USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > The history of Norway: > Part 2
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This year Amos Upton came down from Reading, Mass., and felled trees on the lot south of Fuller's Corner, and moved his family in Sept., 1790. Nathan Noble moved his family into Amos Hobbs' house in the spring of 1789, and
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
built a small frame house where he afterwards lived, in the course of the summer following. Benjamin Witt came down with Capt. Rust subsequent to the erection of the mills, and was the first blacksmith that ever hammered iron in what is now called Norway.
Phinchas Whitney, about this time, commeneed on the hill westerly of Lemuel Shed, on the Waterford plantation, and came from Harvard, Mass. He was a soldier in the revolu- tionary war, and was in the battle of Bunker Hill, and Amos Upton was likewise in that memorable battle; they were both pensioners, and also Lemuel Shed, Darius Holt, Jonas Ste- vens, Samuel Ames, Daniel Knight, Stephen Curtis, Joseph Gammon, James Packard, Joel Stevens, John Needham, and Jacob Frost.
Mr. Ames moved into Rustfield the year before the mills were built, and commeneed on a piece of land where Ephraim Briggs now lives, and raised corn one year on that place ; he afterwards sold out to a Moses Twitchell, and afterwards lived near the mill which he tended. When he moved in from Paris, as his oldest daughter says, he had three children, and the way he conveyed his family would look rather picturesque at the present day. He procured a steady horse, and put a sack, like a pair of panniers, across the saddle; he then put the two youngest, one in each end, with the oldest on the horse's back, holding it on in the rough places, and led the horse himself; his wife traveled on foot, carrying some neces- sary articles in her hands ; and thus they ascended what is now called Pike's hill to their new habitation. Mr. Ames built the first house in Norway Village-a frame house, eighteen feet by thirty-six ; some twenty-five years ago the house was moved up about one mile north of the Village, and is now occupied by Elijah Jordan. The next house built in the Village was near the site. of Levi Whitman's house, and built by William Gardner, who afterwards commeneed on the Lec Grant above Nathaniel Bennett's. In 1790 Daniel 2
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
Knight moved from Paris, and went into the house with Wil- liam Gardner, and lived with him a short time; he then returned to Paris, remained one winter, and then came back again, and commenced on the place now owned by Alanson M. Dunham, where he lived about four years; then he sold out his botterments to Jeremiah Witham, from New Glouces- ter, and began on land on the southerly end of North pond. Isaac Cummings soon bought out Mr. Gardner, and moved on the same lot, and afterwards sold his betterments to Josiah Bartlett, about 1802. The farm has had many different owners, and is now owned by Joshua Richardson, Esq., of Portland.
Jonathan Cummings, the proprietor of Cummings Gore, in order to forward a beginning for a farm for his son, Amos Cummings, hired a few acres of trees felled on the third tier of lots on said Gore, (the same now owned by Thomas Mel- zeard,) and hired Daniel Knight and Isaac Cummings to fall the first trees that were cut down on that farm ; and he paid to each of them a new axe and a cow-bell, (he was a black- smith, and made such things himself,) both articles being very necessary to the new settlers-the axe to cut down the forest, and the bell to put on the old cow so that the boys could find her in the woods, as they had no pastures until they got them cleared and fenced. Mr. Knight is still living, aged 92.
In 1790 Anthony Bennett and Nathaniel Bennett, twin brothers, came from New Gloucester, and felled trees on the lots where they afterwards continued to live-Anthony till the time of his death, and Nathaniel is still living on his first premises. This year, or the year before, Joshua Smith came into Rustfield, from New Gloucester, and commenced on the place now owned by Jacob Bradbury, and formerly by his father, Joseph Bradbury, who purchased of Smith. The year after Mr. Smith felled his first trees, he brought about one bushel of the seed-ends and eyes of potatoes from New Gloucester on his back, and planted them on burnt ground,
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
and raised fifty bushels of potatoes from the same. I believe the account, having heard it from his own mouth.
Anthony Bennett moved his family into Rustfield in 1791, and Nathaniel in 1793. About this time Elisha Cummings purchased the lot east of Benjamin Witt's farm, and began on it, and about five years after sold the east half of the same to John Bird, who commenced making a farm, and con- tinues to live on it at this time. Zebedee Perry came in this year from Paris, and commenced on the lot south of Nathan Noble's lot. When he moved from Paris he had one child, John Perry, who lives on the old homestead farm, but has erected buildings on a different part of the lot.
This year was made memorable to the settlers on account of the first death in the place. This was a female child of Nathaniel Stevens, aged about five years. During this year, also, another very sudden death occurred. Mr. Daniel Cary had commenced on the Lee Grant, near where Alanson M. Dunham now lives, or where Jacob Tubbs afterwards pur- chased. He had been at work for Capt. Rust, and was re- turning home in the evening, and arriving at the outlet of the pond, near where the Crockett bridge now stands, expected to find a boat on the south side of the stream ; but some per- son crossed over the stream during the day, and had left the boat on the other side, and he feeling anxious to reach home, attempted to swim over, and when more than half across, sank and drowned, unknown to any person. The next day Jonas Stevens went down the pond in his boat to mill, and picked up a hat on the water near the outlet of the pond, and taking it down to the mill, the hat was shown to Mr. Ames, who at once knew it to be Cary's hat. Mr. Ames with some others immediately returned with Mr. Stevens, and soon found the body, which was brought down to the mill, and thence to Capt. Rust's house on the hill, (then occupied in part by Benjamin Witt) and in due time was properly in- terred.
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
Benjamin Witt after living awhile at, or near the mills, purchased the lot on which Joseph Small afterwards lived, and erected the barn now standing on the farm ; and after living there a few years, purchased a lot east of Nathaniel Bennett's lot, and commenced a farm where he afterwards lived and died; and his son Benjamin Witt still lives on the same farm.
This year Peter Buck, who had a short time before come from Worcester, Mass., to Paris, moved into Rustfield, about half a mile north of the mill; and he was the first shoe- maker in the place. The same farm, or the southerly half of the same, is now occupied by his son, Austin Buck. James Kettle was the first trader that ever kept goods for sale, as a store-keeper, in the place, and kept his goods in Samuel Ames' house-that is, in one room of the same. He was called a very honest, fair trader, which is a pretty good enco- mium on his character as a man. And while speaking of traders, I will continue the subject through the infantile years of the settlement. William Reed was the next trader, (we «lid not have merchants in those days) and commenced trade in a little house, formerly called the saw-mill house, which stood about south of, or opposite the saw-mill, and near where Cowen's cabin once stood. He traded here a few years, and probably commenced about 1792. After some years he built a two-story store, where he traded for many years. William Hobbs. the second son of Jeremiah Hobbs, was the third trader in the town. He commenced near his father's farm, a little east of the Congregational meeting-house, where he continued to trade occasionally till his death, which occurred in Feb., 1843. Bailey Bodwell, who came from Methuen, Mass., built the first two-story house in what is now Norway Village, viz., the house lately occupied by Ichabod Bartlett, Esq. ; and also put up the first clothier's works in the place on the privilege now occupied by H. G. Cole as a clothier's and carding establishment. He also built the first saw-mill
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
at the Steep Falls, and the first clothier's works at that place. The first tannery set up in this place was the Rust tan-yard, and was put in operation by William Reed, under Capt. Rust. Jacob Frost, Jr., afterwards superintended the yard, and & few years later Joseph Shackley succeeded him, and lived in. the tan-yard house for many years. The house now owned by John Deering was the third two-story house erected in the Village, about 1803, and moved into by John Ordway, the builder, in 1804. There was a two-story house built about. the same time where Esquire Whitney's house now stands, known as the Smith house, it being built by one Samuel Smith, but was many years after pulled down by Increase. Robinson, who built the house now occupied by William C. Whitney, Esq. The next two-story house, in the order of building, was-Luther Farrar's, Esq .- now occupied by Levi Whitman, Esq .- built in 1806. Capt. Henry Rust, Jr., built a large two-story house about the same time ; also Levi Bartlett built the two-story house in which he afterwards lived till his death, which took place in the summer of 1818; : his two youngest children also died in a few days after: In a 1807, William Reed built the two-story house now occupied. by E. F. Beal. A part of the Elm House was built for a store by Joshua Smith, in 1806, and afterwards an addition was made to it in order to make a dwelling house and store in the same building. Ihave rather run along a little ante- cedent to the time, in regard to the erection of some particu- lar buildings in the Village, in order that people may under- stand the progress of things in their early stages.
Job Eastman came from the Pigwacket region, either from. Fryeburg, or vicinity, about 1792, in the spring; and moved in with Jonathan Cummings, Jr., the son of the proprietor of Cummings Gore, and lived in his house for several years. He afterwards commenced on the lot on which Peter Everett first commenced, though not in the same place. Job Eastman was a brother to Jonathan Cummings? wife, the proprietor of the
-
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HISTORY OF NORWAY,
Cummings Gore; and in consideration of his services in the Cummings affairs, he had the promise of a lot of land; but he never having any children, when his deed was given, it was only during the life of himself and his wife ; and although he had no children to inherit the fruit of his labor, he still thought the thing was not exactly right, and others, who knew the circumstances, thought just so. Job Eastman taught the first man's school in the place, in 1793, in Jonathan Cummings' house. Abigail Symonds, a sister to Lemuel Shed's wife, kept the next woman's school, after Mrs. Everett, and kept it in Cummings' barn. Thus it seems that our first teachers had rather humble places in which " to teach the young idea how to shoot."
About the last of June, 1792, Benjamin Flint came from Reading, Mass., and purchased a lot on the Waterford planta- tion, (since known as the Peter Town farm, and now owned by Ansel Town, and the west part of the same lot recently owned by James Smith, ) and felled trces on the same. The next spring he came down to work on his lot, and on the 13th of June, 1793, exchanged lots with Jonathan Stickney, who had five or six years before commenced on a lot near Lemuel Shed. Jonathan Holman had begun on the lot east of the Peter Town farm previous to Flint's purchase ; he lived there a few years, and then sold to Asa Lovejoy, and soon went to Canada.
The first marriage in the place was Nathan Foster and Mir- iam Hobbs, the second daughter of Jeremiah Hobbs, which took place the 17th of May, 1791; the couple were united by Nathan Merrill, of Gray, a Baptist preacher. The next mar- riage in the place was probably Benjamin Witt and Betsey Parsons, a sister to William and John Parsons. The next marriage was between Joel Stevens and Olive Hobbs, the old- est daughter of Jeremiah Hobbs. This marriage was on the 16th day of June, 1794, and in July following Benjamin Flint was married to Elizabeth Foster, a sister to Nathan Fos- ter. These two last marriages were solemnized also by Nathans
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
Merrill, and the parties were published in Gray ; and afterwards some publishments were posted up in the grist-mill as the most public and conspicuous place in the plantation. Lemuel Shed was married in Bridgton, by the Rev. Mr. Church, about 1791, and John Parsons was married to his second wife about the same time, but was probably married in New Gloucester.
Joel Stevens moved into Rustfield in the spring of 1793, and had buried his first wife, by whom he had two children, a few years before, and had his second wife when he moved in, by whom he also had two children. He buried his second wife in the following October, and in the next June married his third wife, Olive Hobbs, by whom he had fifteen more children. IIe died in April, 1850, at the advanced age of 94 years, and his widow is still living in this town.
In June, 1793, Benjamin Fuller and Silas Meriam came down from Middleton, Mass., and purchased land on Cumming's Gore, north of what has since been called Fuller's Corner, and felled trees themselves, and hired a considerable of an opening felled, and had it burnt over the ensuing August. They came down again in the fall, cleared a part of their burnt piece, and sowed winter rye, and then returned again to Middelton. When they came down in the fall, Mr. Fuller drove a yoke of oxen and a horse, with a common ox cart, and moved Asa Case and family, consisting of his wife, two daughters, and Rebekah Curtis, an adopted daughter, with their household stuff-such as they could bring. To be sure, such a conveyance was not quite as comfortable as the cars would be at the present day, but it did pretty well for that time. Mr. Case went to work on the lot adjoining Benjamin Flint's on the north, on the Wa- terford plantation. Fuller agreed with Amos Upton, (who was a kind of carpenter, and also partly a blacksmith) to erect a house and barn for him, carly in the spring and summer of 1794, with the intention of moving his family to his new home.
Early in the spring of 1794, Silas Meriam and Aaron Wil- kins, (who was a young man living with Mr. Fuller) and Jo-
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
seph Dale, a young man hired by Fuller and Meriam for the season, started from Middleton and went to Salem, with their tools and baggage. They took passage aboard a wood-sloop, and arrived in Portland after a stormy, bad voyage; and then from Portland traveled on foot to Cummings' Grant, with their packs on their backs, where they arrived about the 10th of April. They tarried one night in Portland, and staid on board the sloop. During the night there was a considerable fall of snow ; and when they arrived at their future residence they found a foot or two of snow, and the few settlers engaged in making maple sugar. In a few days, however, the snow dis- appeared, and they commenced their clearing; sowed grain, and planted corn, potatoes, beans, &c.
In June Mr. Fuller moved his family down. He came with' an ox-wagon, one yoke of oxen, and two horses; and having arrived at what is now Norway Village, he went up to his new home, and Aaron Wilkins went down with another yoke of oxen and helped drive the team around the pond, up to their new habitation. This was probably the first wagon that ever came into the town above the Village, and Mr. Wilkins says it was with much difficulty that they got through to Fuller's house. At that time there had not been any road located in. the place ; but the settlers had, from necessity, cleared out the trees, so as to be able to get from one to another, and that was. about all that had been done in regard to any road.
I said that Mr. Fuller moved his family to his house ; but Mr. Upton had not yet erected the house as Fuller expected ; therefore he went into Mr. Upton's house, and there remained. till late in the fall. After Fuller's arrival, Mr. Upton com- menced in good carnest about the buildings. They went into the woods and cut timber, and erected a barn in season to put in his grain, and a house as fast as they could. Fuller pro- cured boards at Rust's mill, and rafted them up to the head of" the pond, and then hauled them up to where they were to be used. The barn was thirty-two feet by fifty, and the house
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
twenty feet by thirty-eight, and a story and a half high-the largest establishment in the Cummings Gore; they got the house so as to move into it, in November. Mr. Fuller, proba- bly, was in the best pecuniary circumstances of any new set- tler who had moved into the place ; and he was a very. encr- getic, working kind of a man, and remained so till okl age disabled him from labor. He made three very good farms, and erected three sets of good buildings for that day, and probably paid as large an amount of tax as almost any farmer in the town; he was addicted to no particularly bad habits, but still, from the mutability of this world's affairs, he died on our poor farm in 1850. He probably rests as quietly in his grave as though he had died possessed of millions; and could with pro- priety adopt the words of Watts :-
" Princes, this clay must be your bed, In spite of all your towers ; The tall, the wise, the reverend head Must lie as low as ours."
Joseph Dale, who came down to work for Fuller and Mer- iam, in a year or two bouhgt a half lot easterly of where Ben- jamin Flint first began, viz., the east half of lot No. 14, in the 5th Range on the Waterford plantation, and soon after married Phebe Martin, of Andover, Mass., and moved on to his land. John Pike, a brother to Dudley Pike, came into Rustfield either in 1794, or the year previous, and commenced on the lot cast of Dudley Pike's; he lived there for more than forty years, and then moved to Oxford, where he afterwards died. He was a very large, athletic man, of stentorian voice, and was often employed as master-carter, or superintendent in moving build- ings. and the way he would sing out to the men was not in a very low tone. It was often the case that the new settlers did not get their first barn on the spot that suited them after they had made considerable progress in clearing up their farms. Hence the repeated calls for moving their first barns and other buildings.
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
Benjamin Rowe began on the lot south of Joel Stevens' lot, as early as 1794, and occupied it a few years, and was suc- ceeded by, Eliphalet Watson and his son Ebenczer Watson ; they lived there a few years, and then sold out to Jeremialı Hobbs, the oldest son of Amos Hobbs. Ebenezer Jenkins, who married a sister to the Pikes, came into Rustfield about this time, or a little after, and commenced a little south of where Nathaniel Millett now lives; and Jonathan Woodman likewise commenced where Jacob Parsons now lives, soon after the same period ; and probably some others in different parts of the town, of which the writer has not been able to ascertain the particulars.
In 1794 the first school-house in the place was built, on Amos Hobbs' land, on the road leading from the centre of Norway by William Parsons'. Job Eastman taught the first school in that house, and Abigail Symonds kept the first wo- man's school in the same.
This year John Henley came from Massachusetts, and com- menced on the lot south of Amos Upton's, in the Cummings Gore, and built a small frame house on the west side of the road. Henley was rather a large-sized man, and very moder- ate in his movements ; but there were few men who could com- pete with him in using an axe. He and Darius Holt, soon after he came into the place, together felled twelve acres of trees of heavy growth in one week, for Mr. Fuller, and, as they have told the writer, finished the piece by the middle of the afternoon on Saturday. Mr. Holt says he felled ten acres for Jonathan Cummings, alone, in nine and a half days. About this time John Millett and Solomon Millett began on their respective lots, which are situated southerly of William Parsons' lot. They had previously worked for William Parsons for a considerable space of time, and were brothers to Parsons' wife. Their brother, Nathaniel Millett, being younger, did not come into Rustfield quite so early as his brothers, but in a very few years after, and located himself where he now resides.
While writing concerning the Parsons and Millett families,
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
it brings to mind the number of smart, healthy children be- longing to them in former times. The writer taught the school in that school district in the winter of 1809-10, and had thirty-five scholars who bore the name of Millett or Parsons. The noted cold Friday occurred in Februry, while in this school; and the severe cold prevented more than half of the usual number from getting to the school-house, and more than half who did get there were more or less frozen, and some of them badly. And while writing of these families, I can not withhold the tribute of gratitude which I owe to old Deacon Parsons and wife. She was a mother, not only to her own children, but to all around her. My health at that time was very feeble, and Mrs. Parsons nursed me with a mother's care, During the last month, the old Deacon used to harness his old mare and carry me to school, and at night would contrive to get me home again. He provided the fuel for the school, and would go in the afternoon to cut and split wood ; when cold he would enter the school-house to get warm and smoke his pipe, and at night carry the master and his girls home. Blessed days were those. He was, in my humble opinion, a sincere, practical christian. He never failed to offer up the morning and evening prayer, and to read a portion of the Holy Bible. His family government was firm, but very mild ; and perhaps no family at that day conducted with more propriety and sobri- cty than his. In the summer and fall of 1807 the writer worked, probably six months or more, on his new house, and had an excellent opportunity to know his firm, but mild gov- ernment. I must relate one little anecdote in regard to his management of his boys-and he had a lot of them. One day Joshua and Solomon, boys about ten and twelve years of age, happened about the house, and were rather full of noisy play, like other boys of that age; Mrs. Parsons getting rather out of patience with the boys, and the Deacon happening to come in at the time, she said to him, "Mr. Parsons, Joshua and Solomon want a good whipping as much as ever two boys did."
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
The Deacon listened to her with attention, and then called out, "Josh." The boy responded, "Sir ?" "Come here." The boy promptly came forward. "Your mother says you want to be whipped-do you !. " "No sir." "Well, then, go about your work." He then called out, "Sol." "Sir ?" " Come here." He immediately came forward. "Your mother says you want to be whipped-do you !" "No sir." "Then go along to your work." And then turning to his wife, said, " Why, mother, the boys say they don't want to be whipped, and I guess they'll do well enough without it." The boys knew better than to take any advantage of their father's len- ity. But there! I have run off the track a little to far, I confess ; but I will try to keep on better for the future.
Jacob Tubbs came into the place in 1795, and commenced on the Lee Grant; although that grant was not lotted out till about 1810-it being a condition in the original grant that the tract should be exempt from taxation till after a certain lapse of time ; therefore it was not put in the market for sale while it was not liable to taxation. For this reason, that part of the town was not settled till long after the other parts had made considerable progress in settlements. Mr. Tubbs, however, had the good fortune to purchase two hundred acres, selected to his own mind, and he made an excellent choice. The other few settlers on the Lee Grant were what were termed squat- ters, and occupied without any title.
Isaac Cobb and Asa Dunham came into Rustfield in 1795. Dunham purchased the lot where Rufus Bartlett afterwards lived till his death ; and Cobb moved into Dunham's house, and lived with him till the next spring, when he moved in with Zebedee Perry ; he soon after purchased the lot south of Perry's, on which he built a small house, where he lived about four years, and sold out to Daniel Hobbs, the oldest son of Jeremiah Hobbs; he then purchased where he after- wards lived till his death, which took place in May, 1825. Levi Bartlett came to Rustfield about this time, and set up
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
the blacksmith business; he built a large shop, with a trip- hammer, and carried on the business, on a large scale for those days, till his death in August, 1818. William Work was married to Betsey Stevens, the oldest daughter of Jonas Stevens, in 1795. In 1796, Benjamin Flint built his barn, which was the first barn erected westerly of Fuller's Corner. He had used a log hovel previous to that time, as also did the other settlers ; the most of the houses were also built of logs, and the roofs covered with spruce bark, fastened on with long spruces laid across it, and confined with withes. When Ben- jamin Flint moved his wife home, two years before building his barn, he borrowed a cart of Mr. Fuller to carry a few household goods from Nathan Foster's, and he says that was the first cart ever driven west of Fuller's Corner, and much difficulty was experienced in getting it back again.
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