Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 64

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 64

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).

Good clay for making brick may be found in many places in Wins- low. Reuben Simpson made brick near the river two miles above Ticonic falls, for the brick house now standing there, over one hun- dred years ago. John Jackson made brick on the farm now owned by Ira Getchell in 1823, and Edmund Getchell made brick near North Vassalboro from 1845 to 1855. Stephen Abbott made brick near his house, and in 1826 Williams Bassett made brick on the Hampden

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Keith place, and another yard was in operation fifty years ago, east of the burying ground, near the river.

About 1872 Norton & Leavett opened a clay bed on the bank of the river, near the east end of the bridge, in which were made the brick for the Lockwood mills a year or two later. In 1873 -- Carter opened the present Purinton yard, and made brick till Norton & Leavett bought him out in 1875. J. P. Norton bought Mr. Leavett's interest in 1877, and the next year he sold one-half to Horace Purin- ton, and Norton & Purinton made brick and took building contracts for ten years. In 1888 Amos E. Purinton bought Mr. Norton out, and the style of the firm has since been Horace Purinton & Co., who em- ploy fifteen men, and make 1,500,000 brick yearly.

Indications of tin ore were noticed by Charles Chipman in the ap- pearance of stone scattered along a brook on J. H. Chaffee's farm about 1870. Daniel Moor, Doctor Salmon, of Boston, Mr. Chipman, Thomas Lang, of Vassalboro, and others, investigated and believed the ore could be found by mining. A company was formed that sunk a shaft 100 feet or more in the rock. The amount of tin found in- creased as the shaft went down, but the quantity did not pay ex- penses. Work was suspended about ten years ago, and has not been resumed.

The first bridge over the Sebasticook was swept away in 1832. A company in 1834 built a toll bridge there, of which Leonard and Joseph Eaton, and Joseph Wood were main owners. The town in 1866 paid $2,500 for the bridge, and made it free.

CHURCHES .- The religious history of Winslow begins with some stray records that are of early date and of decided interest. Rev. John Murray, a noted Congregational clergyman, of Boothbay, held a reli- gious service in Fort Halifax July 3, 1773, on which occasion he bap- tized three of Dr. John McKechnie's children. Rev. Jacob Bailey, the zealous Episcopalian, also held a few services at Fort Halifax in 1773-4. At its annual meeting in 1773 the town voted to hire Deliver- ance Smith to preach twelve Sundays in that year. No regular preaching was provided. "1772 voted to hire one month's preaching this year." 1775 "Voted not to hire preaching." 1778 " Voted to hire preaching."

Roman Catholic services were held, according to Mrs. Freeman's account, among the Indians right after the war, by Juniper Berthune, a French Catholic priest, who had what she calls a mass house at the point where the Mile brook enters the Sebasticook. The Indians, six of whom acted as his body guard, were very much attached to him, and were most obedient to his commands.

The next recognized religious meeting was twenty years later, when Jesse Lee preached in Winslow March 9, 1794-probably in the fort, as no meeting house had yet been built in town.

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TOWN OF WINSLOW.

The town meeting of 1793 voted to hold preaching meetings alter- nately on the east and west sides of the river. September 5, 1794, the town voted "to hire Joshua Cushman to settle as a religious instructor and to give him £110 a year so long as he shall remain our instruc- tor." The following covenant, rules of admission and articles of faith were adopted by a vote of the town:

" A Church covenant, or an association for the purpose of promo- ting Christian Knowledge, Piety and Virtue. First: it is understood and agreed that all the inhabitants of the town who support and at- tend upon christian instruction, are, in the general acceptation of the term Christians, and have an equal right to act in all ministerial or religious affairs in which their property or consciences are concerned -nevertheless as all who are christians in a general sense may not be qualified, or may not feel it their duty to partake of the Lord's Supper, so called, it is thought advisable to form an association for that pur- pose, to establish some general rules of admission, to state some gen- eral articles of faith and to come into general engagements to adorn the doctrine of God our savior by well ordered lives and conversa- tion.

" And it is understood and agreed that the persons thus associating are not in consequence of their association obliged to commune or partake of the Lord's Supper, but are still left to their own voluntary choice.

" General rules of admission-Persons wishing to become members of the association shall subscribe their names to the following articles of faith and to the following engagements. All persons whether male or female thus subscribing shall be considered as members of the association, and be entitled to commune without any other ceremony or formality whatever.

" Articles of faith founded upon it-Believing those writings called the Holy Scriptures to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- rection, and for instruction in righteousness, and to contain all the religious truths necessary to be believed, and all the religious pre- cepts that are necessary to be practiced, in order to eternal salvation, we adopt them as the rules of our faith and practice.

" Engagements-Sensible that the happiness of man in this life, as well as in that which is to come, especially depends upon the practice of piety and virtue, we engage to discountenance impiety, to encour- age the moral, the social and the Christian virtues, to promote friend- ship and brotherly love among ourselves, the peace and unity of the Christian Society at large, and endeavor by the grace of God to let our conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ."

The first general church committee, appointed at a regular town meeting, were: James Stackpole, Ezekiel Pattee, Arthur Lithgow, Abraham Lander, Jonah Crosby, Benjamin Chase, Zimri Haywood, Asa Redington, George Warren, Timothy Heald, Ephraim Town, Solomon Parker, Nathaniel Low, Josiah Hayden, James McKechnie, David Pattee, John Pierce, Joseph Cragin, Elnathan Sherwin and Ben- jamin Runnels.

This committee had charge of the ordination services of Mr. Cush-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

man, which were held June 10, 1795, in a huge evergreen bower, sup- ported by twenty pillars, erected for the purpose on "The Plains," as the point of land near the fort was then called. It was a notable occa- sion. Churches from ten localities were represented here by their pastors and many of their people. The town voted in 1794 to build a meeting house on the east side of the river, which was so far com- pleted as to be used for the town meeting in the spring of 1797. It has been used for religious meetings from that day to this, of which it has undoubtedly had a greater number within its walls than any meeting house in Kennebec county. The Methodist meeting house at East Readfield is a year older, but has had a great many idle years, while there is no evidence that this venerable house has had a single one.

After his ordination Mr. Cushman continued to preach to the Christian Society of Winslow about twenty years. The articles of faith are probably the most liberal in their wording and charitable in their spirit of any religious society in Maine of an equally early date. Mr. Cushman was nominally a Congregationalist * when ordained, but knowing that his society had adopted a Unitarian platform he did not hesitate to preach that doctrine. Dissatisfaction gradually en- sued, and the town paid him $1,200 in 1814 to be released from the old " religious instructor " contract.

The Congregational Church of Winslow was organized August 27, 1828, in the school house, with a constituency of twenty-nine members. The first meeting, at which was the ordination of William May as pastor, was held in the town meeting house. Some of the prominent members of the early years of the church were: Deacon Peter Talbot, Frederick Paine, Leprelit Wilmouth and Jonathan Garland, and their wives; Thomas Rice, Robert R. Drummond, Deacon Edmund Getchell, Samuel Sewall, Richard Patterson, John W. Drummond, David Patter- son and Timothy O. Paine.

The pastors from that time to the present have been: William May, 1828 to 1832; Henry C. Jewett, from 1835; John Perham, 1842; Albert

* He was a noted man. Born in 1759, he did valiant service in the revolu- tionary army, graduated from Harvard College, where he was a classmate with John Quincy Adams, and entered the ministry at the age of thirty-six. After serving in both branches of the legislature he was sent to congress, where his acts met with the approval of his constituents. He was a good scholar, a pol- ished writer, a ready speaker, and the most competent preacher in all this sec- tion, with great adaptation for special occasions, such as Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. Several of these addresses and sermons were published by re- quest of leading citizens and obtained wide circulation. This man's history is unique. His life was without reproach. His personal influence must have been great, or he never could have secured the adoption at a town meeting of a formula of religious belief and worship of such exceeding liberality in a Puri- tanic age. No parallel to this exists in New England. It was the first Unitarian church in America.

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TOWN OF WINSLOW.

Cole, 1847; David Shepley, 1851; John Dinsmore, 1862; Gustavus W. Jones, 1880; and Thomas P. Williams since 1883.

Peter Talbot, chosen in 1828; Thomas L. Garland, 1839; William Bassett, 1844; Clark H. Keith, 1852, and Cyrus Howard and Edward M. Patterson, chosen in 1877, have been the deacons of this church. The present membership is seventy-five, with about eighty attendants of the Sabbath school.

The old town meeting house, built in 1795, was reseated and crowned with a steeple in 1830, and received its first coat of paint in 1836. The inside was remodeled in 1852, the steeple was reduced to the present belfry in 1884, and in 1888 the present arrangements in the audience room were perfected. This is the oldest meeting house now in regular use in Kennebec county, and the only one built at town expense, and still used for church purposes.

Methodists and Free Baptists, about 1829, united in building the Union meeting house still standing on the river road, a half mile from the Vassalboro line. Previous to this a Methodist church had been formed by David Hutchinson, a resident minister; John Fly, class leader; Charles Hayden, the surveyor; Clark Drummond, William, Alvin and Franklin Blackwell and others. The exact succcession and dates of the following pastors are not in the Winslow records-the names are: J. B. Husted, Daniel B. Randall, O. Bent, E. B. Fletcher, James Twing, J. Farrington, Sullivan Bray. George Winslow, Luther P. French, Henry Latham, Caleb Mugford, S. W. Pierce, George Strout, J. G. Pingree, Henry True, B. M. Mitchell, D. I. Staples, Elisha Chenery, L. C. Dunn, D. P. Thompson, Nathan Webb, D. M. True, Phinneas Higgins, S. L. Hanscom, Martin Ward, who died here in 1843; David Smith, Charles Browning, R. Bryant, Samuel Ambrose, M. R. Clough, Jesse Harriman, T. Moore, J. C. Murch, B. F. Sprague, died here in 1860; Josiah Bean and J. R. Clifford, who, about 1884, was the last. Since then no regular services have been held in the old meeting house. This society was so strong that in 1834 it built a parsonage. Amos Taylor, Nathaniel Doe and C. McFadden were lead- ing Baptists, and Elder Farewell and D. B. Dewis were early preachers.

The First Baptist Church of Winslow was organized at the house of Jonas Hamlin, June 1, 1837. For ten years previous there had been occasional preaching by Elders Webber, King, Proctor, Bartlett, Copeland and Knox. Since then, Elders Arnold Palmer, Ephraim Emery, Zachariah Morton, -- Atwood, J. V. Tabor, E. S. Fish, A. J. Nelson, Doctor Butler, I. E. Bill, E. C. Stover, Ira Emery, W. P. Palmer, Dore, N. G. Curtiss and A. R. McDougall have been pastors. The deacons have been: Joseph Taylor, Ambrose Palmer, Leonard Motley, Ebenezer Abbott, D. F. Guptill and Horace Coleman. The present

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

meeting house was built in 1850 and has been kept in good repair. The church has fifty-five members.

The Methodist Church in the eastern part of Winslow was organ- ized at the house of Stephen Abbott, who was the first class leader. Seth and Nathan Wentworth, John Brown, Barnum Hodges, Joseph Watson and Scruton Abbott were some of the first members. The latter, who was born in 1803, is the only one of the original members left, to whose good memory we are indebted for this sketch. In 1851 the society built a meeting house in which no regular rervices are now held. The following is a partial list of preachers who have labored on this charge: Elders William True, Sullivan Bray, Craw- ford, Crosby, Bessey, Martin Ward, Hutchinson, Jones, Fletcher, Phenix, Batchelder, Louis Wentworth in 1860, Josiah Bean, and W. B. Jackson in 1875.

POST OFFICES .-- The post office at Winslow was established July 1, 1796, with Asa Redington as postmaster. His successors have been: Nathaniel B. Dingley, appointed 1803; Hezekiah Stratton, 1811; Fred- erick Paine, 1815; Nathaniel Dingley, 1845; Amasa Dingley, Decem- ber, 1845; Robert Ayer, 1846; Daniel B. Paine, 1865; Josiah W. Bas- sett, 1866: Fred L. Simpson, 1885; Josiah W. Bassett, 1889.

A post office was established at Lamb's Corner, in Winslow, April 18, 1891, with Mrs. Lizzie A. Lamb as postmistress.

SCHOOLS .-- The common schools of Winslow comprise sixteen districts, with fifteen school houses and eleven schools that were taught in 1892. There were 604 children who drew $1,400 public money, to which amount the town added $1,500 by tax, and $250 more for the support of free high schools. The attendance for the past year has been 247 in the district schools, and eighty pupils in the two high schools. One of these is at the village of Winslow, and the other is in the eastern part of the town, near the Baptist church. John M. Taylor, supervisor of schools, takes an unusual interest in educational matters, as shown by his work and his reports.

POOR FARM .- The poor of the town were farmed out to the lowest bidder till 1859, when the town voted $3,200, and bought the Blanch- ard farm.

CEMETERIES .-- General Ezekiel Pattee, who died in 1813 at the age of eighty-two, gave the burying ground on the river road, in which his body now lies. Near by, also, appear the tombstones of Colonel Josiah Hayden, who died in 1818, eighty-one years old, and Manuel Smith, who died in 1821, eighty years old-both prominent men of their times. In the Getchell grave yard lie the bodies of David Smiley, John Tailor and wife, and other early settlers. Benjamin Runnels and some other contemporaries were buried on his farm, now owned by Dr. H. H. Campbell. A similar burial place is to be seen on the

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TOWN OF WINSLOW.

Brown farm, where some members of the Hale, Newell and other old families were buried.

One half acre of land bought by the town of David Guptill in 1854, adjoining a piece consecrated to that use by the MeClintock family, in which were the graves of Abigail Robinson and her mother, consti- tute the Mcclintock burying ground. The Drummond burial ground on the river road was given to the family about 1840, by John Drum- mond. Lots are now sold to any one for burial purposes. The Crosby grave yard was accepted and fenced by the town in 1881. On the William Stratton farm, the Stratton family have a private burial ground; and on the river road is the Tufton Simpson ground.

The cemetery in the village of Winslow, on the north bank of the Sebasticook, is probably the oldest in town. A committee was ap- pointed by the town in 1772 to apply to Dr. Sylvester Gardiner for land for a burying ground on the Fort farm. Doctor Gardiner un- doubtedly gave the land now in use, when visited by that committee. In this yard, beneath a slab of dark slate stone, one side smoothed for lettering, and the other side just as it was split from the quarry, lies the body of an eccentric citizen, who composed the following epitaph with strict injunctions that it should be inscribed on his tombstone just as written. It has been widely copied by the newspapers:

" Here lies the body of Richard Thomas, An inglishman by birth, A whig of 76, By occupation a Cooper, Now food for worms, Like an old rumpuncheon marked numbered and shooked, He will be raised again and finished by his creator. He died Sept 28, 1824, aged 75, America my adopted country, My best advice to you is this take care of your liberties."

PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.

John L. Abbott (1819-1882) was a farmer and carriage maker. He was a son of Tilley and Sarah (Libby) Abbott. His wife, who survives him, was Sarah M., daughter of Jonathan, and granddaughter of John Ewer, who came to Vassalboro from Cape Cod. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Abbott were: Adelaide L. (Mrs. Orrin G. Brown), Jonathan E., Almira P. (Mrs. Purley York) and two who died-Alpheus E. and Selima P. Jonathan Ewer was twice married: first to Anna P. Snow, and second to Emma A. Bragg.

Marshall Abbott, born in 1837, is the only son of Scruton, grand- son of Stephen, and great-grandson of Stephen Abbott, of Berwick, Me. Stephen, jun. (1774-1841) came to Winslow with three brothers- Jacob, George and Tilley; and another brother, Benjamin, settled in Albion. Stephen, jun., married Sarah, daughter of Ephraim and Eunice (Spencer) Wilson. Mr. Abbott is a farmer, and owns and occupies with his father a part of the old Abbott homestead. He married Rebecca M., daughter of David and Amy (Bailey) Burgess, and granddaughter of Thomas Burgess, of Vassalboro. They have

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five children: Anderson A., Inlus L., Elmer M .. Ella M. and Seth M.

William B. Barton, born in Brooks, Me., in 1825, is a son of Luke and Olive (Roberts) Barton. He came to Winslow in 1840, where he was a lumberman and river driver until 1870, since which time he has been a stone mason and farmer. He married Eliza J., daughter of Robert and Mercy (Simpson) McCausland, and granddaughter of Robert McCausland. Their children are: Flora J. (Mrs. G. L. Learned), Charles H. and Nellie F. (Mrs. L. H. Simpson). Charles H. married Mary A. Fardy. Mrs. Learned has two children: Frank E. and Marion L.

Alden Bassett, born in 1847, is the youngest of seven children of Williams (1806-1877), and grandson of William Bassett. His mother is Sibyl, daughter of Ambrose Howard. Williams and his brother, William Church, came from Bridgewater, Mass., to Winslow in 1824. Mr. Bassett is a farmer on the place where his father settled when he came to the town, it being the west part of the Hamlin Keith farm. He married Kate H., daughter of Charles Cook Hayden, and their children are Arthur A. and Helen H.

James H. Chaffee, farmer, was born in Boston in 1832. His father, Samuel Chaffee, came to Vassalboro from Boston in 1832, and was a farmer and mason. Mr. Chaffee, in 1862, bought the General Ezekiel Pattee farm, which was settled by him as early as 1770. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Pattee) Furber. Her maternal grandfather was Benjamin, a son of General Ezekiel Pattee. Their children are: Samuel H., Mary L. (Mrs. C. W. Pond) and Ben- jamin F.

Thurston C. Chamberlain, son of William and Hannah (Huston) Chamberlain, was born in Damariscotta, Me., in 1826. He was a ship- builder and farmer in his native town until 1860, when he came to Winslow, where he is a farmer. He married Sarah, daughter of Charles and Ruth (Howard) Drummond, of Winslow. Their children are: Annie E. (Mrs. Asa Lowe), Charles D., William W., Henry T., George A. and Bert.

Albert G. Clifford, born in Sidney in 1835, is the eldest of three sons of John B. and Sarah (Tiffany) Clifford. Mr. Clifford's father, a farmer, removed from Sidney to Benton in 1844, where he died in 1881, aged seventy-seven years. Albert G. is a farmer and sheep and cattle broker. He came to Winslow in 1887. For nearly a quarter of a century he held town office in Benton, and has acted in a similar capacity in Winslow. He married Charlotte H., daughter of Andrew Richardson. Their children are: Louisa, Howard A., Charlotte, Al- bert R. and three that died-Fannie D., Mattie H. and Walter A.

COLBY C. CORNISH .- In the spring of 1838 Colby Coombs Cornish, then twenty years old, entered the store of Joseph Eaton, in Winslow, as a clerk. Previous to this he had served a four years' clerkship in

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TOWN OF WINSLOW.

the store of his uncle, Josiah C. Coombs, in Bowdoinham. Up to the age of sixteen he had lived at home on his father's farm, where he learned to do very hard work and a good deal of it.

James Cornish, his father, and Cyprian Cornish, his grandfather, who in early life had been a seafaring man, were both residents of Bowdoin and both farmers. James Cornish married Mrs. Charity Coombs Adams, daughter of Captain John Coombs, of Bowdoin. Char- lotte, their oldest child, now deceased, married Horace Curtis, and Jane, the third child, married Frederic Curtis, both of Bowdoinham. William, the next child, is a retired sea captain, living in his native town; Abraham, the fifth, is a resident of Portland, and David, the next youngest, is a farmer in Bowdoin; Susan and Rachel, the remaining children, the latter Mrs. George Small, of Bowdoin, are both dead.

Colby C., the second child, was born September 9, 1818. His father's family was of English, his mother's of French extraction, and the strains of their blood that flowed in his veins had, as we have seen, been flavored and toughened by the waves and winds of the ocean, and disciplined by the rigors and toils of New England farm life. Like most country boys of that generation his educational advantages were limited to the district school, but of these, meager though they were, he had made the most. One term, which he well remembers, was taught by Nathaniel M. Whitmore, for many years a prominent lawyer in Gardiner.

When he entered Mr. Eaton's store at the age of twenty he was a fine specimen of athletic strength and quickness, and was the victor in many a wrestling match which furnished the amusement for the sturdy villagers. He proved equally apt in business and was peculiarly adapted to the requirements of a succesful trader. So rapidly did he acquire the methods and practice of his calling and learn the people and their wants that at the end of four years Mr. Eaton proposed to change his clerkship into a partnership.

This arrangement was speedily perfected. The name of the new firm, C. C. Cornish & Co., gives us a clear view of the situation. The clerk was not only a partner, but the old established business was to take the name of a young man who came to town a total stranger only four years before. Here in 1842, just fifty years ago, Mr. Cornish took the helm of the craft in which he was to do the work. His clerkships seem to have been divided into four year periods, and now after four years of partnership he bought Mr. Eaton's interest and was sole pro- prietor for the next twenty. In 1866 he took his present son-in-law, Mr. J. W. Bassett, into partnership, and the firm of Cornish & Bassett continued until 1881, when he sold to Mr. Bassett the remaining half of a business that had brought him a handsome competence and had yielded the higher satisfactions of a well employed life.

It is natural that such a man in such a community should be asked

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

to do some work for the public. In politics Mr. Cornish was originally a whig, but he became a republican at the formation of that party and has ever since been an active leader in his section of the county. He was town clerk for nine years, between 1850 and 1865. In 1862 he was elected chairman of the board of selectmen and managed the town's affairs most successfully during the rebellion and the critical years that followed. It was largely through his influence that the in- debtedness incurred by the town during the war was almost wholly paid before the hard times came on. His term of service as chairman of the board of selectmen covered a period of ten years and as town agent seventeen years. In 1872 he was elected a member of the house of representatives and was senator from Kennebec county in 1880, 1881 and 1882, the first being the famous count-out year, when Maine had two governors and two legislatures at the same time. In 1883 and 1884, during the first half of Governor Robie's administration, he was a member of the executive council. This record of twenty-five years' service in the interests of his town and state is simply a prolonged expression of the confidence and approval of the public.

He has always identified himself with the business as well as the political interests of the community. He has been trustee of the Waterville Savings Bank since 1876 and was one of the organizers of the Merchants' National Bank in Waterville and a director since its organization in 1875.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 64

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