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 57
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Old Houses
years later. When in trying to help the mate quell a mutinous sailor Captain Doane was stabbed below the heart by the murderous man, who in a burst of maniacal frenzy bit off the captain's nose. William P. Lennox lived here until 1886 and then it afterward became the home of Edward Tappan Hodge and later of Dr. B. A. Bailey.
The Francis Cook mansion was built in 1795 for him, the first collector of customs, and after his death it passed by sale to the Hon. Wales Hub- bard, who occupied it until his decease in 1878. The Hubbard heirs disposed of it in 1903. It was originally a three-story hip-roofed house having seven- teen fire-places. The roof was like the Manasseh Smith house, with a rail on it. The wall-paper in the hall was put on by Wales Hubbard to com- memorate the first train which was run on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The commission of Francis Cook appointing him inspector of the revenue for the several ports "within the District of Wiscasset in Massachusetts" is still extant. It is signed by his personal friend, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. The old Cook mansion is now the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Parker Endicott Marean.
Next stands the house of Francis Blyth, a trader. His wife was a daugh- ter of Capt. Ebenezer Whittier, who gave her for a wedding gift the land upon which it stands. Her father's tavern stood next door. The exact date of the construction of the Blyth house is not known but it was probably built between the years 1799 and 1803.
Here from 1809 to 1814 resided with his family Capt. John Binney, United States Army, who had command of the United States forts in this vicinity, including Fort Edgecomb, during the War of 1812. At one time it was occupied by the Brooks family and for half a century Thomas Cun- ningham, Esq., lived there. Though still known to many as the Cunning- ham house, Charles E. Knight has owned and occupied it for the past fifty years.
The more ancient Nickels manors, situated in Lincoln County, are still notable for their substantial and elaborate construction, but the mansion of William Nickels surpasses them all. Nickels, with an increase of wealth, desiring greater luxury of living and expansion of hospitality, rolled back the old house which stood on this site to a lot but a few rods distant, where it still stands, and in 1807-1808 caused a new house to be built. The archi- tect is unknown, but his skill is apparent in the artistic finish of the front hall, where a circular staircase with its delicate skirting board and cable-
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moulding climbs two flights through an open well to the top of the house. It was noted for its magnificent banquets and entertainments, and an inven- tory of its furnishings at that period reveals that this house was the abode of the wealthy and cultured. A detailed description and history of the house will be found in the chapter on "Taverns."
The first owner and occupant of the house on the corner of Middle and Main Streets, which from records extant appears to have been erected about the year 1785, was Capt. Alexander Erskine, a shipmaster. It was later the home of Col. Erastus Foote, who was the first attorney-general of the state of Maine, and his family. In May, 1845, this house and the house of Ed- mund Dana nearly adjoining were much injured by fire. The present occu- pant is Roy R. Marston.
In the street almost directly in front of it is an old well in which, until 1921, there was a wooden pump known as the town pump, and here too was a wooden trough at which horses, cattle and dogs drank.
The Hartley Wood house at the southern end of Fort Hill Street over- looking the bay and Birch Point dates from 1807. This, and the house of his brother Abiel Wood, contained the only marble-faced fire-places in town. Joseph Wood, the editor of the Seaside Oracle, was born here in 1842. From 1925 to 1930 Sidney Howard, author and playwright and his wife, Claire Eames, the distinguished actress, occupied it as their summer home. It is now owned by Miss Sortwell and Mr. and Mrs. George Maurice Hau- shalter spend long seasons there.
The house of Mrs. Mary Sewall Metcalf, built by her great grandfather, Capt. William Henry Clark, stands close to the former site of an old Indian fort, known as the Williamson garrison. The view from the terrace over- looking the harbor and river is only excelled by that from Clark's Point, where on a clear day one has a superb range of vision from the Camden Hills to the Hockomock. For several years the Clark estate was owned by Alexander Johnston Cunningham who, with his wife, came every summer from Casper, Wyoming, to pass the season in this house on the hill above the harbor.
A former house on this property just south of the present one was for long years the home of Dr. Packard, the third pastor of the east parish of Pownalborough.
Among the notable homes of eminent citizens is that of Rev. Alden Brad- ford on the road which bears his name. It was built in 1794 by the second
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minister settled in that part of Pownalborough called Wiscasset Point. When forced by impaired health to relinquish the ministry, Mr. Bradford became clerk of the courts of Lincoln County and continued to reside here until 1811, when he returned to Massachusetts. It was he who compiled the History of Massachusetts.
The Bradford house subsequently came into possession of Samuel Peters Baker, the cashier of the Mariners' Bank, and was occupied by him and his heirs until purchased by Augustus Snell, who came to Wiscasset at the time the Sturgis mill was opened. His daughter, Miss Lillian Snell, is the present owner.
The house on the Bath road near Flagg's Corner now opened by Mrs. Mary Grant Rafter was built on Rice land after 1837, for in the autumn of that year Warren Rice deeded to John Hannibal Sheppard, Esq., lawyer and littérateur, the land on which it stands. From his ownership it passed to that of the late Mr. and Mrs. Isaac H. Coffin, whose granddaughter is the present occupant.
The square wooden house known as the Joseph Christophers, and later the Bowman house, was built soon after the land on which it stands was purchased from John Groves in 1786. Christophers is believed to have be- longed to the Connecticut family of that name. In January, 1801, he was one of the selectmen and also the town clerk, and his dwelling-house and office were then on Middle Street. At the time of its erection the Christo- phers house was on Federal Street, and when a few years later Union Street was laid out, it ran through Mrs. Christophers' front garden as far as War- ren Street. The well which figures in so many of the old deeds in this neigh- borhood is still to be found near the boundary of the Christophers (Rund- lett) and Lincoln lots.
Other items of interest connected with the old houses are, one that was hauled to the gallows from Spittoon Hill. This house belonged to John Hibbert whose daughter Rachel married a man called "General" Taylor (Josiah B. Taylor), who worked for a time in the hardware store of James M. Knight. The house originally stood just east of the Blackman house and was bought by Charles B. Seekins and rolled down hill to the site of the old wooden gaol and placed near the spot where the old gallows stood. It was later the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Houdlette, both of whom occupied it until they died a few years ago.
The house that was made from a fort is the Elliot house on Garrison
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Hill, whose underpinnings were constructed of the discarded beams of the first fort in Wiscasset after it was razed. The old garrison was made of mast timber and stood on the great rock opposite this house, just south of where now stands the Methodist Church.
The house that was built by the man brought to America in a hogshead is the house on Union Street built in 1790 by John Stuart, who was brought over from England by Capt. Josiah Goddard.
The home of the first female novelist of Maine is the Elmes house on Garrison Hill, where lived Mrs. Sally Sayward Barrel Wood when the house was at the foot of the Common. It was later purchased and moved by William Elmes.
The first brick house built in Wiscasset was erected in 1797 by Manasseh Smith, Esq. This is the one known later as the Topham house now owned by Dr. D. F. S. Day. It is not known when it was painted, but it is recorded that Mr. Smith oiled the bricks in order to preserve them.
The Smiths entertained for prolonged periods their relative, Mary Moody Emerson. She was an eccentric and amusing character, who for many years lived in her shroud and was known as the "Cassandra of New Eng- land."
The second brick house was the Lincoln and Kennebec Bank building, now used as a public library. Two years later the Academy was built. Then came the home of Silas Lee at the end of High Street now called the Tucker house, which was probably followed by the Deacon Rice house on the Bath road, bought just before the Civil War by Rufus King Sewall. After the devastating fire of 1823 the three brick houses of the Lowells were erected at Card's Corner in Lowelltown, about the time the Lincoln County court house was built on the Common. The square brick house was built in 1827, by William Stacy on land which had belonged to his father, Nymphas Stacy, the inn-holder who came here from Cape Ann. The original beauty of out- line has long since been obliterated by its incorporation in the present hotel, the Wiscasset Inn, although its unchanged doorway and mantels give an old-time flavor and charm to the cheer dispensed by the blazing logs in its simple and symmetrical fire-places.
The square brick house on Washington Street, built on land adjoining the old gaol lot, was erected by Francis Cook in 1828. It soon passed into possession of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Swett, and when the former died in 1872 his widow continued to live there with their daughter Ann, whose
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Manasseh Smith House now owned and occupied by Dr. DeF. S. Day. The first brick house built in Wiscasset, dating from 1797.
The Wood-Elmes House dating from the eighteenth century. Gen. Abiel Wood resided here for several years. The house formerly stood at the northern side of Main Street near the foot of the Common, was moved to its present location about 1845.
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The Cook-Call-Hubbard House built in 1828 by Francis Cook, Collector of Customs.
The Timothy Langdon House burned in 1891.
Old Houses
husband was Thomas Call. From them it passed to their daughter-in-law, Ruth Shirley Trott, Mrs. Joseph Call. Its last owner was William Guild Hubbard.
The brick house which stands next to the Wood house was built for Capt. Richard Hawley Tucker in 1834. John Stephens, the grandfather of Dr. Stephen, was the master builder. He came from Woolwich and boarded with Mrs. Rachel Quin while the house was being erected. He was assisted in the work by John Mellus, the brother of Mrs. Tucker. It is unchanged and the leaded glass and the fanlight are given a most pleasing perspective by the porch which shades it.
The Samuel Page house on Lee Street, built on land formerly owned by Hon. Silas Lee, was erected in 1837. It is next west of the house built by Mrs. Lee in which she lived after the death of her husband.
Tradition asserts that the builders of the "Red Ridinghood" cottage on Washington Street made the bricks used for its construction from clay found in the back yard. This house, which stands between the house of "Gram Swett" and the little old cabin of "Granny McFadden," widow of William McFadden, appears on the map of 1858 and was purchased from Wales Hubbard by Rodney Blagdon in 1866, but so far nothing of an earlier date has come to light concerning it. Rodney Blagdon had four sons and one daughter. He lost all of his sons. Manning was drowned in the Sheepscot River in 1853; William B. was lost at sea in 1858, George A. died in 1861, at the age of eleven years, and Austin J. died at Falmouth, Virginia, in 1863, during the Civil War. Laura, the only daughter, married Henry Baker, the son of Samuel Peters Baker. She inherited the house and in 1882 conveyed it to Abbie A. Dow, the wife of Robert Dow. When he died his widow married Abram McKenney. By his first wife McKenney had children who bore the geographical names of America, Europe, Cali- fornia and Alabama. A daughter by his second wife was called Arizona Mc- Kenney (known to her friends as Zonie McKenney). After the death of Mr. and Mrs. McKenney, Solomon H. Dow, the son of Robert Dow, lived there with his family about twenty years ago. He was succeeded by Marcian Warren and his wife.
The octagon house on Federal Street, sometimes called "the collar box," was built by George Scott in 1855. This is the one long known as the Sawyer house.
In 1856 a substantial stone house on the Rumrill road was erected by
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Abijah Dickinson. It refutes the saying that lightning never strikes twice in the same place for it has twice been struck in thunderstorms, once during the terrific tempest of August 2, 1910. This estate was purchased by the W. Seaver Warlands in January, 1915, and they continue to own and occupy the old stone farm.
The Langdon House
The house which stood at the southwest corner of State and Fort Hill Streets for one hundred and twenty years, was so intimately identified with the development of this town that its history, written by Mr. Patterson at the time it was burned, is given herewith.
Soon after Wiscasset Point was laid out into "Quarter Acre or Town Lots" by di- rection of the Wiscasset Proprietors, so called, the lot of land bounded northeast by the street now known as Main street and southeast by Fort Hill street came to be owned by Robert Lambert, an inhabitant of this place. In 1763, May 26, Lambert, for the con- sideration of "four pounds lawfull money of New England," conveyed the lot to Spen- cer Bennet, Junior, of Salisbury in the county of Essex, by deed acknowledged before John Kingsbury, a justice of the peace. It is not known what use or improvement Ben- net made of the land. Probably none, as it does not appear to have borne any part of the annual assessments or town rates and Bennet was a sea-faring man and a non-resident.
Timothy Langdon of Boston was a member of the class graduated from Harvard College in the year 1765. He read law in the office of Jeremiah Gridley in Boston, and was afterwards for many years the only lawyer living at Wiscasset. It is not known by whom his attention was first directed to this locality. Many of the well-known resi- dents of Boston of that period were interested in the development of this eastern coun .. try and the welfare of the settlers on these lands, and the proprietors of lands in this vicinity were long known as the Boston Company. Among the lawyers of that town who had travelled the Maine circuit and appeared in the courts at Pownalborough were Robert Auchmuty, the younger, and John Adams; Auchmuty in 1762 and Adams in 1765. It may have been the last-named who advised his friend "Tim" Langdon of the eligible location for a young lawyer to be found in the new town lying between the Kennebec and the Sheepscot.
When Langdon came to Wiscasset in 1769, the only members of his profession resid- ing in this county were William Cushing at Pownalborough and James Sullivan at Georgetown. Cushing was judge of the Probate Court and resided near the court house now standing in Dresden. After two years residence here Langdon, who had entered into an engagement of marriage with Miss Sarah Vans of Boston, in looking about for a desirable site upon which to build his home, bought of Bennet, who then lived in New- bury Port, the lot of land before mentioned. The price paid was thirteen pounds and the deed was dated the 13th June, 1771.
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Langdon soon received the appointment of Crown Lawyer, probably upon the re- moval from the county of Judge Cushing who succeeded his father, John Cushing, upon the bench of the Superior Court of Judicature for the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. He early became identified with the cause of the colonies and for several years served as a member of the committee of correspondence for the town of Pownal- borough. He also served this town in many other capacities. In May, 1775, he was chosen to represent the town in the third Provincial Congress held at Watertown, May 31, to July 19th. Massachusetts was then without a Supreme Executive-the Governor and Deputy Governor having "absented themselves and refused to govern the province according to the charter"-and it became necessary for the representatives of the people to decide in what manner the civil affairs of the colony should be administered. Their deliberations were aided by the advice of the Continental Congress, and resulted in the adoption of a form of Government as nearly in accordance with the terms of the char- ter as the circumstances of the time would admit. In the pressure of public business the judicial courts were not established until some months later, when Langdon was ap- pointed Judge of the Maritime Court for the Eastern District of the State of the Massa- chusetts Bay with jurisdiction in the territory which has since become the State of Maine.
Langdon appears to have enjoyed a considerable practice in the courts of this coun- try for fifteen or twenty years, during which time he built the house which was burned on the morning of Dec. 8, 1891. Of him, Willis, the biographer of the lawyers of Maine, wrote: "Langdon was able, eloquent and brilliant; but he became very dis- sipated, and was spoken of by those who knew him, as the shattered remains of a once sound lawyer." Financial difficulties rapidly followed and the lot of land together with the house standing thereon, being the homestead of Langdon, was levied upon by his creditors, John Page of Boston, John Jones of Hallowell and Moses Gerrish of Grand Manan. The northwestern part of the house and land came into the possession of Seth Tinkham by purchase of Page in 1792. A year later Tinkham released a portion of the property to Langdon whose last right in it was made over to John Savage of Pownal- borough, by a deed of what the grantor described as "the southeasterly half part of the house and Land I lately owned and in which I last dwelt with my Family at Wiscasset in Pownalborough;" the consideration named in the deed was eighteen pounds; the conveyance was made subject to a mortgage to Thomas Rice and to the claims of the creditors already named. On the deed was endorsed a receipt in the following words: "July 21, 1795. Rec'd the foregoing consideration by the hand of Tinkham, Savage and Co. Timo. Langdon." The firm of Tinkham, Savage & Co. was composed of Joseph Tinkham, John Savage and Seth Tinkham, all residents of this town and en- gaged in business here. Savage and Seth Tinkham appear to have occupied the house for some years. Their friend and partner, Joseph Tinkham, lived in the immediate neighborhood on the southeastern side of Pleasant street. Opposite their house on Main street stood the inn kept by Capt. Ebenezer Whittier, an old resident of the town; Henry Hodge, Jr. lived at the southeastern corner of Maine and Fort Hill streets, and in 1797, Manasseh Smith built his brick house at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets.
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In 1798, Tinkham conveyed his part of the estate to General Wood. Nov. 12, 1799, Capt. Spencer Tinkham acquired an interest in the property. At that date it was occupied by Mrs. Savage and Mariner Pearson. Three years later (Nov. 12, 1802) Abiel Wood, Jr., came into possession of the whole estate by deeds from his father and Capt. Tink- ham. The latter had evidently made a considerable addition to the value of his part of the property for the consideration named in the deeds given by him was nearly treble the sum which he appears to have paid for the same but a short time before.
The next change of title brought it into the possession of one with whom the house is associated in the recollections of the older residents here. On the ninth of November, 1804, Abiel Wood, Jr., executed a deed of the property to Samuel Miller who had been a resident of the town for several years. He was born in Bristol whence he came at about the same time that several other Bristol men, attracted by the growing importance of this port as a mercantile center, took up their abode here. Among them were the Boyds, Capt. David Otis and others, all of whom were interested in shipping. They enjoyed the period of the town's greatest prosperity, and experienced the most serious effects of the paralysis of business which accompanied and followed the War of 1812.
Miller was a son of William Miller of Bristol who died in 1773 when the son was but eight years old. The son became a master mariner and the owner of vessels. He was for a long time a merchant and an influential citizen of this town; steadfast in his friend- ships and kind and generous to the fatherless. During his ownership of the house the name of Langdon last appears in connection with it. Timothy Langdon, the first owner, died in 1808, and in 1811, Capt. Miller paid Mary Langdon of Boston, widow, $500 for her interest in the house and land. He had paid Major Wood $3200. Capt. Miller died Jan. 17, 1834. By his will, dated 29th October, 1833, he devised the house, land, barn and outbuildings to his wife and appointed his friend, William M. Boyd, sole exe- cutor of the will. Mrs. Hannah Miller was the fourth daughter of Deacon William Boyd, for many years a resident of Bristol and who afterwards removed to Bangor. In 1838 Mrs. Miller became the fifth wife of Capt. William M. Boyd. She continued to occupy the house until her death in 1844, when it became the property of Robert and John Boyd, her brothers, and Elizabeth Webster and Jane B. Weston, her sisters, all of Bangor, and several of her nephews and nieces, who, in 1845, sold the same to Mr. Daniel Stone who then resided in Wiscasset.
The subsequent changes in the ownership and occupancy of the house will be readily recalled by many now living. It was for a long time the residence of Mr. John C. Har- riman, later of Boston. Mr. Benjamin F. Bailey, the last owner, came into possession about 1883 and for a time occupied it with his family.
The family names of Langdon, Tinkham and Miller, once so well known in Wis- casset, are now to be found here only in the records of the past.
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Dates of houses built in Wiscasset
The Fort on Garrison Hill made of mast timber.
I734. 1763. Col. John Kingsbury's house.
1766. The Whittier Tavern.
1766. The Decker house of Chester Pendleton. The house of Benjamin Frizell.
Judge Rice's house-Wolcott Andrews.
Timothy Langdon house on the southwest corner of Main and Fort Hill, burned to the ground December 8, 1891.
The First Parish Church.
The Silvester house, now Mrs. Nash's, moved from Water Street in 1795.
The house of Cornelius Turner on the site where H. Hodge, Jr. built.
Timothy Parsons' house on Fort Hill.
Capt. Alexander Erskine's house later Col. Erastus Foote's, now Marston.
Joseph Christophers' house, late Bowman.
Henry Hodge on the corner of Washington and Hodge Street on land con- veyed to him by Samuel Groves. An early cabin there.
Earlier than this the Benjamin Colby (Clapp) house was built.
The John Stuart house, where George Blagdon now lives.
The town hall.
Silas Lee, the house now called the Smith house.
Wooden court house (Wiscasset Hall).
The Abiel Wood house now called the Elmes house.
Rev. Alden Bradford, now Snell house.
Francis Cook mansion with seventeen fire-places.
Henry Lodge, Jr. house corner of Fort Hill and Main, now Mrs. Macurda. Manasseh Smith's brick house where Dr. Day lives.
The Francis Blyth house was built by Ebenezer Whittier.
Probably about this time the Jonathan Cook house was built on Pleasant Street, between the Francis Cook house and the Stuart house. It was moved to Middle Street in 1853 when sold to Rev. Abiel Wood.
1803. 1804. 1804. 1805. 1805. 1805. 1806.
Peter Brayson house .. . Lennox.
The Jacob Woodman house was built by John Kingsbury, Jr.
The Joseph Tinkham Wood house-Moses Carlton.
Joseph Swett House, now Neal.
Robert Elwell, now Dickinson.
Lincoln & Kennebec Bank.
Silas Lee built the Congregational parsonage about this time, originally for Franklin Tinkham.
The Hartley Wood house, now Pumpkin House.
The house of William Nickels-Sortwell.
1807. 1807. 1807. The Academy.
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I771. 1771. 1784. 1784. 1785. 1785. 1786. 1787. 1789. 1790. I792. 1792. 1793. I793. I794. I795. 1795. 1797. 1799. 1800.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
1807-8 Silas Lee built the Tucker house.
1808. The wooden court house on the Common.
1810. About this time the Deacon Warren Rice brick house, R. K. Sewall.
18II. Hon. Abiel Wood started to build his house. Finished in 1824.
1812. The old fort on Davis Island.
1813. The Powder House.
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