Penobscot County
MEGenWeb
Transcribed by Fran Jones Libby, David Brann, Jennifer Godwin, and Grinnell MacLeod Wood II
In the first winter of 1802-3 the
only family in the town ship was that of Joseph Garland, embracing
himself, his wife and three children, the eldest being scarcely five
years old. The names of the children were Orenda, Timothy, Kilby and
Minerva. It would interesting to know more of the everyday life of that
little family which was left to solitude and snow through that long cold
winter than tradition handed down. The days of the preceding summer had
been cheered by the presence in the township of those kind-hearted men
who had left their work to welcome the coming of the family and escort
its members to the little cabin in the forest. The courageous bearing of
Mrs. Garland had won their admiration and she could always afterward
count on them among her friends, but they had now completed their
season’s work and retired from the township.
The last blow had
been struck upon the saw-mill, and the echoes of the ringing laugh and
cheerful voices of the workmen had ceased.
Left alone in the
wilderness it is very easy to imagine that a feeling of loneliness
rested upon this very solitary home. If now, discouragement and
discontent had constituted the leading elements in the experience of
each day. it would excite no surprise in the mind of the reader. To add
to the loneliness of the situation, Mr. Garland was obliged to be away
from home several weeks on business, leaving his brother Jacob, a boy of
sixteen years, to take care of his place in the family. Accident,
sickness or even death might visit the snow-bound household.
But
neither discouragement, discontent nor fear of misfortune that might
happen found place therein.
Mrs. Garland was loyal to the
interests of her husband and children. She entertained the convection
that faithful care of her family and instruction of her children were
the most important of woman’s duties. This conviction called out the
heroic element of her character and raised her to the level of her
responsibilities. Her fortitude was sometimes severely taxed by the
discomforts of her situation but she met them bravely.
Spring
came at length and brought not only sunshine and warmth, but neighbors
and companionship, if indeed people whose habitations were separated by
several miles of dense forests could be regarded as neighbors and
companions. In the month of March, 1803, Wm. Mitchell moved his family
from Athens, Maine, into Township number four, now Dexter, and took up
his abode in the cabin he had built the preceding autumn. The distance
between the houses of the two families was about three miles. An
acquaintance sprang up between them which soon ripened into intimacy. In
their interchange of visits the women of these families generally rode
on horseback guided on their way by spotted lines. Mrs. Mitchell was a
woman of resolution. When she could not have the use of a horse, she
cheerfully passed the distance on foot. Reared under the influence of
the same religious creed, the two women passed many a pleasant day
together. The late Mrs. N. P. Smith, a daughter of Mrs. Mitchell, and
for many years a resident of Garland, credits Mrs. Garland with the
declaration that she never spent a happier season than her first winter
in the forest of the new township with her little family.
In her
seclusion she sought the companionship of her Bible and other good books
which proved the beginning of a new religious experience, the memory of
which in subsequent years was a perpetual source of satisfaction.
The Garland family was cheered and
encouraged by the arrival of several families in 1803. Early in the
spring of this year, John Tyler from Gloucester, Maine, moved into the
house that Joseph Treadwell had built for him the preceding year.
Mr. Treadwell and his family, form Danville, Maine, soon followed
and occupied a part of Mr. Tyler’s house. This quaint old house was torn
down years ago to give place to the house now owned and occupied by
Charles H. Brown.
The Tyler and Treadwell families were connected
by marriage.
John M. Chase built and moved into a house on lot
one, range seven, where he had made an opening the preceding year. The
site of his Building was near the residence of the late Bradbury G.
Atkins. The coming of the family of Benjamin Gilpatrick was probably in
1803, although it might have been a year later.
Justus Harriman
moved his family into the township in 1803 and established a home on lot
nine, range nine, where he made his beginning a year earlier. He
emigrated from Salisbury, N.H.
John Grant from Berwick,Maine,
having purchased the saw-mill built by Moses Hodsdon the previous year,
together with the lot upon which it stood, emigrated to the township in
1803 with his family, embracing his wife, three sons, who had grown to
manhood, and two daughters. William Godwin came to the township in 1803
and purchased 100 acres of land of David A. Gove on lot eight, range
five, where he made a beginning and afterwards established a home.
Since the beginning in 1803 the township had
been known as township number three in the fifth range. Its settlement
had begun and its continued existence seemed assured. It was quite
natural that the inhabitants should desire a more simple and convenient
name. It was desirable, also, that the name should have some historical
significance.
As it was a township of flattering prospects, any
one of its proprietors would have felt honored by having his name
associated with its future history as one of its founders. One of its
proprietors, in addition to person merit and prominence, bore a name
that stood high in the list of honored names of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. This was Hon, Levi Lincoln, afterwards governor of his
state, and by common consent the township was called Lincolnville until
its incorporation in 1816.
The township lying
next north of Lincolntown, now Dover, was still designated by number and
range. The township west of it, now Dexter, was called Elkinstown from
Samuel and John Elkins, who built the first mills there. The township on
the south, now Exeter, was called Blaisdelltown from Dr. John Blaisdell,
who had aided its settlement. On the east was New Charleston, now
Charleston.
The early names of this community of townships strike
the ear strangely now. Nevertheless they are a part of the history of
the times.
Corn bread and salt pork were
the staple articles of food of the early settlers of Garland. This
unwritten bill of fare was sometimes varied by fish taken from the
streams which threaded the township, and wild game captured in the
forest.
After a year’s residence in the township, the pioneer
could raise the corn needed for the family, but not much pork was
produced for several years.
In the autumn of 1803, John S.
Haskell was boarding in the family of John Tyler. On a certain day Mrs.
Tyler had raised the last piece of pork from the bottom of the barrel.
She cut this into halves, one of which fell back into the brine with a
splash, which if not "solemn", was sadly suggestive that the supply was
running short. It was plain that a fresh supply must be obtained or the
bill of fare curtailed. The latter alternative could not be submitted to
if possible to avoid it. But a fresh supply would require a journey
through the woods to Bangor on horseback, a distance of twenty-five
miles, coupled with the uncertainty of finding it in that place. The
case was urgent and Mr. Haskell volunteered to make the journey.
Knowing that his friend, Isaac Wheeler, had a quantity of the coveted
article stored at Levant, now Kenduskeag, for future use, he took the
wise precaution of obtaining his consent to take a stipulated quantity
of it in case the journey to Bangor should be fruitless.
Researching the latter place in due time, he could find the article he
was in quest of only in one place. and that was of the quality that the
historic Jack Spratt is alleged to have preference for. Mr. Haskell
ventured the suggestion that the price seemed high for the quality of
the meat. The merchant replied, ŅIt is cheap as it can be afforded -
take it or leave it." Quietly accepting the alternative so curtly
offered, he cast a lingering look at the barrel whose contents he had
come so far to inspect, and bidding the proprietor a respectful
good-bye, started on his return home. Reaching Levant, he took from
Esquire Wheeler's barrel the quantity stipulated for and resumed his
journey homeward.
At new Ohio (now Corinth) he met the old
hunter. Snow, who two years earlier had opportunely helped Moses Hodsdon
to the historic mill crank, to take the place of the one which had
unfortunately broken. Mr. Snow had just killed and dressed a large and
very fat bear. In those days there were more bears than people who
relished the flesh of that animal. It had, therefore, no remarkable
value, and the old hunter gave Mr. Haskell as much of it as he could
conveniently carry. Greatly elated at his good fortune, Mr. Haskell
resumed his journey. On reaching home he informed his friends, who were
impatiently awaiting his return, that he had brought with him "a good
lot of excellent meat, both fresh and salted."
It was now supper
time and for obvious reasons the members of the family were unanimous in
their desire to sit down to a square meal of fresh meat. A frying-pan of
good size was forthwith placed upon the glowing coals and filled with
generous slices. It was soon cooked and placed upon the table and
supplemented by such other articles as their limited supplies afforded,
it presented an inviting repast.
Joseph Treadwell and family who
lived under the same roof were invited to the feast. Gathered around the
table they partook of the supper with unmistakable satisfaction, the
fresh meat being greatly relished. Mr. Haskell was warmly congratulated
upon his success as a caterer. And now comes the denouement. With a
mischievous twinkle of the eye, the caterer quietly informed the company
that the meat they had eaten was not pork as they had supposed, but the
flesh of a bear. A Frenchman would say that a person can learn to eat
almost anything if he will only try. The trouble in this case was, that
those who had so highly enjoyed the entertainment had not been used to
eating the flesh of bear, and French philosophy did not save them from
the consquences of having eaten the kind of food, the name of which as
food had a most unsavory sound. The women of the party suddenly
exhibited unmistakable indications of repugnance, the caterer wickedly
indulged in one of his heartiest laughs. But the tables were soon
turned. Brooms were plenty in those days because the women could make
brooms. A small sapling of the requisite length and size, a little bunch
of flaky boughs of hemlock or cedar placed in layers, a strong flaxen
string twisted on the spindle of the old wheel in the corner,
constituted all necessary materials. The stems of the boughs were
tightly tied to the handle and the broom was ready for use. But then, as
now, brooms were not used exclusively for sweeping floors. When those
women had partially recovered from their recent upheaval, they
instinctively seized the brooms that stood in the corners and made a
sudden and resolute attack upon our future deacon, who, deeming
Ņdiscretion the better part of valor" made a hasty retreat in to the
shadows of the forest. Now the laugh was fairly turned, illustrating the
old proverb that" he laughs best who laughs last."
So far as is known only two families established homes in
the township in 1804. Isaac Wheeler, Esq., then recently married,
commenced housekeeping in the log cabin he had built two years earlier
near the site of the present Free Baptist meeting house. later in the
same season he built a comfortable frame house on the site of the house
afterwards owned by the late William Foss.
James McClure having
purchased Edward Sargent’s interest in lot three, range five, moved his
family into a cabin that stood near the site of the present house of
Samuel O. Davis. Peter Chase, who made a beginning on lot seven, range
nine, two years earlier, cleared a piece of land in 1804, raised a crop
and built a house. Moses Smith bought Thomas Finson’s interest in lot
six, range nine, in 1804, and made preparation for a future home.
William Godwin came to the township again this year and enlarged the
opening begun the preceding year.
James Holbrook, a
brother-in-law of Isaac Wheeler, purchased the westerly part of lot
eight, range five, of Mr. Godwin and felled an opening there. Years
later this lot passed into the hands of Benjamin Garland, who lived
there several years.
Amos Gordon of Hopkinton, N. H., made his
first visit to Lincolntown in June, 1804, and purchased of Joseph
Garland a part of lot nine, range ten, paying four dollars and acre for
it. This was a large price for land at that time. Amos Gordon was the
grandfather of our well-known citizens, Horace H., James P., and Albert
G. Gordon. Mr. Gordon performed this journey on horseback by the way of
Kennebec to Ripley, where he had acquaintances, and thence to
Lincolntown. After having selected and purchased the land of his future
home he returned to New Hampshire to prepare for a change of residence.
In September of the same year he revisited the township, cleared land
and built a log home for the reception of is family the following
spring.
About the time he started on his second visit to the
township, which was on horseback, five men of his acquaintance went to
Massachusetts to take passage in a sailing vessel for the same
destination. These were his son, Moses Gordon, Jeremiah Flanders,
Sampson Silver, Caleb Currier of Hopkinton, N. H., and Edward Fifield of
Ware of the same state. Arriving at Newburyport they were much
disappointed at not finding the vessel in which they had engaged a
passage. Waiting several days they became inpatient of the delay and
took passage or a rude fishing-smack that had just discharged a cargo of
wood and was about to start on the return voyage to the Penobscot. They
took on board with them a pair of oxen and ox-wagon belonging to Moses
Gordon, a horse owned by Mr. Fairfield, supplies for themselves and
tools for their work.
These men started on their journey for
double purpose of inspecting the lands of the township and of assisting
Amos Gordon in building his home and preparing land for crops of the
following spring. With the exception of Mr. Currier they all became
residents of the township a few years later.
Weighing anchor, two fruitless attempts were made to get out of the harbor. The third attempt was successful. The vessel had scarcely got out to sea before these men discovered ti their dismay that they were in an un-seaworthy vessel, commanded by a drunken captain and manned by an incompetent crew. A violent storm soon arose, intensifying their anxiety. After hours of weary watching and hard work at the pumps by turns, the vessel entered Townsend harbor. Here they found several vessels that had sought shelter from the fury of the storm, among which was a vessel bound to Frankfort. Not desirous of continuing their acquaintance with the captain and crew with whom they had first sailed, they transferred their effects to the Frankfort vessel and took passage on her. Arriving safely at Frankfort in due time the oxen, horses and ox-wagon were landed. Mr. Fifield proceeded directly to the township and arranged with Joseph Garland and John Grant, who now owned the mill built two years earlier, to send a pair of oxen each to help the incoming emigrants along. The supplies and tools were transferred to the boat belonging to the vessel and under direction of the mate, Messrs. Flanders, Silver, and Currier brought them safely to Bangor.
The oxen, as soon as they were in
condition to begin their overland journey, were hitched to the wagon and
driven to Bangor by Moses Gordon. Here the tools and supplies were
transferred from the boat to the wagon. A Mr. Hasey of Levant, who was
in Bangor at the time with an ox team, assisted Mr. Gordon to haul his
load to the elevated land away from the river. The party passed that
night at the Campbell place in Bangor. The next morning Mr. Campbell
helped them to the north line of Bangor with his team, where they met
Mr. Fifield with Joseph Garland's oxen. The team now moved slowly
forward, crossing the clayey bed of the un-bridged Kenduskeag at the
foot of a long declivity, now known as the Jameson Hill, without
incident.
The party reached Levant, now Kenduskeag, at
night-fall, where they tarried until morning with Major Moses Hodsdon.
From this point to Lincolntown, a distance of fourteen miles, a sled
road had been bushed out to what is now known as West Corinth, thence to
the Simon Prescott place in the northwest corner of New Ohio (Corinth),
thence to the mill in lincolntown (Garland). The old country road from
garland to Bangor, established about a dozen years later, followed
nearly the route of the sled road which has been described. Our party of
emigrants took an early breakfast and an early start from the hospitable
home of Major Hodsdon with the determination to reach their destination
before indulging in another night's sleep. They had fourteen miles to
travel over a way which no wheeled carriages had ever passed, but they
had a strong, although slow moving team. They had, also, three or four
stalwart, resolute men, armed with axes and handspikes, to precede the
team and widen the way for the passage of the wagon. Three miles on
their way they met Landeras Grant from Lincolntown with another yoke of
oxen to aid in hauling the load. Their progress was slow and nigh
overtook them four miles short of their objective point. It was now
raining and very dark, but they moved on without serious interruption
until they reached the swamp about one mile south of the present village
of Garland. Here the wheels sunk into the mud to the hubs and it was so
dark that the axe men were unable to see the obstacles that were in the
way. Fortunately the way was now wide enough to admit of the passage of
the wagon if the numerous sharp angles could be avoided. Launderas Grant
was the man for the occasion. He was familiar with every part of the way
and knew every angle - seemed to know it instinctively - and could
indicate it as well in the darkness of night as in the light of day.
With Landeras to pilot them they were sure to get safely through. He
therefore took charge of the expedition, and obeying his commands, the
teamsters “hawed and geed" and floundered through the swamp. The party
was now near the end of its journey and an hour later it was comfortably
quartered in John Grant's camp near the mill at Lincolntown. Before
retiring to rest the members of the party gave to the mirey swamp which
had so seriously retarded their progress the name of “The Lake," which
it retained many years. In 1814, the town of garland voted to lay out a
road from “The Lake, so called, to Exeter line."
After a brief
rest the men of this party repaired to lot nine, range ten, the site of
the present home of D. B. McComb, and commenced building a cabin for the
reception, in the following spring, of Amos Gordon's family. At the
completion of this job a piece of land was cleared for raising a crop
the following year. The men then returned to lot eleven, range three,
the site of the present home of Joel W. Otis. This lot number ten in the
same range had been purchased by Edward Fifield. On lot number eleven a
piece of trees has been felled and the ground burned over. When or by
whom the opening had been made tradition does not inform us. Being
remote from other beginnings, it probably had been made without
attracting the attention of other settlers and quietly abandoned. But
the question as to who had made this beginning didnot trouble Mr.
Fifield. His own title being satisfactory, his immediate purpose was to
clear the land for a crop the following year, which by the help of his
companions was soon accomplished. Late in autumn the Gorgons, Mr.
Fifield and their companions returned to New Hampshire to prepare for
the renewal of their efforts to wrest homes from the unwilling
wilderness.
It has been said that children are among the earliest productions of a new colony. Whether this is true as a general proposition or not, it was true of the settlement at Lincolntown as facts will show. There is a tradition that in the year 1803, the second year of the settlement, a son was added to the household of Joh and Agnes Grant Knight. If the fact is in harmony with the tradition, this was the first birth in the new township. On the 24th of January, 1804, there was born to Miriam Chase, wife of John M. Chase, a daughter, Polly Chase. To the family of Joesph and Zeruiah Garland, there was the addition of a daughter, Zeruiah Garland, born February 3, 1804. To the family of Justus and Miriam Harriman there was the addition of a son, Manoah Harriman, born May 14th, 1804, and to the family of Isaac and Betsey Murray Wheeler, there was the addition of a son, Reuben Wheeler, born September 20th, 1804. These records were copied from family records and entered upon the records of the town after it’s incorporation in 1811.
A resident of any railroad village in the state of New Hampshire might, in the year of grace, 1868, have risen at a convenient hour in the morning, sipped his cup of coffee, read the morning news leisurely and stepped aboard the cars, valise in hand, and at the end of a journey that had been monotonously comfortable, have found himself at night enjoying the hospitality of friends in the pleasant town of Garland.
The convenience, dispatch and comfort of
journeying now are in strange contrast with the discomfort and hardships
of traveling at the opening of the present century. At the opening of
the year 1805, there were living in Hopkinton, N. H., three families who
had determined to leave the homes of their birth, the friends of their
youth, and the associations of their earlier life and establish new
homes in a remote township of eastern Maine. These were the families of
Amos Gordon, including himself, his wife, several sons and four
daughters, whose names were Polly, Betsey, Nancy and Miriam, John
Chandler and family, consisting of himself, his wife and several
children, among whom was our late and well remembered citizen, James J.
Chandler, then a boy of seven years; Moses Gordon and his wife and a
daughter of fourteen months. The families were accompanied by Jeremiah
Flanders and Sampson Silver, who afterwards became citizens of the
township. The latter was a brother of Moses Gordon's wife. The company
of emigrants embraced men and women in the vigor of life, boys and girls
and children of tender age. Early in February, their preparations having
been completed, they bade adieu to relatives and friends whom they might
never again see, and taking passage upon open sleds they committed
themselves to a sea of snow of uncommon depth even for an old-fashioned
New England winter. The journey was made with horse teams. They were
obliged to take with them supplies both for the journey and for
immediate use at the journey's end, and such household goods as were
necessary to meet the simple requirements of pioneer life.
They
had scarcely started on their journey when then encountered a storm,
which was the first of a succession of storms that assailed them almost
every day until they reached the end. There was an unlimited expanse of
deep snow on every side of them and furious clouds of snow, driven by
fierce winds, above them. The several teams, though traveling as near
each other as was consistent with convenience and safety, were sometimes
hidden from each other through almost the entire day in "the tumultuous
privacy of storm." There was, however, one mitigating circumstance. Much
of the latter part of their route led them through dense forests that
shielded them somewhat from the violence of the storms. But their
progress was toilsome and tedious. Much of the country through which
they passed was sparsely settled. There were but few public houses on
the latter part of their route, but the hospitality of the scattered
families was limited only by their ability. When this party of emigrants
reached the town of Harmony, they were tendered the use of the house and
barn of Mr. Leighton, who, with his worthy wife, administered to their
wants and comfort to the full extent of their ability. Mrs. Leighton
had, a few months earlier, presented her husband with twin children,
who, disturbed by some of the ills of childhood, cried vociferously
through a large part of the night. The mother walked the room with them,
carrying each by turn, endeavoring to soothe them by singing that grand
old tune, Old Hundred. It was a satisfaction to know that reared by such
a mother, under the inspiration of such music, they became substantial
citizens of an intelligent community.
The snow had reached such
depth when the party arrived at Harmony that a detention of several days
seemed inevitable. The sleds were unloaded and the men started with
their teams with the intention of breaking their way to the end of their
route. When they had reached the next township, now Ripley, they were
much elated to find that, in anticipation of their coming, the settlers
of Lincolntown had broken the way through the snow to that point as an
expression of their satisfaction at the prospect of so large an
accession to their numbers.
Returning to Harmony the party
reloaded their sleds and renewed their journey. At nightfall they found
themselves within the limits of the present town of Dexter, where they
passed the night in an old camp. The night of the next day, February 22,
1805, found them at the end of their journey. They had taken twenty-one
days to perform a journey of about two hundred miles. The fast sailing
steamers of the present day would make their trips across the Atlantic
Ocean and return in an equal period of time. Amos and Moses Gordon, with
their families, went directly to the log house that had been built the
preceding autumn, where they quickly started a fire with fuel that had
been prepared and left in the house.
When ready to cook their
first meal Mr. Gordon, assuming a mysterious air, went to a barrel that
at the close of the previous season's operations had been left partly
filled with pork, intending to surprise the hungry members of his
household with a generous piece of that article. The surprise complete -
but Mr. Gordon was the individual surprised. In the interval between
autumn and the time of the arrival of the family some of the original
dwellers of the "forest primeval" had appropriated the meat.
John
Chandler and family spent the first night in Lincolntown with the family
of Joseph Garland. Afterwards they were quartered a few weeks with the
family of Justus Harriman.
The Gordon and
Chandler families had experienced severe hardships during their recent
Journey to Lincoln- town and hardships were still in store for them.
They were yet to he buffeted by forces that seemed to challenge their
right to a foothold in the new township. They had been assailed by
violent storms through weary days while on their way to it. Now that
they had safely reached it a more severe trial awaited some of their
numbers. While in the township in the autumn of 1804, Amos Gordon
purchased a piece of land just within the limits of the present town of
Dexter, about two miles away from his own land, for his son Moses
Gordon. A small opening had been made upon it, and a cabin of logs with
a bark roof had been built.
This would shelter his family until
better accommodations could be provided. In the month of March, after
they had recovered from the fatigue of their recent journey and a hard
crust had formed upon the surface of the deep snow, Moses Gordon,
assisted by other members of the family, embraced the opportunity to
haul his furniture, household goods and other needful things to his
cabin on a hand-sled. Having finished this work, he repaired to the
little cabin early one bright morning and arranged his scanty supply of
furniture so as to give the one solitary apartment as cheerful an aspect
as possible. After building a fire in the stone fire-place and guarding
it, as he believed, from danger of accident, he returned to get Mrs.
Gordon to introduce her to the new home. The latter hastily preparing
herself, they started on their morning's walk. The pure, bracing air of
the early spring morning imparted buoyancy to their movements and
inspired courage for the encounter with the hardships immediately before
them, and inspired hopes of the "better time coming." A brisk walk
carried them to the little opening which two hours earlier had contained
all their worldly goods, when, to their utter dismay, the site of their
little cabin presented nothing but a heap of blackened and smoldering
ruins. Their household goods, their wearing apparel, their scanty supply
of food, all the articles for use and convenience that had been made by
Mrs. Gordon’s own hands - all these things had disappeared in a brief
hour.
This sudden change of prospect was too much even for the
cheerful, the hopeful, the courageous Mrs. Gordon. She fainted and fell
upon the icy crust that covered the snow.
When consciousness
returned, she found herself sitting upon an old chest that had been left
outside the cabin because it was worthless. It was the only thing that
had escaped the fire. A sickening smoke was curling up from the
blackened ruins, as if in mockery of her grief. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon
returned wearily to Amos Gordon's to remain until other arrangements for
housekeeping could be made.
During the spring of 1805, Mr. Gordon
selected, and afterwards purchased lot ten, range five. The year
following he felled six acres of trees on the lot and built a house on
the site now occupied by the Murdock buildings. The boards which covered
the house were hauled from Elkinstown (Dexter) with an ox-team. It
required two days to go to that place and return with a load, although
the distance was only five miles.
Early the following autumn he
moved his family into the house. The boards with which the house was
covered, shrunk by the heat of the fire in the large stone fire-place,
leaving openings for the winds to enter unbidden. The members of the
family would sometimes awaken in the morning to find that wind and snow
had provided an extra covering for their beds. Thus it was with many of
the houses of the earlier settlers.
John Chandler and his family, who accompanied the Gordon families on
their journey to Lincolntown, spent the night in the township under the
hospitable roof of Joseph Garland. The next day they found quarters in
the cabin of Justus Harriman, where they remained until the first of
May. Mr. Chandler had purchased of Arnold Murray his interest in lot
eight, range nine, which joined Mr. Harriman's lot. Mr. Murray bad
felled an opening on this lot three years earlier and had raised one or
two crops there. Henry Merrill, who married a granddaughter of John
Chandler, now owns and occupies the same lot.
Mr. Harriman's
little cabin afforded close quarters for his own family. There was
scarcely more than standing room for two families. Lodgings for the
Chandler family must be sought elsewhere. Necessity often enforces
compliance with accommodations that accord neither with choice nor
convenience. In this case it compelled the Chandler family to resort to
the barn for lodgings. Beds were, therefore, placed in the barn and
comfortably furnished. The inconvenience in the case was in getting to
and from the barn through the snow and water of the warm spring days.
Repairing to the barn for the night without adequate protection for the
feet, the hosiery of the family became saturated with water. Cold nights
followed warm days and the footwear would freeze. Fruitful in
expedients, Mrs. Chandler wrung the water from the hosiery and placing
it between the feather and straw beds it came out in the morning in good
condition for use.
Soon after the arrival of
the Chandler family in the township Mr. Chandler commenced preparations
to build a house. Before the coming of May he had a frame up, ready to
cover; also a supply of boards and nails. Keeping house at Mr.
Harriman’s, where the room was so limited, had become irksome to both
families. Mrs. Chandler cherished a strong desire for a home of her own
at the earliest possible date. One day, early in May, Mr. Chandler was
to start on a business trip to Bangor on horseback. He would be absent
three days. As he rode from the dooryard Mrs. Chandler mysteriously
hinted that on his return he would find something to surprise him. He
had no sooner disappeared in the forest than she summoned their hired
man, Sampson Silver, to he assistance, directing him to equip himself
with the necessary tools and go to the house frame which was short
distance away and nail to frame and rafters enough boards to shield
herself and family from wind and rain. Mr. Silver, entering into the
spirit of the joke, had accomplished the work he was directed to do by
nightfall of the first day. At the close of the second day, which opened
auspiciously for the accomplishment of their plans, beds, cooking
utensils, and other things necessary to a rude form of housekeeping had
been moved in and the family had taken possession of their new quarters.
But now to their dismay ominous clouds were rapidly gathering. About
midnight while the members of this little family might have been
indulging in pleasant dreams, inspired by the sentiment that ‘be it ever
so humble there is no place like home,’ the rain suddenly came, and, to
use a modern phrase, ‘the storm center’ seemed to rest directly over the
devoted household. With the ready command of expedients characteristic
of the early settlers, Mrs. Chandler promptly summoned the hired man,
and together they rolled beds and bedding into the smallest possible
compass and covered them with boards which were at hand, thus saving
them from getting wet. The morning of the third day dawned pleasantly
and it was spent in obliterating the traces of the recent rain and
preparations for the reception of Mr. Chandler on his return from
Bangor.
The mind of the latter as he approached his home was
sharply exercised over the solution of the character of the surprise
that awaited his return. Emerging from the shadows of the forest, just
as night was settling over the scene, into the little opening which he
had often looked on as the site of his future residence, he met his wife
who smilingly invited him to the comforts of their new home. This was
the surprise so mysteriously suggested as he rode from the Harriman
cabin three days earlier. Mr. Chandler now continued the work on the new
house which Mrs. Chandler had so heroically begun, until it reached the
condition of a comfortable dwelling.
The
difficulty. of procuring seed for crops constituted one form of hardship
for the early settlers of a new township They were often compelled to
travel many miles on foot for this purpose and bear their purchases home
on their shoulders.
Mr. Chandler was, however, more fortunate in
supplying himself with seed for his first crop of potatoes. He found a
plat that had been planted with potatoes the preceding year by Mr.
Murray, who had left the crop in the ground through the winter, which,
covered by the deep snow, had not been frozen. From this plat he dug
eight bushels of the tubers that were in good condition for seed.
From seed thus obtained many crops were raised in this and
subsequent years by Mr. Chandler and his neighbors. This discovery was
more to the Chandlers than the acquisition of a thousand gold dollars to
a Vanderbilt of the present time.
Arnold Murray, who had made a
beginning on lot eight, range nine, in 1802 and had sold his interest in
the lot to John Chandler in 1805, made another beginning on lot eleven,
range nine, in 1805, where he lived for several years. This lot
afterwards passed into the hands of a Mr. Besse and has since been known
as the Besse place, although it has passed through the hands of several
different owners since.
An ever
present menace to the inhabitants of a new township is the liability to
the loss of their homes and property by fire. The flues that conducted
the smoke from the fierce fires of the large stone fire-places of their
humble cabins were often built of sticks and clay. Such chimneys would
sometimes burn and the debris falling into the capacious fire-place
below, the cabin would escape destruction by the fiery agent. But the
more immediate danger from fire arose from the necessity of clearing
land for crops by burning the forest growth. In times of drought the
fire which had been set to clear the lands for the season's crops would
be driven by adverse winds towards the buildings of the settlers and
their homes would suddenly disappear.
Josiah Bartlett, who had
made the first beginning in the township, was the subject of a
misfortune of this kind in 1805. He had built a small but comfortable
house and barn, and with characteristic prudence, had laid in supplies
for use through the summer and autumn, and seed for his crops. He had
also provided himself with an abundance of clothing. In his barn were a
yoke of oxen, a horse and his farming tools. One day while at work at a
considerable distance from the buildings they took fire from some
burning piles near them. His sister, afterwards a Mrs. Chase of Epping,
N. H., who was keeping house for him, was absent on a visit at William
Sargent's, who lived where James Rideout now resides.
When he saw
that his buildings were on fire he hastened to them, reaching them just
in time to save one feather-bed. The horse and one ox were burned to
death in the barn. The other ox died the next day. In relating these
occurrences years later to children and friends Mr. Bartlett used to say
that as he could not save the buildings by his unaided efforts, and
knowing that there was no human being near enough to respond to cries
for assistance, he carried the feather-bed he had snatched from the
flames to a safe distance from the burning ruins and lying upon it, he
calmly watched the progress of the destructive elements and
congratulated himself that the calamity was no worse.
Mr.
Bartlett lost a second barn a few years later and with it some valuable
stock.
The coming of Edward Fifield into the township. in company with the
Gordon and Chandler families in the autumn of 1804, to clear land
whereon to establish a home has been noted. This was the first beginning
in the southwest part of the township. Mr. Fifield came from the town of
Ware, N. H. Early is the spring of 1805 he returned to the township to
build a house and make preparations for raising crops. He was
accompanied by several sons and Mr. John Hayes, a carpenter, who took
charge of building the house which was located on the site of the
buildings upon the Joel W. Otis place. After clearing several acres for
a crop of wheat, the seed, which had been purchased of Cornelius
Coolidge of Elkstown (Dexter), must be brought to the place where it was
to be sown, and in absence of any other mode of conveyance, it was
brought in bags upon the shoulders of Mr. FiField and his stalwart sons.
As there was no trail leading directly to the Coolidge place, the
Fifields followed a circuitous route which had been marked for the
convenience of others. This route led them across the outlet of Pleasant
Pond to the Murdock place, thence easterly to the brook a little to the
east of Maple Grove Cemetery, thence northwesterly to the Dearborn
place, thence westerly on the line of the present center road to the
Coolidge place. The distance traveled to the Coolidge place and back
must have been twelve miles.
The field they had cleared embraced
several acres and they were obliged to make several trips to get the
required seed. At close of the spring farming Mr. Fifield returned to
New Hampshire for his family, which before the close of June, was safely
established in the new home.
Nearly
all the immigrants to the township during the first two or three years
were farmers, who could build rude cabins and perform other necessary
work without the aid of skilled labor. With prudent foresight they
brought with them wearing apparel and other articles of prime necessity
to meet immediate wants. But as time passed and numbers increased and
wants multiplied, there was a demand for mechanics, and mechanics came.
Two or three of this useful class of citizens came at an early date.
These were followed by others in 1805. In those early days of the
township the mechanic could not depend upon early constant employment at
his trade. It was, therefore, the common practice for this class of men
to provide themselves with land so that they might resort to the source
that supplies, directly or indirectly, universal humanity with food.
John Hayes came into the township in 1805 to do the carpentry upon
the house of Edward Fifield, whose daughter he subsequently married. He
purchased lot ten in range two and in 1806 built a house upon it, where
he lived until his death. The place where he lived is now owned and
occupied by S. M. Paul.
In March of 1805, the first shoemaker
made his appearance in the township in the person of Enoch Jackman, who
emigrated from Salisbury, Mass. Mr. Jackman established his family upon
lot eight, range six, where Landeras Grant had made a beginning two
years earlier. The place was afterwards known as the Henry Calef place.
No family lives there at the present time. Mr. Jackman was a faithful
and accomplished workman and was regarded as a valuable acquisition to
the township. Like other men of his trade he went from house to house
for the families who furnished the stock, carrying his tools with him.
He charged seventy-five cents for his services per day’s work. He was of
a kindly and social disposition and his narrations of the experiences of
life in the new township gathered from his lips of his patrons, ranging
from the ludicrous to the pathetic, were listened to with great
interest. Moreover the click of his hammer upon the old-fashioned
lap[-stone was prophetic of comfort in the wintry days coming. While on
a visit to the township previous to his immigration he humorously
boasted that he would bring with him a shoemaker, a schoolmaster and a
schoolmistress. The promised shoemaker was embraced in his own
personality. Two of his daughters taught school in the old school house
that stood in the corner nearly opposite the present school house in
district number eight. Both were women of great physical strength, and
it was venturesome youth who dared invoke their displeasure. The
promised schoolmaster never appeared. Mr. Jackman had been favored with
a good education for the times and possessed a remarkable memory.
Tradition says of him that after listening to a sermon, although
appearing to have been asleep during its delivery, he would repeat
nearly the whole of it without apparent effort. Mr. Jackman lived on the
Calef place only a few years. His second residence in the township was
on lot nine, range ten, now owned by Henry Merrill, a carpenter and a
spinning-wheel maker, moved into the township and established a home on
the easterly part of lot six, range two, opposite the present residence
of Glen Morgan.
To the present generation it may seen almost
incredible that during the opening years of the present century, and
within the memory of many now living, the yarn that entered into the
clothing of the inhabitants of the Province of Maine, whether woolen,
cotton or flaxen, was spun by hand on an old-fashion spinning wheel.
Spinning was a widely diffused industry and the monotonous hum of the
spinning-wheel was heard in every well-ordered household. The
manufacturer of a spinning wheel, was, therefore, regarded as a useful
citizen.
John Knight, who two years earlier had married into the
Grant family, located and built upon the westerly part of lot six, range
two, in 1805. The site of his house is marked by the old cellar that may
still be seen a short distance east of the present residence of Albert
Grinnell.
Enoch Clough, for many years a well-known citizen of
Garland, came to the township in 1805.
Simon French also came the
same year.
Wm. Godwin, who had
purchased one hundred acres of land of David A. Gove and had felled an
opening on it in 1804, enlarged it this year and raised a large crop of
corn. The large crops of corn and wheat that were early realized
attracted many persons to the township.
The site of his buildings
was opposite Maple Grove Cemetery.
Peter chase had made a beginning on lot seven, range nine in 1802. A
year later he cleared land and sowed grass seed on it. In 1804, that
most delicious berry, the strawberry, appeared. In 1805 they were quite
abundant.
In the meantime, Me. Chase had built a small house. His
nearest neighbor, Moses Smith, had made a beginning on an adjoining lot.
Chase and Smith were young men without families and lived together in
the house of the former. When the berries had ripened those men
conceived a plan of calling the scattered inhabitants together to share
with them a feast of berries. In response to the invitation the people
of the entire township assembled at the strawberry field at the
appointed time. At the end of an hour spent in picking berries they were
invited to the house, where, where to their surprise and gratification,
they found a table covered with substantial food which had been provided
by their bachelor friends. With the addition of strawberries, and the
cream that had been brought by some of the company, and tea sweetened
with maple sugar, which the women pronounced delicious, the
entertainment was without doubt, enjoyed as keenly as the more elaborate
entertainment of the present day. At the close, a brief time was spent
in the expression of friendly interest and good wishes. The company then
separated and soon disappeared in the shadows of the forest, eagerly
threading their way to their scattered homes, carrying with them
pleasant memories to cheer them in the days that followed.
At the
close of the season Chase and Smith left the township not to return. It
must have been an occasion of keen regret to the scattered families that
an acquaintance so pleasantly began, should have terminated so abruptly.
The school was an essential factor in the
progress of New England civilization. It sprang from New England ideas
as naturally as weeds from the fire-swept lands of the new settlement.
The necessary conditions were few and simple. A half dozen children of
school age, living within a mile of a common center, a person qualified
to instruct in the simplest rudiments of English literature whose
services were available, books of the most elementary character and, in
warm weather, a spare corner in some house or barn - these were all the
conditions necessary to the opening of a school. The products of the
soil constituted the currency of the inhabitants and teachers were
usually satisfied to receive these in payment for their services.
After the coming into the township of the Gordon and Chandler
families in 1805, the necessary conditions were fulfilled and a school
was opened in Joseph Garland’s barn, expenses being paid by the parents
of the children. Miss Nancy Gordon, afterwards the wife of William
Godwin, was the teacher, and she had the honor of teaching the first
school in the present town of garland. This unpretentious school
embraced eight bright boys and girls, some of whom, in turn, became
teachers of note.
The early settlers of the township had regarded the existence of a saw mill therein with great satisfaction, but subsequent experience forced the conviction upon them that it would be of little advantage to them. The more sagacious inhabitants desired to have such timber sawed as was necessary to the construction of comparatively small and rude habitations, reserving the larger and more valuable growth of pine, of which there were considerable quantities, for subsequent use or sale. They expected to pay bills for sawing by turning over to the mill owners a share of the lumber sawed, but such expectations failed of realization. John Grant from Berwick, Maine, had purchased the mill in 1803. Early in the spring of that year he appeared in the township with several brown up sons and a six ox team with the necessary equipment for the lumbering business. His plans were not at all in accord with the expectations of the inhabitants of the township. There were a good growth of pine on the mill lot, as well as on other lots in the vicinity of the mill site. In the language of one of the early settlers “there was upon the borders of the stream and meadows below the mill an abundance of pine as handsome as ever grew from Penobscot soil.” With a team of his own equipped for service and a crew form his own family to man it, and with a heavy growth of pine of is own in close proximity to the mill site and large quantities that could be purchased at a price merely nominal, he could stock his mill and supply the inhabitants of neighboring towns, and thereby establish a business that would yield him a fortune. The growing settlement of Blaisdelltown (Exeter), New Ohio (Corinth) and New Charleston (Charleston), extended to the Grant’s considerable patronage, but not enough to make their business successful. One great hindrance to success was the lack of money. The early settlers were scantily supplied with this vital element of business enterprise. Another hindrance was the total absence of the spirit of accommodation in their dealings with their neighbors. One of these hauled some spruce logs to the mill with the purpose of having them sawed into boards. The logs were of medium size but not entirely innocent of knots. The Grant who had charge of the mill gruffly refused to saw them, giving as the reason that the knots were harder than spikes and that it would take two such logs to make a decent slab. Repelled by such rebuffs the inhabitants of the northern and western parts of Lincolntown obtained boards to cover their buildings at Elkstown (Dexter). Among those were Amos and Moses Gordon, Justus Harriman and John Chandler. The refusal of the Grants to saw spruce and hemlock was followed by the necessity of using pine lumber for the most common purposes. many of the buildings in this neighboring townships were covered with the best quality of pine boards, while hemlock lumber, which was equally as good grew, to make room for the crops because the mill owners refused to saw it. After draining the section of the township immediately around the mill site, the mill property passed into other hands about the year 1810.
Accessions to the township in 1806 were not
numerous, but events occurred that were of importance to the future of
the settlement. Jeremiah Flanders, who had visited the township in 1804
and had spent the summer of 1805 therein in the service of Amos Gorgon,
purchased and made a beginning for himself in 1806 or 1807 on lot
eleven, range six, the site of the present home of Edwin Preble.
Sampson Silver, who had made his first visit to the township in 1804 and
had worked for John Chandler the following year, made a beginning on the
westerly part of lot ten, range five, the site of the present home of
the late Albert G. Gordon.
Enoch Clough purchased the westerly
part of lot nine, range five, and felled ten acres of trees on it. The
place of this beginnings is now owned by Ernest Rollins. He subsequently
exchanged this place with Thomas S. Tyler for lot ten, range seven.
Philip Greeley came into the township about the year 1806 and bought
lot ten, range nine, og James Garland, built a log cabin and made some
improvements on it. At the time of his purchase there was an opening on
it of ten acres that had been made by Mr. Garland in 1802. The westerly
part of this lot in now the home of George Arnold, and Charles Carr
resides on the easterly part. Mr. Greeley emigrated from Salisbury, N.
H., through the influence of the Garland family with which he was
connected by marriage. He soon sold this lot to William Dustin, a
brother-in-law of John Chandler, and made a beginning on lot nine, range
eight, and subsequently purchased, and lived upon it until is death.
This place was afterwards the home of the late Artemus Barton, a
well-known citizen of Dexter, now owned by his son, R. M. Barton.
John Trefethen settled on lot eleven, range two, about 1806. William
and George W. Wyman afterwards lived upon this lot for several years. It
is now the residence of John S. Hayden.
Joseph Saunders, an
emigrant from New Gloucester, Maine, who had felled an opening on lot
four, range nine, in 1802, moved his family into the township in 1806.
He had a large family of children, among whom was a daughter who had
become the wife of Deacon Robert Seward. The lot where he made his
beginnings was the site, in turn, of the residence of Nathaniel Emerson
and Micah C. Emerson. It is now owned by John E. Hamilton.
Joshua
Silver made his appearance in the township in 1806. He did not, however,
become immediately a resident here, having lived in Elkstown (Dexter)
and Charlestown for several years before establishing a residence on lot
eleven, range seven, where he lived for several years. Mr. Silver was a
man of some eccentricities. By virtue of being the seventh son of a
seventh son, he proclaimed power od disease.
During the first half of the present century the tanning business was a widely diffused industry. Nearly every town in the vicinity of the present town of garland was favored with the existence of a tannery, where the hides of animals slaughtered for food could be converted into leather, thus supplying as ever existing necessity. From the middle of the century the small tanners disappeared. This was due partly to the growing scarcity of the bark supply and partly to the increasing tendency of absorption of small manufacturing industries by large establishments and corporations, whose command of money enabled them to appropriate improved modern methods and expensive machinery. A few years subsequent to the War of the Rebellion, the small tanneries had all disappeared. Lincolntown’s first tanner, who was also a shoemaker, was Andrew Griffin. Mr. Griffin purchased ten acres of land of Joseph Garland, located on the brook between the present residence of David Dearborn and Barton McComb. Here he built a small framed house for his family in 1806 and a shop for his business. A small level plat still shows the locality of is tan-vats, which were just outside his shop. A rude covering protected his bark and apparatus for grinding it, from rain. His machinery for grinding the bark was of the most primitive character. It consisted of a circular platform of plank, ten or twelve feet in diameter, through the center of which an upright post was set firmly in the earth. The section of the post above the platform was about three feet in height. A circular piece of granite six feet in diameter and ten or twelve inches in thickness was placed on the outer edge of the platform. A wooden shaft was passed through the center of the granite and firmly fastened, one end of which was attached to the top of the post in the center of the platform by a revolving joint. A horse, harnessed to the opposite end on the shaft, traveled around the platform. The bark was broken into small pieces and thrown under the rolling stone and thus reduced to a condition suitable for use. The grinding of a single cord of bark was a good day’s work. It was a tedious method, as indeed were all the processes of manufacturing leather in those days, but they met the requirements of the times.
Attendance upon the sick in the new
settlements of eastern Maine at the opening of the present century was a
long remove from holiday entertainment. In the absence of roads the
physicians in his visits to the scattered families of his own and
neighboring townships was obliged to follow uncertain way-marks along
angular and circuitous routes through dense forests - to cross
un-bridged streams - climb over prostrate trees - to make circuitous
routes of bogs and swamps and to scale hills and mountains. If darkness
obscured his pathway while yet in the forest remote from human
habitations, his only alternative was to brace himself for hours of
solitude and nervous apprehension while he listened to the stealthy
tread of prowling beasts (oftener imaginary rather than real) and the
dismal hooting of long visaged owls. The companionship of a faithful
horse or dog, if he was fortunate enough to possess one, would divert
the sluggish hours of much of their dreariness, but the humble followers
of Aesculapus were then oftener destitute of both then otherwise.
In the year 1806 the first physician of the township, in the person
of Dr. Joseph Pratt, made his appearance. He was accompanied by a
brother. The two brothers found a temporary home in the family of Joseph
Garland. The destitution of a physician in the township before the
coming of Dr. Pratt had been the occasion of inconvenience and anxiety,
His coming was hailed with joy and he subsequently proved himself worthy
of confidence, both as a physician and citizen. His practice extended to
other townships.
An incident of his early practice will
illustrate his fidelity to his profession as well as the hardships which
the physician was occasionally called to endure. A Mr. Brokway of
Amestown (Sangerville) desired the service of a physician in his family
and Dr. Pratt was summoned. It was midwinter - the weather was cold and
the snow deep. As a horse could not be used, a more primitive method of
travel was resorted to. The distance to Amestown in a direct course was
ten miles, but the route followed required more than twenty miles of
travel. Daunted neither by distance, depth of snow now stress of
weather, Dr. Pratt fastened on his snowshoes and started in response to
the summons. His line of travel led him to Elkstown (Dexter) thence to
his objective point. He arrived in Amestown in due time and accomplished
the purpose of his visit, but when ready to start on his journey
homeward, a violent storm of snow, the first of a succession of storms,
began and detained him from day to day. When he reached home he found by
counseling the calendar that he had been absent twenty-one days.
Religious meetings in the township
in the first few years of its history were neither of frequent nor
regular occurrences. Many of its residents having been religiously
educated, keenly felt their destitution of religious privileges. The
Sabbath, which they had been accustomed to regard as a day for rest and
religious improvement, now gave no sign of its presence save by the
partial cessation of the ordinary business of the week and the
interchange of social visits between the scattered families. when,
therefore, after a lapse of four years, they were favored with
occasional visits of some devoted minister, they hailed his presence
with manifestations of joy and heard him gladly. The glad news of his
coming was spread from house to house and the Sabbath found the
scattered people with one accord in one place. In their eagerness to
hear the words of the living preacher they forgot their denominational
preferences, if indeed they cherished any.
The first minister to
visit the township was the Rev. Samuel Sewall, one of the numerous
family of ministers of that name. Mr. Sewall's first visit to the
township was in 186. He preached his first sermon in the house of Joseph
Garland, where the people gathered and listened with great interest. He
afterwards made several visits to the township.
The first summer school in the township, taught by Miss Nancy Gordon, in Joseph Garland's barn, has been noticed. The following winter William Mitchell, then residing in Elkinstown (Dexter), taught school in Joseph Garland’s house, which occupied the site of the present residence of David Dearborn. The school embraced 88 scholars of all ages from all parts of the township. Several persons who had passed the limit of school age attended it. It was a school of respectable numbers. Mr. Mitchell had been a student in the old academy at Gilmantown, N. H. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence for the times. He was original in methods, abrupt in manners and stern in discipline. Many of his scholars carried very distinct recollection of his words and ways through life. Our late venerable citizen, James J. Chandler, was one of his scholars. As Mr. Mitchell was, in later years, a resident of Garland and was laid to rest in one of its cemeteries, some of his early experiences illustrative of pioneer life in eastern Maine at the beginning of the present century may appropriately be noticed. He early emigrated from Sanborntown, N. H., to Athen, Maine. In the autumn of 1802, he selected a piece of land in Elkinstown (Dexter) and built a small cabin if logs thereon. The site of the little cabin was a short distance east of the present residence of A. I. Barton and near the westerly limit of Lincolntown. The brook, upon the margin of which the cabin stood, is still known as the Mitchell brook. Early in March, 1803, he employed a neighbor with a two-horse team to move his family and such household goods as would be needed for immediate use to his cabin in Elkstown, a distance of about eighteen miles. Up to the morning of their departure from Athens the weather had been cold and the deep snow had been hard enough to bear up a two-horse team. Unfortunately, the weather had become much warmer and the horses slumped badly. Articles of furniture were thrown off by the wayside from time to time to lighten the load. They pressed from resolutely onward until they reached the site of the present town of Ripley where night overtook them 89 Too much fatigued to continue the unequal struggle they determined to cease future efforts until strength and courage should be renewed by a night’s rest. There was no attractive hotel to offer them entertainment nor even a settler’s cabin to invite them to its friendly shelter. A little shelter of poles and evergreen boughs was hastily built. A bed of boughs covered with blankets they had with them afforded a comfortable resting place for the night. The following morning opened brightly but bore with it unmistakable indications of continued warm weather. A frugal breakfast was hastily prepared and eaten. The family was making preparations to continue its journey, when , to their utter dismay, the teamster informed them that it was useless to attempt farther progress with the team, and that he should turn it around toward home. Neither entreaty nor expostulation availed to change his determination. throwing off what remained of the load he abruptly left them in a limitless sea of snow. The family embraced the father, mother, an infant son in his mother’s arms and five daughters ranging from four to fourteen years of age. This was not promising material for a forward movement, but Mr. Mitchell was a man of resolute courage, and in this respect Mrs. Mitchell was not a whit inferior to her husband. A forward movement was promptly began. The three older girls were strong and resolute, needing but little assistance save occasionally to rescue a shoe imbedded in the damp snow, from which the foot had been drawn in the attempt to regain the surface. Mrs. Mitchell was fully equal to the task of bearing forward her infant son. The transportation of the two younger girls remained to be provided for, Mr. Mitchell must carry them, but could not carry them both through the deep snow at once. He was a man of expedients as well as courage and quickly solved the difficulty. The 90 family was ready for a forward movement which was executed as follows: Leaving Mrs. Mitchell, the baby and the youngest daughter upon the bed of boughs, which had been their resting place during the night, he took the next youngest girl in his arms and accompanied by the older girls, he moved forward a half mile, where he left them as the first installment of the party. Returning to the starting point, he conducted Mrs. Mitchell with the baby in her arms to the place where the first installment had been left, carrying the youngest girl in his arms. The regularity and success of the first advance inspired something akin to military enthusiasm. Subsequent movements of the same character brought them to the residence of John Tucker in Elkstown which was on a hill a little west of the present village of Dexter. In getting his family forward five miles Mr. Mitchell had traveled fifteen miles in marching and counter marching. It was near night when the tired family reached the residence of Mr. Tucker, where they remained three days and were treated with he hospitality characteristic of the times. During this time the weather became colder, and a hard crust forming on the surface of the snow, Mr. Mitchell collected the goods which had been thrown from the load on the first day and hauled them to Ripley on a hand sled. On the fourth day they moved into their new log-pole cabin by the brook which had been built the preceding autumn. Our former much esteemed resident, the late Mrs. N. P. Smith, was one of the girls that participated in the hardship of that remarkable journey from Athens to Elkstown in 1803. The robust personality of the late Mordecai Mitchell, as esteemed and prominent citizen of Dover, was evolved from babe that Mrs. Mitchell carried in her arms from Ripley to Dexter. Mrs. Smith kindly communicated to 91 The writer various particulars relating to their life in the wilds of Elkstown. Her father’s family was the fifth to take up residence in that township. They lived in a log cabin within which was the traditional warming and cooking. Their nearest neighbors were the families of Seba French of Elkstown, who moved into the township a little later than her father, and Joseph garland of Lincolntown. These families were bound together by the closest ties of friendship - a loneliness and similarity of disposition and religious faith. The Mitchell and garland families lived four miles apart, but this was no obstacle to a frequent interchange of visits by Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Garland. A horseback ride, guided by spotted lines, brought them often together, and in the absence of a horse the distance was made on foot. Mrs. Smith furnished and interesting account of their mode of living while at Elkstown and of the privations and hardships they endured. Mr. Mitchell spent his winters in teaching, during which Mrs. Mitchell was left in the lonely cabin with the care of her large family of young children. On these occasions she exhibited a degree of courage and fortitude seldom surpassed. If her husband could useful by giving instructions to the children of the scattered settlement and at the same time, earn something for the support of the family in its straitened circumstance, she was not a woman to interpose objections. Teachers were then paid for their services in corn, wheat and rye at prices fixed by customs. The food supply of the family was of the most simple character. They, in common with their neighbors, kept a cow, a pig and a few fowls. For a year or two they procured their bread 92 supply from Cornville. When they began to raise crops they got their milling done at Cornville, eighteen miles away. Their cooking was done by an open fire. Among their luxuries were roasted potatoes in milk, hominy (a coarse meal from new corn) with a maple syrup accompaniment-samp (corn in the milk cut from the cob and eaten in milk). Their everyday bill of fare was-for breakfast-corn and rye bread, or milk porridge and hasty pudding. Their suppers were much like their breakfasts. Their dinners were of pork and potatoes, the latter being the largest factor of the meal. Wheat bread was seldom seen. At barn raisings a few years later, pork and potatoes, pork and beans, brown bread, Indian puddings and pumpkin pies were the appropriate articles of food. Their beverages were water, milk, crust coffee and a drink made of a root found in the forest. They very seldom had the satisfaction of inhaling the odor of the real tea which women so highly praised. The substitutes for tea were sage, balm ad raspberry leaves. It was customary for the women to assist in the lighter farm work. They cultivated the flax plant, which entered largely into the clothing of both men and women. They sowed the seed, and cared for the plant until it came into maturity. Mrs. Mitchell was accustomed to spin and weave its long strong fibers into shirting and send it to Bangor for sale. She also purchased cotton in Bangor, spun and wove it into cloth and returned it to the same place where it was sold at 50 cents per yard. The travel to Bangor was on horseback. The amusement of the children was simple and healthful. They basked in the sunlight that straggled through the tree tops. They watched with never tiring interest the nimble movements of the squirrels, now running with surprising celerity through the tree tops-now disap- 93 pearing in the foliage and directly chattering defiance from some distant point. They listened to the ‘joyous music’ of the little brook as it ran past their humble cabin over stones and shallows. The little brook trout were a great attraction to them as they darted from one hiding place to another, and if perchance they caught one with a pin hook it was a brilliant achievement. for hath not the poet said, ‘Oh, what are the honors men perish to win To the first little shiner I caught with a pin.’ In autumn, like their squirrel neighbors, they gathered beechnut to store for the winter. They ‘lived close to Nature’s heart’ and their days and weeks were replete with health and contentment. Mrs. Mitchell was a woman of strong religious proclivities. Upon the advent of the family of Seba French she found a kindred nature in the person of Mrs. French. After a brief acquaintance, the two women selected a spot midway between the two houses where they met at stated times for conference and prayer. This way, perhaps, the first prayer-meeting instituted in the present town of Dexter. In the year 1809 Mr. Mitchell removed his family to township number three in the sixth range of township north of the Waldo Patent, now Dover. He settled upon the lot which afterward became the homestead of his son, Mordecial Mitchell. He felled and burned over ten acres of trees the previous summer. His first work after reaching the new township was the building of a cabin for shelter of his family. This accomplished he commenced clearing the burned piece for the crops of the season. During his first day’s work he inflicted a wound upon one of his feet with his axe which incapacitated him fro further labor through the 94 spring. But his wife and daughters with characteristic resolution, aided by a hired man, prosecuted the work that had so suddenly arrested and raised sixty bushels of wheat and other crops that entered into the food supply of the family. When the Mitchell family had become established in Dover Mrs. Mitchell. at the solicitation of a prominent citizen of the vicinity, held religious services on the Sabbath. Mr. Mitchell, not being professionally a religious man, his wife conducted the devotional exercises and he led the singing and read a sermon or religious literature. These were the fist religious meetings held in what are now the villages of Dover and Foxcroft. Mrs. N. P. Smith, the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Mitchell, to whom allusion has been made,. married a Mr. Bradbury, a businessman of Picscataquis County, who died early, leaving his wife with the care of a daughter and two sons. A few years later Mrs. Bradbury married Deacon Stephen Smith of Garland, where she immediately took up her residence. The children of this marriage were four daughters-Matilda, Caroline, Henrietta, and Hannah, who died in early childhood. Mrs. Smith’s earlier years in Garland were not entirely devoid of privation. Lewis Bradbury, the younger son of her first husband, went to the Pacific coast about 1850, where in course he became very wealthy, and to his credit it may be said, he remembered his mother and supplied her abundantly with money. From this time onward she had no occasion for anxiety about the future support of herself or her family. Her daughter Caroline went to California in 1859 with a lady friend to seek employment as a teacher. A few years later she married and became a mistress of a home of her own. Deacon Smith died in Garland, 95 July 15, 1866. In 1873 Mrs. Smith, with her daughters, Mitilda and Henrietta, moved to California where they enjoyed the comforts of a modern home provided by her son, Lewis Bradbury. Here in the neighborhood of her older children, and blessed by the constant presence and tender care of her younger daughters, her later years were of ease and comfort. She has also satisfaction of knowing that her daughters were passing lives of much usefulness. While living in Garland, Mrs. Smith was an active member of the Congregational church. On a beautiful Sabbath morning, near the close of her residence in Garland, the churchgoers were surprised and delighted at the presence upon the table in service, her parting gift to the people she loved so well. She also left a sum of money in the hands of her revered pastor, Rev. P. B. Thayer, to be distributed to the poorer members of the church in case of sickness or want. Mrs. Smith’s father, William Mitchell, Garland’s first schoolmaster, died in Garland, May 23, 1842, at the age of 72 years. Her mother died in Garland December 19m 1853, at age of 84.
Transcribed by Fran Jones Libby, David Brann, Jennifer Godwin, and Grinnell MacLeod Wood II
Copyright © 1996- The USGenWeb® Project, MEGenWeb, Penobscot County
This page was last updated
04/28/2025