Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 124

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 124

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).

Beriah L. Woodward, born in 1843, is a son of Lemuel H. and Eunice (Ward) Woodward, grandson of Timothy and Sarah (Mott) Woodward, and great-grandson of Noah Woodward, who came when a young man from Taunton, Mass., to Augusta, and later to Sidney, and settled on the farm where Beriah L. now lives. Mr. Woodward has one brother, Joseph T., who lives in West Sidney, and a sister, Lois E., who lives at the old homestead with her brother. Mr. Wood- ward married Lydia E. Blaisdell, and has two sons: Addison J. and Walt. Wert.

Howard B. Wyman, born in 1824, is a son of Levi (1781-1860) and grandson of Jonathan and Margaret (Howard) Wyman, who came to Sidney from Massachusetts in 1780 and settled just north of Bacon's Corner. Mr. Wyman's mother was Paulena Bean. He owns and occupies the farm of Rev. Asa Wilbur, who was a Calvinistic Baptist preacher. He married Maria Atkinson, who died leaving seven chil- dren: Ellen Maria (decased), John H., Lindley H., Sadie A. (deceased), Nellie M. (Mrs. Frank E. Morrison), Elwood T.and Josephine C. His second wife is Esther, daughter of Zacheus Wing. Their children are: Mabel N. and Albert E.

CHAPTER XLI.

TOWN OF OAKLAND.

Genealogy .- Water Power .- Natural Features .- Settlers .- Dams .- Mills and Manufactories. - Traders. - Post Office. - Hotels. - Banks .- Electric Light Company .- Memorial Hall .- Societies .- Civil History .- Churches .- Ceme- teries,-Personal Paragraphs.

O AKLAND, like a woman still vigorous after her fifth marriage, is now known by her sixth family name. When a wild Indian child her maiden name was Tacconet. Her first batch of white immigrants, while living under the regime of squatter sovereignty, aspired to the name of Kingsfield. At length, the Kingsfields, wish- ing to enjoy the benefits of a more enlarged and definite civil polity, became incorporated as a town in 1771, with the honored and more Americanized name of Winslow. After thirty-one years of prosperity and increase the Winslow children living west of the Kennebec river, proposed a division of the old homestead, and separate house- keeping. Effecting a peaceable secession, they were incorporated in 1802, as Waterville, whose territory was enlarged about 1840 by sev- eral square miles from Dearborn, when that town was divided among its adjacent neighbors, and ceased to exist.

For more than two generations the Watervillians managed their affairs with mutual agreement. But when the settlement on the river grew to be more important, and the manufactories at West Waterville created another center of activity and trade, questions of taxation produced a feeling of remonstrance in the western section, until West Waterville was incorporated as a town in 1873. In 1883, the name both of the town and of the post office was changed from West Water- ville to Oakland.

This portion of old Winslow was noted from the first for the abundance and variety of its forest productions, for the richness of its soil, the absence of troublesome quantities of stone, and for the favor- able lay of the land for farming purposes. But the chiefest gift in Oakland's possession-its pride and its glory-has been and will be its unrivaled water power. Situated at the gateway of Messalonskee lake, through it pour the surplus waters of a drainage shed of 185 square miles, one-fourth of whose area is covered by magnificent reservoir lakes, ponds and connecting streams, and whose combined

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length is over fifty miles. This outlet, long known as Emerson's stream, is remarkable for its volume, its constancy and its tempera- ture. No equal area in Maine furnishes so much surplus water at the dry seasons; and its flood tide raises the stream but three feet. It comes from the lake so warm that no ice troubles the water wheels in the coldest winters. Valuable as these qualities are, the grandest value is that this ever-flowing stream, compactly held by banks and a bed of rock, has a fall of nearly one hundred feet in one mile, which reaches 110 feet in two miles. By general concession this is, of its magnitude, the finest water power in the state-if not in New England. Not one-fourth of it is used. At one single plunge the stream drops forty-four feet-and this amazing power runs utterly to waste. The opportunity for a city is here, with sure rewards to capi- tal and enterprise.

Material from which to give names of the earliest settlers of the Oakland end of old Winslow is exceedingly scant. It is pretty well established that a company of hunters, some of them from Canada, were the first comers. Among them were some by the name of Em- erson, who liked this section so well they staid here ; the outlet of the lake taking and still retaining their family name.

We are able to give the following list of names of men who lived in that part of old Winslow that is now Oakland, in 1791: Ensign Thomas Bates, David, Moody, Live and Manoah Crowell, Lemuel Crowell, Asa Emerson, the surveyor and mill builder; Solomon and Elisha Hallett, Elijah Smith, Jonathan Combs and John Farrin.

The following were here sixty to ninety years ago: Daniel Emer- son, Jonathan Combs, Cyrus Wheeler, Baxter and Hiram Crowell, Watson and Elisha Hallett, Elijah and George Gleason, Benjamin, Philip and Joseph Hersom, Asa, Peter and John Libby, Samuel, Ben- jamin and James Witham, Seth and Isaac Gage, Isaiah, Ephraim and Eben Holmes, Benjamin Corson, Reuben Hersey, Samuel Wade, Leonard and John Cornforth, Asa and William Lewis, Thomas Cook, William Wyman, Thomas McFarlin, Benjamin Soule, Dexter and Sanford Pullen, Eben Moore, James and Reuben Shores, Reuben Ricker, Michael Ellis, William Marsten, Charles Dingley, and S. Penney and Seth Getchell-two revolutionary soldiers.

A strip of land on the east side of the Richardson and McGrath ponds, with the inhabitants thereon, now a part of Oakland, was transferred as follows: "An act to annex Benjamin Corson and others to the town of Waterville approved, Feb. 10, 1815. Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts ; that Benjamin Corson, Robert Hussey, Jonathan Nelson, Samuel Wade, Henry Richardson, 3d, Ebenezer Holmes, Thomas Gleason, Thomas McGrath, Spencer Taylor, Alvin Thayer, Abner Young, and Asa Young, with their families and estates, be and are

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

hereby set off from the town of Dearborn, and annexed to the town of Waterville."

According to a survey and map made by John Crosby in 1802, the following persons lived on the lots indicated by number in that part of Waterville now Oakland : Samuel and Moody Crowell, on lot No. 1; Elisha Hallett, 2; Solomon Heald, 3; Baxter Crowell, 4; Joshua Morey, 5; Samuel Morey, 6; Jabez Hall, 7; Peltiah Penney, 11; Sam- uel Avery, 12; Aaron Fall, 13; Nehemiah Penney, 14; John Penney, 15; William Ellis, 16; Joel Richardson, 17; Henry Kenny, also on lot No. 17; Nathaniel Blake, 18; Daniel Branch, 19; Pearly Merrill, 20; Robert Damon, 22; Isaac Page, 23; Ezekiel Crowell, 24; Henry and Otis Richardson, 25; Joel Richardson, 26, and Henry Richardson, jun., on lot No. 27.

In 1834, the land where the railroad depot stands was a thicket of trees, through which ran the town road, but to keep the cows from straying away, a pair of bars were placed across the road, and who- ever passed had to open and close them.

MILLS AND MANUFACTORIES .-- The first taskmaster that the outlet of Messalonskee lake ever had was Jonathan Combs. He built a dam, a saw mill and a grist mill, and compelled it to saw logs and grind grain for the early Winslow settlers, before 1800. When the old grist mill was worn out, Burnham Thomas, in 1836, built another and ran it nearly twenty years, when a freshet undermined and carried it bodily away. It was replaced in 1856, by Silas H. and Edwin Bailey, with the present grist mill, that has been successively the property of Joshua Bowman, Blaisdell & Wheeler, and in 1870 of Samuel Blais- dell, from whose estate the Dustin & Hubbard Manufacturing Com- pany bought it in 1887. For the last twenty-one years this mlll has been rented and operated by D. F. McLure and is still in good con- dition.

The old saw mill was kept in operation over half a century and run by Jonathan and David Combs, sons of the pioneer. A carding and fulling mill, also built by their father, was for many years in charge of Sanford Pullen. About 1850 the saw mill was bought by the Ellis Saw Company, who sold it to A. B. Bates and son, and they to Hubbard, Blake & Co. They enlarged the shops and made axes, scythes, and hatchets till the American Axe Company bought the property in 1889.

On the other side of the stream is the chair and settee factory established in Oakland in 1849 by Joseph Bachelder, and now run by his son, Abram, who employs five men.

Alfred Winslow came to Oakland in 1836 and built on the Combs dam a tannery, which he ran for twenty-eight years, making upper leather as a specialty. For several years this leather was manufac- tured into boots by Mr. Winslow and William Jordan, employing

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twenty-five men. In 1864 Mr. Winslow sold the tannery to Alvin At- wood, who ran it three years and sold it to Horace Parlin, he to A. J. Parker, and he to A. J. Libby, who converted it into a shingle and grist mill. The Dustin & Hubbard Manufacturing Company bought it in 1887.

Between the Winslow tannery and the grist mill, Lyon, Bragg & Hubbard built wood working and jobbers' shops, which did a large business till sold to the Dustin & Hubbard Company.

The Dustin & Hubbard Manufacturing Company was organized in 1887, by Frank E., George A. and W. H. Dustin, John U. and George W. Hubbard, Austin Bragg, J. B. Newhall and George H. Bryant. John U. Hubbard was president, George H. Bryant was treasurer, F. E. Dustin was superintendent and W. H. Greeley was secretary. The company bought of Hubbard, Bragg & Co. their large shops on the upper dam, and on the other side of the stream they bought A. J. Libby's shingle mill, and Mrs. Samuel Blaisdell's grist mill. Having thus obtained control of the water power on that dam, they proceeded to build several large shops and fit them at great expense for manu- facturing a general line of machinery. After several years of activity and apparent prosperity, this company met with financial difficulties, and is now doing but little business.

The next dam below the Combs dam was built about 1850, by Daniel B. Lord. At that time both sides of the stream were wood land, and there was no road in that locality. Lord & Graves put up buildings, and after making axes and hoes for a time, Calvin H. Davis bought Mr. Graves out, and Lord & Davis carried on the busi- ness till the property was sold to Sanford Pullen, who sold it to John U. Hubbard and William P. Blake. In 1865 Hubbard & Blake were joined by Luther D. Emerson and Charles E. Folsom, forming the new firm of Hubbard, Blake & Co., which made axes and scythes for five years. In 1870 this firm was dissolved by the withdrawal of L. D. Emerson and Charles E. Folsom, when L. D. Emerson, Jo- seph E. Stevens, William R. Pinkham and George W. Stevens formed the present Emerson & Stevens Manufacturing Company. The new company bought property on the west end of the same dam, erected shops and established the manufacture of scythes and axes, which they still continue. During the past year they have turned out 4,000 dozen scythes, and 3,000 dozen axes, employing fifty men, besides five traveling salesmen.

Hubbard & Blake, with the addition of Cyprian Roy, Charles H. Blaisdell and Nathaniel Meader, reorganized in 1877, under a charter obtained in 1875, as the Hubbard & Blake Manufacturing Company. Nathaniel Meader was president and John U. Hubbard was treas- urer. Two years later a part of their works were burned, which they rebuilt, and continued to make scythes, axes and hatchets, till 1889,

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

when this property, together with a large factory on the upper dam, which the company had owned for several years, was sold to the American Axe & Tool Company, and is called No. 16 by. that company.

This company, which was chartered at Newport, Ky., with central office in New York city, now employs seventy-five men here, who make 12,000 dozen scythes per year, with Nathaniel Meader as superintendent.

On the same dam, Albion P. Benjamin, in 1862, erected buildings and began the manufacture of grain threshers, horse powers and the work of a general repair and machine shop. George S. Allen joined him in 1867, and now the firm of Benjamin & Allen is one of the most prominent in Oakland. They give steady work to fifteen men.

When Leonard Cornforth settled in Oakland, and built the dam and mills that so long bore his name, is a matter of uncertainty. But his early coming, and that he built a stone grist mill, a saw mill, a carding and clothing mill, and was a large land owner, farmer and trader, are recognized facts. His son, John Cornforth, assisted and succeeded him in the general and practical management of his business.

In 1834 Clark Stanley turned bedstead posts and wagon hubs in the basement of the Cornforth saw mill. There were at the same time an old bark mill and the ruins of the Nahum Warren tannery, on ground now occupied by the grinding shop of the Dunn Edge Tool Company. Holbrook & Richardson put machinery in the little bark mill and were the first axe makers on the stream.

Passmore, Young & Tafft bought their property and the old fulling mill and began making scythes in 1849. Hale, Stevens & Thayer were the next owners and scythe manufacturers. After some changes Mr. Stevens bought his partners' interests and in 1857 sold to the Dunn Edge Tool Company.

The Cornforth grist mill was successively the property of Captain Folger, of Sidney; Silas H. Bailey, John Garland and R. B. Dunn, who sold it to the tool company. The old saw mill stood on the east side of the stream, where the axe shop is.

At the head of the falls was an old dam with an unknown builder. In 1854 Burgess & Atwood put up the frame of a shop there, which they sold to John U. and Andrew J. Hubbard, and John Matthews, who finished it, and made scythes four years, and then sold the prop- erty to the Dunn Edge Tool Company.

The Dunn Edge Tool Company, the most extensive manufac- turing corporation in Oakland, is a perpetual memorial to its founder, Reuben B. Dunn, who, in 1857, established and organized the business that has since attained a world-wide reputation. Beginning in North

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TOWN OF OAKLAND.

Wayne in 1840, he brought to this town his capital and seventeen years of invaluable experience. Able capitalists eagerly joined in the incorporation. The directors in 1857 were: Reuben B. Dunn, N. G. H. Pulsifer and J. H. Drummond, and in 1864, R. B. Dunn, T. W. Herrick, and John Ayer. In 1864 R. B. Dunn and John Ayer bought all interests held by other parties in the Dunn Edge Tool Company, and became sole owners of this fine water power and the largest scythe factory in New England. Mr. Ayer, who had been travel- ing agent for the company, then assumed the onerous duties of treasurer and general manager, which, with the able assistance of Major A. R. Small for the past twenty-four years, he still per- forms. R. B. Dunn, the first president, was succeeded at his death in 1889, by his son, R. W. Dunn. This company has a capacity to make 15,000 dozen scythes and 10,000 dozen axes annually, and employs from 75 to 100 men, five of whom are traveling salesmen.

The first scythe factory on the stream was built in 1836, where the woolen mill now stands, by Larned & Hale. They made scythes for three years, and were succeeded by Samuel and Eusebius Hale, till Joseph E. Stevens bought E. Hale's interest in 1845. Hale & Stevens ran eight years, when William Jordan bought Mr. Stevens out, and Mr. sold Hale to R. B. Dunn, and finally Mr. Jordan sold to the Dunn Edge Tool Company.

The Cascade Woolen Mill was built in 1883 on land and a water power leased of the Dunn Edge Tool Company. Its organizers and board of directors were: R. B. Dunn, J. B. Mayo, Seth M. Milliken, John Ayer and D. A. Campbell. All-wool dress fabrics for women's wear have been its specialty, but of late heavy cloakings have been made to some extent. The treasurer's report of 1892 shows a fund of undivided profits of $47,000, with a capital stock of $125,000. R. B. Dunn, the first president, was succeeded at his death by J. B. Mayo, of Foxcraft, Me., and the first treasurer, Seth M. Milliken, was succeeded by John Ayer. The mill gives employment to 110 people and its annual product amounts to $250,000.

One of the first wagon makers in Oakland was a man named Mit- chell. Benjamin C. Benson, who came here in 1833, began the busi- ness in 1835 and the next year bought a shop on the upper dam, of Baxter Crowell, that was built by Abial Bacon for a store. Here he made wagons and open carriages till 1880. Sewell Benson, in the same building, got out last blocks for the Boston market.

H. A. Benson built in 1878 a wagon and repair shop near the upper dam, and in 1880 took Edward Wing into the partnership that still exists.

E. W. Bates came from Oakland Heights to the village in 1882 and opened a box factory on the spot where his present mill stands. The property was burned in 1890. The next year he erected a saw

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

mill and box factory that is run by steam power and saws 1,000,000 feet of lumber per year and gives work to nine men.

Columbus Marshall built in 1889, his shovel handle factory, a few rods southwest of the railroad depot. It is run by steam power and turns out 30,000 dozen shovel handles yearly, employing ten men.

Cyrus Wheeler, a farmer, an abolitionist and a temperance man. put up a building on his own land, to have a place where liberty of speech would be extended to radical thinkers, and named it Liberty Hall. About 1867 Hamlin & Farr bought Liberty Hall and converted it into a shirt factory, which for the next ten years gave employment to one hundred people. Since the shirt factory abandoned it, the Grangers and others have used it for meetings.

J. O. Jones built in 1881, on the bank of Emerson stream, a can- ning factory that has been the property of the Portland Canning Company since 1889. In the busy season each year 150 people are employed, who fill about 300,000 cans with sweet corn.

OTHER BUSINESS INTERESTS .- Probably the first trader in Oakland was Leonard Cornforth, in a building near his mills. Israel Wash- burn, afterward governor, was a clerk in this store for a time. Across the road Asahel Tilson kept a store at the same time, in a building now the property of Alonzo Matthews.

Near the Combs dam Baxter Crowell and Kimball & Matthews had stores. Each of these had an ashery by the side of the pond. The names of many of the traders who have been located at the south end of the town are: Madison Crowell, Hallett & Balcom, Cyrus Wheeler, Elbridge G. Crowell, I. B. Morgan, Daniel Bowman, Mitchell & Gilman, Charles Arnold, A. J. Libby, Morrison Libby, D. F. Mc- Lure, Daniel & E. P. Blaisdell and Charles W. Folsom. A. Winslow & Co. have been in trade in one store for over twenty-five years.

Some of the traders near the railroad depot have been: Burgess & Atwood, Hatch & Otis, B. F. Otis, O. F. Walker, Blaisdell & Hallett, Hallett & Leonard, Leonard & Mitchell, Watson V. and Arthur W. Leonard, H. E. Maines, H. J. Goulding, F. A. Kelley, Blake Brothers, Mrs. B. F. Frizzell, Miss M. L. James, Mrs. J. Blaisdell and A. C. Tay- lor. George W. Hubbard, boot and shoe dealer for several years, sold in 1885 to Albert Swain, who has added furnishing goods. Hobart Nickerson, a grocer, in 1865 added a stock of drugs. George Gould- ing bought the business in 1867 and has sold drugs for the past eight years. W. H. Macartney kept the first book and stationery store, suc- ceeded by J. B. Emerson, Frank Sawtelle, George L. Hovey, and in 1886 by Everett M. Stacy, who is also American Express agent, and was telegraph operator till 1892.

The post office of West Waterville was established December 6, 1827, with Elisha Hallett, jun., as postmaster. Harvey Evans was appointed May, 1832; David Combs, October, 1832; William H. Hatch,

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June, 1841; David Combs, December, 1845; William H. Hatch, No- vember, 1849; Isaac B. Tozer, January, 1852; William Macartney, April, 1854; Charles F. Stevens, October, 1862; J. Wesley Gilman, February, 1877; Charles F. Stevens, October, 1877; George T. Benson, January, 1882. Name was changed to Oakland March 19, 1883, with George T. Benson postmaster; William H. Macartney was appointed February, 1888, and Everett M. Stacy February, 1892.

The oldest tavern now remembered was kept by Richard Dorr in 1832, at the junction of the Belgrade and Smithfield roads, and was called the Montgomery House. Stephen Benson bought the place and kept the last tavern there. Guy T. Hubbard, in 1833, kept a tav- ern where Mills' livery is, and was succeeded by Clark Stanley. After the railroad came here, Isaac B. Tozer built a hotel and kept it, and was station agent at the same time. His successors were: John M. Libby, Abial Bacon, Lewis Field and William Cunningham. In 1883 Edward Low fitted the house next north for the business, and after him A. Young and George Danforth were the landlords. Ora M. Sib- ley reopened the house in 1891 as the Oakland Hotel, the only one in town, which he runs in connection with his long established livery business.

Messalonskee National Bank was incorporated in 1875, under the name of the West Waterville National Bank, which was changed to its present form in 1884. The first directors were: Samuel Kimball, John U. Hubbard, Albion P. Benjamin, Luther D. Emerson and Samuel Blaisdell. The establishment of this bank was largely due to the per- sonal efforts of Luther D. Emerson, who has been its president since 1888. Albion P. Benjamin, the first president, held the office for four- teen years, and George H. Bryant, the first cashier, was succeeded in 1884 by the present incumbent, J. E. Harris. The capital of the bank is $75,000: surplus, $11,500; undivided profits, $9,300; and it has $18,000 in circulating notes. This bank has been located in the Memorial Hall building ever since its organization.

Oakland Savings Bank was incorporated in 1869 as the West Water- ville Savings Bank, and was changed to the present title in 1883. The first meeting for organization was held at the office of G. T. Stevens, April 9, 1869, and the doors were opened for business May 7th following. John Ayer was elected president, and has held the office ever since. Edwin P. Blaisdell was the first secretary and treasurer, Greenlief T. Stevens was the second, George H. Bryant was the third, and since 1884 J. E. Harris. John Ayer, A. P. Benjamin, W. H. Hatch, B. C. Benson and L. D. Emerson constituted the first board of trustees. In 1871 the deposits were $50,279, and eight per cent. dividends were paid for several years. Two per cent., paid semi- annually, is the present rate, with $166,000 deposits, $9,025 reserve

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

fund and $5,000 undivided profits. This bank rented the basement of Memorial Hall in 1871, where it is still located.

Oakland Electric Light Company was organized in 1887, with a capital of $10,000. It now furnishes seven arc and twenty-four incan- descent street lights, for which it receives $600 per year. Eight arc and four hundred incandescent lights are furnished to private parties. The dynamo is located at the factory of Benjamin & Allen, of whom power is rented. O. E. Crowell was the first president, J. Wesley Gilman, who is now president, was the first treasurer, and A. R. Small, F. E. Dustin and O. E. Crowell were the first directors.

MEMORIAL HALL .- At the close of the war the commemoration of the patriotism of Oakland expressed itself in an unusually practical and appropriate way. The citizens formed a Soldiers' Monument Association, which was duly incorporated February 12, 1869. Then, instead of erecting the usual granite or marble shaft, they built a Memorial Hall, and dedicated it alike to the brave men, living and dead, who risked their lives in the great struggle, that the nation might live. Here the Grand Army men will continue to meet till the last survivor, having no earthly comrade, shall join "the eternal bivouac of the dead."

Memorial Hall is neatly and substantially built of stone, with brick trimmings, and cost $12,000. The town contributed by vote $1,000 toward its construction, and pays $60 per year for its use as a town house. In 1887 this hall was deeded to Sergeant Wyman Post, to revert to the town when by the limitations of life they could no longer use it. The officers of the Soldiers' Monument Association at its first formation in 1865 were: William;H. Hatch, president; Ben- jamin Hersom, vice-president; George W. Hubbard, secretary, and Alfred Winslow, treasurer. Samuel Kimball, Benjamin C. Benson, John U. Hubbard, A. P. Benjamin and Asa B. Bates constituted the board of trustees.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 124

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