USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from its first settlement: with notices of the neighbouring towns, and of the changes of government in Maine, Part II 1700-1833 > Part 30
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' In 1826, the amount appropriated for town charges was 816,195 ; in 1827, it was $25,680, which included $7,000 to pay a town loan ; in 1830, the amount assessed was 835,852 96 ; in 1831, 831,370, and in 1832, 835,393 23, which included in 1831 the town's proportion of the State tax, 3,529 30, and in each of the two following years $4,134 63. The whole expenses of the town in 1832, was $27,657 50, including an extraordinary expenditure of 82,281 65, in an- ticipation of the cholera. In addition to this there was paid by the town its proportion of State and county taxes amounting to 88,504 16.
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278
Change of Government. [P. II.
calling of the inhabitants together on every occasion, whether for the election of a police officer, the erection of a school-house or the opening of a street, became expensive and burthensome.1
Many persons turned their attention to the representative system as a remedy for these evils, and in July 1828, a petition was address- ed to the selectmen signed by ninety-one very respectable inhabi- tants requesting them to call a town meeting " to see if the inhabi- tants would take measures for adopting a city government for said town." On this application a meeting was held on the 30th of Aug. following, and the subject was committed to fifteen gentlenien for consideration and enquiry, who made a report in November, unfa- vorable to an alteration in the form of government, but recommend- ing a change in the existing laws so far as to clothe the selectmen with power to appoint police officers and constables, and to lay out and establish streets, and conferring upon one person to be called the commissioner of streets all the duties of surveyors of highways within the town. This report was accepted and the committee was in- . structed to petition the legislature for an act in conformity to the principles of their report. This result did not however meet the expectations and wishes of a large number of our inhabitants, and a remonstrance against the passage of the proposed law signed by 439 persons was presented to the legislature. But the act passed, not- withstanding the remonstrance, with a condition however annexed, that it should be accepted by the town within one year from its pas- sage ; in compliance with this condition it was laid before the town in April following and rejected by a large majority.2
This interesting question was not permitted to rest here ; in the course of the same year it was again brought before the town, and on the 12th of October a committee was chosen to prepare the form of a bill to constitute a city government, for the consideration of the inhabitants. The committee made their report on the 7th of De- cember, which was discussed and amended during a whole day, and underwent a very severe opposition. The objections went to the whole bill and not to its details ; the elderly people were averse to
1 In 1829, there were twelve town meetings, and still more in 1828.
2 The seeming inconsistency in adopting the report of the committee and then rejecting the law based upon it, is explained by a fact stated in the re- monstrance, that at the meeting which accepted the report only 15 legal voters attended.
279
C. 14.] Change of Government.
innovation ; they had got along so far very well under the old order of things, they had seen the town flourish and prosper, and they dreaded lest a change should be productive of more evil than good. The rich were opposed to it generally, because they believed that a city form of government being in the hands of a few, tended to ex- travagance ; they feared that the corporation would appropriate large sums of money to ornament the city and to make public improve- ments which our situation did not require, and our capital did not warrant ; and consequently that taxes would be increased and addi- tional burdens imposed on them. These views and the influence of the persons who advocated them operated effectually on the public mind, and on the final question taken in December 1829, the measure was defeated by a vote of 547 to 489.
.
After this unexpected result the subject rested nearly two years, when in 1831, a committee chosen for the purpose of reviving the question, reported on the 12th of December the amended bill which had been rejected in 1829. Two thousand copies of it were order- ed to be printed and distributed among the inhabitants and its further consideration postponed to December 26. At this time after a brief discussion, the bill was accepted by the town, and a committee was chosen to procure its passage through the legislature.1 A remon- strance accompanied the petition sustained by an opposition more powerful than was ever enlisted in town against any measure. The success of the bill was long doubtful, but it at length became a law, February 28 1832, with a condition annexed, that it should be ac- cepted by the town within three years by a majority of at least four to three of the legal voters.
On the 26th of March following, the question was submitted to the inhabitants in legal town meeting, and the charter was accepted by a vote of 780 to 496. The city agreeably to the act was divid- ed into seven wards, and the government consisting of a mayor, seven aldermen and twenty-one common council-men was duly organized April 30 1832. The two boards deliberate in separate rooms, and their concurrent action is necessary for the passage of ordinances ; Andrew L. Emerson, formerly chairman of the selectmen was elected the first mayor. The government is now in successful operation, and it remains for experience to determine the question of its com-
" The vote adopting the bill was yeas 460, nays 4CO.
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280
Population. [P. II.
parative advantages over the old system. It has all the requisites of decision and energy, and if the affairs of the city are not well admin- istered, we may trace the cause not so much to a defect in the sys- tem as to a deficiency in the mode of its execution.
The situation of the town at this time in some of its statistical con- cerns may be seen in the accompanying tables ; we are admonished by the room we have already occupied to adopt this condensed mode of presenting interesting details wherever it may be done consistent- ly with a fair developement of our subject. The population had ad- vanced in the ten years from 1820 to 1830, 48 per cent. which gives an annual ratio of increase of 4 4-5 per cent. or an average of 402 persons a year. The average natural increase of the State is sup- posed to be about 3 1-3 per cent. a year ; probably in this town the proportion of increase in the population by immigration is greater than the general average of the State, and we may therefore state the average of the annual natural increase at 3 per cent. and that by im- migration at 1 4-5 per cent. or the relative numbers at 254 and 150 a year. The average natural increase of the whole United States is estimated at 3 per cent.
Population of Portland according to the census of 1830.
. Under 5 years of age. Between 6 & 10. Between 10 &
15. Between 15 &
.
20. Between 20 &
30. Between 30 & 40. Between 40 &
50. Between 50 &
60.
Between 60 & 70.
80. Between 70 & 57 24 + Over 90. TOTAL.
8 Between 80 & 8 4 5,741 0 6,546
Males, 818 659 618 724
1,354 736 422 255 103
Females, 844 679 661 851 1,607 844 510 302 164
12,287
Free coloured persons, 314
12,601
The total includes five persons deaf and dumb, two blind and 409 aliens.
Population in 1820, - - - 8,581
In 1830 the number of polls was 2,296 ; the number of persons supported in whole or part by the town was 180, and the average expense for the support of each was $33,94. Dwelling-houses 1,076, barns 507, stores and shops for the sale of merchandize 280, ware-houses 119, offices and shops for other purposes than the sale of merchandize 305, manufactories of tin-plate 8, of brass and iron 3, of clocks, watches and jewelry 4, of coaches and chaises 6, printing offices 4, containing 10 presses, tanneries 6, ropewalks 5, distilleries
281
7, furnaces for casting iron 2, marble and stone cutting 1, brick- yards 7, ship-yards 3, superficial feet of wharf 409,653, horses 175, cows 387, oxen 26, coaches 16, chaises 101.
From the last valuation returns there were in 1830, in this State, 43,943 dwelling-houses, 41,441 barns, 4,553 shops and stores, 31 printing offices, 501 grist-mills, 975 saw-mills, 205 fulling-mills, 309 carding machines, 6 ropewalks, 12 distilleries, 6 woollen facto- ries, 3 cotton factories, 1 powder mill, and 9 paper mills.
Number of deaths and marriages at diferent periods in Portland.
Deaths. Marriages.
Deaths. Mar.
Deaths. Mar. Births.
1768, 14
1778,
8
5
1789,
17
15
1769, 27
1779,
8
2
1790,
14 3
1770, 21
1780,
7
2 1791,
14 7
1771, 32
1781, 10
9
1800,
110 61 200
1772, 31
16
1782, 21 11
1801,
104 67 300
1773, 67 23
1783, 19
10
1803,
105 115 250
1774, 39
27
1784,
37
10
1805, 157 110
1775, 37 14
1785,
25
15
1831, 226
1776, 24
10
1786,
29
17
1832,
3001
1777, 14 8
1788, 11 4 1
The advantages which in early days our new country held out for employment, encouraged immigration, and the population was al- most wholly made up by accessions from the more thickly peopled parts of Massachusetts. To the county of Essex particularly, in the early as well as more recent period of our history, the town is indebted for large portions of its population.2 Middlesex, Suf- folk and the Old Colony, were not without their contributions. But the people did not come from such widely different sources as to produce any difficulty of amalgamation, or any striking diversity of manners. They formed one people and brought with them the steady habits and good principles of those from whom they had separated. There were some accessions before the revolution made to our pop-
' Males 152, females 148, including 14 foreigners and 22 coloured persons. 2 The following are some of the families which emigrated from Essex ; Bradbury, Bailey, Bagley, Bolton, Coffin, Chadwick, Cross, Haskell, Ingersoll, Ilsley, Kent, Knight, Longfellow, Lovitt, Lowell, Little, Moody, Morse, Mor- rill, Mussey, Newall, Noyes, Nowell, Pearson, Proctor, Plumer, Pike, Pote, Richardson, Riggs, Sawyer, Swett, Titcomb, Tolman, Tucker, Thurlo, Waite, Webster, Wecd, Willis, Winship.
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C. 14.]
Population.
282
.
Character of the Population. [P. II.
ulation from the other side of the Atlantic ;' the emigrants readily in- corporated themselves with our people and form a substantial part of the population. Within twenty years, the numbers by immigration have increased more rapidly, especially from Ireland, but not suf- ficiently to destroy the uniformity which characterises our population, nor to disturb the harmony of our community.
It cannot have escaped observation that one of the principal sources of our wealth has been the lumber trade. We have seen on the re- vival of the town in the early part of the last century, how intimately the progress of the town was connected with the operations in tim- ber. Before the revolution our commerce was sustained almost wholly by the large ships from England which loaded here with masts, spars, and boards for the mother country, and by ship building. The West India business was then comparatively small, employing but few vessels of inferior size. After the revolution our trade had to form new channels, and the employment of our own navigation was to give new activity to all the springs of industry and wealth. We find therefore that the enterprise of the people arose to the emergen- cy, and in a few years our ships were floating on every ocean, be- coming the carriers of southern as well as northern produce, and bringing back the money and commodities of other countries. The trade to the West Indies, supported by our lumber increased vastly, and direct voyages were made in larger vessels than had before been employed, which received in exchange for the growth of our forests and our seas, sugar, molasses and rum, the triple products of the cane. This trade has contributed mainly to the advancement and prosperity of the town, has nourished a hardy race of seamen, and formed a people among the most active and enterprising of any in the United States.
The great changes which have taken place in the customs and manners of society since the revolution, must deeply impress the mind of a reflecting observer. These have extended not only to the outward forms of things, but to the habits of thought and to the very principles of character. The moral revolution has been as sig- nal and striking as the political one ; it upturned the old land marks of antiquated and hereditary customs and the obedience to mere authority, and established in their stead a more simple and just rule
1 The Ross's, Mclellan's, Armstrong's, Mains', Johnson's, Robinson's, Wildriges, Cummings'.
283
1
C. 14.]
Change of Manners.
of action ; it set up reason and common sense, and a true equality in the place of a factitious and conventional state of society which unrelentingly required a submission to its stern dictates ; which made an unnatural distinction in moral power, and elevated the rich knave . or fool to the station that humble and despised merit would have bet- ter graced.
These peculiarities have been destroyed by the silent and gradual operation of public opinion ; the spirit which arose in the new world is spreading with the same effect over the old. Freedom of opinion is asserting a just sway, and it is only now to be feared that the principle will be carried too far, that authority will lose all its influence and that reason and a just estimate of human rights will not be sufficient re- straints upon the passions of men. The experiment is going on, and unless education, an early and sound moral education go on with it, which will enlighten and strengthen the public mind, it will fail of success. The feelings and passions must be placed under the charge of moral principle, or we may expect an age of licentiousness to succeed one of authority and rigid discipline. We may be said now to be in the transition state of society.
Distinctions of rank among different classes of the community, a part of the old system, prevailed very much before the revolution and were preserved in the dress as well as in the forms of society. But the deference attached to robes of office and the formality of official station have all fled before the genius of our republican institu- tions ; we look now upon the man and not upon his garments nor upon the post to which chance may have elevated him. In the cir- cle of our little town, the lines were drawn with much strictness. The higher classes were called the quality, and were composed of persons not engaged in mechanic employments. We now occasion- ally find some old persons whose memory recurs with longing de- light to the days in which these formal distinctions held uncontrolled sway.
In our town the persons who were distinguished by the cocked hat, the bush wig and the red cloak, the envied marks of distinction, were the Waldos, the Rev. Mr. Smith's family, Enoch Freeman, Brigadier Preble, Alexander Ross, Stephen Longfellow, Dr. Cof- fin, Moses Pearson, Richard Codman, Benjamin Titcomb, Wm. Tyng, Theophilus Bradbury, David Wyer, and perhaps some oth- ers. The fashionable color of clothes among this class was drab ;
284
Customs and Manners.
[P. II.
1
the coats were made with large cuffs reaching to the elbows, and low collars. All classes wore breeches which had not the advantage of being kept up as in modern times by suspenders ; the dandies of that day wore embroidered silk vests with long pocket flaps and ruf- fles over their hands. Most of those above mentioned were engaged in trade, and the means of none were sufficiently ample to enable them to live without engaging in some employment. Still the pride of their cast was maintained, and although the cloak and perhaps the wig may have been laid aside in the dust and hurry of business, they were scrupulously retained when abroad. Wigs were quite an ex- pensive article of dress, and had to be renewed about as often as the coat and breeches. The Rev. Mr. Smith says, " Aug. 1765, had a new wig and clothes," and again in 1769, " had a new wig, a rich one, and hat ; had my superfine black clothes." And some entries in Mr. Deane's diary let us into the cost of this decoration of the outer man : " 1766, January 25, wig £16. 17. 6." " 1769, Dec. 22, sent to S. Parkman a jo and a pistareen to buy a wig ;" on the 28th of the same month the Dr. says, "received my new buckskin breeches.""" We may form some idea of the ministerial dress from these brief notices.
There were many other expensive customs in that day to which the spirit of the age required implicit obedience ; these demanded costly presents to be made, and large expenses to be incurred at the three most important events in the history of man, his birth, marriage and death. In the latter it became particularly onerous and extend- ed the influence of its example to the poorest classes of people, who in their show of grief imitated, though at in immeasurable distance, the customs of the rich. The following memorandum of the charges at the funeral of the son of a respectable inhabitant in 1771, was found among his papers, viz. " 8 pair of coloured gloves 16s. 5 pair of white women's gloves 9s. 4d. 1 pair of women's coloured gloves 2s. 1 pair of men's coloured gloves 2s. 2 doz. lemons, 4 bottles of wine, and shoe buckles 10s. knee buckles 8d."
1 This form of the nether garment was worn by boys as well as men univer- sally until about 1790, when Capt. Joseph Titcomb returning from the south, was the first that wore pantaloons here, and introduced the fashion. The dress of the ante-revolution ladies would appear to us at least as grotesque as that of the gentlemen ; their long waists, towering head dresses and high- heeled shoes would give them an equal title to our admiration.
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-
C. 14.]
Style of Living. 285
The leaders of the people in the early part of the revolution, with a view to check importations from Britain, aimed a blow at these ex- pensive customs, from which they never recovered. The example commenced in the highest places, of an entire abandonment of all the outward trappings of grief which had been wont to be displayed, and of all luxury in dress, which extended over the whole community. In the later stages of the revolution however, an extravagant and . luxurious style of living and dress was revived, encouraged by the large amount both of specie and paper money in circulation, and the great quantity of foreign articles of luxury brought into the country by numerous captures.
The leading men in Massachusetts saw with alarm the habits of expense and extravagance again taking root among the people, which threatened a renewed subjugation to, and dependance upon foreign powers, and they strove earnestly against it. In 1786 the subject was brought before the general court and a committee of that body made a report in which they recognized the existence of a luxurious style of living, bore their decided testimony against it, and recom- mended that " the general court should make a serious and determin- ed exertion by example and advice to inspire a due regard to our own manufactures," " and at the same time discourage the importa- tion and use of all foreign superfluities." In November a circular was published signed by Gov. Bowdoin, Lt. Gov. Cushing and the principal members of the legislature, in which they entered " into a solemn agreement and association to refrain from and as far as in their power to prevent, the excessive use and consumption of arti- cles of foreign manufacture, especially articles of luxury and extrav- agance." Such efforts and from such a quarter had a most salutary influence on the public mind, and tended to establish a judicious economy and republican simplicity in all ranks of the community. In our part of the country Judge Thatcher of Biddeford and other gentlemen of influence aided the cause by their example and by publications in the newspaper.1
The evils here noticed did not exist in this part of the country in any considerable degree, especially after the revolution ; the people were too poor to indulge in an expensive style of living. They were lit-
1 Judge Thatcher wrote a number of communications over the signature of Hermit on this subject, characterised by his usual humour and wit: he was Waits' best correspondent.
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1
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286
Customs of the people. [P. II.
erally a working people, property had not.descended upon them from a' rich ancestry, but whatever they had accumulated had been the re- sult of their own industry and economy. Our ladies too at that pe- riod had not forgotten the use of the distaff, and occasionally em- ployed that antiquated instrument of domestic labor for the benefit of others as well as of themselves. The following notice of a spin- ning bee at Mrs. Deane's on the first of May 1788, is a flattering memorial of the industry and skill of the females of our town at that period.
" On the first instant, assembled at the house of the Rev. Samuel Deane of this town, more than one hundred of the fair sex, married and single ladies, most of whom were skilled in the important art of spinning. An emulous industry was never more apparent than in this beautiful assembly. The majority of fair hands gave motion to not less than sixty wheels. Many were occupied in preparing the materials, besides those who attended to the entertainment of the rest, provision for which was mostly presented by the guests them- selves, or sent in by other generous promoters of the exhibition, as were also the materials for the work. Near the close of the day, Mrs. Deane was presented by the company with two hundred and thirty-six seven knotted skeins of excellent cotton and linen yarn, the work of the day, excepting about a dozen skeins which some of the company brought in ready spun. Some had spun six, and many not less than five skeins apiece. To conclude and crown the day, a numerous band of the best singers attended in the evening, and per- formed an agreeable variety of excellent pieces in psalmody.""
Some of the ante-revolutionary customs " more honored in the breach than in the observance"-have been continued quite to our day, although not precisely in the same manner, nor in equal degree. One was the practise of helping forward every undertaking by a del- uge of ardent spirit in some of its multifarious mistifications. Noth- ing could be done from the burial of a friend or the quiet sessions of a town committee, to the raising of the frame of a barn or a meeting-house, but the men must be goaded on by the stimulus of rum. The following extracts from the papers of one of our ancient inhabitants will furnish some illustrations ; " 1745, March 20, about town rates ; town Dr. to six mugs of flip 12s. " 1753, county for
1 Cumberland Gazette.
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C. 14.]
Amusements. 281
ye gaol Dr. Aug. 20, to 3 quarts of rum made into punch, 5s. 4d." The same entry is made for four successive days, and " November . 14, one pail of flip given, and one to be paid for at 5s. 4d." Flip and punch were then the indispensible accompaniment of every social meeting and of every enterprise.
It is not a great while since similar customs have extensively pre- vailed not perhaps in precisely the instances or degree above men- tioned, but in junkettings, and other meetings which have substituted whiskey punch, toddy, &c. for the soothing but pernicous compounds of our fathers. Thanks however to the genius of temperance, a re- deeming spirit is abroad, which it is hoped will save the country from the destruction that seemed to threaten it from this source.
The amusements of our people in early days had nothing par- ticular to distinguish them. The winter was generally a merry season, and the snow was always improved for sleighing parties out of town. Mr. Smith frequently mentions sleigh riding as an amusement of the people.' In summer the badness of the roads prevented all riding for pleasure ; in that season the inhabitants indulged themselves in water parties, fishing and visiting the islands, a recreation that has lost none of its relish at this day.
Dancing does not seem to have met with much favour, for we find upon record in 1766, that Theophilus Bradbury and wife, Nathaniel Deering and wife, John Waite and wife, and several other of the most respectable people in town were indicted for dancing at Joshua Free- man's tavern in December 1765." Mr. Bradbury brought himself and friends off by pleading that the room in which the dance took place, having been hired by private individuals for the season, was no longer to be considered as a public place of resort, but a private apartment, and that the persons there assembled had a right to meet in their own room and to dance there. The court sustained the plea. David Wyer was king's attorney at this time.
It was common for clubs and social parties to meet at the tavern in those days, and Mrs. Greele's in Back-street was a place of most
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