Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 23

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 23

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The Pittston and Chelsea Farmers' Union was organized Decem- ber 2, 1882, and held annual fairs at Chelsea Grange Hall till merged into the South Kennebec Agricultural Society, March 2, 1889. It also held meetings for the discussion of farm subjects.

In many towns local agricultural societies holding town fairs have existed for many years. One of the oldest of these town societies is that at Litchfield, which was organized in 1859, and held its first fair in that year. About 1870 Harvey Springer built a half mile track on his land at Litchfield Plains, and offered the use of track and adjoin- ing grounds for fair purposes to the society, free, on condition that they erect an exhibition hall on the grounds for fair purposes. By special act of the legislature the town appropriated $500 for this pur- pose, and fairs have been held there uninterruptedly from 1859 to 1890, inclusive. For a few years after occupying the new grounds there were races in connection with the fairs, but for several years past there has been no trotting at the exhibition. The Litchfield town fairs have been among the most celebrated local fairs in the state. One of the next oldest local organizations is the Monmouth Farmers' and Mechanics' Club, organized in the winter of 1871-2, which has held annual fairs that have been among the best in the state. Other towns that have maintained annual fairs are: Sidney, Belgrade, Pitts- ton, Chelsea, Albion, China and Vassalboro. The following named Granges have also held excellent Grange fairs: Capital, Augusta; Cushnoc, Riverside; Oak Grove, Vassalboro. All these societies have exerted an important influence upon the improvement and develop- ment of the agricultural operations and practices of the Kennebec valley.

The State Agricultural Society, incorporated in 1855, was in reality a product of Kennebec county, and held fairs at Gardiner in 1855, and in Augusta in 1858, 1859 and 1872. The state board of agriculture, organized in 1852, has always held its annual meetings at Augusta; and in recent years farmers' institutes have been held at leading points in the county two or three times each year. From the meetings of the Maine Pomological and Horticultural Society, organized in 1847, the farmers and orchardists of Kennebec county derived great benefit; as well as from the meetings for discussion and annual exhibitions of the State Pomological Society, organized at Winthrop, in 1873. The Maine Dairymen's Association, organized in Augusta in 1874, had for its earliest and most earnest advocates the leading dairymen in the county, and its headquarters were here for many years. Farmers of

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Kennebec county have had a great share in the organization and management of these bodies.

In 1869 the state board of agriculture recommended to the county societies that a portion of the state bounty be expended in the work of forming farmers' clubs in the several towns within their jurisdic- tion. Under this recommendation many such clubs were organized in the rural communities throughout the county, which held meetings for discussion, local fairs and farmers' festivals. They were produc- tive of great good, but have given place to the Granges of Patrons of Husbandry. This order was introduced into the county in 1874, Mon- mouth Grange, the thirty-ninth Grange formed in the state, having been organized October 3, 1874, with eighteen charter members, as the first Grange instituted in the county; Mark Getchell, master; M. H. Butler, secretary. This Grange now has a membership of fifty. There are now twenty Granges in the county, with a total membership in 1891 of 1,492. Eight of these Granges own their own halls. The Pomona Grange of Kennebec County was organized at Winthrop, January, 1879, and holds monthly meetings at the halls of the different subordinate Granges in the county. This order, admitting women to all the privileges of membership, has been productive of a good work in elevating the social position of the farmer's family, and carrying to a higher standard the practical, educational and business methods of the farmers themselves.

FARM MACHINERY .- The spirit of inquiry, investigation and desire for improvement manifested by the early farmers of the county in those lines of farm work relating to stock, grains, fruits and better methods of husbandry, led equally to early efforts for obtaining better tools and machines with which to perform the work of the farm in a more rapid and less laborious manner.

Threshing grain by the hand flail being one of the hardest parts of farm work, the threshing machine was one of the first things to be studied out. Mr. Jacob Pope, of Hallowell, was the first person to introduce such a machine to the notice of farmers, his efforts in the way of invention having been commenced in 1826. The Pope ma- chine went by hand, and by turning a crank a series of mallets or swingles came over upon a table on which the heads of the grain had been placed by the man tending it, and thus the grain was pounded out. It threshed the grain well, but it was found to be harder work to turn the crank than to swing the flail. Mr. Balon, of Livermore, soon after the Pope machine was made, got up an improvement upon it, which consisted of a cylinder, operated by horse power, which was attached to an old cider mill sweep, the gearing being very simple and the horse going round in a circle. This was abandoned, and Samuel Lane, of Leeds, probably acting upon Mr. Balon's idea, set about making an endless chain one-horse power with a cylinder hav-

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ing high gearing. This was regarded as very successful when com- pleted, in 1833. The Lane machine had no sooner become successful than the brothers, Hiram and John A. Pitts, of Winthrop, conceived the idea of making a wider endless chain of wood and mounting two horses upon it, thus doubling the power and the speed. At the same time that the Messrs. Pitts were at work upon their machine, Mr. Luther Whitman, of Winthrop, was also experimenting in the same direction. Each of these parties got several patents, and much litiga- tion followed as to the priority of their inventions. Mr. Whitman com- menced working upon his idea of a thresher in 1832, and completed it in 1834, essentially similar to the Pitts machine. The brothers Pitts and Mr. Whitman also worked upon the idea of combining the horse power thresher with the separator and winnower, and both accomplished the results sought. While it has been generally conceded that the Pitts combined machine was the original machine, it has also been admitted that Mr. Whitman was the first to use the uninterrupted rod as in use at the present day, with slight changes, and Mr. Whitman also in- vented in 1838 the reversible tooth for threshing machines, the same tooth that is in use to this day. It is also claimed that the first per- fect thresher, with a straw-carrier attachment and winnowing machine combined ever made in the world, was made by Luther Whitman, at Winthrop, in the year 1834. Mr. Whitman was born in Bridgewater, Mass., in 1802, and after his success in inventing the threshing ma- chine established a factory for their construction at Winthrop, where he was in business till his death, January 26, 1881. The horse power thresher and separator of to-day is virtually the Pitts-Whitman ma- chine, and from Kennebec county it has gone into almost every state in the Union.

In 1827 Mr. Moses B. Bliss, of Pittston, invented a " movable hay press," and in 1828 Mr. Samuel Lane, of Hallowell, invented a corn- sheller, which consisted of a cog or spur-wheeled cylinder, from which all the standard hand-power corn-shellers now in use have descended.

Previous to 1840 the hand tools of the farm, of iron or steel, like forks, scythes, sickles, axes and hoes, were made by hand by the vil- lage blacksmith, but were heavy, bungling affairs. In 1841 Mr. Jacob Pope, of Hallowell, commenced the manufacture of the first polished spring steel hay and manure forks ever made in Maine, continuing the business down to about 1870, his goods having a high reputation. Elias Plimpton commenced the manufacture of hoes by machinery at Litchfield in 1820, coming from Walpole, Mass., being the first person to make hoes by machinery in this state. In 1845 Plimpton & Sons began the manufacture of manure and hay forks in connection with hoes, which his sons still continue. The manufacture of scythes

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by machinery was first commenced in this county at North Wayne, in 1840, by the late R. B. Dunn.

AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS .- To Kennebec county belongs the honor of having established the first institution in North America devoted to technical agricultural and industrial education, the personal honor of which is due to the first Robert Hallowell Gardiner, of Gardiner. In a petition to the legislature of Maine in 1821, asking for a grant of one thousand dollars for aid in establishing an institution "to give mechanics and farmers such a scientific education as would enable them to become skilled in their professions," this distinguished and far-seeing philanthropist said: "It is an object of very great impor- tance to any state * * that its artisans should possess an edu- cation adapted to make them skillful and able to improve the ad- vantages which nature has so lavishly bestowed upon them. * * * The recent improvements in chemistry which give the knowledge of the nature of fertile and barren soils and the best mode of improving them, render the importance of a scientific education to her farmers much greater than at any other period." This, copied from the peti- tion written by Mr. Gardiner, shows the idea which he had of the class of college or school so much needed in his time for giving a " liberal " education to farmers, and foreshadows exactly the colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts now existing in all the states, under the endowment of the Morrill Land Grant bill of 1862; and Mr. Gardiner in pleading with the state to establish such a school, was actually a whole generation in advance of his time, as it was not till more than forty years later that these colleges were established under the patronage of the general government.

Mr. Gardiner succeeded in obtaining a yearly grant of $1,000 from the state, and the " Gardiner Lyceum " was incorporated in 1821. A stone building for its use was erected in 1822, and on January 1, 1823, the Lyceum was formally opened to pupils, Rev. Benjamin Hale, born in Newbury, Mass., November 23, 1797, and once a tutor in Bow- doin College, being president of the Lyceum from 1823 to 1827. After leaving Gardiner, Mr. Hale was professor of chemistry in Dartmouth College from 1827 to 1835, and from 1836 to 1858 president of Geneva College, New York. He died July 15, 1863. The course of study at the Lyceum was arranged for two years, and there were twenty stu- dents the first year. The courses may be generally described as a chemical, and a mechanical one. The former comprised lectures on the principles of chemical science, on agricultural chemistry, on dye- ing, bleaching, pottery, porcelain, cements and tanning. The latter course embraced lectures on mechanical principles, dynamics, hydro- statics, hydraulics and carpentry. Later a course in mineralogy was included. In 1824 Dr. Ezekiel Holmes was engaged as “ permanent professor in agriculture," and in connection with this professorship the trustees undertook the management of a practical farm in connec-

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tion with the Lyceum, where experiments in agriculture were tried. where the students were allowed to work to diminish the expense of board, and "to give the future agriculturist the knowledge of those principles of science upon which his future success depends, and an opportunity to see them reduced to practice." In order to accommo- date those students whose business during the summer months made it impossible for them to join the regular classes, winter classes were established in surveying, navigation, chemistry, carpentry and civil architecture. These "winter classes " corresponded to the "short courses " in special branches now given at some of our agricultural colleges.

This outline shows the general scope and character of the institu- tion. After Mr. Hale's resignation of the office of president the Ly- ceum was severally in charge of Edmund L. Cushing, Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, Mr. Whitman and Jason Winnett, as presidents or principals. Its classes were well kept up for many years, at one time the scholars numbering fifty-three. The Lyceum had a good library and creditable collections, and the students were encouraged to make collections of specimens illustrating the geology and flora of the section, which were deposited in the museum. Finally the state withdrew its yearly ap- propriations, and for two or three years subsequently it was main- tained almost entirely at the expense of Mr. Gardiner himself. The property of the Lyceum, after having remained unused in the hands of the trustees for several years, was sold to the city of Gardiner in 1857, and the building occupied as a high school. The proceeds were divided pro rata among the original stockholders, and the first agri- cultural and industrial college in the United States ceased to exist.

CATTLE .- As cattle are the real basis of successful agriculture, the farmers of the province of Maine had their cows and oxen as soon as they had homes. The so-called " natives " or " old red cattle of New England " -- about which so much has been written in agricultural lit- erature-were a mixture of the Devons, brought over by the Pilgrims of Plymouth; some " black cattle " brought by trading ship-masters from the West Indies or the Spanish Main; the Danish cattle brought to Piscataqua by Captain John Mason in 1631, " for the purpose of furnishing milk to the fishermen," and the importation made by Dr. Benjamin Vaughan and his brother, Charles, of Hallowell, in 1791-2. This importation marks the commencement of improved stock breed- ing in this county, and consisted of two bulls and two cows, which ar- rived in Hallowell in November, 1791. These cattle were selected with great care, the bulls-from the celebrated Smithfield market, were of the Longhorn or Bakewell breed; the cows from the London dairies, which were supplied mostly from animals of the Holderness or York- shire breed. The instructions given their London agent by the Messrs. Vaughan are interesting, and show how particular they were

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to obtain animals specially adapted to a new country. Points were to be observed which would fit the draft stock for a hilly country, and they were also to select animals well fitted for the dairy, and were " to. look to the quality rather than the quantity of the milk." Great stress was laid on their having full hindquarters for the ascent of hills, and full forequarters and prominent briskets for the descent.

How well the breed proved for draft purposes was shown at the first cattle show held in Hallowell in 1821, where their descendants were on exhibition. A yoke of oxen, girting an inch or two over seven feet, drew with ease a cart loaded with stone weighing 7,200 pounds; and a yoke of bulls, girting six feet and two inches, drew for ten rods " with perfect ease " a drag loaded with stone which weighed 3,800 pounds. A calf of one of these cows was presented to Hon .. Christopher Gore, of Massachusetts, and became the progenitor of the celebrated "Gore breed " of cattle so famous for years in that state .. These Longhorn and Holderness cattle of the Vaughan importation were very long-lived, and their descendants were hardy and vigorous .. Many of the cows continued to breed till eighteen years old, and the oxen proved great workers. The Vaughans used the males of their- herds in a way to benefit the early settlers in this county and the ad- jacent territory as much as possible. Hence they were not only kept on their extensive farms at Hallowell, but were sent to prominent farmers in other Kennebec county towns, in the Sandy river valley and other parts, and were frequently changed. By this course their progeny soon became numerous. The Vaughans continued to breed from descendants of their first importation until about 1820.

In Coggeshall's American Privateers and Letters of Marque (page 47), it is said that the brig " Peter Waldo, from Newcastle, England, for Halifax, with a full cargo of British manufactures, clearing the captors $100,000, was sent into Portland in August, 1812, by the Teaser of New York." In this vessel was a Methodist minister and his fam- ily bringing their effects to the British Provinces, and they had among them a bull and cow of the Holderness breed. As all the goods cap- tured were sold, these cattle were among them, and descendants of them, known as the " Prize " stock, soon found their way to Sidney and Vassalboro. The late John D. Lang, of Vassalboro, some years. since, gave the writer a very interesting account of this breed, which may be found in the Agriculture of Maine for 1874, p. 247.

Durhams or Shorthorns .- The earlier importations of cattle into- this country, after systematic efforts had been undertaken in their breeding by leading farmers of Massachusetts, were of the Durham, afterward more popularly called the Shorthorn breed. The first in- dividual of this breed ever brought into Kennebec county was a bull known as " Young Cœlebs "-said to have been a half blood-bred by Colonel Samuel Jaques, of Charlestown, Mass., and brought to Hal-

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lowell in 1825 by General Jesse Robinson-a gentleman very active in the promotion of agriculture and the improvement of stock in his day. After a few years this bull was sold to John Kezar, of Win- throp, and acquired much celebrity in the western part of the county as the " Kezar bull." Splendid stock descended from him, both in oxen and cows, but as he was pure white many farmers objected, as white has never been a popular color for cattle. In 1826 the white bull " Hercules," bred by Samuel Lee, of Massachusetts, was brought by General Henry Dearborn to Pittston, where he was kept for several years and afterward was taken to Winthrop. This same year a bull called " Jupiter," also bred by Colonel Jaques, was brought to Hal- lowell by John Davis. He was kept in that town, also in Readfield, Winthrop and Wayne, and left choice stock in each, the good influ- ence of which was apparent for nearly half a century.

What is believed to have been the first thoroughbred Durham brought into the state was the imported bull " Denton," presented by Stephen Williams, Esq., of Northboro, Mass., to the late Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, then of Gardiner, where he arrived in November, 1827. The animals introduced before " Denton " were half-bloods. He was im- ported by Mr. Williams, through the agency of his brother, then residing in London, and arrived in Boston November 5, 1817. Mr. Williams kept "Denton " until the fall of 1827, when he was pre- sented to his friend, Doctor Holmes, of Gardiner. He was kept in 1828 in Gardiner, and in 1829 was carried to Doctor Holmes' farm in Starks, where he died from old age in 1830. The change made in the character of the neat cattle of Kennebec county by the introduction of this animal was remarkable. Writing of him in 1855, Doctor Holmes said he might justly be regarded as one of the patriarchs of the New England Shorthorns, and the chief source of this improved blood found in so large a proportion in the early herds of Kennebec county, and, in fact, of the whole state-for his calves were widely dissemi- nated throughout Maine and have done a great deal to give this county the high reputation it has had for its choice herds of Short- horns.

In 1828 Colonel R. H. Greene, of Winslow, introduced into that town two bulls known as " Tasso" and " Banquo," imported from England by John Hare Powell, of Virginia. These finely bred ani- mals were kept in Winslow three years, and subsequently one of them in Winthrop one year, and one in Augusta one year, leaving fine stock in each town. Colonel Greene, between 1828 and 1834, also brought several animals of the Shorthorn breed from New York, some of which were imported, among them the bull " Young Fitz Favorite," an animal of much good reputation; an imported animal having been brought to New York by Robert B. Minturn from the herd of Mr. Ashcroft, one of the leading cattle breeders of the West of England;

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the bull " Young Comet." by the celebrated bull " Wye Comet," and also the bull " Fairfield," purchased of E. P. Prentice, of Albany, N. Y. Robert Cornforth and Thomas Pierce, of Readfield-farmers who were foremost in Western Kennebec in the improvement of the breeds of cattle-each introduced Shorthorns into that town in 1829 and 1830. Mr. Cornforth introduced the bull " Turk," and Mr. Pierce kept the bulls " Uranus " and "Gold-finder," both by " Young Denton." Their history is recorded in glowing language in our early agricultural an- nals, and they deserve mention in any history of the live stock industry of Kennebec county. They gave an impress to the high character of the early herds of the county, traces of which are very plainly evi- dent down to the present day.

" Denton," "Young Cœlebs," "Fitz Favorite," "Banquo," "Comet," " Foljambe " and " Wye Comet " were all recorded in the early vol- umes of the English Shorthorn Herd Book, establishing beyond all question the purity of the thoroughblood of these early animals, the progeny of which formed the basis of the neat cattle of Kennebec county. Moreover, at this early date the cattle of this county had ac- quired so high a reputation that animals had been sent to Massachu- setts and even as far west as Ohio; nearly every town in this county pos- sessed thoroughbred animals, and they had also been widely dissemi- nated in Somerset, Waldo, Penobscot, Franklin and York counties.

With the breeding of Shorthorns, as well as others, there was a period between 1835 and 1850 when interest seemed to lessen. The earlier breeders had died or given up active efforts through advanc- ing age, and the younger farmers had not then felt that impetus in the business which was developed later. The character of the stock had been kept up to a high standard, there were good cross-breeds all over the county, and it was not till deterioration became evident in the leading herds that younger farmers took up the responsibility of obtaining high priced registered stock from abroad, or improving the best of that which remained. Prominent farmers who gave much effort to stock improvement between 1835 and 1853 were: Oakes How- ard, Winthrop; R. H. Greene and Isaac W. Britton, Winslow; Sulli- van Kilbreth and Samuel Currier, Hallowell; Allen Lambard, Au- gusta; Joseph H. Underwood, Sewall N. Watson and Francis Hub- bard, Fayette; Josiah N. Fogg, S. H. Richardson and Colonel D. Craig, Readfield; Amos Rollins, Belgrade; John F. Hunnewell, China; Har- rison Jaquith, Albion; Josiah Morrill and Isaiah Marston, Waterville, and Luther and Bradford Sawtell; Sidney.

In 1859 Warren Percival of Cross' Hill, Vassalboro, commenced the building up of a herd of thoroughbred Shorthorns by purchasing animals of William S. Grant, of Farmingdale. Subsequently Mr. Per- cival, at different dates, purchased animals of Paoli Lathrop, Augustus Whitman and other breeders in Massachusetts, George Butts, of Man-

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lius, N. Y., and others. In breeding he aimed at great perfection in symmetry, hardy constitution 'and high milking qualities, and for many years was the foremost breeder of this class of stock in Maine. At one time his herd consisted of 125 animals, although sixty head was about the average number kept while he was engaged in his largest farming operations. His yearly sales extended throughout New England and the Provinces. His first appearance in the Ameri- .can Shorthorn Herd Book as a registered breeder, was in volume V, for 1860, and for the next seventeen volumes Mr. Percival's name appears among those of the great American breeders of this class of stock, with the pedigrees of a large number of finely bred animals-in vol- ume IX, for 1870, twenty-seven being recorded, his herd then being at the height of its popularity. Mr. Percival was an important figure in Maine agriculture for many years. His death occurred July 17, 1877, upon the homestead where he was born March 27, 1819.

John D. Lang, of Vassalboro, was one of the earlier breeders of Shorthorns, having bred from the old stock. But in 1860, in connec- tion with his son, Thomas S. Lang, they imported animals into that town from the herds of Paoli Lathrop, of Massachusetts, and Samuel Thorne, of New York, and bred with a good deal of spirit. In 1864 they exhibited a herd of thirty-two head of thoroughbred Shorthorns at the fair of the North Kennebec Agricultural Society, but soon after disposed of their animals to give attention to another class of stock. Henry Taylor, a Boston business man, who established a stock farm in Waterville in 1866, bred Shorthorns for five or six years, bringing to that town animals from the celebrated herd of R. A. Alexander, of Lexington, Ky. His operations were discontinued about 1870. Levi A. Dow, of Waterville, commenced breeding Shorthorns in 1868, his name appearing in nearly every volume of the American Herd Book as a leading breeder of this stock from that year to the year 1882. His first purchases were from the herds of Paoli Lathrop and H. G. White, of Massachusetts, and later from those of home breeders. Samuel G. Otis, of Hallowell, was quite extensively engaged in breed- ing Shorthorns between the years 1872 and 1881. His foundation ani- mals were obtained of Jonathan Talcott, Rome, N. Y., and others from Warren Percival and breeders in Massachusetts. At one time Mr. Otis' herd numbered fully twenty individuals. The great herds of this breed formerly kept in the county have been greatly reduced or entirely broken up-the Jerseys having superseded them as dairy animals and the Herefords taken their places for work and beef.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 23

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