USA > Maine > Maine Public Lands 1781-1795 : claims, trespassers, and sales > Part 7
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82. Putnam to Israel Wood, Dec. 8, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1; Stone to Phillips, May 27, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
83. Putnam's bill, account No. 2, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
84. "Holland Autobiography, Part II" in William Bingham's Vaine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 208.
85. e.g. Jarvis's account with Benj. & Phillip Jarvis, Eastern Lands, Box 1 (Groceries sent to Peters in 1791 and Maynard and Holland in 1793).
86. e.g. Weston to Cony, Jan. 17, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 18; Stone to Phillips, June 9, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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or he would provide them at the rate of three shillings per day each.
In the first few years the Committee outfitted a number of sur- 88 veying trips. In 1785 it outfitted Putnam and his crews for the summer's work. This was a big job and the record states that each member agreed to be responsible for a certain portion of the necessary 89
items. When it was the responsibility of the Committee members to pro- vide the supplies, they sometimes got an order of the General Court to draw some items from the stores of the Commissary General. This was the case in 1785 when a resolve of June of that year directed the officer to furnish the Committee with seven barrels of pork, four barrels of beef, eighteen pounds of candles, four axes, four hatchets, nineteen canteens and twenty pounds of soap.
90 This transaction is found recorded in a number of places in the records, and intrigues one's fancy. After being so carefully recorded just what service did these axes and canteens and other items perform, at what bubbling springa were the canteens filled, and what were the topics of conversation at the pauses that were made for refreshment with their contents? Finally, what was their ultimate lot? The last record of them appears to be a memorandum made out by Putnam as he was preparing to sail away from Bluehill after
87. Titcomb's proposal to survey, Jan. 17, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 18.
88. e.g. Stone's bill of June 13, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 1. 89. Eastern Lands, Deeds I, 57, May 4 and 5, 1785.
90. Mass. Resolve, June 2, 1785, Chap. 3.
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the year's work was done stating that he had left two narrow axes, one camp hatchet, and two wooden canteens as well as some other items there 91
in care of Joseph Wood. The next year the Commissary General was 92 directed to furnish supplies again.
A large proportion of the surveying contracts provided for the 93 surveyor's furnishings the supplies. Jackson pointed out an advantage 94 of this kind of arrangement in a letter to Bingham. Once the man bad set out on his job, it might be very difficult for the employer to know where to send things when the surveyor needed them. If this caused a delay or if some other unforeseen circumstance prevented a shipment from arriving when expected, the work might well be delayed with serious consequences.
One partial exception to the practice of the surveyor's carrying supplies along with him as he worked was the surveying of the boundary line of the Plymouth Patent done by Ephraim Ballard. This job took him through territory that was relatively well populated and although he did
91. List of articles left with Joseph Wood by Rufus Putnam, Dec. 9, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
92. Mass. Resolve, July 6, 1786, Chap. 91.
93. e.g. Cony to Jarvis, July 24, 1789, Eastern Landa, Box 52; Cony to Jarvis, April 28, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
94. Jackson to Bingham, May 26, 1793, in William Binghan'a Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 276.
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carry some supplies his itemized account listed meals eaten at various 95
homes.
Once the supplies were in Maine they had to be taken care of. Some, of course, were carried along by the surveyors. When there was a large quantity, however, part of them had to be stored. In 1784 96 Putnam stored supplies at Pleasant Point with a Captain Frost. The next year he used two places as storage depots -- Bluehill, at Joseph 97 When he asked for goods to Wood's, and Machias, at Enoch Sanborn's.
·98 be sent by a Captain Haskel he directed that they be sent to Wood's.
When Putnam was finished in the Machias sector and had to move on to Bluehill, there were still supplies left in the former place. To get them to his next scene of operations he hired a boat paying the boatman for a round trip with the added provision that should the re- turn trip take over four days because of poor weather he would receive an extra allowance. 99
As they advanced into the interior of the County Holland and his party once found it necessary to store some provisions in the wilderness
95. Ballard's account for surveying line between State property and Kennebec Company land, Sept .- Dec. 1789, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
96. "Holland Autobiography, Part II," in William Bingham !! Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 208.
97. Putnam to Committee, June 29, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
98. Putnam to Phillips, Aug. 5, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
99. Putnam to Enoch Sanborn, Sept. 16, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
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so they would be assured of having something on the way back. 100 They, therefore, wrapped things in bark to keep wild animals from bothering them and turned their boat upside down over them.
When the season was over and the surveyors and their crews left for home there were sometimes provisions left over. Also, there were the tools and equipment to be taken care of. One way in which the men handled this problem was by selling the expendable items to some resident who could use them, thus reducing the expense of the Government 101
by that mich. The things that were to be kept and used another year 102
were often left in the care of someone in the area, too. Stone tells of returning some candlesticks and tin plates to the Commissary Gon- 103
eral.
From time to time surveyors required certain services. One of these services was the transportation of men and supplies.
When the surveyors were residents of some place other than the District of Maine there was boat passage to the location where the work
100. "Holland Autobiography, Part III," in William Bingher's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 220.
101. o.g. Rufus Putnam to Israel Wood, Dec. 8, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
102. e.g. Titcomb's account, April 20, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 1; list of articles left with Captain Joseph Wood, Dec. 9, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
103. Stone's report of disposal of camp equippage, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 46.
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was to be carried on sometimes this was required even for Maine 105 residents. There was also the problem of sending food to the men
as they frequently did not take all the provisions along with them when they went. This involved transportation from Boston to a coastal point 107
106
and then perhaps river transportation inland. Boats, it will be
recalled, plied along the coast between the Maine counties and the rest of the State and these were called upon. A captain of one coastal boat was a man named Haskel of Beverly who was engaged in the lumber traffic to Bluehill. When Putnam was needing supplies in late 1785 be 108
suggested to the Committee that they be sent by this means. On occasion people went down to the harbor and waited for a boat going in 109
the right direction - a wait that could be very exasperating. In 1784, for example, the Committee sent a John Barnard to inspect
104. e.g. Eastern Lands, Deeds I, 63, June 9, 1785; Rufus Putnam, Memoirs of Rufus Putnam, comp. and ed. Miss Rowena Buell (Boston, 1903), p. 101; Instructions to John Barnard, Nov. 29, 1785, Eastern Landa, Box 14 (this man just viewed land) ; "Holland Autobiography, Part II," William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 207.
105. Putnam to Committee, June 29, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
106. e.g. Store to Committee, July 16, 1786, and July 31, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 14; Putnam to Phillips, Aug. 5, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
107. Peters to Richard Hunewell, Oct. 6, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 17; Stone to Committee, July 31, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 14.
108. Putnam to Phillips, Aug. 5, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
109. "Holland Autobiography, Part II," in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, pp. 207 and 211.
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Burntcoat Island, and his written instructions directed him to find a boat about to leave for Penobscot if he could do so within a reasonable 110 time in case the person with whom he was to work had already left. It was possible, too, to make arrangements for the services of one of these boats ahead of time. In 1786 a man wrote to Phillips stating that he owned a boat that was going to Penobscot and that he would be very happy to be given the job of taking along any surveyors that 111
might be going to that place of "elsewhere" at that time. On his second surveying trip Putnam did make plans with a ship's captain 112
in advance.
One surveyor named Ballard had to hire men to carry provisions into the woods in the month of August. To his consternation he dis- covered that it cost him seventy dollars instead of the maximum of twenty he had anticipated -- it was the wheat harvest season, and men 113
were hard to find.
At least once the Committee made arrangements for a person in Maine to provide the articles needed at a given time. This person then provided for their transportation to the surveyor's location -
110. Instructions to John Barnard, Nov. 29, 1784, Eastern Lands, Box 14.
111. Edwards Smith to Phillips, May 29, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
112. Putnam, Memoirs of Rufus Putnam, p. 101.
113. Dallard to Committee, Jan. 12, 1795, Eastern Lands, Box 18.
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the surveyor being Samuel Titcomb. A John Lee of Penobscot was in Boston at this particular time. Taking advantage of this opportunity 114
the Committee asked him to furnish some things Titcomb needed. When
Lee returned to Maine, he first tried to get two men fairly near Titcomb's scene of operations to send what was required in order to keep transportation costs to a minimum, but unfortunately these men did not have much on hand. One of them did agree to send a few things, which he did, but this was all that could be obtained from either one of the two. Therefore, Lee himself sent along as many items as he had -- there were some things that even he could not procure. Two men took them by boat up the river as far as possible and a third man took them the rest of the way by sled. 115
Transportation in the field other than that that could be 116 furnished by the surveyor's boat was called for at times. For example, when Maynard and Holland were surveying in the interior of 117
northern Maine, they hired some Indians to do canoeing for them.
114. John Lee to Titcomb, March 8, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 17; Instructions to Titcomb, Feb. 19, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
115. John Lee to Committee, April 10, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
116. e.g. Putnam's Bill, account, 2, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
Box 1. 117. Maynard and Holland's account, 1793, Eastern Lands,
110
Transportation was the main service required, but it was not the only one. Since so much of Maine was uncharted, guides were an 118 essential at times. They insured the surveyor's going by the best 119
route and could describe the land as they went. A Captain Frost was hired by Putnam to pilot him on an exploratory trip of the various branches of the Cobscook River. 120
Putnam's accounts list a variety of services. Here are found entries for the hire of a horse and his return to the place of hire, ferrying charges, baggage hauling charges, stage coach fees, charges for washing clothes both in Boston and in Maine, and board and room costs. As time went on, however, and most of the work was done by Maine residents, these incidental expenses disappear 121 from the State's cost sheets.
THE SURVEYOR'S DAILY WORK
This section will be an examination of the particular tasks of the surveyor in Maine at this time along with his problems and his hardships rather than a discourse on surveying techniques in general.
118. e.g. "Holland Autobiography, Part II," in Willian Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, pp. 208-212, and "Part III," p. 219.
119. Journal of Rufus Putnam, 1784, Sept. 6, 1784, in Rufus Putnam Papers, 3 vols (Marietta College Library, Marietta, Ohio).
120. Journal of Rufus Putnam, 1784, Sept. 4, 1784 in Putnam Papers.
121. Putnam's Bill, account Nos. 2 and 3, 1785, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
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The areas surveyed by the men employed by the Committee could be placed in several categories. Some work was done in connection with the clarification of land claims. For example, Titcomb was sent to the Sebago Lake area to survey all the state land in a certain sector, if 122 there was any there. The surveys of the Waldo and Kennebec patents 123 were made to determine their true boundaries. Also, there were sur- veya made to check and correct earlier ones that for some reason or other had been questioned, such as Titcomb's survey of Tyngstown and 124
Jordan's survey of two towns in Cumberland County. Most surveying, however, was of lands the State intended to sell. This preparation entailed some preliminary surveys which would guide the Committee in deciding how to lay out the towns. It was suggested that a section of the coast and the waters running into it be laid out in 1785 for this 125 126
reason, and it appears that Putnam did do this. Later, Obadiah Williams ran a long east-west line across a portion of the State for the same purpose. 127 The rest of the surveys were those of tracts that
122. Committee to Titcomb, Feb. 10, 1789, Eastern Lands, Box 13. 123. Estimate of expenses in Waldo Patent Survey, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 1; Ballard's account, Sept .- Dec., 1789, Eastern Lands, Box 1.
124. Committee to John Lewis, June 27, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 17; Directions to Jedediah Prescot, Feb. 9, 1792, Eastern Lands, Box 52.
125. Proposals for carrying on 1785 surveys, Eastern Lands, Box 46.
126. Journal of Rufus Putnam, 1784, June 26, 1785, Putnam Papers.
127. Instructions to Obadiah Williams from Cony, April 21, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
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The Government intended to sell. These tracts were divided into two groups. The first group included the towns or small parcels, which had been sold or granted to some person or group before they were laid out. Sometimes the size and location of the grants were defined but the lines had not been run. Sometimes the people receiving the land were allowed some leeway as to its location. At other times the plots had precise 128 boundaries, but their exact size was not known. Included in this category were plots assigned to settlers (these, too, were to be surveyed 129 by the men appointed by the Committee ) and the tremendous plots supposedly of around a million acres each sold to Knox and Duer. The second and largest group was that laid out by the State for sale to future customers. These tracts were almost entirely groups of townships and in most instances the State ordered that only the outside boundaries 130
of these townships be run. However, Dodge ran some of the inside lines in towns he laid out in 1784 before the General Court passed the July resolve calling for the survey of a number of towns with the outside 131
lines only being run.
128. e.g. Wells to Simon Frye, Oct. 10, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 17; Simon Frye to Phillips, Jan. 14, 1789, Eastern Lands, Box 17; Instructions to Titcomb, Feb. 11, 1789, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
129. Mass. Resolve, March 26, 1788, Chap. 80.
130. 'e.g. Cony to Titcomb, July 1, 1793, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
131. Instructions to and contract with Barnabas Dodge, June 15, 1784, Eastern Lands, Box 14.
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At times the instructions to the surveyors warned them to take certain definite precautionary measures to make certain their surveys were correct. As the surveyor ran his line his compass was his guide. The men hired to survey one tract were instructed to watch their needle to make sure that it was not being affected by some local factor such 132 as mines in the area. Holland, one of these men, later stated that the presence of iron ore in the locality made the needle jump around 133
so it was of little use. Cony directed Obadiah Williams to sight both backward and forward as he ran the long east-west line across a 134 One man tells of allowing one chain in large part of the State.
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every thirty to compensate for the svag of the chain. Cony's instructions to surveyors sometimes included a warning to make the proper adjustment from the vertical to the horizontal in the chain 136 measurement when going up kill.
132. Committee's instructions to Maynard and Holland, June 28, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 15.
133. "Holland Autobiography, III," in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 218.
134. Instructions to Obadiah Williams from Cony, April 21, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
135. Benjamin True to Shepherd, Oct. 13, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 10. It is not certain that this man was surveying for the State but his statement gives an insight into the problems involved.
136. Instructions to Ballard from Cony, April 3, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 13; Instructions to Samuel Weston from Cony, May, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
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At least once a surveyor came face to face with a technical question for which he had no answer. As the tide ebbed and flowed it zade and unmade islands. Just which of these bodies of land which were sometimes entirely surrounded by water and sometimes were not were to be considered mainland and which islands? Stone, the surveyor confronted with this problem, posed the question to the Committee in a letter sent 137 to Phillips. Phillipa pondered the matter, then made the following
observation to Brooks. 138 He would think, he wrote, that all land surrounded by water at half tide should be considered an island and he could see no reason why that which was completely separated from the mainland by high water in a common tide should not be considered as such. However, he said that he would leave a final decision up to Brooks.
In addition to running and marking lines and making plans and reports, surveyors were sometimes asked to do other jobs that were beneficial to the State.
Such was the case with mast tracts. The contracts with Knox and Duer provided for such a tract, or tracts, to be reserved for the State. Surveyors who worked on this land were instructed to make every effort to determine whether or not there were any such tracts suitable for
137. Stone to Committee, July 31, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 14. 138. Phillips to Brooks, Aug. 7, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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139
this purpose. In 1793 they were told that if there were any such tracts they were to fix their exact location, even surveying them if 140
they had time.
The Committee also took advantage of the fact that these men were in personal contact with the people on the land. It asked Titcomb to inform some of the residents about government policy. He was sent to survey a town in which one hundred acres was set aside for each pre-1784 settler and he was instructed to tell them they could have this allotment by applying to the Committee within a year and paying
thirty shillings. 141 Lothrop Lewis, who did some surveying in three towns east of Union River that were divided between the proprietors and the State, was empowered to receive the settlers' payments for their 142 plots there and give them a valid receipt.
Travelling as they did throughout the countryside they were in a position to study their surroundings and notice what was going on around them. Although a report of this information was not called for in their instructions, at times it was of a nature that would be helpful
139. Instructions to surveyors of Jackson tract, July, 1793, Eastern Lands, Box 15; instructions to Weston and Titcomb from Wella and Cony, Sept. 7, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
140. Letter to surveyors of third million acres sold to Jackson and Flint, Eastern Lands, Box 15.
141. Instructions to Titcomb, Nov. 15, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 13. 142. Instructions to Lothrop Lewis by Wells, Aug. 15, 1793, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
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to the Committee in carrying out its work. Perhaps, too, on the basis of this information the surveyor could give the Committee a concrete suggestion for action.
On at least two occasions Samuel Weston advised the Committee of things he had seen. In one instance he gave a report of land next to some townships he had been surveying suggesting that it might be worthwhile to lay out a range of townships there, too. He also added some advice about the best boundary for these townships, saying that because of the reasons he listed this should be the river that ran 143 there. At another time, he gave Cony a report of some extensive timber stealing operations that had come to his attention, leaving it for the Committee to decide what remedial action should be taken, if 144 This information was prompted by the request that he inform the Committee concerning possible mast preserve sites in the million acres sold to Knox and Duer on Kennebec River but was more than the question called for.
. any.
Stone informed the Committee that people were still illegally 145 settling on State land in the area in which he was working.
The unappropriated lands in Maine were a wilderness frontier and the surveyors who toiled there were faced with innumerable difficulties
143. Weston to Cony, June 4, 1792, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
144. Weston to Cony, April 26, 1793, Eastern Lands, Box 18.
145. Stone to Phillips or Brooks, Aug. 14, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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which tested their strength and courage. Keeping adequate supplies on hand often posed a problem; the rugged terrain, covered with a growth that had been left to flourish as it pleased, plus the weather conditions peculiar to that climate, put obstacles in the way of carrying out the work that challenged one's strength and energy and were a test of his patience. These same factors also made an environment which could be very uncomfortable to live in. Furthermore, they added to the time and cost of the job.
If supplies failed to appear at the expected time and place or if anything happened to them after they had been stored, a surveying crew would find itself in some remote wilderness spot faced with the uninviting prospects of empty stomachs. John Peters, the surveyor from Bluehill, had this trouble as he was about to set out to survey one of the tracts sold to Knox and Duer. After waiting for supplies from Beverly until he could wait no longer, he supplied himself as best he could and left for the woods, leaving instructions that the provisions 146 should be sent to the spot on the Penobscot at which he would cross. But when he and his men got there the goods still were not to be seen. This forced them to head down stream toward Penobscot, the settlement at its mouth, to see whether they were there. Fortunately, as they
147
went along they met them being brought up.
· On another occasion,
- 146. Peters to Richard Hunewell, Oct. 6, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
147. Peters to Jarvis, Nov. 30, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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Jonathan Stona made the unpleasant discovery that a man with whom he had left some supplies had disposed of two barrels of bread and could 148
not replace them. This required a replacement from Boston.
The trip made by Maynard and Holland to survey the back country in the north of Maine proved to be a most difficult one. Holland later wrote an autobiography which included a vivid account of the troubles 149 they met. Much of the time the crew had to depend to a large extent on what they found along the way and sometimes this proved to be very little. Indeed, for several days at one point their rations were exceedingly slight.
One morning at breakfast they had to boil chocolate root a second time for tea. Then their three remaining biscuits were packed, their clothes were patched as much as possible with blankets, and they were on their way. During the day they picked and ate moosewood berries as they walked.
Their situation became so severe that they seriously considered killing and eating a small dog they had with them. They thought this would actually be doing him a favor as they did not have anything to feed him either. However, just as they were discussing the matter, they heard him barking feebly - he had cornered a porcupine. This find was
148. Stone to Committee, July 16, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 14. 149. This account is found in "Holland Autobiography, Part III," William Bingham's Maine Landa, ed. Allis, pp. 217-232.
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killed and dressed at once and all hands, dog and all, dined on hedgehog. On October 21, their menu read as follows:
Breakfast: Fir bark tea and berries
Lunch: Berries, eaten as they were picked along the way.
Supper: 1 Biscuit [no dimensions given for this biscuit. On the twenty second they had to go without breakfast but during the day they did reach a spot where they had stored some provisions previously. Although there were only small quantities of the various items, which included bread, pork, tea, rice, pepper and ginger, the famine was over after they had gone for twenty days without a full meal. The next day they were able to supplement their regular fare with some smoked salmon they found at an Indian storage spot and for which they left powder and shot in return. One man failed to control his appetite at this meal and became so sick he had to be carried in the bottom of the boat. Fortunately, however, he recovered before too long. Two days later they came to an Indian encampment where food had been left for them. Here they were received in a very hospitable fashion and a squaw prepared hulled corn. However, in her desire to make it tasty she seasoned it with two pounds of moose tallow and a pint of seal oil which " ... we should some rather have had left out." Strange as it may seem, they were unable to find any water for awhile even by digging several feet. They had thought a scarcity of food was bad but this was far worse.
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