USA > Maine > Franklin County > Rangeley > Pioneer days of Rangeley, Maine > Part 2
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The English Squire, with training, feeling, and traditions entirely foreign to his surroundings and surrounders, had yet been liked and respected. His American successor was just the reverse. He,
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Aeroplane View of Rangeley, Showing Narrow Neck of Land Town Is Built On
like his predecessor, came to make money, but his methods were a total overturning of all that had gone before. He was as like to Squire Rangeley as is a man who tears down to one who builds up. The result is written in the interior of "The Old Rangeley Place." In the lower right-hand corner of one of the upper panels of a door belonging to the dining-room is a small hole, the original sharp- ness of whose outline has been smoothed over by a long lapse of time.
The story goes that one evening Squire Burn- ham was sitting in the stately "Mansion Part" of his newly-acquired manor-house, reading by can- dlelight, when a bullet whizzed close by his head
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and on through the door beyond. The Squire being a man of great readiness of decision, did not stop to make inquiries or to debate upon the man- ner of his going but, with a bound, made for his rock-hewn cellar, where he spent the rest of the night. Upon another occasion he was forced to seek the shelter of his rocky fortress by a volley of stones coming through a window in line with which he was sitting.
What was the cause of the murderous feeling among the people of this settlement toward their Squire ? It is not far to seek. As has been said before, both the proprietors of Rangeley wished to make money-with this difference: One sought to make money by spending it, the other by gather- ing it in.
Nothing was too small to escape Burnham's net. The story is still told of a woman sick in bed with a child and of Burnham going in and having the feather-bed on which she lay dragged out from beneath her to satisfy a debt which her husband owed him.
Upon another occasion, a debt being overdue, Squire Burnham had one-half the roof of the log house in which the debtor lived sawn off and removed. This was in the month of March, and in the month of March it is yet winter in Rangeley.
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Cedar Rail Fence of Pioneer Day's
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In still another case, the debt being perhaps of a more serious nature, the Squire was going to have the man sent to prison. The latter, unable to pay, pleaded the poverty that would fall upon his family, should he be taken away, but Burnham was inexorable. Finally, the man proposed a prison of his own. He would agree to stay in his own cellar for four months, promising never to come out of it in all that time if it might be that he could still continue his work and so support his family. To this Burnham assented. The man kept his word and did not appear above ground until the four months were up. Is it possible to imagine with what joy the debtor saw the light of day once more? For a Rangeley cellar is not an agreeable abiding place even in summer, and in winter! Burnham, coming upon him unexpectedly, claiming that due notice of the man's emergement from his self-imposed dungeon had not been given him, pronounced a sentence of another four months and forced the man to carry it out.
It is not known whether it was in consequence of this last inhumanity, or of some one not re- corded, or whether it was simply a result of the general detestation in which the man was held that this next thing was sprung upon him. He was driving along in his gig out of sight or sound of any habitation when it was borne in upon him that
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Another Airplane View of Rangeley 1770888
something was not as it should be. He stopped the horse, got out and examined the gig. Upon lifting the cover of the box built under its seat, he found a lighted slow match and a quantity of pow- der sufficient to have destroyed every vestige of himself and his equipage.
Upon another day he heard that some men were cutting timber upon a certain lot of his land. This was one of the things that haunted him-the knowledge that in his big township, his trees were constantly being felled by his fellow-townsmen and that owing to the impossibility of his being in all places at once, this state of affairs was likely to continue. However, upon this occasion he came
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upon them red-handed. He rode in among them, a commanding figure on horseback, and ordered them to desist, at the same time threatening them with the utmost rigors of law. Thereupon they dragged him from his horse, and one of them, a powerful fellow named Huntoon, took a young tree and administered such a flogging that it was little short of a miracle that the old Squire survived it. In less than a week, however, he had ridden to Farmington, sworn out a warrant against them and a short time afterward Huntoon and his abet- tors found themselves arraigned in the court house of that place on a serious charge of assault. Burn- ham, however, had no witnesses. The men hung together and declared that instead of assaulting him he was the aggressor. In vain Burnham ex- hibited his marred and wounded body. The men were discharged and Burnham was reprimanded by the Judge. How much his own reputation had to do with this decision cannot with certainty be known, but as Uncle Titus Philbriek said, "Burn- ham got into a good many law scrapes. He lawed it a good deal."
Besides the Rangeley township, a tanyard at Meredith, and a considerable property in the town of his birth, Dan Burnham owned, at one time, the whole White Mountain: Range. A tale is told concerning the sale of this now almost
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national property which shows up the character of this man in the part of debtor and also shows at the same time how men on the same business foot- ing as himself regarded him.
The sale took place in his own State of New Hampshire in a private house and was presided over by Judge Dale. Burnham sat at one end of the table, the prospective buyer at the other. As the moment approached for the consummation of the sale, the buyer of the White Mountain Range stretched forth his hand toward the middle of the table, with the money in it. At the same time he also stretched his other hand to meet Burnham's own, nor did he let go of the money with the one hand until he held the title deeds safe in his other.
This moment of cautious intensity was sud- denly broken in upon in a most dramatic manner. The hands of the two men had met and parted and the money was at last in Burnham's possession. Ere he could draw himself back to an upright posi- tion and while the money was yet exposed in his hand upon the table, the curtains, which shaded the window behind him, parted; a figure came forth, a hand fell upon Burnham's wrist while a voice forbade him to draw the money to himself. The hand was not so powerful as Burnham's own, nevertheless he obaved its pressure, for it belonged to the Sheriff of the County. The Squire had long
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Another View of Rangeley Lake
owed a considerable sum of money in New Hamp- shire which his creditors had been unable to obtain and the latter in some way getting wind of the transaction took this means of obtaining their just dues.
Besides trafficking in land Burnham (he is rarely given his title by the inhabitants of Range- ley, in strong contradistinction to his predecessor) had another occupation and indeed this may be said to have been his principal one, for to it he de- voted the major part of his time. This was trad- ing in colts and cattle. He would breed or buy them in New Hampshire and thence, with the help of a man or two, drive them to Rangeley, he riding
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on horseback all the way. Here, in the wide, free pastures of his own township, they were raised and sent to Brighton, Massachusetts. The latter jour- ney took about a week on the road, the drovers dickering, swapping and trading along the way.
However careful and exact Burnham was about collecting his own debts-ever to the full extent of the law, his numerous lawsuits did not tend to impoverish him. There came a time when he got into serious difficulty. To save the remainder of. his property he took the poor debtor's oath, in the. meantime deeding Rangeley to his brother. His oath did not save him, however, and lie was put in Portland gaol. Here he stayed eleven years, stead- fastly asseverating all the while that he had no property.
There are two stories told in regard to Burn- ham's final loss of Rangeley. One is that, his brother dying while Burnham was still in prison, the deed came into possession of his brother's heirs. They, knowing nothing of the understand- ing between the two men, sold the township of Rangeley to others. The second story is that after Burnham was imprisoned, no taxes were paid on his vast estate. As he vehemently dis- claimed all interest in Rangeley, several men began to pay the taxes. After a number of years of these payments, these men became possessed
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of the township, according to the Maine law in such matters. Thus when Burnham emerged from his long term in prison, he found what he had sworn to was very nearly true he had no prop- erty.
He came back to Rangeley an old, old man. But he had still a strong vitality of body and with an equally strong vitality of spirit he started life anew.
The first stage route was then in operation, being owned by Mr. Richard Kimball. Even in the winter, according to the latter, Burnham "drove and carried mail, did a little trucking. on the road, arrants, etc."
When it was time for the stage to start (from what is now the heart of the village) Burnham started whether his passengers were present or not. There was none of that easy and kindly wait- ing, that accommodating spirit so habitual in country towns, to be found when Burnham drove the stage. Whatever his past reputation had been he was honest and trusty as a stage driver and his word could always be depended upon. So said Mr. Kimball.
One reminiscence of his stage-driving days still lingers in Rangeley. Upon one trip, one of his passengers, a woman, was carrying a parasol. Becoming aware that it had disappeared, she
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searched vainly for it, and finally asked Burnham if he had seen it. "It fell out a couple of miles back," was the reply. "Why didn't you tell me ?" came the indignant query. "I ain't paid to look after passengers' parasols," was the truly Burn- hamesque answer.
Out of the wreck of his fortunes, Burnham had contrived to keep what, even to this day, is known as "The Burnham Pasture," bordering the shore of Dodge Pond. Here he still carried on his for .. mer occupation-the raising of cattle and horses. "He sold 'em round here when he got old. Some- times people would come here from cities to get 'em, even from Boston."
The one-time Squire used to go back and forth from his lodging in the village to this pasture nearly every day. It was a considerable distance for a man of his age to walk, being over four miles distant from his lodging. For in his last days he stayed at Joel Hinkley's in the house formerly owned by Sam Farmer and also by John Burke, where the first tavern and post office was carried on. John Burke was a successful merchant. He built a hotel and store located on the same spot where the present Rangeley Tavern and Oakes & Badger store are now located. Squire Burnham used to go like a gentleman on horseback, rigged up, but before he died he didn't have hardly any- thing to wear.
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One of the Rangeley Lakes from High Land
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Whenever he went to his pasture he was always particular to take his shoes and stockings off and wash his feet when he came to a nice brook. Folks used to think that was why he lived so long, because he washed his feet so often. A story is told of Burnham in his last days at Hinkley's as follows: He rode to Phillips one day with Joel, who was carrying the mail, passengers and gen- eral merchandise. When coming home, Joel drove on to the ice at Greenvale and trotted the horses right along. Burnham sat on the seat with the driver and on account of it being a warm day, there was water on the top of the ice. The horses' hoofs splashed water and snow all over the front of Burnham's coat and into his face. When the team got to the Tavern, Joel hopped down to get the mail bag, and, to his surprise, it was gone. He turned to Burnham and asked, "Have you seen anything of the mail ?" "Yes," replied Burnham, "it fell off back at Greenvale, but I didn't suppose you could bother to get it, you seemed to be in such a hurry."
All things come to an end and so at last did Burnham's life. He died sitting upright in a chair. His estate consisted of a lead quarter and the Burnham pasture, which, under agreement, came to Joel Hinkley for his keep. His body was sent back to the town in New Hampshire
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whence he had come and it was then that the long unslaked curiosity of Rangeley in regard to his age was satisfied. The old Squire had nearly attained his hundredth birthday.
"All he cared for was his lumber, his lands and his cattle," said Mr. Kimball, in a general sum- ming up of Burnham's life and character. "He gave sixty thousand dollars for his township. He thought it was going to be valuable and he thought right, but it took too long."
Since the days of its founder and its quasi-feu- dal squires, Rangeley has passed through several stages. For many years it has been a "Sports- man's paradise."
The shores of Rangeley Lake, itself, have dur- ing the last few years witnessed a prodigious advent of "summer people." True to its tradi- tions, the inhabitants call them, be they dignified landowners, frivolous pleasure seekers, artists or musicians, "sportin' people," or, with that love for conciseness and abbreviation that distin- guishes the American, "Sports."
Ere another generation has arisen they will be the predominant type around Rangeley Lake, at least. The guide in his canoe will have vanished and the motor boat will have taken his place. The railroad is penetrating farther and farther and the honk of the automobile is heard in the land. A
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town improvement society has sprung up and an attractive stone library has been built, all through the efforts of these same summer people. The servant problem is becoming acute. Can more evi- dence of advancing civilization be offered ?
Nothing, however, can take from the beauty of this wonderful region of clouds, lakes and moun- tains unless it experience a veritable invasion of Goths and Vandals.
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