USA > Maine > Maine Public Lands 1781-1795 : claims, trespassers, and sales > Part 20
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295. List taken from Commandant at Fort Harmer in Boston Gazette Nov. 3, 1788. The issues of the Boston Gazette at this time have several glowing accounts of this Ohio country -- one minister is reported to have called Heaven "a mere Muskingum."
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settling requirements. (They both had pre-Revolutionary War grants.) This failure was experienced is one of these towns in spite of attractive inducements made by the proprietors.
At this point the overall record of the speculator proprietors is not good. Many did nothing to encourage settlements. 297 For
instance they did not make reais nor clear lands. Roads and settlements were very frequently linked together by various writers of the times. 298
They either said that roads were an attraction that drew people or
299 they cited the absence of roais as a reason for sparse population. One wonders whether the State should have required the proprietors to build roads -- roads which would not only have served the townships they were in but would also have given access to the areas behind them. This is a question that is impossible to answer but it is undoubtedly true that a dearth of highways was a factor that kept the population down. Of course, the State may well have felt that the desire of the proprietors to sell land would cause them to build all necessary roads without any prodding, and the error of such reasoning would not have
296. Petition of Stearns to General Court, Nov. 1788, with Mass. Resolve, Nov. 24, 1788, Chap. 82; petition of Phips Canada Committee to General Court, Jan. 13, 1789, and excerpts from Proprietors' records with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 17, 1789, Chap. 122. (This was town offering inducementa).
298. e.g. Answers to Queries Proposed to members of Mass. Legislature, March 13, 1793, in Lincoln, A Description of the Situation, Climate, Soil and Productions of Certain Tracts of Land in the District of Maine and Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
299. e.g. Morris to Cazenove, Dec. 9, 1792, in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 197.
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been made completely clear until after 1795. It was also claimed that some of the proprietors had sold every second or third lot in order to increase the value of the remainder of the township. This meant that set- 300 tlers had to go to the time and trouble of fencing their whole holdings. Of course, there was not much the State could do about this. Furthermore, it was said, proprietors sometimes tried to prevent the incorporation of townships because of the added taxation incorporation brought with it. When they succeeded, the inhabitants living there were unable to act together to obtain roads, schools, the ministry and other necessities, 301 the procurement of which required corporate action.
Can the lawmakers be criticized for ineptitude in their efforts to populate the District? The method of settling the land by requiring the proprietors to place a certain number of people on it was copied from Provincial procedures and history had shown that it was often not completely effective. Should the State have tried something new? Perhaps, the legislators felt that despite the fact that proprietors before, during, and immediately after the Revolution had frequently not met the sett- ling requirements, changes in the times would make a significant dif- ference. On the other hand, of course, the Committee and the General Court may have been blindly following custom rather than giving the matter the benefit of some serious original thinking. It is probable,
300. Letter from Scribble Scrabble in Cumberland Gazette, June 8, 1786.
301. Lapham and Maxim, History of Paris, Maine ... to 1880, p. 46.
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on the other hand, that because of the great number of townships that were sold the figure that represented the number of people required to be settled was too high to be realistic. In the late 1780's the General Court had allowed some grantees who had received land prior to the Revolution some extra time in which to fulfill their settling require- 302 ments. Did this action cause other proprietors to lose some feeling of urgency about meeting this obligation? The belief of this writer is that it may have to some degree but that, again, in any case it would have been virtually impossible to settle all the families required. It must be noted, too, that according to the reports of the grantees given these extensions thers were certain 303
valid reasons, which they stated, for this failure. In one case there had even been an intensive effort to get settlers, and still they had not succeeded.
Some have felt that the State would have been much better served had the land been granted free or at a small sum to those who would settle there and contribute to the economic growth of the area.
302. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 24, 1788, Chap. 82; Mass. Resolve, Feb. 17, 1789, Chap. 122.
303. Petition of Stearns to General Court, Nov. 1788, with Mass. Resolve, Nov. 24, 1788, Chap. 82; petition of Phips Canada Committee to General Court, Jan. 13, 1789, Chap. 122.
304. e.g. Letter from "Considerator" in Falmouth Gazette, Nov. 26, 1785, Oscar Handlin, and Mary Flug Handlin, Commonwealth, A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy, Massachusetts, 1774-1861, (New York, 1947), p. 92.
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However, it remains to be proved that the District would have developed appreciably faster if the land had been given away. It is true that the Committee did say it had not accepted some offers because they were considered to be too low, but it is not certain that these rejected purchasers were prospective settlers rather than speculators. Again, the reasons for going somewhere other than Maine when one wanted to move were several and attractive. At the same time the population of Maine did indeed experience an appreciable growth during this period 305
despite the obstacles.
Furthermore, it must be remembered that the Legislature was faced with the very real and immediate problem of paying a huge debt as well as meeting current expenses. Land Sales did help with this task. 506
Between 1785 and 1820 the eastern lands brought in $896,281 and in 1794 funds from this source were put into a sinking fund for a gradual 307 reduction of the principle of a new loan.
305. Greenleaf, Moses, Statistical Viey of Maine, pp. 66-67.
306. Bullock, Historical Sketch of the Finances and Financial Policy of Massachusetts from 1780 to 1905, pp. 24-25.
307. Ibid,, p. 21.
CHAPTER VIII
MISCELLANEOUS LAND PROGRAM. ACTIVITIES
From time to time the people responsible for the administration of the Maine public lands engaged in various miscellaneous activities. They gave land to different groups as gifts for reasons mentioned in the grants, passed measures which were designed to benefit the Inhabitants (measures which would also surely interest prospective land seekers), reserved lands for masts, and made some contributions to the settling of the eastern boundary along the St. Croix and the reaching of an agreement with the Penobscot Indians.
FREE GRANTS
The State of Massachusetts intended to sell the bulk of Maine's unappropriated land. But in addition for various reasons, it granted 1 a considerable amount of it free of charge.
The General Court made several grants to people whose original grant or portion thereof was on the wrong side of some Massachusetts boundary line as it was finally established. The people of Tyng's 2 township and Townsend each received a township. Some years later those
1. See Greenleaf, A Statistical View of Maine, p. 105.
2. Mass. Resolves, Feb. 7, 1785, Chap. 39 and March 17, 1785, Chap. 162. (The latter group was required to pay some money as it had lost only a part of a town.).
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of Warner were given a half township, 3 (preliminary General Court pro- posals had called first for a half township and then a full township 4
before a decision was finally made). There were also several instances 5 of people being granted small amounts for this kind of loss.
Some grants were rewards for services rendered in previous 6 wars, mostly in the Revolutionary War. However, in at least one case a soldier of the 1750's, who for some reason had never received the land he had been promised years before, was given one thousand acres, 7 an amount reduced from three thousand acres by senate amendment. Arthur Lee had performed services for Massachusetts in London after the return of Benjamin Franklin in 1775. For this he was granted six 8 thousand acres in Maine. A group of Portland people had suffered serious financial loss when the British burned that town during the Revolution. In an attempt to ease this loss, they sent a petition for
3. Mass. Resolve, Jan. 31, 1792, Chap. 50.
4. Proposed resolves, June 9, 1791 and Jan. 19, 1792, with Mass. Resolve, Jan. 31, 1792, Chap. 50.
5. e.g. Mass. Resolves, March 3, 1785, Chap. 91, June 12, 1790 and Holden Petition of May 1790 with it, Chap. 30, and Jan. 24, 1792, Chap. 30.
6. e.g. Mass. Resolve, Jan. 30, 1790, Chap. 40; Mass. Resolve, June 28, 1792, Chap. 70; petition of William Albee and James Dellaway, Dec. 18, 1789, with Mass. Resolve, Jan. 30, 1790, Chap. 40.
7. Mass. Resolve, March 25, 1793, Chap. 153.
8. Whitman, A History of Norway, Maine, p. 49; Williamson, The History of the State of Maine ... 1502 ... 1820, II, 506; Mass. Resolve, April 24, 1782, Chap. 596.
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Compensation to the General Court stating they had endur great c :. tress. In this petition they made the following point: nich the; entitled them to public aid. Their loss had been sufffered in the common struggle for freedom; some members of the then General Court had led them to believe public aid would be given; and Great Britain had 9 given Tories grants to offset their losses. In answer to their request 10
the General Court granted them two townships in 1791, £ a grant con-
firmed in 1793. 11
In 1791 the General Court discussed reserving a
tract for soldiers and officers who had served at least three years in the Revolution, but it did not take such action during this period. 12
However, it did make some individual grants to people who had been active
combatants. One of these was made to a man named Campbell. He had written to the General Court setting forth the things he had done and the sacrifice it had been to him, then asking for "such compensation as 13 to justice and equity shall appertain." The General Court thereupon voted him one hundred fifty pounds, and then added two thousand acres to the gift - perhaps one hundred fifty pounds had seemed inadequate and
9. Petition of Portland Sufferers to Committee with Mass. Resolve, March 9, 1791, Chap. 126.
10. Mass. Resolve, March 9, 1791, Chap. 126.
11. Mass. Resolve, June 17, 1793, Chap. 26.
12. General Court news in Boston Gazette, June 13, 1791.
13. Petition of Campbell to General Court, (no date), with Mass. Resolve, June 28, 1792, Chap. 70.
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14
land was the only other thing it had to offer. A certain number of Nova Scotians had espoused the Colonial cause during the Revolution and as a result they had lost all their property in Canada. Because of the straitened circumstances in which they now found themselves, the United States Congress said it would be willing to grant them land in the 15 vest as soon as it could do so. It also commended their case to the people of Massachusetts. There the Governor recommended that something be done in a message to the General Court, and a joint committee of that body prepared a resolve which was passed. By the terms of this resolve each of these persons was given land in one single tract east of the 16
Penobscot River.
Some instances of enterprise and industry were rewarded with land. There were, of course, the Barrs who were given six tickets in the land 17 lottery. In addition to this the Beverly Cotton manufactory was pre- 18 sented 8,333-1/3 acres to help compensate them for slight losses they 19
had incurred during four years of operation.
14. Mass. Resolve, June 28, 1792, Chap. 70.
15. Report of United States Congress Committee regarding Eddy et al. with Mass. Resolve, July 4, 1785, Chap. 70.
16. Mass. Resolve, July 4, 1785, Chap. 70 and papers with that resolve.
17. Mass. Resolve, May 2, 1787, Chap. 39.
18. Report of Land Committee, March 20, 1793, Mass. Senate Document 1676.
19. Handlin, Oscar and Mary Flug, Commonwealth, Massachusetts 1784-1861, p. 112.
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The greatest part of the land that was given away, however, went for various worthy causes of interest to the public, especially schools.
The land policy resolve of March 1788, one of the purposes of which was to cool the ardor of the residents of the District for separa- tion, earmarked a six mile square tract of top quality land to be situated about half way between the Kennebec and the Penobscot Rivers 20
a step for building and supporting a public seminary of learning, 21
that had been recommended by the Committee the previous year. The month after the grant was made Cony wrote that he proposed to go in person with two or three men "of integrity and judgment" to explore the country between the Kennebec and the Penobscot in order to find the best site for this grant. 22
Throughout the nineties various academies were granted a township apiece to have at their complete disposal provided they continued to carry out their work of instruction. 23
The first of these was Hallowell Academy. Some of the inhabitants of Lincoln County had submitted a lengthy petition in which they reported that they had already built a building but they needed further aid to
20. Mass. Resolve, March 26, 1788, Chap. 80.
21. Report of Committee, July 3, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 48.
22. Cony to Jarvis, April 21, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
23. Mass. Resolve, June 1, 1791, Chap. 7 (Hallowell Academy); Mass. Resolve, Feb. 9, 1792, Chap. 74 (Berwick Academy); Mass. Resolve, June 28, 1792, Chap. 64 (Leicester Academy); Mass. Resolve, Feb. 7, 1793, Chap. 11 (Marblehead Academy).
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operate it. This academy was the only one between Exeter and Canada and was centrally located in the District, they went on to say. They also suggested that such an institution would draw residents and add to the value of the public land. The petition then discussed the values of an education in general summing up with " ... safety and happiness of a free people, ultimately depends on the advantages arising from a pious, virtuous, and liberal education ... " Finally a request was made for a 24
charter and a grant of unlocated land. It is very possible that Cony was instrumental in sending this petition as he lived in Hallowell and was vitally interested in education.
Berwick Academy was next to act, and to receive a township. committee appointed for that purpose wrote that it had raised some money, but needed more to put with it to build a building and support instruct- ors. It asked for land and a part of the proceeds from the sale of the confiscated lands of Sir William Pepperell, as it understood his grand- father, from whom the lands were inherited, had intended to make a hand- 25 some contribution for an educational institution in York County. Nathaniel Wells was instructed to deliver this petition to the General Court. He was one of the trustees, and was present at the meeting at 26 which this request was authorized.
24. Petition of Lincoln County inhabitants, Jan. 3, 1791, with Mass. Resolve, June 1, 1791, Chap. 7.
25. Petition of committee appointed to ask aid, Jan. 1792, with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 9, 1792, Chap. 74.
26. Copy of minutes of trustees of academy, Oct. 31, 1791, with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 9, 1792, Chap. 74.
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Leicester Academy, too, asked for and was granted a township. Its trustees had been authorized to run a lottery to raise funds, but lotteries had been made illegal before they had availed themselves of that permission. Therefore they needed some other source of revenue.
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Next Marblehead Academy asked for a grant of land " ... similar to the grants which have been made by this commonwealth to other like institutions. 28 This request, too, was honored. 29
Six towns were granted for Bowdoin College in 1794.
In colonial days the General Court had customarily set aside a lot for Harvard College and one for a grammar school in each town as it was 30 granted. Thus the granting of land for the support of education was not new. At least three of the Land Committee members were actively interested in education -- Phillips, Wells, and Cony. It could not have been hard for them to see in the public lands, with which they were so intimately connected, a promising means of support for ventures of which they so thoroughly approved. Both Cony and Wells, of course, were direct- ly interested in Maine schools. Added to these factors that resulted in
27. Petition in behalf of Leicester Academy Trustees, June 21, 1792, with Mass. Resolve, June 28, 1792, Chap. 64.
28. Petition of Marblehead Academy Trustees with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 7, 1793, Chap. 11.
29. George A. Merrill, "Historical Sketch of Foxcroft," in Sprague's Journal, of Maine History, vol. V. No. 2, p. 62; Report of Committee, June 16, 1795, Table 18, p. 29, Eastern Lands, Box 49.
30. e.g. Mass. Resolve, June 23, 1790, Chap. 63 (refers to grants of 1760's).
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the use of land in this fashion was the act that forbade lotteries 31 device which had hitherto been used to get necessary funds.
One other venture of a public nature was also given a township. Boston had had, on state land in west Boston, a hospital which the General Court had ordered sold. This money had then gone into the public treasury. In an attempt to recoup this loss the Boston Selectmen then sent a petition to the General Court asking for land or money or other means of compensation. They pointed out that a hospital kept infectious diseases isolated and therefore put the minds of the General Court members at ease when they were in Boston in times of sickness. Further- more it was necessary for the people of Boston and those who worked there. They also referred to the grants already made to educational institutions 32 and stated that Boston paid one tenth of the public tax. In answer to their request the General Court gave the selectmen a township of 33 land for the support of another hospital.
At least one special situation called for a grant of land; in 1785 John Bernard was granted one half of Mount Desert Island. The whole island had once been the property of his father, Governor Bernard, but
31. e. g. Petition in behalf of Leicester Academy Trustees, June 21, 1792, with Mass. Resolve, June 26, 1794, Chap. 64. Lotteries were outlawed by Mass. Resolve, March 6, 1790, Chap. 57.
32. Petition of Boston Selectmen, June 1794, with Mass. Resolve, June 26, 1794, Chap. 103.
33. Mass. Resolve, June 26, 1794, Chap. 103.
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had been confiscated because of his Tory sympathies. However, John had remained loyal to the Colonial cause. Since he would have inherited this land had it not been confiscated the Court decided it would be 34
well to give half of it to him at this time.
The requirements placed on people who received these grants were similar to those placed on people who bought land. They, too, were required to settle families and, again, no general rule was followed in deciding upon the number to be settled. The people of Tyng's Township, who received the first of the equivalent grants, were given six years
35 to settle thirty families. Those who had lands in Townsend that were sheared off by a final boundary line were given four years to settle 36 twenty families. Finally the grantees who had to pay the Masonian proprietors when Warner proved to be a New Hampshire town were given 37 half a township on which they had to put twenty families in four years. The Portland Sufferers, so called, were required to place thirty families in three years in each of their two towns. 38
The grants made to Hallowell, Berwick, Leicester, and Marblehead Academy trustees and to the selectment of Boston for the support of a hospital all required
34. Mass. Resolve, June 23, 1785, Chap. 43.
35. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 7, 1785, Chap. 39.
36. l'ass. Resolve, March 17, 1785, Chap. 162.
37. Mass, Resolve, Jan. 31, 1792, Chap. 50.
38. Mass. Resolve, March 9, 1791, Chap. 126.
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twenty families. In two cases the proprietors had to place these families on the land within five years, in two other cases by a stated date which was about five years from the date of the grant, and in the fifth within a little over seven years. Often the grants stated that certain improvements must be made before they were confirmed. In 1785 Robert Smith was given two hundred sixty four acres. Within four years he had to either settle himself or have some "honest and diligent husbandman" settle on the plot, and within six years he had to have built a frame house. For a period of six years following the four 40 years allowed him for settling he had to clear four acres per year. Each Nova Scotian was required to build a dwelling house and clear one fiftieth part of his land within two years after his individual plot 41
was assigned to him.
During this period the number of acres which the State gave away 42 added up to over 250,000.
39. Mass. Resolve, June 1, 1791, Chap. 7; Mass. Resolve, Feb. 9, 1792, Chap. 74; Mass. Resolve, June 28, 1792, Chap. 64; Mass. Resolve, Feb. 7, 1793, Chap. 11; Mass. Resolve, June 26, 1794, Chap. 103.
40. Mass. Resolve, March 3, 1785, Chap. 91.
41. Mass. Resolve, July 4, 1785, Chap. 70.
42. Committee Report, June 16, 1795, Table 18, p. 29, Eastern Lands, Box 49, (This lists only grants made to academies, Bowdoin College, and Boston for a hospital, but this was most of it.).
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ENCOURAGING BUYERS AND NEW SETTLERS
The residents of Maine had certain needs which the State govern- ment attempted to fill from time to time. As these measures would please the people already there, they might also lead others to choose Maine as a new home. Therefore it is in order to consider them here. It is important to people going into new and undeveloped country that local governments and governmental facilities be set up as soon as possible. Courts, local legislative bodies, and registries of deeds are all necessary for the people if they are to live most effectively. Thoughtful minded emigrants might very conceivably give these matters some consideration.
An example of what frontier folk wanted in the way of courts and law enforcement is found in the history of Machias. Petitions were sent to the General Court by the inhabitants there and in surrounding places. First they wanted two justices of the peace who would be given the power to try cases involving twenty pounds and under. Also, they wanted in Machias a court of probate of wills, a register of deeds, a court of general sessions of the peace, and a court of common pleas with the right to appeal to the supreme judicial court in Boston. It was the thought of these petitioners that these courts should exercise 43 jurisdiction in the country east of the Penobscot.
43. Mass. Senate Order, Oct. 17, 1783, in Boston Gazette, Nov. 3, 1783.
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Some Lincoln County residents asked in 1786 that a session of the Supreme Court be held at Wiscasset, that the court of common .44
pleas be held in that place, and that a jail be built there.
That year a term of the Supreme Court for the first time and an additional term of common please and sessions were established in Pownalborough (of which Wiscasset was a part). In the next year one term of the lower courts was established at Hallowell (Augusta) and 45 one at Waldoborough. In the General Court session ending in 1788 the middle section of Lincoln County got a registry of deeds and a court 46
of probate ..
The agitation around 1816 for separate statehood for Maine included relatively little comment about the need for a better court system. It has been pointed out this was probably due to the judicial reform of the 1780's; they apparently did provide the people with 47 what they needed.
A second step in providing local governmental facilities was the incorporating of towns. This step did not take place until there was a certain number of residents and was therefore not an advantage for which the pioneer could hope when he first went to a new township. But it was a step that was taken in the due course of time and so was of interest to him.
44. David Quimby, The History of Ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle, (Bath, 1882), p. 219.
45. Maine, A History, ed. Hatch, I, p. 112.
46. Boston Gazette, April 7, 1788.
47. Maine, A History, ed. Hatch, I, p. 127.
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The first form of local government found in a township was that of a plantation. The major function of this kind of government was 48
to collect the taxes assessed by the state and county governments. As the population of the townships became larger, they were incorporated as town governments. Through this organization the people were em- powered to levy taxes for their own local needs.
Although the proprietors who actually lived elsewhere -- the so-called non-resident proprietors -- were consistently opposed to 49 this step of incorporation because of the added expense of them, the majority of the residents as a rule were in favor of it. Numbers of petitions were sent to the General Court asking that this step be taken because without incorporation the people were unable to provide themselves with certain necessary things. Chief among these needs 50
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