USA > Maine > Aroostook County > Houlton > History of the town of Houlton, Maine, from 1804 to 1883 > Part 3
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Boards and shingles were run in rafts to Woodstock and Fredericton, which were their principal places of market. Ten miles below Houlton there are falls where they unrafted, carrying the lumber some fifty rods or more over a rough path, dodging the trees, bouncing against the roots and rocks. This Herculean labor was
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necessarily performed in the spring and autumn during the time of a freshet.
An incident connected with this hazardous enterprise, we think is here deserving a place. In November, a young man and a boy of some 12 years started for Woodstock on a raft of shingles. Being unaccustomed to rafting and running shingles, when they arrived at the falls, they barely escaped going over, which, under such circumstances, must have proved inevitable destruc- tion, but with their utmost effort they landed the raft. The next morning, having lugged their shingles over the portage and rafted again, they pushed off for Wood- stock ; they had gone but a short distance before they ran upon a sand-bar. which tore the raft all to pieces, the shingles floating at random-driven by wind and current. Catching the ax, poles and packs, they put for the shore. Having made a raft of cedar, they floated down to Woodstock, where they procured provision, a bark canoe and a bottle of Jamaica, without which, in those days, it would have been thought presumption, exposed to the cold storms of November, to endure the fatigue and hardship of raftmen. The next morning those green hands, with their poles and paddles, worked their passage up some five miles, the water freezing to the poles, and the ballast light, so that a misstep would upset the ticklish bark ; the current in many places deep and strong, dashing alternately from shore to shore, in their haste to reach the falls, the boy at the bow, whose pole slipped from the ledgy bottom, falling on the gunwale it capsized instantly, precipitating them both head foremost into the cold stream of some eight or ten feet of water ; the poor boy swam for life to the nearest shore, but the ledges were so bluff, it was impossible, for some distance, to get foot-hold. The other, with the locomotive power of his legs and one hand, while with the other he righted the canoe, securing the parapherna-
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lia of poles, paddles, and baggage, with great effort swam to the shore some thirty rods below. Resuming their places, with the greatest exertion to keep from freezing, they pushed their treacherous bark three or four miles, when they upset precisely as before, having to clear for the shore where best they could. Well for them that they were expert swimmers, otherwise they must have drowned. Being soaking wet and nine miles from inhabitants, fireworks, baggage, blankets all satu- rated, and the little fellow, in his desperate effort to reach the shore, lost off one shoe, it being more than half a mile to their place of camping, provision entirely wet, and, to cap the climax, the bottle sunken, they were in a quandary about what to do, but finally they resolved to make another effort to gain the falls; if they could find no fire there to walk the shore till morning to keep from freezing to death, rather than abandon the raft and return to Woodstock without accomplishing their object. Proceeding with caution, they at last reached the falls, with clothes stiff with frost, cold hands and limbs and heavy hearts, but scon, to their infinite joy, they discovered a blazing fire, a man having arrived there that day and made provision for the night. Their blankets dripping wet, and no covering but the canopy of Heaven there was consequently no sleep for them. Placing themselves before a good fire, turning round and round, smoking and steaming like old-fashioned basted turkeys, until morning, when doubtless they, with drooping heads, through the "keen demands of appetite," partook of their water-soaked fare, after which they proceeded to the task of collecting their fragment- ary raft. Having succeeded and marketed the shingles at Woodstock, they slung their packs, which were blank- ets tied at the extreme corners, containing various arti- cles, to the amount of some thirty or forty pounds, and trudged home, where they told the sad story, which.
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though pitiful, yet extorted laughter from the facetious guests, who, listening to the rehearsals of the duckings they had, their desperate swimming efforts in the freez- ing element, the loss of shoe and bottle, though not like honest Gilpin, who broke both of his with loss of hat and wig, exclaimed, "Such fellows were not reared in the woods to be frightened at an owl or to quail before a storm."
In the autumn Mr. Amos Putnam took a horse on a raft of boards, to haul them by the falls. After they arrived, having hauled the lumber, at night the horse was turned to water, but suddenly disappeared. Search was made, but without success. In the morning, they renewed the search, but without success as before. The animal being young and valuable, Mr. Putnam employed several men, who were a week in pursuit of him, but finally gave up the creature for lost.
On the 12th of February following, there were men with teams passing down the creek, upon the ice, who discovered the track of a horse, which they followed a short distance and found the poor brute alive in the woods, but reduced to a mere skeleton. This creature had been from fall till Feb., suffering from the storms of rain and snow, limited at last to a narrow beat of a few rods, that he kept open by browsing, without water, shelter or food, except what he gathered in the forest. The poor animal was taken home on a sled, restored and became a valuable servant for years after. The above incident, we believe, surpasses all history of a horse's endurance,-exposed to the severities of a winter of hard frosts and deep snow in this high latitude. Cattle have rambled off many miles from their summer haunts and been found alive, by lumbermen, late in winter, but a horse never before, to my knowledge.
Lumbering, building mills, houses, clearing a little here and there, planting, sowing, fishing, mowing, were
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calling for renewed effort. J. Houlton, Esq., built a flour mill on a stream near the north line of Houlton, and Mr. A. Putnam got his mill in operation, which accommodated the inhabitants of Houlton and the adja- cent settlements. About this time, Mr. Samuel Morrison, with a numerous family of sons and daughters, removed from Limerick, to New Limerick, which joins Houlton on the west, from which, at the time of burning their felled trees, the smoke rose promiscuously, designating the places of their different locations, which, though distant, bore a social aspect, changing their solitary waste to cultivated farms. It were unnatural, ungrate- ful to dissociate those pioneers of this vast desert from a fraternal co-partnership in this common, indispensable, yea, noble work of converting the wilderness to fruitful fields, and of carrying civilization and competency to the gloomy abodes of poverty and ignorance, and asso- ciating the progress of morality, science and religion with the school-house, the seminary, and the temple for the worship of God. With the prosperity of these, is identified the perfectibility of our race, fulfilling our mission on earth, with a well-grounded hope of a bliss- ful immortality beyond the grave.
There are two lakes, called the Limerick lakes, of about three miles in length, averaging half a mile in width. Upon the thoroughfare between the lakes there is a saw-mill, the property of Mr. Moses Drew, some nine miles from the village of Houlton, and a valuable quarry of limestone, where are two kilns, from which Houlton and the adjacent country are supplied with lime. The eastern lake is separated from the west branch of the Meduxnakeag by a swell of land, running nearly east and west, upon which those families settled, presenting a romantic view of the lake on the south, and the more remote settlement at the north. Those lakes afforded many pleasure excursions, sometimes on
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rafts, in log canoes or skiffs, frequently combining pas- time with fishing, which was found expedient in those days of all work.
There were valuable fish in those lakes, but the salmon of the creek were valued as the wealth of the waters. The mill-dams were beginning to obstruct their passage up, but they were so persevering to press their way over the falls and dams, that where there was no sluice or fish-ways made for them, they would run against the water-wheels while the mills were in operation, which would kill them instantly. While striving to ascend the falls, they are sometimes forced back against the rocks by the impetuosity of the dashing elements, as to wound them severely ; for they have often been caught with the scars of bruises which they doubtless received from the rocks and ledges. When hunted, they evince a great sagacity on being wounded, trying every nook and hole to secrete themselves from their pursuers, but when deadly wounded by the spear, if they escape, the eels find them, as if by instinct, commencing at the wound, eating their way until they devour all but skin and bones. When sought by the spearmen, with their canoe and jack-light of bark or pitch-wood, with nets above and below those salmon holes, finding themselves in circum- scribed limits, and tired from the chase, they will fall captives almost without resistance to their unrelenting foes. To escape the eye of the fish-hawk and eagle, they lie in deep water among the rocks, except at night or at high water, when they venture up the shoals and rapids. How marked is the hand of that universal Prov- idence, thus to send the scaly treasures of the deep to force their way up the rivers and streams to supply the necessities of the remote and destitute creatures of His care ; though hunted by their pursuers with nets and spears, on their passage up, yet the progress of those that escape is onward and upward ; overcoming all ob-
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stacles, until faithful to their progeny, they leave their spawn, after which they become poor and comparatively worthless, and return with the floating current to their oceanic retreat, beyond the reach of voracious man, there to be nourished and restored, but again, at the opening of the spring, when the rivers burst their ice-bound fet- ters, to perform their annual accustomed tour.
In 1817 Houlton was visited by speculators from Ban- gor, who came with goods, among whom were Wood & Bradbury, and sold boots, shoes, tea, tobacco, cotton cloth and some other articles to the inhabitants of Houlton, making ample profits, though the difficulty and expense attending transportation must have been con- siderable, as packs, carried on their backs, was the man- ner of conveyance. 1173329
Our infant colony, consisting of all ages, with the foreign settlers, began to extend the settlement, and among our social gatherings might be seen the gray locks that shaded the temples of more than four-score years, together with the middle-aged, and the peach down of infancy. The eldest among us was Mrs. Lydia Putnam, a distinguished female, one of the pioneers of two set- tlements, claiming a residence with the primitive inhab- itants of New Salem.
An incident connected with her early life, we think is deserving of a place here. At a time, in absence of her husband, Bruin came in quest of game; finding naught but a swine in a pen a few steps from the door, made an assault upon the poor prisoner, which raised a bitter outcry at the salutation of his unwelcome guest. The young matron, hearing the alarm, from the impulse of the moment, seized her husband's gun, which not being charged, resorted to the next efficient weapon for aggressive warfare, the pitchfork, with which she made a threatening onset, until old Bruin, rising upon his hind feet, looked between his paws, with a horrid grin, as if
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to stand the challenge of his armed assailant, but be- twixt the squealing of the one, and the persistent ad- vances and threats of the other, absconded, leaving his captive and his courageous adversary to claim the honor of triumph and be entertained with his own music. An alarm being given, the laborers left the field in pursuit, and after a chase of a mile or more in the woods, con- quered him. But that fearless woman evinced the spirit of a heroine and a presence of mind peculiar to herself, which saved the poor captive from falling a prey to the voracity of his huge antagonist. Mrs. Lydia was the widow of Amos Putnam, Sr., of New Salem, and left there with her son Aaron, in 1805, and in 1809 removed from Woodstock to Houlton, as before mentioned. Va- rying from the chronology of events, we will here notice her decease, which occurred at the residence of her son- in-law, Joseph Houlton, Esq., April 8, 1820, after a short illness, peculiar to the decrepitude of four score and seven years. Mrs. Putnam was a member of the Con- gregational church in New Salem, from which it appears she never withdrew her connection. Possessing a char- acter of industry, energy and perseverance, united with experience, qualified her for a sphere of usefulness pe- culiarly adapted to her situation, as doctress in Houlton and in the Province, there being no physician then above Fredericton, excepting Doctor Rice. She never refused when called upon to go the distance of five or ten miles, at whatever season of the year. Hers was emphatically a life of activity and usefulness, down to a good old age, and her death was lamented by numer- ous relatives and an extensive circle of friends and ac- quaintances.
From the efficient aid of the Rev. Mr. Harding, we were favored with the missionary labor of the Rev. Seth E. Winslow, of Barre, Mass., and as a testimony of the deep interest which those few families then evinced upon
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the subject of their spiritual welfare, we will refer the reader to the following records :
At a meeting of the church, Sept. 20, 1818, Samuel Cook, having been propounded as candidate for a mem- ,
ber of the First Congregational Church in Houlton Plantation, was received into the church in due form.
Baptized by Rev. Seth E. Winslow, Sept. 27, 1818 : - Elizabeth Ann and Samuel Dwight, children of Samuel and Betsy Rice ; Elizabeth Hanley, an adopted daughter of Samuel and Betsy Rice; Aaron Randolph, son of Aaron and Isa Putnam ; Franklin and Harriet, children of Joshua and Betsey Putnam ; Harrison and Lyman, children of James and Sally Houlton; James and Lydia, children of Samuel and Sally Cook; Mary, Joseph and Fanny, childen of Ebenezer and Polly Warner; Priscilla Emerson, daughter of Samuel and Sally Wormwood ; Joseph Broadstreet, Samuel, Nathan, Thomas, Elizabeth and Jonathan, children of Samuel Parks and his wife, members of a Baptist Church.
At a meeting of the inhabitants of the. Plantation of Houlton, Oct. 10, 1818, the First Congregational Church in said Houlton, with others present,
Voted, That they give the Rev. Seth E. Winslow an invitation to settle with them and labor among them in the gospel ministry.
Voted, That the sum of four hundred dollars be raised and paid to said Winslow annually, as his stated salary.
Nov. 1, 1818, Eleazer Packard, William Williams and Sarah Kendall were received in the usual form, as mem- bers of the First Congregational Church in Houlton Plantation. Baptized by the Rev. Seth E. Winslow :- Thomas Painter and Rhoda Caroline, children of Eleazer and Ruth Packard; Ruth, Maria and Nathan Holden. children of Eleazer and Lucinda Packard.
In presence of the congregation, Mr. Amos Putnam was married to Miss Priscilla F. Wormwood.
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It appears that the Rev. Mr. Winslow was. faithful in the discharge of the duties of his mission, and that his efforts were duly appreciated by the church and inhab- itants of Houlton, as the reader may learn from the subjoined letter of Deacon Samuel Kendall:
" HOULTON PLANTATION, Nov. 25, 1818.
Rev. Alpheus Harding-Dear Sir : - I am requested by the church of Christ and other inhabitants of the Plan- tation of Houlton, so called, to present through you, as being the proper organ of communication to the Massa- chusetts Evangelical Missionary Society, you being one of the executive committee of said society, and also the one by whom Mr. Winslow received his commission, their highest sense of the obligations they are under to said society, for their liberal donation, and happy choice in the missionary employed ; and as a token of their grateful acknowledgment for the favor received by the friendly aid of said society, they have collected and committed to the charge of Mr. Winslow $30, to be transmitted to said society, to be disposed of by them at their discretion, for the use of the gospel ministry.
They feel their inability to express their gratitude for the services of the missionary who came to them by the means of your benefaction, whose indefatigable labors of love among them for nearly three months past, by preaching the gospel, administering the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the truly kind, ten- der and affectionate manner of his instructing their children and youth, have excited in their breasts the warmest emotions of gratitude to him for the unwearied pains he hath taken with them. They deem it a priva- tion to think of a separation, even until next summer. Should your society still think us objects of your further charity, (as we verily feel ourselves to be,) and could consistently render us that aid which would enable us,
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with our own efforts, to sustain a pastor, we would in- dulge the hope that Mr. Winslow will be prevailed with to settle in the ministry in this place. He has given universal satisfaction, both in his private visits and pub- lic performances."
The writer, having no further records of ecclesiastical history until 1833, aside from the correspondence of Mr. Winslow and Rev. Mr. Harding with Deacon S. Kendall, in behalf of the church and inhabitants of the place, deems it a duty devolving upon him to copy extracts from those letters which are inseparably connected with this narrative, and will be read with interest by those who have witnessed the changes and vicissitudes of this little oasis of the desert.
From the correspondence of the Rev. Mr. Winslow ivith the church and people of Houlton, we take the following extracts :
STERLING, May 11, 1819.
Dear Sir :- You being deacon of the little flock of Christ, and as a father among the people of Houlton Plantation, I would address this letter to you, and through you to all those to whom I lately ministered, and for whom I shall ever entertain a firm friendship and affectionate remembrance. I need not recount the kind- ness and attention I received while among you, and from those who accompanied me homeward, which endeared you all to my heart ; nor need I advert to what was still more encouraging, the reception of the word I preached among you-the joining of some to the body of Christ, and, as I trust, a spiritual union of others to him. Suffice it for me to say, that you were the object of my desire, and if it had been, and should appear to be my duty, I would live and die in your service. Nevertheless. there are many reasons which will offer themselves to your consideration ; such as the disadvan-
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tages of education-the want of ministerial aid and in- tercourse, &c., which strengthen my conviction that it is not my duty to accept your offer made. Having de- liberately examined the subject, and consulted judicious friends, who are in the ministry ; moved by strong feel- ings in your interests, I have prayerfully submitted the case to God, for His direction, and find myself at last con- strained to say, however unwelcome it may be to the people of Houlton, that it is my duty to remain where I am. * but that in due time God will send to your relief, one who shall be adapted to the station, and become a father in Christ to the children and youth, and a guide and instructor to all in spiritual and divine things. * *
In 1819, Mr. Joseph Jones, formerly of Falmouth, Me., removed from the Province of New Brunswick to Houlton, with a numerous family, who married and set- tled in Houlton and vicinity. This family were re- markable for their taste and talent for music, both vocal and instrumental, and when together constituted a choir of themselves.
But Death, that insatiate archer, with his quiver of arrows, has laid them low, one by one, until their choir on earth is broken, and several of their places are made vacant.
The inhabitants of Houlton were disappointed when the Rev. Mr. Winslow declined accepting their invita- tion to settle among them as their pastor, as the reader may infer from the foregoing extracts.
During Mr. Winslow's mission, the inhabitants met for worship in a hall, in the dwelling-house of J. Houlton, Esq., which was spacious enough to convene the people of Houlton and our neighbors in the Province who united with us. This was an appropriate time, as it was esteemed to be, for devout praise and thanksgiving, and one long to be cherished among the most pleasing and profitable retrospections of that little flock, who had
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formerly enjoyed the blessings of the preached gospel under the pious instruction of our venerable friend, the Rev. Alpheus Harding, who ever evinced a deep and lively interest, both for the temporal and spiritual wel- fare of this branch of his former church and congrega- tion.
After Mr. Winslow left, agreeable to his request, the inhabitants did not forsake assembling together on the Sabbath, for the social worship of Him who vouchsafes to bestow His spirit in answer to the fervent prayer of his faithful, believing followers; irrespective of place or circumstances, either in the lowly cottage, the retired closet, or the solitary desert. His worshippers are not confined to Jerusalem to pay their homage, nor their devotions alone-
In the gorgeous walls of the cathedral, Beneath the vaulted arch and towering spire, Where the organ's pealing notes in concert swell, To chant the songs of praise with vocal choir.
As there were no records at that time, except the before-mentioned correspondence, we are happy to find the following letter among others preserved as a precious memorial of the past :
NEW SALEM, May 9, 1820.
My Dear Sir :- In behalf of the brethren of the church of Christ, in this town, I have a few things to commu- nicate to the church of Christ in Houlton Plantation : and as you were long a member and officer of this church, and probably the oldest member there, I have thought to make you the organ of communication.
: We heard that the church in Houlton Plantation was destitute of furniture suitable for the communion table : and as we are about to make some addition to the fur- niture we now have, the brethren have thought fit to make a present of a part of the service now belonging to this church. We shall send by the bearer, Mr. Amos
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Putnam, two of the tankards which you used in com- memorating the sufferings and death of our dear Re- deemer, in this place. We give those as a pledge that we are still mindful of you, though far separated from us, and though they are of but little pecuniary value, yet being the vessels we have so often used on that solemn occasion, (and I trust I may add, in the unity of the spirit, and in the bond of peace, mutually loving one another, and desirous of one another's spiritual good,) we trust you will receive them as the strong pledge of our continued love, and as one of the strongest tokens of our earnest desire for your growth in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Those vessels, when you use them, and as often as you see them, will call to your remembrance former days ; and we pray the time may not be far distant, when you may again use them in the solemn service of the Lord, with all that mutual affection which the members of the same body ought to exercise towards one another, and with that sincere love of the brethren which the Apostle tells us, is the strongest of love to God. * *
Brethren and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God is, that you may be blessed in your temporal and spirtual concerns,-that you may live in love and peace, and that the God of love and peace may be with you.
With these sentiments and feelings, I subscribe myself your servant in the Lord,
ALPHEUS HARDING.
The above extract needs no comment, as a true por- traiture of the feelings and desires which were enter- tained and cherished by the Rev. Mr. Harding, and the members of the church in New Salem towards the scat- tered sheep, who were, and had been for years, in the wilderness without a shepherd.
Mr. Amos Putnam, of New Salem, was accompanied by Messrs. Amos and Abraham Pearce, sons of Varney
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