Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 62

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

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H. W. JEWETT, OF FARMINGDALE AND GARDINER .- This family name, now so generally dispersed throughout the American states, first appeared in New England early in 1639, when an English com- pany of sixty people, with forty others, came to Massachusetts, where they, with Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, settled in April of that year, and organized the first church in Rowley. Among the sixty English were two brothers, Maximilian and Joseph Jewett, who were made freemen of Rowley within one year, and both became prominent in civil, reli- gious and business affairs .*

Their parents, Edward and Mary Jewett', were of Bradford, Eng. Josepha was born there in 1609, and married Mary Mallinson in 1634. They had six children, the oldest, Jeremiah3, being born in England. Joseph was again married in 1653, and raised three other children.

Jeremiah married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Dickenson, in 1661, and resided in Ipswich, but was buried in the Rowley churchyard in 1714. The oldest of his nine children was Jeremiah, jun.4, born in 1662, who, when twenty-five years of age, married Elizabeth Kimball, and had four daughters and three sons. Only through their youngest son, Aaron', born 1699, the fifth of the seven, was the family name transmitted in this line. He married Abigail Perley in 1719, and after a short residence in Scarboro, Me., returned to Ipswich, where he died in 1732, leaving three surviving children, of whom Moses, the second son, was baptized in Ipswich in 1722.

This Moses®, the fifth generation in America, married Abigail Bradstreet in 1741, and was with those patriots of Ipswich who took an early breakfast or a cold bite on the 19th of April, 1775, and went up to meet General Gage at Lexington and Concord, and attend to some imperative public business. He was captain of a troop of horse which contained four of the nine Jewetts who went into that fight.

He left his gun and a good name to the seventh of his ten chil- * The printed Historical Collections of the Essex Institute (Salem, Mass., 1885, Vol. XXII.) contains thirty-six pages of valuable data regarding these two brothers and their descendants, as early families of Rowley.

Hartley m. Jewett

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TOWN OF FARMINGDALE.

dren, James Jewett', who was born in 1755. This James, with his brother, Moses, removed in 1785 to Newcastle, Me. Five years later he married Lydia Hilton, of Alna, Me. They were the grandparents of the subject of this sketch, and passed their married life in Alna, where their five children were born, and where he and his brother, Moses, were respected and prosperous citizens.

James Jewett, jun.6, the first of the five, was born in Alna in 1791, and became a master carpenter, as his father James had been. His wife, married September 16, 1822, was Mary A. Ayer, of Alna. They resided at Alna, Me., where four of their children were born: Mary J., born June 27, 1823, died in 1859; James, jun., born September 25, 1824, died in 1887; Hartley W.9, born June 11, 1826: and Nancy Elizabeth (Mrs. Peleg S. Robinson), born September 25, 1829, died in 1875. The family moved to Hallowell in 1832, where, on Shepherd's Point, Mr. Jewett operated a steam saw mill until its burning two years later, when they removed to Gardiner, where their only other child, John Jewett, now the popular conductor of the Jewett train on the Maine Central, was born in March, 1835, and where the parents died-he in 1867, after more than thirty years of usefulness as a saw millwright and carpenter, and she nineteen years later, after an exemplary Christian life.

Such is the family origin, and such the honorable antecedents of H. W. Jewett, of Farmingdale, whose lumber manufacturing interests at Gardiner have now for a third of a century played no inconsider- able part in the growth and prosperity of that city. From the time his parents came to Gardiner in June, 1834, until he was seventeen years old, the village school, for a few winters and fewer summers, furnished his only opportunity for an education. But it is the boy, and not the schoolmaster, who " is the father of the man," and in this case it seems that close observation of men and things, and the discipline of practical life, have fitted a man for business activity and large use- fulness better than colleges and universities sometimes do.

In 1846, when he first went into the lumber woods as a surveyor, he had to buy his time of one R. K. Littlefield, with whom he had begun to learn the millwright trade, and under whom he had helped build an overshot mill east of Brown's island. Thoroughly familiar, for ten years, with handling logs in the river and their delivery to the Gardiner mills, he began in 1860 upon his own account the purchase of large quantities of logs on the upper Kennebec, and by rafting these in smaller lots, found profitable sale to the down river mills. Before the present great booms of the log driving company were built, he had private booms at and above Gardiner, where he collected logs from the river, and delivered to the owners in Gardiner. He first called attention to the plan of building the great Brown's Island boom, and largely through his efforts the driving company secured

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

in the legislature the necessary charter. Buying and handling logs in quantities occupied his attention until 1863*, when he began as a lum- ber manufacturer on the Cobbosseecontee, the career by which he is now best known in the lumber markets of the Atlantic states.

Fair weather and smooth sailing furnish no test of capable ship masters, and only a close battle develops great generalship. In forty years of business life Mr. Jewett has encountered a full share of re- verses and disasters. The national panic of 1873, in which he lost everything save his integrity and his courage, was followed nine years later by the great fire of 1832, which swept all the lumber mills from the lower dam in Gardiner, and left him a net loser by at least $75,000. Courage and integrity were yet his unimpaired resources- the one prompting him to begin at once the rebuilding of the estab- lishment, the other giving him all needed credit among those who knew him; and thus upon the ruins of a fair fortune he again started, and within the next decade he once more appears among the solid men of the valley.

His marriage September 3, 1850, was with Harriet A., daughter of Thomas N. Atkins®, a shipbuilder of Farmingdale, who was born on the south end of Swan island (James Atkins4, of Sandwich, Mass., James3, John2, and James Atkins1, whose first child was born in Sand- wich in 1790). To them have been born two sons: Charles T., who died in 1862, and Thomas A. Jewett19, born September 23, 1861.

James Jewett, the deceased brother of H. W. Jewett, married Thankful H., daughter of Thomas N. Atkins, and left one son, Arthur, now bookkeeper for H. W. Jewett, at Gardiner.

Sumner B. McCausland, born in West Gardiner in 1830, is a son of Thomas H. (1804-1886) and Rhoda E. (Brann) McCausland (1809-1874). His grandfather, James, who died in 1826, was a son of James McCaus- land, who was one of General Washington's bodyguard. His grand- mother was Mary (Berry) McCausland. Sumner B. came to Gardiner in 1850, learned the carpenters' trade with Sprague & Lord, was in the employ of W. S. Grant and P. G. Bradstreet several years, and since 1861 has been in the ice business, harvesting and wholesaling. He has been a resident of Farmingdale since its incorporation, has been town clerk three years, selectman, assessor and overseer of the poor nineteen years. His wife, Augusta A., is a daughter of Dr. John A. and Clarissa (Bodfish) Barnard, late of Livermore. Their children are: Antonio C., Mary Louise (died in 1873) and Anna Belle.

Daniel C. Mitchell, born in 1828, in Litchfield, is a son of Joshua and Nancy (Farr) Mitchell, who came from Lewiston to Litchfield in 1805. Mr. Mitchell came from Litchfield to Farmingdale in 1868, where he is a farmer. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Elias Mer- rill, and they have one daughter, Ava A.

* See lumber mills of Gardiner city.

535

TOWN OF FARMINGDALE.

Reuben S. Neal, born March 1, 1837, is the oldest of three children of Julius and Sarah (Seavey) Neal, and grandson of Joseph Neal. He followed the sea a few years when a young man, and was mate of a vessel the last two years. In 1861 he entered the army in Company C, 1st Maine Cavalry, and served thirty-eight months. He has been a farmer in Farmingdale since 1864 on his grandfather Seavey's farm. He has been elected by the republican party to the offices of selectman, representative and county commissioner.

Elisha S. Newell, son of Ebenezer and Mary (Snow) Newell, was born in Durham, Me., being the fifth child and third son of a family of eight children. He left home at the age of twenty-two years-hav- ing secured a common and high school education-served two years in a variety store in Durham as clerk, and taught school two winters, after which he commenced his railroad life. He moved to Portland in . 1869 and ran the train known as Jewett train for fourteen years and never knew what it was to have an accident. In 1884, on account of impaired health, he was transferred to the Augusta and Gardiner train and was again, by request, transferred to the yard engine at Gardiner in 1891. He is now a resident of Farmingdale and although a demo- crat he was elected to represent the republican district in which he lives, in the 65th legislature.

George W. Paul, son of Oliver P. and Mary J. (Neal) Paul, was born in Saxonville, Mass., in 1847. He came with his parents to Waldo, Me., in 1856. He served in the late war from 1863 to 1865, enlist- ing from Waldo county in Company A, Coast Guards, and afterward attached to the 31st Wisconsin, serving in the army of the Potomac. In 1872 he enlisted as a non-commissioned officer in the regular army and served one year in the Indian troubles on Platte river. Since 1873 he has been a farmer in Farmingdale; previous to that he had been a stone cutter by trade. He married Lizzie, daughter of Orrin and Sarah W. (Collins) Colcord. Their children are: Edith M., G. Del- win and Ray J.

Frank Richardson, born in Whitefield, is a son of Franklin and Louisa (Bailey) Richardson, and grandson of Smith Richardson. He and his brother, George M., came from Whitefield to Farmingdale in 1889, and bought the old William Grant farm, where they now live. Mr. Richardson has been street commissioner of Farmingdale two years.

Renaldo Robbins, born in Bowdoinham in 1827, is a son of Elias and Lucinda (Hatch) Robbins, and grandson of Daniel and Elizabeth (Kendall) Robbins. He came to Farmingdale in 1846, where he is a carpenter. He married Catherine, daughter of Andrew and Mary H. (Bates) MeCausland, and granddaughter of Henry and Abiah (Stack- pole) McCausland. Their children are: Fred M., Mary E. and Willis E., who died.

536

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Benjamin F. Sandford, born in Bowdoinham in 1823, is a son of Captain Thomas and Esther (Topping) Sandford, and grandson of John and Mary Sandford. He has taught school twenty-three terms, and worked twelve years at plastering, in Boston. He came to Farm- ingdale in 1855, where he is a farmer. He was eight years a mem- ber of the school board and held the office of selectman seven years. He married Mary M., daughter of David Thwing, of Bowdoin- ham. Their children are: Lilla M. (Mrs. N. Niles), George C. and Alice. They lost four: Laura E., St. Vincent G., James T. and John I. D.

David C. Shepherd was born in 1837, in Delaware, Hunterdon county, N. J. He was three years in the employ of the Knickerbocker Ice Company at Philadelphia, Pa., and in 1870 was made general agent and superintendent of their Maine business and since that time has lived in Farmingdale. He married Amanda Rudebock, of Hunterdon county, New Jersey. They have three children.

Ezra S. Smith, born in 1820, is a son of Jonathan and Hannah (Sleeper) Smith, and grandson of Jonathan Smith. He came from New Hampshire to Hallowell in 1838, where he lived until 1871, when he came to Farmingdale, where he is a farmer. He was two years collector and eight years deputy sheriff at Hallowell and in 1891 was selectman of Farmingdale. He married Abbie, daughter of William Jones, and their children are: George E., Lizzie A. and Ellen, who died.

Captain Samuel Swanton, born in Readfield in 1800, was a son of William and Lavina (Savage) Swanton, and grandson of William Swanton, of Bath, Me. Captain Swanton began going to sea when but fifteen and continued until 1840, several years as master of vessels. From 1840 until 1855 he was a ship builder at Bath, Me. He died in Hallowell in 1869. His marriage was with Rachel S. Gordon, of Read- field. Their children were: Henry A., Annie E., Mary L., Susie J. (Mrs. R. G. Kimpton) and Charles L. Henry, Mary and Charles are deceased. Annie E. married Samuel G. Buckman, who was several years a grocer in Batlı, but since 1866 has been a farmer of Farming- dale. Their children are: Nettie G. (deceased), Annie M. and Charles S. S.

George E. Warren, born in 1838, is a son of George and Julia T. (Hutchinson) Warren, and grandson of William G. and Peggy (Marson) Warren. He has been engaged in the drug business as clerk and pro- prietor since 1856, and since 1882 has owned and run the present business on Water street, Gardiner. He married Frances E., daughter of John Covell, and they have one daughter, Jennie H. Mr. Warren has been town clerk since 1876, succeeding his father who had held the office several years.

CHAPTER XXI.

TOWN OF WINSLOW.

BY HENRY D. KINGSBURY.

Winslow 125 Years before Incorporation .- Fort Halifax .- Deed of the Town .- Incorporation .- Town Meetings .- Town Meeting House .- Settlers .- Civil Lists. - Taxpayers, 1791. - Traders. - Tavern Keepers .- Mills .- Religious Records .- Christian Society .- Parson Cushman .- Churches .- Post Offices .-- Schools .- Cemeteries .- Personal Paragraphs.

O UR history of Winslow begins with the coming of white men to its borders. The first character in New England history is the Indian; the next is the hunter, and the third is usually the trader. These three classes would be most apt to come together at the meeting places of nature's highways-the junction of rivers. Such a place was Ticonic-the name given to the junction of the Sebasti- cook with the Kennebec river, and to the falls in the latter, just above. Any human activities spread over a large area in this section inevit- ably centered here. The Indians used and prized this spot for the same purposes and reasons that the whites did. It was easy of access, renowned for fish and game-just the spot for camp and council, for traffic and recreation. Just when white men and red men first met here and exchanged their commodities we do not know. The first trading expedition of any magnitude that ascended the Kennebec was in charge of Edward Winslow-mark the name.

Whether he brought-267 years ago-his shallop of corn as far north as Ticonic, and set his eyes on the land that was destined to carry his name down to posterity, we do not know. But we do know that trade soon extended up to this point, for on the plan of a survey ordered by the Pejepscot proprietors, and made by Joseph Heath in 1719, a building is drawn on the south side of the Sebasticook where it enters the Kennebec, also these words: " A Trading house built by Lawson Sept. 10, 1653, as by writing recorded at Plymouth by that Court." The Indian chief Kennebis in 1649 conveyed to Christopher Lawson land on the Kennebec up to Ticonic Falls. Lawson assigned this in 1653 to Clark & Lake.

Richard Hammond, an ancient trader, and Clark & Lake each had

538

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

a trading house at Ticonic in 1675. This was the year King Philip's war, the first war of the Indians against the whites, broke out. The next year Hammond and Lake were both killed by the Indians, and these trading houses of theirs at Ticonic must have been captured by the savages and used by them for the purposes of war. In King Will- iam's war the Indians sent captives in 1688 to Ticonic. Major Church, on his expedition up the Kennebec in 1692, says North drove " In- dians to their fort at Ticonic." (If this fort was not one of the old trading houses what was it?)

For the next twenty-five years we hear or know but little about Ticonic. But during the Spanish war that closed in 1748 the English

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and French kept a close eye on the strategic points on the Kennebec. The first movement for the erection of Fort Halifax was made in 1751, by the Plymouth Company, in a petition to the general court to remove Fort Richmond further up the Kennebec. When, shortly after this, current events pointed with certainty to the war of 1755, both nations were awake to the necessity of possessing Ticonic. In- formation that the French were building a fort at the headwaters of the Kennebec aroused Governor Shirley early in 1754 to immediate action. The general court thought " it to be of absolute necessity that the French should at all events be prevented from making any settle-

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539

TOWN OF WINSLOW.

ment whatsoever at the River Kennebec or the carrying places at its head." The house requested the governor to take a voyage in person and select a point and build a new fort, to which should be transferred the garrison, artillery and stores from Fort Richmond. For his pro- tection and efficient action they provided a force of 800 men. April 16. 1754, Governor Shirley addressed a letter to the Plymouth proprie- tors in which these passages occur:

" The Great and General Assembly of this province having in their present Session by their Message to me desired that I would order ' A new Fort to be erected of about 120 feet square as far up the river Kennebec above Richmond fort as I shall think fit,' and whereas the placing such a fort upon this occasion near Taconnett Falls would con- tribute more to the defence of the said river and protection of the set- tlements which already are, or shall hereafter be made upon it, than erecting a fort at or near Cushnoc-I think proper to acquaint you that in case you shall forthwith at the expense of your proprietors cause to be built at or near Cushnoc-as I shall order a house of hewn timber not less than ten inches thick, 100 feet long and 32 feet wide and 16 feet high, for the reception of the province's stores with conveniences for lodging the soldiers,-and build a block house 24 feet square agreeable to a plan exhibited by you to me for that pur- pose and furnish the same with four cannon carrying ball of four pounds, I will give orders for erecting a new fort at the charge of the Government above Tacconnett Falls upon the aforesaid river-and use my best endeavours to cause the same to be finished with the utmost expedition."

On the day following the Kennebec Company voted to accept the governor's proposition and terms and appointed five of their number as a committee to erect the buildings at Cushnoc "at the charge of this proprietee." The governor at once ordered the forces provided by the general court to the Kennebec, where he put them under com- mand of General John Winslow and joined them in person and ascended to Ticonic. Here he decided to locate the fort " on a fork of land formed by the Kennebec and Sebasticook, the latter emptying into the former about three-fourths of a mile from Taconnett Falls." His excellent reasons for this location were: " The only known com- munication which the Penobscots have with the River Kennebec and the Norridgewock Indians is through the Sebasticook, which they cross within ten miles of Taconnett Falls; and their most commodious passage from Penobscot to Quebec is through the Kennebec to the River Chaudière, so that a fort here cuts off the Penobscots not only from the Norridgewocks, but also from Quebec; and as it stands at a convenient distance to make a sudden and easy descent upon their headquarters is a strong curb upon them as also upon the Norridge- wocks."

After locating the fort Governor Shirley despatched a body of soldiers up the Kennebec about seventy-five miles. Finding no French settlements, he returned to Boston well pleased with his trip. While at Ticonic " he caused to be erected and picketed in, a redoubt, twenty

540

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

feet square, near the site of the fort on an eminence overlooking the country, mounted with two small cannon and a swivel, and garrisoned with a surgeants guard of twelve men."

By direction of Governor Shirley, and under the personal super- vision of General John Winslow, Fort Halifax was built with all pos- sible despatch, during the summer and fall of 1754. At the same time the Plymouth Company were building its auxiliary at Cushnoc-Fort Western. Fort Halifax was so nearly completed that on September 3d, Captain William Lithgow, with a garrison of one hundred men, took possession. The name given this new military fortification was in honor of the Earl of Halifax, then secretary of state of the kingdom of Great Britain.

The plan upon which Winslow had been working did not please Captain Lithgow and he obtained permission to change it. The old blockhouse now standing was the south west corner of Lithgow's plan. From this extended each way a palisade of posts set in the ground enclosing an area of 117 feet square. At the northeast corner was another blockhouse twenty feet square. Inside the fort enclosure was a row of barracks on the east side, eighty feet long, one story high and twenty feet wide, and on the north side were the officers' quarters, fort house and armory, supposed to cover a space forty by eighty feet. The corner stone of the old fort, now deposited in the state house at Augusta, bears this inscription:

THIS CORNER STONE LAID BY ORDER OF GOVERNOR SHIRLEY. 1754.

The buildings on the north side all appear to have been two stories high, in the upper rooms of which religious meetings, dancing parties, town meetings, and various social bodies gathered, because they were the most commodious, and about the only places where the people could meet for public purposes.

We have undoubted documentary accounts of the building of the blockhouses, or redoubts on the hill. In his message to the house of representatives, October 18, 1754, Governor Shirley says: "To avoid a surprise I have caused a strong redoubt of twenty feet square in the second story, and picqueted round, to be erected on that part of the eminence which overlooks the country round, and mounted with two small cannon, two pounders and one swivel, and garrisoned with a sergeant's guard of twelve men. It is large enough to contain five large cannon and fifty men." General Winslow located it in these words: "Standing east 162 degrees, north 613 rods," from Fort Halifax.

Of the location of the other blockhouse and the year of its erec- tion, the following is definite and conclusive. May 11, 1755, Captain Lithgow wrote Governor Shirley: " I have begun a redoubt 34 feet square, two story high, hip roof, watch box on top, to be surrounded at proper distance with open piquets. This will be cannon proof. This redoubt will command the eminence, as also the falls. It is

541

TOWN OF WINSLOW.

erected on the highest knowl eastward of the cut path that ascends the eminence. In this building it will be very necessary that two pieces of good cannon carrying 14 or 18 pound ball be placed therein." It was armed with a twelve pound howitzer which the soldiers fired every morning, and afterward on special occasions.

These official reports give dates and exact dimensions of two re- doubts on the "eminence," which T. O. Paine says were 635 feet apart. He also says that the redoubt nearest the Kennebec was 960 feet from Fort Halifax. This brings it nearer than the one built by General Winslow, which he says was 61} rods. They were unquestionably the "two blockhouses " mentioned by Colonel Montressor in 1760. Mrs. Freeman says there were two blockhouses on the spot indicated by Governor Shirley and General Winslow, and Mr. Paine is of the same opinion, and this would make three outside of Fort Halifax.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 62

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