USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 13
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Art. XVIII. Any person who shall own any geese, or ducks, shall suffer the same to escape from his own inclosures unnecessarily, and trespass upon his neighbour's pro- perty, in any part of said Wiscasset, without permission of said neighbour; or any per- son who shall suffer his geese, or ducks, to run at large, and remain in any street, com- mon, or public ground, within the Central School District so called, shall forfeit twenty- five cents; and if on request of the Inspector of Police, or of the person injured, he shall not remove the same, he shall forfeit fifty cents, for each offence, after said notice.
Art. XIX. The foregoing Byelaws (unless as excepted in Article 18) shall extend only to so much of the town of Wiscasset, as is situated in the Central School District, so called.
Art. XX. There shall be chosen one or more town officers, to be called Inspec- tors of Police, in the same manner that other Town Officers are by law chosen, whose duty it shall be to carry the foregoing Byelaws into execution, and remove all nuis- ances, at the expense of the town, or person, liable for the same if any. And the Select- men of the town shall also be ex officio Police Officers.
Art. XXI. All forfeitures under the foregoing Byelaws, shall accrue one moiety thereof to the inhabitants of the town, and the other moiety to the Inspector of Police,
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or other person, who shall enter a complaint of, or prosecute for the same, except such Inspector or other person, shall be evidence in the trial of the complaint, in which case the whole penalty shall accrue to the inhabitants of the town.
Art. XXII. The foregoing Byelaws shall go into operation on the first day of May next, provided they are duly accepted by the Court of Sessions, and when they go into operation, all Byelaws heretofore made, are hereby repealed.
Accepted April 15, 1822. Attest,
THOMAS TRUNDY, Town Clerk.
Custom Houses
Wiscasset Point has, since 1791, been the seat of a custom house for the river and contiguous portions of the sea. It was established a port of entry by the legislature, June 3, 1789, and it was discontinued June 30, 1913, the records being removed in the spring of 1932 to the custom house at Bath.
Before the passage under the federal constitution, in 1789, of the first acts of Congress for federal collection of revenues from imports and from excise, the state of Massachusetts received and levied its own duties of those sorts, and appointed the officers who collected. Naval offices were opened for the entrance and clearance of vessels, records being kept by a naval offi- cer appointed for that purpose. Townsend, now Boothbay, was the port of entry for Wiscasset vessels, although Moses Davis of Edgecomb, appeared to be a deputy for the naval office of Townsend, and in his diary under December 22, 1785, is found this entry: "Went to Daniel Websters to meet Mr. Boyd in order to Receive a Deputation for Naval Officer. Rec'd said Deputation & Returned home before night."
Although the officers were supposed to make return every six months, such files, if ever made, have not survived to this day. The Wiscasset cus- toms records, which begin in 1789, give the first clue to the ships in which the early ship-owners of this place were interested; even though many of them, Squire Silvester among them, were, previous to that date, the owners of other craft.
President Washington, on August 3, 1789, nominated Francis Cook to the Senate for the office of collector of customs at Wiscasset and the Senate confirmed Cook. In 1791 Cook was given an additional appointment under the Act for the collecting of internal revenue. He had been chosen by the
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General Court for Wiscasset, June 27, 1787, 1788, and 1789. The commis- sion of his permanent appointment (March 21, 1791) names Francis Cook "Inspector of the Revenue for the several ports within the District of Wis- casset in Massachusetts." Cook held this office for thirty-eight years.
When his house was built on Main Street, in 1795, Cook kept the custom- house office in a little building on his land, just west of his house. This first custom house was afterward hauled to the Harrington lot on Bradford Street and occupied by Thyrza Segars. It was finally burned.
On March 13, 1790, David Silvester was appointed by the legislature collector of excise for the western district of Lincoln County. In a letter from George Thacher found in a collection called "Applications for Office under President Washington" is this recommendation:
David Sylvester lives at the Port of Wiscasset. he has been two or three years ap- pointed Collector of Import & Excise for the Western District of the County of Lin- coln, & I believe he will make a good & faithful Collector of Import at that Port under the Laws of the United States. But should there be any reason in the mind of the Presi- dent for not continuing him in office-I take the Liberty of recommending to the President Benjamin Jones Porter as a person that would make an able & faithful Col- lector, and one who deserves the attention of the public, having greatly injured his health in the service of his Country thro' the late war.
Several years later a custom house designed by Alexander Johnston, Jr., was erected near the shore at the Point, close to Whaleship Wharf. It was a rectangular, two-storied building of perfect proportion, but smaller than the present custom house. The lower part was of stone and the upper part of brick with a master coating of brown. The work was done by George Dodge, a native of Wiscasset and a superior mason from his earliest youth, whose only absence from this town was the time spent in Boston, completing his trade. This building faced the west and the entrance was approached by steps in the center of the front, above which was a balcony with an iron rail- ing, and four stone columns rose from the base of the second story of the roof, giving it an imposing appearance which added greatly to the dignity of its aspect.
It was copied on a reduced scale from the old Portland custom house of 1850. By a singular coincidence both this building and its prototype perished by fire the same year. The Wiscasset custom house was one of the buildings burned in the devastating fire of October 8, 1866, when the Johnston
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Wharf with every building thereon, including the shipyard, was reduced to blackened ruins. The land on which it stood was sold four years afterward to the Knox & Lincoln Railroad.
In April, 1870, the "new" custom house, in which the post-office was also housed, was opened. It occupies a lot on the north side of Front Street, be- tween Water and Middle Streets. The space which it covers was formerly divided into two lots, one of which (corner of Front and Water) belonged to Abiel Wood, and the other to Orchard Cook.
Mr. Mullet was the supervising architect for the Treasury Department. The building was commenced in the autumn of 1868, and William Hogan of Bath was the contractor. For some unknown reason, possibly frugality, Hogan proceeded to remove the bricks from the foundation of the old fort on Davis Island, intending to use them for the foundation of the custom house. It was not until a great number of the bricks from the water batteries had been taken away that the appeal of Colonel Amory to the War Depart- ment prevented further desecration. Then the stones which formed the boundary of the Wood burying ground in Mary Greenough's pasture on Sweet Auburn were commandeered for the custom house. It was this van- dalism which caused Joseph Wood to move all of the Wood family who had been buried there to Woodlawn Cemetery at Birch Point.
An old newspaper clipping recently came to light which gives a glimpse of the political feeling in Mr. Cook's time. It appeared in Poulson's Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, April 10, 1829:
Augusta [Me.] March 27 .- Mr. [Francis] Cook, the old and very respectable Collector of Wiscasset, who has been removed by General Jackson to make room for a foreigner, had his commission from George Washington, and is said to have been the only Collector remaining in office of Washington's appointment. Deacon Cook is a very worthy man, and has always been a faithful officer, for aught that we hear to the contrary. But Mr. McCrate huzzaëd for General Jackson and Mr. Cook did not.
A flag staff 87 feet high was raised on the custom house November 24, 1869, and for forty-four years the vertical striped flag of the United States Treasury Department flew from this mast.
This building is of brick; is two stories in height; and has a slated hip roof. The trimmings are of Hallowell granite.
The joiner work was done by Stephen S. Haynes, a superior workman and thorough mechanic. The second floor was given over to the collector of
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customs, while the lower floor became the post-office for the United States mail.
The Inspectors of Revenue were:
Name
Date of Temp. Comm.
Date of Perm. Comm.
Francis Cook
March 21, 1791 14
Thomas McCrate
March II, 1829
John D. McCrate "
January 6, 1836
James Taylor
April 1, 1845
Jeremiah Bailey
May 3, 1849
John Babson
April 1, 1853
Thomas Cunningham
April 2, 1857
December 22, 1857
Erastus Foote
April 16, 1861
July 27, 1861
June 20, 1865
July 27, 1865
February 15, 1866
Joseph E. Smith
August 22, 1868
Orrin McFadden 15
-
April 16, 1869
George B. Sawyer
May 18, 1881
Richard T. Rundlett
May 18, 1885
George B. Sawyer
Richard T. Rundlett
Daniel H. Moody
September 22, 1898
December 23, 1898
January 15, 1903
-
Herbert W. Hawes
-
January 31, 1907 May 22, 1912
The Postal Service
The first mail on the American continent started from New York for Boston on New Year's Day, 1673. The postman followed Bowery Lane until he reached the new wagon road to Harlem, thence past Annie's Hook, or Pelham Manor, to Greenwich and Stamford, to New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, thence eastward along the watercourses to Boston, crossing all rivers and arms of the sea in boats, as was necessary until the last years of the eighteenth century.16
14. The average number of sea-letters issued by Francis Cook, collector of the port of Wis- casset in 1804-1805-1806 were forty-nine. In 1807, he issued sixty-seven. All vessels to which such documents were issued were principally laden with lumber.
15. The four elms in the four corners of the custom-house lot were set out by Colonel McFadden in 1876.
16. Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies, II, 20.
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March 17, 1873
January 22, 1886 May 26, 1890 August 6, 1894
"
-
December 21, 1839 April 10, 1846 September 26, 1850
Public Buildings
Although Parliament had, in 1710, passed "An Act for establishing a General Post-Office for all Her Majesty's Dominions," and for years under the British Government there had been a post-rider between Portland and Pownalborough giving a postal service of sorts to the scattered inhabitants of eastern parts, it had been discontinued, and the year 1787 found them without regular postal connection with Boston. During the days of the re- settlement of the Point, all letters, journals, and parcels were brought here by vessels from both foreign and domestic ports.
There is a tradition that, previous to 1760, the mail between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Wells, Maine, was for seven years carried regularly by a dog. The mail was carefully made up, put into a pouch and tied around the animal's neck; thus he bore it safely through, until on one of his jour- neys, this faithful dog was killed by an Indian.17
When bridle-paths were opened, the mail, in 1788, was brought once a fortnight by post-rider from Portland to Pownalborough. Soon after this time, however, the service improved and Pownalborough received a weekly mail. The mail established at this time was carried once a week on horse- back by Benjamin Allen and Matthew Blossom, from Portland to Wiscas- set; the route being through Gray, New Gloucester, Greene, Monmouth, Winthrop, Hallowell Fort and Hook, Pittston, crossing the Kennebec at Smith's ferry, and Pownalborough to Wiscasset Point and back. Blossom carried the mail as far as Winthrop, whence Allen, who was postmaster at that place, brought it forward.
The first post-office in Wiscasset-the second one duly authorized in the District of Maine-was established here February 16, 1790. Ebenezer Whittier, the proprietor of the Whittier Tavern, was the first postmaster, which office he held until 1805. Wiscasset was at that time the easternmost post-office in the United States, and letters were sent here for delivery to places all through the wilderness beyond. There were neither routes nor offices to the eastward, so the letters which arrived here destined to go further were advertised and held until sent for by private conveyance. It was stated by his great-granddaughter that after a severe storm in winter, Whittier, all alone with a mail pack on his back would make the journey on snow-shoes along a blazed trail to Warren,18 where the way through the
17. The Concord Patriot.
18. Statement of Elinor Hoskins Waite, granddaughter of Abigail Whittier, the daughter of Ebenezer Whittier.
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forest was marked by balizes or land buoys, small beheaded pine trees whose tops had been lopped off to guide the mail carrier through the bewildering white wilderness as he delivered the mail to points further east. This was the foot-post.
In 1793, the United States Congress established a post-road from Passa- maquoddy to St. Mary's, the southernmost point on the Georgia coast, which was also at that time the extreme end of our possessions, for Florida was then held under the Crown of Spain, and the Monroe Doctrine was as yet unborn.19 This coast to coast road, latitudinally speaking, was the begin- ning of the United States mail route, and the evolution of cross posts soon followed.
The postmaster at Portland, on the twenty-third day of April of that year, posted a notice to the effect that the mail would leave that office every Monday at six A.M., arriving at Wiscasset on Tuesday at one P.M. On its return trip the stage would leave Wiscasset on Thursday morning at six A.M., arriving at Portland the following day, Friday, at one P.M.
George Russell, who lived at Penobscot Ferry at a place called Sandy Point20 was hired about this time, by private persons, to come to Wiscasset and from here convey the mail to Castine and other towns along the line. Once a fortnight he made the journey afoot, at first carrying it in a yellow silk handkerchief, but soon after acquiring saddle-bags for its transporta- tion. He was the first letter-carrier Wiscasset had on its rural delivery route. Russell seems to have taken French leave, for the Annals of Warren states that "he left his family and the mail behind and went west."21
The earliest mail from Pentagoet to the eastern part of the state was car- ried by John Grindell of Sedgwick about 1795. There were no roads at that time and he carried the mail in a boat along the shore.22
The post-road to Camden was not opened, nor the post-offices at Warren and Thomaston begun, until 1794. The next year (1795) the mail was sent from Wiscasset Point to Augusta by a post-rider who went as far as Gar-
19. During the War of 1812, the Seminole Indians and the British soldiers had used Florida as a base of military operations against the United States. In order to put an end to actions so inimical to the peace of the country, President Monroe demanded that Spain either keep order or sell the tract held by her to the United States. Spain decided to sell, and the annexation of Florida took place in 1819. This was the beginning of the Monroe Doctrine.
20. Fort Point at Stockton Springs.
21. Cyrus Eaton, Annals of Warren, p. 255.
22. Wheeler, History of Castine, p. 81.
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diner on horseback and thence to Augusta by canoe. One trip a week consti- tuted the service from Wiscasset to Boothbay from 1805 to 1840, when that service was succeeded by two trips a week, one on Tuesday and one on Fri- day.23 The diary of Moses Davis of Edgecomb records under date of Octo- ber II, 1808: "The Boothbay road from Folly Island ferry to McFarland's in Boothbay was laid out, and on the 12th the mail was carried over the route by Moses Davis."
In 1815 the mail was carried from Gardiner to the old court house at Dresden by Captain Loud, and from there to Wiscasset by way of Dresden Mills.
Sometime after the crossing of the Kennebec was made at Day's ferry, the mails were brought here from Bath once a day, by the Great Eastern Stage Line, which arrived at noon. It took between two and three hours to make this trip over the old stage-road, for the road was rough and winding and the "Tavern could not be ignored." No other method of communica- tion then existed, unless by vessel or private conveyance. There was no tele- graph, no telephone, no cable-just the horses, with an old white leader affectionately called "Old Silver Tail" who lived to be twenty-six years old and whose obituary appeared in the local newspaper in January, 1875.
The mail arrived about noon and was immediately distributed. The pouches must have been heavy or else the service was slow, for then as now, small boys flattened their noses against the glass front of the boxes while awaiting its distribution.
Postage stamps were not authorized until 1847, and prepayment of post- age not compulsory until the first of June, 1856. Among the old town docu- ments are scraps of paper on which are written, in the handwriting of the postmaster, painstakingly executed with quill and ink powder, bills to in- dividuals rendering an account of "monies due the post office for postage charged." Postal rates were governed wholly by distance. The postage- single sheets-stamped in great red ink figures was: Bath, 614 cents; Bos- ton,24 1834 cents; New York, 25 cents; and New Orleans, two shillings.
23. Greene, History of Boothbay, p. 460.
24. When the post roads survey was made by the government in 1812 from Washington, D. C. to various parts of the country, the distance given from the old state house in Boston to Wiscasset was 167.19 miles.
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In the year 1827, the net postage for the following towns was:
Dresden
$ 75.80
Dresden Mills
26.77
Wiscasset
563.36
Sheepscot Bridge
17.90
Boothbay
63.00
Damariscotta Mills
43.02
Newcastle
107.81
Nobleboro
33.63
Bristol
35.07
Waldoboro
208.80
Edgecomb
25.09
The old wooden building which stood at the foot of the Common, the original Lincoln County court house, had been bought by Colonel Hilton and hauled down to the lot next west of the Whittier Tavern, between it and the Francis Blythe house.
Moving houses in those days seems to have been a favorite winter sport. It was often said that with five gallons of Jamaica rum and ninety yoke of oxen they could move a meeting-house, but the meeting-house appears to have withstood this hydraulic pressure! The wooden court house so moved had, in the front room on the ground floor, a stationer's shop, and here like- wise was the first post-office in town for the United States mail, delivered daily from the coaches of Colonel Hilton's through stage-line, the arrival of which was heralded by "Bover Joe Hilton" through his post-horn-six feet long-and those who remember it assert that it was infinitely more musical than the present shriek of the locomotive which emits twenty-four blasts as it approaches Wiscasset, for the safety and protection of the town.
But the post-office did not remain always in its first quarters. It was moved several times before it found a permanent abiding place. At one time it was located at the corner of Main and Water streets in the building now occupied by the Wiscasset Hardware Company, and at that time Elisha McKenney was the postmaster. This building was erected in 1795, and it then stood at the head of Carlton's Wharf, and was the wholesale store of Major Carlton for all West India products. It is the oldest edifice in town now used for commercial purposes.
The next move of the post-office was to the southwest corner of Main and Middle streets, and when the present custom house was built in 1869-
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1 870 to replace the one which perished in the flames of the great fire three years before, it was planned on a scale sufficiently large to accommodate both departments, and there it has ever since remained.
The existing office is rated as third class, and it is the distributing station for ten direct post-offices, which are as follows: Boothbay, Boothbay Har- bor, Trevett, Edgecomb, North Edgecomb, Sheepscot, Alna, Head Tide, Whitefield, and North Whitefield.
During the summer months mail is sent to many of the islands, and a number of sub-stations receive their mail, directly or indirectly, through this office. At the time of the World War the postmaster here was respon- sible for fifty-seven sub-stations which were furnished with postage stamps, thrift stamps, war saving stamps and newspaper wrappers through the post- office at Wiscasset.
The First Gaol at Pownalborough
During the colonial days when the nucleus of a town had been formed and provision made for a meeting house, a schoolhouse, a court house and a cemetery, the settlers turned their attention to a house of detention where lawbreakers could be safely locked up.
In the early existence of the struggling new settlements so indispensable was man power and so weak the gaols that incarceration was not favored, but punishment swift and sure was meted out to the offender who was thereafter promptly set at liberty and sent to work.
When a primitive code of laws began to grapple with the surrounding chaos, a whipping-post, pillory, ducking-stool and gallows were installed for the maintenance of law and order.
On April 12, 1769, the Proprietors granted to Lincoln County "the block house within the fence" (of Fort Shirley) improved as a gaol; but at the town meeting held April 3, 1786, a committee was chosen to petition that the courts be held at Wiscasset Point and that a gaol must be built there.25 Nine more years passed, however, before the first gaol was erected at Wis- casset. Charles Cushing was the first sheriff and Jonathan Spafford the first deputy-sheriff of Lincoln County.
The names of the first offenders are unknown, but in July, 1786, the
25. Document No. 40565 of the court files of Suffolk County is a petition from Bristol that court may be held at Wiscasset, dated May 22, 1786.
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sheriff, Edmund Bridge, reported two prisoners in the Pownalborough gaol, viz: Ezra Taylor for debt and David Malloon for theft. A year later Tay- lor had not been released, and among the other prisoners were one John Concklin held, for assault and battery; John Brown, for theft; and three, for murder-James Page, Andrew Gilman and Archibald McPhetres.
At the July, 1787, term of court, Stephen Way, of Georgetown, was con- victed of an assault upon Lucy Sally with his fists and a saddle,26 and sen- tenced to be set on the gallows one hour with a halter about his neck, then publicly whipped twenty-five stripes on the bare back, to pay the costs of prosecution, and give bonds in £100 to keep the peace.
John Brown was convicted of stealing and sentenced to be whipped twenty stripes, to restore the goods, and pay £6 6s, amounting in all to three times the amount stolen. If unable to pay, he might be disposed of in serv- ice, to any person, for the term of twelve months.
On August 14, 1791, William Lee and William Lee, Jr., of George- town, complained to John Gardiner, justice, that William Malcolm and John Malcolm stole sheep from them "to the great displeasure of Al- mighty God." One John Stevens was also implicated. The sentence was whipping with fifteen stripes on the naked back.
At a town meeting held on May 6, 1786, a committee was chosen to peti- tion that the jails be removed to Wiscasset.
In 1817 when the last blockhouse was taken down the old gaol at Pownal- borough ceased to exist.
The Old Wooden Gaol
The wooden gaol which was built in 1795, "bounded on two sides by the beaten road," was at the corner of the present Washington Street and what was then the old county road to Sheepscot. It was the first house of deten- tion to be erected in Wiscasset, and here criminals were imprisoned until the Lincoln County jail was built on Federal Street sixteen years later. When the stone jail was constructed the discarded wooden gaol was used as an alms-house, and its dungeon-like cellar, called the "coal hole," was, as long as it lasted, a calaboose for drunkards.
This wooden gaol was an oblong, two-storied building with a hip roof,
26. The saddle used by Stephen Way was a cleat or block of wood, used on a vessel, where it was nailed on the lower yardarms, to retain the studding-sail booms in their place.
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Part of the Equipment of the Lincoln County Jail.
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