Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 138

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 138

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).

In a letter to his father, telling of the wound which he knew was fatal, he expressed the thought that it was preferable for him to die in the defense of his country's flag than live to see it disgraced. His comrades who returned, showed their appreciation of his worth and honor, when they organized the G. A. R. post in Windsor, by giving it his name. (See page 169). The sword which he carried, together with his life-size portrait and an elegant flag, are the gift of the family to the Post.

Thus the oft-repeated tale-a bright, promising man with the blush of youth still on his cheek, willingly laid down his life to pre- serve that of his country.

Joseph E. Wight, born in 1830, in Augusta, is a son of Joseph and Mary (Merrill) Wight and grandson of Timothy Wight, who came from Massachusetts to Monmouth, where he reared a large family of boys. Joseph Wight was born in 1786, and died in 1869. He had six sons: Lewis, John H., Joseph E., Nathan, Frederick D. and Amos. Joseph E. Wight married Lucy J., daughter of Robert and Mary J. (Allen) Studley, of Windsor. Their children are: Willard A., who is located in Trinidad, Colorado, where he is superintendent of the gas and electric light company; Hattie M., married C. F. Turner, of Trini- dad, Col .; Robert L., on the farm with his father, and Amos B., a sheep raiser in Colorado.

CHAPTER XLV.

TOWN OF ALBION .*

Original Settlers .- Incorporation .- Natural Features .- "Puddle Dock" and Poet Hoxie .- Old Town House .- Early Taverns .- Mills .- Stores .- The Old Elms. -- Churches. -- Cemeteries. - Post Offices. - Civil Lists .- Schools. - Town Farm .- Grange .- Personal Paragraphs.

J JUST who was the original settler in the territory now embraced in the town of Albion cannot be definitely ascertained, but the weight of evidence seems to point to Rev. Daniel Lovejoy as the one best entitled to this distinction. Lovejoy was a Congregational min- ister, who came to Albion prior to 1790, and settled on the west shore of the pond that bears his name. His house, which still stands, is oc- cupied by Mrs. Susan Baker. Elder Lovejoy preached in the old town house as far back as 1815; and in June, 1833, he caused the greatest sensation the quiet community had ever known by hanging himself in his barn. His sons, Elijah Parris, Joseph and Owen, achieved notoriety elsewhere. Elijah went to Alton, Ill., where he established a newspaper, and was mobbed about 1840, for his abolition sentiments; Joseph went to Massachusetts, entered the ministry, and created a stir by coming out as an anti-prohibitionist; and Owen was sent to congress as a member of the Illinois delegation.

In 1790 the town contained but six families, and among these were the Crosbys, Shoreys, Prays and Libbeys, the three last named having emigrated here from York county. Robert, the first Crosby in the town, settled near the foot of the pond, on land, a part of which is now owned by his grandson, Ora O. Crosby; Samuel Shorey settled on "Shorey Ridge," on the farm now occupied by his grand- son, Erastus Shorey; Zebulon Pray took up the farm on which John Baker now lives; and Deacon Benjamin Libbey, with his son Oliver, lived on "Libbey hill," in the southern part of the town. Daniel, son of Samuel Shorey, afterward settled where Gustavus B. Shorey now lives; and Phineas, brother of Daniel, occupied the farm now owned by Davis McDonald. About the same time Warren Drake settled on "Drake hill;" Codding, brother of Warren, took up the farm occupied now by John Carter; and Washington, a third brother,

*Thanks are due to Mark Rollins, Esq., of Waterville, a native of Albion (1820) for kindly revising this chapter, except the personal paragraphs .- [ED.

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settled where his son, Washington, now lives. These three brothers had thirty-eight children, all born in Albion.

Other original settlers were: Benjamin Webb (father of Joseph, who was born in 1803, and grandfather of Edmund F., of Waterville), who took up the land on which George H. Crosby's mansion now stands; Deacon John Fall, who lived on the farm at present occupied by his grandson, George Fall; James Hanscom, who settled on the west side of the pond on the farm where his son, George, now lives; Jonathan Cammett, who took up the farm now the property of John Shay; Gibbs Tilton, who settled the land now owned by Hannibal J. Drake; Dea. Stephen Hussey, who settled where Tristram Fall now lives; Dennis Getchell, who located near the Unity line, on the farm now occupied by Archibald Tozier; Southard Phillips, who lived on the land now owned by Dennis G. Mudgett; and Samuel Stackpole, who lived across the way from Mr. Phillips.

In 1802 this territory was organized as Freetown plantation; and March 9, 1804, it became by incorporation Fairfax, the one hundred and fifty-second town in the state. This name was subsequently changed to that of Lygonia; and February 25, 1824, was again altered to Albion.

It is the most easterly town in this county, and is bounded north by Benton, Unity Plantation and Unity; east by Freedom, south by . Palermo and China, and west by Winslow. The territory included within the town is about six miles square, the southern portion of it being much broken by hills. The prevailing rock is granite, and the soil in the western part is a clay loam quite easily cultivated. The only considerable body of water, Lovejoy pond, lies toward the west- ern boundary, and is one and a half miles long by one mile wide. Its overflow forms a branch of Fifteen mile stream, which crosses the town from northwest to southeast.

The greater number of the present inhabitants of Albion are descendants of the original settlers, or of those who followed closely in their footsteps. Among the latter were Samuel Kidder, who, about 1800, settled where his grandson, Waldo Kidder, son of Daniel, now lives; and Captain Samnel Sibley, who about the same time took up the farm now occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Margaret Stinson. Coming with them, or soon afterward, were: Captain Edward Taylor, who lived on the place Bert Skillins now occupies; Deacon Ebenezer Buxton, who settled where Augustus Libbey formerly lived; Moses Robinson, whose farm is now owned by Andrew J. Robinson; John Frye, who settled on the land now occupied by Holden Chalmers; and Ephraim Bessey, who lived near Frye, on the farm now owned by his son, Alfred Bessey.

Sonth Albion has been colloquially known for over seventy-five years as " Puddle Dock," a name bestowed on the little mill dam there

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by an old settler, one Matthew Hoxie, who enjoyed a considerable reputation as a local wit. A specimen of his powers in this direction has been handed down to an admiring posterity. Coming home to. dinner one day, and finding his wife absent, he seized a bit of chalk and wrote over the mantel-piece the following impromptu verse:

" I have a little wife whose name is Salome, She's always away and never at home ; Sick or well, it makes no odds, She's in to Reed's, or over to Broad's."

The Broad referred to in this inspired effort was Thaddeus, whose father, Josiah, drove the first ox-team and wagon into town from Mas- sachusetts, about 1804, and settled where Charles Fuller now lives .. Josiah and his sons, Josiah, jun., and Thaddeus, built a saw and grist mill prior to 1810, just above the bridge where the old dam on the east branch of Fifteen-mile stream now stands. Josiah, jun., was also a blacksmith, his shop having stood on the site now occupied by the school house. The Reed alluded to by Poet Hoxie was Benjamin,. who came to Puddle Dock about 1810-15, and later set up a black- smith's shop in competition with Josiah Broad, jun. This shop stood near the store kept by Zalmumah and Zebah Washburn, who also had a potash factory below the bridge. This store was near where George Ryder now lives. The present store, kept by Mr. Ryder, was built by his uncle, George Ryder, about 1860. Just across the road from it Benjamin Webb, jun., was in trade, about 1822. He sold out and went West, and the building was made over into a dwelling, but was after- ward torn down. The building in which Charles O. Connor traded at Albion Corner, about 1825, was bought by David B. Fuller, about 1830, and moved down to Puddle Dock, where it stood on the west side of the stream, near where Martin Witham now lives. Farther up the stream Ebenezer Stratton built a saw mill, about 1842; it was operated by David Fisher until about 1862.

Other early settlers at this point were: Alexander Buxton, who, about 1815, settled where John Swears now lives; Peter Staples, who lived east of Buxton, and whose old dwelling was burned about 1872; and Ebenezer Woodsum, who died in 1831, lived where Charles Ful- ler now resides.

From 1804 until about 1812 the meetings of the town were held in barns, or in houses capable of accommodating the voters; but about the latter year measures were taken to provide a suitable and permanent structure for public purposes, and soon after a town house was erected on the old South Albion road, about a mile and a half south of Albion Corner. In 1825 it was moved down the road, about a quarter of a mile, near the dwelling of the late Austin Strat- ton. Here it still stands-the property of Mrs. Hattie Durgin, who

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uses it for a store house-a silent, dingy and shattered witness of the past, when the secret ballot was a thing undreamed of, and everybody knew just how everybody else was going to vote. It was superseded in the fall of 1887 by the present convenient and attractive town house at the village.

About the time the old town house was built, or shortly afterward, Mark Rollins came from Stratham, N. H., and settled near the China line on a farm his son, Mark Rollins, of Waterville, now owns. Not far east of the settler, Mark Rollins, lived Dea. Daniel Woodsum, prior to 1815, on land now owned by Leonard Shorey; and some little distance northwesterly of Rollins, Dea. Jacob Shaw, with five sons, settled, about 1817, where George B. Pray now lives; the dea- con's five sons-Ebenezer, Freeman, Jacob, William and Deacon Cy- rus-taking up farms near by. John Billings came from New Hamp -. shire in 1819, with his son, Sullivan, then eleven years old, and located near the present residence of Hannibal Drake. John was a shoe- maker by trade, and Sullivan became a farmer. The latter still sur- vives, being one of the oldest inhabitants of the town. Prior to 1819, Samuel S. Smiley settled where his son, Erastus, now lives. East of Smiley was Moses Leighton, on the farm now occupied by Charles,. grandson of Samuel S. Smiley; and next east to Leighton, on the Palermo road, was John Bailey. About this time Gibbons McLaugh- lin was living in a log house on the north side of Fifteen-mile stream,. near Shorey's saw mill; Joseph Cole settled where Charles Littlefield now lives; and, Cole leaving shortly afterward, Robbert Abbott came,. and occupied the farm.

EARLY TAVERNS, MILLS AND STORES .-- The first stage route from Augusta to Bangor through Albion was established in 1820 by Bur- leigh & Arnold, the senior member of the firm being the grandfather of Governor Edwin C. Burleigh; and among the old drivers who. drew their steaming horses up before the tavern doors were Vassal D. Pinkham, Billings, Nathaniel Holmes, Calvin Hamlin and Hiram Reed. Before the coaching days, however, Nathan Haywood, one of the first settlers, kept, about 1805-10, a tavern across the road from where Sullivan Billings now lives; and Joel Wellington, another early settler, kept a public house, about 1817, on the farm now owned. by Stillman Chalmers, about three-quarters of a mile east of Albion Corner. The house was afterward burned. For a number of years these two houses were the only places of public entertainment in town; but soon after the stage route to Bangor was established, John Wellington, brother of Joel, opened a tavern at the Corner, and con- ducted it until about 1860, when it was burned. Charles B., son of John, built on the site of the old tavern, soon after it was destroyed, the present and only public house in town, and is still its host.

About the same time that John Wellington went to tavern-keep-

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ing, Ralph Baker also went into the business, and kept an inn at the corner of the China and Benton roads, on the farm now occupied by Chester Drake. At a later date Thomas Burrill started a tavern in the southern part of the town, on the South Belfast road, in the house now occupied by Chester Terris. This point was then known as South Albion. Burrill kept the post office here from 1838 until it was removed to Puddle Dock, the present South Albion, about 1857. He also ran a shingle mill in connection with his tavern, though he abandoned the latter business shortly after the close of the war.

William Chalmers, a Scotchman, came to Albion prior to 1800 and built a grist mill on Fifteen-mile stream, where the present tannery stands. He also built a carding mill near by, but what became of it cannot be ascertained. The old grist mill had two run of stones, and was operated by Scotland, son of William Chalmers, until the site and privilege were sold to George Rigby, between 1825 and 1830. Mr. Rigby built the tannery above referred to, but about 1835 it passed to Joshua Freeman and Theodore Brown, who sold it to Lewis Hopkins. William H. Healey bought it of Hopkins and he, about 1856, sold it to Jonathan B. Besse. It is now operated by the latter's heirs.

Early in the present century there was a small tannery on Aaron French's lot, run by Thomas Bradstreet, father of Samuel H. It was afterward worked by Nahum French.

About 1812 a saw mill was built by Robert Crosby on a small stream in what is known as the "Crosby Neighborhood." Robert ran it until his death, about 1832, when his sons, Robert and Luther, conducted the business until their deaths-Luther's about 1865 and Robert's in 1876. It was then conducted by the latter's son, Ora O. Crosby, until 1886, when it was taken down.

One of the oldest buildings around Albion Corner is the carriage shop directly across the way from Abbott's blacksmith shop. It was originally built for a store, and stood just north of Llewellyn Libbey's present store, at what was formerly known as Baker's Corner. In 1879 Daniel Dean, then the proprietor, moved it down to its present site, and the next year remodeled it into a carriage shop. In 1881 he sold it to Everett G. Wing, who has since occupied it.

Three-quarters of a mile east of the Corner, where the bridge over Fifteen-mile stream now stands, Levi Maynard operated a saw mill and fulling, carding and grist mills about 1817. The carding mill was afterward bought by Joel and John Wellington and removed to the outlet of Lovejoy's pond. About 1852 this mill was burned, and on its site, fifteen years later, Jonathan B. Besse built the present saw and shingle mill. He sold to Stillman Chalmers about 1880, and the latter's son, John, now conducts the business. Maynard's other mills were carried away by a freshet, and in 1827 John Pender erected a similar set of mills further down the stream, but they were also car-

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ried away. Undismayed by the portentous history of former ventures, two saw mills were erected in 1847 on Pender's old site, one by Ralph Baker, the other by Samuel Downs; but disaster still attended the spot, and in 1857 the mills were burned.

Phineas and Daniel Shorey built a saw mill on their land about 1822, and it was operated by them and their sons until the lumber was all cut away and the mill destroyed by flood. Another mill was built a mile up the stream about 1867, and is now run by Gustavus B. Shorey.

About 1827 a saw mill was erected by Vincent Pratt on the east side of a small confluent of Fifteen-mile stream. The mill was on the Pratt road leading from Puddle Dock, but was abandoned years ago.

On a small stream in the extreme northern part of the town, on the road from the Corner to East Benton, Thomas and James Fowler built a shingle, saw, and lath mill about 1842, and it is still operated by their sons.

Near his house in the southwestern part of the town, on a brook emptying into the west branch of Fifteen-Mile stream, Otis Fall built a saw mill about 1862, and operated it for nearly a score of years, when he abandoned the business.

Benjamin F. Abbott built the blacksmith shop north of the pres- ent town house in 1866, and ran it until 1889, when he retired from the business, and was succeeded by his son, Charles W. The smithy south of the town house, at Baker's Corner, was built in 1880, by Lloyd Wesley Drake, and has been run by him since that time.

The wants of the early settlers were simple, it is true, but they could not all be supplied from the products of the farm, or the fruits of the home looms, skillful though the good housewives were in man- ufacturing homespun cloths and yarns. Three of the then neces- saries of life could not be raised on any farm in Albion; these were tobacco, molasses and rum, and to supply these, and other less im- perative needs, Dr. Asa Quimby, with a shrewd eye to increasing the scanty income derived from his practice, built and opened a store about 1800 where George Woodes now lives. The history of this ancient emporium, the first in the town of which tradition gives any account, has been strange and varied. After dispensing the aforesaid and other necessaries for about a quarter of a century, the worthy doctor dispensed with the store also, selling it to George Rigby, who moved it down the Bangor road to the corner of the short road lead- ing to his tannery, which he had just built. Here he turned the old store into a currying shop, and conducted the business until about . 1835. When Lewis Hopkins bought the tannery of Rigby's creditors, he also purchased the currying shop, and made of it a dwelling. About 1843 he re-converted it into a store, and thus it remained for many years. William H. Healey bought it about 1856, and ran it for

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four or five years. Healey then removing to Boston, Jonathan B. Besse rented it of him, and conducted the business. Later, Besse pur- chased the store, changed it again into a dwelling, and moved it to where Eben Weymouth now lives, the whilom store thus being his present residence.

Where the hay scales now stand at the Corner, John Wellington built a store about 1817. When the Universalist church was built in 1838, the store stood directly in front of the sanctuary's doors, and, after some parleying, the older structure was removed to its present site on the corner at the top of the hill. Here Mr. Wellington kept the post office for about a decade, and here the waggish Matthew Hoxie traded for awhile, being succeeded by Zelotes Downs and others, and, after them, Hezekiah Stratton, who bought it and ran it until his death, prior to 1873, in which year Charles A. Drake, the present proprietor, purchased it of Stratton's estate.

Some rods south of this old store, at the corner named for him, Ralph Baker traded about 1817. Llewellyn Libbey's present store occupies the site of the old one. Thomas Burrill was Baker's partner for four or five years, when they dissolved partnership, and Andrew E. Leighton rented the store, trading there a few years, and then removing his business to quarters of his own, on the site of Anson Danforth's present residence. Baker's house being destroyed by fire soon after this, he moved his store, and converted it into a dwelling. It is now occupied by Chester Drake. Leighton's old store had quite an eventful history. About 1839 he sold it to Richard Bugden. Still- man Chalmers hired it of the latter until 1846, when he moved down to a new store he had built just east of his present house. Chalmers' store was burned in January, 1880, and in the same year on the same site, he erected a larger store, which was burned in 1888, and never rebuilt.

Bugden died about the time the first store was built by Chalmer's, and as administrator of the estate, Chalmers sold the old Leighton store to Hezekiah Stratton, who moved it down the Bangor road about a mile, and traded there for ten years. He then removed the store to near its original site, and sold it to Walter Kidder, who, after running it several years, sold to Alanson Shepherd, and went to Cali- fornia. Shepherd used it for a paint shop one summer, after which he rented it to Tobias Fitzgerald, who traded in it for eighteen months. Shepherd then sold the building to Fred Brown, who dis- posed of it to Theodore Perkins, who moved it to the south of Charles A. Drake's store, and made it over into a stable. The only other recorded store in Albion, dating back to ante-bellum days, was that built by Jordan Stinson about 1856, on the Bangor road, where . George Littlefield now lives. When Stinson left town, about 1862,

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"the store was sold to George Hopkins, who moved it down back of Drake's store, where it is now occupied as a dwelling.

THE OLD ELMS .- For a hundred rods west of the Corner the road on · each side is fringed with a fine row of elms, though those on the north side are of larger growth than those on the south. And hereby hangs a tale, whose apparent moral should be rather discouraging to the zealous prohibitionist. It seems that in 1845, during the grand temperance agitation in the state, the members of the village Washingtonian Society challenged the anti-prohibitionists to set out a row of trees, against a row to be planted by the society, in order that they might see, in point of development, which side of the hotly-contested ques- tion Dame Nature herself would espouse. The challenge was ac- cepted forthwith. The Washingtonians selected the south side of the street for their experiment in arboriculture, and the anti-teetotalers the north side; and the way Madame Nature decided is to-day apparent to the most casual observer.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES .- About 1815 Oliver Winslow, a wealthy and leading Friend in Albion, built the meeting house on what was then, and still is, known as "Quaker Ridge," in the eastern part of the town. There were but a few Friends here at that time, but the society afterward grew to flourishing proportions. The ancient building still stands, though it is fast falling to decay. Its furniture was removed in the spring of 1892 to the meeting house in Unity.

In the southern part of the town, a few rods from the China line, is a dilapidated structure that was once the church home of the Bap- tist society, organized about 1817. The edifice was built about 1830, when the membership was about 150. Elder Thomas was the first pastor, and was succeeded by Elder Stevens and Elder Copeland. The church was abandoned as a house of worship about 1876. The records of the society are lost, and what Baptists are left in town · attend service at China village.

The Christian Church was organized by Rev. Samuel Nutt, Janu- ary 1, 1825, at the house of Robert Crosby, where Leroy Copeland now lives, with seven members: Robert, Luther, William, Abigail and Ethelind Crosby, and Franklin and Lovina Barton. The present membership of the church is about 140. The society worshipped at the town house for some years, until their church on the Puddle Dock road was built, in 1844. Here services were held until 1869, when they began building a new and attractive edifice at the village. This church was dedicated January 1, 1870, and the old structure sold to Hezekiah Stratton, of whom the Church of Christ society purchased it in 1871.

A Sunday school was organized about 1844 and now numbers some seventy members. The pastors of the Christian church have been: . Samuel Nutt, 1825; Mark H. Shepherd, 1830 to 1836; S. S. Nason, 1840;

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Zebulon Manter, 1849; Samuel Bickford, 1855; David Knowlton, 1864; O. J. Hancock, 1866; B. P. Reed, 1870; H. B. Sawyer, 1873; John W. Tilton, 1874; E. E. Colburn, 1876; L. M. Smith, 1877; J. C. Brown, 1882; J. W. Card, 1883; C. V. Parsons, 1884; J. W. Card, 1885; D. C. Herron, 1886; C. V. Parsons, 1887; and A. H. Martin since 1889.

In the early days of Albion the Universalist creed found strong supporters among the Strattons, Fowlers, Wellingtons, and some of the Crosbys; yet it is rather singular that though an edifice was built in 1838 at the Corner, and still stands, battered and paintless, no steps were ever taken toward a regular church organization. The building was dedicated in 1839, and the Maine General Conference met there in 1840-conclusive proof that the church had then a substantial body of supporters. The building was repaired in 1868, and two years later a Sunday school was established, with about fifty scholars, which flourished a few years. In 1888 an effort was made to revive interest in the church, and only the parish was organized. Among those who preached here in days gone by were the Reverends McFarland, Miller, Locke, Baxter and E. P. Fogg; and, occasionally, G. G. Hamilton and R. H. Aldrich. During the summer of 1892 G. E. Leighton, a young divinity student, held services in the church and succeeded in re- awakening some interest in its behalf.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 138

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