USA > Maine > Kennebec County > West Gardiner > West Gardiner's hundred years, Centennial 1850-1950 > Part 2
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Jeremiah Wakefield bought the first lot west of the present Gardiner Line, on the south side of High Street, November 23, 1803. It contained 103 34 acres and sold for what was then the high price of $882.00, which suggests that it contained buildings, cleared fields, or some such special advantage.
Three days later Richard Clay bought 107 acres nearby for $832.00- another high price.
11
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
Thomas Dearborn paid $653 for a one hundred acre lot across from what was the late Stella Blaisdell's residence on High Street, December 20, 1803.
On December 30 of the same year Benjamin Chamberlain purchased 153 acres, being Lot Number 40 on the Solomon Adams Survey, situated about two miles west of Gardiner town line on the south side of High Street. The price was $198.00, and included the privilege of cutting as many trees as he wanted to, and picking up rocks and piling them into fences all the day long; and these privileges were transferred unto him- self and to his heirs or assigns to have and to hold forever, or until he should become good and sick and tired of it and should sell out and go back to town where he could earn an easier living, maybe.
The transactions were for cash when Gardiner could get it. But mostly there was a mortgage, for the preponderance of West Gardiner's founders had nothing but their shrewd heads, their strong hands, their large families, and they worked all three for all they were worth, to get hold of a piece of land, improve it, and hang onto it. Sometimes the settler went into debt for the full value of the land, the seller taking a mortgage for the full sell- ing price.
One of these was John Clark, who gave a mortgage of $415, which was the purchase price of Lot Number 10, at French's Corner. He was unable to meet the terms of the mortgage and lost the place, together with whatever improvements he had made. In 1819 R. H. Gardiner sold a quit- claim deed to the property to Robert Towle for $195, and it later came into the possession of Robert's brother, Nicholas Towle. Today, Gustaf John- son owns this property, which is just west of the Grange Hall.
One method of clearing land in earliest times was to notch the trunks, deeply, in the area to be cleared. When a windy day came a windward tree was felled and this toppled all the others, like tenpins. The trunks and limbs were allowed to dry and then burned where they lay. One method of pulling big stumps was to chain a log to the stump and employ oxen at the other end, thus gaining leverage and a twisting force that was ir- resistible. The stumps were burned or piled in fence rows.
Of course, the trees were made into lumber, when mills were accessible. Or into cordwood when this was practicable.
Frankly, we don't know who built the first house in West Gardiner, nor when, nor where. Undoubtedly it was built of logs and probably it was somewhere on or near the banks of Cobbossee Stream, for this was the highway when the roads were mere blazed trails through the woods. Early travel was by boat in summer, by skates or sled in winter.
There are several old cellars along the Cobbossee, from which the houses were moved when the Pond Road was built. The number of houses and even larger buildings in West Gardiner which have been moved from their original sites is astonishing. It is almost as if the place had been in- habited by a race of turtles, who took their houses with them wherever they chose to move. Churches, stores, schoolbuildings, dwellings-even the Grange Hall aren't where they used to be, at all, at all.
And the roads have been relocated, so that when you see a house out in the middle of a field and wonder why they built it there, the chances are
3 1833 02953 4747
12
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
that it was on the old road before it was moved. The Charles Curtis place on High Street is an example of this. So is the old Rhoades place which perches above the present road at Merrill's Corner.
There are roads in West Gardiner now that were not here before, and there are others that used to be here and are now on their way to being for- gotten. The old Buffee Landing Bridge is gone. Monkey Lane is no longer a public way. Ware Lane is no more. The old Dr. Small road grows up to grass.
The link of road between the Fairbanks Cemetery and the Town House was not even thought of when Solomon Adams made his survey. And there was no road past Spear's Corner, toward Horseshoe Pond, nor any Bab- cock Bridge. A road was laid out from near the Ware farm on the Town House Road, westerly toward the Marston place, and Cobbossee Stream, but was never built.
There wasn't even a Horseshoe Pond, except during the spring freshets, until the height of the dam at New Mills was raised about 1900 and a controversy was started which has continued even up to and including the present day, and about which we shall have more to say later.
The early homes of West Gardiner were largely constructed of local materials. We have seen where the granite foundations came from. You may be sure that the lumber was usually cut on the place, too. Some of the older houses still have traces of the brick fireplaces that were used for heating and the dutch ovens that were used for cooking, before stoves were common.
Bricks to build chimneys, ovens, fireplaces and even whole houses were made out of West Gardiner clay. There was a brick kiln at Merrill's Cor- ner. There was one in the field back of what was the old Pope place on High Street, which later became known as the Arthur Gosline Farm, now occupied by Harold T. Soiett, and is built of brick produced right where it was used. It is believed that the brick for the nearby Community House and for Alfred Merrill's house came from the Pope kiln. The Josephine Trafton house on Green's Hill, Horseshoe Pond Road, was built of brick made on the place. And there were other kilns in town, too.
The popular indignation which had resulted in the town's taking the name of Pittston had in less than a quarter of a century dissipated to such an extent that once again the name of Gardiner was given to a town. This time it meant a parting of the ways. The portion of Old Pittston which was upon the eastern side retained the name it had acquired in 1779, while the part upon the Kennebec's western shore became the Town of Gardiner, by act of legislature, in 1803. After the separation Pittston had approximately 131 polls, Gardiner about 162. The Gardiner poll tax was $1.59, the total amount of taxes $875.62.
One of the first acts of the new Town of Gardiner in town meeting was: "Voted that one dollar be allowed per day for a man, and the same for a yoke of oxen, calculating 10 hours of faithful labor for a day's work." The town voted to oppose construction of a bridge across the Kennebec, "as cal- culated to injure the coasting trade and to destroy that inland navigation which nature had made," and so did the Town of Pittston. Modern draw- bridges had not yet been invented.
West Gardiner was not the only place to have a real estate boom in 1803. It was in this year that what is probably the biggest purchase of land in all
13
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
history was made, when the United States bought a million-or-so square miles west of the Mississippi from France in what is called the Louisiana Purchase. The price was eleven and one-quarter million dollars, and the new country gave bonds for the sum, just as West Gardiner's settlers were going into debt for land. In both cases, the results seem to have justified the means.
The United States became the greatest maritime nation on earth. Ships were built all up and down the Kennebec, many in Gardiner, and the local yards furnished work for West Gardiner settlers, some of whom were ship carpenters. Robert Fulton sailed from Jersey up the Hudson River to Al- bany in the first successful steamboat, the Clermont, and this was to help bring good times and an era of prosperity to West Gardiner farmers, later.
England and France were at war again. Both seized American ships. For a time it looked as if we might fight France. But in 1812 we made up our minds to fight England because she had impressed American sailors into the British Navy.
Gardiner furnished more than 122 officers and men, some of whom were from West Gardiner. General Henry Dearborn, a local boy, was made com- mander-in-chief of the Army. The American brig Enterprise whipped the Boxer in the famous sea fight off Portland and the American and the British commanders were buried, side by side, in a Portland cemetery. The British established control on the Penobscot in 1814. The citizens of Gardiner felt none too secure. The British burned the Capitol Buildings in Washington.
Hard times came with the end of the war in 1814. The country was bur- dened with a debt of one hundred million dollars. Banks suspended specie payment. But business and industry in Gardiner progressed just the same. Agitation was started for the separation of Maine from Massachusetts. Both Gardiner and Pittston favored this.
Meanwhile Robert Hallowell Gardiner had achieved a settlement with all of the squatters who had settled on his grandfather's property without title during the Revolution, or forced them off the land. Settlers continued to flock to West Gardiner.
POSTMASTERS
In 1820 Maine was admitted to the Union, a full-fledged state. In 1828 the first West Gardiner post office was established in the home of Aaron Haskell, the "cordwainer," at French's Corner, and he was the first post- master in town. His duties were not overly burdensome, for there were only three mails per week, and no Sears Roebuck catalogues to deliver. Come to think of it, he didn't deliver the mail, anyway. In those days one had to get his own mail, at the post office. Haskell's office was on the old post route from Augusta to Freeport. West Gardiner didn't get daily mail service un- til about 1875. Rural Free Delivery, with mail brought to the door of coun- try people, wasn't authorized until 1896. The U. S. Parcel Post System was not introduced until 1912.
In addition to Aaron Haskell, postmasters at French's Corner have been: Aaron Haskell, Jr., Daniel Marston, George W. French, John W. Herrick, Francis W. Brann, William P. Haskell, William D. Marston, Albert W. De-
14
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
Fratus, Mrs. Helen M. French, Frank E. Towle, and possibly others. Name of this post office has been, at various times, West Gardiner and French's Corner.
Prior to 1857 there was a post office at Spear's Corner, situated in the home of Postmaster Joseph L. Spear. The office was called West Gardiner Center Post Office. Spear was succeeded, after three or four years, by Moses Rogers, who was appointed by Buchanan. According to Kingsbury & Deyo: "Party feeling ran high in the neighborhood and it was not long until there appeared to be no use for a post office or a Democratic postmaster at the Center."
After this most of the families in this neighborhood had boxes in the Gardiner Post Office, and whoever went to town got the mail for the neigh- bors. It was kept in a wooden salt box at the home of Augustus Littlefield at Spear's Corner, and was a prolific source of neighborhood news. Later, Oliver Herbert Small built up a business for himself by contracting for daily delivery of mail, plus a reasonable amount of shopping and running errands around Gardiner for folks along the road at twenty-five cents per week, apiece. In a time when travel was mostly in farm wagons drawn by oxen or draft horses it was worth the money to avoid a trip to town for mail every day.
At the very outset it became apparent that the new development would become a rural, rather than an industrial community. In all the miles of West Gardiner's Cobbossee Stream there were not such opportunities for water power development as Gardiner Village possessed in just the brief gorge below the dam at New Mills.
West Gardiner's terrain was gently rolling. The land, though heavily clayed, was rich with the decaying of centuries-old forests. It was good land for growing things.
Year by year the old town increased its manufacturies and its commerce, while the new cleared its fields and planted crops. Year by year the interests of the two diverged until, by mutual consent, it was adjudged better that they part.
SEPARATION
The legislative act which accomplished the separation and set up the Town of West Gardiner was signed by Governor John Hubbard, August 8, 1850. Gardiner had become a city in 1849.
The new town comprised about 10,400 acres, taken from Ward Three of the City of Gardiner. The boundaries were the same as they are today ex- cept that the Neck has been added and a farm or two swapped back and forth with the Town of Farmingdale, from time to time.
West Gardiner had approximately 270 taxpayers the day it became a town. In the hundred years this number has decreased about twelve percent. The valuation has not quite doubled, but the assessments are about 121/2 times greater than they were one hundred years ago. And so are profits and wages, and everything we buy or sell.
The town valuation for 1851 was $255,386, for 1950, $465,975. The re- spective assessments were $2561 and $32,397. The tax rate for 1851 was 9 mills. For 1950 it was 68 mills.
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
15
TAX LIST OF WEST GARDINER, 1851
Value of Real Estate
Value of Personal Estate Tax
$219,632.00 35,754.00 9 mills per cent 1.00
238 polls at
Assessment
2561.00
Names
Total
Names
Total
Samuel Austin
$10.41
David Bangs
4.77
Baker Andrews
7.38
John H. Cram
.63
Smith H. Andrews
3.87
William Crosby
2.16
Wm. H. Allen
6.48
Isaiah Clough (Litch.)
2.97
Jas. Atkins, (Hallowell)
.90
Charles Clough
6.21
Aaron Bran
7.76
Peter Clark Jr. 13.39
Thomas Bran
.95
Wm. W. Clark
8.16
Uriah Briery, (Gardiner)
1.68
Wm. M. Clark, (Hall.)
1.08
Ira Bacheldor
1.67
Joseph Carleton
11.93
John Bean
20.95
Nathaniel Currier
20.09
John Bachelder
19.08
John Crommet
4.09
Samuel Bush
4.02
George Church
10.16
Greenlief Bibber
2.20
James Collins (Gar.)
.90
Brown Baker
11.49
George Collins
5.76
Wm. Blanchard
5.47
Thomas M. Clark
20.59
Geo. W. Blanchard
.72
James Collins
13.36
John Blanchard
10.89
Jonathan Cole
3.41
John Blaisdell
11.53
Joseph Cole
12.29
Handy Blaisdell
.24
Asa Copp
.45
William Bran 2d
3.33
Samuel Clay (estate)
13.14
Gardiner Bran
2.25
William Clay (Gar.)
1.76
Moses Bran
6.35
Daniel Cole
9.15
Levi T. Bran
3.29
James Davis
10.08
Jefferson Bran
7.97
Paul Dyer
13.97
Richard Blaisdell
5.40
Manuel Defratus
3.60
George Bran
.72
Thomas Davis
3.06
James Bran
10.85
William M. Douglass
4.55
Cyrus Bran
4.57
Joshua M. Douglass
6.79
Simon & Francis Bran
3.87
Eleazar Douglass
9.26
Thomas J. Bailey
7.63
Zebulon W. Douglass
8.67
Joseph Baker
3.64
William H. Douglass
6.36
Ivory Bran (Gar.)
2.53
Oliver S. Edwards
13.03
John Baker Jr.
1.00
Ezekiel Edwards
.63
Heli Bassett
10.77
A. K. P. Edwards
6.91
Daniel Bran
6.25
Nathaniel Erskine
2.34
Wm. Bran (estate)
4.23
Jeremiah Erskine
6.36
Aaron Bran 2d
3.02
Daniel Fuller
25.53
John Blanchard Jr.
6.30
David Fuller
13.73
Andrew Brown
5.90
William Fuller
7.30
Joseph A. Brown
5.11
David H. Fuller
12.92
Thomas Burnham
12.92
Henry Farr
6.12
John Burnham
1.13
Isaac Farr
14.63
16
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
Names
Total
Names
Total
Enoch French
18.88
Nathan J. Knox
9.90
John Fogg
11.98
John S. Knox 6.80
Charles G. French
9.59
Thomas K. Lord
3.44
John A. French
.59
Samuel Lane
15.04
Joseph Fuller
9.90
Hiram Lord
10.53
Daniel Gilman
8.78
Isaac Lord
8.78
James Gilman
.23
J. B. Littlefield
13.06
Nahum Grover
4.49
Tobias Littlefield
6.46
Wm. Grover
3.97
James Littlefield
12.04
Caleb Goodwin (est.)
9.77
James Lowell, (Gar.)
2.70
John M. Gove
11.79
Joseph W. Lunt
8.48
John Gowell
19.31
James Littlefield, Jr.
4.11
Bernard Goodrich
3.60
Jeremiah C. Looke
2.32
Charles Gowell
8.55
Jesse Lambert, (Gar.)
12.79
Sumner Green
.32
John Libby
10.88
Oliver Goodwin
5.62
Levi Lambert
8.01
R. H. Gardiner (Gar.)
24.75
Robert Laplane
7.61
Archibald Horn (Hall.)
7.20
Geo. T. Marston
15.61
Samuel Horn
3.92
Daniel Marston, (est.)
17.38
John W. Herrick
9.29
Samuel C. McKenny
8.69
Wm. P. Haskell
.36
Thos. C. McCausland
2.70
Joseph Haskell (estate)
11.57
Jeremiah McCausland
11.03
Ephraim Hodges 2d
3.64
Thomas H. McCausland
4.05
Ezra Hodges
4.52
Sally McCausland
(exempt)
Sullivan Hodgdon (est.)
8.49
Arthur B. McCausland
8.93
Samuel Hodgdon Jr.
10.23
Frederic Mills
6.97
Jeremiah Hodgdon
15.89
Thomas Mills
2.25
John Hodgdon
12.35
Benj. Marston, (Gar.)
1.08
Samuel Hodgdon
1.80
Arthur B. McCausland, (Gar.)
.90
R. G. Hildreth (Mass.)
9.63
Andrew McCausland 1.80
Shepard L. Hutchinson
.32
Charles W. McCausland
1.80
Daniel Hildreth 2d
10.39
Joseph S. McCausland
4.55
Henry Hinton
8.73
John McCausland
15.57
Caroline Hildreth
6.30
John R. McKenney
.36
Charles H. Houghton
5.47
Nahum Merrill
25.65
Merrill Hunt
14.88
Daniel Merrill
18.25
Euclid Houghton
9.47
Allison Milliken
17.46
Aaron Haskell
40.30
P. L. Milliken
(est. exempt)
Nahum Hildreth (Gar.)
.72
Nath'l Marston
4.36
Levi Jones
7.07
James Marston
3.51
John Johnson
5.78
Levi Moore
3.48
Rufus Judkins
13.82
Wm. Mclellan
2.17
David Jenkins
8.14
Reuben S. Mitchell
2.25
John Jaqueth, (Gar.)
2.68
J. F. Marr
5.55
Robert Johnson
8.03
Alex'r Marr
9.62
Benj. Jewett
7.58
F. B. Merrill
6.53
Seth Kempton
8.19
James C. Malcomb
7.97
Nathaniel Kenniston, (Gar.)
4.54
Stephen Merrill
12.41
John Knox
1.41
Wm. Merrill
9.83
17
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
Names
Total
Names
Total
Thomas J. Neal
6.56
Israel Spear
2.54
Simon Nudd
7.42
George Spear
1.35
Geo. Nash
13.20
Joseph M. Spear
1.08
Samuel Nash
.54
Gardiner Spear
20.22
Hannah Neal
(exempt)
Thaddeus Spear
24.02
Eliakim Norton
7.28
Charles Small
8.51
Robert Newell
25.26
Jacob Small
5.31
Asa L. Newell
6.54
Hartwell Stickney
6.91
Edward Norton
12.67
Lois Spear
(exempt)
Reuel W. Norris
.59
Herman Stinson
7.23
T. J. Parks (est.)
21.33
Hugh Smith
10.05
Hiram Pope
18.71
Barzillai Smith
8.38
Elijah Pope
23.34
John Stevens
5.45
John Plaisted (Gar.)
4.28
John A. Stevens
2.03
Simeon Potter
1.49
Hannah Tappan
(exempt)
Sidney Potter
4.65
Andrew Tibbetts (Gar.)
1.26
Bart. B. Potter
.16
Jesse Tucker (est.)
28.33
Robert B. Potter
2.03
Jesse Tucker
1.80
Ansyl Potter
13.85
Emerson Titcomb
21.20
Edward Peacock, 2nd
16.59
Caleb Towle
14.47
James Peacock (Gar.)
5.53
Nicholas Towle
7.90
James Potter
9.93
Henry Taylor (Hal.)
1.35
Sam'l H. Parsons
10.77
Robert C. Towle
13.55
Wm. Peacock
7.38
Moses D. Thompson
3.05
Benj. B. Robinson
6.73
Caleb Taylor
2.84
Joseph Roberts
8.42
Wm. Trafton
10.09
Charles M. Roberts
15.10
Asa Trask
2.25
John M. Roberts
11.58
Elias Taylor
6.59
Andrew Rollins
4.95
Geo. D. Wakefield
13.86
Gardiner Roberts
12.50
James Woodbury
7.56
John Robbins
8.44
Wm. Woodbury
11.25
Chester Rhodes
25.88
N. M. Whitmore (Gar.)
12.71
Thomas Richardson
3.19
John Williams
12.01
Thomas B. Sampson
36.00
Ivory Wakefield
25.73
Job Sampson
5.36
Jeremiah Wakefield
32.07
John Stevens, 2d
7.38
Dominicus Wakefield, Jr.
17.96
Maria Sampson
(exempt)
H. M. and J. Wakefield
7.61
Moses Stevens (Bath)
4.50
Annanias Wakefield
1.35
Jeptha Sherburn
5.59
Wm. Wakefield (Gar.)
6.08
James Sherburn (Hal.)
.27
Granville Wakefield
12.93
Joseph Steward
3.60
Alfred Wakefield
10.98
John Steward
2.07
George Wakefield
1.31
James Sherburn
12.45
H. D. Wakefield (Gar.)
5.07
Aaron Stackpole
15.08
A. and F. Wakefield
10.03
Harvey Scribner
12.94
James Williams
9.28
Geo. L. Smith
4.69
Wm. H. Williams
5.97
James Spear
13.70
Nicholas S. Williams
8.39
Richard Spear
8.63
Ezekiel Ware
12.55
Joseph L. Spear
1.58
Joseph Wharf, Jr.
12.02
William Spear, 2d
12.59
Samuel Washburn
8.80
John Spear
9.06
18
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
Single Polls
James Bran, Jr.
Samuel Merrill
Eli Bassett
Abner Milliken
Moses R. Burnham
Henry Marston
Joel L. Burnham James Cole
Charles Small, Jr.
Augustine Fuller
George A. Fuller
Wm. Stackpole Samuel Small John Smith
Daniel F. Fuller
George W. French
David Tucker
Alleoh Galusha
Nathan Thorn
Israel Glass
Sleeper Towle
Wm. Hildreth
John Towle
Thaddeus H. Littlefield
Thomas Trafton
Robert Littlefield
Franklin Wakefield
Alvin Merrill Seward Merrill
P. M. Ware
There was considerable of a flurry, the first few weeks of West Gar- diner's townhood. There was a town government to elect, money to be raised, and a hundred and one things to do that no one who had never been in on the organization of a town would ever dream of.
The first town meeting was held in the "Freewill Baptist White Meet- ing House" which was then on High Street, nearly opposite the site of to- day's West Gardiner Garage. The date was August 21, 1850.
A venerable, leather-bound tome contains the record of what the towns- folk did there that day. It is written in a finer script than we usually see today and the ink has browned with age:
First, "by major vote and by ballot" they "chose Daniel Fuller, Moder- ator, who being present, was duly sworn;
"Choose Oliver S. Edwards, Town Clerk;
"Chose Aaron Haskell, Abner Milliken, Dan'l. Marston Selectmen of the Town;
"Chose Merrill Hunt Town Treasurer;
"Chose John Knox and John McKiney Constables;
"Chose Hermon Stinson, Hosea Rice, Geo. W. Blanchard Superintend- ing School Committee;
"Voted to authorize the Treasurer to borrow money to defray the expenses of the town the present year ;
"Voted to choose one fence viewer for each School District in town the following persons were chosen viz-John Gowell, Hugh Smith, Sam'l. Mer- rill, Franklin Wakefield, Edward Peacock, Ezekial Ware;
"Voted that the Selectmen be a committee to assist the Commissioners in settling the public property at the village;
"Voted that the Selectmen be highway surveyors the present year.
"Voted that the present school agents serve through the year or till others are chosen: Ivory Wakefield, Peter Clark, Jr., David Fuller, John Spear, James Potter, George Church, John Stevens, Aaron Bran, 2nd, Jef- ferson Bran.
"Voted to adjourn sine die,
O. S. Edwards, Town Clerk."
Robert D. Rhodes
19
WEST GARDINER'S HUNDRED YEARS
And then the citizens went their proud ways homeward, having launched their new town with dignity and aplomb.
There were town meetings every whipstitch that first year, for there was so much to do: books of record to be set up; adjustments to be made with the City of Gardiner over taxes, property and appropriations which had been made when the two were one. A matter of some $700 which was due from the city for building the Buffee Landing Bridge wasn't straight- ened out for months.
A record book bearing the inscription "Presented to the Town of West Gardiner by Aaron Haskell, Esq. A.D. - 1850" entitled "Roads and Lines of Division and Stray Beasts" gives some details of life in those days.
An early record in this book is this: "Came into the enclosure of the subscriber on Sunday the 20th of October inst one red horse gray maine, dark tail, the owner is requested to take said horse away and pay charges immediately. West Gardiner, Oct. 28th, 1850, Wm. Grover."
Mr. Grover, evidently, had been appointed to one of the busiest offices of that day-pound keeper. West Gardiner did not have an official pound, ever. Items in the records of town meetings read "Voted that his (the pound keeper's) barn yard, barn or stable be the town pound."
Sheep were so numerous and so prone to stray that branding was prac- ticed to a considerable extent. One item in the book on "roads and lines of division and stray beasts" reads :
"Uriah Briery's Sheep Mark-two holes in each ear, & tail cropt. A true copy attest O. S. Edwards Town Clerk, West Gardiner, Sep. 13, 1855."
Sheep were important possessions of families that grew their own wool to make their own yarn to knit their own socks. Some spun and wove wool into cloth, too, and the clothes for the whole family were made on these farms.
Fence viewers were busy officials in early times, for new fields were being cleared and planted and when one man's field abutted upon another's it was a good thing to have recorded just which should build this or that section of the fence and keep it in repair. It saved a lot of arguing.
Other town officers who found plenty to keep them busy then were the surveyors of wood and bark, of whom there were five or six chosen to set- tle disputes over measurements of cordwood and hemlock bark, which was sold by the hundreds of cords to the local tanneries; surveyors of lumber, of whom there were four, as compared with one today, and twenty-four highway surveyors, one for each road district in the town.
Those were the days when a man could work out his taxes on the road, at the rate of 121/2 cents per hour in the summer, ten cents in winter, if he so desired. If he worked more than enough hours to cover his tax he was like to not get paid for it, unless the town voted to pay cash for the over- time.
The highway surveyors acted as straw bosses in their various road dis- tricts and received the same pay as the men they worked beside. The labor of a yoke of oxen on the road was paid for at the rate of ten cents per hour in 1852. The highway surveyors were instructed to pay "boys and steers what they think proper." There is no reference to the rate of pay for horses up to this date. There weren't many horses then, anyway.
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