Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 121

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

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892 > Part 121

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

David Buxton, as agent for the Southwicks, of Vassalboro, built, soon after 1800, on the north bank of Hastings brook and the west side of the river road, a tannery, which was enlarged in 1836 by Hiram Pishon. Henry Cutler bought the property in 1844, and it went down on his hands. The last tanning done there was about 1870.

A half mile above the river road, on the same stream, Alexander and Joseph Smiley owned a saw mill, on land now belonging to Sum- ner Clark. When this mill was worn out they built another about one hundred rods below, that was used till 1868. On the same dam Daniel Ormsby built a carding and cloth dressing mill, which he sold to Jer- emiah Robinson, and he to William Macartney. It was not operated after 1850.

Boots and shoes were made in considerable quantities between 1840 and 1860 in the old tannery, by Dunham & Estes, and later by Abner Piper. At that time nine dwelling houses were filled with op-

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eratives of the different industries, not one of which remains. The school district had then 112 children of school age; it now has ten.

The first store on the river road was built here by E. Darwin How- ard and a Mr. Sawyer, who filled it with a large stock of goods. They failed, and were succeeded by Stephen Chase about 1830. Samuel Cutler, who traded there in war times, was the last. The building was afterward used in the tanning business, and is now one of Gorham K. Hastings' stables.

Captain James Sherman bought, in 1844, the corner that has long borne his name, and about 1850 built thereon a store, in which Bar- nard Marble traded till 1856. For the next thirty years the captain himself sold goods there. Since 1886 William P. Marble, the present trader, has owned the premises. Bethuel Perry kept a store, before 1840, where A. S. Davenport's house is. Stephen Springer had a store on land now owned by his sons, and Jerry Morrell traded near him, north of the cross road. Both of these had ceased doing business fifty years ago. A. S. Davenport built the store now run by E. R. Libby, in 1888.

It is a well-known fact that rum was an important and profitable article sold in the old-time country stores. A store bill made in 1798 and still preserved in Sidney illustrates this fact. The purchaser was a prominent Methodist, who entertained all the ministers.

Peleg Delano, a pioneer in the north part of the town, built, on a brook that has ever since been called by his name, a grist mill that did a good business, and was worn out early in the present century. About the same time Joshua Davis had, successively, two saw mills on the same stream, one-fourth of a mile nearer the river, in one of which he was killed in 1809. After these mills had run down, Peleg Delano built on the site of his grist mill a saw mill that was used for years, and then replaced with a new one by his son, Silas Delano, and Ruth- erford Drummond. William Prescott was the last owner of this mill, which ran till about 1850. On the brook near the town farm, and about one fourth of a mile from the river, Levi Moore had a saw mill that had its day and came to grief about 1810.

Flint Barton, who came here in 1773, built a saw mill on the stream that has since borne his name. He was a blacksmith, and had in his shop a trip-hammer that was run by water power. These mills were succeeded by a grist mill, from which the stones were removed in 1832. In 1859 Albion K. Barton built on the old dam a grist mill that Paul T. Stevens ran on shares till 1885, when it could pay its way no longer. Flint Barton built, operated and abandoned an ashery before 1830.

A shingle mill built by William Goff about 1850, on land now owned by Le Roy Goff, and run for twenty years, was about the last mill building done in Sidney.

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

TAVERNS .- Chief among the longest to be remembered institutions of a new country are its taverns. Here flock the neighbors for the gossip and chat that is always inspired by a sip from the fountain of destructive cheer that gurgles from behind the bar. Here also they come in contact with the great outside world. and gaze at its people and listen to their talk, as stage coach and freight wagon halt for in- dispensable food and rest. And so the tavern becomes the most pub- lic place in town, and within its walls meetings of citizens assemble to do its public business.

This was the case in Sidney when, in 1792, the first town meeting gathered at the dwelling house of David Smiley, who kept the first tavern on the river road. It stood across the road and a little north of Mrs. C. C. Hamlen's new farm house. Mr. Smiley died in 1823, and was succeeded by Fletcher, whose hostelry was widely known till about 1850, when the railroad placed most country taverns on the su- perannuated list. Further south on the river road John and Bradford Sawtelle each kept a tavern at different times, and still below them Jonathan Reynolds was a landlord more than fifty years ago.

BACON'S CORNER took its name from William Bacon, a farmer, trader, tavern keeper and general business man. Following him the storekeepers were: Samuel and Franklin Butterfield, Rufus Daven- port, Nathan Dillingham, William Purrinton, Gilbert Baker, Alpheus Hayward, William Gardiner, Frank Somes, and since 1866 Carlos Hammond, the present merchant.

William Bacon and John Ham were tavern keepers, Seth Robinson was a blacksmith, wagon maker and painter; William Ham was a shoemaker, and Libni Kelley was an ingenious jeweller.

Some of the old families in this section have been: Isaac Stedman, John and Jonathan Matthews, Joshua and William Ellis, Moses Var- num, Jeremiah Blaisdell, John and Ahasueras Dutton, James Shaw, who came in 1804; John Linscott, James Faught, John and Abraham Pinkham, Eben Matthews, Moses and Nathaniel Reynolds and Wil liam Chamberlin.

On the brook just north of the Centre, Nathan Blackman and Jo- seph H. Field built, soon after 1820, a saw mill, and twenty-five years later a grist mill, both of which they operated till about 1855, when Abial and Alfred Bacon bought the property. A few years later Silas L. Waite purchased the mills which, after having long been a good investment, ceased to be profitable about 1880. The site and the old hulks still belong to the Waite family. Two miles from Bacon's Cor- ner was an early saw mill run by Mr. Barnard.

Near Bacon's Corner James Ham had, on land now owned by John F. Bailey, a tannery that was discontinued in 1840, and at West Sid- ney, contemporary with this, Timothy Woodward owned a tannery where Lewis Woodward lives. At about the same period an ashery

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was running at West Sidney, on the farm now the residence of Jona- than M. Ballard, and another at Bacon's Corner, built and owned by William Bacon. Eben M. Field traded in a part of what is now Reuel Field's house in the fifties.

Good brick clay is so abundant in Sidney that wherever brick were wanted for one or more buildings in times past, when wood for burn- ing them was always at hand, they were made in that locality. So we find that they were made on the Marsh-Hastings farm, on the Lovejoy farm, on the Faught farm, and in 1860 on the Bailey farm, by Nathaniel Chase, who took them on a flat boat to the Augusta market. About ten rods west of Paul T. Stevens' house excellent brick were made before 1800, and later Daniel Abbott had a tan-yard there.

The early farmers planted orchards and raised apples, built cider mills and filled their cellars, and sometimes themselves, with the cheerful juice. Cider mills were more common fifty years ago than now.

WEST SIDNEY had in early times, owing largely to the stage route from Augusta to Farmington, the largest settlement and the nearest approach to a village in the town, before or since. It had the earliest stores and was the trading point for the thrifty farmers on the pond road, and for bordering sections of Augusta, Readfield and Belgrade.

James Shorey was the first trader, succeeded by: Jeremiah Robin- son, Stephen A. Page, Nathan Sanders, Enos Cummings, George Hoyt, E. L. Davis, Joseph F. and B. L. Woodward and Jacob C. Gordon- the latter and Mrs. Albert Smith being the present traders. Its tav- erns were kept by John Partridge, Jesse Philbrick, Holmes Tilson, and later by his sons, Anson and Jason, Jerry Robinson, Moses Bal- lard, Jonathan Palmer and Joseph Haines. John F. Bailey kept tav- ern for twenty-five years where his son, Adelbert H., now lives, south of Bacon's Corner. Jerry Robinson and George Clifford were black- smiths, and John Hurd was a cooper fifty years ago.

POND ROAD .- The first settler on the pond road, and one of the first in town, was Moses. Sawtelle, on the farm Everett Tilson now owns. It is said that he had grants for three quarter sections of land, to be paid for in a certain number of pounds, and so many coon skins, " taken as they run." His seven sons settled near him, and a distant relative, John Sawtelle, who came about the same time he did and raised a family on the Pond road. This accounts for the frequency of the name in Sidney.

Some of the old residents in the western part of the town were: Deacon William Ward and his father, Timothy Woodward, Richard Robinson and his sons Joseph and Gideon, Daniel and Asa Wilbur, Paul and Elijah Hammond, John Jackson, Isaac Cowan, John, Ebenezer and Asa Trask, Joseph Nash, Ezekiel Farrington, Benjamin Grover, Nehemiah Longley, -- Balkam, Samuel Smith, Joseph Abbott,

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Jotham Allen, Thomas and Dennis Bowman, Esquire Stephen Jewell, Japheth Beale, Daniel Tiffany and Willoughby Taylor.

Mrs. Phebe (Sawtelle) Ellis, born in 1797, and a great-granddaughter of Moses Sawtelle, is the oldest person in town, and the next two are Paul T. Stevens and Nathan Taylor, each of whom is ninety.one.

Several of the men whose names are given settled and always lived in the middle part of the town, which has been equally productive as the two sides. East of the Centre the Bowman Brothers, mentioned at page 223, have the largest nursery in Kennebec county, making a specialty and a success of apple tree stock, of which they have a dozen acres.

CHURCHES .- The first religious organization in Sidney was formed in the southwest part of the town, in 1791, by the Calvinistic Baptists, who named their church Second Vassalboro. Asa Wilbur and Lemuel Jackson, then local preachers, were the leaders. The former became the pastor in 1796, and in 1808 he represented the town in the general court of Massachusetts. The church was diminished in 1806, when nineteen members left to form the Second Baptist church, and was increased by a revival in 1811.

After a thirty-three years' pastorate, Asa Wilbur left the church in 1829 with no minister. In 1843 a new organization was effected by Joseph and Enos Cummings, Asa, William and David T. Ward, and Paul Harmon and their wives, Abigail Bean and others. But three of the original members were living in 1892. The ministers have been: Elders Case, Powers, Walter Foss, William Ward, William Til- ley, S. G. Sargent and Enos Cummings. Meetings were held in school houses till, in 1840, the present church was built. Services were main- tained a part of each year-usually through the warm weather.

A powerful revival in 1805, under the preaching of Rev. Asa Wil- bur, resulted in the formation of a second Baptist church, February 7, 1806. The organization was perfected at the house of Benjamin Dyer, on the river road, and signed by seventeen members: Nathaniel Reynolds, jun., Edmund Hayward, Asa Williams, Benjamin Dyer, John Sawtelle, Charles Webber, jun., Henry Babcock, Mary Matthews, Mary Reynolds, Jemima Dyer, Mercy Matthews, Thankful Faught, Elizabeth Andrews, Eunice Williams, Abigail Tuttle, Sarah Ingraham and Susanna Hayward.

Rev. Joseph Palmer in 1809 was the first pastor. He left in 1812, and Rev. Ezra Going in 1826 came next, succeeded by Lemuel Porter, a student in Waterville College, in 1831. In January of this year the old church was dissolved and a new church was formed at John Saw- telle's house. The movement was in no sense a disagreement, but a harmonious step for the common good. The names on the new church roll consisted of eighteen males and twenty females. Asa Williams, James Smiley and Paul Bailey were chosen deacons.

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The first meeting house was built in 1821 by John Sawtelle, Dr. Ambrose Howard, Paul Bailey, James Shaw and Jonathan Matthews, who furnished the money and sold the pews for their pay. It stood on John Sawtelle's land, and was used for meetings till the present church was built. In 1860 Bradford Sawtelle bought the pewholders' rights and moving it a few rods back from the old spot, converted it into a barn.

The Baptist meeting house now in use, standing on the river road three miles north of the old one, and on the corner of the Sawtelle cross road, was built in 1844, to be nearer the center of the society. One of the first preachers in the old house was Elder Kane, of Clinton, succeeded by Elder Bradford. Elders Sumner Estes, Arthur Drink- water, C. E. Harden and William Tilley have been regular preachers since. Theological students from Bates College have supplied the pupit for some years a part of the time. The present supply is George Hamlen, who has always lived on the river road, and is a Bates student. The society at one time owned a parsonage, which was sold after standing empty for a long time.

Methodism was first preached and planted in Sidney by its great apostle, Jesse Lee, January 29, 1794. This town was first included in the Readfield circuit, but no preacher's name is recorded who visited Sidney regularly till 1809, when Ebenezer F. Newell, then in charge of Hallowell circuit, came here to preach, and became acquainted with Miss Nancy Butterfield. The itinerant liked the young lady and the people, and ministered to his double charge with promptness and manifiest acceptance. In the course of time Ebenezer and Nancy took matrimonial vows, and Sidney lost them both.

The society built the meeting house still in use at Bacon's Corner in 1815, and must have prospered, for in 1828 Japheth Beale and Ste phen Jewett built for the trustees of the Methodist society another and the largest house of worship ever in town. These trustees were: Ezekiel Robinson, Japheth Beale, Nathaniel Stedman, Carey Ellis, Oliver Parsons and Stephen Springer. The builders expected to sell pews enough to fully repay their investment, but never did.

The year 1845 seems to have been a season of great church enter- prise in the center of the town. The Universalists built there that year, and by a combined movement of the other societies the large Methodist church was moved over a mile to the center, and reopened as a union meeting house. Stephen Jewett and Moses Frost were act- ive in the change. The land the house was originally built on is now a part of George Bowman's nursery farm, and the spot it now occupies was deeded to the pew owners by Joseph and Thomas J. Grant in 1846, to revert to the original owners when no longer used for religious purposes. Different denominations used the union house till ab ou

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

1880, since which the Grant heirs have claimed and taken possession of the church.

Sidney first appears on the minutes in 1829, when E. Robinson was the preacher in charge, followed by: C. Mugford, 1831; S. P. Blake, 1832; M. Ward, 1833; M. Wight, 1835; and A. Heath in 1836. From 1837 to 1845 Sidney and Fairfield were put together; then, after being a separate charge for two years, it was united to Readfield till 1850, when it again became a separate charge till 1860. For the next twelve years Sidney and North Augusta were united, and the meet- ing house and parsonage at Bacon's Corner were used. The parson- age was burned in 1873, and the same year Sidney disappears from the minutes.

Some of the preachers in charge from 1837 to 1873 were: Z. Man- ter, 1844; John Young, 1845; Joseph Gerry, 1846; D. Hutchinson, 1847; John Allen, 1848; T. Hill, 1850; W. M. Wyman, 1853; T. J. True, 1855; M. Wight, 1858; T. Whittier, 1859; A. C. Trafton, 1861; J. W. Hatha- way, 1862-3; Nathan Andrews, 1857 and 1865; Joseph P. Weeks, 1866-7; John M. Howes, 1868; F. E. Emerick, 1869, and A. W. Water- house, from 1870 to 1873.

Since 1874 the Methodist society in this town has been known on the minutes as North Sidney, and has been connected with Oakland. Meetings were held in school houses till 1882, when the present meet- ing house was erected on Tiffany hill. N. C. Clifford was pastor from 1874 to 1877; F. W. Smith, 1878; J. E. Clark, 1880; M. E. King, 1882; C. E. Springer, 1884: C. Munger, 1885: W. Carham, 1886; H. Chase, 1887, and A. Hamilton, from 1888 to 1892.

Rev. Henry S. Loring, a Congregationalist, has been preaching in the old Methodist church at Bacon's Corner for the past year, greatly to the satisfaction of the people in that section.

The Freewill Baptists, who had a society and preachers for a num- ber of years previous, reorganized in 1844 with a membership of about fifty. James Grant and John Bragg were the first deacons. After meeting in different school houses, they were able in 1852 to build their meeting house, which stands on the pond road, at the junction of the cross road running to Bacon's Corner. One of their old-time preachers was Thomas Tylor. A colored revivalist named Foy was useful and popular for awhile. Some of the more recent preachers and pastors have been: Elders Joel Spaulding, Selden Bean, - Man- son, - - Bates and George Brown. The present membership is twenty-five, but no regular services have been held for a year past.

A Freewill Baptist church was organized on the banks of a stream on Esquire Charles Davis' farm, where the society had gathered to baptize, in June, 1839. Ebenezer Blaisdell (who was the first deacon), Columbia Bowman, Lydia B. Blaisdell, Nancy Bowman, and William Joy and wife were some of the foremost members, who numbered

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eleven in all. The society was at first called the Second Sidney, and the meetings alternated between the Delano and the Bowman school houses. Daniel B. Lewis was the first preacher, followed by Stephen Russell for twenty-two years, and later by Stephen Page. This soci- ety, many of whose members resided in Oakland, built a meeting house in that town in 1860, where their services have since been held.

The First Universalist Society of Sidney was organized at the town hall June 21, 1840, by the following persons: Dodivah Townsend, Nathan Sawtelle, jun., Sumner Smiley, Albert Mitchell, Samuel Rob- inson, Silas Kinsley, Sumner Dyer, Newton Reynolds, Asa Heatlı, Asa Townsend, Daniel D. Dailey, Silas L. Wait, Orren Tallmann, Mulford Baker, Beriah Ward, Jonathan Davenport, Abial Abbott, Albert B. Pishon and Ambrose H. Bartlett. They built their meeting house, now standing at Sidney Centre, in 1845, and held services regularly for many years. One of their preachers was W. A. P. Dillingham, who died here. Meetings are still held most of the time through the warm weather each year. John H. Field has been church clerk for the past twenty years.

Although never regularly organized, the Spiritualists have held numerous public meetings in Sidney, chiefly through the efforts of Hon. Martin L. Reynolds.

BURIAL PLACES .- North Sidney Cemetery was originally a burial place, six by seven rods in extent, deeded to the Quakers in early times for £1. In 1873 Paul T. Stevens, Marcellus and Elestus Springer, Charles and Edmund Merrill, and eight others were incorporated into the present association, which has enlarged and beautified this attract- ive and sightly ground overlooking the river, so well adapted for the uses to which it is dedicated. Near Bacon's Corner is a small public cemetery containing the Lovejoy tomb. On C. H. Smiley's farm is a private ground belonging to the Smiley family; on George Barton's farm is the Barton tomb, and the Sawtelle family ground is on Am- brose Sawtelle's farm.

The oldest burying ground in Sidney is situated on the bank of the river, one-fourth of a mile below Hasting's brook, and is known as the Old Plain. It was established on the Abial Lovejoy farm, and is thought to hold the remains of over one hundred pioneers. That part of it that has not been plowed shows plainly the forms of many graves and has one shattered slate-stone slab, inscribed " Elizabeth Milliner -1785." James Sherman afterward owned a part of the Lovejoy farm, on another part of which he established a family burial place. A public graveyard still in use was given to school district No. 1 in early times, by Deacon Edmond Hayward and David Reynolds. Near No. 3 school house is a neighborhood ground.

The Sawtelle burying ground on the pond road was established by Moses Sawtelle long before 1800. The ground was enlarged and

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

fenced in 1892. One mile south of this, Nehemiah Longley gave land for the yard that bears his name. Still another mile south Isaac Cowan gave the ground known by his name. The Getchell yard, an- other mile south on the saine road, was given by John Jackson. West Sidney Cemetery was laid out about 1840, on David Bean's land. It has since been organized as a company. The Tiffany burying ground was given by the late Judge Samuel Titcomb's father. The Drum- mond private yard is on Rutherford Drummond's farm, Vang's ground is on James Minot's farm, and the Bowman family ground is on Isaac Bowman's farm.

TOWN BUSINESS .- The annual report shows that for the year end- ing February 10, 1892, the town raised and expended for schools, $1,500; for highways, $2,000; to defray town charges, $1,200; for memo- rial day, $25; and for town fair, $25. In 1892 the town voted to change from the district to the town system in the management of the schools. The number of districts has been reduced from eighteen to fourteen, on account of the small number of scholars, of whom there were 333 in the town who drew public money in 1891. The ferries over the river at Vassalboro and at Riverside are not self-supporting, and are in charge of the two towns, who pay deficiencies each year, Sidney's tax in 1891 being $127.84. The town has for many years owned a poor farm, where a few indigent persons are kindly provided for.

The town house at the Centre was ordered to be built at a cost of $500 by the town meeting of 1825, and was erected and ready for use the next year. Sidney contains 20,000 acres, of which but a small proportion is waste land. Her only ponds, Ward and Lilly, have a small area, leaving a large acreage for cultivation. Her decrease in valuation and in population for the past forty years has been a less percentage than that of any rural town in the county. In 1890 her valuation was $592,123; in 1880, $579,764; in 1870, $649,582; and in 1860 it was $508,912. Her population in 1890 was 1,334; in 1880, 1,396; in 1870, 1,471; in 1860, 1,784; and in 1850 it was 1,955.

POST OFFICES .- The post office records, giving dates of establish- ment and the successive appointments, and the civil lists, telling ex- actly who have been entrusted with official duties for the past one hundred years, will repay careful reading.

The post office at Sidney was established March 24, 1813, with Ste- phen Springer postmaster. He was succeeded in August, 1824, by Crosby Barton; June, 1830, Isaac Fletcher; June, 1844, William Tilley; January, 1846, Luther Sawtelle; June, 1853, Barnard Marble, jun .; Feb- ruary, 1856, James Sherman; March, 1860, Henry R. Smiley; August, 1861, James Sherman; July, 1883, William P. Marble; January, 1887, Simon C. Hastings; and June, 1889, William P. Marble, who keeps the office in his store.

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TOWN OF SIDNEY.

A post office was established in North Sidney January 7, 1854, with John Merrill postmaster. He filled the office until August, 1867, when Stephen Springer was appointed; June 1, 1883, he was succeeded by James D. Bragg, and the 28th of the same month Theodore D. Mer- rill was appointed; March, 1887, Emily Merrill, and March, 1888, James D. Bragg, who keeps the office at his house on the river road.

The post office known as Centre Sidney was established December 6, 1827. The first postmaster, Rufus Davenport, served until July, 1833, when he was succeeded by Moses Frost. The succeeding post- masters have been: Elisha Clark, appointed in June, 1837; Daniel L. Purinton, July, 1846; Charles H. Prescott, April, 1849; Alpheus S. Hay- ward, November, 1849; John S. Cushing, February, 1860; Jethro Weeks, October, 1871; Andrew H. Gardner, October, 1871; Charles E. Tilton, January, 1872; Adelbert H. Bailey, February, 1873; Seth Rob- inson, March, 1878; and Laura A. Hammond, May, 1883, who keeps the office in the store of her husband at Bacon's Corner.

Eureka post office, established September 3, 1879, was discontinued November, 1886. Nathan W. Taylor was the first postmaster. The office was reëstablished March 19, 1887, with the same postmaster, who served until September 4, 1889, when Charles H. Burgess, who lives on the middle road, was appointed.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 121

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