USA > Maine > Maine Public Lands 1781-1795 : claims, trespassers, and sales > Part 21
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listed were roads, schools, and churches. The money for these could best be raised through the vote of a town meeting. Here the taxes were levied and here disposition was made of the lots set aside for 51 the church and the school or of the resources found on thm. To
48. John Langdon, A History of the Town of Union, (Boston, 1851), Sibley, p. 59; Cochrane, History of Monmouth and Wales, I, p. 54-55.
49. Lapham and Maxim, History of Paris, Maine to 1880, p. 46.
50. e.g. Ibid., p. 46; petition of Bakerstown for incorporation with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 17, 1795, Chap. 34.
51. Maine Historical Magazine, I, 6.
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these three items one petition added "regulations" as a need that 52 could be met through incorporation.
The attempt of Bangor to become incorporated serves as an example of what was involved. The people first expressed a desire for incorporation in 1787, sending a petition to the General Court requesting that this step be taken. This request was not granted so three years later they sent another petition. In 1791 a charter was granted. 53
A study of the times shows that many townships in Maine did 54 receive town incorporation.
A third method of providing the benefits of local government was that of creating small counties out of large ones whenever the population was great enough to warrant such a step. In 1781 Maine was composed of three counties -- York, Cumberland, and Lincoln. Roughly speaking York and Cumberland covered the settled areas, and Lincoln was all the rest, although there was some wilderness in all counties and Lincoln did have some settled areas, particularly on its coast line. Of these three, Lincoln was much the largest. Around 1787 a contemporary writer, perhaps Benjamin Lincoln, suggested in a letter to a person of unknown identity that it would be well to divide it into three parts. It was his belief that shire towns would attract people of ability and
52. Butler, A History of Farmington, p. 57.
53. Maine Historical Magazine, I, 6.
54. Williamson, The History of the State of Maine ... 1602-1920, II, 508-565 (passim).
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these in turn would attract others to the vicinity and have a good 1 55 influence on the people of the locality. The 1787-1788 General Court session cut it into three districts with the previously mentioned 56
registry of deeds and a court of probate in the middle district. In 1739 Hancock County with a county seat at Penobscot and Washington County 57 with Machias as its shire town were created.
Another crying need of people in a new community is roads to the older settlements. In this respect Maine was no different from other places although it is true that she did have on her long eastern boundary an ocean fed by a number of navigable rivers.
One finds frequent reference to this need by all parties concerned -- state officials, settlers, speculators, and other prospective purchasers. In a letter to Titcomb Jarvis expressed satisfaction that a road was proposed between Costrap and the Kennebec because it would expedite settlement in that area and increase the value of the land as nothing else could. He also hoped that it would be con- tinued to Penobscot and Schoodic and declared that he would do everything 58 in his power to help such a project. Titcomb himself stated when evaluating some townships he had surveyed that some roads that already
55. Letter, / "General Lincoln" and "1787" added in other hand- writing , Kennebec Purchase Papers. General Court action was motivated by a report from Lincoln and others (Boston Gazette, Nov. 5, 1787).
56. Boston Gazette, April 7, 1788.
57. Maine, A History, III, ed. Hatch, p. 722.
58. Jarvis to Titcomb, Oct. 15, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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existed there would be of great help to the first purchasers of those 59 towns. Once, when writing to Jarvis concerning an evaluation of some state land, Wells said he thought it had been estimated far below its actual worth, but added that this may have been due to the difficulties the estimator had experienced in settling his own town -- Fryeburg -- 60 "among which the clearing and making roads was not inconsiderable.
A man named Dummer who had been connected with the settling of a township on Sandy River wrote that the value of that town was clearly recognized by the folk roundabout "in particular from the advantage 61
of opening roads and supporting them." Madame Leval and La Roche stressed the importance of roads in their dealings with Knox and Duer. They pointed out that settlers themselves would build minor roads in all directions after they arrived, but that there must be some already
made when they got there so that their property would be accessible at once. They further pointed out that in the town of Trenton settlers had given up two promising locations in the interior of the town for inferior places on the coast because of the transportation difficulties they had encountered. 62 Knox and Duer themselves in the agreement they drew up embodying their plans to buy land in Maine stated an intention 59. Titcomb to Jarvis, June 13, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
60. Wells to Jarvis, Oct. 18, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
61. Nathaniel Dummer to Phillips, Jan. 22, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 8.
62. Leval and La Roche to Knox and Duer, Dec. 4, 1791, William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, pp. 119-120.
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to ask for a five per cent allowance for roads. In 1790 Benjamin Lincoln wrote a long letter to two men of the eastern country going into the matter of roads in very great detail. It was his belief that roads were needed in the two lower counties and that the State must provide them. Although the idea of State aid for road building was a novel one, he said, the people themselves were absolutely unable to finance such work. The people in this region had settled their lands in a unique way. They had not gone from one town to the next and then on to the next in their expansion. Rather they had emigrated by water and scattered here and there. This meant that there were just a few people to make roads to cover a large area. Roads going from settle- ment to settlement, such as the settlers would make, would not answer the purpose of county roads, as they would go around bays, a procedure which would often increase distances by two to one or more. Nor would this type of road accommodate the second tier of towns. Lincoln went on to show how the people who had settled had been handicapped by a lack of roads. The cost of going to court was so great that creditors found it necessary to let bills go unpaid, and personal injuries and insults went unpunished. Representatives found difficulty in getting to Boston, and therefore the area did not have a full share in the proceedings of the General Court. In conclusion he suggested a very interesting way by which the State could meet the cost -- by allowing people to pay the taxes they owed in labor on the road. He did not
63. Knox-Duer Agreement, June 2, 1791, William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 42.
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wish such a step to be considered a precedent, but in effect it has been the basis on which much of the work on many a New England town 64
road has been done down through the years.
The General Court members that named schools as a drawing card that would draw people to a new area, also named roads as an attraction, and the State showed a willingness to construct some at a fairly early date. In 1786 it sent a commission to Maine to see what should be done there. In their report these commissioners stated that it would be desirable to build a road eight feet wide from Penobscot to Schoodic 66 River. Since rivers were the first inland highways, it was only natural that when people thought of overland roads they thought in terms of going from one river to another. The commission added that if the towns back of those on the coast line were to be sold they would have to be . viewed and examined, and to do this people would have to be able to get in and out. Very interestingly, it claimed that people would not go anywhere from which they could not get out to visit their friends in the other parts of the State; its members apparently did not envision pioneers who, when they said goodbye to their families to head into the wilderness, were saying good-bye for good, At the present time
64. Benjamin Lincoln to Jones and Johonnot, Feb. 15, 1790, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
65. "Queries proposed to members of the Legislature of Mass. with their answers annexed thereto, 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.
66. Commission Report quoted in Lincoln to Jones and Johonnot, Feb. 15, 1790, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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the only way back was by way of the ocean. This was not certain in 67 some seasons, and to some it was not desirable in any season. In- asmuch as there was still some land available to individual buyers in the coastal towns which could be easily approached by water, there would be no hope of selling the interior townships without roads. The cost of their proposed road, it said, could be defrayed by the sale of a small part of the townships through which it went.
In 1788 the General Court passed a resolve instructing the Land Committee to get a road laid out and cleared between Penobscot and Schoodic Rivers because such a road would encourage the settlement of the country and be advantageous to it in other ways. The course of the road was set forth in the resolve. It was to start at Township Number One on Penobscot River and proceed to Number One on Schoodic River, holding to an east-west line as nearly as possible. The cost was not to be more than one-sixth of the value of the State land in the townships through which it passed and in case it passed through private lands, the 68 owners were to pay the expense of clearing the road there.
The Committee immediately set about its work. In April it made an agreement with Nathan Jones to survey and mark a road from Union River to the plains on the east side of Narraguagas River. Pursuant to the resolve the road was to run due east and west as much as possible --
67. Timothy Dwight wrote in his commentaries on his travels in the Northeast that multitudes of American people went on pleasure trips as well as those made for business. (Travels in New England and New York, I 21.)
68. Mass. Resolve, March 24, 1788, Chap. 76.
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going through the middle of Townships Number Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven -- and all deviations from this line were to be noted. To do this work Jones was to hire a surveyor, a man to mark the course as they went out and the road as they returned, and a pack carrier. He himself was to superintend the work and keep a journal of his doings. His wages were to be thirty two shillings per working day payable in 69 land. In a later report Jones stated that Washington County had laid out a road from Gouldsborough Bay to Machias, "which is the most elligible 70 for the great Post road." It is this writer's belief that it was used for that purpose. In August Jarvis, acting as spokesman for the Committee, wrote to a Nathaniel Robbins telling him to start the job of having a road surveyed and marked out between the falls on Denny's River and Machias in accordance with his proposal. With his letter Jarvis en- closed a plan of the country through which the road would pass and some comments as to its probable course and the course of certain of the town lines. In his proposal Robbins had agreed to do the job for as low a price as he could and to give his own time and Jarvis took occasion to remark that under these circumstances the Committee flattered itself that the price would be low. He added that Robbins should get his pay as soon as the General Court granted the Committee any money, which 71 he hoped would be at its next session.
69. Memo of agreement between Committee and Nathan Jones, April 21, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
70. Jones to Committee, Dec. 31, 1790, Eastern Lands, Box 49. 71. Jarvis to Nathaniel Robbins, Aug. 9, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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The matter of clearing some of this road was discussed in a letter from Nathan Jones to the Committee. As has been noted, Jones had received the contract to survey and mark a portion of it. However, due to some unforeseen physical features of the country he had been unable to go all the way; it was impossible to keep the course designated. But he had sent in his plan and field book and commented on what had not been done. At this time he asked for the contract to clear the road from Union River to the bounds of Township Number Four. As he had surveyed it, he had made an estimate of clearing costs and felt he could get it done more cheaply than others as he had advantages they did not have. Furthermore, he was willing to be paid in land. In addition to this request, he asked for the contract for the road 72
from Union River to the Penobscot. The 1795 Committee report states 73 that he surveyed the road from Penobscot River to Machias.
The people and the hoped-for people between Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers were also taken into consideration. As early as 1787 the Land Committee had suggested that a road between these two rivers would
72. Nathan Jones to Phillips and Committee, Dec. 31, 1790, Eastern Lands, Box 17. (Jones said the road went to Gouldsborough Bay, which seems to be south of intended route but the fact that there is no evidence to the contrary indicates this must have been the same road that was contracted for two years earlier. The fact that he spoke of Gouldsborough Bay as a point on best site for east-west post roads strengthens this belief.)
73. Report of Committee, June 16, 1795, Table 15, p. 20, Eastern Lands, Box 49, (It is not clear why he was hired to do the stretch from Gouldsborough bay to Machias, which he had said, was already laid out.).
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probably speed up sales in this area. Petitions were sent to the General Court by some of the people there urging that such a road be built; they argued that roads would hasten the settlement of the land, 75
increase its value, and aid in paying the state debt. On March 24, 1788, the date of the resolve authorizing the construction of a road from Penobscot River eastward, the General Court appointed a committee of local people in response to the request of the inhabitants' petitions. This committee was to study the possibilities of building a Kennebec 76 to Penobscot road and its probable expense, and make a report. This was done and the report submitted to a joint committee of the General 77 That group then drew up a resolve that was passed on February Court. 78 16, 1789. By its terms the road was to have a maximum width of three rods and was to cost upon completion no more than forty-five pounds to be paid in state lands in Lincoln County. Details of executing the project were again placed in the hands of the Land Committee and in
74. Report of Committee, July 3, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 48. 75. Two petitions, (one with no date, one dated Aug. 30, 1787), with Mass. Resolve, March 24, 1788, Chap. 76.
76. General Court Order, March 24, 1788, with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 16, 1789, Chap. 104.
77. Report of Road Committee, Oct. 10, 1788, with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 16, 1789, Chap. 104.
78. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 16, 1789, Chap. 104.
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September Cony reported that he had agreed with a number of men to clear 79
the part of the road that ran through state land.
In 1794 Talleyrand, the famous French diplomat, made a visit to Maine and wrote a letter about the things he saw. Among other items of interest he commented on the trunk road traversing the District from east to west. The portion from Machias to Passamaquoddy was still in rough state being only two years old and was passable only by "very intrepid pedestrians and the half-wild horses of the country." But he particularly approved of the way it had all been laid out. It touched the heads of all the bays and was therefore primarily a service to the present inhabitants rather than an attempt to alter the course of migration. 80
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He added that it was a general feeling that 81
good roads were a more attractive feature than good lands.
By these roads people in the east could not get out to the south and to the roads in the older settled areas. But people were also buying townships in the western part of the State beyond the existing settlements. At this time, furthermore, the upper Connecticut Valley was considered as a very likely hinterland for the Kennebec River ports. Roads were needed there, too. One of the petitions urging a road from Kennebec to the Penobscot, written in 1787, also contained
78. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 16, 1789, Chap. 104.
79. Cony to Jarvis, Sept. 8, 1789, Eastern "ands, Box 17.
80. Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles Maurice de, Talleyrand in America as a Financial Promoter, 1794-96, p. 72.
81. Thid., p. 75.
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the thought that a road from the Kennebec to the Connecticut would be 82 beneficial to the State as it would open a central area of its land. In 1793 Phillips had occasion to write to Jarvis concerning a petition for some townships in this area and he took the opportunity to stress the importance of opening a good road speedily between the New Hampshire line and the Kennebec River, suggesting that the subject be one of the 83
items in the contract. He said that such a road would probably carry the travel from Upper Coos to the Kennebec and increase the trade on that river.
Å man named Jacob Abbot undertook to meet this need. However, while in the midst of the project he asked the State for aid in the form of an unspecified amount of land, saying he would be unable to finish without it. As an argument in behalf of his petition he asserted that such a road would speed settlement, thereby increasing the value of the land, and would also bring the trade of the Upper Connecticut
River to the Kennebec. 84 This road would tie in with a road already constructed that went from Chester to the Kennebec. A resolve proposed by a joint committee was passed granting him four thousand acres in one piece adjacent to the side line of Township Number Six on condition that he build a road of the following qualifications within eighteen months,
82. Petition to General Court, Aug. 30, 1787, with Mass. Resolve, March 24, 1788, Chap. 76.
83. Phillips to Jarvis, Jan. 8, 1793, Eastern Lands, Box 18.
84. Petition of Jacob Abbot to the General Court, June 10, 1794, with Mass. Resolve, June 20, 1794, Chap. 67.
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the deed to be given him upon completion of the road. The road was to go from Farmington or Tyngtown to the New Hampshire line, and be passable at all seasons of the year for travellers' horses, teams, and carriages; it should have all the necessary bridges and causeways; and it should 85 be twenty feet wide. However 1795 found this road still uncompleted. It was supposed to have been finished by December of that year, but a resolve of June granted one year's extension beyond that time, and 86 even this was not enough.
Taxes were a major concern of the people who had to pay them and the suspension of the requirement to pay was bound to be an attractive feature to every actual and potential land owner concerned. People often asked to be excused from paying them until some future date when their settlements would be more advanced and they would be in a better position to pay -- indeed in their eyes the dates they mentioned were the first 87 time they could possibly pay. New lands had been exempted from taxes 88
for a certain number of years in Province days and the State Legislature adopted the same policy. In 1786 the General Court passed a resolve stating that all lands sold by the Committee should be exempt from taxation by the State and by the United States for ten years after the
85. Mass. Resolve, June 20, 1794, Chap. 67.
86. Mass. Resolve, June 19, 1795, Chap. 33 and Nov. 21, 1796, Chap. 4. -
87. e.g. Lapham and Maxim, History of Paris, Maine to 1800, p. 46.
88. e.g. Akagi, The Town Proprietors of the New England Colonies, p. 257.
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date of the deed. This reference to taxation by the United States points up the fact that the federal constitution was not in effect at this time. As time went on tax exemptions were also granted in certain 90
special cases.
In 1786 the State Legislature emphasized that religion and morality were important not only for the best interest and happiness of the individual people concerned but also for society as a whole. Many of the new settlements in Lincoln County were without a ministry and could not afford at that time to provide one. Therefore, prompted by its parental solicitude for these places, it instructed the Land Committee to procure a minister who would go there for a period of six months and care for the spiritual needs of the inhabitants. Daniel Little, a pastor in what is now Kennebunk, was hired to do this work, for which he was to be paid from a tax lately laid on these plantations 91 92 by the General Court. He served there in 1787. Of course, the reservations in each town for church and school have been mentioned. Other laws passed by the General Court often had an effect upon the people in the far away, newly developing corners of the State. Some laws did not work to the advantage of the frontier people and
89. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 16, 1786, Chap. 110.
90. e.g. Mass. Resolve, June 18, 1791, Chap, 90.
91. Mass. Resolve, July 8, 1786, Chap. 128.
92. Phillips account with State, 1786-90, Eastern Lands, Box 1. Little to Phillips, Mass. Historical Society Miscellaneous Bound Vol. XVII, Feb. 18, 1788.
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were the object of particular dislike. Among these were the tax on deeds, the fee bill, and the regulations imposed on the lumber trade. The Falmouth Gazette, which had been founded largely to work for separation of Maine from the rest of Massachusetts, frequently printed items critizing the lumber act. This was among the grievances cited by a convention which met in Falmouth (Portland) in 1786 to consider separation. Lumbering, they said, was the principal industry of the District and these regulations lowered the price. As for the tax on deeds, that was an inequitable hardship because property was low in 93
value and changed hands often. Although not all causes of grievances were removed, the General Court did move to please the Down Easters 94 during this period by revising the fee bill.
A study of these pages shows that the Government did take an interest in the people in Maine's new settlements and did take some practical steps to help them. Whether they could have done more is hard to say.
MASTS
Massachusetts is a State with a maritime heritage and in those days of sailing vessels masts and the tall trees it took to make them were items of major concern.
93. Maine, A History, ed. Hatch, I, 109.
94. Williamson, The History of the State of Maine ... 1602-1820, II, 532.
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The State inherited the problem of conserving in the public interest the great mast trees which had formerly been reserved for the king. In July, 1783 the matter was mentioned in the Boston Gazette with the comment that provisions should be made to meet this need, 95 and in September Governor Hancock, in a message to the General Court, stated that their preservation in the eastern counties 96
was an important matter demanding official attention.
Later that fall the resolve of October 28 directed both Land Committees to consider what tracts it seemed necessary to reserve for timber and other public uses and report thereon to the General 97
Court.
This need was not entirely forgotten by the public as is evi- denced by a letter perhaps written in 1787 by General Lincoln which urged that reservations for masts and ships timber be made in future 98 grants.
Apparently not much was done about the matter, however, until Knox and Duer made their large purchases. In their first contract the Committee reserved the right to set aside a tract or tracts not over five in number equal en toto to "six miles by thirty," if it were
95. Boston Gaz ette, July 21, 1783.
96. Hancock's message to General Court, Sept. 24, 1783, in Boston Gazette, Sept. 29, 1783.
97. Mass. Resolve, Oct. 28, 1783, Chap. 102.
98. Letter, {"General Lincoln" and "1787" added in other handwriting/, Kennebec Purchase Papers.
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done before July 1, 1793 (or, if in the lottery towns, before July 1, 99 1792). None of these parcels was to be within six miles of the southern, eastern, or western boundary of the tract east of the Penobscot. A similar provision for an equal amount was made when the 100 "back tract" -- the third million acres -- was contracted for.
When the men were hired to survey the Kennebec tract Wells had expressed the opinion that actually there would probably be no such mast tract there. Furthermore, to be practical, the plots, if any were chosen, would have to be in the southern part where transportation 101 would be least expensive. Therefore surveyors had not been directed to lay out any tracts. However they were to be on the lookout for suitable sites and report them if they saw any. Wells then went on to say that there were two tracts between Kennebec and Penobscot that might be suitable -- one adjacent to Sebasticook River and another about eight miles west of Penobscot at a proper distance from navigation. In April of 1793 (shortly before the State's option was due to expire) Cony wrote to Weston, one of the men who had done the surveying, 102 asking his opinion on the subject. Weston answered that though it
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