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 17
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Davis returned home the next day by way of Walpole, where he was called to take a deposition; and on "Fryday the tenth" he noted in his diary that he was "very sore and stiff by reason of my riding Yesterday Very hard to get home." It is found that on Wednesday the fifteenth, he "Set a man acrost the River @ 1/2 the first time." That was the fare fixed by the Court of Sessions, while that for a man and horse was two shillings, from which it is evident that "going a-foot or astride" were the methods of travel which then obtained.
It should be recalled that at the time of licensing Squire Davis as ferry- man the route of travel east and west was by way of the old road to Sheep- scot and across the river at what is known as Averill's ferry, kept by Job Averill.
A few years later, in 1794, the original Sheepscot Bridge was built by a corporation chartered by the Massachusetts legislature, in which corporation three Wiscasset men, David Silvester, John Page and Timothy Parsons were the charter members. It was across that bridge that people traveled east and west until the building of the toll bridge at Wiscasset.
Squire Davis continued as the licensed ferryman from Edgecomb until January 10, 18II, when he made record of "Ferry given up to Moses Davis, Jr."
That the ferry rights continued in the Davis family is shown by the pro- vision of the Act incorporating the Proprietors of Wiscasset Bridge, that a "satisfactory adjustment should be made with Samuel Davis, the lessee or proprietor of the ferry, and that upon the "payment of such some as might be agreed upon all ferry rights and privileges should cease."
It is interesting to note that the act of incorporation was approved by Governor Anderson, who was a native of Wiscasset, where he was born, May 10, 1801, a son of John Anderson. John Anderson was a member of the Wiscasset Fire Society from May, 1801 to 1810, the time of his death.
The contract for the building of the bridge was dated July 22, 1846, and was made with William Low, Willard Brackett, and Nathaniel Low, of Cape Elizabeth, to build the two bridges authorized by the charter-the main bridge to commence at the wall of the public landing at the foot of
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Main Street, thence to continue on the same course that the street runs across the channel of Sheepscot River until it meets Davis Island.
The contract for the two bridges was $ 15,760. In March, 1847, the com- mittee contracted with William B. Chick and Seth P. Bean, to build a toll- house at the western end of the bridge, one and a half stories high, with two chimneys without fire-places. That house was designed as a place of abode for the toll-gatherer and his family. It stood at the foot of Main Street, having a little garden in front of it, in which grew a peach tree, well re- membered, which had been raised from seed.
It has been claimed that Hallowell Rogers, the father-in-law of Charles E. Emerson, then in business at Birch Point, was the first person to drive across the Wiscasset-Davis Island bridge, which was opened for travel on the first day of November, 1847.
The Cove Bridge connecting Davis Island with Edgecomb was 1,553 feet in length, a little less than half the length of the bridge which spanned the river.
The long bridge was repeatedly wrested from destruction by borer and barnacle, but the harbor ice proved to be a more endamaging foe. In 1900, four of its spans were carried away by the ice. In 1903, an attempt was made to transfer the bridge to the county of Lincoln. Senator Luther Mad- docks was able to secure the necessary legislation, but the project failed of adoption by the people at the polls. The following year the bridge became so badly damaged by the ice that the corporation could not raise sufficient funds to make repairs and the bridge became impassable and so remained. Within the year 1905 the corporation ceased to transact business. That same year an act was passed to assist in building a free bridge across the Sheepscot River, between Wiscasset and Edgecomb and county and towns were to share the cost of repairs and upkeep of the same.
The last bridge to span this river over which the state highway passes was begun in October, 1931, and completed in April, 1932.
The Roads and Turnpikes
Persons who today witness the motor traffic over the Atlantic Highway on high days and holidays find it impossible to visualize the difficulties of overland transportation and communication which existed one hundred and seventy-two years ago, when the scattered settlements in the District of
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Maine were strung along the coast, where their intercourse was restricted chiefly to water communication.
In 1760, the date of the incorporation of Pownalborough, locomotion was accomplished by means of Indian trails through the forest marked by spotted trees! Trails thus blazed through the wilderness developed into foot-paths, bridle paths, post-roads, cart-roads, stage-roads, county roads and state roads; while out on the rangeways settlers were asked to make paths from house to house "fit for foot and creature."
The original letter7 recommending the first road to the Wiscasset Com- pany still exists and runs as follows:
Gentm ..
BOSTON Novem'. 5, 1760
As we think the making of Roads in y" Town will be of the greatest Service to it, we can't but recommend this matter to you as worthy of your Present Attention and Care, & as the Road between Kennebeck and Sheepscutt River will be immediately wanted, we would recommend that to you to be done if possible this Fall, even though no more than an Horse Road could be effected.
We have wrote to the west part of the Town upon this Affair, who we are per- suaded will readily joyn with You in this useful and very necessary Business. We wish you Health & Happiness and are
Your assured Friends
JAMES BOWDOIN
BENJ". HALLOWELL
THOMAS HANCOCK WILLIAM BOWDOIN
SILV'. GARDINER JAMES PITTS.
The first road to Wiscasset, built by the Plymouth Company in 1761, was made by burning trees along the way, and was almost identical with that now known as the Dresden Mills road. The Rev. Jacob Bailey wrote to Dr. Gardiner on the last day of June of that year, "our people are now upon the roads, both to Witchcasset and to Brunswick."
The Hon. Jeremiah Bailey, of this town, not long before his death in 1853, said that: "In a call I made upon President Adams at Quincy, he stated that in his early law practice (in the spring of 1765) he once at- tended the Superior Court in Pownalborough, in the County of Lincoln, where the old Court House is yet standing on the east bank of the Kennebec River; and that from Brunswick to the ferry over that river he was guided by marked trees, and by the same kind of guide up river to the Court House." The journal of Rev. Paul Coffin, who came to this section as a mis-
7. This letter is owned by Mrs. Samuel B. Doggett of Boston.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
sionary from 1760 to 1800, shows that his pilgrimages were accomplished in the same manner.
The first stage-coach from New York to Boston started June 24, 1772, from the "Fresh Water." It was to leave each terminus once a fortnight. The fare was fourpence, New York currency, per mile. It reached Hart- ford, Connecticut, in two days and Boston in two more. The Proprietors promised a weekly stage "if encouraged in their great enterprise.""
A stage line was established between Portsmouth and Portland in 1787, but it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the high roads supplanted the rivers as a means of communication in Maine. Of so little use were the roads that before the Revolution there was not a four- wheeled passenger carriage in this state.
The advent of the turnpikes was as follows: Wiscasset and Augusta Turnpike Company was incorporated in 1803; Wiscasset and Woolwich Turnpike Company in 1803; Wiscasset and Dresden Turnpike Company in 1804. Wiscasset, in 1822, was the eastern terminus of the first post-road ever laid out in the United States.
"When Maine became a State in 1820, there were five roads to which she fell heir from Massachusetts, viz: the first Cumberland Turnpike in Scar- boro; the Bath Bridge and Turnpike, from Brunswick to Bath; the Wiscas- set and Woolwich Turnpike; the Wiscasset and Augusta Turnpike and the Camden Turnpike.
"The Bath [or Governor King's Turnpike] corporation was formed March 15, 1805, to build a road in a straight line from Bowdoin College in Brunswick to Bath, with a bridge over the New Meadows River. It was eight miles long and Governor King was the principal owner. This road connected via Day's Ferry, with the Wiscasset and Woolwich Turnpike, which in turn connected with the Wiscasset and Augusta road, thus opening improved communication between Portland and the city which was destined to be the future capital of the State of Maine."" The stage road was extend- ed to Augusta in 1806.
With the advent of the roads came the romantic days of the stage-coach and tavern. The stage would stop every ten or fifteen miles to change horses and while fresh horses were being harnessed the passengers would rush into the tavern to fortify themselves with toddy for the next leg o' the trip.
8. Seaside Oracle, July 19, 1873.
9. Frederic J. Wood, The Turnpikes of Maine, p. 144.
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The coaches which crossed the Kennebec at Day's ferry made the following stops: first at White's Tavern on the Woolwich shore of the river, then kept by Robert White, Jr., a descendant of Mary (Phips) White, the mother of Sir William Phips; then Grover's Tavern just across the boundary between Wiscasset and Woolwich, formed by the Montsweag stream; the Whicher Tavern (later the Hilton House) at Wiscasset, the Maine Hotel in Dama- riscotta; Hussey's in Nobleboro; Miller's in Waldoboro, where in 1833 the Lincoln Hotel and Stage House were run by Ebenezer W. Hilton; Aunt Lydia's Tavern in Warren; the Knox House at Thomaston; and the Com- mercial House, the terminus at Rockland. After this hostelry was burned in 1859, the Thorndike Hotel, which was run by Berry Brothers, was the end of the route.
During the Civil War coaches stopped as many as seven or eight times a day. One of these stages was a twenty-one passenger coach with places for twelve inside, and nine, including the driver, outside. This war-time coach was driven by Winthrop Weeks. It had straw gear with black stripes and hung on a thorough-brace of leather in place of springs. The color was a rich reddish brown, giving to the vehicle a dark, handsome appearance. On the outside of one door was a picture of a mare-"warranted sound and kind." On the other door was a picture of a horse trade with a farmer lead- ing a young colt and whittling a stick. It was labelled "Coming to the point."
Many of the roads at that time were corduroy,10 and all were rough and winding. Farmers worked out their taxes on the roads, filling the holes with sods and refuse, which accomplished little in the way of improvement.
Bath was the western terminal of the old stage line until the Knox & Lin- coln Railroad connected that town with Rockland and the "horse-line" was discontinued. The stage received a change of horses at three points along the route, Waldoboro, Damariscotta and Wiscasset. Travel was at its height during the Civil War and it frequently took four stages daily to accommo- date the traffic. The stage was scheduled to leave Rockland at 6.30 A.M. and
10. As late as the spring of 1870, we find in the New York Atlas this description of our high road :
"There is a road from Bath, Maine to Wiscasset. To call it corduroy is fulsome flattery. The stage that makes a daily journey over it, when the snows are melting, impartially divides its per- formances between successes and upsets; but this spring, the driver, after an experience of thirty years on, or under, that vehicle, declares that he never knew such bad traveling. On the 9th inst. the stage was drawn by two yoke of oxen and four horses. The passengers, to relieve the draft animals, walked the entire distance. Their opinion of the trip corresponded to that of the Irishman who said when he hired as a conveyance, a sedan chair, of which the bottom had fallen out; 'If it wasn't for the name of the thing, I might as well have gone a-foot.' "
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to arrive at Bath at 4.30 P.M. which would enable passengers, in later years, to connect with the steamboat for Boston.
A ride between these two towns, 'ere the splendor of the coach had been superseded by the speed of the car, was a never-to-be-forgotten event; and all who have made the trip through the wood roads, aromatic with the sweet and pungent odors of pine and fir and wild flowers, in the imposing mail- coaches behind the famous roadsters of those days, would welcome the op- portunity to ride once more with Bover Joe, or Tom Ingraham or John Marshall, that veteran of the whip! John Marshall lived to be over ninety years old and he always remembered with what eagerness the story was listened to by young and old, of how he carried President Jackson's message on horseback through snowdrifts from Portland to Augusta; for even in those radio-less days, newspapers were anxious to get the message.
When the stage-coach left Twenty Cow Parish via Thorne's Head and crossed Day's ferry for "points east" it took, on the eastern shore of the Kennebec, a sharp turn southward for half a mile and then made a long sweep towards the east through dense forests of pine and white oak which then, and for many years afterward, supplied timber for the frames of ves- sels. The white oak of Woolwich has ever been famous, as was the tall, vir- gin pine used for masts and spars for the Royal Navy.
Over glasses of flip at Grover's Tavern, where the old tap-room can still be seen, the travelers may have heard the sorrowful tale of its first owner, Benjamin Grover, whose young wife and little son were drowned in Ne- quasset Pond when their boat capsized.
Thence the way lay by the old post-road over a creaky, rickety bridge across Montsweag stream whose seven mills furnished lumber, food and cloth for the neighboring hamlets. And perchance, as the stage-coach jolted along, the tale was told of the strange wild beast that swooped down from the Canadian wilds and stalked a small girl. It was a Canadian lynx called by the French "loup cervier," corrupted by the settlers in this vicinity into "lucivee" (sometimes written Lucy V). The lynx moved stealthily around its intended victim in circles ever growing smaller, until a faithful dog, realizing the danger that threatened his little playmate, thrust himself be- tween the savage creature and his quarry. The dog, too, circled the child at close range and sent forth such frantic barks that the child's father, hearing those unmistakable cries for help, came running towards them, gun in hand, shot and killed the lucivee, and saved his daughter.
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Grover's Tavern, built before 1789.
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Joe Ebierbing, Tookoolito, Ishlartoo Hans Christina, Merkut, Augustina, Tobias Succi, the second daughter, and Charlie Polaris, the infant.
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Lean-to of Grover's Tavern in which was the tap room, built with the original house before 1789.
ABUNCH OF GRAPES TAVERN-Wiscassel.
MR. Squire Hourtin Dr.
Breakfaft
Dinner,
0,37
Supper,
Lodging,
01/3
Horse. keeping,
Bitters, -
Rum,
Brandy,
13
Ginn,
Wine,
Rec'd Payment,
Theophile
A Bill from the Bunch of Grapes Tavern.
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Roads and Taverns
Next came the Holbrook farm and Rice's bridge across the Haunted Gully,11 so named from the tradition of the decapitated Indian, whose head- less body is said to walk there at night searching for his lost head, which had been shot from his shoulders while he and his companions were engaged in making an attack on Williamson's garrison, then occupying the crest of the hill beyond.
Passing the home of Judge Rice, Wiscasset's first physician, the stage- coach proceeded along the old Sheepscot road until it reached the jail corner when it swung sharply to the eastward toward the town. There in the jail yard in plain sight, stood whipping-post and gallows-tree, a perpetual re- minder of punishment Puritanical.
In later years the stage-coach, after coming through Parker Street, swung around Flagg's Corner and entered the town via Sleepy Hollow and High Street. As it approached Bank Hill the scholars in the bank building would rush to the windows and raise the shades in order to see the coach go by.
And when it crossed the Common to enter the village, Bover Joe Hilton would announce its arrival with a crack of the whip and a blast of his post- horn, six feet long, that in volume was said with slight exaggeration to have been "second only to the blare of the bugling of the conch-horns of Jagan- nath." So heralded, the coach would approach the Whittier Tavern, which was sometimes called the Stage House, to be welcomed by no less a person- age than Col. Ebenezer Whittier, its host. The arrival of the stage-coach was the event of the day.
On its departure from Wiscasset for points further east, the route taken by the stage-coach, before the long bridge was built, was by the Great Coun- ty road to Sheepscot over Langdon's Mountain, past the famous spring of Alexander Nute. Just beyond here there was a sharp turn to the right and the coach went over the old Sheepscot road, the road which led over Job's Mountain, so called for Job Averill, the Sheepscot ferryman of 1762. Here, high on the mountain is said to be a haunted cave of hidden treasure, used during one of the wars as a hideout for money.
II. The legend is that one day at dawn, canoes filled with painted savages crept around the end of Squam Island (Westport) crossed the harbor and landed east of Williamson's garrison in a swamp of alders. Stealthily advancing up the wooded ravine, they surprised two men who were outside setting pigeon snares, and killed one, Andrew Florence. The other, Obadiah Albee, suc- ceeded in reaching the stockade. The men within immediately prepared to defend themselves, and filled two cannon with scrap iron, nails and musket balls. The war-whoop gave place to howls of rage and fear as a patrol advanced from Dresden from the fort at that place, thereby cutting off the retreat of the red men, who took to their heels, leaving on the ground a headless Indian. This hollow has ever since been known as "The Haunted Gully."
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At Sheepscot Falls the river was crossed to the Newcastle shore, first by ferry and later by bridge; thence the stage proceeded along the old cart- path of Walter Phillips by the town house and then swinging to the left through Newcastle it crossed the Damariscotta River at the Salt Falls to the town on its eastern shore, where stage connections were made for Bristol and Bremen.
The Stage Drivers
Among the well-remembered "Gentlemen of the Road," in its literal sense, were Bover Joe Hilton, who drove in the early twenties of the last century and who died February 8, 1881, at the age of fourscore years; John Sutton Foye, Samuel Sevey, Sam Stanwood, John Hogan, Tom Ingraham, Norman Marsh, Billy Tufts, Winthrop Weeks in 1859-1860, "Uncle" Josh Hilton, John Marshall, Doty M. Richards, Charles A. Tabor and his brother, Nat Tabor, William M. White, who was afterward a conductor on the Knox & Lincoln Railroad; John Dunham and Mr. Witham, followed by Charles Carter, a negro who delighted in doing the honors of the trip; and the last of all was Martin Sweetland, who drove the stage for forty years. During the war the passengers were sometimes boisterous and disci- pline had to be enforced at the whip's end.
John Marshall, whose record extended from 1850-1871, when the stock of the stage line was sold at the time the railroad was finished, was called "Uncle John" by everyone. In mileage he had driven the equivalent of seven times around the world, with a thousand miles to spare. He was ex- pressman, letter-carrier, a trusted agent who handled thousands of dollars, and a faithful custodian of everything committed to his care. With him went the boys and girls who left the farm, youths who went to college, girls who went to the city for work; bridal couples started off in life together with Uncle John, and mourners who returned for funerals felt the comfort of his presence. He was equally sympathetic with the roisterers who came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Chaise-trunks, bandboxes, carpet- bags and hold-alls together with the boys who "cut behind" were patiently disposed of as a part of the day's work. During all of his experience, not- withstanding the loss of an eye, this indomitable veteran never met with a serious coaching accident.
When the last stock of Berry, Ricker & White's Stage Line was sold at auction in Rockland in November, 1871, most of the surviving stage drivers
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were given positions as conductors on the railroad ... and so the era of the stage-coach passed.
The Town Taverns
In the ante-Revolutionary days "the tavern was the center of events and the center of alarm," wrote John Adams when putting up for a night at an inn at Shrewsbury, where the political discussions of the farmers over their pipes and bowls of punch amazed him by the astuteness of their penetration and comprehensiveness.
The ancient inns and taverns had an important effect on the development of New England in its harvest of public opinion. In the sowing of hypo- thetical seeds of knowledge, Bradbury's Inn unquestionably played its part.
The first town meeting, as already stated, was held at the garrison in Wiscasset, June 25, 1760, but "the house of Josiah Bradbury, Innholder," was designated in the town warrant of 1761, as the place of the first annual town meeting. Here were also held the meetings of 1762, 1763, 1764, 1766, and 1767. A meeting in the last mentioned year was also held at the meeting-house.
Bradbury's Inn stood on Middle Street opposite the residence of Judge Orchard Cook, upon land bounded on three of its sides by Fort Hill, Middle and Front Streets, and comprised lots numbered 19 and 28.
Bradbury was not among the settlers who came here upon the resettle- ment of this land, for the first mention of his connection with it is found in a mortgage deed and the bond thereby secured which he gave to make sure of payment of £224 in bills of public credit of the Province of Massachu- setts Bay with lawful interest, "both new Tenour." In this bond and mort- gage, running to Samuel Welles, Esq., of Boston, Bradbury is described as being a resident of Gloucester in the county of Essex, and by occupation a shipwright.
The real estate described in that mortgage consists of the "several parcels or lots of land which were purchased from Samuel Stockbridge, house- wright, and consisted of a parcel of ninety acres situated near Birch Point, as also ten acres of salt marsh to be laid out, and one other small piece of land containing half an acre in that part of Witchcasset called Wiscasset or Witchcasset Point, with a log house standing thereon, thirty-six feet long and thirty wide, and one story and a half high, with a Brick Chimney of five Smoakes, three below and two above."
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Bradbury does not appear as a signer to either of the Wiscasset petitions. Little trace of him appears prior to the first town meeting, at which he was chosen town treasurer, to which office he was reelected in 1761, and again elected thereto in 1763, 1764 and 1765-Jonathan Bowman having held that office in 1762.
The Bradbury land on which the inn stood later became the property of Maj. Abiel Wood, and it was long known as his orchard lot. The Bradbury house was demolished in 1802, and was then spoken of as "a very old house." After its removal the boys used to dig in its crumbling foundation for money, and their search was sometimes rewarded by the finding of English pence. A house later built on this spot was occupied by Millard Lewis.
Of the inn itself we have a fair description: a log house a story and a half high with a central chimney. The lower story consisted of three rooms, one long kitchen or living room, back of the chimney, and two smaller front rooms. Standing as it did near the shore it was easy of access from the har- bor and river, then a great thoroughfare for travelers. To it came the voters of the town to assemble for the transaction of town affairs in town meeting.
Although the Bradbury Inn was a log house, it bore the distinction of having a larger number of squares of sash glass than any other dwelling at Wiscasset Point, with the exception of Madam Kingsbury's house. Judge Bourne, an accurate writer upon historical subjects, stated that houses were valued then by their squares of glass, or the degree of light which they enjoyed, the number and size of the windows being an important item in fixing their value. From the return of 1766, it would appear that a consid- erable number of houses here had then, no sash glass.
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