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 15
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The death penalty was abolished in Maine in 1876, restored in 1883 (P. L. 1883, Chapter 205) and again abolished in 1887 (P. L. 1887, Chap- ter 133). Since that year there has been no one legally hanged in the state of Maine.
32. Orrin Mink, the murderer, was born in the Wiscasset jail of parents confined for robbery.
33. Gov. John Winthrop, History of New England, ii. 210.
Sources: Notes of W. D. Patterson; Bath Independent, F. W. S. Blanchard; recollections of Mrs. Francene Piper White and private records.
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Public Buildings
The Keepers of the Jail
1798 John Sutton Foye
Caleb Hodgdon
1804 Abner Keene
1860-1868 Alvin Piper
1808 James (? ) Norris
1869-1870 Seth Patterson 3
1810 Samuel Sevey 34
1870-1873 Emery Boynton
1815 William Bowman
1873-1876 Seth Patterson
1823 William Boynton
1876-1883 James E. Morse
1830 Samuel Holbrook
1883-1899
Seth Patterson
1844 William Trundy
1899-1902 Eben Fred Albee
1845-1850 E. G. Webber
1902-1904 Freylinghuysen White Albee
1850 Franklin McClintock
1856 Willard Deering
1904 John H. Dow James H. Doyle
In 1917 Daniel D. Page was appointed deputy-sheriff and served in that capacity until 1931-1932. He was the oldest deputy-sheriff in Maine being at that time over eighty years of age.
The Halls of Wiscasset
The oldest building in this town now used as a hall is the house on Garri- son Hill which was built, in 1785, by the patriot, Timothy Parsons, and which was for many years thereafter the home of the Parsons family. It was at a much later period used as a town hall and about the time of the Civil War was used as a school-house under the name of Garrison Hill School. This building has undergone many changes and additions, but a part of the original structure still remains intact.
Lincoln Lodge (organized in 1792) purchased it about 1916, since which time it has been used exclusively by that institution.
The town hall. "Tuesday, May 15, 1792. This day the City Hall at Wiscasset was raised." Wiscasset Hall was in this building and here, in 1793, the first celebration of the Birth of the Holy St. John was held by the newly founded Lincoln Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. After attending divine service in the Old Meeting-house, the "Brethren formed a procession and marched to Wiscasset Hall where an entertainment was served."
The town hall, which was burned February 8, 1860, stood on the site 34. Samuel Sevey was jailer for thirteen years in all.
35. Seth Patterson was jailer for twenty-two years in all. As the jail records cannot be found, this list is incomplete.
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now covered by the rectory of St. Philip's Church. For many years it re- mained unfinished, and a committee of three men, Zebediah Thayer, Henry Whitney and Ebenezer Hilton, appointed in May, 1817, made their report in April, 1820, in which they recommended that it be finished both inside and outside. In the lower part of this building two schools were held.
Anderson Hall. The only mention found of this hall is as follows:
Festival of St. John .- Notice is hereby given to the members of Lincoln Lodge, that agreeable to their constitution, a Meeting of the members will be holden on Tuesday the 27th inst. at 5 o'clock P. M. at Mr. John Anderson's Hall, in Wiscasset, for the purpose of installing their officers-when and where the officers of said Lodge are re- quired to attend punctually. Supper will be provided at Widow Marcy Tinkham's.
By order of the Worshipful Master, SETH TINKHAM, Sec'ry.
December 13, 1803.36
Lincoln Hall. This building, once the old wooden structure at the foot of the Common which first housed the Lincoln County courts in Wiscasset, was moved to the lot next west of the Whittier Tavern. The contract for the erection of it was signed in 1793 and building began soon after that. The reminiscences of this edifice, written many years later by one who re- called its various uses will, perhaps, give us the best picture of this famous old hall.
"Many pleasant associations are connected with Lincoln Hall. Fourth of July dinners, traveling theatres, 'sleight of hand' shows, dancing and sing- ing schools, meetings, concerts and shows of all kinds. It was here that our citizens first saw that 'Bubble of 1825'-the roaring steam engine and a complete train of cars on a circular track, with a lecturer inside of the circle explaining to his audience the workings of that wonderful invention which was destined to do more toward the world's advancement than any other discovery of that century.
"In Lincoln Hall the whole crew in procession, from a shipyard after a successful launching, filed in to well filled tables and celebrated the event in one of those feasts that belonged to a large hearted people. Dr. Packard, an ever welcome guest, after the first fruits of the feast, as he prepared to take his leave, admonished them 'not to let their rejoicings overstep the bounds of prudence.' He knew when to leave.
"In the lower story at the front, John B. Mange kept a book and station- 36. (See Eastern Repository. No. 29.)
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ery store. Great bunches of goose-quills tied with red cord, sealing wax, wafers, sand-boxes, black sand, ink powder and other things now rare in stationers' shops filled a prominent place in his show-case. Here, too, was the post office. From the rear, Anson Herrick sent forth once a week the damp sheets of the Citizen, to entertain, instruct and enlighten the citizens of Lincoln County and the State; and in a room which in former years had served as a jury-room, some of us suffered the horrors of a woman's school; some teaching, some scolding and a good deal of spanking. The old hall was cremated years ago and the school marms have died. Peace to their ashes!
"At the east of Lincoln Hall on Federal Street, was Murphy's shop.37 A box stove, not a very common thing, attracted and afforded warmth in win- ter to the 'fellows'-there were several intermediate steps or grades in those days from boys to men. When nothing in particular was going on in town, Murphy was sure to have a shop full. The particular time we have in mind was the winter that Murphy had a contract with the Town to make a num- ber of leathern buckets to be used with the fire-engine, -called the 'old tub.' These partly finished buckets made good stools to sit upon,-either end up, -and on a common level the smoke of the 'long nines' mingled with the sole leather and other fragrant smells. Great latitude was allowed in the telling of yarns and jokes, but the audience was appreciative, and the ap- plause if deserved, was hearty. An old drum stood in one corner and many a son of pious parents learned to play his first game of poker in Murphy's shop."
Lincoln Hall was completely destroyed by fire, November 28, 1846.
Piper's Hall was in the second story of the old Josh Hilton store on Water or Fore Street. This building was built and owned by a man named Silas Piper, and was occupied when it burned in the great fire of 1866, by Elihu Hatch, a marble worker. It was here that the boys and girls of 1806 took their first dancing lessons.
Washington Hall. There was, in the early days of the nineteenth century, a large three-storied hostelry, the Washington Hotel, on the corner of State and Court Streets,38 facing the Common, and memorable for having one of the largest halls in the country.
37. This was Andrew Murphy whose home was on Pleasant Street in the house now owned by Josephine Dodge.
38. This was later called Brooks Hotel. The house now standing on this site was built by Christopher Averill and the streets are now known as Main and Summer.
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In this spacious apartment the winter assemblies were held. The social life of Wiscasset was far-flung at that time. Hither came Gen. William Lithgow, of Georgetown, one of Washington's aides in the Revolution; Col. William Howard of Augusta; Gen. Henry Dearborn of Gardiner; Gen. Henry Knox of Thomaston, who were dwelling in their magnificent homes like Lairds of the Highlands in their manorial castles. And Edmund Bridge, high sheriff of Lincoln County, with open heart and open hand, living to a grand old age, a life of uprightness and hospitality on the banks of the Eastern River.
At Washington Hall gathered for these memorable occasions the assem- blies, the beauty and the chivalry of Lincoln County. They were conducted with great propriety by managers selected from the magnates of the town; and under the glow of candle-light in this lordly hall, the satin-slippered feet of maidens kept time with the silver-buckled shoes of youths who trod out the stately measures of minuet, Virginia Reel, Portland Fancy and other old New England contras. Wiscasset was graced by her charming daughters, for there were at this time many beautiful women in the village, of sweet expression, clear complexion with glowing cheeks painted by mountain breezes, ocean fogs, sun rays and sea winds-a combination which produced that "purple light of youth" in the daughters of the North. These assem- blies were delightful; well regulated and limited to timely hours, they were well attended and adapted to cherish social intercourse, and an appreciation of the niceties and amenities of life, tending to break off those sharp corners which the rough habits of business and a neglect of the feelings of others are too apt to produce in the manner.
These were the halcyon days of the town and the Washington Hall As- semblies were as traditional as the St. Cecilia balls of Charleston.
The terpsichorean art was taught by Mr. A. B. Gee in this same hall, and music was furnished by an exceptional orchestra, a picturesque member of which was Hector, the Malay, the very incarnation of music.
In the early part of 1815, there were brought to Wiscasset, five Malays, men and women, by a privateer, they having been taken from an East In- dianman which was captured in the War with England. Among the town papers is found a charge of "one shilling for potatoes for the Malays."
They were looked upon as a godless lot and suspected of belonging to the orang-laut, or sea gipsies, so the Eastern Evangelical Society, in those pre-
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Gideonite days, in its effort to save unregenerate souls, sent each of them an English Bible by the colporteur of the village.
One of the Malays, Hector, who claimed to be the son of a native king of an island in the Indian Archipelago (possibly one of the Moluccas or Spice Isles the route to which tantalized the early explorers), elected to re- main in Wiscasset. He was below the average height of men; had a smooth face and copper colored complexion darker than the Chinese, long black shining hair of a coarse quality; large dark eyes, a wide mouth, with a nose short and flat, and high cheek bones. His language was the lingua franca of the Eastern Archipelago, and he turned out to be a Mohammedan.
This Son of the Prophet possessed a phenomenal ear for music, with a tone appreciation so quick and accurate that once having heard a passage of music rendered, he could catch the tune and reproduce any part of it with uncommon skill.
Possibly the climate here did not agree with him for Hector died not long after the other Malays had been sent to Boston and from there shipped in a merchant vessel to Penang via Batavia. The story goes that a plate of rice, in accordance with the Mohammedan custom, or superstition, was placed beside his grave that his spirit might not suffer hunger.
The old hotel with its gay assemblies, inspiring music and merry couples and handsome entertainment has long since vanished, and the silken gowns appear only in fragments wrought into silk quilts and displayed on four- posters in the chambers of Wiscasset homes.39
Danforth Hall, which was much used about the year 1815, for dancing parties, public dinners and the like, was located on Federal Street on the site of the old Stacy tan-yard near the house of Boyd Hubbard.
Liberty Hall is supposed to have been the same place that was so long known as Danforth Hall-a building which spanned the street that now bears his name. A portion of this building is now a part of the dwelling- house known for so long as the John Greenleaf house, which stands near the Federal Street School grounds.
Babson's Hall on the second floor over his store where the Temperance Society used to hold their meetings. It was derisively called "Teetotalers' Hall."
Franklin Block on Main Street was built by Franklin Clark in 1847. The 39. Description taken in part from the recollections of John Hannibal Sheppard.
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upper hall in this block was called Union Hall40 and was dedicated Thurs- day, February 22, 1849, to the use and ceremonies of the Masonic Order. The first regular headquarters of the Masons were in this hall. In 1872, it was refitted and furnished and the town meeting was held there in March of that year. It was a popular gathering place for concerts, exhibitions, balls, singing and dancing schools, public meetings and caucuses, bell-ringers, glass-blowers and diversions of various sorts. Here, also, Thomas Saunders held soirées for his dancing school, in Clark's Hall.
Wawenock Hall is located on Main Street in a brick block of the same name. It was so called to perpetuate the name of the tribe of Indians inhab- iting the territory between the St. George's and the Kennebec Rivers, the tribe of which Bashaba was overlord at the time when the English discov- ered them. This building was designed by Alexander Johnston, Jr., and the work was done by Henry Bragdon. It was completed in 1858.
Rundlett Block. This was the third brick block to be erected in Wiscasset and it was completed in 1871-1872. When it was finished, the Masons took up quarters in the third story and for some time their meetings were held there. Then, feeling need of retrenchment, they went back to Franklin Block, where they remained until they purchased the building on Garrison Hill.
Odd Fellows Hall is in the Rundlett Block.
Richard Tucker Rundlett and Freeman Parker Erskine, representing the Music Hall Associates, purchased on May 7, 1884, land on the corner of Washington and Summer streets. They bought one-half of the old hay- scale lot of J. & A. Johnston for their purpose.
The hall which was soon after erected on the lot was used for concerts, theatres, dancing parties and a skating-rink. It was enlarged and used for several years for a moving picture theatre. Later it was purchased by the Independent Order of Red Men. With the exception of the annual town meeting held there every spring, it is now used almost exclusively by the members of that order.
The Knights of Pythias moved into their new hall in May, 1894. This hall is located upstairs on the western side of Middle Street, almost on the site of the old Stacy Tavern of bygone days.
40. Letter from Capt. R. H. Tucker to his son dated February 22, 1849.
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The First Bridge. Looking east from Wiscasset. Rundlett Block on the right
r
Wiscasset-Davis Island Bridge built in 1847. It was 3, 333 feet long and the longest wooden bridge in Maine.
The Frederic Lewis House and Vincent House. Built on the site of Josiah Bradbury's House. Picture taken about 1890.
The Hilton House built in 1843 on the site of the Whittier Tavern which was built in 1766. The Hilton House was burned October 8, 1903.
IX
Roads and Taverns
W ISCASSET was laid out in 1735, by Maj. Samuel Denny1 of George- town, on northwest and northeast lines by compass at that time, over two centuries ago. Denny was charged with the lotting and plotting of the town for the Wiscasset and Jeremy Squam Proprietors.
1750 John North was the surveyor and John Tufts the chairman, when the survey of the fifteen mile Kennebec tract was made. The following year North made a map of Wiscasset and its harbor.
1759 A plan was made of Pownalborough by Jonas Jones.
1765 Elijah Packard assisted in surveying the roads.
1770 David Silvester surveyed and laid out several of the townways.
1772 Nehemiah Blodget surveyed land in the north part of the town.
1791 Thomas Boyd made plans of the town.
1799 John Sutton Foye was the surveyor at that time, assisted by Thomas Otis and Samuel Farnham.
1818 Job White, was the surveyor.
1816 Ebenezer Allbee.
1828 Moses Hadley.
1836 Nathaniel Coffin.
1860 Alexander Johnston.
1898 Edward T. Hodge made a map of the wharves and harbor.
1923 John Mayers of Dresden has done most of the surveying here since that date.
Surveyors who bore theodolite and chain to set off boundaries in these parts were men who were strong of limb and stout of heart, for the country was rough and the squatters lawless. The irregularities of the original butts and bounds (abuttals and boundaries) gave rise to line feuds of an acri- monious and protracted nature. Squatters who were holding much of the land in this section maintained and in many cases were sustained by the rul- ing of the court, that possession was not nine, but ten-tenths of the law.
Grants, indefinite in their limits, made to individuals or to companies, were revoked and reissued with varying boundaries, as interest or favor could obtain them, and from inadvertence the same territory was sometimes covered by more than one grant. This condition of affairs could be produc- tive only of quarrels and lawsuits over borders which resulted in perpetual
1. Samuel Denny, an English emigrant, was an early resident at Georgetown.
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litigation. One of these which was continually in the Wiscasset court in the early years of the nineteenth century was that of Parsons vs. Chittenden over land in Edgecomb of which both litigants claimed possession. The con- tested tract was small but the claimants were tenacious of their rights and no compromise had been effected. Finally the two appointed three referees, promising them $50 and their word of honor to abide by their decisions as to an impartial settlement of the land in question. Bible justice was meted out and with the wisdom of King Solomon the referees decided to give half the land to Parsons and the other half to Chittenden. It is recorded that both parties were satisfied.
That the surveys were often faulty is proved by the testimony of Colonel York, who stated that in the laying off of East Andover, now Andover, Maine, he carried the hinder end of the chain, and that every so often "they allowed two strides and a straddle for the slack of the chain."
Moses Davis records in his diary sub October 15, 1810: "At muster drafting men to go to Bristol and force running proprietors' lines."
The Edgecomb militia was drafted to enforce orders of court by Judge Thacher, arising from conflicts of land titles under the Tappan, Drowne, and Brown claims.
At Warren, in the county of Lincoln, it became necessary to call out a military force to assist Colonel Thacher, the high sheriff. The night follow- ing the muster of the troops, an open coffin was placed on the door steps of Thacher's house. Thousands of landholders were leagued together to resist the officers of the law. The Bristol men complained that Judge Thacher had called out five hundred men to aid in running lines in Bristol which had already been settled from forty to eighty years previously.
Highways and Townways
During the brief period when the coast towns were in the making, the rivers were used as a means of transportation and there was no vital need of roads. Trails and bridle paths sufficed, but as the trees were felled and the settlers pushed back along the rangeways toward the interior, the peram- bulation of roads began and surveyors were called into requisition.
The earliest record of the necessity of the open waters of the Sheepscot River to the winter convenience of the Kennebec region appears in the tran-
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saction of the Plymouth Company of April 13, 1761, which led to the opening and construction of the first road to Wiscasset. This was done by Samuel Goodwin, commandant at Fort Frankfort on the Kennebec River, where was the seat of the original shire of Lincoln County, which had been organized the year before, known as Pownalborough, some of whose ancient buildings used for court purposes in that day are yet standing.
The following supplies were laid in, incidental to the opening of the road, viz: 1/2 barrel good pistol powder; 100 pounds lead bullets; 500 good flints; a refilled "Dr.'s Box"; one barrel of rum; 100 pounds cheese; 200 pounds of bread.
The road was constructed "for communicating by an open harbor on the Sheepscot with Frankfort, when the Kennebec was closed with ice. Dr. Gar- diner, in consideration of a grant of 400 acres of land on the Sheepscot, con- tracted to build, and did there build a house, and settle a family and station his sloop which he had taken to the Kennebec, when he could not ascend that river on account of the ice.""2
The petition of Samuel Goodwin reads:
To the Honourable his Majestys Justices of the General Sessions of the Peace within and for the County of Lincoln Sept. 8th 1763.
The petition of Samuel Goodwin of Pownalborough in said county Esq" showeth that there is a great necessity of a road or highway from Fort Frankfort in Pownalborough to Woolwich and also from Fort Frankfort to the Sheepsgutt River and that the same roads may be laid out with great convenience to the Publick wherefore your petitioner prays the same roads may be laid out according to Law etc.
SAMUEL GOODWIN
Rev. Jacob Bailey, to whom we are indebted for much of the early his- tory of Pownalborough, states that when the land was wild and wooded "the people used the river as a highway, in summer in boats, in winter on the ice with 'sleds and slays' for the roads were for some years nothing but bridle paths. The people's first efforts for passable roads were to Brunswick and to Wiscasset Point."
Townways
It being represented to us the Select Men of said Town, that the former laying out of the several Streets on Wiscasset Point in said Town is obscure and uncertain and the Bounds of said Streets not now to be easily found :- And it being of great importance that the courses and widths of said Street, should be certainly known and accurately
2. North's History of Augusta. Allen, History of Dresden, p. 281.
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determined that they may be kept open & uncumbered for the benefit of the Publick .- We the said Select Men at the desire of the Inhabitants of said Point, have laid out by actual survey the following Streets and Landings on said Point the courses and widths of which are as follow, viz:
WATER STREET or the street next to the River, the northwestern Line of which is to begin at a stake standing eighteen inches northwesterly from the southern corner of Abiel Wood Esqrs yard 3 which now envelops his dwelling house, thence running north twenty-five and an half Degrees East forty eight rods to the Street that leads from the Meeting House to the River, then crossing the same, & from thence continuing the same course twenty-six rods further, said Water Street to be forty feet wide and to lie wholly on the southeastern side of said Line. And from said Street to run south twenty five & an half Degrees West the same width on the southeasterly side of said Line to low water mark. Then to begin at the easterly corner of said Mr. Wood's Potash Buildings from thence to run a Line at right angles to said Street untill it strikes the southeastern Line of it, then following said Line untill it comes to the southwestern side of said Mr. Wood's Wharff as it now stands, thence to run south five Degrees East to low water mark, including all the Land and Flatts that lie between the last mentioned Line and another Line that runs from the said corner of said Potash build- ings, south twenty-five & an half Degrees West twenty rods from said corner.
FORE STREET, or the Street that lies next to the water on the southwesterly side of the Point is also forty feet wide and the northern line of which begins at said stake and runs West twenty five and an half Degrees, north twenty-two rods and seven feet exclusive of the Streets it crosses.
MIDDLE STREET, or Street next to Water Street, The southeasterly line of which be- ginning at a stake standing in the northern Line of Fore Street, ten rods from the first mentioned stake, thence running north twenty five and an half Degrees East, forty eight rods to the Street leading from the Meeting House to the River, crossing the same and then running the same course twenty six rods further beyond said Street. This street is also forty feet wide, & also is to extend south twenty five and an half De- grees West, crossing said Fore Street to the channel of a small brook coming out of Dr. Rice's Boom.
FORT HILL STREET begins at the Shore, the southeastern Line of which is ten rods from the northwestern Line of Middle Street aforesaid, and runs north twenty five & an half Degrees east forty eight rods to said Street leading from the Meeting House to the water, then crossing the same & then extending the same course twenty six rods further. This street is also laid out forty feet wide.
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