USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Livermore > Notes, historical, descriptive, and personal, of Livermore, in Androscoggin (formerly in Oxford) county, Maine > Part 10
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Uncle Philoon was an honest son of Erin, and a useful and con- venient man to have about. Nobody was his match with the sickle in the autumn, and in the short winter days you could hear his flail in all the neighboring barns. He was always in good spirits. This was a common refrain to his sounding flail :
"King George on the throne Is a good king I own, But the memory of King William forever."
When Henry Aldrich and Seth Ballou were setting the world around Brettun's Mills crazy with the new patent threshing ma- chine which they had introduced, Philoon visited the Mills, and on his return, in reply to my father's question " What is the news," replied,
" There's nothing new But Aldrich and Ballou."
He preferred Capt. Samuel Morison for representative in the legisla- ture to Dr. Bradford, because he said he " would credit his keeping."
There was an unusually good race of men in the circle known to
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my boyhood. Dr. Bradford, Capt. Waters, Capt. Pray, Capt. Kendall, Capt. Leavitt, George Chandler, Jesse Kidder, Uncles John, Abijah, and Abel Monroe,* Uncle Bartlett, the Coolidges, the Stricklands' and the Chases were good, solid, honest, faithful, and stanch men ; men of convictions and principles, with an honest purpose for every duty, and who made all reasonable sacrifices to educate their chil- dren, that their lot in life might be better than their own. They settled a new country, underwent the privations attending early set- tlers, worked hard, fared hard, but with industry and good manage- ment lived comfortably. It was a neighborhood of great social harmony. I don't remember a neighborhood quarrel. They were all politicians, to a greater or less extent, and not without ambition ; they read the newspapers with interest; they discussed and criticised all questions of neighborhood, State, and country ; were a trifle more conservative than their descendants, perhaps, but were intolerant of injustice, oppression, meanness, and lying. Most of them lived to old age, and died and were buried where their lives had been passed. Capt. Kendall, a man of great spirit and keen sense of honor, followed his children to a newer but not a happier country. An early sorrow had settled a dark veil. upon his face which was never lifted again. I look back with a sort of mournful pleasure, not unmixed with pride, upon their useful and honest lives, and feel thankful for the lessons they imparted. May they rest in peace !
And from the primitive old brown, and later old white, school- house, without a letter of Latin or Greek, with the simple instruc- tion in reading, writing, and arithmetic, I slid quietly and unnoticed away from the good old neighborhood, while a great many other boys, more favored, went to the high schools, academies, and col- leges. No wonder that when, at a long subsequent period, a bright and ingenuous youth was hearing others discuss their graduations and their degrees, their class days and commencements, and was told that the writer's alma mater was represented by the old faded school-house, he should have been struck with amazement that one with such scant opportunity "should be so wise."
EXTRACTS FROM NOTES made, in the journal of Maj. Thomas Fish, Jan. 10, 1852, by Thomas Chase, Esq., of Washington, D. C.
From a careful examination of these ancient entries (they were made by Thomas Fish, of Oxford, in the county of Worcester and
*Almost every farmer in town over fifty years old was called " Uncle."
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State of Massachusetts), I find that he was a surveyor, and for that reason was employed by Dea. Livermore, and finally de- cided to settle in Livermore. Dea. Livermore purposed to remove to Livermore about A. D. 1775, but the "times that tried men's souls" coming on, that great project was abandoned for the time be- ing, and he did not leave Waltham until April, 1779, and-tarrying at Winthrop some four or five months, while he raised a crop in " Liverton " and built a frame house-removed to his new farm on the west bank of the Androscoggin River, and near the centre of the town, in the fall of 1779; of course the winter of 1779-80 was the first he passed at Livermore.
Remarks .- The towns of Winthrop and Readfield were first called " Pond Town," and it seems Winthrop was first so called in 1773, as by foregoing .*. The town of Turner Maj. Fish here seems to call Sylvester. "Phipps' Canada " in the foregoing is now Jay and Canton. About this time, or soon after, Bethel and Rumford were called "Sudbury-Canada." Fryeburg and vicinity were the ancient " Pigwacket," and (1773) still retained that naine. (I had forgotten to say that " Canton Point " is the ancient "Roccomeco" of the In- dians.) Hallowell was at this time (1773) and long afterward called " The Hook.". Augusta was "The Fort," for the reason that a fort was there built to protect the first settlers against the Rocco- meco and Norridgewock Indians.
I now propose to give a short narrative of Thomas Fish, derived principally from the late Samuel Livermore, Esq., the youngest son of Dea. Elijah Livermore (who married my aunt, Lura Chase, born at Martha's Vineyard), Widow Anna Hamlin, a daughter of the deacon, residing at Paris Hill, the late Josiah Wyer, of Livermore, and Jabez Delano, also of Livermore. The widow Hamlin is the only one of these persons now living (A. D. 1852, Jan. 16th). Fish was a widower. The writer does not know the date when Thomas Fish was born, but supposes it was about the year 1750, perhaps earlier. After surveying and lotting out the township of Livermore, or a considerable portion of it, and abandoning for the then present time the settlement of it, in consequence of the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Thomas Fish went into the patriot army as an officer. Whether he ever held more than one commission the writer knows not, but during the latter part of his military career he was
*That is, by statement in Maj. Fish's journal.
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a major in the Continental army and an active and efficient officer. He resigned and left the army about the time of the actual close of the war, some two years before the treaty of 1783. Deacon Liver- more had removed to his new home, and Maj. Fish took up his abode with him; he was an unmarried man, a widower with two or three children, a competent surveyor and an active business man for those times; he either was a shoemaker by trade or had taken up that business in order to improve what would otherwise have been waste time.
It will be seen by the preceding sketches,* in the handwriting of Maj. Fish, that the first route from Boston to Livermore was by water to Falmouth, now Portland, thence by land through the sev- eral towns and townships, the last of which is now Minot, the east- erly part of which is now Auburn, and Turner, to Livermore.t It was soon ascertained to be an easier route to go up the Kennebec River to Hallowell, thence by land through what is now Winthrop, Wayne, and East Livermore, to Livermore, crossing the Androscog- gin below "the rips," a mile below what has since been Benjamin's Ferry. This ferry below the rips was kept by old Reuben Wing, the husband of " Aunt Priss Wing," a somewhat famous personage in the early history of Livermore; and the writer has it by tradition that Dea. Livermore gave Wing a lot of land on the east side of the river to keep the ferry for the accommodation of those wishing to pass, who also paid their ferriage. On this route Maj. Fish be- came acquainted in the family of old Mr. Marrow, with one of whose daughters he became a favorite It was the first or sec- ond winter (probably the second, for Maj. Fish "had made his pitch" and built him a "log cabin " near the upper end of " the great meadow," and where soon after was built the first school-house in town, in which the writer "took his degree," which meadow still retains the name, " Fish Meadow,") that Maj. Fish took his shoe- maker's tools and went to Winthrop to work a few weeks at shoe- making, but more particularly to do up a small job of courting the Marrow girl, preparatory to their marriage, which was to take place on his next visit. After tarrying at Mr. Marrow's a few weeks he left for Livermore. Unfortunately, a cold north-east snow storm commenced that same day, making it a hard day's work to travel on
*These sketches will be found in the appendix.
tThe journal of the trip in 1772 (to be found in the appendix) was kept in another book.
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foot to Dea. Livermore's in one day, and he did not get across the river till after dark. When about half a mile short of the deacon's, on the south part of that farm, by mistake he turned out of the road to the west side something like a rod, and finding his mistake turned to the east, and crossing the road and traveling by a cir- cuitous route along the south and east of the hill through the deep snow, apparently became exhausted. He hung up his pack on the dead limb or knot of a spruce tree; there was a burnt stub near by on which he made many marks and scratches, as was supposed to give some account of his last cruise, and also to give some directions as to his little property, but nothing intelligible could ever be made of the writing or scratching on the stub. He laid himself down beside a pine tree, turned up by the roots, and died. He was found about three days afterwards, Uncle Jabez Delano being the first who found him. Thus died Maj. Thomas Fish. After enduring the hardships of a surveyor, even more, the hardships of a soldier in the Revolutionary war, he died alone in a swamp, with not a friend to close his eyes.
From my Uncle, Samuel Livermore, I first heard the facts concern- ing Maj. Fish. He pointed out to me the place (A. D. 1817) where Fish died. The pine root and about ten feet of the trunk still re- mained, as when Fish died. In 1850, I was there and it was removed; it was on the plain nearly east from Dea. Livermore's house, about six rods from the bottom of the hill, and about twenty rods south of the road leading from (now) Hillman's Ferry, up by the old Dea. Livermore house, to the Methodist meeting-house. Uncle Jabez Delano told me the same in substance as my Uncle Samuel Livermore, and further that it was not known by Dea. Liv- ermore's folks that Maj. Fish had left Winthrop for a day or two. As soon as it was known search was made (I think Delano then lived at Winthrop), and his track could be and was followed, by which means he was readily found; also his deviation from the road at first was made known by his track. On the night Maj. Fish died, and about midnight, Dea. Livermore's folks heard a noise as of one in distress, and some of them got up-the deacon himself, my father says; the noise ceasing, they thought it must be some wild beast, and did not answer nor fire guns.
Widow Anna Hamlin, by whose kindness I am favored with this antiquity, told me last Tuesday-Jan. 27, 1852-" I was a very little girl when Maj. Fish froze to death, and slept in the trundle bed. It
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was in the evening when they got Maj. Fish to our house; he was crooked, as he died, and they laid him upon the hearth before the fire to thaw him. Several times I looked out over the headboard of my trundle bed and saw them thawing Maj. Fish so that they could lay him out. He was buried at Winthrop, and not a stone tells where he lies. Two years since a daughter of his was still living in Massachusetts, and one of the Livermore connections saw her; she wished to have her father's ashes removed to Massachusetts, but his place of rest could not be pointed out."
The sword that Maj. Fish had in the Continental army was used by Maj. William Livermore, the deacon's oldest son. He let my father have it, and he used it until he was made colonel, when he bought another. My father let my Uncle Gilbert Hathaway have the " Maj. Fish sword." It was a short but heavy sword, probably a genuine "broad sword;" it had been ground sharp, and was a very formidable weapon in the hand of a skilful swordsman. I re- member that sword very distinctly. I also distinctly remember Maj. Fish's cellar, near where the "Fish Meadow school-house " used to be, and assisted my schoolmates to bury two hedge hogs in it that Uncle Jabe Delano had killed in his corn field with a pitch- fork in 1808 or 1809.
WILD BEASTS .- Wild beasts were plenty in Livermore in those early days. I give a few facts. Uncle Jabe Delano and two others, each having an axe, had crossed the river below the rips, at the old Wing Ferry, some distance below Benjamin's Ferry and the Jona- than Merrill farm, having been at work for old Mr. Norcross-who died soon after and was buried in a severe north-east snow storm (as per Uncle Nat Dailey)-and soon after taking their course up river toward Dea. Livermore's, "treed " a smallish bear; they had no gun with them, but they must have the bear; so two of them cut the tree down; Uncle Jabe placed himself favorably, and when the tree fell he "seized the bear by the heels and swung him over his head till he got to a tree and knocked his brains out." Uncle Jabe met a large bull moose on the east side of the Fish Meadow, about twenty rods east of the road across the Meadow, when looking for part- ridges. Luckily, he had a ball in his pocket, and rolling it into his gun shot the moose dead on the spot, at the moment the moose was going to attack him. "Moose Hill" in the north-east corner of the town was so named from the circumstance that Dea. Livermore shot
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a moose there with his own hand. The carcass of that moose was secured for a time in a hole on the deacon's intervale, not far from a lone pine tree that has been there ever since I can remember.
SEGREGATIONS FROM ENTRIES referring to Livermore, made in 1873, by Thomas Chase, Esq.
CASUALTIES .- Among the early settlers in the south part of the town was Jonathan Morse, afterwards captain of the "South Compa- ny." Morse was a blacksmith, but was also making for himself and family a farm. He had got a barn frame raised when a neighbor- woman, a Mrs. Keith, wife of Eben Keith, called to see Mrs. Morse one afternoon; both these women had nursing children. After chatting awhile in the house they went out to see the new barn frame, taking their infants with them. They sat down upon the sill of the barn when, without anything to attract their atten- tion, alarm them, or arouse their fears, the broken fragments of the frame were upon them; it was a total wreck. Mrs. Morse was killed where she sat, but her infant in her arms was not seriously injured. Mrs. Keith and infant were not badly hurt; all this was done by a whirlwind.
An early settler in town was Stephen Fisher. He lived on the south road, not far from Dea. Fisher's. I know not how numerous his family was in 1794 or thereabouts, but he had one little girl* four or five years old. One day in mild weather she was missing from the house. Search was made about the house, then about all the buildings, all the fences, all the neighborhood, and finally the whole town and part of Turner were in the search, which continued for seven days, when a little apron was found about a mile from her home that she had on when last seen, and under such circumstances as to make it probable that she had been devoured by some evil beast ; but some people always doubted it and thought her drowned or strangled in the Bog Brook. Three generations are nearly past, and the little Fisher girl has never been seen or heard of.
There was a pond which I knew as Bartlett's Pond while I so- journed in the town of my nativity, at the outlet of which Capt. Kendall used to have a tan-yard. This is a small, black, deep pond, three-quarters of a mile long by less then half a mile wide. The
*There is some doubt whether this child was a girl or boy.
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first person drowned there, to my knowledge, was the daughter of Luther Lovewell, and niece of Isaac Lovewell, a girl some ten or twelve years old. It was early in this century. She was crossing the pond on the ice in the spring and broke in. The next were three boys near my age, perhaps about the year 1817. It was Sun- day morning, and they were bathing with their clothes off; they got on a raft of loose bits of boards, were frightened, and drowned each other, there being no one present able to rescue them. One of these boys was Nathan Monroe, second son of " Uncle" Abel; another was named Folsom; the name of the other I have forgotten. The fifth person I remember as being drowned in Bartlett's Pond was a young Bicknell, from Hartford; he was an apprentice to my relative Sarson Chase. Young Bicknell was drowned about 1825.
Another startling fact I will name: Stacey Knox bought the William Chamberlain farm (I should think) prior to 1800; he got well off as a farmer, but went into the lumbering business and lost all, and was drowned at Livermore Falls, 1820, 1825, or later. But the main fact I am after is this: Mr. Knox had a son, Daniel, old enough for military service in 1812, a tall, slim man; could outwalk the wandering Jew, or almost anybody ever heard of, and was brave to a fault. He enlisted in the war of 1812; was on the Canada frontier; and whenever volunteers were called for a dan- gerous expedition, Daniel Knox was one. When Commodore O. H. Perry wanted more men for his terrible fight on Lake Erie, and was permitted to call for volunteers from the land force, Daniel Knox was among the first; was on the commodore's "flag ship;" when that became disabled and Perry wished to charge, and called for twelve men to row him in an open boat, Daniel Knox was one of "that twelve;" when Perry stopped the first shot hole in their boat with his own coat, Daniel Knox stopped the second with his own jacket. Daniel was in for the war, nor did his friends and family at Livermore see him as soon as some other soldiers got home, and there was a report for a week or two that he was killed for his money; but Daniel came safe and sound at last. Daniel was in- dustrious always, and when his father went into the lumber busi- ness used to work for him. About 1820 or later I think, in the spring of the year, they were breaking in a brow of logs on Mus- quito Brook, in the town of Jay; the brow gave way while Daniel was on it, or before it, and broke him all to pieces.
Two of my grandfather's brothers came to Livermore soon after
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he came, and settled on a lot of land adjoining and northerly of Isaac Lovewell's; their names were Tristrani and Sarson. Uncle Sarson took the west half of the lot, and Tristram the east, on the west side of the pond at the south end. Sarson was a shoe- maker. Uncle Tristram had been a sea captain, nor did he entirely abandon that business on settling at Livermore. I think it was in 1801, he made a voyage to the West Indies, for some merchant or ship owner at Portland. His voyage out was safe and prosper- ous. On his return he was lost overboard in a gale and could not be recovered. He left a wife and three children at his com- fortable and pleasant home in Livermore. About this time Col. Jesse Stone lost his first wife and soon after married Capt. Chase's widow for his second wife. Col. Stone had three children of his first wife: Polly, who married Ephraim Pray, and lived at the Falls ; Dwight, who went to Massachusetts, and Capt. John Stone, who married Ann Orill Coolidge. John died young, and his widow married Sewall Cram, Esq., of Wilton, a particular friend and asso- ciate of mine. Aunt Chase had three children when she married Col. Stone: Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel Benjamin, and lived and died on the Intervale; Abigail, who married Charles Barrell, afterwards a deacon, and a very worthy, good man; they had a large family; I have not learned of her death; Charles T. Chase, of Dix- field, a prominent business man, was Uncle Tristram's youngest child, and was an infant when his father was lost. Col. Stone and Aunt Stone had two children, both sons; William A. went south, and the second, Mathew Merry Stone, lived at the Falls the last I knew. Col. Stone lived to be a very old man.
The other painful circumstance I will now relate is this: Nap- thali Coffin and wife were among the early settlers in Livermore. They were from Wiscasset, and had a large family, most or all of whom were born at Livermore. The first two children were Wil- liam, and Nancy (who was Mrs. Atwood) ; the third was Stephen, who was very near my age. These children, with several others, were gathered at John Gibbs' with his children; I was among them. Our ages varied from three to seven years; Stephen Coffin was four years old, the same age that I was. In our sport and play we got to climbing upon an old-fashioned hay-cart body that leaned against a fence, up edgewise. Unluckily, we got too many on for the lean of the body to overbalance us, and it fell over from the fence upon some ten or twelve of us; most of us were hurt more or less, and
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poor Stephen Coffin so badly that he died in a short time; most of the others are gone long since.
But one of the most afflicting and painful accidents or casualties that has ever happened in my native town was as follows: Among the early settlers of Livermore were a Mr. Weston and a Mr. Rowell. Weston was on a river farm east side, and Rowell on a river farm west side, and nearly opposite each other, something like a mile be- low the Falls. Some one near the Falls made "a falling bee," and all hands turned out to fell trees, Weston and Rowell among them. By a tree or "drove " going the wrong way both Weston and Row- ell were killed on the spot! My father, then a minor, helped my grandfather, whose name I bear, to make their coffins and put them in them. I remember six (probably all) of Weston's children, three sons and three daughters. Two of the daughters married Asa Lane and Eben Whittemore, and lived near the Falls on the east side ; the other daughter married a Strout, of Poland or thereabouts. The two elder sons left Livermore not many years after the painful death of their father, and their whereabouts has ever since been un- known; the youngest son, Jonas Weston, Esq., or Rev. Jonas Wes- ton, was for many years a prominent citizen of Livermore, also a prominent Methodist preacher. Past middle age he went to Penob- scot County, from which section he was a member of the senate of Maine. His wife was Catherine Barton, eldest sister of my first wife.
FACETIA .- There was a cavalry company in Livermore, and one of its members for some years was a man by the name of Gideon Southard, an eccentric, queer genius. Southard was at a training of the company at the Washburn place, with several of his neigh - bors, also troopers, and the moment they were dismissed Southard called loudly to those going with him to hurry, for he had promised his wife to come home that night sober, and if he was not at home about that time his wife would be so mad he could not live with her. Having a little business to do, they urged him to tarry a while. Soon as possible they were ready, and called Southard, who very deliberately said : "My wife has got as mad as she can get by this time, and it's no use to hurry."
Isaac Lovewell was called rather a hard-faced man in his deal- ings and money matters. One day at town-meeting some little trouble came up between him and another, and the other accused
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Lovewell of having no conscience. Many were present and took part in the chat. Lovewell insisted that he had as much conscience as any of them. Abel Monroe intimated that he might have, but that it must be a very convenient one, and would stretch and con- tract to favor his interest. Many others gave laughable opinions. Finally, John Howard, a younger brother to " Uncle Sim," decided that Lovewell had the best conscience of any man in town; " though it was somewhat old, it was just as good as new, never having been used."
Dea. Livermore usually built a saw-mill and grist-mill at or near the same place, and for several years he owned three or four sets of these mills at one and the same time. Of course he was in need of millers. There was a man in that region, I think in Fay- ette, named Walton, of whose integrity and uprightness some had doubts. This man had just been made a deacon, of which fact Dea. Livermore was not aware. He applied to Dea. Livermore "to tend his grist-mill" at the Falls. Livermore was cold and repulsive on the occasion, and Walton urgent in proportion; finally, Walton told the deacon of his advancement to a deaconship. "Well, well," said Livermore, "then you are Deacon Walton." "Yes," said Wal- ton, now confident of success, " I am Deacon Walton." Livermore, with one of his biggest puffs, so peculiar to himself, said, " Well, Dea. Walton, anything will do for a deacon, but it requires an hon- est man for a miller." Dea. Walton was not successful.
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