USA > Maine > Oxford County > Waterford > The history of Waterford, Oxford County, Maine, comprising Historical address, by Henry P. Warren; record of families, by Rev. William Warren, D.D.; centennial proceedings, by Samuel Warren, esq > Part 10
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The second of the cross-routes run from Dover, N. H., through Alfred, Hollis, Standish, Windham, Gray, Lewiston, and Greene to Augusta. The east- ern end of this line, from Gray to Augusta, was owned by Lewis Howe; from Gray to Alfred by George R. Kimball and - Whitney ; from Alfred to Dover, N. H., by Henry Sayward and Joseph Emer- son. This route owned seventy-five horses; coaches and sleighs to correspond.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
A daily stage connected with this line at Gray for Portland, and a tri-weekly at Reed's tavern Danville for Farmington by way of Turner, Livermore, Jay, and Wilton. The distance from Danville to Farm- ington was forty-five miles, the fare was $3.50. Mr. Beedle owned this line.
A. stage run from Portland to Paris Hill by way of Gray, New Gloucester, Poland, and Oxford. The distance was fifty miles, the fare was $2.50. This line connected at Paris with two tri-weeklies, one of which run through Woodstock, Greenwood, Bethel, Gilead, and Shelburne to Lancaster, N. H .; the other through North Paris and Rumford to Andover. The Paris line was owned and driven by Grove Water- house of Paris.
A stage run from Portland to Conway by the way of Baldwin and Fryeburg. The distance was sixty miles, the fare was $3.00. Connecting with this was a tri-weekly, which run through the Notch to Lan- caster. The Conway line was owned and driven by John Smith of Fryeburg, more recently the owner and landlord of the Oxford House in that town.
The Paris and Conway stages were tri-weeklies.
About 1812 William, son of General Benjamin Sawin, bought the mail-route between Waterford and Portland. He generally traveled horseback; but if any one wished he would carry them to Portland in a wagon. In 1815 he used a two-horse stage or
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MAIL ROUTES AND STAGES.
wagon to carry occasional passengers and the mail. In 1820 he used four horses a part of the time. People came from the back country-Albany, Bethel, Rumford, Gilead, and Newry - to take the stage for Portland.
The Waterford stage about 1830 passed into the control of Colonel Scribner of Raymond and Eliakim Maxfield of Waterford. They run a tri-weekly from Waterford to Portland by way of Bridgton, Ray- mond, and Windham. The distance was forty-five miles, the fare $2.50. This line connected at Water- ford Flat with a tri-weekly which run through to Bethel Hill by way of Hunts corner, Albany. It was then owned by Eliakim Maxfield and Samuel Whittier, landlord of the American House.
In 1845, Col. Humphrey Cousins, a native of Po- land, now of Gorham, bought into this line. It was then owned by Mr. Maxfield and Samuel Whittier of Portland, proprietor of the American House. It was then running a four-horse stage to Portland every other day, and was a very paying route. Mr. Max- field was a most excellent manager. A man of the highest business integrity, he was universally re- spected. The travel and express business was large, and this company carried all the mails between Port- land and Waterford on this stage-route.
Col. Humphrey Cousins, then a young man, was the beau ideal of a stage-driver; tall, courteous,
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
capable, and generous to a fault,-while Mr. Whit- tier backed the company liberally. The company were on the high road to fortune when the enter- prising men of Bridgton Center, North Bridgton, and Harrison decided to make use of the beautiful chain of lakes below us which furnish a water-way thirty miles long. So in 1846 under the name of the Sebago and Long Pond Steam Navigation Company,1 they decided to build a little steamboat to ply on these lakes, connecting with stages at the one end for Portland, at the other at Bridgton Center with North Conway, with Lovell, and at Harrison Flat with Waterford Flat, North Water- ford, Albany Basins, and Bethel Hill. Maxfield, Whittier, and Cousins were to take part of the stock and throw up their stage-route. The Steam- boat Company was to run the stage from Harrison Flat to Bethel Hill, and from Chadbournes landing to Portland. A private company2 at Lovell village was to run a six-horse coach to Bridgton Center con-
1 This company had the sole and exclusive right of employing and using steam power for the purpose of navigation on Long and Sebago Ponds and intervening waters, during the term of ten years.
The last meeting of the Steamboat Company was held at the hotel of Almon Kneeland, Harrison, January 11, 1860. Geo. Pierce, Samuel F. Perley, and Eliakim Maxfield were chosen directors.
ยท ? This company consisted of Col. James Walker, Eben Nutter, Samuel Thoms, James Hutchins, Eliakim Maxfield, and Colonel Humphrey Cousins.
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OPPOSITION STAGE.
necting with the boat. Col. Cousins was to drive and act as agent for this stage-line from Lovell vil- lage to Bridgton Center, then go over the lake and drive from Chadbournes landing to Portland. All these arrangements were made in the spring of 1846.
In 1847 Mr. Friend came from New York to build the boat, and it was hoped that she would be running by September.
That summer, was put on the famous opposition line by George R. Kimball of Waterford, and Richard Gage of Bridgton Center. Mr. Gage kept a hotel at Bridgton Center, opposite the Bridgton House kept by Mighill Davis. The Waterford stage always stopped with Mr. Davis; Mr. Gage naturally hoped to divert at least a part of the travel to his hotel. The opposition hoped too to get a share of the travel from Portland to the foot of the lake, after the boat was put on. There was some complaint that Mr. Maxfield was a slow driver. Most of us can testify that there was some truth in that assertion. The story is told that as late in the afternoon Mr. Max- field was leisurely driving through Raymond he overtook a wag quite famous in that country. The old man turned as the stage came upon him, and said, "Well, well, I am glad to see you; I heard that you was coming." "How did you hear?" said Max- field. "Why," said the old man, "Major - just
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
came along with a drove of lambs, and said that he passed you back at Church's" (Naples). Maxfield whipped up his horses. Generally he laughed last.
One day an old lady was waiting for him at a cross-road just below Bridgton Center. She not only had a liberal amount of baggage, but a loom which she wished transported -for nothing, of course. It was in the spring of the year, the traveling was ter- rible. "Madam," said Maxfield, "I am sorry, but I can't take this loom. I have promised to put on a saw-mill just below."
The contest between the old line and the oppo- sition was an unequal one. Nearly every man of property from the foot to the head of the ponds had stock in the steamboat line, and so would naturally support it; besides the old line had a stable full of horses and large capital. Previously the fare was two dollars from Waterford Flat to Portland; it was now put down to fifty cents, and if a party remon- strated at this they were carried for nothing. The whole country seemingly went to Portland. Such an inroad of country cousins was never seen before ; numerous extras were hired. Often more than a hundred passengers were carried. Each stage started from Waterford as soon after six as possible, "and got to Portland before the other!" Unless the traveling was very bad they always reached Portland in time for dinner-one o'clock.
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OPPOSITION STAGE.
A well-known business man who had two boys at North Bridgton at school, that were taking advantage of the low fares and coming home every Friday with a parcel of friends to spend Sunday, came to Colonel Cousins at the American House, full of pretended anger, and demanded of him that the fare should be at once restored to two dollars. He declared that he was eaten out of house and home, and said there was nothing left in his house but a ham-bone and some salt fish.
The Portland, Saco and Portsmouth railroad was at that time completed to Portland; so Cousins and Kimball used to go to the depot each night to solicit passengers. One night a lot of young fellows from Albany and Waterford arrived on the train. Mr. Kimball wanted to carry them and said that he would get to Waterford first. Cousins said that if he didn't get there first he wouldn't charge them anything. The boys saw a possible chance of saving a half-dollar each, so they concluded to go with Cousins. At precisely seven Cousins left the Ameri- can House with a six-horse coach, and fourteen through passengers. In four hours and forty min- utes he drove into the company's stable at Waterford Flat; the distance was fifty miles. There were three sets of horses used. It is needless to say the boys had to pay their fare.
Of course there was not the best of feeling be-
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
tween the rival drivers. Occasionally they locked wheels; and once when the four-horse coach under- took to head the six which was rushing by, the driver of the six turned in and struck the off fore wheel of the smaller coach with tremendous force; this threw the pole around with such power as to knock down the near "wheeler," and ended in a general wrecking of harnesses, but fortunately did no other damage.
Perhaps the best time made during the whole flight was in the winter. The roads were covered with ice. There was not a spot of bare ground as big as your hand between Waterford and Portland. The old line had just bought a huge open four-seat sleigh. There were twenty passengers aboard. The oppo- sition was just behind; the air was sharp and bracing, and the Colonel let them out. From the American House to Windham Hill they were just fifty-five minutes. As soon as they drove in sight a mile below the Hill, the stable boys rushed out with six fresh horses who were already harnessed, and stood them in double line. The Colonel drove up between them. Not a soul moved from the sleigh. Six eager loafers unfastened the tired horses; in a twinkling the fresh ones took their places; they were crazy to go. All summer they had been engaged in occasional brushes with the opposition, and were as eager as their driver. A man stood at the head of each horse. The hostler
1
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STEAMBOAT ENTERPRISE.
threw the reins to the Colonel. "Straighten them out," said the Colonel. The stable boys started them up until the tugs drew. "Let 'em go," said the Colonel, and they were off like a flash. They never broke their run until some ways above Upper corner, North Windham. And you who teamed over that road thirty years ago, remember that it is no gentle descent from the Hill to the plain. The run was made from Windham Hill to Raymond, eight miles, in thirty minutes. The opposition for that day at least was distanced, and the rest of the trip was taken more leisurely. During this year Max- field drove a mail-stage, and drove it slow. Timid people rode with him. If the Colonel had a severe brush on one trip, Maxfield the next jogged those horses over the route. .
But to return to the boat enterprise. The arrange- ments made in 1846 were completed and carried out in 1847. The Waterford Stage Company, sold their stage interest to the Steamboat Company, taking $1200 in company stock in part payment. In the
summer of 1847 the Fawn made her first trip. Her cost was over $8000. She was but a little more than a portable steam-engine. Her boiler was large . enough for a river steamer. A few passengers could with care be stowed away on her bow and stern. She made the round trip three times a week. The old stage-line had a contract for carrying the mail
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
which compelled them to keep on a mail-stage through the summers of 1847 and 1848. From No- vember until May the stages run as formerly between Waterford and Portland. The Steamboat Company paid fairly for a year or two; but the opening of the Grand Trunk railroad with its connecting stage-lines ruined the enterprise. Her boiler was taken out and sent to Moosehead Lake, the hull was abandoned. The stockholders got back a very small percentage of their investment. Travel came now to Waterford, Bridgton, and Harrison by the Grand Trunk railroad. Mr. Maxfield bought out the Fryeburg and Paris sections of the old Augusta, Fryeburg, and Concord stage-line of Mr. Thomas S. Abbott of Portland, which he continued to run until his death, and which his son Horace Maxfield run until the opening of the Portland and Ogdensburg railroad. He then sold the part from Waterford Flat to Paris to John F. Rice of North Waterford, who united it with his line from Paris to North Lovell (by way of North Waterford and East Stoneham), which he had run since about 1855.
All these stages in western Maine in 1835 carried the mails,1 except the accommodation stages between
1 In 1840 the Post Office Department changed its policy and allowed what were known as "star bids." By the terms of these a party bidding off the mails could carry them as he pleased. This of course tended to break down the old routes.
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STAGE ROUTES.
Portland and Portsmouth, and Portland and Augusta. They were four-horse coaches, and carried either six or nine passengers. It was not common in those times to carry passengers on the top of the coach.
The stage companies always held themselves in readiness to provide extra coaches and horses if business demanded. During the summer they often dispatched three or four extra coaches (six seats) through to Boston or Augusta. Any one could hire a coach by paying $24.00 to Portsmouth or Augusta, the price of six seats, or $29.00, the price of nine seats; double these sums hired a coach through to Boston. It was not uncommon for parties who were going through to Boston or Augusta together, to travel "private freight" as it was called. These great companies also furnished a horse, chaise, and driver to a single individual. The charge was $12.00 from Portland to Augusta or Portsmouth, $24.00 through to Boston.
The introduction of steamboats greatly injured the coast-lines of stages. These commenced to run be- tween Boston and Portland as early as 1823. In ten years from that time they were running between all the prominent coast-towns and along the rivers. The Portland and Boston steamboats made the trip in about the same time as now. The fare was $5.00.
Of all this great system of stage-lines that were in their glory in 1835, but one remained in 1850,
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
and that was the old White Mountain line from Port- land through Standish, Baldwin, and Fryeburg to North Conway; and this at last succumbed to the Portland and Ogdensburg railroad.
The railroads not only superseded the stages, but it will be noticed that for the most part they followed in the courses that these had marked out.
We have seen that the proprietors of Bridgton early utilized the water-ways below us,-Long and Sebago ponds,-by granting to Jonathan Kimball of North Bridgton a lot of land, on condition that he build and run a sail-boat between the head of the pond and Standish for the convenience of immigrants.
The project of a canal between Sebago pond and Saccarappa was considered as early as 1791. Two companies were formed; the one to build this canal, the other to build a canal from Presumpscot river above Saccarappa Falls to Fore river. The estimated expense was $20,000! Nothing came of this project. In 1821 another charter was obtained for a canal from Waterford Flat to Fore river, under the name of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal. The " head of the canal" (in anticipation) was near the town- house. Esquire Whitman even contracted with a party for dumping a lot of stumps at the "landing."
A lottery was granted the proprietors by which
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CUMBERLAND AND OXFORD CANAL.
they were allowed to raise $50,000 to assist them.1 In 1825 the Canal Bank was incorporated with a capital of $300,000, on condition that a quarter part of its capital be invested in the stock of the Cum- berland and Oxford Canal. The work was com- menced in 1828 and finished in 1830, at a cost of $206,000. Considerable stock was sold in Waterford. It is needless to say that it was worthless, except the $75,000 guaranteed by the Canal Bank.
The canal, until the opening of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence railroad, did a large business, and was a great advantage to the people of this section.
The canal interests were greatly injured by the Atlantic and St. Lawrence railroad. The opening of the Portland and Ogdensburg railroad caused its abandonment.
Heavy goods of all kinds were brought to Harrison Flat, North Bridgton, and Bridgton Center in the summer, stored and distributed through the back country of Maine, Coos county, N. H., and even
1 Sixty years ago it was very common in the New England States for a town to get legislative permission to organize a lottery to build any public work. In 1784 eleven lotteries were authorized by Massachusetts to aid in building bridges, roads, mills, etc. The managers of these lotteries were appointed by the state. Of course it was an expensive and demoralizing way for a community to raise money. The custom undoubtedly grew out of the peculiar restiveness under taxation of a people wholly engaged in agriculture. The same unwillingness to be taxed, and the same methods of avoiding direct taxation, are in vogue in the South to-day.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
upper Vermont, in the winter. - More than a hun- dred canal boats were in use. The Blakes of Harri- son Flat did the largest business. "Farmers Head- quarters" was painted in large letters along the front of their spacious store. They even sold goods at Portland prices. Much of the Androscoggin and Coos teaming passed through Waterford, making business lively at our hotels.
I have given you in brief the growth of trans- portation facilities in western Maine. First the rugged road which wound along our coast in 1783, and crept a little up the Saco, Androscoggin, and Kennebec. Six years later it had reached Machias. As late as 1793 there was not a post-office in Maine five miles from the ocean. Thirteen years later a passenger coach run to Augusta; seventeen years later to Farmington; twenty years later to Water- ford. From this time stages multiplied until every town had regular communication with the outside world. The amount of property invested in staging in western Maine in 1835 could not have been much less than $300,000. The number of miles of staging was a little more than eight hundred; the daily run was not far from five hundred and fifty miles. The num- ber of horses used was about six hundred. From this, one can estimate the number of coaches, sleighs, and sets of harnesses in use. No wonder that timid
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SURPLUS REVENUE.
people prophesied the ruin of horse breeders, coach, sleigh, and harness makers, and taverns; or as one of these croakers told Mr. Niles (so long senior partner in Niles & Co.'s express of Dover, N. H.), then a driver between Haverhill and Dover, " When stages come off, Niles, I'll bet my life I can buy a horse for $2.00." Great pride was taken by the stage companies in their teams. The strings of horses used on the Portland or Augusta ends of the different routes were care- fully selected.
The profits of staging from 1820 to 1840 were large. It is said that the Portland Stage Company had on its books a vote passed during the season of its greatest prosperity, that the company should never declare more than twenty-four per cent divi- dend. With the stages came the canal, which worked a great local change in freighting.
The introduction of steam into Maine was to a very considerable extent in advance of the wants of the people. An agricultural state, which lived largely within itself, which imported little and exported less, no wonder that our railroads failed to pay. We have to a certain extent grown up to them.
Many of you recall the fact that there was a sur- plus revenue during the administration of Jackson. Our democratic fathers did not know what to do with it, and so distributed it among the states; the
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
states did not know what to do with it, so they dis- tributed it among the towns, and the towns by their action showed plainly that they were in the same predicament. In 1837 the town appointed a com- mittee consisting of Lewis Jewell, Sprout Hapgood, and Levi Brown to take charge of the surplus reve- nue. They were to lend it in sums not exceeding one hundred dollars to any man or company of men who would give sufficient security, and pay yearly interest in advance. This interest was to be appro- priated for the benefit of the town schools. This vote was not carried into effect; for in 1839 the town voted that the selectmen pay to each individual or his guardian the proportion of the surplus revenue due them, which was $2.75.
In 1839 there was a furious controversy over the location of our north-east boundary line. "No fight so bitter as a land fight"-whether waged between neighbors or nations, is an Anglo-Saxon proverb. When as children you read the story of the old French war, you doubtless wondered that the scat- tered colonists who had barely scarred the shores of the Atlantic, should dare famine, Indian invasion, and death, to wrest from the French the country west of the Alleghanies-five hundred miles away ; and with the means of inter-communication then known to them, more than three hundred years distant from
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EASTERN BOUNDARY.
general settlement. It was not a blind avarice, a greed of land, that made our fathers beggar them- selves to wrest the valley of the Mississippi from the French. God made the Anglo-Saxon the Roman, the civilizer, of the new world. He can'not help his destiny, he ought not to try.
The struggle over the northeast-boundary was be- tween Anglo-Saxons, and it mattered little for civili- zation which way the contest terminated. Of course we thought we were right, and were ready to fight for our rights. The governor of the state called out ten thousand militia, a part of whom rendezvoused at Augusta during the month of March. The quota of Waterford, consisting of ten men, was united with that of Albany, Sweden, Lovell, and Stowe, under the command of Capt. David Haskell of Al- bany. Colonel Ripley of Paris was in command of the companies from this county. The town hired teams and carried its men to Augusta. At a meet- ing a few days after the draft the town passed the following vote :
" That men drafted, or going into actual service, receive four dollars a month from the town, and that those drafted hiring substitutes receive the amount that they pay their substitute,. provided that the sum does not exceed four dollars a month."
The Waterford squad stopped in Augusta at the Eagle hotel on Water street. The people of Augusta had reason to remember the Madawaska war for
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
years. The soldiers drilled but occasionally, and of course had a great deal of idle time. They were ununiformed, so that it was impossible to distinguish soldier from citizen; consequently the perpetrators of rowdyish acts could not be easily detected. The firmness and good judgment of General Scott, and afterward of Mr. Webster, probably averted the im- pending war. The soldiers returned home after an absence of six weeks or more.
There was no change in the local organization of our militia until 1825. That year a second cavalry company was formed through the influence of Thomas Kilborne, who had trained in such a company in Bos- cawen, N. H. Major Theodore Stone, who had served with honor in the regular militia, was elected captain as a compliment to his military career. He declined the honor, and Thomas Kilborne was elected in his place; with Levi Brown as first lieutenant, William Stone, cornet. This company, in connection with one afterward formed in Bethel, constituted a battalion, of which Lieutenant Levi Brown was elected major ; but in a few years it was disbanded for want of interest. Some of the officers of the Waterford company were, Jacob H. Green, Oliver Hale, jr., Cyrus Hough- ton, and Luther Houghton, who was the last captain.
Until about 1830 the militia were well organized, and there was general interest in military matters.
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THE MILITIA.
The growth of peace principles and the temperance reform did much to destroy popular interest in them. There were certain evils attending trainings and musters. At this time the use of liquor was unre- stricted. Naturally men away from home, who were accustomed to its use, drank to excess. There was considerable rowdyism consequent upon the gather- ing of so many soldiers and outsiders.
Between 1830 and 1844, the date of the disbanding of the state militia, the whole thing had become a farce. Incompetent officers were chosen; the men were disorderly or rowdyish. As an illustration of this, I give the following incident that occurred at Lovell village. Colonel Hartford, village hotel- keeper, ordered the Waterford company to be pres- *ent at roll-call at five A.M. Provoked at the unreas- onableness of this, they reached there at four A.M., and filed by his house. As they passed by the door of the bar-room, each put the muzzle of his gun, which was loaded with a blank cartridge, within a few inches of it and fired, the charge passing through the door. I do not learn that the colonel dared make any remonstrance.
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