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 55
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Plan of Wiscasset Harbor when the Knox and Lincoln Railroad was built about 1871. The black line is the railroad.
Narrow Gauge (tavo feet) Engine No. 1 of the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad.
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Wiscasset. Drawn by J. K. Neal, 1845.
Railroads
Pittsfield where the line would connect with the Sebasticook & Moosehead line. At Burnham the tracks of the Maine Central Railroad crossed the pro- posed right of way of the Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad, and the necessary permit to cross these tracks was not forthcoming.
Just about this time a boom was started along the route of the railroad. A Rockland syndicate contemplated the building of a large woolen mill at Wiscasset; and the advantageous water power of the Sheepscot attracted the attention of Pennsylvania capitalists so seriously that William Doe, a member of a large water company in Philadelphia, surveyed and bonded land adjoining Sheepscot Lake. All of the water privileges from Palermo to Wiscasset, which include six of the best in the state, were likewise bonded by this company, and it looked as though the exceptional natural resources of the Sheepscot Valley were at last to be developed.
Trains began running over the narrow gauge road as early as February 20, 1894, and in September of that year they went as far as Cooper's Mills, but it was not until the next year that the road was opened the whole way to Albion. There lived George H. Crosby, the head of the Crosby Steam Gauge and Valve Company of Boston, and inventor of the steam chime whistle. He was one of the staunchest supporters of the little railroad, and at that time its heaviest stockholder.
Through various changes of ownership and charter the road became known as the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad Company. In 1895 a branch had been planned from Weeks' Mills to Winslow opposite Waterville on the Kennebec, but it was not carried into effect until 1901- 1902. Its charter was extended to the Canadian border by way of the Range- ley Lakes in the northwestern part of Maine and within a few miles of Lake Megantic, where the Canadian Pacific enters the state. After combat- ing many legal difficulties interposed to prevent their crossing the Maine Central tracks and the Kennebec River, the managers of the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad finally planned to make their crossing at Waterville.
It had been the plan of Mr. Atwood to bridge the Kennebec at Winslow and continue north through Waterville, Oakland and New Sharon to a con- necting point with the other narrow gauge roads at Farmington. It being the consensus of opinion that this road would eventually fall into the hands of one of the trunk lines and its width changed to standard gauge, and that connection would be made with the west through a transcontinental
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
line, thereby making Wiscasset, whose harbor and general terminal facilities are better than Portland, the eastern end of a coast to coast system.
This plan failed and in December, 1906, the entire railroad was sold at a receiver's sale for $93,000 to Carson C. Peck of New York City, and its name was once more changed to the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Company.
The Peck interests owned and operated the road with a reasonable degree of success for several years, when an electric line crossed the railroad at East Vassalboro, thereby taking away a large share of the passenger busi- ness, and causing the abandonment of the line between Weeks' Mills and Winslow.
Shortly after the World War, the ever increasing number of automobiles and motor trucks made heavy inroads into its earnings, causing the Pecks, in December, 1925, to sell out their entire interest to persons along the line for $ 50,000. But the automobile still continued to devour the profits which the railroad had expected to receive, so in August, 1932, it again passed under receivership sale to Frank W. Winter of Auburn, Maine, for $6,000.
The rolling stock of this road consisted of fifty box cars, forty-two flat cars, five passenger coaches, five company cars, and five locomotives. The largest one of these engines weighed forty-two tons and cost over $7,000. The illustration is of the first one owned, called "Little Number One" and said to look like a watch charm. Its weight was fifteen tons.
The most prosperous year of this little railroad was in 1921, the year that the apple crop of New York State was a failure. Its earnings for that year were $ 121,000.
Samuel Jordan Sewall was identified with this road for over twenty years. He was superintendent from 1907 to 1909 and general manager from 1909 to 1927. He was appointed receiver with Mr. Crowell in No- vember, 1930, to January 1, 1931.
The last train ran over these tracks June 15, 1933.
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XXIII Patriotic Celebrations
T THE local militia had been kept up throughout Maine from the close of the Revolutionary war until the end of the War of 1812. When the latter conflict ceased more attention than ever was given to the regular train- ing days or musters. They had originated in a fancied necessity and devel- oped into days of merriment and jollity such as seldom characterized New England celebrations, where May-poles were frowned upon as a devil's dance and Puritanical austerity made few concessions to frivolity. The military system and muster days came to an end about 1843, although some of the towns had volunteer organizations after that date. "General muster" was about the only holiday in which all the country people participated, and bedight in their Sunday best, they would appear in the village as early as five o'clock in the morning on those eventful days.
Usually by Fast Day, April eleventh, spring was sufficiently advanced for the town boys to while away the empty hours at Birch Point, where they were wont to gather around a rocking stone, high on Cushman's Mountain, known to them as Balance Rock, and there spend the day in friendly com- panionship. The stone was suspended between two cliffs and the boys took turns riding it astride. Many years ago through the action of the weather this freak of nature was split in twain and disappeared, singularly enough, about the same time that Fast Day was discontinued.
The Fourth of July has ever been a day of great jubilation in Wiscasset, its heritage being the noise of conch-shells and fish-horns and explosives which marked Guy Fawkes Day of their ancestors.
The most complete accounts of the various celebrations of the Fourth of July appear in the Eastern Argus, which newspaper was an organ of what is now the Democratic party, a party which was then known as the Republican party of Jefferson and Madison. The other great political party of our country, being then known as the Federalist, was the party of Washington, Hamilton, and Knox.
It appears to have happened that here in Wiscasset the Republicans, predecessors of the Democrats of today, had either a much more efficient reporter of Fourth of July celebrations or that the columns of the Repub-
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
lican newspapers were more widely open to their reports than were those of the Federalist newspapers to Federal occurrences here.
It will be noticed that the celebrations were not confined to those of the Republican or Democratic party, but that upon one anniversary at least, three celebrations were being had here at one and the same time. Such cele- brations invariably included a dinner.
The journals of the time contain items of these various jollifications, one of the first being under date of February 24, 1784, is:
Last Saturday the anniversary of the nativity of the first American Hero and the greatest of men, was celebrated at Wiscasset in a highly social and Republican manner. It was ushered in by a salute of Major Tinkham's Artillery, which at noon, paraded in uniform, and escorted the Committee of the Day, together with a number of other citi- zens to the house of Mr. Stacy, where they partook of a collation prepared for the pur- pose in true style of "Liberty and Equality." After a Federal compliment of senti- mental toasts were drunk, each of which was accompanied by a salute from the artillery.
The greatest Fourth of July celebration that was ever held here was that of 1876, the centennial of the Independence of our nation. An elaborate program was prepared and the orators of the day were the Hon. George B. Sawyer and Benjamin Fuller Smith, Esq. Capt. Joseph Tucker was chair- man of the committee of arrangements. The Wiscasset Cornet Band partici- pated and furnished music for the occasion.
The festivities began at six A.M. when a salute of thirteen guns was fired from the Common and the bells from the churches, the court house and the academy kept up a merry accompaniment.
A religious ceremony was held in St. Philip's church by Rev. H. C. Mil- ler. Whittier's centennial hymn was sung by the choir and the religious serv- ice proceeded as follows: The Lord's Prayer; a hymn of Thanksgiving, and the several collects and prayers according to the special form of service set forth by the several bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the Fourth of July, 1876, printed copies of which were distributed among the congregation.
A resolution was presented by Mr. Isaac T. Hobson and passed, that im- mediate steps be taken to have the proceedings published and the two his- torical addresses printed. A game of baseball between the Samosets and the Scrubs, won by the former team, was the afternoon entertainment. The fes- tivities concluded when the crowd gathered on the Common where the eve-
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Moses Carlton.
Capt. Joseph Tucker.
Gen. Abiel Wood.
The elliptical flying staircase in the house built by Hon. Silas Lee and now owned by the heirs of Richard H. Tucker.
Patriotic Celebrations
ning guns were fired, and the band played patriotic selections until eight P. M. when fireworks were set off which concluded the centennial celebration.
Probably the most praiseworthy memorial, certainly the most lasting one, inspired by this occasion was the planting of the centennial trees suggested by Capt. Joseph Tucker. These totaled one hundred and forty trees and were placed at the following places:
Front of Orthodox Church: Two rows to the East, six Norway Maples.
Washington Street, High to Summer: South side, one row four Sugar Maples.
Southeast corner Maine and Fifth Streets : one American Elm.
Maine Street near Fourth Street: South side, two Scotch Elms.
Maine Street and Fort Hill Street: Southwest side, one Scotch Elm, Southeast side, one Scotch Elm.
South side of the Common : three American Elms.
Maine Street: North side, one Scotch Elm and one below the Norway Maples.
Washington Street: North side near High Street, one Sugar Maple; North side, one English Elm, five American Elms; South side, five American Elms.
Summer Street: East side, nine American Lindens, one Mountain Ash, two Common Ash, seven Round Wood.
Fifth Street: East side, four English Lindens; West side, two English Lindens.
Fourth Street: four American Elms, one Ash, one Balm of Gilead, one English Elm, one
English Linden; West side, two Ash; East Side, four Lindens.
Garrison Hill School House: one Maple, one English Elm, two Lindens. Middle Street: West side from Bradbury Street, five Elms.
Federal Street: Methodist parsonage, two Lindens; I. Jackson's, two Lindens.
Mrs. Rachel Quin Memorial Tree, Maine Street: one.
Wiscasset Academy Trees : three American Elms.
On Common North of Church Walk: eleven American Elms.
Fire Society Tree, foot of the Common: one Elm.
Road South of Powder House: West side, a row of forty Hackmatacks.
The last Fourth of July celebration worthy of note was held here in 1920, the first centennial anniversary of Maine's being set off from Massa- chusetts as an independent State.
In front of the meeting-house on the Common a stage was erected and twelve tableaux vivants representing the early history of Maine creditably presented by the youth of the town. The arrangements were under the supervision of Mrs. Susan Smith and a committee of members of the Wis- casset Village Improvement Society.
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XXIV Old Houses
A LTHOUGH Wiscasset has a number of pre-Revolutionary houses still standing, it is doubtful if they possess any exceptional architectural features not to be found in other contemporaneous villages, but many of the incidents pertaining to their owners are unique in character. Covering the period from the time of the resettlement until the commodious homes of the successful merchants and ship-owners were reared, a span of nearly fourscore years, four distinct types of architecture have marked the progress of home-builders and kept pace with Wiscasset's ascending star of fortune and its all too brief prosperity.
First came the settlers' cabins which developed into what is now popular- ly known as the Cape Cod cottage. Next appeared the two-storied oblong house, set end to the street, on a brick foundation that rose about nine feet above the level of the ground, on which was built a wooden structure com- bining the shop and the home, a standard model much in vogue among the merchants who found it advantageous from a commercial point of view, as they "kept store" in the front room of the under story on the street floor, and with their families, occupied the space above it. The third type was in- dicative of the expansion noticeable at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury when prosperity was reflected in every phase of life in town, and dwel- ling-houses of comfortable proportions and substantial aspect were broad- side to the street, thereby screening the out-buildings and service quarters behind them. These ere long were followed by mansions or "architects' houses," the homes of individuality and distinction which today attract both architect and antiquarian and, in their setting of spacious elms, give so much atmosphere to the village.
Until this period the dwelling-houses had been reared by builders many of whom were ship carpenters, who worked on houses during their off sea- son and gave to these capacious habitations an aspect of strength and dura- bility, rather than beauty of outline. In fact, so staunchly are they made that in many of the attics are found ship's knees of hackmatack supporting the pitched roof.
In the early period of the settlement, poverty, as well as a dearth of proper building materials, prevented the erection of framed or boarded
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Old Houses
houses. The cabins, built for shelter rather than show, were fashioned to meet the necessities of a simple frontier life. They were crudely constructed from the butts of ancient trees felled to clear the land for farms, and their rectangular walls were rendered waterproof by a covering of bark or thatch. The houses so built were called hovels. Their ceilings were seldom more than seven feet in altitude, or, as the saying ran, "just high enough to clear the minister's hat."
The four walls enclosed one fair sized room, the keeping room, whose floor was boarded and sanded; below this was a dirt cellar for storage and above was a rough loft or attic for sleeping quarters, both of which were reached by a ladder. In one corner of the log-walled room a large fire-place opened its cavernous depth. The back and one side were built of stone, while a wooden post set into the opposite jamb supported a horizontal beam for a mantel-piece. Through the bark, thatch or slab roof, but oftener out- side and up the back wall of the hut climbed a cob-work of cleft wood whose interstices were filled with mortar clay, which, in place of brick and mortar, was called "cat and clay."
The fire-place was sometimes so copious as to occupy the whole side of the room, but in the surviving cabins, the measurement is uniformly 5 feet in width and 4 feet in height with a corresponding depth made to hold logs cut sledge length, logs so heavy and clumsy that it required two men to place them on the fire-dogs over the ash bank. The hand-sled, a household necessity, was loaded in the forest where the trees were cut down and brought to the door of the cabin. In the hovels where the sills were on a level with the ground, the sled could be drawn across the threshold straight to the fireside where an ample store of wood was piled on the stone hearth, while the light and heat from the blazing fire not only illuminated the whole interior, but afforded a snug corner for the indiscriminate stowage of little ones.1
The fires were kindled by striking together flint and steel, kept in a tinder-box on a shelf, or else by lighting a spill from an ember kept alive through the night by banking. Before iron cranes came into general use, trammels or a lug-pole-a stick across the chimney three feet above the hearth-was the device used to suspend the pot-hooks holding the kettles in which the food was cooked.
I. R. K. Sewall, Ancient Dominions of Maine, p. 275.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
In some of the hovels before glass panes came into use the tiny windows were covered with sheepskin, the parchment being both waterproof and transparent. Tradition is afloat to the effect that a quarrel duty or light tax was levied on the early homes whose owners indulged in the extravagance of window panes, no written record of such a tariff has been discovered, nor was the hearth-penny ever known to be collected here.
John Gray, in a deposition taken in 1784, stated that Robert Hooper had a "camp made under a Rock at Wiscasset Point," that he, Gray, "built the third house that was built near Wiscasset Bay, & that Mr. William Groves and Robert Lambert built the other two, & lived in them before I came to the Eastward" i. e. 1734.
Robert Lambert, who had received an ox-gang of land, occupied the tract which was bought by Judge Rice soon after he came to Wiscasset, in 1762. The Lamberts lived here during the period of garrison life when, in the absence of the men of the family, the women and children were forced to take refuge in some nearby defensible house for the night.3 The tradition is that Judge Rice incorporated the Lambert hovel in the house which he built soon after acquiring the land. The interior finish and arrangement of the rooms, as well as the tinder-drawers on each side of the great fire-place in the southeast room, stamp it as a pre-Revolutionary home. This house was occupied for many years by the daughters of Rev. Freeman Parker, who had married Rebecca, the daughter of Judge Thomas and Rebecca (Kingsbury) Rice. It was then, and for scores of years afterwards, always known as the Parker house.
Sherebiah Lambert, who was the son of the original Robert Lambert, both of whose names appear on the petition to Governor Shirley in 1754, for the erection of a township to be called by the name of Frankfort, was here in the early days of the resettlement. He built a cabin "at a place south- ward of Langdon's mountain, about where the Davies (the first settlers of 1660) formerly lived."4
In 1766 Sherebiah Lambert deeded to John Groves one-fourth part of a saw-mill then standing on Ward's Brook on land belonging to Robert Lam- bert, his father.5 Before the first United States census, taken in 1790, both
2. Ox-gang was a measure used in old English law which signified "as much land as an ox could plow in a season," i.e. about fifteen acres.
3. Tradition of the Lambert family as related by Frank Lambert.
4. Joseph Emerson Smith, History of Wiscasset.
5. Lincoln County Registry of Deeds; Book 5, P. 57.
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Christopher Spencely House. Photograph by Brayton.
The Clapp House on the eastern side of the Common. In the background is the Neal House, built in 1805.
The Silvester House built before 1784. Photograph by Brayton.
Hodge House now owned by Richard Taylor heirs. Photograph by Brayton.
Old Houses
Sherebiah Lambert and his son, Sherebiah Lambert, Jr., appear to have left Wiscasset and to have gone up river to Canaan, whose original name was Wesserunset, which is about eight miles east of Skowhegan. During their life in Wiscasset a man of their family was killed by the Indians and buried in the Lambert field, now known as the Alden Call field.
Mr. Foye's hut stood near where the roads now cross about two miles to the northward." This is thought to refer to the Foye property on the Gar- diner Road where that family has long held land.
Another early settler was Edward Harriden who came from Gloucester and who was twice married to Gloucester women before he came to Wis- casset; first to Hannah Somes, January 18, 1713; and secondly to Mary Sargeant, November 26, 1724. A lawsuit was brought by Benoni Harriden, a son by the first marriage, in 1782 against Mary Groves and William Groves for the possession of one hundred acres "with messuages and build- ings thereon standing" situated here in Wiscasset. The evidence adduced was to the effect that Edward Harriden was living here as early as 1734; that he had a log house having glass windows and two fire-places in it; that Harriden removed from Wiscasset when the soldiers returned from the capture of Louisburg, probably on account of the serious Indian troubles at that time, but the exact date of his removal and the place to which he went do not appear.
George Forrester came here from Ireland about the time of the resettle- ment and in 1735 took up a large tract of land at Wiscasset, when it was all a wilderness in this place. He lived near where the court house now stands and died at the age of one hundred ten. This land either belonged to Sam- uel Williamson or else adjoined his lot.
On the Groves land, where now stands the house built by Henry Hodge, Sr., later bought by Silas Lee Young, at the corner where Washington Street intersects Hodge Street, stood a small cabin which belonged to the Groves family. This lot in the first division of land was in possession of William Groves whose tract began at the shore, included Groves' Island and extend- ed as far back as the county road to Sheepscot. Old Mr. Fred Bean stated that "when Hodge built his house he cleared the wilderness to make a home."
The Christopher Spenceley house, built at first on the eastern side of Hodge Street, faced west and was directly opposite the front door of the 6. Smith, History of Wiscasset. Manuscript.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
Baptist Church. It was removed to its present location next east of the brick academy building about the time the church was built. After it was removed to Warren Street, Warren Sheldon lived in it and then Melville H. Ames. At one time the Albee family lived there. The present occupant is Simon Wall, the son of Andrew Wall. The Spenceley house is one of the best ex- amples of the cabin period now extant in this village.
The house of Benjamin Colby at the foot of the Common, known to the older generation as "the Clapp house" is a very old house. The primitive construction found in the cellar where stone piers placed far apart to sup- port the big central chimney are spanned by joists of white oak 14 by 16 inches thick, hewn into an archway; the floors held up by adze-cut beams, and above, at the side of the chimney, the glory hole; the fire-place, 5 feet wide and 4 feet high, all bear witness to its antiquity, but the exact date of its erection is unknown.
In 1789 it was conveyed "to John Adams, mariner, by Benjamin Colby with the house thereon standing." Benjamin Colby lived with his grand- father Ambrose Colby, a blacksmith at Wiscasset Point, before the above mentioned date, at which time he removed to Colby Island in the Kennebec River.
In the past century old residents who had lived long lives in the imme- diate neighborhood, told the story of a blacksmith squatting on the town- way. They said that in the early perambulation of the village, Fifth or Court Street was designed to cross State Street and continue in a northerly direction to Warren Street, not then so-called, thereby forming the eastern boundary of the rectangular training field or Common.
The smithery, presumably belonging to Ambrose Colby, stood where is now the barn, and the blacksmith, with a fixed determination to live near his stiddy, built his cabin in the street, where he apparently held the fort (or forge) in peaceable possession for the remainder of his life.
This house was at one time owned by Darius Wilder, the father of eleven children, two of them being Mrs. Clapp and Mrs. Burgin. Here in this little cottage Rachel Quin was born, but was moved across the Common to her lifelong home at the age of five months. Its present owner is Miss Frances A. Sortwell.
A small house originally occupied by John Merrill, Jr., a graduate of Brown University and an early attorney at Wiscasset, originally stood be- tween the Lincoln and Kennebec bank building and Washington Hotel.
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Old Houses
Mrs. Wilkins succeeded the Merrills when they were moved to Topsham to live with John Merrill, Sr. All of the Wilkins children were born here. The next owner was Elisha J. Taylor, an early shoe dealer who came here about 1808. It is recorded that Mr. and Mrs. Taylor lived very comfort- ably with eight children in this small one-story cottage, 22 by 30 feet, with a lean-to, kitchen and bedroom below. After Mr. Taylor's death this lot was bought by Mr. Isaac Hobson when he purchased the bank building on the corner and converted it into a residence. He sold the Taylor house to Abigail Southard, who, in June, 1883, had it moved to Middle Street. Al- though Main Street is eight rods in width, while journeying downtown on rollers, because of too much rum at the hauling-bee, the "Aunt Ann Taylor house" was landed almost in the front entry of the Josh Hilton house and ran against one of the centennial elms, set out by the Fire Society in 1876. After its removal, it was placed next south of the Dr. Kennedy house, where it remained until it was again uprooted by F. Burton Haggett when he built his present home in 1923. It was then hauled to Water Street and placed on the site of the old Babson house. In 1934 it was demolished by Lawrence Haggett to make room for parking space north of his garage.
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