USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892 > Part 110
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The building was duly finished in 1800, and for the next thirty- seven years was used for " town business and the worship of God." It contained fifty. three pews, which Captain Blake sold at auction. Benjamin Eastman paid $77 for No. 1, Reuben Rand and Moses Bas- ford each paid $61 for a seat, and three seats were bid off at $31 each, the lowest price. The sale realized $2,206. A wide, strong gallery was built on three sides, and on special occasions hundreds of people would obtain standing room after all the seats were full. Daniel H. Thing thinks he saw when a boy nearly a thousand people in the house listening to Judah Prescott, a noted woman preacher.
But the time came when the question of repairing the old house or building a new one was decided, as these extracts from the records show: "1836. Met in the old meeting house. Voted, to build a Town House. Voted, to locate the Town House at Dudley Lyford's Corner, which shall be completed on or before the first of March, 1838. Voted, to raise a committee to petition the Legislature for leave to sell the old meeting house."
The last town meeting in the old house was held November 25, 1837, and the first meeting in the new town house was held March 12, 1838.
It was more than twenty-five years after the settlement, and nine years after the incorporation of the town, before its inhabitants, who must have numbered nearly one thousand, got their first post office. It was established July 1, 1801, and was named South Mount Vernon, which shows the locality in which the greatest number of families then lived. The names of postmasters, with dates of appointment, were: Benjamin Philbrick, July 1, 1801; Samuel Thing, August 3, 1803; Stephen Wells, July 25, 1823; Nathan Robinson, September 17, 1823; Samuel Thing, January 31, 1831; John Philbrick, June 25, 1833; Darius Robbins, June 14, 1845; Elijah Farnham, May 20, 1847; and John Stevens, July 20, 1849. This office was discontinued Decem- ber 22, 1851. In February, 1849, the office was called Mount Vernon Village for nine days. The first postmasters kept the office at their houses on " Fat " street, and it is said they could have put a weekly mail in their hats.
The name and date of the next post office indicate the period when that locality became the center of business, and demanded rec- ognition as such. Mount Vernon Village post office was established February 26, 1828. February 8, 1849, the name of the post office was
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changed to Mount Vernon. Its postmasters have been appointed as follows: Dexter Baldwin, February 26, 1828; Joshua Wells, December 19, 1838; William H. Hartwell, December 25, 1840; Upham T. Cram, August 16, 1843; William H. Hartwell, January 26, 1844; Benjamin Gilbraith, May 27, 1845; Waldo A. Blossom, February 9, 1849; Abner Small, September 18, 1850; Daniel M. Teague, July 26, 1855; Rufus M. Mansur, May 28, 1861; Fernando C. Fellows, September 19, 1866; George McGaffey, April 4, 1883; Charles C. Gilman, June 15, 1885; and William E. Carson, September 16, 1889.
The third post office, established June 5, 1830, was named East Mount Vernon. Greenleaf Wing was the first postmaster; and Sam- uel M. Ingalls, appointed November, 1836; Silas B. Wing, February, 1839; and Stephen Gilman, September, 1844, were his successors. The office was discontinued in June, 1845. After an interval of forty- four years it was reestablished in October, 1889, with Fred A. Wing as postmaster.
West Mount Vernon post office was not established till July, 1860, and was named Walton's Mills till January, 1868. Nathaniel Larra- bee was appointed postmaster in July, 1860; Andrew J. Smith, De- cember, 1863; Thomas Scofield, December, 1874; Fred C. Huse, May, 1879; Roswell S. Kent, November, 1880; Orlando Brown, December, 1883; Francis O. Dolloff, September, 1889; and Daniel Kimball in May, 1890.
Mount Vernon Center post office was established March 8, 1852, Hiram S. Bean, postmaster; it was discontinued in June following.
The saw mill built by William Whittier about 1800 was the nu- cleus, first called " Whichers," around which the village of Mount Vernon grew. It is said that he brought the first saw on his back from Gardiner. Perley Morse was the next proprietor, and his suc- cessors have been: William Hartwell, Benjamin Gilbraith, John Wil- liams, Aaron Cogswell, Abial and Charles Walker, Wellington Wood, and Severy, Filbert & Williams. About 125,000 feet of lumber are cut each year and 100,000 shingles.
William Whittier also built the grist mill and Perley Morse was one of the first to run it. Since Mr. Morse, James Maxwell, Benjamin Gilbraith, Aaron Cogswell, Abial Walker, Charles H. Severy, E. M. Tracy, H. L. Thompson and Timothy Currier have had control of the mill, which has three runs of stones, and once did a large business.
Richard Rice built before 1800 a fulling and cloth dressing mill where the brick building stands. He was succeeded by his brother, Nathaniel Rice, whose son, Peabody, in 1829 formed a partnership with James Hanna, from Providence, and together they built the pres- ent brick mill and put in cards and a picker. Subsequent owners have been: John O. Dearborn, Anson P. Morrill, David M. Carson, Gil- braith, Hartwell & Maxfield (the latter firm sold the cards and picker
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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.
and rented power to Newell and George Garpenter, who made pill boxes there), John Williams & Sons (who in 1855 changed it to a wood working factory and manufactured carriages), H. A. Comstock and Wilder Taylor. Charles C. Gilman occupies the brick building and manufactures picker sticks and levers, used in cotton and woolen mills. Mr. Gilman originated this industry, the factories formerly making these articles themselves.
The brick building near the Ladies' Hall was built about 1840, by Calvin Hopkins and Gilbert Taggart for a potato starch factory. Mount Vernon has always been a productive potato town. Mrs. Eben Leighton relates that when she was twelve years old, her father, Ste- phen Carr, and another man would dig seventy bushels of potatoes per day, and that she picked them up easily. The starch factory was next used by Nathan Sanborn for a tannery. For the past eight years John and George Fairbanks have made shingles and have manufac- tured shovel, hoe and broom handles, besides sawing large quantities of white birch for spools, in the old brick building.
At the foot of the pond, as early as 1800, Nathan Philbrick built a grist mill that was not used after 1830. On the same ground Joseph Hopkins built a tannery that he carried on nearly thirty years. Noth- ing more was done there till Alvin Butler, in 1875, built the saw mill which he sold to Charles Fairbanks in 1887. The present dam is sixty years old and is the third one that has been built. Mr. Fairbanks cuts 200,000 feet of lumber and 100,000 shingles annually. This stream has long been known by the name of each of these early build- ers-Philbrick and Hopkins.
The first trader was Samuel Gilman, in a store standing just east of where Captain Davis now lives, on the hill. Doctor Morse bought the building and moved it down on the north side of the street, and kept a store there from 1810 to 1815. It is now the dwelling house of Charles Webber. Jabez S. Thing was a partner with Doctor Morse for awhile. Upham T. Cram began as a trader in 1823 and continued for over twenty years. About 1833 Calvin Hopkins commenced a very prosperous career as a merchant. He was a strong temperance man and never kept any liquor for sale. The innovation was so novel that many said he would fail, but he made money, continuing in trade till 1875. H. S. Robinson and Sewall Eaton went into trade about 1840, followed by Morrell Carson. In 1849 Moses T. Mayhew began trade, and in 1860 he was joined by Albion T. Cram for seven years. In 1867 the firm of Cram & French was established, and seven years later Mr. Cram purchased his partner's interest and is still in busi- ness.
From about 1840 to 1864 Dr. Ira Thing kept a store, adding drugs and medicines. Jabez Thing sold to Marston & Tilton. Rufus M. Mansur built a store in 1856 and kept it till 1862, when B. F. Butler
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TOWN OF MOUNT VERNON.
bought it and was succeeded by his son, H. L. Butler, and he by E. M. Tracy. Ex-Governor A. P. Morrill had a store on the north side of the street, followed by Dearborn & McGaffey. John M. Fifield was for a time in trade in the brick store, and George McGaffey was the last. In 1848 Blake & Leighton traded in U. T. Cram's building and were closed out by the great fire in 1850. About 1856 Frank Richard- son built the store where the post office is and kept a merchant tailor establishment there. F. C. Fellows followed with a tin and kitchen hardware store till W. E. Fellows, in 1888, set up the first boot and shoe store in Mount Vernon. Allen Brothers bought of the Mayhew estate in 1887 the store they now keep, and W. T. Morrill built the store he trades in in 1891.
The village of Mount Vernon barely escaped total destruction by a fire that broke out in the hotel stable of Waldo A. Blossom just be- fore daylight one morning in September, 1850. The hotel, which stood where Butler's store is, Doctor Thing's store and Lothrop's tailor shop were burned on that side of the street. Across the street Doctor Morse's dwelling house and the brick store in which Marston & Tilton were trading; Jabez Thing's dwelling house; Calvin Hop- kins' brick store; Upham T. Cram's building, in which Blake & Leigh- ton were the traders; Captain Small's shoe shop; the old carding ma- chine in which Moses Mayhew kept a store, and two barns on the shore of the pond were all burned. The fire was stopped by pulling down a small tailor shop standing where the post office building, belonging to William Morrell, is. The total loss was estimated at $15,000 and Moses Mayhew was the only man insured.
Benjamin Eastman was an "innholder," according to the town records, in 1796 and 1797, and Stephen Scribner in the two following years. Benjamin Philbrick succeeded them till his death in 1812, when his wife, known as " Aunt Betty," continued the old tavern stand many years. Captain John R. Robinson' kept tavern in 1800, and was succeeded by Franklin Blunt till 1840, where John P. Carson now owns. Nathaniel Philbrick and his son, Jolin, were innholders till 1850. At West Mount Vernon John R. Taylor was the earliest innkeeper; Peleg B. Otis next, and John Veizie till 1855.
The earliest tavern at or near the village was kept by John Whit- tier on the first hill east of the pond, where C. H. Severy lives. Jabez Morse was the first landlord in the village, followed by "Shube " Vance, William Hartwell, Joshua Wells, H. O. Reed and W. A. Blos- som. Daniel M. Teague, George H. Wills, Oliver Stevens, Loren F. Dolloff, David M. Bent, Charles Record, A. H. Wilson, Ora M. Sibley, John Fairbanks, Moses T. Bean and Eben Leighton comprise most of the landlords since the fire of 1850.
John Williams, and following him his sons. Charles and Cyrus, were the first wagon and carriage makers in the village. William
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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.
M. Tyler was the next, and at the same time Edwin V. Carr, whose shop stood where it now does-a half mile north, on the Vienna road. From a small beginning, Mr. Carr has developed a manufactory that turns out from twelve to fifteen carriages a month-the largest in Kennebec county.
The harness makers in the village have been: Carlton & Carr, Benjamin Wells, Charles Morse, A. H. Wilson, and for the last ten years Jacob A. Rundlette. Josiah Pearl was a cooper in the village, Oliver Trask had a shop on the Augusta road, and James and Sewell Dolloff had shops on the Belgrade road.
John Douglas and Josiah Ladd were early blacksmiths. Ethel Buzzell, Isaiah McClinch, Captain Samuel Davis, Benjamin Leighton and Harvey Boles were blacksmiths in the village before 1850. Har- din Morse, -- Perry, John Coffrin, Charles Gilman, Hiram Comstock, Fred Allen and George H. Poole have been the later smiths. Joseph Buzzell made felt hats in early times, that were widely known and worn.
Brick have been made by Benjamin Dudley at Dunn's Corner, by Daniel and Steven Wiggins at the foot of the pond for most of the brick buildings in the village, also in places northeast of the village. Samuel Davis made brick in the south part of the town, and John R. Rundlette had a kiln on his farm. The brick for Nathaniel T. Rob- inson's house were made from a clay bed close by. Abram and Samuel Smith made brick where Walton stream enters the pond.
Dr. Elijah Morse built a potash near where the Methodist Episco- pal church stands, that Jabez Thing carried on, and near it, on the bank of the pond, stood another run by Upham T. Cram. John R. Taylor had an ashery at West Mount Vernon in 1820. Benjamin B. Dudley made brick east of Dunn's Corner before 1840.
For its largest public building Mount Vernon is indebted to its women. In 1880 they organized a sewing circle that in 1883 was chartered as the Ladies' Hall Club, " for the purpose of building and owning a building in which shall be a hall for private and public pur- poses." The very next year they erected the large and commodious building known far and near as the Ladies' Hall. It cost $2,000 and was paid for by the profits on fairs, sociables, home talent theatricals, and many other schemes that the fertile brains and tireless hands of resolute women never fail to devise and execute. Louise D. Mayhew was the first president, and her successors have been: Laura McGaffey, Etta Smith, Hattie E. Hall, Mrs. Lucretia Smith, Hattie Mayhew, Nel- lie Butler and Mrs. Laura Fellows.
SOCIETIES .- Mount Vernon Grange, No. 211, was organized in 1875 with thirty eight members. This branch of the Patrons of Husbandry was very prosperous, and soon numbered one hundred members. A Grange store was established in 1877, and was discontinued after two
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TOWN OF MOUNT VERNON.
years of unsatisfactory results. Eben Leighton was the first store- keeper, and E. M. Tracy was the second and last. Daniel H. Thing was the first master, and is the present secretary. Harrison W. Web- ber was the first secretary, and Augustus Thomas is the present master. The regular meetings of its thirty-five members are held monthly in the Ladies' Hall.
Vernon Valley Lodge, No. 99, F. & A. M .. was chartered May 3, 1860. Moses S. Mayhew was the first master, and his successors have been: J. J. Wood, Charles B. Williams, Samuel Davis, Dr. Silas Bur- bank, Daniel H. Thing, Thomas Robinson, Augustus F. Smart, Henry Graves, Oman F. French, George McGaffey, Everet J. Lowell, Fer- nando C. Fellows and W. T. Morrill. The present secretary, Doctor Burbank, has filled that office for twenty years. The Lodge built their hall in 1866, at a cost of $1,500, in which they hold monthly meetings, with a membership of one hundred.
The Ancient Order of United Workmen is represented in Mount Vernon by Lodge No. 31, which was instituted April 27, 1885, with eleven charter members. Ozro A. Weston was chosen the first master workman, followed by: Charles V. Wells, Charles Dolloff, N. Cora Leighton, Noah G. Sanborn and W. H. H. Williams. A. P. Cram has been recorder from the first.
ECCLESIASTICAL .-- On Thursday, the eighth day of August, 1799, at the house of William Whittier, the following persons were embodied into the First Particular Baptist church in the town of Mount Vernon: John Hovey, Samuel Thing, Nathan Thomas, Joshua Stevens, William Whittier, Jolin Whittier, Samuel Quimby, Jacob Jewell, Levi Jewell, Hannah Thing, Anna Hovey, Dorcas Stevens, Rhoda Hutchings, Elizabeth Thomas, Polly Colbeth, Polly Baker and Ruth Gilman.
John Hovey was the first clerk and Samuel Thing was the first deacon. Elders Eliphalet Smith and Isaac Case were the earliest preachers; Henry Kendall was the next and Peter Moore was pastor from 1807 to 1815, when he was dismissed for doubting the divinity of Christ. Arthur Drinkwater followed in 1816, and was a great favorite, preaching at intervals till after 1840. Reverends William Johnson, Caleb Clarke, William Bradbury and Walter T. Sargent served the church between 1821 and 1845. This society worshiped in the old meeting house erected by the town just south of Moose pond, in 1800, and in school houses till 1826, when Esquire James Robinson gave a plot of land near the Robinson burying ground, on which was built the First Particular Baptist meeting house in Mount Vernon. Elijah Morse, Dudley Robinson and Daniel Thing were the building com- mittee. Here the Baptist society had a house for over half a century, the last sermon being preached by Elder C. E. Young, in July, 1879.
The present Baptist church was built in 1849, by Methodists, Uni- versalists and Freewill and Calvinistic Baptists, as a union meeting
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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.
house. In 1886 the Calvinistic Baptists obtained control of the house, and the improvements made since that time amount to over $3,000. Since 1843 John Billings, Simpson Powers, W. H. Clark, Charles E. Young, Joel R. Herrick and Henry M. Heyward have been the min- isters of this church. The number of members is ninety-eight.
Methodism was planted in the soil of Mount Vernon by its great apostle, Jesse Lee, who preached the initial sermon October 18, 1793, probably in the Philbrick school house, near Moose pond. The preacher spent the night with Stephen Scribner. There is no record of Methodist meetings again till Eaton Shaw, from Kents Hill, and C. H. Lovejoy, from Readfield, assisted by several seminary students, came in 1836 and held meetings in the Baptist church and in the Philbrick school house.
A Methodist class was formed consisting in part of: John S. Phil- brick, leader, and Susan, his wife; Franklin and Nancy Blunt, and their daughter, Charlotte N .; Joshua and Mary Wells; Benjamin S. Philbrick and his sister, Hannah G .; Rufus and Hannah Rundlette, and Olive H. C., their daughter; Olive Wells; John and Mary Neal; Mary Williams; Polly Carson and her children, Samuel G. and Sally.
Only occasional Methodist sermons were heard in town for the next ten years, some of them by Charles Atkens, a local preacher and a pioneer settler. In 1847, mainly through the efforts of James F. Blunt, a two days' meeting was held by Reverends John Allen and George Webber, in the school house at Thing's Corner, from the im- petus of which Mount Vernon, in 1848, was connected with Kents Hill, under the pastoral charge of R. H. Stinchfield.
The Union chapel was built at the village in 1849, the Methodists taking the lead. In 1881 the Methodists thought best to build a house of their own. A site was donated by Harrison W. Webber, on which the present attractive church was dedicated February 25, 1885. The society is in a prosperous condition, with a church membership of eighty.
The preachers sent by conference to Mount Vernon have been as follows: Rufus H. Stinchfield, 1848; Samuel Ambrose, 1850; and Joseph Hawkes, 1851. For the next seven years no regular appoint- ments were made, but the occasional preachers were: Andrew D. Goodwin, H. M. Eaton, John McInnis and John Cumner. In 1858 True Whittier was appointed, and James W. Hathaway, Joseph L. Morse and James Armstrong were supply preachers till J. R. Master- man was appointed in 1872. He was succeeded by J. Wesley Smith in 1874; William F. Marshall, 1876; Oliver S. Pillsbury, 1878; H. B. Wardwell, 1880; O. H. Stevens, 1882; Melvin E. King, 1885; Asbury C. Trafton, 1887; Hezekiah Chase, 1889; and Elbridge Gerry, 1892. In 1891 William H. Foster and David Church were supplies.
There was a Freewill Baptist church organized in the school house
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TOWN OF MOUNT VERNON.
at Dunn's Corner in 1828. Thomas, John, Henry, David, Benjamin and Anna Dudley, Ephraim Hunt, Isaac and Sarah Porter, Dudley and Nancy Fogg, Samuel Stain, David and Betsey Basford, Simeon and Mary Ladd, William Elliott, Peter and Elvira Dunn, John Brown, John B. Swanton, Samuel Eldridge, Henry Clough, John and Betsey Wright, Sally Fogg, Sarah Jacobs, Eunice Stevens, Nancy Folsom and Sarah Porter were the original members.
Elders Thomas Dudley, Samuel Hedge, Hubbard Chandler, James Young, Scales and Samuel and Elias Hutchins were preachers before 1846. During that year Elder Buzzell preached in the neigh- borhood and made a small division in the church. Elders Edgecomb, Ely, E. G. Page, S. P. Morrell, B. Sylvester, E. N. Berry, --- Royce, A. C. Brown, Seth Perkins, George M. Park, Miss Haines, Elder Lewis and Elder Bates have preached since 1846. The church was built in 1845. The present membership is sixty.
A Christian Church, often called the Christian Band, was organized in the Bean school house March 24, 1818, with over fifty members. A few representative names signed to a statement of their principles and proposed methods were: David McGaffey, David and Simeon Leighton, John, Benjamin and Andrew Brown, Neal Bean, Caleb Cressey, Timothy .Leighton and Dr. Samuel Quimby, and the wife of each. Peter Mooers, Josiah and Jonathan Bradley, Levi and Increase Eldridge, W. M. Ingham, B. P. Reed, Jedediah B. Prescott, Vinal Thompson, Jacob Tebbetts and Wilson P. Jackson were the ministers who preached to this society at stated periods in the Bean school house for the next twenty-seven years.
This church was united and prosperous till 1845, when a few people, among whom were Levi Fletcher, Samuel S. Robinson and James Dolloff and their wives, organized a Freewill Baptist society in the same locality, and demanded the use of the Bean school house a share of the time. The Christian society could not endure the in- terruption of their regular services of so many years' standing, which resulted in the discontinuance of all religious meetings and the dis- ruption of both churches. Reverend Joseph Edgecomb was the Free- will Baptist preacher.
CEMETERIES .- One of the singular and unaccountable practices of the early inhabitants was that of establishing so many private burial places. Every neighborhood had one or more, and a score of fami- lies buried on their own land-often with nothing but a mound of earth to mark the spot. The result is that many a pioneer sleeps be- neath the passing plow and the growing grain. The number of still visible graveyards is over forty. Of these the town owns but one, known as the " Potash " ground, at Dunn's Corner. It was bought from the Gilman Dudley farm about seventy years ago. A private
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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.
ground adjoins it, taken from Ober O. Lane's land, and near by is one taken from Peter Dunn's land.
The names of those interred in each yard would be a valuable record, but space forbids-the localities can only be designated. There are graves on lands belonging to C. B. Williams, A. P. Cram, Doctor Shaw and to Captain Samuel Davis, in Mount Vernon village. The yards are known as Philbrick, Robinson, Captain Stevens, Hanna, or Butler yard, Larrabee, Taylor's Mills, Dolloff, Tilton, Blunt, Mars- ton, Webber, Joseph Hopkins, Wells cemetery, Wells (two yards), Greely, Locke's Corner, Bean, Currier's Hill, George Fairbanks, Quim- by, H. A. Ladd, F. B. Dolloff, E. C. Carson, Charles Robinson, Moses Philbrick, J. H. Stain, Benjamin Dudley, Stephen Cram, Noah Clough, and Hovey; and on D. H. Thing's land Captain Joseph Philbrick is buried.
VILLAGES .- The first use of the water power at West Mount Ver- non was made by Paul Blake and Phineas Taylor, who built a dam and a saw mill. Mr. Taylor put up a building with a turning shop in the upper part and a tannery in the basement, and his son, Orren Taylor, ran it. The saw mill was afterward owned by Doctor Quimby, Jerry Dunn and Reuben A. Huse. The latter tore down the old mill and built the shop that Curtis and Amzie Butler bought in 1880, and in which they now manufacture shingles, barrels, cooper ware, tool handles and excelsior. On the same dam Ithuel Packard had a black- smith shop in which was a trip-hammer. In 1840 Amos D. King built, and ran for years, a carding and fulling mill on the same ground. Moses Sanborn bought it and carded wool, but did no more cloth dressing.
The old stone grist mill, known so long as Taylor's mill, belonged to Doctor Quimby in early times, and it is supposed he built it. John Batchelder, in 1837, was the last man who ground grain in it. From 1850 to 1860 Charles Marston made shovel handles and barrel shooks there, and R. A. Huse tore it down when he built the Butler mill.
On the next dam above, Samuel S. Smith, in 1855, built a grist mill, which he sold to his brother, Abram Smith, who ran it ten years. Isaac Bean had it a year and then, in 1888, Mr. Smith sold it to the present owner, Thomas U. French, who is making shingles there at the rate of a half million a year. The stones for grinding are still in place, and may be used again. On the same dam was a pioneer grist mill that burned, and was replaced by another that was also burned. Doctor Quimby owned the first, and may have built it.
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