USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: with a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants, and changes of government in Maine > Part 50
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580
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
habitants of attending town meetings at so great a distance from the center, prepared the minds of the people for a change.1 There was no difficulty therefore in coming to the resolution to separate ; it only remained to adjust the terms of the disso- lution. The first meeting for this purpose was held in May, 1783, and votes were passed without opposition assenting to the measure and settling the terms and boundaries.2 But the plan was no further prosecuted at that time ; the impoverished condition of the people, and the desolate state of the Neck, di- verted all thoughts from the subject, until toward the close of 1785, when a petition praying for the separation was prepared, signed by the most influential persons in this section of the town and presented to the General Court at the January ses- sion, 1786.3 An order of notice was issued to the town return- able at the May session ; at which time a bill was reported upon the basis of the vote of 1783, which became a law July 4, 1786.4
! The people on the Neck complained during the war that when the legislature abated for their benefit half the taxes on the town for 1775, the people of the other part of the town, being a majority, out voted them and took the benefit of the abatement to themselves.
2 May 26, 1783. "On motion, it was put whether the town would consent that the Neck should be set off as a separate town, provided they can agree what bridges the Neck shall support and maintain; it passed in the affirmative. It was also put whether the town will consent that the Neck should be set off as a separate town provided they consent to maintain Saccarappa, Pride's, and Back Cove bridges ; it passed in the affirmative; and the following were laid before the town as the intended bounds, viz., to begin at the middle of the creek that runs into Round Marsh, thence north-east to Back Cove creek, thence down the middle of the creek to Back Cove, thence across said Cove to Sandy Point, thence round by Casco Bay and Fore river to the first bounds, together with all the islands that now belong to the first Parish .- Town Record.
3 For the petition and order see Appendix XXII.
4 The title of the act is, "An act for erecting that part of the town of Falmouth commonly called the Neck, into a town by the name of Portland." There were one hundred and eighty acres of land north of Back Cove creek, belonging to the heirs of Moses Pearson, which were made part of the new town, although beyond the boundary. This is the estate now partly owned by Jeremiah Dow, formerly part of the Brackett farm.
581
NAME OF THE TOWN.
Some diversity of sentiment existed respecting a name for the new town ; Casco and Falmouthport were rivals of the suc- cessful candidate, and the claims of each were strenuously urged. For the former it was said that its agreeable sound and its ancient application to the spot gave it a preference over every other;1 while the name of Falmouthport was strongly advocated on the ground that by adopting a name now famil- iarly known, there would be less room for misapprehension and mistake, than by taking one entirely new, and one which was not known abroad ; the example of Newburyport was adduced in favor of this side of the question. The general impression however was in favor of Portland, although not a voice in the public paper was lifted up in its support. One writer only, in closing a communication in which the merit of the other two was discussed, thus notices it: "both these, however, I expect, must give place to the more acceptable name of Port- land."
This appellation was recommended by its local application, its euphonious sound, and its ancient connection with a part of our territory. The earliest English name by which the island now called Bangs', and the main land in Cape Elizabeth op- posite to it, were known, was Portland, as was also the main channel between them, "Portland Sound." The island contin- ued to bear the name during the remainder of the century of its discovery, and the headland on which the light-house now stands has ever been and is still called "Portland head." It had been intended by the people in Cape Elizabeth to give this name to their town, but at the time that precinct was set off, the government, who usually determined on the name, ap- plied the title of the Cape to the whole territory.
1 It was said by those opposed to this name that its English definition was in- delicate or offensive; others denied this, saying that it meant something pleasant or agreeable. Capt. John Preble, a son of the General, who resided sometime at Penobscot, was familiar with the Indian dialect, and was a public interpreter, said that Casco meant a Heron, and was applied by the natives to our bay from its having been the resort of numerous birds of that name.
582
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
The first meeting of the inhabitants of the new town was held at the old meeting-house, then the only one upon the Neck, on the 9th of August, 1786, and was opened by prayer from the venerable Smith, then in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and the fifty-ninth of his ministry. Enoch Freeman was chosen moderator, and John Frothingham, clerk ; John Fox, Nathaniel Deering, and Peleg Wadsworth, selectmen and over- seers of the poor, and James Lunt, Ebenezer Preble, and Peter Warren, assessors.' Thus was Portland organized and com- menced its career as a distinct incorporation. In point of territory it was and still is, the smallest in the State, contain- ing, exclusive of the part covered by water, one thousand four hundred and sixty-six acres ;2 yet in the number of its vessels and its commercial activity, it surpassed every town in the dis- trict. Its population at that time was about two thousand. Fal- mouth, Gorham, and York were then before it.3
I am indebted to Mr. Goodell, the city engineer, for the above calculation of the number of acres, and for the following dis- tances, ascertained by a careful measurement of the coast sur- vey map, which is confirmed by the estimate of Mr. Howe, civil engineer ; Mr. Goodell estimates the length of the town from north-east to south-west two and a half miles, its greatest width
1 John Fox was second son of Jabez Fox, and born in Falmouth. In 1777, he married Sarah Fox, by whom he had eight children; four sons and two daughters were living in 1837 ; of these, three sons, Daniel, Charles, and John have since died. He died in March, 1795. He was selectman of the town sev- eral years, and was the first representative to the General Court from Portland, to which place he was elected five years. He was also a member of the conven- tion which adopted the constitution of the United States. The loss of Mr. Fox, Stephen Hall, and Mr. Deering, who all died the same year, and were active, in- telligent, and enterprising men, was a severe blow to our community.
2 The number of acres which were left to Falmouth were fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighteen, and to Cape Elizabeth twelve thousand eight hundred and eighty-one.
3 In 1790 the population of Portland was two thousand two hundred and forty Falmouth. two thousand nine hundred and ninety-one, York, two thousand nine hundred, Gorham, two thousand two hundred and forty-four.
583
PORTLAND AND ITS AREA-DESCRIPTION.
at the west end one mile and seven-eighths of a mile, its least width near the center, one half mile. To the above number of acres should be added about twenty acres of land made by fill- ing in at Back Cove and on the fore side.
The area of the harbor proper, that is, the space between Portland bridge and a line drawn from the north-eastern end of the breakwater to Fish Point, is six hundred and seventy- seven acres ; the area above the bridge is about nine hundred and eighty-eight acres, as given by the commissioners who ex- amined the harbor in 1854. They also say of Back Cove, that it is a basin of seven hundred and eighty-seven acres in extent, of an irregular outline of nearly equal length and breadth ; its surface is quite level, and is traced by surpentine drains pe- culiar to horizontal basins, and is nearly bare at mean low tide. At mean high tide, it is covered to an average depth of seven and a half feet ; at this stage of the tide it contains about ten million four hundred and forty thousand cubic yards of water. Moses Gould, a large owner of the flats in the cove, procured in 1864 a charter, and formed a company of men of property in our city, for the purpose of filling and improving a portion of this large area, extending from the shore to the commissioner's line. This must become a valuable ad- dition to the existing territory of the city. Charles Q. Clapp had previously filled about eleven acres, on which have been erected numerous brick and wooden buildings, among them the station-house of the York and Cumberland, and the Ken- nebec and Portland railroads. Much frequented streets, as Lincoln, and Kennebec, have been made over this new land. At each end of the city, the land is considerably elevated ; the summit of Bramhall's hill is one hundred and seventy-five and one half feet above the sea level, and Munjoy's hill one hund- red and sixty-one feet. The lowest point of the ridge between them is at the junction of Congress and Hampshire streets, where it is fifty-seven feet above the sea.
The latitude at the United States building, occupied for the
584
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
post-office and custom-house, is forty-three degrees, thirty-nine minutes, and twenty-seven seconds ; the longitude west from Greenwich, seventy degrees, fifteen minutes, and forty seconds.
Boston in 1847 contained thirteen hundred acres ; it orig- inally had but six hundred; the increase has been occasioned by filling in the mill-pond and other flats. It has, since 1847, been largely increased by filling in the Back bay and making a modern and beautiful city where the tide once freely flowed. The growth of Boston since the revolution, may be seen by comparing its population in 1860, being one hundred and sev- enty-seven thousand eight hundred and forty, with a census taken by the celebrated lexicographer, Noah Webster in 1786 ; it was then found to contain fourteen thousand six hundred and forty inhabitants, occupying two thousand one hundred houses ; this was but half as large as Portland is now, but seven times as large as it was then, which had about two thousand inhabitants residing in about three hundred and twenty-five houses.
Previous to the revolution the mail came at the oftenest but once a week to this town from the west, but it was by no means regular. It was not until about 1760 that a weekly mail was established further east than Portsmouth; before that time it was not sent until a sufficient number of letters were collected to pay the expense.1 The post-office was kept by Thomas Child
1 The first attempt to give regularity to this establishment in England, was by act of Parliament in 1660; before that time it was a private undertaking. The benefit of the system was not extended to North America until 1710, when a general post-office was established in London for all the British dominions under one director called a postmaster-general, who had letter offices at Edin- burg, Dublin, New York, and other convenient places; the deputy postmaster general for the colonies was to reside in New York. In 1774, by the good man- agement of Dr. Franklin, deputy postmaster-general, the post-office in America had been made to produce clear to Great Britain three thousand pounds annu- ally. . In 1680, Massachusetts appointed "John Haywood postmaster of the whole colony ;" previous to that time, letters had been thrown on the Exchange in Boston, so that anybody might take them, and many had thus been lost. In 1689, Richard Wilkins was appointed postmaster by the General Court, "to receive all letters and to deliver out the same, and to receive on each one penny." In New Hampshire a post-office was established by the colony at Portsmouth, in 1693.
585
MAIL AND POST-OFFICE.
in India street before the revolution, but when it was first es- tablished here we have not been able to ascertain.1
It was deemed of importance by the provincial Congress of Massachusetts immediately on their withdrawing from royal authority, to open lines of communication through the colony. For this purpose they established in May, 1775, a general post- office in Cambridge and appointed post-men to ride upon the principal routes in the province and as far east as Georgetown in this State. Joseph Barnard was the post-rider between Portsmouth and Falmouth. There were but three post-offices provided for Maine, one of which was at Kennebunk, kept by Nathaniel Kimball, another in this town kept by Samuel Free- man, the third at Georgetown, of which John Wood was post- master.2 The rates of postage fixed at this period, were for a distance not exceeding sixty miles, five and one-quarter pence, from sixty to one hundred miles, eight pence, from one hund- red to two hundred miles, ten and one-half pence, from two hundred to three hundred miles, one shilling and one penny. The first post-rider under this arrangement, arrived here Saturday, June 10th, 1775 ; he continued to transport the mail until October 7th of that year, the number of letters not exceeding four or five a week ; the number mailed at this office did not average five a week.3
The General Congress perceiving the benefit to be derived from a uniform mail establishment throughout the colonies,
1 What the rate of postage was at this time I cannot fully satisfy myself; in an old book of Mr. Child's I find Arthur Savage, under date of November 11, 1766, charged with the postage of three single letters to Boston, eight pounds, which is two pounds thirteen shillings and four pence for each, and several other charges of two pounds sixteeen shillings for a letter to Boston or from it.
2 Mr. Freeman continued postmaster twenty-eight years ; he was removed by President Jefferson in 1804, and Thomas M. Prentiss appointed in his place.
3 In 1783 the whole number of letters sent from this post-office was but fifty- seven ; after this time they increased rapidly and amounted in 1785 to several hundred.
38
586
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
assumed the charge of it in July, 1775, and established a regu- lar line of posts from Falmouth in Maine to Savannah in Georgia. Benjamin Franklin was placed at the head of the department, and the first mail under this system arrived here October 7, 1775. At this period there was but one line on the whole of this distance, and as late as 1790 but seventy- four post-offices in the United States.1 In January, 1786, the mail was for the first time in this country, begun to be carried in coaches from Portsmouth in New Hampshire, to Savannalı, under an act of Congress passed September, 1785. The ad- vantages of this new arrangement were not extended into Maine until 1787. In September, 1786, the Postmaster General was directed to enter into contracts "for the conveyance of the mails by stage carriages if practicable for one year from Jan- uary next, from Portland to Savannah." This arrangement was carried into effect by the enterprise and great exertions of the old post-rider, Joseph Barnard, who put upon the road a wagon drawn by two horses, in January, 1787. This was the first attempt to carry passengers in this State ; it was thought a great enterprise, and Mr. Barnard was loudly applauded for his zeal and activity. 2The mail wagon left Portsmouth in the morning, reached Kennebunk the first day, Broad's tavern in Westbrook the second day, and arrived at Portland on the
1 In 1832 the number of post-offices in the United States was nine thousand two hundred and five, the number of miles the mail was transported twenty-three million six hundred and twenty-five thousand and twenty-one, and the revenue of the department for one year, ending June, 1832, was two million two hund- red and fifty-eight thousand five hundred and seventy dollars.
2 The following was Barnard's first advertisement. "Joseph Barnard, stage proprietor, informs the public that the Portland Mail Stage sets off from Mr. Motley's tavern, in this town, every Saturday morning, arrives on Monday at Portsmouth, where he meets the Boston Stage; leaves Portsmouth on Tuesday and arrives in Portland on Thursday. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who choose this expeditious, cheap and commodious way of stage traveling will please to lodge their names with Mr. Motley any time previous to the Stage's leaving his house. Price for one person's passage the whole distance twenty shillings, baggage two pence for every pound above fourteen. Portland, January 26, 1787."
587
MAIL AND POST-OFFICE.
morning of the third day. It will seem incredible to the pres- ent generation that the immense mail establishment of the United States with the innumerable and splendid advantages of mail and passenger transportation, could have advanced in so short a period from such humble pretensions.1 But this im- provement in the facilities of communication and traveling is not confined to the United States. In 1828 the Lord Mayor of London said "he remembered that in 1780 the first stage coach was established between London and Maidstone, and the sluggishness of the conveyance might be guessed at, from the fact that the coach set out at six in the morning and did not reach its destination till eight or nine o'clock at night, and those who traveled so formidable a distance used to take leave of their friends about a week before." Now over the same roads they are flying by steam with the velocity of fifty miles an hour.2
In 1788 a new arrangement of the mails was made by which it came here from Boston three times a week in summer and twice a week in winter, and was forwarded to Pownalborough once a fortnight. As late as 1801, the mail was four days going to Boston, and we had a mail from there but three times a week. In August, 1802, Josiah Paine contracted with the
1 In 1832 the United States mail was transported in stages sixteen million two hundred and twenty-two thousand seven hundred and forty-three miles ; in steam- boats, four hundred and ninety-nine thousand three hundred and one miles; on horseback and in sulkies, six million nine hundred and two thousand nine hund- red and seventy-seven miles.
2 Maidstone is thirty-eight miles from London.
Much of the excellence and rapid advance of the stage establishment in Maine is to be attributed to our enterprising and indefatigable townsman the late Josiah Paine. He commenced his career as post-rider in 1792, going through the county of York from Portland once a fortnight. He soon advanced to the head of the whole establishment in Maine, and infused into it his own onward and determ- ined spirit, which overcame the wretched state of the roads and the embarrass- ing materials with which he had to contend, and raised it to be one of the best lines on the continent. He died in 1825, leaving a large family by his wife, Miss Stone of Kennebunk.
588
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
P. O. department to bring the mails daily from Boston in twenty-seven hours; to leave Boston at four P. M. and reach Portland next morning at seven o'clock. It is now dispatched twice a day, performing the distance in five hours .!
In December, 1793, the first attempt was made to carry passengers from Portland to Hallowell in a sleigh, by Caleb Graffam. He left Portland on Monday morning at seven o'clock, reached Wiscasset the next day at one o'clock, and arrived at Hallowell on Wednesday noon. Mr. Graffam was employed by Thomas B. Wait, publisher of the Cumberland Gazette, to convey the newspaper to Hallowell, Wiscasset, and the intermediate places. He made the tour but once a week in summer and once a fortnight in winter; and as the mail went but once a fortnight to Wiscasset at this period, he took letters from the post-office to deliver on the route under direc- tion of the postmaster.
The income of the office for several years after its establish- ment was of no consideration, the highest for eleven years was in 1785, one hundred and three pounds, the lowest in 1780, three pounds four shillings. During the latter part of Mr. Free- man's term the net amount paid from it to the government with the postmaster's compensation was as follows, viz.,
1792 to government $340,01 To Mr. Freeman $165,65
1795 " 66 607,23
66 66 66 185,51
1800 "
1000,89
66
66
66 451,48
1804 " 66 1167,75 66
66 1044,29
The amount paid to government in one year ending March 31, 1830, was four thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine dol- lars and eighty-nine cents ; for the year ending March 31, 1832,
1 In April, 1785, the mail from Boston was delayed between four and five weeks, during which time no news was received from the west. Mr. Smith says "April 29, the Post at last got in here having been hindered near five weeks." This delay was owing to the excessive bad roads. In 1802 no papers were received from Boston, from February 25, to March 8th, on account of the trav- eling.
589
MAIL AND POST-OFFICE.
four thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven dollars and ten cents ; and for the year ending June 30, 1861, four thou- sand three hundred and seventy-one dollars and fifty-seven cents.1 But the business of the office may be better estimated by the amount of postage on letters and papers which pass through it. For the year ending March 31, 1832, there were received for letters delivered at the office six thousand nine hundred and twenty-six dollars, and for newspapers and pamph- lets six hundred and sixty-seven dollars, making an aggre- gate of seven thousand five hundred and ninety-three dollars ; beside this the amount of postage on letters distributed and forwarded to other parts of the State was thirty-seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine dollars .?
The first accommodation stage that commenced running from this town regularly, was in 1818, when it went three times a week to Portsmouth. There was a line during part of the war of 1812, when communication by water was interrupted by British cruisers in the bay ; but this was suspended when peace took place, for want of encouragement. In 1832 the number of stages that were employed on different routes from this town was twelve, of which five arrived and departed every day, and the remainder three times a week ; seven carried mails, the others were accommodation stages.
¿ The amount of postage paid to government in the State in the year ending March 31, 1830, was thirty-one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two dollars and eighty-three cents. In the year ending June 30, 1862, the receipts by the government from the post-offices in Maine was two hundred and five thousand nine hundred and nine dollars and seventy cents ; expenditures, two hundred and eight thousand four hundred and ten dollars. The surplus in the Portland office for the year ending June 30, 1861, deducting two thousand dollars, postmasters compensation and incidental expenses, was one thousand three hundred and seventy-one dollars and fifty cents. The total receipts of the post-office depart- ment in 1863, was eleven million one hundred and sixty-three thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine dollars ; expenses, eleven million three hundred and fourteen thousand two hundred and six dollars.
2 This being a distributing office, all the letters for the State pass through it.
590
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
The usual mode of traveling even for some years after the revolution, was on horseback, the roads being too bad, except in winter, to admit of comfortable passing in any other manner. The judges and lawyers rode their circuits, and the physicians and ministers made their visits on horseback. Chaises came into use here about 1760 for riding about the town and neigh- borhood ; they were not however in general use, nor were they generally used by those who owned them, but kept like the Sunday dress, to be worn only on gala days. Enoch Freeman, in his memorandum book, under date October 8, 1760, enters, Simon Gookin for ye horse and chaise to Back Cove, two shil- lings. The Rev. Mr. Smith purchased a chaise in 1765, and Dr. Deane in 1766, and the latter mentions in January, 1770, that he "rode to Joshua Freeman's and carried his wife behind him."1 Dr Deane has recorded as a notable fact, in 1769, that "at the funeral of Savage's child there were sixteen chaises in the procession."2 This was probably the whole or nearly the whole number owned in town. It was not until about thirty years after the revolution, that a private fourwheeled carriage was kept by any person in town. Public hacks, which are now numerous, did not come into common use until about 1818.3
Those who have come into active life within the last quarter of a century, can have but a faint conception of the discomforts
1 These two chaises may be supposed to be among the earliest ; Mr. Deane's cost him one hundred and eighty pounds. Joshua Freeman lived at Back Cove on the farm in the rear of the alms-house, now occupied by Jeremiah Dow.
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