USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Livermore > Notes, historical, descriptive, and personal, of Livermore, in Androscoggin (formerly in Oxford) county, Maine > Part 5
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CABINET MAKERS.
The earliest cabinet makers were probably THOMAS CHASE and SAMUEL BOOTHBY who, however, were carpenters and farmers also. CHARLES BENJAMIN was a cabinet maker early in the present cen- tury, doing excellent work at his shop on the Intervale.
CARRIAGE AND SLEIGH MAKERS.
SARSON CHASE, JR., was engaged for many years previous to 1830 in the carriage and sleigh making business. He had fine taste, and his carriages and sleighs were among the best that were made in his time in the State. His sleighs were in demand from Portland to Bangor. He is now employed at the navy yard in Charlestown, Mass. BELA T. BICKNELL, now of Bath, carried on the business successfully for several years at the shop previously occupied by Mr. Chase.
*Capt. Pray died March 6, 1874, aged eighty-five years and twelve days.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
SCYTHE AND SNEATH MAKERS.
Before the division of the town, SAMUEL PARK carried on the business of scythe making for several years at the Falls.
HENRY ALDRICH, at Brettun's Mills, was engaged in the manu- facture of scythe sneaths. Mr. Aldrich came from Uxbridge, Mass., in 1808. He died on Long Island, N. Y., in 1846. His wife, Nancy Stanley, of Swansey, N. H., died in Mobile in 1865. His children were Elias T., b. in 1809, d. at Memphis, Tenn., October, 1850 ; Abner S., b. in 1811, d. in New York, 1848; Angela, who married Barzillai Latham, b. in 1813, d. in 1864; Elizabeth, who married William Cutts, d. in 1844; Daniel, b. in 1817, now living in New Orleans, and Nancy, b. in 1819, d. in New York, 1843. Elias T. was a merchant in Bangor, where he erected the fine residence which, after he removed from that city, was owned by the late John Barker, Esq. He died suddenly at Memphis, Tenn., some twenty- five years ago. His friend and companion, Charles H. Pierpont, died at the same time. SETH BALLOU, a relative of Mr. Aldrich, was much in his employment.
CLOCK MAKER.
KILAH HALL, who worked at the trade of clock making, lived in the southerly part of the town. He was a native of Raynham. His son, Amasa, was a watch maker and jeweller in the South and at Lewiston.
CLOTHIERS AND CARDERS.
The first probably to do business as a clothier or carder in town was JOSEPH HORSLEY. It was about the opening of the century that he built mills for these trades. They were on Bog Brook, near the residence of his brother, James Horsley. Mr. H. married a daugh- ter of Benjamin Parks, and had Christopher Columbus, the prince of fiddlers in all the country side; Leonora, a beautiful girl, who married John A. Pitts, of Winthrop, who afterwards moved to Chicago, and Myrtilla, who died unmarried.
JOHN FULLER and JOHN A. KIMBALL, at Fuller's Mills, were en- gaged in this trade for several years.
JAMES HANNA, an excellent workman and intelligent man, a na- tive of the north of Ireland, was in this business at the village for a considerable period. But before him was OZIAS BARTLETT, who moved to Harmony, Somerset County, nearly fifty years ago.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
There was a fulling mill and carding machine at the Falls from an early day.
TRADERS.
GEN. LEARNED, as has been already stated, was the first trader, or storekeeper, in town. After him was ARTEMAS LEONARD, who oc- cupied the Learned store, having removed it to the lot purchased of Dr. Hamlin. Leonard was a native of Raynham, Mass., and opened his store in Livermore in 1805. He married Betsey, daughter of Thomas Coolidge, by whom he had three children. He did a large business for a new town in the country. In 1809 he sold his farm and store to Israel Washburn and moved to Hallowell.
WILLIAM H. BRETTUN, born in Raynham, Mass., March 21, 1773, moved to Livermore in 1804, and owned and occupied a large farm on the main road, about a mile from the north line of Turner, where he had a productive orchard and a store. About the year 1810 he purchased the mills and water power at the village (for a long time known as " Brettun's Mills " ) and there carried on for many years grist and saw-mills, shingle and clapboard machines, carding and fulling-mills, and a pot-ash. He also had a store from which were sold large quantities of goods. He was successful in accumulating property. In 1835 he sold his estates in Livermore and moved soon afterwards to Bangor, where he died Sept. 10, 1837. In the early part of the century he was a good deal in town office, and several times a representative in the legislature of Massachusetts. His wife (to whom he was married May 15, 1796,) was Anna Sarah Leonard, a sister of Artemas Leonard. She died Sept. 22, 1847. William HI. Brettun, jr., his eldest son, married, October, 1824, Elizabeth A. Williams, of Taunton, and settled in Livermore and continued in trade there after his father's removal. He married for his second wife Deborah Washburn, widow of Davis Washburn, and sister of his first wife. He died Feb. 19, 1864. Another son, Seranus L., re- sides in Hampton, Illinois. His eldest daughter, Clarinda, married Maj. Hastings Strickland, formerly of Livermore, but now of Ban- gor. Hannah, the second daughter, married Hon. James T. Leav- itt, of Skowhegan, and has been dead many years. Amanda, the youngest daughter, died unmarried.
ISRAEL WASHBURN was born in Raynham, Mass., Nov. 18, 1784. IIe came to Maine in 1806, visiting Bangor, Eddington, Mariaville, Trenton, and Livermore. He remained some months at the latter
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
place, and then went to the County of Lincoln, where he was em- ployed for a year or more as a school teacher, and after this engaged in trade and ship building with Barzillai White, at White's Land- ing, now Richmond, on the Kennebec River. In 1809, having pur- chased of Artemas Leonard his farm, store, and goods in Livermore, he commenced business here as a trader, in which he remained until 1829. His subsequent years have been passed upon his farm, known as the " Norlands," where he now lives (1873) at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. During the earlier part of his residence in this town he was much of the time in office as town clerk and select- man, and was a representative in the legislature of Massachusetts in 1815, 1816, 1818, and 1819. He married Martha Benjamin, of Liv- ermore, March 30, 1812. She died May 6, 1861. They had eleven children, of whom nine are now living. Israel (LL. D.) was edu- cated for the bar, and settled at Orono, Penobscot County, Decem- er, 1834. He continued in the practice of his profession, so far as the discharge of official duties would permit, until about 1860. He was a member of the State legislature in 1842, and a representative from the Penobscot District in the thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty- fourth, thirty-fifth, and thirty-sixth congresses of the United States. He resigned his seat in Congress January 1, 1861, to enter upon the duties of the office of governor of the State, having been elected thereto the previous autumn. He was re-elected in September, 1861, and declined a subsequent election. In November, 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln collector of the port of Portland, and has held that office to the present time (1873). He is president of the board of trustees of Tufts College. Alger- non S. was a merchant in Boston, and afterwards a banker in Hallowell, where he now lives. Elihu B. studied law in Boston and at the Harvard Law School; went to Illinois in 1840 and com- menced practice with Charles S. Hempstead, Esq., at Galena. In 1852 he was elected representative in congress and was continued in this office, by subsequent elections, till March, 1869, being at the time of his retirement the oldest member by consecutive elections, or, in congressional parlance, " the Father of the House." In March, 1869, he was appointed by President Grant Secretary of State, but soon afterwards resigned that position to accept the office of Minis- ter Plenipotentiary to France. He was in Paris as Minister during the seige by the Prussians and the reign of the Commune. Cad-
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
walader C. (LL. D.) was a lawyer, and settled in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, about 1841. He now lives in Madison in that State. He was a member of the thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, thirty-ninth, and fortieth congresses; was a major-general of volun- teers in the late civil war, serving principally in the valley of the lower Mississippi and in Texas. In November, 1871, he was elected Governor of Wisconsin. Martha married Col. Charles L. Stephen- son, a native of Gorham, Me., and lives in Galena, Ill. Charles A. was in Washington, D. C., a short time after leaving college (Bow- doin) in 1848, and went to California where he became a newspaper publisher and editor. He was an elector at large from that State in 1860; and in 1861 was appointed Minister Resident to Paraguay. He was recalled at his own request in 1869, and is now a resident of Oakland, Cal. He is author of a History of Paraguay, an elaborate work in two large volumes, and of several other works. Samuel B was a shipmaster in the merchant marine, and afterwards was in the lumber trade in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He was a captain in the volunteer force in the navy in the late civil war. He now resides at the Norlands. Mary B. (deceased) married Gustavus A. Buffum, of Clinton, Iowa. William D. graduated at Bowdoin College in 1854, studied law and was admitted to the bar, but is now extensively in- terested in timber lands and mill property in Minnesota. He has represented the city of Minneapolis in the State legislature, and from 1861 to 1865 was surveyor-general of the State. Caroline A. married Dr. Freeland S. Holmes, who was a surgeon in the Sixth Regiment Maine Volunteers, and died while in the service in Sep- tember, 1863. Her home is in Minneapolis.
DAVIS WASHBURN, a native of Raynham (and cousin of Israel), commenced trade at North Livermore about 1819. He had previ- ously been in business in Hallowell with Asa Barton. After remov- ing to Livermore he was interested in a store at Dixfield, his brother-in-law, James M. Williams, of Taunton, being a partner in the business at both places. Their trade was quite large. He died in 1832, at the age of forty. His widow, several years afterwards, married William Henry Brettun, jr. His surviving children are George W. C. Washburn, of Needham, Mass., and John M. Wash- burn, of Boston, Treasurer of the Old Colony Railroad Company. Nehemiah, his youngest son, died in Washington in 1873.
CHARLES BARRELL was for a time a partner with Mr. Washburn, 5
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
and afterwards had a store upon the Intervale. He was a member of the legislature from Livermore in 1831; was proprietor of the Elm House in Portland for many years, and owned and sold the val- uable property on which is now situated the prosperous village of Ligonia, in Cape Elizabeth. C. M. Barrell, the well-known con- ductor on the railroad from Waterville to Danville Junction for nearly a quarter of a century, is his son.
JEFFERSON and MERRITT COOLIDGE were traders at North Liver- more for several years, transacting an extensive country trade. Jeff- erson sold out and went to Buckfield, and Merritt moved to Hallowell. Afterwards both settled in Portland and became whole- sale grocers. Merritt died in 1866. Among the other traders in town were SIMEON HERSEY, PALMER ELLIOT, OTIS THOMPSON, at the Corner, and SAMUEL B. HOLT, ABNER S. ALDRICH, BARZILLAI LATHAM, ISAAC and LEE STRICKLAND, DORILLUS MORISON, and G. W. C. WASHBURN, at the village. Within the last half century there have been many traders in the town, but further notices can- not be given within the limits to which these sketches must be con- fined.
In that part of the town which is now East Livermore there were several traders at an early day, among whom were ELISHA PETTINGILL and LOT P. NELSON at the Falls.
SAMUEL MORISON, who had been an officer in the militia and a deputy sheriff for many years, living on the west side of the river, previous to 1830 opened a store on the east side, at Haines' Corner. He was born in Falmouth, Me., May, 1788, and settled in Livermore as early as 1810. He moved to Bangor in 1835, where he was depu- ty sheriff and recorder of the municipal court. His wife (a daugh- ter of Lieut. Samuel Benjamin) died Dec. 9, 1860, and he survived her until September, 1867. They had five children : Samuel Benj- amin (M. D. Bowdoin College, 1837), who practised his profession first in Livermore (which town he represented in the legislature in 1842 and 1844), and afterwards in Bangor, where he has resided for many years. He was a surgeon in the Second Regiment Maine Volunteers, and is now pension agent for the eastern district in Maine; Dorillus, a prominent and wealthy citizen of Minneapolis, Minn., and for two years its mayor; Harrison G. O., a lawyer in Sebec, Piscataquis County, and representing that class in the legisla- ture of Maine for 1841, now a citizen of Minneapolis, and now or
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
recently, an officer of the internal revenue; Russell S., a merchant in Bangor; Betsey, wife of Samuel F. Fuller, formerly a trader in East Livermore, and now a farmer in Bangor, and Dorcas, wife of Nelson Jordan, a trader at Lincoln, Me.
FRANCIS F. HAINES, son of Capt. Peter Haines, was about 1830 in trade at East Livermore Corner and at the Falls, having a partner and doing a large business, for the time, under the firm of Haines & Page. At a subsequent time Job Haskell was his partner in trade. He has been an active justice of the peace for many years, has frequently been in town office, and has been a member of the legislature. He married Linda Bates, sister of Hon. James and Rev. George Bates, in 1812. His children were Emeline, wife of Earl S. Goodrich, Esq., of St. Paul, Minn .; Linda Ann, wife of Hon. Timothy O. Howe, U. S. Senator from Wisconsin; Mary, widow of the late Dr. E. P. Eastman, of Platteville, Wis .; Francis F. (de- ceased), who was an artist; Silas B., a lawyer in Colorado; Mar- shall, deceased; Sophia, wife of Joseph Lee, of St. Paul, and Frederic, a physician in Skowhegan. Mr. Haines' first wife died in 1861, and he married in 1862 the widow of the late Hon. Stephen H. Read, of Lewiston. Mr. Haines was born in February, 1793.
Williamson, in his History of Maine, places the population of "Livermore and Richardson," in 1790, at 400. Livermore, alone, in 1795, the date of its incorporation, had probably not over that num- ber. In 1798, Rev. Paul Coffin (vide Missionary Tour in Maine) says it contained 130 families. From the time of its incorporation until 1820 there was a large immigration, principally from Massachu- setts; nor was the increase of population, if we are to believe Mr. Coffin, to be wholly accounted for in this way. In his journal of the tour made in 1798 he writes: "There were in this place six pairs of twins under five years." Thus, with these liberal and wholesome sources of increase, the progress of the good town seemed to be assured, and so it was for a season. But, at length, owing in part to a policy of the State, about forty years ago, unfriendly to the introduction or increase of manufactures, and in part to the opening of the boundless and promising regions of the West, and in a less degree to other causes, a period of rest, followed by one of retrogression, set in.
The course of population since the commencement of the present
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
century has been as follows: 1800, 863; 1810, 1,560; 1820, 2,174; 1830, 2,445; 1840, 2,745. After the division of the town (1843), 1850, 1,764; 1860, 1,596; 1870, 1,467. As will be seen, there has been a steady decrease of population since 1850. There is some reason to believe, however, that there has been a turn in the tide. Manufactures of wood, and of boots and shoes, and of some other articles have been introduced and established; population seems to be flowing in rather than out of the town, and altogether there ap- pears to be promise of a healthy growth in the future, especially if the " Valley Railroad " shall be built.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
CHAPTER V.
AFFAIRS POLITICAL, MUNICIPAL, AND MILITARY.
IT appears that in the year 1797 the question of separating the District of Maine from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was agitated, and the people of Livermore were called upon to express their opinion on the proposition. This was done by vote in town- meeting, on the tenth of May in that year, at which all the votes cast (twenty-two in number) were in favor of separation. Thus early were the people of this town of the belief that it was for the interest of Maine to cut loose from the parent Commonwealth, and set up for herself. There can be little doubt that their vote was a wise one, or that, if it had been followed by separation as early as the beginning of the century, Maine would have originated a policy for herself, built up business centres of her own, and have gathered within her boundaries in seventy years after her independence a population much larger than she now reports. The subject came up again in 1807, when the vote of the town was, for separation, eighty-three; against it, fifty-four. In 1816, the town declared for a new State by the decisive vote of one hundred and sixty-three yeas to eight nays. Upon the question of adopting the State Constitu- tion in 1819 the affirmative vote was seventy-six, the negative two.
There was during the early times, it would seem, a general impa- tience of existing relations and a desire for change, for not only did the inhabitants of the town wish to be set off from Massachusetts in 1797, and subsequently, but many of them were uneasy in view of their relations toward each other. And so in 1798 the people began to interest themselves on the question of dividing the town. At a public meeting in that year a vote was passed giving consent to the setting off of the territory on the east side of the river into a town by itself. The project, however, was allowed to sleep, and was not renewed till 1843, a period of forty-five years, when it was carried into effect and the town of East Livermore incorporated. In 1804,
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
the inhabitants of a neighborhood in Jay seem to have made some movement towards annexation to Livermore, but the town repelled the suitors by voting on the fourth day of November in that year that "the bend of the river in Jay shall not be annexed onto this town." Upon the question of county relations the opinions of the people were not without some changes. Jan. 11, 1796, the town voted " to remain as we are in preference to a new county." On Jan. 16, 1804, it voted to be annexed to the new county (Oxford). On the fifth of the next month it reconsidered this action and voted to be annexed to Kennebec. But January 3, 1805, it swung back to its first posi- tion, and again voted "to join the new county now in contempla- tion." A few months after this the county of Oxford, including Livermore within its limits, was organized, and the town contrib- uted thereto, in the persons of Gen. David Learned and Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, its first sheriff and clerk. The county of Androscoggin was incorporated in 1854. In it are ten towns, among which are Livermore and East Livermore, and the cities of Lewiston and Auburn. Auburn is the county seat. It is the most compact, and perhaps the most thriving, county in the State.
The vote of the town at different periods indicates the political opinions of the citizens. In 1795, at the first election after the in- corporation, it voted for governor, and (as has been stated) gave all its votes (40) for Increase Sumner. In 1796, it cast 18 votes for Stephen Longfellow for elector of president and vice-president and 1 vote for John K. Smith, and it gave all its votes for Peleg Wads- worth for representative in congress. In 1800, its votes for repre- sentative in congress were, for Stephen Longfellow, 61; Daniel Davis, 36; John K. Smith, 25. In 1801, Caleb Strong, the federalist candidate for governor, had 37 votes, and Elbridge Gerry, the re- publican candidate, had 18 votes. In 1802, Strong had 73 votes and Gerry 1 vote. In 1804, Strong had 82 and James Sullivan 44 votes. In 1805, the town became republican, and Sullivan had 63 votes to 48 for Strong. In 1809, Levi Lincoln (republican) had 126 votes and Christopher Gore (federalist) 47; for lieutenant-governor, Joseph B. Varnum 124 and David Cobb 46 votes. In 1812, the vote was 202 for Gerry and 43 for Strong. In November of this year James Madison received 108 votes for president and De Witt Clinton received 36 votes. The gubernatorial vote in 1814 was, for Samuel Dexter, 198, for Caleb Strong, 45. Benjamin Bradford and William H. Brettun were elected delegates to the Brunswick Con-
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
vention (on the question of separation). March 16, 1818, Enoch Lincoln, for the office of representative in congress, received 45 votes and Judah Dana 11 votes. At the State election, on the sixth of the succeeding April, the vote stood, according to the record, " For governor, His Excellency, John Brooks, Esq., 44; Hon. Benja- min W. Crowningshield, 113."
The town from an early period in Mr. Jefferson's administration was steadily and decidedly republican. It gave its vote for John Quincy Adams in 1824, and in 1828 it cast for him 194 votes to 50 for Gen. Jackson. In this year it gave Reuel Washburn, for con- gress, 211 votes and 20 to J. W. Ripley. For governor, in 1830, Jonathan G. Hunton received 261 votes and Samuel E. Smith 136. Dr. William Snow, of the east side, was elected representative. In 1832, the vote for governor was, Daniel Goodenow (national repub- lican), 282, Samuel E. Smith (democratic republican), 113. For president, the Clay electors had 254, the Jackson 109, and the anti- masonic 19 votes. In the sharply contested election of 1834, Peleg Sprague (whig) had 306 votes, Robert P. Dunlap (democratic), 151, and Thomas A. Hill (anti-masonic) 19. In 1837, Edward Kent (whig) received 293 and Gorham Parks (dem.) 138 votes. In 1840, the vote was, for Kent, 376; for John Fairfield (dem.), 157. In the presidential election of 1856 (after the division of the town), Fre- mont (rep.) received 240 votes and Buchanan (dem.) 99. Hannibal Hamlin (rep.), for governor, 242; Wells and others, 139. Israel Washburn, jr. (rep.), received in 1860 211 votes for governor to 149 for Ephraim K. Smart (dem.). Abraham Lincoln in 1864 had 219 votes and Gen. George B. McLellan 113 votes for president. U. S. Grant (rep.) in 1872 received 183 votes to 88 for Horace Greeley (liberal rep. and dem.). Farther details in this direction are unnec- essary. The majorities were uniform and considerable for the old republican party so long as that party existed, and they have since been uniform and equally strong for the national republican party (1828 to 1834) ; for the whigs (1834 to 1854), and for the republican party since 1854.
Perhaps the strength of the anti-federalist feeling in town, in the days of the greatest vigor of that party, cannot be better illustrated than by recording the following sentiment given by one of its citi- zens at a Fourth of July celebration at the Norlands in 1812 : "Caleb Strong, Governor of Massachusetts; dark and mysterious are the ways of Providence." A subsequent celebration at the same
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
place (1830) was noteworthy for an expression (thus early made) on the question of woman's sphere and rights. Rev. George Bates delivered an oration in the church. An arbor was extended upon the lawn of the Norlands in which, after the services in the church, dinner was served. The dinner was largely attended, and many toasts were drunk and speeches made. Charles D. Learned, Esq., of Mississippi, son of Gen. Learned, of whom mention has been made as one of the early settlers in the town, was present and made a speech which threatened for the moment to interrupt the harmony of the occasion, but for a moment only, and the festivities pro- ceeded, when a good lady, inspired, it may be, by what had hap- pened, sent in to the table a sentiment expressing the hope that the occasion might not be marred by a too familiar acquaintance with the wine cup; whereupon a gentleman at the table immediately proposed, “ Woman-let her remember that her place is not to go about meddling with public matters, but to stay at home and mend her husband's breeches." The reception of this toast was such as to show that woman and her rights were appreciated and respected even then. At this celebration another toast was given which is remembered. It was something like this: "Francis Baylies, of Massachusetts, and Peleg Sprague, of Maine; twin brothers having two political fathers, one called Jackson, and the other called Adams."
Some brief references to the municipal doings and affairs of the town during the early stages of its history are subjoined :
The second town-meeting was held at the house of Dea. Elijah Livermore Aug. 10, 1795. Chose David Learned, moderator. Voted to raise £30 for support of roads. Voted to raise £40 for support of schools. Voted to raise £5 for supporting the poor and paying town officers and other town charges. Voted to warn town- meetings by posting up notification at the dwelling-house of Reuben Wing, at the Ferry, and the three mills of said town.
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