belfast > History of the city of Belfast in the state of Maine v.I, 1770-1875 > Part 62
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Early in 1869, it became apparent that without foreign aid, or an alliance with one of the main lines from the Kennebec, the road could not be completed. The original idea of the projectors, therefore, of tapping the interior of the State, and bringing its products directly to the sea, competing with both through routes, and using their connection as a secondary matter, for convenience
1 Journal.
2 56 Maine Reports, 32.
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673
RAILROADS AND RAILROAD PROJECTS.
only, was unwillingly abandoned. As the charter authorized a road to Moosehead Lake via Kendall's Mills, now Fairfield, in May the directors voted to change the western terminus from Newport to that point, intersecting with the Portland and Kenne- bec Railroad; and a contract for a lease to that company, subject to ratification by the stockholders, was entered into. The terms of the lease were five per cent on the total cost of the road for five years, and six per cent for the succeeding forty-five years. This arrangement, on the part of the Portland and Kennebec corporation, contemplated a branch from Brooks to Bangor, thus forming a nearer and independent line from Portland to the latter city. So important au alteration in the railroad system of the State was immediately recognized by the directors of the Maine Central, who made favorable offers for a lease of the road, if a connection was secured with their line at Burnham or Newport. Both parties made vigorous efforts to establish the benefits of the respective routes. As the city of Belfast owned a majority of the shares, the vote of the aldermen upon ratifying the lease con- tracted for with the Portland and Kennebec Company was of course decisive. A large petition of tax-payers asked an accept- ance and ratification of the contract ; but to their surprise the corporation voted to reject it,1 and immediately concluded a lease with the Maine Central for a period of fifty years, at six per cent on $800,000, if an intersection was made at Burnham, and provided certain stipulations concerning the construction and completion were performed. Much indignation at the course of the muni- cipal officers was manifested. Many of the individual subscribers refused payment on account of alleged illegality on the part of the corporation, and their shares were sold at auction. The con- tractors were unable to dispose of preferred stock, and the city bonds could only be negotiated at a great sacrifice. Under these embarrassments, the work slowly progressed.
During the spring of 1870, two cargoes of iron arrived from England, and on the 4th of June laying of the track com- menced. An engine and some gravel-cars having been brought from Bangor in a scow, the first construction train went over the road as far as " Beaver's Tail " the following week.
In July, the completion of the road by the 1st of November, according to the contract with the Maine Central, seemed very
1 The aldermen were Reuben Sibley, Silas M. Fuller, S. L. Milliken, George B. Fer- guson, and T. C. Ellis. Mr. Milliken represented the city in the stockholders' meeting.
43
674
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
doubtful. The directors reported that, unless one hundred thou- sand dollars were immediately obtained, the work must cease. Three public meetings were held to devise ways and means, which resulted in a vote by the city to raise $101,925 for the purpose, secured by preferred stock and second mortgage bonds. The vote stood : yeas, three hundred and forty-nine ; nays, twenty- four. Over six hundred men were employed on the road night and day. On Sundays, for several weeks, gravel-trains manned by volunteers were run. The last rail to Burnham was laid Sep- tember 24; and, the next day, the first train, composed of the engine Windsor, under the charge of E. C. Moulton, and two platform cars with temporary seats, went through. The first pas- senger train arrived November 1. It brought the directors of the Maine Central on a tour of inspection, and was received at the depot by a large crowd. Although the road had not been accepted by the lessees, under a friendly arrangement its gauge was nar- rowed, and rolling stock supplied by them. Regular trains com- menced running December 23, leaving Belfast at 7 A.M. and 1.40 P.M., returning at noon and at 7.30 P.M.
The road was intended to be first-class in all its appointments. The iron weighs fifty-six pounds to the yard, and is of "continu- ous rail," so called, fastened together by fish-plates. There are four buildings connected with the Belfast station, which occupy the triangular lot of land at the foot of Main Street, given by Varnum and Badger for a public common or market place in 1805, known in modern days as " Puddle Dock." They consist of a passenger and a freight depot, a car and an engine house. The flats from "Sandy Beach " to the end of the east bridge are crossed by a pile bridge one thousand feet long. At City Point, the river is crossed by a Howe truss-bridge, of one hundred feet span. Two similar bridges, of fifty feet span each, cross the Wescott stream, about a mile above. The following table shows the distances between the different stations, expressed in miles and decimals : -
City Point.
Brooks.
Thorn- dike.
Unity.
Burn- ham.
Belfast .
2.46
12.69
25.28
33.14
City Point
10.23
21.68 19.22 9.99
22.72
30.68
Brooks .
12.59.
20.45
Thorndike
3.60
11.46
Unity
7.86 1
1 Journal.
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675
RAILROADS AND RAILROAD PROJECTS.
Mr. William J. Colburn was the first station-master. He was succeeded by the present incumbent, Mr. H. H. Adams, July 15, 1872. Mr. John Mace assumed the position of conductor in May, 1871. Mr. J. W. Knowlton, postal agent, and Mr. J. Sullivan, baggage-master, have been connected with the road since its com- pletion.
The consolidation of the Maine Central and Portland and Ken- nebec roads had an unfavorable effect upon the Belfast branch. Upon becoming united, the company did not care for its business. It was clearly seen that the road as built was a mistake, and could not be remunerative for many years. The interest of the united corporation was and is to secure "the long haul," to carry freight to Portland and Boston, and not to Belfast, - in other words, to reverse rather than assist the original design of the enterprise. It is therefore not to be wondered at that an unusually strict exami- nation was made by the directors, and, defects being found, that they declined taking the road according to contract. The rejec- tion raised a very troublesome question : what is to be done ? The money was all spent, and there was no rolling stock. After vari- ous hearings before the Railroad Commissioners, and prolonged con- ferences of both Boards of Directors, a compromise was effected in May, 1871, by which the Maine Central Company became the lessees for fifty years, at an annual rental of $36,000.
By the report of the officers of the corporation, made July 1, 1874, the amount of the funded debt was $251,900, composed of first mortgage bonds, $150,000, and note due the city of Belfast, 8101,900. The amount of the floating debt, after deducting avail- able resources, was $67,157.21.
In 1874, an arrangement was perfected to extend the road along the water front to Simpson's Wharf, which was done the same season.
The directors of the road for 1874-75 were C. B. Hazeltine, William McGilvery, Philo Hersey, J. W. White, William M. Woods, Edward Johnson, Daniel Faunce, Josiah Mitchell, J. G. Dickerson.
Charles B. Hazeltine was chosen president, Asa Faunce treas- urer, and John H. Quimby clerk. The whole number of pas- sengers carried on the road in 1874 was 17,244; tons of freight, 11,036.
In 1869, the Penobscot Bay and River Railroad Company, with authority to build a road from Rockland to Bangor, was chartered.
676
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
During that year, several meetings in aid of the project were held, the corporation organized, and a preliminary survey of the route made by L. L. Buckland, an engineer. The line through Belfast, according to the report, was as follows : -
" Following the valley of a small brook to John Wight's place, we cross Meadow Brook, and, curving to the right, cross the main road to Belfast between the school-house and Mr. J. Wilson's ; thence along the slope to the south of Little River, we follow near the road to Perkins bridge, where we cross Little River just above the present travel bridge; thence in a direct line to the Tilden place, and, curving to the left, follow along the shore of the bay to the wharves in the city of Belfast, where we connect with the sur- vey for the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad. Curving along the wharves, the line crosses the upper part of the harbor from Simpson's Wharf in a direct line to the northern shore. The radius of curvature here, entering on and leaving the proposed bridge, need not be less than seven hundred and seventeen feet, that being the radius of an eight degree curve. After crossing the harbor at Belfast, we find a very feasible line along the shore to Searsport." The right to cross any tide-water or navigable river, by building and maintaining suitable draws for the accom- modation of navigation, was granted by the charter. Subsequent enactments rendered the charter void, unless the road was com- pleted by Feb. 26, 1875.
A charter for " The Georges Valley Railroad," from Warren, through Union, Appleton, Searsmont, and Belmont, was granted in 1870, and a survey made. The route passed about one-half mile west of Belmont Corner; thence to Poor's Mills, and, following the valley of the Passagassawakeag stream, reached the easterly end of the railroad bridge at City Point.
The last railroad project which concerned Belfast was one from Brooks, through Monroe, Newburg, and Hampden, to Bangor, connecting with the European and North American Railroad. This was in 1871. The Legislature declined giving a charter.
677
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER XLI.
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY.
Agriculture subservient to Lumbering. - Cord-wood the Earliest Article of Export. - Its Price. - Large Quantity hauled. - First Saw-mill built on Wescott Stream. - Land granted to Mitchell for its Erection. - Other Saw-mills. - Belfast Sluice. - Surveyors of Lumber. - Boards and Shingles. - Last of the Old Pine-trees. - First Grist-mill. - Tide-mill on Little River. - Weavers. - Fulling-mill. - Axe and Nail Factories. - Extinct Industries. - Distillery. - Manufacturing Corporations. - Me- chanical Trades. - Manual Avocations. - Gas Company. - Manufactories in 1874. - Shoe Factory. - Sash and Blind Factory. - Paper Mills. - Establishments on Goose River. - Kaler's Mills. - Industries on the Passagassawakeag. - Patents granted to Citizens of Belfast. - Portrait Painters. - Other Artists. - First Daguer- reotypes. - Telescope. - Time-teller.
TN early days, " so entirely engrossed was the attention of our inhabitants in procuring timber and lumber that the cultiva- tion of the land was neglected."1 This is the statement of Mr. Willis concerning the first settlers of Portland, and the same is substantially applicable to this section. The lumber business, particularly, by its more ready command of money, held out irre- sistible temptation to engage in that pursuit, which, while it pro- duced more sudden prosperity, was yet hostile to the agricultural interests of the territory. A century ago, the forests in many parts of the country had given out. Long before that, so much alarm was felt, and Plymouth Colony became so " straightened for building timber," that certain kinds of lumber were not allowed to be exported, except conditionally. From the first settlement of Belfast, until comparatively a few years, cord-wood constituted an extensive article of shipment. Numbers of the earliest inhab- itants depended upon it for means with which to purchase the necessaries of life. In 1770, John Davidson, one of the first set- tlers, having no oxen, carried on his back enough wood to the shore to load a small sloop.2 But the price was entirely inade- quate to the labor, the wood bringing but eighty cents per cord. On the lot which now includes Main Street, during the winter of
1 Willis's Hist. Portland, 450.
2 Manuscript narrative.
678
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
1791, fifty cords were cut. It was worth, standing, only fifty-five cents per cord. William Houston was the teamster who hauled it to the "Beach." Six years afterwards, the Duke de Lian- court wrote, from personal observation and inquiry among the people of Belfast and Prospect, as follows : " An able woodman will cut two and even three cords of wood per day. The usual price is 7s. per cord. It costs about a third part of the value for conveyance. One who has no oxen of his own can earn therefore 10s. per day. This is sufficient to make these people careless of agriculture and husbandry. More distant prospects of interest are too weak to engage them steadily in agricultural industry."1 In 1805, cord-wood delivered at the wharf brought two dollars per cord : it sold in Boston for about double that sum. After the war of 1812 terminated, lumber and wood were brought here for shipment in large quantities.2
Under date of March 2, 1825, the "Gazette" mentions that during a single day of the previous week, one hundred and sev- enty-one cords of wood were hauled into the village on one road ; as much or more, probably, on all the other roads. One load of nearly five cords was a gift to Rev. William A. Drew. In 1830, a competition existed between Annas Campbell, Calvin Pitcher, and other persons living upon the Augusta and Wilson's Mills roads, as to who could bring to market the largest quantity of wood on one sled. Finally, Captain Campbell's load of five cords exceeded the others. With the American flag displayed from his team, he presented the load to the Rev. Mr. Frothingbam.
The purchase of wood was never more extensive here than from 1835 to 1845. Besides the large number of merchants in the vil- lage, nearly all of whom received wood and lumber for " store pay," there were traders at the Head of the Tide, Russ's Point, Board Landing, and the Upper Bridge. During the winter months, the wharves became crowded with the huge piles awaiting the return of spring for shipment, which employed, upon an average, at least fifty coasting schooners, making about ten trips each season to Boston and Salem. No accurate record of the exportation exists. In April, 1844, there were ten thousand cords of wood and bark piled on the wharves, awaiting shipment.
1 Travels of the Duke de Liancourt, p. 435.
2 " Prosperity of Maine. On Wednesday, February 21, it was ascertained that between three and four hundred sleighs and ox-teams, loaded principally with lumber, hay, and provisions, arrived in Belfast, to market, from the adjoining country. Such a quantity of lumber, brought into town in one day, has perhaps never before been witnessed since its settlement." - Bangor Weekly Register, March 2, 1816.
679
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY.
In 1840, several of the principal buyers of wood gave notice "that, after the 1st of January next, they will not purchase or receive wood as merchantable, unless cut three and a half feet from one peak to the other, and none received unless the refuse wood is culled out, as the character of " Belfast wood " has suffered much from its bad quality and shortness."
The price then averaged three dollars per cord. The following is the list of names appended : -
James Gammans.
W. H. Conner & Co.
Reuben Sibley.
P. R. Hazeltine.
John S. Caldwell.
J. S. Kimball.
Edwin Beaman.
French & Howard.
Beaman & Merrill.
Carlton & Palmer.
Ephraim Swett.
S. S. Stevens & Co.
James Wood.
James H. Spring.
J. Haraden & Son.
Asa Faunce.
White,1 Faunce, & Co.
R. White & Co.
Of these, Messrs. Sibley, Caldwell, Beaman, and Daniel Hara- den are the only ones now (1874) in trade.
SAW-MILLS.
An article acted upon at a meeting of the proprietors, held July 20, 1769, set forth that, " whereas there is Sum mill Places that may fall into Particular Lots when they are Run out, to See whether the Proprietors will reserve them falls for Publick use, and make good to those people in whose Lots Such falls may Happen their Deficiency in Land Aquevelant in som other place." It was voted "that any person shall not pitch their Lott or Lotts upon any mill place or falls." At a meeting held on the following first day of September, "To See what Incorigement Each pur- chaser will give to Have a Sawmill Built," it was voted "for In- corigement forty nine acres of Land with the privilege of the Stream (viz. Wescot's Brook, so caled), and the Land and Stream is to Be John Mitchels ; " also " that said mill shall be Built fit for Service at or before the firs. Day of Sept. 1770." Dec. 26, 1769, the proprietors voted "That John Mitchel Shall have a Quit- claim Deed from a Committee of the Society that has purchased a tract of land on the west Side of Penobscot Bay at a Place
1 Hon. James P. White, who was a member of this firm, informed the writer that on one occasion he purchased, before breakfast, from teams in the street, over forty cords of wood.
680
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
known by the name of Belfast, of fourty nine acres of Land, one half of said Land on one Side of Wescot's Brook, so Caled, and the other on the other Side, Being in the whole fourty Rods wide at Right Angles, togather with the priviledge of Said Stream on the following Preleminaries ; viz., that Said John Mitchel Shall give Suficient Bond to the Satisfaction of Said Comunity that he will have a good Suficient Sawmill Built at the mouth of said Wescott's Brook fitt to Saw by the first Day of Sep! next, with an Ingine to haul up the Logs out of the tide on to said mill, and further Said Mitchel is to Ingage to keep said mill in good Re- pair and fitt to Saw for the Space of ten years from the first Day of next Sep., and further that Said Mitchel is to Saw for any Set- tler for their Buildings on Said tract of Land when they Demand it, notwithstanding he the Said Mitchell may have any Quantity of Logs on the wharf whatsoever." In accordance with this arrangement, Mitchell, at a great cost of workmen and materials from Boston, built a saw-mill before a house had been erected in town,1 probably early in the spring of 1770.
Under date of Jan. 22, 1777, a committee was chosen "to See that the Saw-mill is Kept in Repair for the future." During the Revolution, it was destroyed by the British, who carried the chain and some sawed lumber to Castine.2
About 1770, Major William Minot erected a saw-mill at Cam- den, which was resorted to by the Belfast settlers. After the reorganization of the town, mills were established on Goose River and at the Head of the Tide. In 1797, Robert B. Cochran had one at Cochran's Bridge, valued at $500. Richard Stimson's mill on Goose River was valued at $30, and William Griffin's, on Half-way Creek, at $60. At the Job White place, Samuel Brown's and Captain Thomas Cunningham's mills were situated, in 1804. Further on, quite a large one was maintained at Poor's mills. On Wilson's stream, about a mile from the beach, Hon. John Wilson owned a mill : it was burnt Nov. 28, 1828. What is now a small brook then furnished a sufficient supply of water for saw- ing the year round. There was a tide-mill at Little River, and near Edward Perkins's house Thaddeus Spring occupied the privilege for another saw-mill. On the Wescott stream, the old Mitchell privilege was improved ; and on Goose River there were
1 White's History. According to Hon. Lorenzo Sabine (N. Am. Rev. LVIII. 321), the earliest saw-mill on the Penobscot was at Bucksport, in 1764.
2 Joseph H. Kaler, who was so informed by David Miller.
681
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY.
three mills for sawing lumber, -one at Mason's Mills, so called, owned by Major William Cunningham, and near the site of the lower paper-mill, and one at the bridge, near the shore. In 1803, Robert Houston and others were incorporated under the name of the " Proprietors of the Belfast Sluice," with power to build a sluice from Stimson's mills on Goose River to tide-waters, to build locks so as to render the river navigable, and to receive tolls on all lumber passing through them for thirty years. The plan was never carried into operation.
For nearly three-quarters of a century after the first settlement, next to cord-wood, manufactured lumber constituted the principal article of export. In 1774, at the second town meeting, John Brown and James Patterson were chosen surveyors of boards and timber. Thirty years afterwards, when the population was about eight hundred, the records show twenty-five persons holding the office of surveyors and measurers of different kinds of lumber. Large quantities of boards and shingles were brought from the neighboring towns. Searsmont and Montville afforded what in those days was regarded an inexhaustible supply of the first quality of fine lumber. The " Gazette " of July 10, 1822, states that on the previous Saturday there were "hauled into the village on teams, as by actual survey, 136,086 feet of boards, 35,000 of shingles, 3,789 staves, 1,515 feet of oars;" and, on another summer's day, two hundred thousand feet were brought to market, valued at over $1,200. In 1825, twenty-five vessels, mostly brigs, carried cargoes of lumber from Belfast to the West Indies. The price of merchantable boards in 1820 was $7 to $8 per thousand; of shingles, $1 to $2.50 per thousand. In 1840, clear lumber brought $25 to $30 per thousand. The last pine-trees of large size in town remained until about twenty years ago.1
GRIST-MILLS.
There was no mill here for grinding corn, until after the Revo- lution. An article in the warrant for the annual town meeting of 1775, "To see if they can lay any Plann to have a grist-mill," does
1 We saw a beautiful specimen of the products of the soil of Maine, in the shape of a magnificent pine spar, hauled into town on Thursday. It was cut in the south part of the town, on land owned by H. O. Alden, Esq. It measured 83 feet 33 inches in length, 21 feet in circumference, and 7 feet in diameter. It was estimated to contain 6} M. feet, board measure, and was hauled by 14 yoke of oxen. It is intended for a mast to a large ship now building at Damariscotta, and was furnished by Leonard Cooper, Esq., of Montville, who gets $250 for it. - Signal, Feb. 15, 1850.
682
HISTORY OF BELFAST.
not appear to have been acted upon. The nearest mill was on a small stream which empties into the Penobscot opposite Odoms's ledge. It was on their return from it in a canoe that Morrison and Steele, two of the first settlers, were drowned the winter after they came here. A mill at Camden was also resorted to. Two men would carry down the whole grist of the town in a boat. During the Revolution, people carried their corn to Castine to have it ground by a wind-mill. Deacon Tuft's mill, afterwards im- proved by Jesse Sturtevant, situated at Hiram Dale Falls, was built about 1785. This was the first one here. In 1797, it was valued by the assessors at $50. James Nesmith had a tide-mill at Little River, in 1796. "The boats for the bay with corn paddle under the bridge, and come at once to a side-mill," says the Rev. Paul Coffin's Journal.
Several of the early settlers being practical weavers, an acquire- ment which had been learned at Londonderry, used to weave their own linen from home-made flax, make their own clothes from domestic woollen and linsey-woolsey cloth, and thus supplied their own demand for wearing apparel, esteeming foreign fabrics as useless extravagances.1 Before the present century, Caleb Smith had a fulling-mill near the lower bridge on Goose River. The water power on that and the Head of the Tide streams was improved at an early date for other purposes than the manufac- ture of lumber. Near the old Wilder foundery site, there was a small nail-factory, erected by John Mckinley, about 1805 : the nails were headed by hand. It was maintained only a few years. Job White established the first axe factory in 1815. His brother William, who now resides in Waldoboro', made the first axe.2 Major Benjamin Kelley and John R. Whiting afterwards carried on the same business on Goose River. A plaster mill was built on the Wescott stream in 1843.
Among the industrial enterprises which are now extinct here is the manufacture of stone ware, which was for several years prior to 1826 prosecuted by George W. Bruce, below Bridge Street, near the house of Captain W. O. Alden; of potash, in a small building on Spring Street ; of ropes and cordage, iu a rope-
1 Locke's Sketches. Mathew Chambers and John Davidson, two of the original proprietors, are designated as weavers in the deed of Belfast. An account-book kept at Fort Pownall during the Revolution, under date of Jan. 19, 1776, contains the follow- ing entries : "John Brown, of Belfast, Cr. with his daughter's weaving, £3 108. Alex. Clark, of Belfast, Cr. with his wife's spinning, £7 2s. 6d."
2 Waldoboro' News, July, 1874.
683
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY.
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