USA > Maine > Hancock County > Mount Desert > Mount Desert : a history > Part 12
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The political life was after the sturdy New England fashion. The place of town meeting was any convenient spot or house; the persons entitled to participate, those who were willing and able to attend. The meeting was called to order by the town clerk, to whose written records we are indebted for almost all our knowledge of town transactions. The office of moderator generally devolved by the choice of the electors upon the most honorable citizen. His duty it was " to consider what is necessary to be done and to see that order be maintained." His title suggests that there was often something to mod- erate. Meetings, that is, were meant for debate and sometimes tended to turbulence. Discussion
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was allowed to go on as long as any one had anything to say. Little record of the speeches remains, but it may be assumed that the general remarks were as a rule pointed and sensible. The Town Records show the nature of the prob- lems confronted and the progress made. The de- bates were over roads, landings, schools, churches, and the care of the poor.
On June 15, 1790, the town voted that "the constables' fees for last year be thirty shillings for each constable, and that the Treasurer's fee be twelve shillings and that he procure a book and four quires of paper for the town's use, and that there be eight shillings a year allowed for a house to do the town business in;" also voted " that there be a bounty of twelve shillings on the head of each bear, and two shillings on the head of each wild cat, and one penny on the head of each crow, all to be paid by the Treasurer by order from the Selectmen." Next year the town voted " off the bounty on bears, wolves, cats and crows." Cattle, sheep, and hogs caused trouble, and votes prohibiting their running at large and forbidding non-residents driving any kind of cattle into the town for grazing purposes were passed. In May, 1792, the town voted to build three pounds, one at Hull's Cove, near Mr. Elisha Cousins's, one near Mr. Joseph Mayo's at the Narrows, and one near Captain Davis Wasgatt's on Beech Hill, and chose Levi Higgins " to see
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the pound built at Hull's Cove, Joseph Mayo to see the one built at The Narrows, and John Richardson to see the one built on Beech Hill."
That there were different opinions as to the legality of the proceedings at town meetings then, as well as now, and that the voters had a summary way of settling these questions, is shown by the following vote passed at an adjourned meeting April 6, 1795: " Agreeable to an ad- journment, and there being some dispute about the legality of said meeting, voted that the pro- ceedings of the foregoing and present meetings are legal and stand good." But notwithstanding this judicial decision, there was at least one dis- senting voice as shown by the following record : " Mr. Elisha Cousins protests against the pro- ceedings of the aforesaid meeting."
The people of the town were as a rule poor, but they earned their own livings.1 The only 1 The issuing of many warrants similar to the following may account for the scarcity of paupers. HANCOCK SS.
To Stephen Richardson one of the constables of the town of Mount Desert in said county, Greeting :
You are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts directed to warn and give notice unto Abner Coffin Lunt of New- bury in the county of Essex and Reuben Noble of North Yar- mouth in the county of Cumberland, laborers, who have lately come into this town for the purpose of abiding therein, not having obtained the town's consent therefor, that they depart the limits thereof, with their wives and children and all under their care within fifteen days and also Sarah Meader, likewise the Negro that is called Neppo, together with Robert Scott and
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record in regard to paupers is in the warrant for the annual meeting in March, 1793. " Art. 10th to consider on and vote what provision shall be made for the poor in said town," and at the meeting it was voted " that the article respecting the poor be left to the adjournment of this meet- ing," and at the adjourned meeting it was voted " that the selectmen carry [a widow] to Mr. Benj. Spurling's who promises to take her one year for her labor, without any charge to the town."
Very little was done in the early years to pro- vide roads on the island. Practically all the set- tlers lived on the shore. They owned boats, but very few owned horses. At the first meeting held under the town organization Nicholas Thomas and Andrew Tarr were chosen highway survey- ors, but on April 4, 1791, it was voted " to do nothing to the highways.' On April 2, 1792, David Hamor, Lewis Higgins, Thomas Richard- son, Peter Gott, and Samuel Reed were chosen
his wife and child, and of this precept with your doings thereon you are to make return into the office of the clerk of the town within twenty days next coming, that such further proceedings may be had in the premises as the law directs. Given under our hands and seals at Mount Desert this third day of July Ano Domini, 1790.
EZRA YOUNG.
THOMAS RICHARDSON. > Selectmen for Mount Desert. DAVIS WASGATT.
These warrants were probably a mere form to comply with some state law in regard to paupers, for many of the most pro- minent men were thus warned to leave the town, while at the next town meeting they would be received as citizens.
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a committee to lay out a road (two rods wide and no more) through the town and report to an adjourned meeting. It was also voted that there be four shillings tax laid on each poll and double the sum total of all the polls laid on the estates, to be worked out on the roads at four shillings per day for each man. There is no record, however, that anything permanent was accomplished.
March 5, 1793, the town instructed the select- men to lay out all roads that shall be needed, but this vote was too general to be effective. In 1794 the selectmen were instructed to lay out a road upon the petition of William Lynam and others from Cromwell's Harbor to Sand Beach, and this was done. They were also instructed to petition the Court of Common Pleas that the road lead- ing from Mr. Cousins's through to the county road at the head of the sound may be a town road. This was the trail that led from Timothy Smallidge's house at Hull's Cove to the head of what is now called the Doctor's Creek. The road thus laid out was the main road from Hull's Cove to Somesville for many years, and could be traveled as late as 1850.
In 1795 the selectmen were directed to peti- tion the General Session of the Court of Common Pleas for a road across the Narrows, and for leave to build a bridge over the Northeast Creek above the mill, and on January 6, 1796, the town
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voted to build a bridge over Northeast Creek, and that all the bridges on town and country roads now laid out be made a town charge, and chose Captain Ezra Young, Captain Davis Wasgatt, and Lieutenant Somes a committee to value and oversee the bridge and make a plan of the same and " get it built as cheap as they can."
Provision was early made for schools, but the amount of money available was very small. On June 15, 1790, the town voted to raise eighteen pounds for the support of schools, and on the sixth day of September following, the town was divided into school districts as shown by the fol- lowing vote : -
" Voted that one school district shall be from Capt. Young's down as far as Mr. Lynam's, in- cluding both families ; the next shall be from Capt. Thompson's up to Mr. John Cousin's, in- cluding both families ; the next from thence to the North East Creek ; the next from said Creek to North West Cove ; the next to consist of Pretty Marsh, together with Robinson's Island and Seal Cove ; the next to consist of Bass Harbor, to- gether with Duck and Goose Coves and Gott's Island [it would appear by this that Gott's Island was considered a part of the town ]; the next South West Harbor, together with both the Sandy Points ; the next division shall be both the Cranberry Islands ; the next above the
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hills with the Beech Hill; the next Bartlett's Island."
In 1792 and 1793 the town raised each year for the support of schools in these districts fifty pounds, "to be paid in the produce of the country at the current market price."
As the town of Mount Desert was very large in extent of territory, and communication between the settlements very difficult, its division was agitated soon after its organization ; but the first action taken was on April 6, 1795, when a vote was passed that the town ought to be divided, and the selectmen were instructed to draw a line where it should be divided and report to the town at a meeting to be held the next May. There is no record of the nature of this report, but at a meeting May 6, 1795, the town voted " to accept the report of the selectmen to divide the town." In accordance with this desire, on February 22, 1796, the legislature of Massachusetts passed an act dividing the town of Mount Desert into two towns and incorporating as Eden the northern part of said town, " bounded southerly by a line beginning at the point north of Goose Marsh Falls, so called, thence running an easterly course to the top of the tide at the head of the Sound and thence easterly a straight course to the top of the tide at Otter Creek."
This act was approved by the governor, Samuel
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Adams, on February 23, 1796. The territory thus incorporated into the town of Eden consisted of " that portion of the island of Mount Desert lying northerly of the line before mentioned, with Bar Island, Green Island, Black Island, and Thomp- son's Island."1 By virtue of the power vested in him by the act of incorporation, Paul Dudley Sargent,2 Esq., issued his warrant, dated at Sul- livan, March 18, 1796, to Ezra Young, requiring him to notify and warn the inhabitants of Eden to assemble at the house of Captain Samuel Hull at Hull's Cove, on Monday, the 4th day of April,
1 These limits remained intact until 1849, when, on petition of William Thompson and by mutual agreement between the towns of Eden and Trenton, the legislature of Maine passed an act setting off from the town of Eden, Thompson's Island and a small portion of the island of Mount Desert, and annexing it, with the inhabitants thereon, to the town of Trenton. This act was ap- proved of by the governor, John W. Dana, June 27, 1849, since which time no changes have been made in the boundaries.
2 Paul Dudley Sargent was born in Salem in 1745, and was brought up in Gloucester. He early identified himself with the patriot cause, and led a company to the siege of Boston. He was soon commissioned colonel, was wounded at Bunker Hill, had command of the Castle in Boston Harbor after the surrender, and took part with his regiment in the battles of Harlem Heights, Trenton, and Princeton. After the war he engaged in business as a merchant and shipowner, but was unfortunate, and in 1787 removed to a farm in Sullivan, Me., where for forty years he was the leading citizen. He was the first chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas and the first judge of probate in Hancock County, the first representative of Sullivan in the General Court, and for many years postmaster. He was one of the origi- nal overseers of Bowdoin College. In 1772 he married Lucy Smith Saunders, and they had twelve children. The family genealogy is recorded in the Bangor Hist. Mag. ii, 125.
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1796, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, to choose such officers as towns are by law required to choose at their annual meetings, and to transact such other business as might legally come before the meeting. Captain Young issued his warrant dated March 26, 1796, notifying the freeholders and others, inhabitants of the town of Eden, to meet at the time and place aforesaid to choose a moderator and clerk, and also to give in their votes for governor, lieutenant-governor, senator, register of deeds, and county treasurer.
At this meeting Ezra Young was chosen moderator ; Thomas Paine, town clerk ; Ezra Young, Levi Higgins, and Samuel Hull, select- men ; David Hamor, treasurer ; Israel Higgins, constable ; Thomas Wasgatt, Ebenezer Salsbury, David Hamor, and Joseph May, surveyors of high- ways ; Ezra Young and Elisha Cousins, surveyors of boards ; David Hamor, surveyor of shingles ; Henry Knowles, surveyor of staves; Daniel Richardson and Daniel Rodick, fence viewers ; Elkanah Young, sealer of leather; Timothy Smallidge, culler of fish ; Stephen Salsbury, hog reever ; Joseph Mayo and Ebenezer Salsbury, pound keepers ; Joseph Mayo and Solomon Hig- gins, field drivers ; Ebenezer Salsbury and Moses Wasgatt, tything men. It was " voted to build a pound near the centre of the town that neat cattle may go at large ; that sheep shall not go at large; that town meetings in future shall be
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held at the dwelling-house of Ebenezer Salsbury (at Salsbury's Cove) ; to adjourn this meeting to the aforesaid Salsbury's at 10 o'clock in the fore- noon of the 18th instant April."
At the adjourned meeting it was voted to raise for ordinary town expenses, $60. For building a bridge over Northeast Creek, and mending roads if found necessary, $168, and for the sup- port of schools, $60, - a total of $228.1
1 It is interesting to observe on what this tax was levied. There were 89 poll taxes. Of improved land, 10,929 acres ; of im- provable land, 12,380 acres ; of unimprovable land, 656 acres ; 35 dwellinghouses ; 4 warehouses ; 6 sawmills ; 1 gristmill ; 24 barns ; 3 shops ; $175, money on hand ; 202 tons of vessels ; 9 faculties valued at $150 each ; 14 horses, 62 oxen, 127 cows and young cattle, and 104 swine. Total value of real estate, $27,891 ; total value of personal estate, $9,434. Total valuation, $37,325.
Bartholomew De Gregoire was taxed for 1 house, 2 sawmills, 1 barn, 16 acres of improved land, 134 acres of improvable land, 1 cow, 4 swine, and $175 in money.
James Campbell, Seth Doane, William Lynam, Andrew New- march, Elkanah Young, John Joy, and Jediah Stetson were each taxed for one faculty, valued at $150; John Cousins, Ezra Young, and Robert Young for one half of a faculty each; and Nehemiah Higgins for one third of a faculty.
The statistics for the town for 1797, the year after incorpora- tion, are as follows : Number of polls, 91. Poll tax, $1.40. Value of horses, $45; of cows, $15; of oxen, $22.50; young cattle, $9.09 ; swine, $2.00. Tons of shipping, 126 ; money on hand, $300; no. of houses, 52; no. of warehouses, 6; no. of gristmills, 1; no. of sawmills, 6; no. of barns, 25; no. of shops, 4; state tax, $77.64 ; county tax, $77.64 ; no. of horses, 15; no. of cows, 81; no. of oxen, 60; no. of young cattle, 62; no. of swine, 92 ; no. acres improved land, 855 ; no. acres un- improved land, 13,937 ; no. acres unimprovable land, 502;
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The occupations of the settlers of Eden were fishing, farming, lumbering, building vessels, and coasting. From 1809 to 1825 there were more than twenty-five vessels built in the town, aver- aging more than one hundred tons each. The Custom House record of May 12, 1809, enrolls the "Schooner Hazard, of Eden, 120 90-95 tons, Israel Higgins, master, Samuel Hadlock, of Mt. Desert, owner, built at Eden, 1809." This was the first vessel built. From 1825 to 1860 the town was noted for its large number of sea- captains. At one time there were eleven men belonging in Eden who were masters of ships.
Farming was of course very limited, but most of the settlers raised more or less rye, wheat, barley, corn, and potatoes. There were sawmills on Northeast Creek, at Hull's Cove, on Duck Brook, and Cromwell's Harbor Brook. These mills probably furnished all the boards needed in town, and perhaps some for shipment to other
whole no. of acres, 15,294 ; county tax, $232.00 ; overlay, $35.99. Total tax, $423.27.
The following named persons were all whose tax on their property exceeded ten dollars : David Hamor, $13.65 ; Samuel Hull, $15.94 ; Ezra Leland, $17.97 ; John Thomas, $13.75 ; Nicholas Thomas, $11.67 ; Thomas Wasgatt, $10.41; Ezra Young, $11.27 ; Henry Jackson, $34.91.
William Lynam, Andrew Monarch, Ezra Young, John Joy, and Jediah Stetson were each taxed for a faculty valued at $60. David Hamor was the only person taxed for money on hand, $3.00. Henry Jackson was taxed for 8000 acres of unimproved land at two per cent. and eighty acres of improved land at six per cent.
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places. Thomas Wasgatt was taxed for a grist- mill on Duck Brook in 1796.
When the new town was set off from Mount Desert there were six school districts in Eden, but there were no school buildings. The teach- ing was done in conveniently located dwellings. The new town voted to make new boundaries for the districts, and to divide the money as follows : District No. 1, from William Lynam's at Schooner Head to Ezra Young's at Duck Brook, $124.60; No. 2, from Samuel Hull's at Hull's Cove to Samuel Fish's, near the Ovens, $99.10; No. 3, from Daniel Hamor's at Sand Point to Ezra Le- land's at Leland's Cove, $57; No. 4, from Ezra Leland's to Northeast Creek, $32.89; No. 5, from Northeast Creek, upwards, $86.40.
In 1807 the town and District No. 3 built a house 20×26 feet at Salsbury's Cove for a combined town house and schoolhouse at a cost of $350. In 1828 the town purchased the dis- trict's interest in this house for $60, and occupied it for a town house until 1843, when the present town house at Salsbury's Cove was built, and the old house given to Mr. Elisha Cousins. On March 14, 1808, the town decided, by lot, to build a schoolhouse in District No. 4, in No. 5 in 1809, in No. 2 in 1810, and No. 1 in 1811, and that each district should receive $120 when it became due.
In April, 1796, the town of Eden raised $168
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to build a bridge across Northeast Creek ; in 1797 it raised $112 to purchase timber for this bridge, and voted to begin work on the second Monday of June. In 1798, 1799, and 1800, the town raised each year one dollar on each poll, and double that amount on the estates, for the repair of roads and bridges, and fixed the price of labor on roads at one dollar per day, for a man, and four shillings per day for a yoke of oxen. There was no bridge over Flying Place till 1823, none over the Old House Cove till 1824, and none over the Narrows until 1837, when a toll bridge was built by a company.
It was probably owing to the lack of roads that the island had no mail privileges for more than thirty years after the incorporation of Mount Desert, the nearest post-office being at Ellsworth. The earliest record of any mail service on the island is a contract made the 16th day of Octo- ber, 1820, with Josiah Paine of Portland and Alexander Rice of Kittery, Me., to carry the mail " from Ellsworth, by Jordan's river school- house in Trenton, and Mount Desert Narrows, to Mount Desert once a week ; to leave Mount De- sert Thursday at 5 A. M. and arrive at Ellsworth by 11 A. M. ; returning leave Ellsworth at 1 P. M. and arrive at Mount Desert at 7 P. M." This con- tract was made for four years, beginning Jan- uary 21, 1821, and ending December 31, 1824. Anderson Hopkins was the first mail carrier.
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The only post-office was at Eden. In 1830 the mail began to be carried from Eden to Somes- ville, Southwest Harbor, and Bass Harbor, and in 1840 to Bar Harbor, where the post-office was named East Eden.
The military history of the island in the two wars with England reveals the patriotism and the genuine sacrifices of the people. The island was remote and utterly defenseless, but the inhabit- ants were ready to bear their full share of the public burdens. In the Revolutionary War, David Richardson volunteered as a private, and served one month, and Jonathan Rodick served one month and eighteen days in Captain Daniel Sul- livan's1 company, which went to Machias twice
1 Daniel Sullivan was born at Berwick, Me., 1738, and was the second son of John and Marjory Sullivan. His brothers were General John Sullivan of Revolutionary fame, Governor James Sullivan of Massachusetts, and Hon. William Sullivan, lawyer, of Boston. He married Anne Paul of York, and after her early death removed, about 1763, with a number of families from the same neighborhood, to New Bristol, now Sullivan. Two years later he married, at Fort Pownall, Abigail, daughter of John and Hannah Bean, his next neighbor. In 1776 he was commissioned captain of the local militia company, and with it took part in the unsuccessful expedition against Bagaduce (Castine) in 1779. On February 24, 1781, the British ship Allegiance, running up Frenchman's Bay, landed a party just above Bar Harbor, and tried to seize Ezra Young, captain of the Mount Desert militia company, and then crossing the bay, landed a party at midnight at Point Harbor, where they burned the houses of Captain Sullivan and Mr. Bean, and carried Captain Sullivan away a prisoner. His wife and five children saved nothing, and
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in 1777 and 1778. Volunteers in the same com- pany in the unfortunate expedition against Bag- aduce (Castine) in 1779 were: Levi Higgins, lieutenant ; Elisha Cousins, sergeant ; Timothy Smallidge, corporal ; Israel Higgins, Daniel Richardson, and Jabez Salsbury, privates. The pay-roll indicates that these men served two months. In Captain Sullivan's company in the sixth regiment of militia, ordered on duty by Colonel John Allan, October, 1780, were : James Campbell, clerk ; Jonathan Doane and Freeman Knowles, privates. Joseph Mayo, who lived at the Narrows, and Ephraim Haynes, who lived at Northwest Cove, and who was 104 years old when he died, were Revolutionary pensioners. Colonel Cornelius Thompson, who lived on Thompson's Island, was at one time during the Revolutionary War captain of the privateer brig Chase, and he was also an officer in the militia. He drew a pension as a Revolutionary soldier under act of Congress, June 7, 1832. He was representative to the General Court from Eden from 1809 to 1812.
took shelter in the fish house. As Captain Sullivan refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British government, he was carried to Halifax, and later confined for four months on the Jersey prison ship at New York. Finally, through the exertions of his brother, General Sullivan, he was exchanged, but died of his sufferings before he could reach home. When the town was incorporated in 1792, it was named Sullivan in his honor. His descendants have placed a monument to his memory in the grave- yard near where his homestead stood.
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During the War of 1812 there was much suf- fering and many deprivations among the inhab- itants of the island. English cruisers infested the bays and harbors along the coast of Maine, and the settlers were obliged to pay tribute to them or have their property destroyed. It is recorded, for instance, that Captain Amariah Leland was building a small vessel in his yard, near Emery's Cove, when a barge from an English privateer landed, and he was obliged to pay $500 or have his vessel burned. These privateers were so numerous that it was dangerous to attempt to carry wood or lumber to market by water, or to bring supplies of any kind from the westward ; consequently the inhabitants had to subsist on game and fish, and what they could raise on their farms. William Mason and Thomas Paine, coming in from fishing in a sailboat one day in 1814, were fired at by the crew of an English barge and Mason was wounded. Paine landed at Bar Island and Mason was carried to the house there, where he died the next day. William Thompson, William Wasgatt, and Elisha Young were taken by the English and carried to Halifax, where Wasgatt and Young were kept for some time as prisoners of war, while Thompson was carried to England and confined in prison till the war closed.
The chief event of the war-time on the island itself was the skirmish at Norwood's Cove. One
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day in August, 1814, a British sloop of war, the Tenedos, sailed in the Eastern Way and anchored in the deep water between Bear Island and Sut- ton's. She had been seen outside of the Duck Islands by two fishermen, whom she tried to en- gage as pilots, but they would have nothing to do with her. The chief man on Great Cranberry was Captain Benjamin Spurling, founder of all families of that name. Two of his vessels were at that time laid up in Norwood's Cove, and lest they should attract notice from outside, their topmasts had been taken down and green tree- tops put in place, while the vessels themselves were run up at high tide into Harmon's brook.
When Captain Spurling saw the masts of the Tenedos looming up over Sutton's Island, he knew the intent of her coming. Taking a man, he rowed over to the ship and tried to dissuade those in command, offering them a yoke of slaughtered oxen if they would forego their pur- pose. The British officers replied very truculently that it was their commission to burn Yankee vessels, and he should go with them and see them burn. They wanted him for their own pro- tection, thinking the people would not fire at them when they saw him. Spurling warned them not to enter the cove, saying that he had three sons over there who could shoot a duck on the wing. He was a man of fiery temperament, and his indignation knew no bounds.
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