USA > Maine > Maine Public Lands 1781-1795 : claims, trespassers, and sales > Part 15
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on the circumstances of the particular piece of property involved.
33. e.g.
Instructions to Dodge, June 15, 1784, Eastern Lands,
Box 14.
34. Mass. Resolve, March 26, 1788, Chap. 80.
35. Mass. Resolve, July 9, 1784, Chap. 103.
36. Mass. Resolve, March 20, 1784, Chap. 164.
37. Mass. Resolve, June 23, 1784, Chap. 34.
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The motive behind this resolve was probably the fact that it had been discovered that some of these plots were already claimed by various people, whom the State was willing to favor with this chance to buy at a private sale. The 1783 Committee was never, at any time, encumbered with such a restriction. The resolve of March 1784 merely 38
said that the land should be sold, although it is probable that private sales were intended, but the mode of business adopted that 39
November allowed either public auction or private sales. That
October the General Court had given the Committee the job of selling an island applied for by James Swan. If he agreed to its terms, it was to be his, but if not, the Committee was to sell it at public sale "or in such other way as they shall think will best serve the 40
interest of the Commonwealth." One further mention was made of requiring that land be sold at public auction. In 1786 the General Court considered selling some land in Cumberland County in this way, but the proposal got no farther than a preliminary resolve that was not 41
passed in that form.
In the days immediately following the Revolution money in America was in a confused state. Many varieties were in use and
38. Mass. Resolve, March 22, 1784, Chap. 169.
39. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 5, 1784, Chap. 45.
40. Mass. Resolve, Oct. 26, 1784, Chap. 23
41. Unpassed resolve with Mass. Resolve, March 19, 1785,
Chap. 3.
242
each had its own scale of value. There was a specie -- a very scarce article in. most quarters, various kinds of paper notes issued by the states, and the securities of the national government, as well as foreign currency.
In 1777 and in 1783 Massachusetts had attempted to simplify its financial program by combining all the paper securities it had issued, both interest and non-interest bearing, into one kind of 42 interest bearing paper called consolidated notes.
The Committee was therefore faced with the job of making a decision as to what kind of currency it would find acceptable in making sale of lands.
At the outset, the General Court directed that the land should 43 be sold for the paper notes of the Commonwealth. In 1785 the Committee agreed to seil some land to a Robert Page, and Phillips and Dane went to Salem to complete the sale. When they go there, however, they discovered that he planned to pay in continental 44 securities, and therefore the transaction was not completed. Specific
42. Charles Jesse Bullock, Historical Sketch of the Finances and Financial Policy of Massachusetts from 1780 to 1905, American Economic Association, Publications, 3rd Ser., VIII, No. 2 (1907), p. 7; see also Mass. Resolve, Feb. 26, 1784, Chap. 86.
43. Mass. Resolve, March 20, 1784, Chap. 169, (says government securities); Mass. Resolve, July 9, 1784, Chap. 103, (says public con- solidated securities of Commonwealth or notes given to soldiers falling due in 1784, 1785, or 1786); Mass. Resolve, Nov. 5, 1784, Chap. 45.
44. Eastern Lands, Deeds, I, 56, April 14, 1785.
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grants specified consolidated notes as the money to be received in 45
payment, using that term in their wording.
In 1786, however, a resolve empowered the Committee to accept 46 interest bearing public continental securities.
Later that year when the State drew up its land lottery plan, it listed " ... the consolidated notes of the commonwealth, or ... the public securities of the United States, called final settlements, or ... any other public securities on interest of the United States or of the Commonwealth, or ... silver and gold" as money that would be re- 47 ceived. One note states that the managers of the state land lottery 48
turned in Pickering, Peirce, and Loan Office certificates.
Specie was also received in some instances. In the summer of 1786 the Legislature empowered the Committee to sell enough lands for specie to bring in six hundred pounds. This was accomplished by a resolve that in a preliminary form would have allowed the Committee to receive specie for not over five per cent of the land it was selling. This action was the outcome of a Committee report to the General Court
49
45. e.g. Mass. Resolve, March 17, 1785, Chap. 158; Mass. Resolve, Nov. 30, 1785, Chap. 126; Mass. Resolve, June 21, 1785, Chap. 41.
46. Mass. Resolve, March 1, 1786, Chap. 56.
47. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 9, 1786, Chap. 40. 48. Memo, |"Nov. 5, 1787" added in other handwriting , Eastern Lands, Box 1.
49. Mass. Resolve, July 6, 1786, Chap. 91.
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50
stating that it was out of funds to pay surveying expenses. Committee minutes of June, 1787 list proposed prices that were a combination of 51 consolidated notes and specie, and several sales were made on this basis. For instance, a Moses Brown and his associates were required to pay two shillings and nine pence in consolidated securities plus 52 three pence in specie per acre.
In 1788 the policy resolve of March directed the Committee to 53 sell the land for state notes "or otherwise in specie." The adver- tisement issued early the following summer notified the public that payments were to be in consolidated securities. 54 Some contracts made
after this date called for specie payment, however. Among these were 55 those made with Knox and Duer for three million acres.
As will be seen the lowering of the value of consolidated notes 56 in relation to specie caused some customers a severe hardship.
50. Committee Report, June 10, 1786, with Mass. Resolve, July 6, 1786, Chap. 91.
51. Committee Minutes, June 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 46.
52. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 16, 1789, Chap. 109.
53. Mass. Resolve, March 26, 1788, Chap. 80.
54. Ad in Cumberland Gazette, July 3, 10, and 17, 1788.
55. Jackson and Flint, Mass. Contract, July 1, 1791, Article 3 in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 49; Agreement between Phillips, Jarvis, and Read and Jackson and Flint, April 18, 1792, Eastern Lands, Box 15.
56. See later, pp. 291-292.
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Payments made in continental securities posed a problem for the State Treasurer at one point. Many of these certificates had been issued in loan offices from New Hampshire to Georgia, which prevented his getting interest when it fell due -- he could not go to the office personally and he did not think he was authorized to take the chances involved in sending the certificates to the Continental Register's office to be registered so that interest would be paid without a pre- sentation of the certificate each time. Confronted with this dilemma, 57 he asked the General Court for direction in the fall of 1788.
To whom should the State sell land? In March 1784 the Committee reported that in its opinion it would be advisable to lay out and sell townships in certain areas "to any subject of this, or any other of 58 the United States." Then as time went on the idea of selling land to citizens of other nations began to appear desirable. A letter in the Cumberland Gazette of June 8, 1786 discussed the advantages of such 59 sales as the writer saw them. In 1786 the first draft of the resolve appointing Jarvis and Putnam to the Committee and abating for ten years state and national taxes of lands that were sold subsequently included
57. Hodgdon to General Court, Nov. 4, 1788, Mass. House Document 3024.
58. Mass. Resolve, March 22, 1784, Chap. 169.
59. Letter by "Scribble Scrabble" in Cumberland Gazette, June 8, 1786.
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a clause allowing the sale of land to foreigners, a later amendment 60 specifying foreigners who agreed to settle sixty families. However, nothing of this kind appeared in the final resolve. But in the March 1788 policy resolve such a clause was included. The Committee could now sell land to any foreigner who agreed to settle at least one family to each square mile within three years of the date of his purchase. Provisions were also made for the eventual naturalizing 61 of these people, a provision that pointa up the fact that the Federal Constitution was not yet adopted. On the Canadian border an attempt was made to strengthen the boundary by enlisting the loyalty of the residents there. This attempt is reflected in a resolve of the early 1790's which provided every settler in a certain town with a hundred acres of land. Settlers who had arrived there before January 1, 1784 were to pay five dollars and all others ten -- provided each swore an oath of allegiance to the United States before some magistrate.
62 When the Committee agreed to sell twelve towns to Henry Dearborn in 1792 it described in detail the people who would meet his settling require- 63 ments. A minority of them could be foreigners. Later, in the 1790's, Henry Jackson tried very hard to get a law passed easing restrictions
60. Preliminary draft of resolve with Mass. Resolve, Nov. 16, 1786, Chap. 110.
61. Mass. Resolve, March 26, 1788, Chap. 80.
62. Mass. Resolve, June 18, 1791, Chap. 90.
63. Agreement between Committee and Henry Dearborn, March 22, 1792, Eastern Lands, Box 15.
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on sales to foreigners so that a portion of the various millions bought 64 by him and Flint for Knox and Duer could be sold to such persons. 65
However, despite his efforts, no such statute was enacted.
Certain portions of each township were reserved for public use. The majority of these acres were intended to support church and school, matters of real interest to many people.
To say exactly how strong religious feeling was at this time is difficult. A great deal was said about it in the letters and other papers that come out of Maine. Much of what was said was undoubtedly sincere but some of it may have been written for the impression it might make.
Some town historians find little trace of religious enthusiasm. The Farmington historian gathered that the early residents were moral and to a certain extent religious people, but noted that ten years passed after the coming of the first settler before mich was done to conduct religious service. Even then the initiative seems to have 66
come from the outside in the form of travelling missionaries. Harry
Cochrane, who wrote about Monmouth and Wales, said that if religious fervor was at a low ebb throughout the country it was particularly so in these settlements -- there nineteen years went by after the first
64. Jackson to Bingham, March 23, 1793, and March 21, 1793, William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, pp. 257 and 253, respectively.
65. William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 675.
66. Butler, A History of Farmington, p. 137.
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settlement before there was any attempt to organize a religious society, and during that time there was very little effort to give religious instruction. It was true, however, that infrequently preachers did hold forth in a barn or somebody's house. One of these was a James Potter who held a series of meetings in 1783. The people listened to him attentively but were ""disposed to cavil. '" 67
Also, in 1792 a town meeting did vote fifteen pounds for preaching. This was to be paid in corn at four shillings, rye at five shillings, and wheat at six shillings a bushel. At the same time thirty pounds to be paid in 68 the same fashion was voted for the support of schools.
Rochefoucauld also found little real fervor. He did say that the young people were anxious for meetings, but a chief object of the 69 girls in particular was to show off their clothes. On the other hand Timothy Dwight, another traveller in these parts, disagreed sharply with Rochefoucauld in a comment concerning the book the latter wrote about his travels. In general he praised it very highly, but added that in the field of politics and religion Rochefoucauld was prejudiced; he particularly criticized this paragraph discussing Maine peoples' attitude toward church. 70
67. Cochrane, History of Monmouth and Wales, I, 222.
68. Ibid, p. 157.
69. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels Through the United States of North America, I, 447-448.
70. Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, 4 vols (New Haven, 1822), IV, 235.
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On the other hand, there are many indications that people were actively interested in religion.
The people who came to Maine to settle were very largely from other sections of New England. Benjamin Lincoln was one who, although not a resident of Maine, took a keen interest in the District. He pointed out that they had been accustomed to worshipping in their old 71 homes, and continued to feel that need after moving. Dwight noted that the people who moved into the remote areas of the region had been accustomed to teaching and preaching and continued to take steps to 72 make these advantages available.
On occasion people wrote to the State authorities asking to be relieved of certain burdens because of their poverty. As evidence of their deplorable state they declared that they had not even been able to sustain any religious activity -- thus practically insinuating that
they were unable to procure the necessities of life.
73
Another group informed the General Court that their situation was uncomfortable, due 74 in part to a lack of the Gospel.
71 Lincoln to Little, Feb. 10, 1790, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections for the Year 1795, IV, 153-156.
72. Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, I, 338.
73. e.g. Settlers on Mt. Desert Island to Committee, Eastern Lands, Box 14; petition of townspeople to General Court, Dec. 25, 1794, in William B. Lapham, History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, (Augusta, 1890), p. 29.
74. Petition of Bancroft et al. for town on Twenty Mile River, Feb. 1, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 15.
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The resident proprietors of one of the townships east of the Penobscot asked the General Court for remittance of certain sums and recited their success in providing religious facilities as a point in 75 their favor -- this accomplishment, they implied, was a valuable one. The period saw groups sending petitions to the General Court asking for the incorporation of their towns. A majority of these listed a desire to provide churches as one reason for the petition -- 76 incorporation carried with it the power to tax for local needs.
A perusal of the early history of many of these towns discloses . unmistakable signs of a sincere thirst for the benefits of the church; many of them were holding religious meetings at this time. In Litchfield the first permanent settlers arrived in the 1770's and the first public
religious service was held in 1780. 77 In 1769 a freeholders' meeting in 78
Bluehill voted for preaching and for repairing the old meeting house. 79 Deer Isle settled Peter Powers as its regular minister in 1785, and shortly thereafter Seth Noble was hired by some of the people on the
75. Petition of resident proprietors of Number Five to the General Court, Dec. 31, 1785, with Mass. Resolve, July 8, 1786, Chap. 130.
76. o.g. Petition of Bakerstown with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 17, 1795, Chap. 34; Lapham and Maxim, History of Paris, Maine to 1880, p. 46.
77. History of Litchfield, 1795-1895, pp. 413 and 435.
78. "Journal of Jonathan Fisher" in Naine Historical Magazine, I, 150.
79. Petition of Peter Powers to the General Court, Sept. 5, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 14.
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80
Penobscot River to preach there. In Seven Mile Brook, now Anson, 81
a church was put up at a raising bee.
According to practically every writer of local history each town had some kind of a school in its earliest days. They were sometimes not public schools, but they were places where the neighborhood children could be taught. In Harrison sessions were held in barns in the summer 82 time and in private homes in the winter. 83 In Bethel a log building was put up to house a school about 1788.
When the people of Maine were writing their minds about church 84 facilities, they usually mentioned schools in the same paragraph. They cited their inability to date to supply educational facilities as a justification for special consideration, or they set forth what they had done along this line, offering that as a reason for the General Court's granting their petitions. Furthermore their wish to establish public schools was one of the things that moved them to ask for the incorporation of their towns, they said.
80. Meine Historical Magazine, I, 139-40.
81. Walker, Embden Town of Yore, pp. 274 and 276.
82. G.T. Ridlon, Early Sottlers of Harrison, Maine, (Skowhegan, 1877), p. 12.
83. Lapham, History of Bethel ... 1768-1890, p. 281.
84. See earlier footnotes 73, 74, and 76.
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A General Court committee that included Cony listed the
establishment of schools as a step that would encourage an increase 85
in Maine population.
It had been the practice of the provincial government to set 86 aside four lots in each township for public use. One of these was for the support of the ministry, one was to be given to the first minister whom the town called to its church, and one was earmarked for the support of schools. The fourth was of less local interest as it was frequently, 87 perhaps invariably, given over to the use of Harvard College. The new State government continued this policy with some alterations.
In the State resolves which confirmed some of the townships east of the Penobscot provisionally granted by provincial government, lots for the ministry, the first settled minister, the future use of the State, and a school were required, each of which was to be equal 88
"for quantity and quality" to all the other lots in the township.
85. "Queries proposed to members of the Legislature of Mass. with their answers annexed thereto, March 13, 1793", in Benjamin Lincoln, A Description of the Situation, Climate, Soil and Production of Certain Tracts of Land in the District of Maine and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, (Philadelphia, 1893), (authorship and place of publication not definitely determined. However, this work follows Charles Evans, American Biblio- graphy, [New York, 1942], vol. 9, 1793-1794, p. 94).
86. e.g. Mass. Resolve, Jan. 27, 1764, Chap. 243.
87. e.g. See Mass. Resolve, June 23, 1790, Chap. 63; Mass. Re- solve, June 11, 1771, Chap. 13.
88. Mass. Resolve, March 17, 1785, Chap. 158; Mass. Resolve, June 21, 1785, Chap. 11.
253
The proprietors of two of the townships given in Maine to people who had been victims of the New Hampshire-Massachusetts boundary 89
decision were required to set aside public lots.
The Committee in one of its earliest sales, a tract of 37,307 acres, required the purchasers to reserve the four lots. One was to be two hundred acres for the use of the first minister, a second of two hundred acres for the ministry, a third of two hundred eighty acres for the grammar school, and a fourth of two hundred acres for the
future disposition of the government. 90 It will be noticed that these lots were not all the same size, and they were not one sixty-fourth of the township.
In some cases prior to March 1788 the proprietors were required to reserve only two lots -- one for the support of the ministry and another for the grammar school. Possibly the General Court thought that these places would never be able to support a settled minister in their midst, but rather would have to share a preacher with other communities. 91
Almost all land grant resolves insisted that the quality of the land for these lots should be good. Many times it was stated that it should be as good on the average as that of the rest of the lota. Some
89. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 7, 1785, Chap. 39; Mass, Resolve, March 17, 1785, Chap. 162.
90. Deed to Moses Knap et al, June 29, 1785 in Eastern Lands and Deeds, I, 395-396.
91. Mass. Resolve, March 13, 1786, Chap. 97; Mass. Resolve, March 22, 1786, Chap. 162.
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of the expressions used were "for quantity and quality in the 92 division of the same" and "to average in goodness and situation 93 with the lands in such township. " The resolve that granted one set of islands mentioned that only about half of the acreage contained in them was of any value at all. Later in the resolve provisions were made for two public lots, a parenthetical insert specifying that 94 these lots should be "of good land."
On occasion the General Court thought that the position of the lots was an important enough matter to be of concern; at such times it 95 stated that they should be near the center of town. In at least one of the towns east of Penobscot River they were to be within one mile of the center of town. 96
As a rule all the reserved lots were equal in size, but occasion- ally the one for the schools was larger than the rest. In a tract granted to one Edward Smith and others the first minister's lot and the lot for the ministry were two hundred acres each but that for the 97 schools was two hundred eighty acres. The same was true in the grant
92. Mass. Resolve, March 17, 1785, Chap. 158.
93. Mass. Resolve, March 26, 1788, Chap. 80.
94. Mass. Resolve, March 13, 1786, Chap. 97.
95. e.g. Mass. Resolve, Jan. 15, 1789, Chap. 28; Mass. Resolve, Feb. 4, 1790, Chap. 68; deed to Moses Knap et al., June 29, 1785, in Eastern Lands, Deeds, I, 393-396.
96. Maas. Resolve, Oct. 31, 1786, Chap. 69.
97. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 30, 1785, Chap. 126.
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98
given to the Townsend people.
In each of the lottery towns the Court reserved four lots of three hundred twenty acres each (one seventy-second of a six miles square township) for the usual purposes except that the fourth was for the use of public education in general as it might later direct. The resolve of March 26, 1788 followed this lead by laying down the general rule that four lots of three hundred twenty acres each should 100
99
be set aside in each township sold thereafter.
Only occasionally were there deviations from this rule. One that did occur was made the very day after the passing of this resolve. In this instance the lots for the ministry and the school were to be four hundred acres each, but there were none reserved for a minister 101 or for the disposal of the State. In 1790 and again in 1793 resolves were presented to the General Court touching some of the twelve towns east of Union River granted in the 1760's. Neither was passed but 102
both called for five public lots of three hundred acres each. There was apparently some indecision or dispute about the matter, in 1790
98. Mass. Resolve, March 17, 1785, Chap. 162.
99. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 9, 1786, Chap. 40.
100. Mass. Resolve, March 26, 1788, Chap. 80.
101. Mass. Resolve, March 27, 1788, Chap. 84.
102. Proposed Mass. Resolves, March 5, 1790 and Feb. 27, 1793, with Mass. Resolve, June 21, 1793, Chap. 37.
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first four were listed, then five. The proposal of 1793 would have place two lots at the future disposal of the Government. Finally the resolve that was finally passed covering this case made no mention of lots at all.
103 The 1794 grant of a town to the Boston Selectmen said 104
nothing about a lot for the first minister.
SALES PROMOTION
Once the land was laid out and regulations made concerning its sale, the agents had to interest the customers.
The State was aware of the value of advertising, and since a number of newspapers existed within its boundaries, use was made of them. Other kinds of printed advertising were also used at times.
The first supposedly unoccupied land offered by the State for sale was that which the York County Committee had had surveyed in 105
accordance with the instructions of the July 1783 resolve. This 106 was put on the block through the resolve of March 20, 1784. In order that potential buyers should know of this sale, the General Court ordered the Committee created to sell that land to place an ad in three Boston newspapers for three weeks successively at least three months before the sale was to commence. Originally it had made the period 103. Mass. Resolve, June 21, 1793, Chap. 37. 104. Mass. Resolve, June 26, 1794, Chap. 103.
105. Mass. Resolve, July 11, 1783, Chap. 99.
106. Mass. Resolve, March 20, 1784, Chap. 164.
107 257
forty days but an amendment provided for the longer time. On March
29, April 5, and April 12 the Eoston Gazette ran these advertisements, which gave the size and location of the lots, the kind of money that would be received in payment, the date of the sale, and its location.
108
The next land to be offered for sale was that encompassing the towns on the Penobscot and St. Croix laid out in the summer of 1784. Before the surveying was even well under way the General Court, spurred on by the Governor's interest in the matter, directed that notice should be given at once that they were in the process of being laid out. Then, when they were ready for the market, advertisement of that fact should 109 be made. This was done. In August notice was given that the land 110
was being made ready for sale. In November Putnam made a report on seven towns on Passamaquoddy Bay between Scho dic and Cobscook Rivers plus some islands. Advertisements were immediately run in the Indepen- dent Chronicle and the papers of Essex, Worcester and Springfield describing the land and offering it for sale. This description in- cluded the information furnished by the surveyors -- size, streams, mill sites, quality of land, its topography and growth, and distance
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