Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 133

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 133

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The best store building here stood across the street from the pres- ent wagon shop of Theodore M. Jackson, who since 1855 has carried on the only carriage business here, and Ebenezer Meiggs and Corydon Chadwick were merchants. This store was subsequently purchased by David S. Whitehouse for his son-in-law, Warren Estes. Among other traders were: Ebenezer Meiggs, jun., E. T. Brown and W. G. Kingsbury, besides the unsuccessful Union store enterprise.

The Canton Bank here flourished for a short time about 1855. Eli Jones, Ambrose H. Abbott and Jonathan Clark were among the pro- moters, with Charles A. Russ as president. The first cashier was Zebah Washburn, succeeded by his son, Newell.

Meiggs & Chadwick had a shoe factory here before the war. Two brick yards have been operated, from which brick were shipped up the lake to the other village.

The South China post office was established May 5, 1828. The let- ter postage collected the first quarter was thirteen cents, and the quarter's pay of the postmaster for assorting the mail twice a day and doing other duties was thirty cents. Silas Piper was the first post- master, in his grocery store. He was succeeded in 1829 by Francis A. B. Hussey; 1834, Joseph Stuart; 1842, Ambrose H. Abbott in the store where the G. A. R. Hall stands. That store was moved and is now occupied by Hattie Hoxie. The next postmaster was Corydon

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Chadwick, 1853, in a store on the point between the roads opposite Jackson's shop. The post office was given to John L. Gray in 1857, who moved it to a house where Gustavus Wyman lives. The next postmaster was Edwin T. Brown, 1863, in a house near Meiggs' store, and he was succeeded in 1868 by John F. Wyman, post office in the store formerly occupied by A. H. Abbott. The office was then moved to the hotel near the meeting house, and James Savage was post- master from 1873 to 1876. The house was subsequently burned. Samuel Stuart was the next postmaster, in his store, succeeded by Charles B. Stuart in 1879, in the same store, and in December, 1888, Elwood H. Jenkins was appointed, keeping the office in the same store.

Being on the mail route from Augusta to Belfast, South China sup- ported, in the stage coach days, a tavern, kept by Elijah Crowell, who had built it for a residence. Jefferson Wyman kept another east of the Friends' meeting house about 1852. Theodore M. Jackson bought the Crowell house, which burned in 1853. In 1879 J. R. Crossman kept a public house here. Since 1888 the annual coming of summer visitors has been increasing, and must become an import- ant feature of the village. Theodore M. Jackson, who entertains some of the summer people, keeps open house throughout the year.

Near Three-mile pond, west of South China, where Andrew Web- ber now lives, Samuel Taylor had a public house on the stage route. Andrew Furbush married his daughter and continued the business. After his death his brother, Reuel Furbush, who married his widow, was landlord as long as it was kept as a public house.

After the original saw mill on Clark's brook, north of South China village, had passed away, another was built by the Clarks of the next generation and a brother-in-law, Josiah Braley. Mr. Braley also put in a grist mill, which served its day and purpose. On the same brook Nelson Russell had a small tannery. These long since have been removed, and about 1845 a company erected still another saw mill. Albert Haskell, Harrison Chadwick, and the three brothers, Samuel A., George F. and Enos T. Clark, owned shares. This mill has also served its purpose and passed into the history of the locality.

The village of Weeks Mills is a brisk center in the valley of the Sheepscot, in the southeast portion of the town. The superior water power led Major Abner Weeks and his father to locate here, and their business prominence has given name to the locality. A saw mill and grist mill early erected by Owen Clark, was later owned and run by Thomas Giddings, sen., until it was burned. Abraham Mclaughlin built the mill which is now owned and run by Alton Shuman.

Among the industries of the village was a large tannery in the rear of the present hotel building. Charles A. Russ, John Reed and A. B. Fletcher purchased this tannery of Mr. Larrabee and continued

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it until about 1870. These men had a shoe factory in the building, that was burned in 1862, on the site of the present store of A. R. Bur- rill, and in their business employed eighty men. In 1866 J. F. Chad- wick and John Reed rebuilt the building and opened a general store; they were succeeded by Abram Mclaughlin, who sold to J. F. Chad- wick, and he to H. S. Gray. In December, 1889, A. R. Burrill, the present merchant, obtained the goods.

About 1865 Daniel W. Tyler opened a tavern where the present hotel is. Henry Hamilton had purchased it and run it a few years when Tyler took it. Alden Mclaughlin bought it and ran it till No- vember, 1887, when Abram Mclaughlin, the present landlord, took possession.

The present store of Frank Percival was built about 1832, by Charles A. Russ, who opened trade there, and sold to William Perci- val about 1845. Mr. Percival was in business until his death, when his son, Frank, who had been a partner since 1866, took the business alone.

The post office has been in the Percival store most of the time since it was established in 1838, with Charles A. Russ, postmaster. William Percival succeeded him in 1846; Albert R. Burrill was ap- pointed in September, 1885; Alton C. Doe in October, 1885, and in 1889 Frank Percival received his commission. A daily stage route to Augusta supplies the village with mail.

Chester M. Clark, the village blacksmith at Weeks Mills, is a son of Jonathan Clark, 2d, grandson of Randall and great-grandson of Edmund Clark. He was born in 1838. His first wife was a daughter of William Church, and his second is a daughter of Charles B. Bassett. Mr. Clark has been at the Mills since 1865, excepting the five years preceding 1888, in the building which was erected for a wagon shop by Eben French, who was drowned in the stream while watering his horse.

On the west branch, a mile above Weeks Mills, where Franklin Sproul's saw mill is, one of the earliest saw mills in town was built. William Pullen operated it as early as 1820, and it was an old mill then. His sons succeeded him long before the present owner. Below this, in what is now a meadow field, east of Oliver Hammon's, Daniel Beane built a saw mill which Abel Chadwick next owned. Mr. Ham- mon bought and repaired it, and in 1845 Ebenezer Frye converted it into a tannery, which was operated a few years.

Where the western branch of the Sheepscot river enters the town from Palermo a good water power attracted settlers and here, partially in each town, is the post village of Branch Mills. Here Thomas Bragg, of 1799, John Dowe, of 1805, Stephen Jones, Jacob Worthing, Robert Patten, Thomas Dinsmore (who came from Bowdoinliam in 1813), Isaac Hacker and Joseph Hacker, from Brunswick, were

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among the early residents. The village post office-Palermo-is just over this town line. In 1835 Hiram Worthing was postmaster and, except four years during Cleveland's administration, when Fred Johnson and Thomas Dinsmore had it, the office has been held by Mr. Worthing or his son, P. S. Worthing, the present incumbent. Before 1835 Stephen Marden, Samuel Buffum and Isaac Hacker, in the order named, were appointed.

Wilder H. Worthing, J. R. B. Dinsmore and Sylvanus B. Jones are now doing in three stores the mercantile business of the village. Among the former traders here a Mr. Robinson, Isaac Hacker, Hiram, David and Charles Worthing, Jose Greely, A. B. Longfellow, Nathan- iel Lincoln, George F. Frye, Barzillai Harrington, John P. McCurdy, Bernard Hanscomb, William Coombs, William Lincoln & John O. Turner, Homer Cole, Benjamin Black, Stephen M. Spiller (of paring machine fame), Gove & Norton, Ensign L. Worthing, John G. Slater, Benjamin Nelson, Thomas Dinsmore, jun., Roscoe L. Worthing, Stacey Whitehouse, Charles F. Acorn and Nowell O. Jones are still remembered.

The mills here, as the village name implies, were from the first the chief business. The first one was a saw mill, built north of the main street. Ephraim Jones, if not the builder, was interested in it early. Joseph Hacker ran the first grist mill at this site, and with the same power ran the first carding machine. At his death the property passed to his son-in-law, Jose Greely, who was succeeded by his son, Josiah H. Greely, and son-in-law, Thomas Dinsmore. They sold it in 1883 to J. R. B. Dinsmore. On the mill site south of the main street Jacob Buffum and Robert Patten, about 1829, built a saw mill with an upright saw-so slow that " up to-day and down to-morrow" was almost literally true of it. On the same dam, in 1838, was Nathaniel Johnson's fulling and carding mill. After him came Larned Pullen and Ara C. Patten, in the same business, and then Nathaniel Lincoln added a tannery to the plant. His successors were Barzillai Harring- ton, in 1846, and Wilson Whitten, before it was burned in 1868.

On the ruins William S. Tobey, beginning in 1881, built up his present thrifty business and equipped the mill with saws, planer, stave machine, cider mill and lath and threshing machines. A few rods further down stream Thomas Dinsmore, deceased, built a shingle and lath mill in 1845. This sufficed until 1852, when he built another dam fifty rods below, and there his son and surviving partner, Wil- liam Dinsmore, continued the mill until his death. It then passed into other hands and was burned in 1882.

Stephen Jones once had a foundry and blacksmith shop, the site of which has been included in the concentric accretions to the old village grave yard.

About 1852 Barzillai Harrington was useful in erecting a building

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-now Good Templars' Hall-in which a select school, known as the East China High School, was kept.

The two great lines passing through the town in the old stage coach days supported the numerous taverns mentioned in the pre- ceding village histories. The thirsty traveler of those times, entering the town at Branch Mills, could invigorate himself at the tavern there, then at Crossman's Corner on either side of the road, he could rinse down the dust of two weary miles and prepare himself for three miles more of the lonesome road, between there and South China. There, if the tavern dram was not to his taste, he could find good rum in either store. Well fortified for the next two miles, he could reach Sam Taylor, whose tavern was supplied with a plenty of what may be called the spirit of that age. The next town was equally hospitable, for at the very first he could find Peltiah Pierce at the South Vassal- boro post office, and Peltiah would not drive a man away thirsty.

PROMINENT LOCALITIES .- In the central portion of the town is Crossman's Corners, in a good farming community. Josiah Fairfield settled north of the Corners, where Clarkson Jones lives, and Aaron Buffum south of the Corners, on Rollin Reed's farm. Ephraim Jones settled where Edward C. Dudley lives, and Henry B. Reed's farm was settled by an Estes. The family from whom the locality was named is now extinct. Here, in a house which Jedediah Fairfield, brother of Josiah, had built, Bounds Crossman kept a tavern and sold such mer- chandise as gave his place the name of Crossman's store. He was more ingenious than thrifty, and when the lower portion of the house needed repairs he tore it out, letting the upper story down to the foundation, and lived in the one story for years. On the opposite corner from Crossman's, in the old stage days, John Priest kept the Travelers' Home. After him his brother, Otis, and then Case McAllister were hosts. It was burned about 1835, and rebuilt, and again destroyed by fire in 1843, and on the ruins the late Eli Jones built his residence, which is still standing. In Jones' house subse- quently the bar-room door, saved from the fire, did sober service for the old Friend. A post office, now discontinued, was established here in 1860, as Dirigo, with Horatio Nelson as postmaster. He was fol- lowed by Eli Jones, and he by Matthew F. Hoxie.

North of Branch Mills, on the eastern edge of the town, is Par- menter hill. Here in 1805 Captain Caleb Parmenter, a blacksmith from Winthrop, made the first regular settlement. South of his farm the Balcom family had lived, where Philip Dinsmore's farm is; but it does not appear that they had title to the land. Joseph Parmenter, brother of Captain Caleb, came later. Their adjoining farms were purchased of the proprietors by their father, Caleb, who lived and died in Attleboro, Mass.

A commanding elevation in the southeast corner of the town has

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

been long known as Deer hill. Frederick W. Hammon came here by blazed trees in 1811, settling where his son, William H., lives. The same year, William Haskell, jun., came from the pond road, settling where his son, William, lives. Between the two farms Nathaniel and David Gray, from Berwick, settled two farms which the late Elbridge G. Haskell owned, and south of all these Oshea Hatch built, where his grandson, Joseph, lives. In 1809 Samuel Gray came from Berwick, settling the farm where his son, John T., lives, raising eleven children. North of Gray's, on the Dodge farm, Deacon Moses Gray lived, as an early settler. On the pinnacle, south of John E. Dodge's residence, Jesse Prentice had a primitive dwelling. North of the Hammon farm Jonathan Gray settled about 1810.

West of Weeks Mills, on an elevation, now chiefly marked by the handsome building of the Erskine School, is Chadwick's Corner, often known as Chadwick hill. The name alludes to Ichabod Chadwick, a Cape Cod man, who, with his sons, Job, Judah and James, settled here before 1797. Sylvester Hatch, a Baptist deacon from Cape Cod; Cap- tain William Mosher, from Belgrade; Moses Goodspeed, from Barn- stable; and Abner Starrett, whose surviving son, Daniel D., born 1802, remembers them, were also early settlers in this vicinity. A post office was established here, with Silas Piper as postmaster. His son, Henry, afterward kept it in a house where Abel Chadwick once lived. This office was discontinued when the Weeks Mills office was estab- lished.

China Neck, or West China, as it was once called, embraces a fer- tile farming district west and north of the two branches of China lake. It was settled later than the farms on the south and east. David Lewis lived where Jacob S. Randall's farm is, and between that and the Friends' meeting house were Joshua Hanson, Thomas Jones, Levi Maynard, Isaac Jones and James Spratt. Between the meeting house and Ward's Corner were Samuel Morrell, John Page, Samuel Mitchell and David Spratt. John Page built the first house on the Hartwell A. Jenkins farm. He was drowned while crossing the lake, and in 1823 Stephen Jenkins bought the place. Samuel Mitchell came from Kennebunk. Betsey, his first child, was born here May 31, 1799. Her brother, Jeremiah, born 1805, survives and remembers the set- tlers above mentioned. The highway leading to the head of the lake was then a private road with eleven sets of bars north of Ward's Corner.

Between 1845 and 1865 two shoe manufactories flourished on the neck, each employing several men. Josiah Philbrook owned one, and John and Thomas Pinkham the other.

West of China Neck and extending nearly to the Vassalboro line is Ward's hill, formerly known as Stanley hill, in allusion to Colonel Nathan Stanley, who built where Warren S. McCorrison lives, the

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first house in that section of the town. Abijah Ward and his three sons-Thomas, Samuel and Abijah, jun .- settled here, Thomas com- ing before 1784. He married a daughter of Edmund Clark, and resided nearer China village, where his son, Captain Thomas Ward, was born in 1790. Samuel settled north of Ward's Corner, where David S. Patterson lives; and Abijah, jun., settled in the hollow west of Ward hill, opposite the present residence of Freeman H. Crowell. With these three brothers the father, Abijah, who came from New Hampshire, passed his last days, living a third of the year with each. The Wards of China and Vassalboro are descendants of Abijah in the fourth and fifth generations. Other early residents in this vicinity were: Nathaniel Wiggin, Reuben Fairfield, Hezekiah Cloudman, George Mclaughlin, 2d, Enoch Brown, James Lancaster and Jabez Lewis.

OTHER SETTLERS .- After the coming of the pioneers, and contem- porary with them, several families settled in the town besides those mentioned as first in the four villages and six prominent localities. Before the revolution Joseph Evans lived near the pond that still bears his name. He served in the revolution while his wife and chil- dren remained here. Near him Caleb Hanson settled in 1802. Deacon Nathaniel Bragg lived on the pond road, near where he is buried; and before 1797 Josiah Ward, Thomas Bragg, James Lancaster, Ebenezer Farwell and Edward Fairfield were residents of the town. A. Mr. McLaughlin, whose son, Abram, was born here in 1785, had been a resident for some time. Lewis Webber settled northwest of South China, where William F. Mills lives. He had three. sons-John, Syl- vanus and Ephraim. Jedediah Jepson, a Friend minister, lived near the town house before 1782; and east of Crossman Corner, about that time Dr. John Hall settled. Before 1803 Jesse Martin, Samuel Lewis (son of Rev. Jabez Lewis), James Meader, Jonathan Robinson and Abel Jones were residents of the town. Benjamin Burgess bought of David Braley, jun., part of lot 21, in August, 1802. The deed was witnessed by Abraham Burrell, justice of the peace.

South of Weeks Mills Jonathan Plummer settled about 1823. He and two brothers-Timothy and Benjamin-moved from Vermont to Jefferson, Me., where Samuel, one of Jonathan's twelve children, was born in 1804. Jonathan built the house where Samuel's son, Frank C. Plummer, lives, and here Samuel died in 1886. Robert Morton had built an earlier house on the same farm. South of this, where John F. Plummer lives, Joseph Day first settled, and built a log house south of the present buildings. The old house where Major Weeks lived was subsequently enlarged by Captain William Mosher and is occupied by his grandson, A. P. Mosher.

ECCLESIASTICAL .- The religious views of the citizens are varied. Aside from the Society of Friends (see page 280), whose faith came

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

with the first settlers, the first to organize was the First Baptist church of Harlem, in 1797. Rev. Job Chadwick was their first preacher, and he supplied the church for eight years, and occasionally for several years afterward. From their record, beginning October 2, 1819, it appears that the original members were: Deacon Nathaniel Bragg, Samuel Webb, Isaac Bragg. Michael Norton, Joseph and Nathaniel Evans, Jonathan Gray, Nathan Thomas, Nathan Bragg, Ezekiel Lancaster, Abraham Burrell, Thomas Ward, Hannah, Esther and Betsey Burrell, Betsey Norton, Sarah Webb, Hannah Bragg, Rhoda Haskell, Miriam Dolton, Mercy Ward, Mary Mitchell, Polly Lancaster, Lydia and Anna Fairfield, Hannah Andrus, Susannah Bragg, Roxey Parmenter, Betsey Boynton, Nancy, Saphronia and Nabby Rowe.

Their meetings, in 1819, were held in a school house near Deacon Bragg's. Subsequently they built a small church, which is now the residence of Deacon Bragg's daughter-Mrs. Rowe. The records in the oldest book close with the first meeting in 1827. The clerks were faithful men and their record is their best monument. With them the Bible was more familiar than the spelling book. A church meeting in April, 1818, " met acording to an apintment att the Schoolhows near Dea. Bragg to inquire into reports that wass Circulating in the world. 1. ly maid Chois of Dea. Nathaniel Bragg moderator. 2. ly opned the meeting by prayer By Dea. Bragg. 3. ly after hearing B Weeb's decklration and that he was wronfully accuesed the Church Voted to hold him Still in Younin."

The old record evinces the zeal of the early Baptists for the purity of their church as well as charity for the wayward members, but when doctrinal grounds were encroached upon heroic treatment was resorted to, as " Voted to withdraw fellowship from Mariam Dolton for leaving us and Joining the friends."

The society prospered and after the uniting of the towns of China and Harlem it became the Second church of China and, on lands given by Ebenezer Meiggs, they erected a brick meeting house at South China. This served a generation, and on May 10, 1856, they voted to sell it at auction. On its site a larger wooden building was erected in 1862. The church took active part in the temperance movement of 1860-70, and on October 1, 1869, the meeting house was set on fire by a liquor man and destroyed. The site is now occupied by the Friends' meet- ing house at South China.

A manuscript preserved by the family of Deacon Enos Clark, and covering the years from January 1, 1852, to July 20, 1878, appears as the record of the Second Baptist church in China. Albert H. Clark was the clerk until May, 1868; Jonathan Clark succeeded him until May, 1875, when Stephen B. Clark continued the records until their close. The pastors were: Enos Trask, December 19, 1852; Ira H. Brown, July, 1854; Daniel Bartlett, October, 1855; William Bowler,

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May, 1857, resigned September, 1862; M. J. Kelley, October, 1864, to March, 1866. It appears that Rev. Kelley received $600 per annum, of which the church at Vassalboro paid $70. Out of its proper order this statement appears in the records of this society: " Rev. William Bowler was pastor from 1832 to 1849 and six months in 1851. Daniel Bartlett was pastor in 1850."

A Baptist meeting house was erected in 1814 on a knoll near the old muster ground to the east of the head of the lake. The site of the house was then in Fairfax, not far from Dow's primitive grist mill. In 1822 the building was hauled across to the site where the present church stands. The society of thirty-nine members was or- ganized in China May 23, 1801, and included seventeen who had pre- viously been members of the First Baptist church of Vassalboro. About 1835 the present church was built and the old edifice taken down.

In the earliest preserved records of the society, which were badly kept, the first mention of a pastor is "October, 1805; Elder Jabez Lewis was dismissed from the pastoral care of the church." "1806, Brother Stephen Dexter was licensed to preach the Gospel." In 1812, " Elder Stephen Dexter was chosen pastor; " in 1817, " Elder Jabez Lewis was chosen pastor," and in 1823, "Hadley Proctor was ordained pastor." He remained in charge of the society until 1826. Other early pastors mentioned without date are William Bartlett and Henry Kendall. From 1840 the successive pastors were: Benjamin F. Shaw, 1840; Lebias Kingman, 1849; William H. Evans, 1852; Hosea Pierce, 1853; William Hurlin, 1856; Adoniram J. Nelson, 1858; E. S. Fish, 1861; Adoniram J. Nelson, 1863; F. A. Vinal, 1866; Eben C. Stover, 1869; Ira Emery, 1871; William P. Palmer, 1874; supplies, 1875; Judson B. Bryant, 1889, and supplies, 1890-2.

The building is in good repair, and the society owns a comfortable parsonage near the church edifice. The Sunday school has from thirty-five to forty scholars.

In 1812 a third Baptist church, of twenty-six members, was organ- ized in Harlem and continued fifteen years; but by advice of the asso- ciation it united with the second. William Bowler had charge of this church for many years.

That the Jesse Lee Methodism was here as early as in the adjoining towns, there is no doubt, but the early records are very deficient. Meet- ings were held in the school houses until the erection of a church in 1842. The successive pastors of later years have been: 1866, Moses W. New- hurst; 1868, Charles B. Besse; 1870, David P. Thompson; 1872, B. C. Wentworth; 1876, Jacob F. Crosby; 1878, Charles H. Bray, who died in China in 1879; 1879, William J. Clifford; 1881, J. C. Lamb; 1883, E. S. Gahan; 1886, William B. Eldridge; 1888, E. A. Glidden; 1890,

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

James Byram and Edward Freeman; and in May, 1891, F. W. Brooks. The records of the East Maine Conference show that Elliot B. Fletcher was credited to China in 1861; Benjamin C. Wentworth, 1875-7: and Jacob F. Crosby, 1878-9.

The Freewill Baptist Society, of Branch Mills, was organized June 17, 1862, with thirteen members, and the society has supported regu- lar preaching in the Union church there for one-half the time for years past. Rev. A. B. Brown began his pastorate in September, 1890, preaching every Sunday afternoon.

The Christian Connection was organized May 29, 1859, with forty members. Preaching at the Union church, Branch Mills, was sup- ported by them one-fourth of the time for about ten years.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 133

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