Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 106

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790

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Lewis Flanders, who had been an owner and operator, closed out his interest in 1839, and was succeeded the same year by Josiah Per- ham, who had bought an interest in the property, of Dudley Fogg. In addition to making woolen goods, Perliam fitted up a shop, where he made machinery to manufacture woolen goods. He was from Wilton, where he owned another factory, and after making the ma- chines necessary for the mills here, he made another set for the Wil- ton mills, which was just ready for shipment when the fire of 1841 consumed the buildings here with their contents.

Flanders & Sherburn rebuilt the mills in 1842 and rented them to Wetherbee & Metcalf, who were the first manufacturers here of cloth for the general market. Perham made cloth for the home market only. They operated two yearsfand were succeeded by Flanders & Sherburn, who did the same line of work till about 1848, when they sold the entire plant to Anson P. Morrell. From this time the con- cern became known as the Readfield Woolen Manufacturing Com- pany. The new proprietor was just the man for the place. He put wagons on the road, and sold a class of goods to the merchants that the wants of the country and village trade demanded, giving the Readfield cloths a great and widespread reputation.

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TOWN OF READFIELD.

Dearborn & Mills bought the works about 1870, and continued the same style of business for several years, when the firm changed to Mills & Hartwell. A stock company in which they were large owners was formed in 1880, put in steam power, and operated four years as the Readfield Woolen Manufacturing Company. In 1884 the plant was sold to Cowan & Co., who made yarn for about a year, but made no cloth. The concern was organized on a stock basis, and was desig- nated the Nawoc Woolen Company. A moderate business was done the first year, and then ceased entirely, the property since remaining idle and unproductive.

Joseph Fogg built, just below the grist mill, a fourth dam, for the benefit of his tannery, about 1815, which business he prosecuted till the fire of 1841. Abram Bachelder bought the site and ran the tan- nery till about 1862, then sold it to Charles P. Greeley, who tanned sheep skins till the close of the war, when Mr. Bachelder became his partner, and Bachelder & Greeley added a large building to the works, and did an extensive business in tanning sheep skins. They sold about 1872, to John Bickford, who continued the same line of work till 1877, when he was burned out.

A most important industry had its beginning in the shop of James Williams, a skillful blacksmith of Readfield. His skill as a worker in steel, and a maker of springs for buggies and carriages had long been known, and he conceived the idea of making them for the trade. The first springs were produced entirely by hand labor in his little shop at the Corner. Their merits were recognized by a demand that caused Mr. Williams to put a trip-hammer in a shop on Factory dam, where the orders for his goods became larger than the capacity of his water power. Hebron Wentworth, a son-in-law and partner of Mr. Williams, moved the works to Gardiner, where they have long been known as the Wentworth Spring Manufactory. This was the first steel spring factory in Maine-a business that has since grown to immense propor- tions.

About 1834 James Williams built a brick shop on Factory dam, put in a trip-hammer, and made scythes for about three years. He failed to get the temper right, and had to give it up. The building was torn down. Sash, doors and blinds were made, and some cabinet work was done for six years by James Nichols, in a shop built by him in 1867 near the grist mill, on the lower dam. In 1854 land plaster was ground in one of the woolen factory mills, for agricultural uses, from stone brought from Nova Scotia.

The brick for the Union church, which was built in 1827, were made by Francis Hunt on his land on the Winthrop road, and were the first made in town so far as known. The brick for Sampson Hall, which was built in 1859, were made south of the saw mill, about forty

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

rods from the upper dam. There was an old brick yard on land near the stream owned by Shepard Bean, where he made brick as early as 1835. Josiah Fogg owns the land and made brick there in 1840-41. Just east of the school house was also another brick kiln run by Samuel Currier. The brick for the school house, which was built in 1860, were made in the old Francis Hunt yard on the Winthrop road, by Upham T. Cram.

HOTELS .- The house where Mrs. Lord lives was kept many years ago as a hotel by Peter Kittridge, and after him by Cromwell Pitts. Timothy Fogg kept tavern where Mrs. Manter lives. Mr. Gaslin, Mr. Webster, Ben Barden, John Masher and Reuben Russell were successive landlords in years gone by on the hill where Mr. Russell now lives, a half mile north of the Corner. Dudley & Hutchinson were the landlords away back in the thirties, in the hotel between the Corner and the Depot. Joseph J. Hutchinson bought his partner's interest and kept the house from 1840 to 1881, when it was burned. The present village hotel on the Corner was built by John O. Craig, who made repairs and built stables in 1836. Mr. Linscott, Mr. Calden, G. M. Fillebrown, Mr. Mace and George Wing have kept it.

STORES .- The first store at Factory village was built by Dana B. Fogg near the dam, about 1870. Fogg & Stevens traded in it eight years, then Fogg & Brown in 1880, Stevens & Brown, 1881, and Fred I. Brown till 1890, when he built and moved into the store he now ·owns and occupies.

Anson P. Morrell built a store on the dam, which he carried on in connection with his cloth factory some years and sold to Dearborn, Morrell & Smith. Mr. Smith was a tailor and the new firm manufac- tured clothing for awhile. A. P. Morrell bought the concern and closed the business. J. P. Johnson then rented the building and kept a store in it for eleven years. Captain Phineas Morrell bought the stock and his son, Anson, kept it two or three years. In 1886 J. P. Johnson opened another store near the factory, which he kept for three years.

Some of the early store-keepers at the corner were: Thomas Smith; John Smith, who had a store where Merriman's store stands; James Fillebrown, where Hatch is; Louis Haines, who was burned out in 1832, where McDonald is; Lory Bacon; John Currier, 1832; Jere Page, 1832; John Fisk, 1836; John Lambert, 1835; J. P. Johnson, 1857; U. T. Cram, 1856; and Lewis Davis, who built the store Wilson uses for a harness shop, and traded there till 1862. In 1865 Dr. W. O. Wright succeeded Lambert & Packard, who opened the first drug store in the village. John Smith opened a store in 1840, and was succeeded by his son John, who was burned out in 1856. Daniel Lombard, in the house now occupied by G. W. Manter as a dwelling, kept a store as late as 1832.

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TOWN OF READFIELD.

Lory Bacon, the first postmaster at Kents Hill, was also the first merchant, Dudley Moody the next, and David Wheelock the third. Later merchants have been: Gustavus Clark, Clark & Packard, J. W. Manter, Mrs. Samuel McNear and Noah Jewett.

The first store at Readfield Depot belonged to a Mr. Butler, who moved it across the road from where the post office now is; Daniel Craig traded in it and was succeeded by his son, D. W. Craig. Sam- uel Cole was the next merchant and G. C. Caswell, in 1880, the last. B. F. Melvin had a store on the west side of the road in 1850. About 1870 Oliver Parsons built the stone house now standing near the rail- road and did business in it. Since then the successive traders have been: H. H. Harding, Parsons & Morrell, Samuel H. Morrell, Morrell - & Gordon and Gordon & Henry. John Parsons, of Augusta, built a store just south of the stone house, and sold dry goods exclusively for two years, until it was destroyed by fire about 1870.

On the brook running through the farm now owned by Lewis B. Hunton, a saw mill was built by Jere Page before 1820. He did a good work with it for fifteen years and sold the farm and mill to Francis Hunt, who in 1848 sold it to the present owner. After four years' use Mr. Hunton rebuilt the mill and sold it in 1854 to David Bowker. Samuel Wade was the next purchaser, and after about three years it was burned. On the same brook John Lane, about 1810, built a mill for grinding flax seed and making linseed oil. The business was abandoned before 1840 and the building moved away for a stable.

On the small streanı, one and a half miles long, at East Readfield, a grist mill was built by one Carlton as early as 1800. At his death in 1814 his son, Henry, became its proprietor. In the same building was a cider mill operated by water power, and Nova Scotia stone was brought there as late as 1820 to 1825 and ground into plaster, which found ready sale among the farmers of that day. The old mill site is now owned by David F. Austin. Near the same brook Mr. Johnson built a tannery about 1812, which he ran till his death in 1817, when Peter Sanborn became the owner and did a large business till his death in 1824. Mr. Sanborn, who came from New Hampshire, was possessed of business talent and great activity of mind and body. Upon arriving at a suitable age his sons, Peter F. and Joseph A., in 1834 engaged in the tanning business, ground their bark by water, and for thirty years made leather that was widely known for its su- perior qualities. After them a Mr. Horcroft ran the tannery a couple of years, when he died and had no successor.

About fifty rods from the old grist mill the oilcloth works that be- came the high water mark of Readfield prosperity were built in 1845, by P. F. and J. A. Sanborn, E. S. Case, Abijah Upham and Samuel Jackson. Steam power and all the necessary appliances for the manu- facture of floor cloths were put in operation by the new company,

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

which did business for three years, when the Sanborns bought their partners' interests and two years later built two more buildings, with general improvements. In 1865 Peter F. Sanborn sold to his brother, Joseph A., who was sole owner of the works till 1870, when he sold the entire plant to Charles M. Bailey. In 1877 the largest of the three buildings was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Bailey at once removed the machinery and took down the remaining two buildings, each one hundred feet long. This terminated an industry that employed fifty people for a period of thirty years, compelling them to seek new em- ployment or remove to new localities, and extinguished the bright prospects of a thriving hamlet.

A store was built by Mr. Carlton at East Readfield, in which his son, Cyrus, was trading as early as 1816. George Gage was there in 1822 and 1823 and Jonathan Atwood for the next twelve years. Then it was changed into a dwelling. P. F. & J. A. Sanborn kept a store for several years when they were making oilcloth.

Mr. Carlton also built a large house and kept tavern. His son-in- law, Silas Leonard, succeeded him for two years, after which Abijah Upham bought the property and kept a public house till 1845. No hotel has been kept there since.

Near the oilcloth works at East Readfield Dr. John Hubbard, father of Governor John Hubbard, had an ashery, abandoned before 1815. E. S. Case made potash at East Readfield and used the leached ashes on his farm as late as 1868. Colonel Oliver Bean made potash as late as 1850, on his farm, now owned by E. Morgan, using the refuse ashes on his land as a fertilizer.

CHURCHES .- The large brick meeting house at Readfield Corner was probably built in 1827. An extract from the first page of its records reads: "The undersigned, owners and proprietors of the Meeting house recently erected at Readfield Corners, hereby repre- sent that they are desirous of becoming a legal corporation by the name and style of the Readfield Union Meeting House Company." The petition, dated June 12, 1828, was addressed to William Fuller, a justice of the peace, asking him to call a legal meeting at the school house of district No. 5, to be held July 4, 1828.

On August 23d the incorporation was consummated and a constitu- tion was adopted, article third reading as follows: "Each religious sect or denomination, individuals of which are members of this corporation, shall forever have the right to supply the pulpit in said house with preaching such portion of the year as shall be equal to the portion owned in said house from year to year." Each owner held a deed of one or more pews "with an undisputed right to occupy the same during all public and private meetings held in the same by any religious sect or denomination whatever." Article eleven provided: " No tax shall ever be assessed on the pews in said house for the support of preaching in the same."

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TOWN OF READFIELD.

These provisions show the fairness and wisdom of the founders and organizers of this most difficult of all co-partnerships-a union meeting house property. Regular business meetings have been held, full lists of officers elected, and the equal rights of all members of the company have been carefully maintained. In 1868 over $8,000 was raised and expended in needed alterations and repairs on the meeting house. About the same time Mrs. Asa Gile gave the society, for a vestry, the old Smith mansion, which was moved to its present loca- tion on the Union meeting house grounds and fitted up by the Uni- versalist and Methodist societies.

After a petition and warrant upon which a public meeting was duly called and held in the school house in district No. 5, September 27, 1823, the First Universalist Society of Readfield was incorporated. By the records it appears that annual meetings were held, and on March 17, 1828, it was voted " to instruct Captain Oliver Bean to engage Rev. George Bates to preach half the time for six months, and a fourth of the time the next six months on condition that he will attend for $6.00 a Sabbath."

The regular business meetings of the society continued to be held at the school house in District No. 5, until April 20, 1839, on which date a meeting was held in the Union meeting house, the last entry in the records of which reads: " I have returned into the clerk's office of the town of Readfield a list of the members belonging to said society, being one hundred and twenty. L. Myrick Morrell, Clerk." All of the names are copied in the records, and no women's names appear in the list.

The organization of this society has been carefully preserved from that time to the present, and religious services have been maintained in the Union meeting house. Rev. George Bates, the first pastor, was employed at different times after his first engagement. The follow- ing list of his successors may not be in regular order of service, but is as full and exact as has been obtainable: Reverends W. A. Drew, Calvin Gardner, Zenas Thompson, O. N. Johnson, George W. Quinby, S. O. Skinner, A. Gunnison, John C. Hinds, Giles Bailey, Costello Weston, 1870; A. Basserman, 1877; W. S. Whitman and F. T. Crane.

The history of Methodism in Readfield begins with its first intro- duction in Maine. The New England conference of August 1, 1793, made but six appointments -- the last one reading: " Province of Maine and Lynn, Jesse Lee." The province of Maine at that time meant from fifteen to twenty thousand square miles of dense forest, dotted with settlements connected by roads marked by spotted trees, and in- habited by 97,000 souls, with not a single member of the Methodist church among them. The bare attempt to make a mental picture of this field is enough to stir the dullest imagination, and to surfeit the wildest. Lee was born and raised in Virginia, was over six feet tall,

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

of fine proportions, handsome, and possessed of the ready, eloquent speech, wit and fine manners for which Virginians had so long been noted. With perfect health and the most ardent religious zeal, he set foot on the unexplored territory on the sixth day of September, and preached at Saco, on the tenth, his first sermon in Maine. Passing from settlement to settlement, he reached Readfield on the nineteenth and preached the first Methodist sermon ever heard in this town.

Before the month was out he had formed the first circuit, and mak- ing a journey of exploration with daily preaching, he returned and met the class in this town, Sunday, November 16th-the second class in the province, the first being in Monmouth. December 12, 1794, he preached again in Readfield. But the most memorable event occurred the next year, June 21, 1795, when he came and preached the dedi- catory sermon of the Readfield meeting house-the first Methodist church dedicated in Maine. In it the first session of the New Eng- land Conference was held in 1798. Bishop Francis Asbury, who pre- sided, made this entry in his diary: "Saturday, August 25, we had to beat through the woods between Winthrop and Readfield, which are as bad as the Alleghany mountains and the shades of death." " From one thousand to eighteen hundred," says Asbury, "attended public preaching and ordination."

After thirty years of constant use the building became worn and needed repairs. The society thought best to move it about thirty rods to the south, and so made an old fashioned " bee." Long timbers were put under it, to which fifty yoke of cattle were hitched, and with a pull all together the strong, patient oxen took Jesse Lee's first church to its present location. The house was repaired at once, and re-dedi- cated the same year, 1825. In 1857 it was again remodeled and en- larged, a steeple and bell being added.

The old church has of late years been feeble in membership and has not been able to sustain preaching all the time. The following have served one or more years since 1860: Leroy T. Carlton, Charles Jenness, W. F. Berry, E. R. French. J. W. V. Rich and Professors Frank Robinson, Chase and Edgar M. Smith, of Kents Hill.

The pastors of Readfield circuit from 1794 until its division in 1827 are mentioned on page 778 of this volume. Some of the appointments at Readfield since the latter date have been: P. Crandall, 1828; G. G. Moore, 1829; Caleb Fogg, 1829; D. Hutchinson, 1831, '34; D. Cope- land, J. Warren and C. Baker, 1830; D. Greeley, 1833; D. Fuller, 1834; C. H. Lovejoy, 1835, '36; H. Nickerson, 1835, '38, '43, '60, '63; J. S. Rice, 1837; E. Streeter, 1839, '42; A. Alton, 1840; J. Milliken, 1841, '43, '44; S. Ambrose, 1845; S. P. French and J. Lull, 1846; T. Hill, 1849; J. Cumner, 1851; D. B. Randall, 1852, '55; R. J. Ayer, 1853; C. Mugford, 1854: W. H. Foster, 1855; J. Young, 1856, '59; H. M. Blake, 1860, '61; J. Gibson, 1861, '62; A. Sanderson, 1864, '66; J. W. Simpson, 1868; J. R. Masterson, 1870, '71; J. Colby, 1871, '74.

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TOWN OF READFIELD.

The formation of the first Methodist class at Kents Hill preceded the church, which was built by Luther Sampson in 1800, and dedi- cated the same year by Jesse Lee. Under the preaching of Joseph Baker, in 1804, there was a good growth in membership. Kents Hill was then part of Readfield circuit and so remained till 1835, when a new house of worship was built, and in connection with Readfield Corner it was made a separate charge. About 1831 Luther Sampson purchased a lot and built and furnished a double house for the preacher in charge and for the presiding elder. This house was used for a parsonage until 1881, when under the pastorate of L. H. Bean it was sold and a better one purchased. Under the pastorate of S. Allen in 1865, the church was enlarged at an expense of $1,800.

The Methodists at Readfield Corner for many years worshipped in the Union meeting house, where they still own several pews, but about 1875 they gained in numbers and built a neat chapel in which the preacher in charge at Kents Hill holds services each Sunday.

Some of the appointments at Kents Hill have been: P. C. Rich- mond, 1831; E. Crooker, 1835; E. Shaw, 1836; E. Robinson, 1839, '68, '71, '77; C. W. Morse, 1841; Cornelius Stone, 1845; R. H. Stinchfield, 1848; G. Webber, 1847, '51, '58; J. C. Prince, 1852, '53; J. Mitchell, 1857; A. J. Church, 1859; R. C. Bailey, 1865; J. F. Hutchins, 1872; C. C. Mason, 1875, '77; C. Munger, 1878; L. H. Bean, 1881; J. Lapham, 1882; Cyrus Stone, 1885; C. F. Allen, 1888; and D. B. Holt, the present pastor, in 1891.

The very year that Readfield became a township, 1791, Parson Potter, the zealous propagandist of the Baptist faith, began preaching in East Readfield and East Winthrop. The next spring Rev. Isaac Case spent some weeks of labor here, and a few months later returned and, meeting in a barn, organized a church with twenty members, of which he became pastor. During the fall of the same year he preached in a neighborhood adjoining Augusta, where a revival added thirty- five more members to the new church. In 1793 this vigorous young society built the first Baptist church in this part of the state at East Readfield.

Elder Case soon after resigned his pastorate here and gave his whole time to missionary work. The church had no regular preach- ing for several years. Elder Pillsbury came in 1804, and sixty were added to the church during his stay of one year. After two years without a pastor, Rev. Robert Lee was elected to that office in 1807, and remained eight years. Rev. Josiah Houghton succeeded for seven years, and in 1824 Orren Tracy, a student from Waterville College, preached with such power that seventy-seven new members were bap- tized-more than making good the loss of members who left and joined the East Winthrop church, which was formed the same year.

After that time the church had for its pastors: Reverends Joseph

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Torry, 1826; Robert Low, 1832; William Johnson, 1834, and William Smith, 1837 to 1841. In order to locate the meeting house more nearly in the geographical center of the society, it was moved in 1838 and is now in the town of Manchester, where its subsequent history is given. It would be difficult to find a church as prolific in forming new churches as this. Baptist organizations at Mt. Vernon, Belgrade, Hallowell and Winthrop were all inaugurated by members who left the old mother church at East Readfield. James Murphy, Samuel Fogg, Thomas Goldthwait, E. J. White and William Cross, who became Baptist min- isters, were previously of its members.

The Freewill Baptist Church, composed of thirty-seven members, was organized May 7, 1839. The church building was erected and dedicated in 1844. This church had three preachers: B. Hedge, Joseph Edgcom and S. P. Morse. The society became very much reduced, no services were held for a series of years, and the town bought the building for its public business.

Ever since its establishment at Kents Hill, the Maine Wesleyan Seminary has been a strong factor in the moral, intellectual and social development of the town of Readfield. It is an institution in which the community takes a just pride, and its progress from its early days of struggle to its present era of prosperity and wide-spreading in- fluence, has been a subject of engrossing attention to all who have lived within the atmosphere of the school. A brief mention of the seminary as one of the institutions in the county, has been made at page 101; but at this point it is befitting that a more extended review of its history should be given.

The movement which resulted in the incorporation of the seminary, in December, 1824, was due to the efforts, at first unconsciously di- vided, of two men-Elihu Robinson, a Methodist class leader of Augusta, and Luther Sampson, a farmer of Kents Hill. In 1820 the former established a boarding school at his own home in Augusta, and in 1821 the latter was one of five incorporators of the Readfield Re- ligious and Charitable Society, to which he donated the sum of $10,- 000. In 1823 it was specified that part of this gift should be appro- priated to the purposes of a school at Kents Hill; and in 1824, at the urgent solicitation of Mr. Sampson, Mr. Robinson removed his school thither, into a boarding house that had been erected, and assumed the general management of the institution.

A seminary building was soon put up "in a plain and economical style," and, as the institution was opened as a manual labor school, mechanic shops were built, and the students allowed to pay most of their expenses in labor in them, or on the farm attached to the school. Though a large attendance resulted from this feature, it brought financial ruin to the enterprise, the productions of unskilled labor

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TOWN OF READFIELD.

being necessarily unremunerative; and after a trial of about twelve years the system was abandoned.

In the early part of 1825 Mr. Asa H. Thompson, of Industry, was chosen principal of the school. He died, however, before entering upon the duties of his office, and Rev. Henry Cushman filled the posi- tion for a few months. In September, 1825, Rev. Zenas Caldwell, the first Methodist from Maine who had graduated from a college (Bow- doin), was elected principal. Under his direction the school attained a high degree of success, but failing health caused him to resign in the fall of 1826, and in December of the same year he died, at the age of twenty-six.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 106

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York, Blake Number of Pages: 1790

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790