USA > Maine > Washington County > Machias > Narrative of the town of Machias, the old and the new, the early and late > Part 2
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"The year 1762 was no less distinguished with its pre- decessor for extraordinary drouth and terrible fires. Early in the year six dwelling houses, two saw mills, and several barns were burned in Scarborough; Six families were burnt out in North Yarmouth ; in every direction extensive fields were destroyed by the flames and laid open by the destruc- tion of fences. Even the cattle did not escape the consumi- ing fires. A prodigious quantity of the most valuable forest timber was also destroyed, and so much were the crops cut short that greater supplies than usual were necessarily im- ported for the peoples' support."
The existence of extensive marshes on the rivers lying eastward of the Penobscot were well known previous to the seasons of drouth, and they had often been visited by residents of western Maine , as necessity required for cutting
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grass growing on their borders: therefore during the years 1761-'62 many excursions were made to the Eastward to obtain hay, for the support of cattle the ensuing winters.
It was mainly for this purpose that carly in the autumn of 1762. Isaiah Foster, Isaac Larrabee and others, whose names are unknown -- all belonging to the settlement of Black Point in Scarborough embarked on board of a large whale boat , on a cruise eastward : besides the principal object of procuring hay another object, also, was to explore the places they visited for the purpose of setting up a lum- bering establishment. The fires before alluded to had de- stroyed a great portion of the pine lands in the vicinity of Scarboro: and being in the habit of Iumbering more or less every year, they were not disposed to overlook the ad- vantages which a new country might afford for this indus- try.
The party who started from Scarborough set sail to the Eastward and after exploring the coast at different points at length arrived at Machias. where they found extensive tiacts of salt marsh lands covered with, to them. invaluable grass. which had never been penetrated by the mowers' scythe, and which became doubly valuable to them from its scarcity in the homes they had left. They were also quick in discovering and estimating the value of the pine wilder- ness, and untouched forests of timber on the brink of a water power of almost unlimited capacity never yet utilized at the head of navigable tide waters.
"What more could our enterprising voyagers desire?" Was it surprising that their hearts should be light and joy- ous? That they did return to their Scarborough fields animated by visions of future success and prosperity. which naturally occupied their minds when comparing the devastations around home, with these new regions of superior water power, interminable forests of wood growth and exten- sive marshes of grass?
On their return the story of their Machias voyage, and of the discoveries they had made were soon told; and it may well be imagined, that under the pressure of many misfor-
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tunes which had befallen them, not a few of the inhabitants. who had suffered by the late extraordinary succession of- calamities, listened with eagerness to accounts of a more favorable location-of a spot where the lumberman and the husbandman could find and appropriate resources of wealth so abundant.
An association of "Sixteen persons" was accordingly formed during the winter of 1763, for the purpose of build- ing a double saw mill at Machias, to be owned in as many shares-and it was decided to commence operations the ensuing spring.
Smiths' Centennial records the names of the Associates in this undertaking, to commence the first English settle- ment at Machias as follows :
Samuel Scott, Sylvanus Scott, Timothy Libby,
Brothers.
George Libby, Brothers.
David Libby,
Solomon Stone,
Brothers.
John Stone,
Daniel Hill,
Brothers.
Japhet Hill, S
Isaiah Foster,
Westrook Berry.
Isaac Larrabee,
Daniel Fogg.
The above thirteen were all residents of Scarborough and all lived at a District in the town known as Black Point. The remaining three were:
Thomas Buck of Plymouth, Captain of a coaster.
Jonathan Carlton, of Sheepscot.
William Jones of Portsmouth, N.H .
Jones was a merchant and it was not required of him to go to Machias, but he became one of the Association on an agreement to furnish the infant Colony with such supplies as might from time to time be needed, and to receive for the assistance he should thus render, one sixteenth, an equal
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share with the other associates, of the mill to be built and all other privileges.
In the latter part of April, 1763, the associates, with the exception of Jones, embarked at Black Point, on board a small schooner, of which Thomas Buck, one of the sixteen, was Captain. Westbrook Berry and Isaac Larrabee took their families with them, consisting of their wives and three chil- dren each. Besides the Associates and the two families named, Joel Bonney, a millwright, and Woodin Foster, a blacksmith, were also of the number, having been engaged by the Company to assist in building the mill, making in all tweny-four persons whose fortunes were based on the success of an enterprise requiring their utmost resolution and courage.
"Their passage was long and stormy. At Townsend they went on shore where the two women baked some bread for the passengers. On one occasion the vessel and cargo came near being lost. The craft struck on a rock when making a port, which our informant says was called the "Hop Yard", to escape the storm. The same night the roughness of the sea loosened a canoe which was lashed to the shrouds and in falling killed a cow belonging to Mr. Berry. On the 20th of May the vessel arrived at Machias anchoring first at the Rim. As soon as tide and wind were favorable they weighed anchor for the last time.
The day was one of gloom for the rain fell in torrents, and the vessel by some mishap striking on a rock near where the Ellis Smith store was in later years built, and had to remain there 'till the next flood tide. The passengers were obliged to land as the vessel keeled so much they could not stay on board. They made a temporary shelter with a few boards placed against a birch tree which had been partly broken down.
The vessel floated in the afternoon and was taken into a small creek that run out just East of the late Deacon Kelly house, and over which the present sail loft building stands. The passengers remained on board several days, till a clearing was made and a double log house built on Front
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street very near where the Esten-Walling Block now stands. Mr. Larrabee, wife and children occupying one side, and the men employed in building the mill occupying the other part and boarding with the Larrabees.
The mill being double and situated on the same site where the Phenix mill now is on the North shore of the Falls, was completed with all the despatch practicable, under the circumstances of a pioneer settlement. Probably it was not finished with that skill and neatness which characterizes modern structures of that kind; it neverthe- less rendered efficient service to the Company, and before the season had closed the quantity of boards sawed enabled the occupants to cover the log houses which were tempora- rily built for the accommodation of those who had wives and children to shelter; two having brought families with them. The women and children who had remained at Scarborough were removed to Machias in August. They were brought in a vessel commanded by Captain Joseph Wallace, father of the Colonel Joseph Wallace who early set- tled at Harrington, now Milbridge. He had been engaged to carry them from Scarborough by one of the Libby's and he took with him a supply of provisions with the in- tention of making exchange for lumber; but when he arriv- ed at Machias only few boards had been manufactured except those taken to supply the wants of the settlers, whom he found in a measure destitute. Capt. Wallace, however sold his groceries to them, they engaging to furnish a cargo on his return the next spring, which was done according to agreement.
During the year 1764 the Inhabitants made nearly one million six hundred thousand feet of lumber, which was no doubt an extraordinary season's work. "To be sure the operators of that time had no great difficulty in procuring logs for their mill, and at quite a saving too as to timber rent or stumpage, but it is rather surprising to learn that the timber, which grew on the northern end of the "Seven Acre" lots, so called, should have been landed in Middle River stream and floated around to the mills on the main
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river when by drawing them scarcely half a mile they could have been landed at the brow of the mill".
The mill was divided according to agreement into sixteen shares. There was also made this year a division of the mill or the seven acre lots. These lots as is generally remembered lie on the peninsula between the marsh on the South side of Middle River and the North side of the river on which the mills were built. These lots were seven rods in width extending nearly across the peninsula. Of these settler's lots there were eighteen, laid out by the mariner's compass. Sixteen of them belonged to the several original partners of the Company. The other two were given to Joel Bonney, the millwright and Woodin Foster , the blacksmith, and the eleven associates who had wives built a small house on each of their respective lots the same year.
During the year 1765 our Colony increased by considerable number, with every sign of future and long continued prosperity. A reputation had gone abroad most favorable as to its resources. Many persons came this year and settled farm lots as well as to engage in the lumbering business. Their names are as follows : Daniel Elliot, Joseph Holmes, Joseph Libby (better known as Deacon) , Ebenezer Libby, Benjamin Foster, afterwards Colonel of Militia, Joseph Sevey, known as Captain, Joseph Munson, Joseph Balch, Ezekiel Foster, Joseph Getchell, Benjamin Foss all coming from Scarborough. John Underwood, who came from Kittery and was the first trader or store keeper; Jonathan Longfellow from Cornwallis, N. S.
In the spring of the same year, 1765, the O'Brien family Morris and Sons; Elliot, Holmes, Underwood and the two Libby's before named commenced a double mill on the South side of the Falls on the same site where the late Dublin mill stood, but it was not finally completed 'till the ensuing March. The families of most of the persons who came here this season were moved to Machias in the Fall.
Sometime in the Summer of 1765, Capt. Ichabod Jones. who had formerly been a shipmaster then living in Boston. having a strong desire to make an excursion, to the eastward,
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HISTORY OF MACHIAS.
chartered a coasting schooner for that purpose and put on board a quantity of provisions and other merchandise to trade with the people along the coast. On arriving at Mt. Desart he heard of the Settlement at Machias, -That much lumber was made there and proceeded thither immediately. At Machias he disposed of his goods, loaded his vessel with lumber for Boston and returned to Machias again with additional supplies. On the second trip he was invited by Col. Benjamin Foster, Woodin Foster, Samuel Scott, Daniel Fogg, Joseph Munson, Joseph Sevey, who then resided at East Falls to unite with them and others in building a double saw mill on the East Machias river. Capt. Jones agreed to join them and build one quarter. The frame was cut and prepared and the mill erected on the West bank of the river being the first saw mill in the place. The mill stood on the same site where the mill Unity, supposed to have been named after one of Ichabod Jones' vessels, and stood for many years just below the bridge on the western side of the streanı. Capt. Jones made another trip the same season bringing further supplies of goods for his part- ners and others.
In 1766 most of those who built the first mill-part of the Company of the original Sixteen-took up farm lots also. In March of this year, after a passage of four days, Stephen Jones, nephew of Ichabod, arrived at Machias. He is more particularly remembered in these later days as Judge Jones, having been appointed and acted as Judge of Probate and a Justice of the Sessions after the Revolution. He resided in Machias 1766-1822, when he removed to Boston where he died in 1826, aged about eighty-eight years. In a letter which he wrote dated Sept. 21, 1825, when nearly eighty- seven he said-"I have never made any pretensions to com- position or to write gramatically, as I was taught neither when young, as my father was killed at Horton, N. S., when I was eight years old, thenceforth I lived with my maternal grandfather, a respectable farmer of Weston, Mass., till I was sixteen. I then went to Worcester to live with my uncle who was a joiner. "Farmers' Boys" he adds, "have
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no chance for schooling in the summer season of the year and if, after harvesting and cider making is over, they can go to school until the farming business commences in the Spring, and during these periods can learn to spell, read and write a little, they do very well." After I was nine years of age, he continues, I would not let any boy in school, if he was ever so old, go before me in reading and spelling. Writ- ing or penmanship I never excelled in :- But age has impaired my memory so much that I find I frequently misspel words.
In 1766, the Inhabitants having failed two years previous in their application to Nova Scotia for a grant of a town- ship of land, which should include their settlement, petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for the same object : but owing to errors in method of proceedings this application received no attention. The appeals to the General Court were repeated annually in some form until 1770, when a grant of the township was made.
The winter and spring of 1767 were distinguished as seasons of wide spread scarcity. The previous autumn arrangments had been made for procuring the usual winter supplies .-- but owing to some accident or neglect, the vessel engaged to do the freighting was frozen in somewhere on the coast, and was detained for a long time. Many a weary hour did the Inhabitants watch for her return. On her they had not only relied for their family supplies, but for articles and material as would enable them to pursue the customary work of drawing logs and providing stock for the mills, on the success of which their prosperity for the ensuing year entirely depended. Days and weeks passed of the gloomy and disheartening type, the dimmed eye became weary with watching, and the heart sadder by each hour's delay. The husband and father, as the scanty and poor fare was placed upon his table, became more and more solicitous for the morrow -while the wife and mother, with womanly courage and heroism, calls forth new sources of consolation in the fortitude and self possession which she displayed To one the future came as a cloud of impend-
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HISTORY OF MACHIAS.
ing darkness and gloom: - to the other there was light in the silver lining of God's mercy, that sustained her under appalling discipline and trial. One, who participated in and remembered their sufferings, stated to the author that she had prepared many meals from potatoe sprouts, clams and a little flour which she had reserved for starch. Of other families it became known that the fathers became so weak in several instances and so reduced in strength from the limited quantity of food, that they had but slight physical ability to dig for eels and clams on which they entirely depended for subsistance. Indeed the deprivations of the Machias people at that time were not less than those which the earlier settlers of other sections of New England experienced. On one occasion a devout man, presumably Parson Lyon, calm and resigned amid the distress of him- self and those around him, invited a neighbor to a dish of clams, and after dinner returned thanks to God, who had given them"To suek of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sands".
The people of robust constitutions attempted to support themselves and families by hunting for moose and deer. - but from their inexperience in the art, this mode was no less precarious than the eel and clam industry ; besides in some instances long continued want had disabled them from en- during the fatigues of a long hunt. By some this was called the "Clam year"; by others the season of 'Poverty Time".
"Amid this uncertainty and destitution the people re- mained for two months. Relief came finally :- Capt. Jones, who seemed to take a strong interest in the place, hearing the vessel which had been engaged to bring them supplies was detained, and well knowing from his acquain- tance with the condition of things here. that the Inhabitants must be in needy circumstances, despatched a vessel to the place, with groceries and dry goods, which afforded the most grateful relief.,
In 1768 Capt. Ichabod Jones, Jonathan Longfellow. Amos Boynton, John Underwood and others built a double saw mill on the island in the Falls on the same site occupied
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by the "Rock Mill" in later years. A single saw mill was also built by Joseph Getchell and others, who lived on the North side of Middle River, at the outlet of the pond known as Bowker's Lake.
Jonathan Longfellow was this year appointed a Justice of the Peace, being the first civil officer commissioned East of the Penobscot River.
In 1769 a company of militia of nearly one hundred men was formed: Stephen Jones was chosen Captain; Benjamin Foster. (afterwards Colonel) Lieutenant and Sylvanus Scott Ensign. Capt. Jones' commission was dated August, 7,
"In the Ninth year of the reign of his Majesty George the Third." appointed him a "Captain of a military company of Foot, at a place called Machias, in the Regiment, in the County of Lincoln. whereof Thomas Goldthwaite is Col- onel. " The commission was signed by Thomas Hutchin- son then Lient. Governor of Massachusetts.
Near the close of 1769 the Inhabitants again petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for a grant of a town- ship of land. The petition read as follows :
"To his Excellency. Francis Bernard Esqr., Captain General land Commander in Chief: The Honorable, the Council and Honorable House of Representatives of the Province aforesaid in General Court assembled at Boston .-
The subscribers. Inhabitants of a place called Machias, (great part of whom have served his Majesty in the late wars ) Hambly show,
That they with their families, according to the King's Proclamation, went upon and took possession of a tract of land called Machias, bounded as follows, viz:
"Beginning at a Dry Rock at a place called Eastern Bay, near the house of Mr. Samuel Holmes and extending North ten degrees West ten miles; then East to North eight miles to the first mentioned bounds: and they have made con- siderable improvements thereon. apprehending the same to be Crown Lands. But so it is may it please your Excellency and Honors, that said tract of land falleth within and belongs to this Province.
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Your Petitioners would represent to the Honorable Court, that they are about seventy-four in number, and are with- out the common privileges other people within this Province enjoy, having no Gospel Minister, Schoolmaster or any civic officers whatsoever, which is absolutely necessary for the Peace and good order of any people; and as they are willing to pay their part of the Province' current expences, as they become able , your Petitioners therefore pray your Excellency and Honors would be pleased to take the promises into your wise, serious and compassionate consider- ation, -and make them a grant of said tract of land, which will prevent the ruin of so many families, -and also in- corporate them into a town, or otherwise invest them with authority sufficient to choose town officers or otherwise relieve them, as in your known wisdom and goodness shall think best; and as in Duty bound shall ever Pray ?
Stephen Jones,
Ezekiel Foster, Jr.,
George Libbee,
Jonathan Woodruff,
Enoch Sanborne,
Jones Dyer,
Jonathan Longfellow,
Benjamin Foster,
Reuben Crocker,
Daniel Stone,
David Libbee,
John Crocker,
William Curtis.
Obadiah Hill,
Isaiah Foster.
Abial Sprague,
Jacob Libbee,
Samuel Libbee,
Jeremiah O'Brien,
Isaac Larrabee,
John Underwood,
Henry Griffith,
Samuel Kenney,
George Sevey,
Jeremiah Jenks,
Sylvanus Scott,
John Wheland,
Arche Hammond,
Ephriam Andrews,
Abial Sprague, Jr.,
Benjamin Foster,
Amos Boynton,
Ebenezar Libbee,
Samuel Hill,
Joseph Holmes.
Sarah Libbee, Widow.
James Dillaway,
Joseph Libbee,
Joseph Duboisout,
Japhet Hill,
Samuel Rich,
Soloman Stone,
George Scott,
Nathan Longfellow,
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Timothy Libbee,
Westbrook Berry,
Joseph Munson,
Jonathan Berrie,
Samuel Scott,
Daniel Hill,
Job Burnham,y Isaiah Libbee,
John C. Jones,
Joseph Sevey,
Thomas Libbee,
Gideon O'Brien,
John Bohanan,
Samuel Holmes,
John Berrie,
Woodin Foster.
Ebenezer Fitts,
Samuel Burnham,V
Samuel Stewart,
Jonathan Carlton,
Reuben Libbee,
Arthur Dillaway,
John Scott, Ichabod Jones,
Stephen Parker,
Jacob Foster,
Aaron Hanscom.
Benjamin Holmes,
Joseph Getchell,
Morris O'Brien,
Bartholomew Bryant, Benjamin Stone,
John W. Foster, Benjamin Getchell.
Upon this Petition the General Court granted the tract, as described in the application, the 26th day of April, 1770, on the following conditions, namely: "That the Petitioners cause a plan of the township to be taken by a surveyor and Chairman under oath before the first day of January, 1771: that within six years after they should obtain his Majesty's approbation of the grant, unless pre- vented from so doing by war, they should settle the township with eighty good Protestant families; build eighty houses, none to be less than eighteen feet square and seven feet stud, clear and cultivate five acres of land on each share fit for tillage or mowing: that they build a suitable meeting house for the Public worship of God, and settle a learned Prot- estant minister and make provision for his comfortable and honorable support." Each Proprietor was required to give a bond to the Treasurer of the Province in the sum of fifty pounds for the faithful performance of these conditions. The Petitioners were further required to obtain his Majesty's confirmation within eighteen months.
The last condition is "As the township is remote from
Ezekiel Foster,
Solomon Meserve,
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the center of the Province, and at a great distance from his Majesty's surveyor of wood and timbe, the Petitioners were required to take especial care not to destroy or cut any of his Majesty's timber on or about said township. The conditions of this grant were the same or nearly so, under which most of the grants for forty years previous, had been made.
The provision restricting cutting his Majesty's timber on the township, refers to conditions in the Provincial charter ; that all trees of the diameter of twenty-one inches , upwards of twelve inches from the ground, were to be reserved for masts for the Royal Navy ; and a fine of 100 lbs. was incurred- for every such tree cut down without a License first had and to be obtained of the King's Surveyor.
By this grant the Petitioners became proprietors or owners in fee of the soil within the limits of the township They held their first Proprietary meeting on the eleventh of September, 1770. Stephen Jones was chosen Clerk of the Proprietors; Jonathan Longfellow, Moderator. Ben- jamin Foster, Samuel Scott, Sylvanus Scott were chosen a committee to call future meetings. Ephraim Andrews was elected Collector; Sylvanus Scott, Treasurer. Twenty shillings lawful money was raised on each original right in the township to meet the expenses of running out the lots and defining limits of the township and pay Ichabod Jones for his expense in obtaining a grant of the same from "The Great and General Court." The Collector for his compen- sation was allowed one sixth in the pound for collecting.
The most important vote of this meeting was the follow- ing confirming as it did the title to lands held previously by possession, each settler on the township having located his farm or made his improvements wherever his fancy dictated.
Voted, -"That the first sixteen settlers or builders of the first saw mill unmolested enjoy their lots called "mill lots." each lot containing seven rods front and extending to the marsh back not exceeding half a mile, together with mill privilege; that each Proprietor be quieted in the improve- ments he has made and settled upon, and to possess one
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hundred rods wide, marsh excluded, if it is to be had with out dispossessing one another in the improvements they have made, together with the mill privileges they now enjoy; said lots to extend back so far as to contain the quantity or area of two hundred and fifty acres to each first division lot.
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