Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 75

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 75

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After returning from the war Benjamin S. Smith resumed his trade of house builder and contractor, which he learned of Tibbetts, Morgan & Co. In 1883 he rented of J. W. Lash the building he now owns and occupies on dam No. 1, and in 1887 he bought it. His busi- ness includes a great variety of wood work for building and finishing purposes, besides sash, doors and blinds, at which six men find steady work.

Harvey Scribner came to Gardiner from Casco, Me., in 1854, and in 1856 rented of J. E. Ladd & Co. a new building on dam No. 1, and be- gan making shafting, pulleys and lumber machinery. In 1872 he bought the building and did millwright and machine work till Janu -. . ary, 1890, when he was burned out. One week from that time Mr. Scribner bought his present factory of Captain Joseph Perry, in which he employs sixteen men.

Captain Joseph Perry came to Gardiner in 1827, and until 1836 worked at house carpentry, and for Holmes & Robbins. He then hired a building on dam No. 2, near the People's Grist Mill, and opened a machine shop. In 1846 he bought the shop, which was burned in 1880. Two years later he was again burned out in a shop he had rented, but immediately rebuilt on a larger scale than ever- the best machine shop on the river-and in February, 1890, after fifty- four years of prosperous business, he sold his plant and retired.

The brick grist mill, corner of Water and Bridge streets, on dam No. 1 .. was built by R. H. Gardiner in 1844, and fitted with machinery and bolts for merchant flouring, as well as for a custom grist mill. Walter Wrenn, an experienced English miller, had charge of the flouring department, and Smith Maxcy left the old stone mill to take the custom department. William Vaughan and Francis Richards were the financial men of the concern. They were succeeded by John S. Wilson, John Nutting and Walter Wrenn, who bought grain and made flour till cheap transportation brought western flour in ruinous competition with New England manufacture, and the busi-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

ness was abandoned in 1868. Bartlett & Dennis were the next occu- pants of the mill, and in 1871 were succeeded by Barstow & Nicker- son, who have done custom grinding there for over twenty years.

The People's Grist Mill was built in 1860, by John C. Bartlett and others, who sold it in 1862 to Bartlett & Dennis. Mr. Bartlett died in 1882, and was succeeded in the firm by his son, William M. Bartlett. This mill is on dam No. 2, Summer street, and up to about 1880 it did regular merchant flouring, bringing large quantities of western wheat by railroad and grinding it for the New England trade. Since then it has been exclusively a grist mill, does roller and stone grinding, and in its various departments employs ten men.

During the winter of 1886-7, Watkins & Peacock fitted premises on Water street for grinding grain by steam power, and six months later transferred the business to the present proprieter, William M. Wood, who bought the machinery and rented the building. This is the only steam grist mill in Gardiner.

The first paper mill on the Cobbosseecontee was built about 1806 by R. H. Gardiner, John Savels, Eben Moore and John Stone, under the firm name of John Savels & Co. It was burned in 1813, and was rebuilt by the same parties, with the exception of Mr. Stone, who re- tired from the firm. After a few years George Cox, who came to the mill as a journeyman " tramp," and had grown by solid merit to be managing workman, was taken into the firm under the style of Savels, . Cox & Co. John Savels died in 1832, and Cox sold to Moses Springer soon after and went to Vassalboro, where he built a new paper manu- factory. Mr. Savels' son, William, who was also a preacher, with Eben Moore and Moses Springer, continued the business for a time, when Elbridge G. Hooker, Charles P. Walton and John C. Godding bought an interest. In the meantime R. H. Gardiner, in 1834, built a brick paper mill on the same dam and rented it to Francis Richards, who put it in operation at once. Less than two years after this, Henry B. Hoskins, a clerk in Mr. Gardiner's office, bought the interests of the several parties in the old paper mill, and Richards & Hoskins con- solidated the business of the two mills in a partnership that lasted over twenty years.

Francis Richards died in 1857 and was succeeded by his son, F. G. Richards. In 1865 Mr. Hoskins withdrew from the business, and the next year F. G. and John T. Richards, brothers, and W. F. Richards, a clerk, formed the firm of Richards & Co. A fire in 1882 damaged their works over $50,000, which were rebuilt and enlarged. Soon after the death of the senior member of the firm in 1884, the present Rich- ards Paper Company was incorporated. They produce about eight tons of paper per day and employ some sixty people. In 1888 the company bought a pulp mill at Skowhegan, and the next year began the construction of their extensive pulp mills at South Gardiner,

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

which were completed and in operation in January, 1891. Ten tons of sulphite pulp are made each day, giving work to eighty hands.

The Copsecook Paper Mills occupy dam No. 6, and are owned by S. D. Warren & Co., of Boston. This property was purchased and the first mills were built in 1852 by The Great Falls Company, whose stockholders were S. Bowman, Charles Swift, I. N. Tucker, Joseph Perry, Philip Winslow, Lincoln Perry, Charles Bridge, R. K. Little- field, F. P. Patten, Samuel Hooker, William Libby, Stephen Brown and H. C. Winslow. Noah Woods and others were afterward inter- ested in the company, whose capital stock was $32,000. The stock- holders operated the mill ten years and

then rented, and two years

COPSECOOK MILLS, GARDINER, ME.

later sold, to the present

owners, who ran the business till 1878, when

they enlarged aud rebuilt the entire works in the best manner. After twelve years more of steady use the mills were again rebuilt in 1890, as shown in this view, and put in the most perfect condition for the manufacture of book paper. Henry E. Merriam has been the super- intendent for nearly thirty years.

Stanwood & Tower started the first paper mill on dam No. 5, in the fall of 1865. It was a one machine mill, making bogus manilla paper for wrapping. About 1871 the Dillinghams bought in with Stan wood & Tower, put in another machine, and as Dillingham & Co. made

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

bogus and No. 1 manilla paper. In the spring of 1876 Ellis A. Hol- lingsworth and Leonard Whitney bought out Dillingham & Co. and continued making manilla paper. In November, 1877, Hollingsworth & Whitney bought of the estate of R. H. Gardiner dams No. 4 and 5, with land and privileges, and in 1880 began the building of a pulp mill on dam No. 4, for the manufacture of soda pulp, which was com- pleted the next spring and called the Aroostook mills. This new mill began making pulp at once, but was destroyed by fire after running but a few weeks. It was rebuilt and again in operation the same fall and continned till April, 1883, when it was shut down and changed from a pulp mill to a paper mill. In June, 1886, the mill was again stopped for enlargement and repairs, which were completed and the making of manilla paper was resumed in August. In 1886 the Cob- bossee mills on dam No. 5 shut down, were entirely rebuilt in less than six months and again in active operation making manilla paper. The original founders of these mills both being dead, a new com- pany was incorporated in 1882, called The Hollingsworth & Whitney Company. At present the Cobbossee and Aroostook mills at Gardiner make about fourteen tons of manilla paper per day, which gives work to one hundred people, and uses water to the amount of 4,000 horse power. The local manager is F. E. Boston, of Gardiner, who grew up in the business, and has been superintendent since 1876.

In the year 1810 Robert Hallowell Gardiner leased to the " Gardi- ner Cotton & Woolen Factory Company " for a period of ninety-nine years sufficient water to run their mills located on what is now dam No. 2. The directors who signed the agreement were: Simon Brad- street, Rufus Gay, Ebenezer Byrum, Daniel Woodward, Jeremiah Wakefield and R. H. Gardiner. This company did business till 1839, and then sold to Philip Winslow, Robert Richardson, Joseph Perry and I. N. Tucker, who continued under the firm name of Isaac N. Tucker & Co. for forty-seven years. In 1866 they bought more land and erected the brick building that is still the Gardiner woolen mill. Mr. Tucker had been dead several years before the company was dissolved, and toward the last the works were sometimes idle, with the exception of wool carding carried on by Mr. Winslow.

In 1889 William C. Jack and M. F. Payne bought the plant, added new machinery and are now doing business in the firm name of W. C. Jack & Co. Their specialties are grading woolen rags, and manu- facturing shoddy, of which the daily product is six hundred pounds. They operate the Flanders Woolen Company, at Dexter, where about half the shoddy made here is woven into cloth. Twenty-five people find employment in the Gardiner mill.

J. Davis Gardiner, James Reynolds, William H. Lord and A. E. Wing were wagon and carriage makers who preceded those now fol- lowing that business in Gardiner, of whom P. Henry Gilson, the oldest,

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

began in 1850. He has facilities for doing all the work on a carriage and employs eight men. Joseph B. Libby began the same business in the old Reynolds shop on Church street in 1874, where he has steam power and keeps seven workmen. In 1860 Albert T. Smith com- menced the manufacture of carriages and sleighs in the building for- merly used as a livery stable by A. T. Perkins. Isaac Edwards, Miller & Atkins, Frank L. McGowan, Larrabee & Hanscom and Augustus Bailey were also carriage makers. Mr. Smith has iron, paint and fin- ishing shops, and employs six men.

A Mr. Perkins was one of the first coopers in Gardiner, and had a shop near the present freight depot of the Maine Central railroad. Deacon Abel Whitney came to Gardiner in 1848 and opened a cooper shop, which business he has followed from that time to this. The firm of Mitchell. Wilson & Co. did a heavy West India trade, sending also to California large invoices of green and dried apples from Gardiner, and what sounds stranger still, eggs, requiring large quantities of well made barrels, which were all furnished by Deacon Whitney.

The Gardiner Shoe Factory Association was the result of a popular movement to enlarge the manufactures of the city. A fund of over $8 000 was raised by subscription and a stock company was organized July 27, 1883, with John T. Richards, president; J. S. Maxcy, secretary and treasurer; J. T. Richards, David Dennis and S. Bowman, directors. A large building was erected on dam No. 1, corner of Summer street, and furnished free of rent or taxes to Kimball Brothers, of Lynn, who did a prosperous manufacturing business for several years, giving employment to two hundred people, whose weekly pay roll amounted to $2,500.

In a little old mill run by water power clay was ground before 1820 and brick were burned where Joshua Gray's saw mill now stands. David Flagg and a Mr. Hamlin were brick makers of that period. Later Jesse Lambard had a brick yard back of the present Gardiner Bank. A Mr. Taylor on Spring street and Ebenezer Morrell (who was succeeded by Amasa Smith and H. A. Morrell) on Summer street also had brick yards more than fifty years ago. Arch Morrell, until his death in 1885, was the principal brick maker in this vicinity, and during his period he doubtless burned nine-tenths of the brick used in the city, and shipped immense quantities to Boston. A clay bank more than seventy feet high extended from the M. E. church to the foot of Spring street, and another marked bluff was between Middle and Spring streets. These were the sources of supply for the various kilns until the bluffs were literally carried away. Some time before Mr. Morrell's death, his son, William, managed his extensive business and succeeded him. For the last twenty years their yards have aver- aged 700,000 brick annually.

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

A big tannery stood between dams No. 1 and No. 2, run by Cook & Nutting. Deacon Fields had a tannery at the head of Summer street, and Mr. Plaisted had one on Harrison avenue.

SOUTH GARDINER .- This was a village in the town before the in- corporation of the city, and has since retained its local importance. The post office here was established February 8, 1870, with John T. Smith as postmaster. John McGrath was appointed in April, 1874, but did not serve, and Sherburn Lawrence received the appointment the next month and held it till 1887. Henry R. Sawyer then held the office for two years, and March 27, 1889, Sherburn Lawrence, the pres- ent incumbent, was again appointed.

The far reaching influence of first settlers is a subject of unceasing interest. The kind of men and women they are is a matter that con- cerns all who come after them. Their traits, their tastes, their habits, not only descend as an entail of blood to their posterity, but they become a sort of perpetual endowment for good or for ill to the entire community.

When David Lawrence, then twenty-six years old, with his bride, Sarah Eastman, five years younger, came in 1768 from Littleton, Mass., to make their life-long home at what is now South Gardiner, they be- came the potential cause of a chain of events whose operation was never more apparent than to-day. The lives of the family they founded have been largely the history of that locality for over a hundred years. He bought there 160 acres of land, heavily timbered with the mag- nificent oak and stately pine of the old Kennebec valley. He built a house and began clearing the land adjoining the river, running the timber down to the ship-yards at Bath, and shipping the cord wood to Boston. We here see the type of his successors; farmer, dealer, manu- facturer-a combination of practical, successful enterprise. His first wife died in 1790. Their children had been: David, born 1769; Eliza- beth, 1770; Benjamin, 1772; Simeon, 1775, killed by accident when four years old; Edward, 1778; Lucy, 1780, and another Simeon, 1783. The last named became a farmer and Edward built a saw mill on the Nahumkeag stream in Pittston. On March 6, 1791, David married his second wife, Sarah Clark, who died February 5, 1795, at the birth of her twin boys, James and William, leaving also two older children, Charles and Sarah. David's third wife was Hannah Clark, and their children were: Hannah, born 1796; Isaac, 1797; and Mary, 1801. When David died there was a feeling in the community that every one had sustained a personal loss, only soothed by the reflection that he had lived a long and useful life and had passed to the satisfactions of the life beyond.

Charles Lawrence, whose portrait appears here, was the eldest child of his father's second marriage. Born February 18, 1793, in- heriting a vigorous constitution both of body and mind, he grew to

Charles Laumans

PRINT, E. BIERSTADT, N Y

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

useful manhood, and regarding his whole career, it is difficult to say whether he spent the most time on the farm or on the river. Here he made shingles and staves the year round by the old fashioned process of " riving " the blocks of pine and spruce which had been felled in the upper Kennebec valley. He entered heartily into his father's business, became master of all its details, but was particularly active and efficient in the river department. He was one of the earliest dealers in logs, becoming an expert in estimating their contents and value. He also went up the river and lumbered on Jerusalem town- ship, also buying large quantities of logs, which he sold to the tide mills below Bath. He built in 1832, for the log driving company at

LAWRENCE HOMESTEAD; BURNED MARCH 12, 1883. SKETCHED FROM DESCRIPTION,

South Gardiner, one of the

first and largest booms of its kind on the river. He married Eleanor Morrell, of Winthrop, in February, 1823, and had eleven children: Dolla M., born 1824; Drusilla, 1825; Samuel M., 1827; Hiram, 1829; Eleanor, 1831; Sherburn, 1832; Greenlief, 1835; Laura A., 1839; Georgianna, 1844; Charles, 1846; and Abner, 1849. He took his father David's place in the old homestead, shown in the ac- companying cut, paid off the heirs, and aided by his excellent wife created for his large family a home that will always remain their highest conception of parental forethought and affection.

Here Charles Lawrence lived to the good old age of ninety, when

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

on the fourth of March. 1883, he passed easily and gently to the better world. He had been a model of physical health and symmetry, over six feet tall, of a strong mind and a great heart. In politics he was first a whig and then a republican. In religious faith he was in full accord with the Universalist society, to which he belonged. He be- lieved the best way to serve his God was to help his fellow-men.

His active business life had closed in 1870, but his spirit of enter- prise had been inherited and imbibed by his sons, who had for years been his associates and assistants. They were as much at home on the river as their father had ever been, and with youthful zeal reached out to new fields with larger plans, involving more comprehensive re- sults.

Their operations became so large that accumulations of lengths and sizes of unsalable logs necessitated their manufacture into lum- ber, so in 1870 the five brothers-Sherburn, Samuel M., Hiram, Green- lief and Charles-erected at South Gardiner the first building of their present extensive lumber cutting mills. A steam engine of 150 horse power then put in place still proves sufficient, although the capacity of the mills has been enlarged in all other directions. Four years ago, in order to work off the accumulations of slabs and edgings, a kindling wood department was added that cuts each day a car-load of 10,000 bundles. The year that Lawrence Brothers built their mill they, with others, made also a little experiment in the ice business that yielded a good profit. Houses were built in Pittston sufficient to store 6,000 tons, which was sold the next spring for seven dollars per ton. In 1876 they built two more ice houses that were used two years and torn down.

Ten million feet of lumber is cut yearly at their mills. The chief supply of logs comes from Moosehead lake and Dead river, where they employ two hundred men and forty teams four months in the year: cutting from their own lands eight to nine million feet of logs annually. The balance which they manufacture are bought of other lumbermen. The Maine Central Railroad Company purchases two and a half million feet of their product yearly. Besides the help cutting logs, 110 men find steady employment at the mills at South Gardiner.

In 1888 this quintuple partnership of brothers was broken by the death of Samuel M., who was respected and beloved by all who knew him. With riper experience, as being the oldest member of this family partnership, Sherburn Lawrence took the guiding oar at the start and by their common request he has retained it, and is widely known as the representative member of the firm in all its extended transactions. A retired editor, himself a native of Gardiner, basing his conclusions upon a life-long acquaintance, says of Mr. Lawrence: " Endowed with great common sense and a man of mature judgment

Perfum Lanma

PRINT, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y.

621

THE CITY OF GARDINER.

and mental grasp, yet he impresses men more by the qualities of his heart. Public spirited and thoroughly modest, he always considers the interests and feelings of others, especially the poor, and is held in ideal esteem by those in his employ. I do not believe Sherburn Law- rence has an enemy."

In 1854 he married Julia, daughter of Jordan Stanford, of South Gardiner. Their only child, Forest M. Lawrence, born in 1856, died in 1888. He was a young man of rare activities and qualities of mind and heart, and his untimely decease was sincerely mourned by an en- tire community. The ethical bent of his mind is fairly revealed by the following lines, which he kept posted over his business desk as his constant reminder:

" The sunshine of life is made up of very little beams that are bright all the time. To give up something, when giving up will pre- vent unhappiness; to yield, when persisting will chafe and fret others; to go a little around rather than come against another; to take an ill look or cross word quietly, rather than resent or return it-these are the ways in which clouds and storms are kept off and a pleasant and steady sunshine secured.

Joseph S. and Frederick T. Bradstreet went to South Gardiner in 1876, bought land and built the present steam saw mills driven by en- gines of 450 horse power, which they operated under the firm name of Bradstreet Brothers. In 1881 The Bradstreet Lumber Company was formed, with $100,000 capital. It cuts 15,000,000 feet of spruce dimen- sions for the New York market each year, employing 110 mill hands. The logs for this immense business are furnished by Joseph S. and Frederick T. Bradstreet, from their extensive tracts of timber lands on the Roach, Moose and Dead rivers.

The first grocery store at South Gardiner was owned by a Mr. Burke, who sold the business and premises to Jordan Stanford in 1839. The latter was a boot and shoe manufacturer and dealer in Gardiner city, and at once built a branch factory in South Gardiner, where he employed from fifteen to twenty hands several years. Mr. Stanford continued the store he had bought of Mr. Burke till 1849, when he was succeeded by C. G. Baxter, Benjamin Stanford, and lastly by his daughter, Emily Stanford, who built in 1878 the store she now owns and occupies south of the old Burke store.

The next store at South Gardiner was opened by Lincoln & Aver- ill, who kept it eight years and were burned ont. A year or two later Beadle & Potter built on the same ground the store they are now run- ning. F. M. Lawrence built a small store and used it till 1881, when the large store now operated by his widow was built, and the small store converted into the present lumber office of Lawrence Brothers. H. R. Sawyer built a store in 1880, occupied since by A. B. Haley, J. C. Merriman, by H. R. Sawyer for a post office under Cleveland, and at present by W. H. Merrell. Mr. Sawyer built the store he now owns

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

and occupies in 1884, and Judson Hall built his small store near the G. A. R. Hall, in 1890.

TOWN OFFICERS .- As the city is the political successor of the old town of Gardiner, we will here note the chief officials of the town during the forty-seven years of its existence as such. In 1803 Dudley B. Hobart was moderator of the first town meeting. During the exist- ence of Gardiner as a town the following named persons served it as selectmen, the date showing the first year of service. The number of years-not always consecutive-are also indicated: Barzillai Gannett, 1803, 6 consecutive years; Dudley B. Hobart, 1803; William Barker, 1803; William Swan, 1804: Reuben Moor, 1804; Joshua Lord, 1805; Samuel Elwell, 1805, 1806; Edward Wilson, 1806, 3 years; Stephen Jewett, 1807, 6 years; Simon Bradstreet, 1809, 3 consecutive years; Jesse Tucker, 1809, 4 years; William G. Warren, 1812, 3 years; Ichabod Plaisted, 1812, 1813; Aaron Haskell, 1812, 21 years; Thomas Gilpatrick, 1814, 9 times; James Lord, 1814, 5 consecutive years; James Marston, 1815, 4 years; Rufus Gay, 1817, 1818; Sanford Kingsbury, 1819; Paul Dyer, 1819; Jacob Davis, 1820, 9 consecutive years; Peter Adams, 1825, 6 consecu- tive years; Edward Peacock, 1829; William Partridge, 1830, 7 consecu- tive years; Arthur Plumer, 1831; Benjamin Shaw, 1832; Daniel Merrill, 1833; Benjamin H. Field, 1833; Ansyl Clark, 1835, 9 years; E. F. Deane, 1837, 2 years; Cyrus Kindrick, 1837; A. S. Chadwick, 1837, 5 years; Thomas N. Atkins, 1839; Jordan Libby, 1840, 1841; Ebenezer White, 1842; Elkanah Mclellan, 1842; Mason Damon, 1843, 5 years; Edward Swan, 1843; Arthur Plumer, 1844; Charles Danforth, 1845, 4 years; James G. Donnell, 1845; Phineas Pratt, 1846, 1847; Robert Thompson, 1848; Michael Hildreth, 1848; Isaac N. Tucker, 1849.

The succession of town treasurers was as follows: Rufus Gay, 1803; Edward Swan, 1819; Rufus Gay, 1834; Thomas Gay, 1837; E. F. Deane, 1838; Michael Hildreth, 1840; E. F. Deane, 1841; Michael Hildreth, 1842; Jason Winnett, 1848; Cyrus Kindrick, 1848, 1849.

The first town clerk was Seth Gay, formerly the clerk of Pittston. He served until 1839, when Ansyl Clark was elected. Thomas Gay was clerk in 1841, and John Webb then served as long as Gardiner was a town.

CITY'S CIVIL HISTORY .- In 1849 the legislature of Maine passed the act of incorporation by which the town of Gardiner as a body politic might become the city of Gardiner. The acceptance of the charter by a vote of the people was a condition precedent. The town voted on the 26th of November, to accept the charter, and the first city election was held in March, 1850. As divided by the act of incor- poration, the city consisted of seven wards, ward 3 being then the pres- ent town of West Gardiner.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 75

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