Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 81

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 81


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).


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Captain Franklin D. Whitmore is the son of William and Phebe (Hayden) Whitmore, of Arrowsic, Me., where he was born in 1839. His father was a teacher and afterward a Congregational minister. Captain Whitmore has followed the sea since the age of seventeen,


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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.


becoming master of the Mary Russell in 1870. He has commanded several ships, all engaged in the California trade. His present vessel is the Berlin, of which he is part owner. He came to Gardiner in 1869, and in 1871 married Mary N., daughter of Judge Palmer, of Gardiner. Their children are: Mary L., Frank H. and Morton P.


Fred W. Willey was born in Litchfield, Me., June 19, 1857. When six years of age his parents moved to South Gardiner, Me., where he has since resided. He received his education in the city schools of Gardiner and the Commercial College of Augusta, of which he was a graduate. The most of his life has been spent in the lumber busi- ness; in the woods in winter and in the lumber yard in summer as surveyor. He was married to Fannie Foster Crocker, of Machias, Me., June 3, 1885. One son is the fruit of their union. His father, J. O. Willey, was born January 8, 1821, in Durham, N. H., married Mary H. Johnson, of Gardiner, Me., and had three children: Ida M., Fred W. and Abbie P. Willey. His father was a connection of the Willey family that was buried in the slide of the White mountains.


Robert Williamson was born in Chesterfield county, Va., in 1803, and in 1829, with his wife, Mary Hunt, of Boston, came to Gardiner, where they raised their family and where, until his death in 1874, he was successfully engaged in the clothing business. Their surviving children are: Mary E. (Mrs. John D. Lovett, of Boston) and Virginia Williamson, of Gardiner.


Albion E. Wing, son of Leonard Wing, of Wayne, and grandson of Allen Wing, who came from Cape Cod, was born in 1822. Leonard Wing married Betsey Ellis, of Wayne, by whom he had six boys and three girls, Albion E. being the fourth. The latter came to Gardiner in 1843 and married Mary Jane, daughter of Joshua Burgess, in 1846. Their only child is Mrs. Augustus W. McCausland. Mr. Wing was a self-taught mechanic and turned his attention to wagon making when he first came to Gardiner, working for William H. Lord as a journey- man. After a partnership in the same business with J. D. Gardiner of some six years, he built a shop on Church street, now a marble shop, where he manufactured carriages and sleighs for nearly forty years, and then sold the business to J. B. Libby. Mr. Wing has been member of the city council and president of that body, also assessor and overseer of the poor.


Philip H. Winslow® descended from Kenelin Winslow', who was born in Drotwich, Eng., in 1599, and came to Salem, Mass., the line of descent being: Nathaniel2, Gilbert®, Barnabas', Barnabas®, Philip®, whose wife was a Rideout; Philip', who, born in New Gloucester in 1818-the third of nine children-came to Gardiner in 1841, married Emily Hawks, of Windham, Me., in 1842, had a family of three boys and two girls, and died in 1888. Philip H. Winslow®, born in 1852, was the youngest of the three boys, only two of whom and one girl


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THE CITY OF GARDINER.


are living. He married Luella A., daughter of Harvey Scribner, of Gardiner, in 1873. They have one child, Harvey Philip. Mr. Wins- low has been in the grocery trade at Gardiner twenty-one years, making his the oldest grocery house but two in this city.


Frank C. Wise, born in Canton, 1858, is the son of George W. Wise, who was born in Hallowell, and whose father, Martin W. Wise, was also a Hallowell man. George W. removed from Hallowell to Auburn and thence to Canton. He was one of four children, and is probably the only one now living. His brother went to sea and was never heard from, and the two sisters are dead. George W. Wise married, first, Eleanor Keith, of Auburn, by whom he had two boys and one girl, and, second, Orvilla Rolfe, who bore him two sons. Frank C. Wise came from Norway, Me., to Gardiner, where he bought the clothing business of Bicknell & Neal, which he still follows. He married Mary E., daughter of Thomas Berry. Their children are Ellen M. and Hattie M.


Captain Andrew T. Wyman, born in 1836, is the son of Percy and grandson of William Wyman, of Phippsburg, whose ancestors came from Scotland. Percy Wyman married Mary Tibbetts, of Woolwich. Captain Wyman married, in 1858, Emily F. Witherspoon (a great- granddaughter of John Witherspoon, born in Scotland, who was one of the signers of the declaration of independence), and has one child, Nellie. They came to Gardiner in 1870 and two years later he became captain of the steam tug J. T. Hoffman, which he ran for five years and then took command of the A. F. Kappella, of which he is part owner.


CHAPTER XXV.


TOWN OF WEST GARDINER.


Incorporation .- Civil Lists .- Settlers .- Map .- Collins Mills .- Business Enter- prises .- Stores .- Post Offices .- Lodges .- Schools .- Churches .- Cemeteries. -Personal Paragraphs.


T HE territory which forms the town of West Gardiner formerly belonged to Gardiner and Litchfield. The larger portion of the town was within the old Gardinerston plantation, and thus be- came in 1779 a part of the original Pittston, and was also included in the town of Gardiner, incorporated in 1803, and comprised the Seventh ward of Gardiner city in 1850. The part belonging to Gardiner was 10,400 acres, set off and incorporated as West Gardiner August 8, 1850, the parent city taking no active part in opposing the separation. In 1859 the northern part of Litchfield was annexed, thus somewhat increasing its area. The town lies west of the city of Gardiner and south of Augusta; and it is bounded in part, on the south and east, by the Cobbosseecontee, a considerable stream, which is fed by ponds in Mt. Vernon. Wayne and Winthrop, and flows into the Ken- nebec within the limits of the city of Gardiner. On the northeast the town joins Gardiner, while on the north it joins Farmingdale and Manchester, and on the west Winthrop, the line passing through the east side of the great pond that lies between the towns. Litchfield lies south of the town, and is divided from it in part by the Cobbossee- contee.


CIVIL LISTS .- The names and years of service of the selectmen of the town have been as follows: Aaron Haskell, 1850; Abram Milliken, 1850, '51; David Marston, 1850, died during the year, and Daniel Tall- man filled the vacancy; Thaddeus Spear, 1851, '52, '55, '56, '57, '58; Dan- iel Fuller, 1851, '59, '60, '61, '65; Samuel H. Parsons, 1852; Thomas M. Clark, 1852; Oliver S. Edwards, 1853, '54, '62; Eliakim Norton, 1853, '54, '59; Cyrus Brann, 1854; Hermon Stinson, 1855, '56, '57; Isaac Farr, 1855, '56; Noah Farr, 1857; Jefferson Brann, 1858; John Hodgkins, 1858; William Farr, 1859, '60, '61, '65; William H. Merrill, 1860, '61, '62, '63, '64, '70; William Morse, 1862, '63, '64; Samuel P. Stinson, 1863, '64, resigned, succeeded by Alvin Merrill, 1864; Thomas H. Dow, 1865, '66; George W. Blanchard, 1866, '67; John W. Herrick, 1866, '67, '71, '72, '76; Phineas S. Hodgdon, 1867, '68, '69, '73, '74; David


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Tucker, 1868, '69, '74; Ezekiel Ware, 1868, '69; Elisha P. Seavey, 1870; Jacob Emerson, 1870; Eleazer C. Douglass, 1871, '72, '73, '79; Thomas H. Dow, 1871, '72; Daniel E. Merrill, 1873 to 1879 inclusive; Jerry H. Pinkham, 1875; Josiah W. Sprague. 1875; John A. Spear, 1876, '77, '78, 1880 to 1885 inclusive, and 1892; Elijah Farr, 1877 to 1883 inclusive; Nathan J. Knox, 1880 to 1883 inclusive; Alvin W. Brann, 1884 to 1891 inclusive; Samuel M. Pinkham, 1884; William P. Haskell, 1885 to 1888 inclusive; Hubbard Goldsmith, jun., 1886 to 1891 inclusive; John Pinkham, 1889 to 1892 inclusive; George E. Lancaster, 1892.


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The moderators of the annual town meetings, with the date of first election and number of times each has presided, are as follows: 1850, Daniel Fuller, 6; 1851, Samuel H. Parsons, 4; 1855, John Knox, 2; 1858, Moses T. Wadsworth, 4; 1866, Cyrus Brann, 8; 1871, Phineas S. Hodgdon; 1874, John W. Herrick, 2; 1877, Charles Hinkley; 1878, Eleazer C. Douglass; 1880, Samuel M. Pinkham to 1891, except Daniel W. Robinson in 1882: John A. Spear, 1892.


The succession of treasurers, with the year of election, includes: Merrill Hunt, 1850; Cyrus Brann, 1852; Robert H. Douglass, 1855;


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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.


Cyrus Brann, 1857; J. L. Spear, 1859; Samuel P. Stinson, 1862; John Knox, 1864; William P. Haskell, 1865; Stephen Weston, 1868; George H. Pope, 1874; Alpheus Spear, 1880; George H. Pope, 1883; Stephen Weston, 1886; and Baxter M. Small, since 1889.


The service of seven different men as town clerks covers the forty- two years of the town's history: Oliver S. Edward served until 1862, excepting 1858, when Lyman K. Littlefield was chosen; George D. Wakefield was elected in 1862 and 1863, and M. W. Farr in 1864; Wil- liam P. Haskell's long period of uninterrupted service began in 1865.


SETTLERS .- Preliminary to the sale of lands to the settlers, the en- tire Cobbosseecontee traet was surveyed and divided into lots, the numbers of which appear on the original deeds. A plan of these lots, projected from Solomon Adams' survey of 1808, appears on the pre- ceding page.


Enoch and Sarah (Libbey) French came in 1811 from Seabrook, N. H., and settled where their son, George W. French, now lives, at the Corner, which was named after his father. A part of the old house is still well preserved. Nathaniel Leighton, Joseph Roberts and Nahum Merrill, a brother of Daniel Merrill, all came from Gorham, Me., about 1810. Mr. Roberts settled at Nudd's Corner, where Clarence Curtis now lives, and Mr. Leighton settled where Frank Sherburn lives. Joseph Haskell came to West Gardiner in 1818, from Gloucester, Mass. He was a sea captain and followed his calling for several years after he settled here. Peter Clark came from Hallowell and located where his grandson, George Clark, lives. James Lord came from Ipswich, Mass., and spent the balance of his life on the place where his grandson, Charles McCausland, lives. His death was tragie-his house was burned in 1847, and he perished in the flames. Abel French settled on the cross road from North to High streets, about 1812.


Aaron Wadsworth came from Massachusetts between 1790 and 1800, and settled where Isaac Wentworth lives. Elias and Benjamin Howard, from Massachusetts, also lived on land now owned by Mr. Wentworth. Caleb Towle lived where his son, Orrin, now resides. Aaron Haskell lived where Miss Irene Collins lives. Daniel Herrick and John W. Herrick lived on the next farm to Joseph Haskell, where John W.'s daughter, Mrs. Helen A. Fuller, now resides. The old house in which Joseph Haskell lived was burned. It stood on the place now owned by Albert W. De Fratus. Ezekiel Robinson came in 1802 from Gloucester, Mass., and settled on the farm now owned by Lambert Perkins, on which his son, Benjamin B. Robinson, lived till he was eighty years old. Ezekiel was a brother to the widely known almanac maker, Daniel R. Robinson.


Nathaniel Currier was born in Southampton, N. H., and moved to Sedgwick, Me., from whence he came to West Gardiner in 1816-that memorable cold summer when the ground froze and corn and pota-


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TOWN OF WEST GARDINER.


toes were killed in June and were hoed the first time in July, and again killed by frost in August. Mrs. Harriet B. Sampson, Mr. Cur- rier's daughter, now living at the age of 84 with her daughter, Mrs. Doctor Whitmore, in Gardiner, remembers that a few potatoes were all the crop her father was able to raise that year. Mrs. Sampson has vivid recollections of the old times, some of which are as follows. William Morse came from Bath, Me., and built a house west of the church on the Hallowell road. William Stevens, father of Moses and John Stevens, came from up the Kennebec river and settled where Reuben L. Snow lives.


Captain Chapin Sampson, who came from Boston to West Gardi- ner about 1800, had some strange adventures in his day. About 1786 he commanded a big ship that was captured on the Mediterranean sea by an Algerine corsair. He and his crew were stripped of their clothing and driven through the streets of Algiers as a show, being the first Americans ever seen there. They were treated with all man- ner of indignities, thrown in loathsome dungeons, and at the end of ten days they were sent into the country to labor as slaves. Captain Chapin and his master soon discovered that they were brother Masons, and at the risk of his life the overseer proved his loyalty to the order by helping his slave to escape. Captain Thomas B. Sampson, son of Captain Chapin, came from Boston in 1826, in which year he was mar- ried to Harriet B. Currier. He followed the sea as long as his health would permit. Job Sampson came from Boston to Hallowell and from thence to West Gardiner. He was a blacksmith and his shop stood in the hollow west of the Baptist church.


Reuel Rice, son of John Rice, lived where Mrs. Seavey now lives. The Rices were very early settlers. Joseph Neal was an early settler and lived in a house sold to Elisha Seavey. Thomas and Julius Neal were his sons. Thomas lived in the first house beyond the red school house. Israel Hutchinson lived where Joseph Spear lives. Thomas Brann, son of Captain John Brann, an old settler, lived where James W. Small does. Edward Austin lived near where Jonathan Good- rich lives. C. J. Edwards lived where his son, Ezekiel, lives. Abra- ham Bachelor came from New Hampshire before 1815, and lived on what is now the George Carter place. He was buried in a vault with a granite front, which he built on his own farm. Ebenezer Bailey, from Durham, settled in 1800 near where the Friends' meeting house stands. He was killed by a falling limb while chopping in the woods. Moses Wadsworth, who came from Winthrop in 1809, was a carpenter and the Friend minister. He lived west of the meeting house, near the pond.


Paul Hildreth, the first settler in Lewiston, came here and settled in early times near Horseshoe pond, and had sons, Robert and Thad- deus Hildreth. Hugh Potter, father of Hugh Potter, was an old set-


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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.


tler near Spear's Corner; also the Marstons, Littlefields and Annis Spear, from whom the " Corner " took its name. Jerry Wakefield set- tled on High street, below Nudd's Corner, and John Knox, Chester Rhoades and John Libby lived near Merrill's Corner.


COLLINS MILLS .- This locality was originally called Cram's Mills. About 1815 Jacob Cram owned the land on one side of the Cobbossee- contee and R. H. Gardiner owned that on the other side, the dividing line being in the center of the stream. Mr. Cram built a wooden dam and a mill which he operated for a time with such success that Mr. Gardiner wanted control of the whole. So he objected to the dam where it rested on his land, and compelled Mr. Cram to remove it. After a long quarrel the matter was settled by Cram selling his land and his part of the water right at a low figure to Gardiner-exactly as the latter had intended from the start. Mr. Gardiner, in 1830, built a dam and afterward mills, which he sold in 1854 to John Collins, the present owner. The stone dam is a most substantial structure, and it has withstood for over half a century the assaults of heavy floods, with accompanying drift ice. The bridge below the dam was built by Mr. Collins in 1843.


Paul Collins, father of John Collins, was a native of Ware, N. H., from whence he came to Durham, Me., at the age of fourteen, and then to Manchester, in 1803, where he lived and died. He and his wife, Mary (Winslow) Collins, were both Quakers and are buried in the Friends' burial ground. John Collins, Paul's son, came to his present location and bought for $6,500 one hundred acres of land, on which were a grist mill, a saw mill and a carding machine. The card- ing mill was used to make cotton batting and employed four hands. Mr. Collins operated all three of the mills. In 1860 the saw mill and the carding mill were burned. The former was at once rebuilt by Mr. Collins, who also, in 1870, built for George Cowee and Edwin Morse a furniture manufactory, 40 by 80 feet and five stories high. Thirty hands were employed in the summer and forty in the winter, making bedsteads as a specialty. The owners, Cowee & Morse, lived in Augusta. After a short time Morse sold his interest to Joseph Miller, of Augusta. S. S. Brooks, of Augusta, and John Collins then bought the furniture mill and operated it two years, when Collins sold to Prentiss M. Fogler, the firm being P. M. Fogler & Co., who operated it till 1878, when it was burned, together with the new saw mill and the grist mill. The grist mill had two runs of stone and did a fine custom business.


Joseph L. Spear built an early store at Collins Mills, and ran it three or four years, when he sold it to Enoch Dill, who sold it two years later to Joseph Adams, who ran it two years and changed it into a dwelling house. Jesse Falls was an early blacksmith, whose shop


John Collins


Note .- Paul Collins, of Irish descent, was born in Weare, N. H., in 1772, and died in Manchester, Me., in 1864-his wife in 1858. Their children were: Ruth, born in 1801; George H., 1803; Isaac, 1805; Samuel, 1807; Levi, 1809; Ann W., 1811; Cyrus B., 1814; John, April 17, 1816; and Irene in 1819. John Collins and Emily Winslow were married in 1851. Frank S., their eldest child, now a house builder, living in Boston, was born in 1854 and married Minnie Leavitt, who died in 1885. His second wife was Nellie Perkins, of West Gardiner. Their two children are: John L. and Carl R. The second child of John, Alice M., born in 1857, married in 1882, J. W. Larrabee, of Boston, a shirt manufacturer. They have two children: Emilie H. and John. Ferdie A., the third child of John, was born in 1868 and died when seventeen months old. Jacob Cram built, before 1795, the first mill on the valuable Cobbosseecontee water privilege, which has so long borne Mr. Collins' name. It is a historic spot. Mr. Collins is a life-long democrat and has taken the Portland Argus over fifty years.


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TOWN OF WEST GARDINER.


stood near the bridge at Collins Mills. Moses Hawks was a stone- cutter and farmer and had a blacksmith shop.


As early as 1810 to 1820 bricks were made in a small way in various parts of Gardiner. Nicholas Pinkham, who came from Durham in 1805, and settled where his son, Jeremiah Pinkham, lives, made the bricks on his place to build his chimneys. Noah Farr came before 1800 from Harpswell, Me., and settled where Benjamin Hopkins now lives. He was originally a fisherman. Elijah Goddard came about 1805 and settled where John M. Gove lives. About 1874 Joseph L. Spear built a saw mill on the Gardiner estate a mile above the mill dam, and runs it yet.


BUSINESS ENTERPRISES .- About 1815 Daniel Winslow built the first tannery at Cram's Mills, and operated it for twenty-five years. This was torn down and a larger one built by Archibald Horn, who bought Mr. Winslow out. The old works were entirely devoted to tanning leather. Mr. Horn ran the business for thirty years, making a specialty of tanning sheep-skins. Isaiah Hawks purchased the plant and in two years sold to Moses Stephens, who ran it nine years, and sold to William Horn, a nephew of Archibald Horn, about 1870. He ran it several years, till he died, when his brothers, Archibald and Eben, succeeded him, and still continue the business, under the firm name of Horn Brothers. In 1881 they erected two buildings, each forty feet square, and put in a steam boiler and engine, with all the equip- ments necessary to do a large business. They are tanning about 7,500 dozen sheep-skins a year, using two hundred cords of bark and the services of four men.


Clarence E. Getchell built a tannery in 1885, 34 by 62, on the east side of the stream, on land leased of John Collins. His machinery is run by water, and his works contain all modern appliances for the most successful operation. His business is confined exclusively to sheep-skins, of which 120,000, many of them foreign skins, are tanned annually, requiring the labor of four men and the consumption of 150 cords of bark. The total earnings are $6,000 per year.


George H. Pope began raising corn for Hallowell canning works in 1886. In 1889 he put in the necessary fixtures and machinery at his home on Highland avenue, and put up 20,000 cans of corn. In 1890 he put up 28,000 cans of corn and 1,700 cans of pumpkin, which sold for $2,600. He raises from one-third to one-half of all the corn he cans on his own farm. Mr. Pope makes his own cans, gives work to thirty people during the active season, and is the pioneer in the can- ning business in West Gardiner .


STORES .- The first to engage in the store business at Spear's Cor- ner was Frank W. Brann, about 1850. After a short time he was suc- ceeded by Joseph L. Spear, who sold his business to Gardiner Spear and George D. Wakefield. Their successors have been: Samuel P.


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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.


Stinson, J. L. Spear, Josiah F. Marr, Alpheus Spear, John A. Spear, Edwin Fairbanks, Wallace O. Spear, A. K. P. Edwards, Charles Cut- ting. Simon R. Cutting, John C. Babcock and F. W. Brann. The last store at Spear's Corner was by W. C. Whitney, who closed the business in 1890.


Joseph A. Brown, jun., opened the first store in Rip's District about 1876. He retired and was succeeded in 1877 by Charles S. Greene, who is still engaged in the grocery business. Mr. Greene is a native of Gardiner, and was born in 1836. His father was drowned off the mouth of the Kennebec in 1844.


The first store at French's Corner was built and opened by William P. Haskell in 1865, in which business he still continues, living in a dwelling house attached to his store. The next store was established by the Cobbosseecontee Grange in the house of George W. French in 1876, and the last by Frank Towle in 1889, who is located in Grange Hall.


POST OFFICES .- The first post office in town was established April 11, 1828, at the house of Aaron Haskell, who was the first postmaster. His son, Aaron, jun .. was appointed March 29, 1832, and held the office until September 5, 1835. when he was succeeded by Daniel Marston. The next incumbent was George W. French, appointed March 13, 1844, and succeeded by Daniel Marston, February 2, 1846. John W. Herrick was appointed September 3, 1849, at which time the name was changed to French's Corner. Francis W. Brann was appointed March 31, 1854, and the name was changed to West Gardiner again. He was followed by William P. Haskell, May 2, 1854; William D. Marston, May 14, 1857; William P. Haskell, September 14, 1861; John W. Her- rick, January 26, 1864; William P. Haskell, November 29, 1865; Albert W. De Fratus, September 23, 1885; and Frank E. Towle, the present incumbent, May 13, 1889. This office is on the old post route from Augusta to Freeport and had a tri-weekly mail until about 1875, when the mail route was reorganized and a daily mail established from Augusta to South Litchfield.


Prior to 1857 there was a post office at West Gardiner Center, on the Gardiner and Lewiston route, with Joseph L. Spear as postmaster. He held the position for three or four years, and was succeeded by Moses Rogers, who was appointed by Buchanan. Party feeling ran high in the neighborhood and it was not long until there appeared to be no use for a post office or a Democratic postmaster at the Center.


SOCIETIES .- The Cobbosseecontee Grange, P. of H., was organized February 8, 1875. Jeremiah Pinkham was the first master. In Feb- ruary, 1876, the Grange established a store in the house of George W. French, where it was kept eight years, when the profits were found to be sufficient to build the present Grange Hall, which cost over $1,200. The store was operated for the Grange by Albert De Fratus till 1888,


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then by Lizzie French till the stock was sold to Frank Towle, who rents the lower floor of the hall. Elijah Farr is the present master of the Grange, and Mrs. Celia J. Davis is secretary, with thirty-seven members


The Gardiner Lodge of Good Templars was organized in 1871, numbering one hundred members, with Herbert Small chief templar.


The Ladies' Library Association at French's Corner was organized in 1886, through the efforts of Mrs. Lizzie W. Buck and Miss Flora Goodwin. Funds were first raised by a ladies' fair, and have been since maintained by entertainments and quarterly dues. The association has a circulating library of over one thousand volumes, kept at George W. French's house. The first president of this useful and commend- able enterprise was Miss Flora Goodwin; and Mrs. Lizzie W. Buck is now president and secretary.




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