USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > The centennial history of Waterville, Kennebec County, Maine, including the oration, the historical address and the poem presented at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town, June 23d, 1902 > Part 13
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William, the fifth child of Nehemiah, was born November 12, 1786; married Eliz. Burrell January 22, 1807 ; died February 14, 1876. He lived on a farm on the bank of the Sebasticook, which included the beautiful groves and grounds known as Beulah.
Like most of the men of those days he had a large family- seven sons and two daughters. Four of these sons were actively associated with the business interests of Waterville. Otis and Charles were for many years engaged in boating, lumbering and other enterprises.
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The other sons, William and Walter, under the firm name of W. & W. Getchell, by their enterprise and by the extent of their operations became well known from Bath to Moosehead lake. William was born February II, 1808. Married Mary F. Crom- mett January 1, 1833. Died January 24, 1878.
Walter was born December 24, 1809. Married Annie E. Balcom December 1, 1833. He married Antoinette Colby, 1847. He is with us to-day, active, strong and in good health in his ninety-third year.
Walter began life as a clerk with Gilman & Mathews, (Nath'1 Gilman and Simeon Mathews) on the east side of Main street, a little above the Common. When of age he began trading for himself nearly opposite Gilman & Mathews, and about 1832 with his brother William began business on the site now 11-13 Main street. Their trade was large, they built and used several saw- mills, lumbered extensively, built a plaster mill and three stern wheel boats. They accumulated a respectable fortune but ill luck came to them. In 1835 their store was burned. In 1849 and again in 1859 all their mills were destroyed by fire, and more than once great amounts of lumber were swept to sea by floods.
The children of William now living here are Mrs. Ellen (Getchell) Read and Mrs. Caroline (Getchell) Carleton.
Of Walter, Eva Getchell.
TIMOTHY BOUTELLE.
Although not among the earliest settlers, Timothy Boutelle filled a large place in the history of Waterville. He was born in Leominster, Mass., Nov. 10, 1777. His father served as an officer in one or more campaigns in the War of the Revolution.
He graduated at Harvard College in 1800, studied law in Boston, was admitted to the bar in 1804 and the same year came to Waterville. being the third lawyer in this vicinity and the second on this side the river. Reuben Kidder here and Thomas Rice in Winslow being his predecessors. His business soon became very large. As an advocate he was eminently successful, and he uniformly had the confidence of the court as a sound and able lawyer. He was a presidential elector in 1816. The first senator from Kennebec county after the separation of Maine from Massachusetts and five years subsequently, and five years a member of the Maine House of Representatives.
HON. TIMOTHY BOUTELLE.
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In 1814 he procured the charter for the Waterville (now Ticonic National) Bank, was its president more than twenty years and a director from its organization till his death. He was an active and valuable trustee of Waterville College from 1821 to 1855. Always zealous for whatever might promote the pros- perity of the town he was largely instrumental in building the A. & K. R. R., of which he was the first president. His house, built early in the century was on the corner of Elm and Temple street. Some time in the fifties it was moved further down Temple street and converted into shops and on the old site a new one much larger and more elegant was erected and occupied by Edwin Noyes, who married his daughter Helen.
In 1811 Mr. Boutelle married Helen, a daughter of Judge Rogers of Exeter, N. H. The children who survived him were: Helen, who married Edwin Noyes, a lawyer, afterwards super- intendent of the Maine Central Railroad and N. R. Boutelle, a skillful and much esteemed physician of this city. November 8, 1852, Dr. Boutelle married Mary, daughter of Prof. G. W. Keely. Their son, Geo. K. Boutelle, is a resident of Waterville. He is president of the Ticonic National Bank as were his father and grandfather before him.
Timothy Boutelle died November 12, 1855, mourned and honored by all.
Moses and Aaron Healey, brothers, came from Roxbury, Mass., about 1800. They carried on quite a large business as manufacturers of hats, one of those industries which, like ship building and the distilling of gin, has ceased to exist. Their shop was on the east side of Water street, nearly opposite the present Healey house. Later they had a shop on Main street below Boutelle block. Moses died in 1841 at the age of 63. His two daughters, Emily E. Healey and Pamela Healey are living in the house at the foot of Sherwin hill built by their father in 1802. Aaron married a sister of Nathaniel Gilman. His grand- sons are wealthy leather merchants of New York.
In 1791 sixty-three persons paid taxes on this side the river, of these a few have been already mentioned. Some, the Parkers, Soules, Lows, Toziers, Shaws, and perhaps others, have repre- sentatives now living here. Others are names only, of whom we know nothing and still others of whom we get brief glimpses.
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Deacon John Tozier was here in 1770. He was a large land- holder and built the first of the several houses on the site of the Elmwood. He was a selectman of Winslow 1771 and four years following.
James Crommett built sawmills on the Messalonskee in the locality known since as Crommett's Mills.
James McKim, whose house was on the site of the present Lemuel Dunbar house.
Lieut. Thomas and John McKechnie were sons of the old surveyor, Dr. John McKechnie. John was a selectman of Wins- low 1774 and three other years.
Solomon Parker was selectman five years beginning 1777.
John Cool was a soldier of the Revolution. He lived on a large farm on the west side of the Messalonskee.
Isaac Temple was a large land owner in the vicinity of the present Temple street. The river shore at the foot of Temple street was known as Temple's landing.
William Phillips, grandfather of G. A. Phillips, than whom no one has contributed more to the growth and prosperity of Waterville.
Moses Dalton was an active, useful citizen at a very early date, probably before 1790. He seems to have had some kind of a manufacturing establishment at this end of the bridge before the Redington & Getchell dam of 1792, perhaps a woolen mill. Afterward he built a grist mill and other works on the same site which were carried away by floods. Later he built the house still standing, opposite the bridge, known as the Nudd house. He also built the first brick building, a three-story store where the Merchants' Bank now stands. The ground proving too soft to sustain the weight the upper story had to be removed. The brick for it was made at the yard of Elnathan Sherwin at the foot of Sherwin street. He was a selectman nine years, beginning 1807.
Among those who settled here before 1800 was Isaac Stevens. His ancestors came to Wells, Maine, from Paisley, Scotland He came to Winslow, west side, about 1793. He was a trader carriage builder and carpenter. About 1795 he built and occu- pied the house on Silver street known as the Stevens house, its site at the time being covered with woods. He also built in 1836 one of the brick stores of the so-called Ticonic row.
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There is a tradition that Mr. Stevens gave the name to Silver street, so naming it on account of the "solid men" residing there.
Of his three sons two, Isaac and Augustus, made their homes here; Hermon was a lawyer in Thomaston.
Isaac was a trader ; he was killed by a railroad train at the Temple street crossing.
Augustus was a machinist and carpenter.
Isaac Stevens, the elder, died September 23, 1837.
Col. Elnathan Sherwin was prominent in town affairs in the early days. He was a selectman of Winslow in 1797 and the four succeeding years and in 1802, after the separation, one of the first selectmen of Waterville. He was for many years repre- sentative in the legislature of Massachusetts. During the war of 1812 he was colonel of the 2nd Maine Regiment. His house was on Sherwin hill. The house built and occupied by Silas Redington now stands on its site. He finally moved to Ohio, "the Ohio," as it was commonly called, then more distant than Oregon is to-day. His daughter Caroline married Asa Reding- ton, Jr .; their grandson, Hon. Asa Redington Reed and only descendant, is now living in Waldoboro, Maine.
Of others here before 1800 but scant mention can be made. Very early Asa Emerson built a sawmill on the stream for a long time called by his name. It was on the site of the Webber & Haviland foundry.
One of the election notices in 1790 was posted by vote of the town on Emerson's mill.
Jonathan Clark, a shoemaker, lived near the Main street rail- road crossing.
Ephraim Getchell, a colonel of a militia regiment.
David Nourse-his chief occupation was fishing. His house was next to Jediah Morrill's, corner Main and Common street. Henry, one of his sons, was in the hardware business with Stephen Stark.
James Hasty, a trader. His store was on the west side of Main street where Wardwell's now stands. His house was on the corner of Main and Center streets ; the house of Miss Florence Plaisted occupies its site. He died in 1846.
Jonathan Haywood-the first harness maker in Waterville. His shop was on the north side of the Common, his house on Silver street next the Stevens house.
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His son, Charles Haywood, was a lieutenant in the U. S. navy and won distinction in the Mexican war. He died at sea. Charles. the son of Lieutenant Haywood, is general of the U. S. Marine Corps, the highest in command, with headquarters in Washington.
Salathiel Penney was a soldier of the War of the Revolution.
Solomon Parker, David Webb and Asa Soule, residents of the west side were selectmen of Winslow for five, one and five years respectively, between 1777 and 1802.
Frederick Jackins kept tavern in several places, among others in the present Hanscom house on College avenue. This house was built by Jackins probably before 1800.
With a single exception all those before mentioned were here before the division of the town in 1802. Those who came soon after seem entitled to be reckoned among the early settlers.
Lemuel Dunbar was born in Bridgewater, Mass., 1781, came to Waterville about 1808. A carpenter by trade, in 1810 he built on the corner of North and Main street. The house has been removed and another erected on the same site by his son Lemuel Dunbar. In his carpenter shop the well-known missionary, George Dana Boardman, taught school in 1820. That shop has been made into a house which is now occupied by Mr. A. M. Dunbar. He had nine children of whom Lemuel is the only one now living. He died 1865.
Dr. Wright seems to have been the next after Dr. Appleton to settle here as a physician. His house was on Main street next north of the store of James Hasty. He was here as early as 1807.
Dr. Bigelow was here the same year.
Dr. Daniel Cook, one of the most prominent men of his time both as a physician and a man of affairs, came about 1812. A fuller notice of him is given elsewhere.
Dr. Hall Chase was probably the next physician. He too is noticed elsewhere. He lived in, and presumably built the house on Silver street now occupied by W. B. Arnold.
Capt. Asa Faunce came about 1800. He built and occupied a two story house at the foot of Main street which was enlarged and for a time known as the Continental House. Some years since it was moved into the valley near the Lockwood Mills.
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Capt. Faunce was a skilful cabinet maker and specimens of his work are preserved at the house of his granddaughters, the Misses Bacon of Silver street. J. M. Crooker, for nearly fifty years a jeweler and watch maker on Main street, married a daughter of Capt. Faunce: another daughter, Mrs. Angeline Wheeler, widow of Isaac Wheeler, died in April, 1902, at the age of ninety-three years.
Capt. William Pearson was born in Exeter, N. H., February 17, 1784, and removed to Waterville, June, 1816, a year memor- able as the coldest summer on record. He arrived in a snow- storm which covered the ground to the depth of six inches.
He built his first tannery on the site now occupied by the Lock- wood Mills. In excavating for the mills old vats were discov- ered containing sides of leather in perfect preservation.
He afterward, with his sons, built a much larger tannery on the Messalonskee, lately owned by Henry Ricker.
His children were Joseph, Edmund, James, William and Har- riet. Harriet married William Redington, son of Asa Reding- ton. Of their children, William is a merchant in San Fran- cisco, Sophia resides with her mother in the homestead on Silver street. Capt. Pearson died June 29, 1844.
For a long time after its settlement, the population of Water- ville was entirely American. As mentioned before, there were no French Canadians here until a single family came in the early thirties. A few families of Irish came as employes of the A. & K. R. R., about 1847. There was one family of colored persons by the name of Seco some time in the twenties. The first barber in town, George Boardman, was a colored man, very much of a dandy and more elegant in his dress and manners than many of his white fellow citizens.
The early establishment of the college and academy made Waterville an educational center and elevated the social and moral character of the town ; its unsurpassed water power and favorable situation for business attracted people from abroad and so, with its natural increase, the little hamlet of 800 souls (much less, if only the present territory of Waterville is included) a cen- tury ago, has grown into the beautiful city of 10,000 inhabitants whose centenary we celebrate to-day.
CHAPTER VI.
RECOLLECTIONS OF WATERVILLE IN "THE OLDEN TIME."
By PROFESSOR WILLIAM MATHEWS, LL. D.
My recollections of Waterville in "the olden time" begin with the year 1822, when, at the age of four years, I was sent to school to learn the alphabet and to spell "ab," "eb," "ib," preliminary to wrestling with such words as "baker," "brier," and "cider." My first teacher was Nancy Dingley, who taught first in a two- story dwelling-house on Main street, standing nearly where the millinery shop of Misses Mathews and Irish now stands, and afterward in "the Powers house," the next building east of Dr. Hall Chase's residence on Silver street, now the home of Mr. Willard Arnold. Miss Dingley was a very kind-hearted teacher, giving us, if we did tolerably well, frequent "rewards of merit," as they were called. Her sister, who also taught a primary school, was a rigid disciplinarian, and used to chalk an X on my seat, on each side of me, and tell me, on peril of the rod, not to move an inch beyond it.
In this sketch I shall try to give my recollections of Water- ville as it was during the years 1825-1850. Until 1830 or later, there were no streets west of Elm, or west of Main where Elm street touches it. I remember well when Spring street was opened. It was not till the railway days, that there was any cross street from College to Main. In 1835, when I graduated from Waterville college, there were but seven or eight dwelling houses on College street, but five or six on Elm, and but sixteen or seventeen on Silver, which is a mile long. Front street extended north only to Temple. On what was called "the Plain,"
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now covered with the houses and shops of Frenchmen, there was not a building, except possibly at the extreme north end. Between Spring street and Temple there was a large swamp or bog, filled with flags and frogs, which gave concerts nightly. In the winter the boys utilized it for skating. It had two outlets ; one at the north end and across Main street into the Kennebec river ; the other at the south end, where the water ran between Silver street and Elm into "the Emerson stream," now called the Messalonskee. Trout were caught in this stream, one of which weighed four pounds. The hollow between north Silver street and Front, now occupied by the boarding-houses of the Lockwood Mills corporation, was marshy, and peopled by frogs whose music rivalled that of "the Gilman bog."
In my early boyhood-in 1826, or thereabouts-a bear was shot on "the mountain," as the high ridge was called between Summer street and "the Plain," and my father obtained some steaks from it for the family breakfast. "The Mountain" was covered mostly with trees and bushes, and boys used to go there for blueberries, which were plentiful, and for juicy "slivers" from the pine trees.
A favorite place for swimming in those days was the Kennebec river a little south of the foot of Temple street. There was a fine sandy bottom there, and frequently a raft of pine boards, from which one could dive deep into the water. Baptisms some- times took place there, and sometimes near the ferry, lower down the river, inside of the island. In my childhood there was no bridge across the Kennebec or the Sebasticook river, and I remember that when the Congregationalist church in Winslow was dedicated-which, I think, must have been before 1826, the citizens of Waterville, who attended the exercises in large num- bers, were transported across the two rivers in ferry boats. In the winter, as soon as the water had frozen on the sides of the Kennebec, it was customary to cut a huge cake of ice, and swing one end of it to the other side of the rapid current, and thus form a bridge. It must have been as early as 1827 that tollbridges were built across the Kennebec and the Sebasticook. The year 1832 was memorable for the greatest freshet ever known on the Kennebec. All the bridges on the river were swept away with many mills and other buildings, and the citizens of Winslow
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village who lived near the river were obliged to leave their houses one night and occupy higher land. The spectacle of the raging flood at "the bay," as it swept southward with its prey of logs, boards, timber, and buildings, was picturesque and impressive.
Skating on the frozen river was a favorite amusement in winter, which the bitterest cold did not prevent. In the evenings a huge slab fire was built on the upper island by the boys, by whose light ( for warmth, it might as well have been built on the planet Uranus or Neptune,) they raced along the ice, or played the game of "Chorum," till a late hour in the evening.
The only public conveyances for travelers in those days were stage-coaches and steamboats, one of which latter ran from Hal- lowell to Portland. A memorable epoch in the history of Water- ville was when the stern-wheel steamboat, Ticonic, made her first trip from Hallowell to Waterville, where her arrival was greeted by a throng of citizens with the thunder of artillery and loud huzzas. All goods for the Waterville stores were brought from Boston to Hallowell in ships, and thence in "long-boats." Navi- gation of the Kennebec, when the water was low, was somewhat difficult, on account of "the rips," the "six mile falls," and other rapids, and a dangerous rock called "Old Coon," a few miles north of Augusta, on which the boat Eagle, owned by my father, Simeon Mathews, and loaded with a heavy and valuable cargo of goods for his stores in Waterville, Fairfield, Skowhegan, China, and East Vassalborough, was once wrecked.
The arrival of the mail-stage from Augusta, which was at about eleven A. M. daily, was in my boyish days an important event. As it rounded the bend in Silver street, just north of my father's house, the driver drew forth his long horn, and blew a loud and vigorous blast. As the stage stopped at Levi Dow's tavern, on Main street, nearly opposite the head of Silver, all the quidnuncs and loafers of the village flocked there to learn the latest news. Before the steam car came, it took from three to four days to go by stage-coach to Boston. The first day one could get no farther than to Augusta, where he had to stay twenty-one hours at a hotel; and, on the next day he could go but sixty miles more, to Portland. There he passed the night, and on the third day had his choice, either to pay six dollars for a ride to Boston in the "Accommodation" stage, which would
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require two days, with considerable expense for meals and lodg- ing, or to pay ten dollars and ride seventeen hours, or from 4 o'clock, A. M. till nine P. M., in the mail stage.
In January, 1837, when I was a student in Harvard Law School, it took me six days in the Christmas vacation to go back in the mail-stage from Waterville to Boston. As we left Gardi- ner a furious snow-storm set in, and at West Gardiner our progress was completely blocked, so that the stage with its occu- pants was compelled to tarry two days at a small country inn, which was packed to overflowing with Americans and Canadians of all ages and callings. As I had in a capacious outside pocket of my overcoat a package, five or six inches thick, of bank bills, amounting to $4,000, entrusted to me by the Ticonic Bank, Waterville, to be delivered to the Suffolk Bank, Boston,-to which sum the Canal Bank, of Portland, afterward added $2,500 more,-and as, having no trunk, I was obliged to carry the package all day, the situation was not very pleasant. Fortu- nately, as no one could have a bed to himself, I found a student of Waterville college, whom I knew, among the guests, and had him and my package for bed fellows. After two days' delay, the mail bags were put into a pung, and, sometimes riding in it, sometimes wading through big drifts of snow, I reached Bruns- wick at night, and next morning rode on the crust of the deep snow, which covered all the fences except the tops of the posts, to Portland. On the next day a ride of seventeen hours in the mail-stage-six of them in darkness -- took me to the Eastern Stage Tavern, Ann St., Boston. Once on the way, we were upset in the darkness, and a big fat man rolled down upon me and my bank-bills, but fortunately no bones were broken.
At this time there were three hotels in Waterville,-one kept by Levi Dow on Main street, nearly opposite Silver ; another on the opposite side of Main, a little farther north, and the third on Silver street, kept successively by Major Balcom and a Mr. Page -the west half of it being the building next west of Redington's furniture shop. In the dancing-hall of this inn, public exhibi- tions and lectures were sometimes given, and I remember some kind of a theatrical show there in 1827 or 1828, on the drop cur- tain of which was depicted the Battle of Waterloo fought twelve or thirteen years before, in which Napoleon was seen flying for
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life before the victorious squadrons of Wellington. Here one day Mr. Wilbur, of Newburyport, Mass., gave an astronomical lecture, after which he showed us a minature railway car, which ran to and fro on the floor, to give us an idea of a projected new mode of conveyance, which was expected soon to be a reality. Where Mr. Turner's dry goods store now stands, was a wide carriage way to Mr. Dow's stable, in the yard of which all men- ageries and circuses were for many years exhibited-the latter exhibition always closing with "the laughable farce of Billy Button," who, divesting himseif of a dozen garments as he rode around the ring, was transformed from a beggar into a Croesus.
Trade in the early days of Waterville was more profitable than to-day. Large prices were charged for goods, which were usu- ally sold on long credits, and paid for by farmers in country produce. In the two largest of my father's stores, of which there were six, the upper stories were filled with great bins of wheat, corn, barley, oats, grass and clover seed, etc, etc., taken in exchange for goods, which were shipped for sale to Boston. One year he shipped 40,000 bushels of potatoes to Boston, and one season bought a large quantity at six cents a bushel.
Before the Lockwood Mills were built, there were four or five sawmills near, perhaps partly on the site of the southern part of the former mills, and, during the spring freshets many men were employed in catching for the mills, logs that had been cut in the vicinity of Moosehead lake. Great rafts of boards were floated from time to time down the Kennebec to market, and sometimes shipped from Hallowell or Bath to Boston. The dam in the river at Waterville in those days extended only to what was called "Rock Island," on the east side of which was an excellent passage way for the fish, provided they did not get caught in the traps set for them on the falls. Just north of the sawmills there was for many years a tannery carried on by William Pearson, then or afterward a trader on Main street. There seems to have been at an early period a small tannery back of the Powers house (already mentioned) on Silver street ; at any rate, when a very small boy I got a good ducking by walking into a tanpit there, the layer of tan on the surface of which seemed to offer a sure footing.
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