Penobscot County
MEGenWeb
Transcribed by Fran Jones Libby, David Brann, Jennifer Godwin, and Grinnell MacLeod Wood II
The annual meeting of
1820 was held on the 23d day of March. The warrant calling this meeting was the
last issued in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The following
officers were elected: Philip Greeley, moderator; Isaac Wheeler, clerk; Isaac
Wheeler, Josiah Bartlett, and Ezekiel Straw, selectmen and assessors; Ezekiel
Straw, treasurer, and James J. Chandler, collector of taxes, whose compensation
was fixed at two and one fourth per cent.
It was voted to raise one
thousand dollars for making and repairing highways, and that for men, oxen, and
plows, twelve and one half cents should be allowed per hour, until the first of
October. It was voted to raise two hundred dollars for making paths in winter,
and to allow the same per hour for the labor of men and oxen as in summer.
The town voted that taxes assessed for support of schools and for town
charges, may be paid in wheat at nine shillings, or in corn or rye at six
shillings per bushel, if delivered to the treasurer by the 20th day of January,
but if not delivered at that time, must be paid in money.
On the 3d of
April, 1820, the legal voters were called together to vote for governor and
other officers. All previous calls had been issued in the name of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This, and all subsequent calls, have been issued
in the name of the State of Maine which, if less pretentious than the high
sounding title by which they had been called to the discharge of their political
duties, it had the merit of being more compact, more convenient, and more in
harmony with republican simplicity.
In the convention at Portland a year
earlier, to frame a constitution for the new State, the committee which had been
appointed to consider the question of title, reported in favor of calling it the
Commonwealth of Maine. Many of the members believed that the handle was
disproportionate to the size of the pitcher ; that the prefix was too ponderous.
After a somewhat sharp discussion, a member moved the word "commonwealth" be
stricken out. The motion was carried by a vote of 119 to 113.
On the
following day, at the close of a protracted discussion, an ordinance was passed
providing that the State should be known by the style and title of the State of
Maine. Thus fortunately, for coming generations, the word state took the place
of the ponderous prefix, commonwealth.
On the 3d day of April, 1820, the
legal voters of Garland assembled to cast their votes for governor of the new
State, for the first time, with the following result: William King, Democrat,
received twenty votes; Ruel Williams, Democrat, received six votes; Albion K.
Paris, Democrat, received three votes; Moses Buswell received one vote.
Mr. King's vote in the State was twenty-one thousand and eighty-three, against
one thousand eight hundred and three for all other candidates. His election had
long been predicted on account of his ability and popularity as a man. Mr.
Williams was a man of decided ability, and highly esteemed for liberality in
matters of public importance. He was afterwards elected to the Senate of the
United States. Mr. Paris was highly esteemed for his excellent qualities. He was
the second governor elected by the people, although he was preceded by two
acting governors.
On the day of the gubernatorial election, the legal
voters of Garland deposited their votes for representative to the State
Legislature with result as follows: Cornelius Coolidge of Dexter received
seventeen votes; Amos Gordon of Garland received eleven votes; Joseph Garland of
Garland received one vote.
Some town business was transacted on the same
day, April 3d, 1820. Reuben Bartlett, John Chandler and John Trefethen were
appointed to select and purchase one acre of land suitable for a cemetery. This
was the first action of the town looking to a common burial place for the dead.
Previous to this date it had been the custom of families to bury relatives on
their own premises.
There having been no choice of representative to the
Legislature at the first trial, the legal voters assembled on April 13th for a
second trial, with result as follows: Captain Joseph Kelsey of Guilford received
seven votes; Seba French of Dexter received five votes; Cornelius Coolidge of
Dexter received eleven votes.
At that time the representative class
embraced the towns of Dexter, Garland, Guilford, Sangerville and Plantation
Number Three in the sixth range.
The year 1820 opened a new epoch in the history
of Maine. It had hitherto been a dependency of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. Now it had assumed the character of an independent state.
The tide of emigration had been setting from the state. It had now
turned this away. In common with other towns, the town of Garland shared
in the stimulating influences of 196 returning prosperity. Among the
accessions to its population was the family of Reuben Bartlett from
Nottingham, N. H.
Mr. Bartlett purchased the village mill
property of Mr. Church, which included a saw-mill and grist-mill. He
moved his family into a small house a few rods west of the present
saw-mill which had been built by his predecessor, Mr. Church. Five or
six years later he built the two-story house now owned by C. F. Osgood,
where he lived until his death in 1835.
The coming of the True
family from Deerfield, N. H. occurred in 1820. This family embraced the
father and mother, Joseph True and wife, two sons, Abram True and Joseph
True, Jr., and several daughters. Mr. True moved into the house built by
James McClure on the place now owned by David Allen, where he lived
several years.
About the year 1827 he moved into the house built
by his son, Joseph True, Jr., at the center of the town, now owned by
James Stone. Abram True moved his family into the house of a Mrs.
Burton, which was located on a site at the foot of the hill below the
present residence of Mrs. Charles E. Merriam. He afterwards built and
occupied a house near the residence of the writer.
Joseph True,
Jr., gives the following account of the journey of his father's family
to Maine. Joseph was at that time a resolute boy of nineteen years. On
the same day that the other members of his family took passage on a
sailing vessel at Portsmouth, N. H., he started on horseback and
traveled solitary and alone on his way to garland. During his six days'
ride no incident intervened to relieve the monotony of the journey. But,
as showing that the early settlers of western Penobscot were largely
from New Hampshire, he passed four of the five nights of his journey
with families who had emigrated from is own school-district in
Deerfield.
The legal voters of Garland assembled
on the 22d of January, 1821, "to see if the town will allow the inhabitants to
pay their taxes in grain after the 20th of February instant." Upon this question
it was voted that the treasurer should receive grain in payment for taxes until
the 15th day of February next. It was also voted to have the highway taxes for
1820 made agreeably to the Constitution of Maine. The call for this action is
not quite apparent.
The annual meeting of 1821 was held on April 4th.
Philip Greeley was chosen moderator; Reuben Bartlett, town clerk; Isaac Wheeler,
Philip Greeley and Reuben Bartlett, selectmen and assessors; Ezekiel Straw,
treasurer, and Isaac Wheeler, Reuben Bartlett and Philip Greeley, superintending
school committee.
It was voted to raise twelve hundred dollars to build
and repair highways, four hundred dollars for the support of schools, fifty-five
dollars to pay arrearages, and fifty dollars for town expenses. It was voted
that the road tax should be paid in labor, and other taxes in grain; wheat at
nine shillings, and corn and rye at six shillings per bushel each. John M.
Fifield was chosen collector of taxes, and a compensation of nine mills per
dollar voted for the service.
The legal voters of Garland assembled on
the 10th of September to vote for governor and other State officers. For
governor, Albion K. Parris received forty votes; Joshua Wingate received five
votes; Isaac Case received one vote.
For representative to the
Legislature, Daniel Wilkins of Charleston received thirty-five votes; Cornelius
Coolidge of Dexter received ten votes.
In the
resolve of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, granting the township now
known as Garland to Williams College, three lots of land of three
hundred and twenty acres each were reserved for public purposes, to wit:
one lot for the use of schools, one lot for the first settled minister,
his heirs and assigns, and one lot for the use of the ministry. In the
conveyance of the township by the college to the men known a the
original proprietors the same reservation made. The first action of the
town with reference to the reserved lots was at a meeting on September
10, 1821, when Isaac Wheeler, Jeremiah Flanders, Philip Greeley, William
Godwin and John Chandler, were appointed a committee to examine the
reserve lots, and determine which should be reserved for the benefit of
schools, which for the first settled minister, and which for the
ministry.
Another meeting was held on October 8th. The records
failed to show that there was any report for the settlement of Elder
Robinson, or any other person, as a public preacher of the gospel in
this town. It was voted that so much of this article as related to Elder
Robinson be passed over, and that a committee be appointed to invite
some person to preach in town on trial. It was also voted that a man who
shall be acceptable to the town as a public teacher of morality, piety
and religion, shall receive one hundred acres of the public land.س Isaac
Wheeler, Reuben Bartlett, Joseph Garland, John S. Haskell and Thomas
Tyler were appointed a committee to execute the purpose of this vote.
Our
well-remembered citizens, the late David Fogg, who came top Garland in
1821, and became a member for a time being of the family of his
brother-in-law, Abraham True, is authority for the statement that at the
date of his coming, 1821, there were only five families within the
limits of what is now Garland village. These were the families of a Mrs.
Buswell, Abraham True, Reuben Bartlett, Dr. Moses Buswell and Isaac
Wheeler, Esq. The True and Burton families below the present residence
of Mrs. Charles E. Merriam. The remains of an old cellar indicate the
site of the house.
Reuben Bartlett lived in a little house on the
brow near the present village saw-mill which had been built a few years
earlier. Doctor Buswell lives in a house near the center of the village
in proxmity to the site of the present residence of Elmer Hill.
Isaac Wheeler, Esq., lived in a house on the site of the residence of
the late William Foss, now the home of F. D. Wood. The post-office in
1821 was at the residence of Reuben Bartlett, now owned by C. F. Osgood.
The mail which was received once a week was brought on horseback in
summer, and in a pung in the winter. Outside the limits of the village.
several men established home in the town in 1821. Among these were Jacob
Greeley. who built on a hill way north of the school house in District
No. 1 (Dearborn).
Benjamin Pressey established a home within the
limits of the present school District No. 3, where the late B. L. Trundy
resided. Samuel Greeley, afterwards a well-known citizen, emigrated from
Salisbury, N. H., and lived in the house vacated by Joseph Garland, the
first citizen of the town, about this time.
The late Jeremiah
Ladd gave the following account of the coming of the Ladd family in
Garland. His father, Captain Daniel Ladd, a native of Lee, N. H.,
immigrated to Garland in 1821. He first lived on the William Blaisdell
place, then upon the place now occupied by James L. Rideout. In 1823 he
bought the farm formally the residence of Rev. A. P. Andrews, where he
built a small house. The carpenter’s work upon this house was done by
the late Joseph Prescott, who has then just come to town, and a Mr.
Avery. Three or four years later, he bought the Joseph Saunders place,
near the hill know as High Cut, afterward known as Emerson place. He
then purchased land adjoining the Emerson place and built on it.
His next move was to the place owned by Charles H. Brown. Captain Ladd
came into town over the old county road. The first building he passed
after entering the town was a mechanic’s shop owned by Aaron Knight,
located near the late residence of Story Jones, now owned by Aaron
Knight, and which was owned by two brothers of the name of Davis.
The second building passed was a house nearly opposite the present
residence of Glen Morgan. There had been other families between this
home and the village which had moved away. Captain Ladd found the road
that led into town almost impassable. The swamps and wet places were
separated by logs placed across the road side by side, known as corduroy
road.
A ride over this kind of road was tiresome to passers over
it, and wearing to carriages.
At the
annual meeting of 1822, held April 3rd, Philip Greeley was chosen
moderator; Reuben Bartlett, town clerk; Isaac Wheeler, Reuben Bartlett
and Ezekiel Straw, selectmen and assessors; Isaac Wheeler, Reuben
Bartlett and Ezekiel Straw, superintending school committee.
It
was voted to raise three hundred dollars for the support of schools,
twelve hundred dollars to build and repair highways, one hundred dollars
to repair school houses, seventy-five dollars to pay town charges,
twenty dollars to buy powder, and the taxes should be paid in wheat at
one dollar and twenty-five cents or in corn or rye at eighty-four cents
per bushel, the grain to be delivered to the treasurer by the first day
of February.
On September 9, the legal voters assembled to
indicate their choice for governor and other officers, when Albion K.
Paris received thirty-three votes; Ezekiel Whitman received twenty-three
votes; Philip Greeley received one vote.
For representative to
the Legislature, Winthrop Chapman of Exeter received twenty-three votes;
Daniel Wilkins of Charleston received fourteen votes.
Mr. Wilkins
was the successful candidate in the district. On the same day the town
voted to assist one of its worthy citizens, who had come to a condition
where assistance was needed, to the amount of fifty dollars. This is the
earliest record of assistance to the poor. John Hates collected the
taxes this year for five mills per dollar.
Ansel Field of Paris, Maine, took up his residence in Garland in
about 1822, and purchased land on the old county road, about a mile
south of the village, where he erected buildings and lived. Mr. Field
and his wife united with the Congregational church. At the end of about
fifteen years he returned to Paris. The farm he left was purchased by
friends of the Rev. John Sawyer. The venerable clergyman spent the last
years of his eventful life in the town where he had been instrumental in
the organization of the third Congregational Church within the present
limits of Penobscot County. The farm where he lived is now owned by Glen
Morgan.
George R. Coffin came to Garland as early as 1822, and
established a home on Lot Two, Range Five, where he lived for many
years. This farm, once owned by Deacon L. M. Rideout, is now in the
possession of Galen S. Burrill.
Joseph Prescott and Jeremiah
Avery came to the town in 1822 to ply their trade as carpenters. Mr.
Avery remained in town only a short time. Mr. Prescott bought of Joseph
Sargent a part of lot four, range four, where he made a home for his
family and lived until his death in 1849.
The name of Walter
Holbrook appears on the records of the town as early as 1822. He
established a home on lot four, range six, where he lived until about
the year 1835, when he returned to Massachusetts. James Powers came to
town in 1822. He married a sister of Captain John L. Jackman.
Benjamin Pressey established a home in the Parkman neighborhood, south
of the pond, once owned by B. I. Trundy, now the home of Loren Curtis.
He was a carpenter, and built for the Fogg family the house a few rods
east of the schoolhouse in District No. 3. William Soule moved into the
town about the year 1822, and settled in the Parkman neighborhood, south
of the pond. He had a large family of boys, among whom were Gideon,
David, John and Rufus.
Samuel W. Knight’s name appears upon the
military roll of 1822, which is about the date of his becoming a
resident of the town. He purchased a part of lot two, in range seven,
where he made a home for his family and lived until his death. This old
homestead in 1890 was owned by the late Cyrus Snell, whose son Charles
afterwards became the owner and has recently sold to Mrs. Ruel Maguire.
Dr. Seth Fogg emigrated from Deerfield, N. H., to Garland in the
year 1822, bringing with him a large family of sons and daughters. One
son, David, and one daughter, Mrs. Abraham True, were here a year or two
earlier. Doctor Fogg first moved into the house vacated a few years
earlier by William Sargent, on the place where James A. Rideout now
resides.In 1823 he moved into the Burton house, located a few rods north
of the present house of Mrs. Charles E. Merriam. Shortly after, he
mopved into the house that has been built for the Fogg family by Mr.
Pressey, where his death soon occurred. This house is now owned and
occupied by John McComb, Jr.
Common
privations and hardships united the early inhabitants of a town in bonds
of earnest and sincere sympathy. Each citizen of the town was neighbor
to every other citizen, and was always ready to assist others in cases
of sickness, accident, or misfortune. Nor was such sympathy pent up
within the town limits.
An incident occurred in a neighboring
town that illustrates this phase of social life in the early times. On
the sixth of June, 1822, a little four-year-old daughter of Daniel Ames
of Sangerville was sent early in the day to a neighbor’s house, a short
distance away, on some trivial errand. She was obliged to pass through a
narrow piece of woodland to reach the point to which she was sent.
Not returning as soon as she was expected, a boy was sent to inquire
further, who was told by the neighbor that she had not been seen there
during the day. Night was near. The neighbors were quickly alarmed and
providing themselves with canteens and torches, spent almost the entire
night in an anxious, but fruitless search for the missing child.
Early the next morning, a dozen young men were sent to traverse the
woodland, a little distance apart, and listen for the faintest sounds of
alarm or distress which perchance might come from teh lips of a little
girl, but no sound was heard. The alarm soon reached adjoining towns,
where companies of young men were speedily organized to assist in the
search. Among these was a company from Garland, under the direction of
Captain Philip Greeley.
The search was continued through several
days. It was not relinquished until the last ray of hope had vanished
from the hearts of distressed relatives. The fate of the little girl is
to this day shrouded in mystery.
A lodge of
Free and Accepted Masons was organized in Garland on January 24, 1822,
in the hall of the two story house then owned and occupied by William
Godwin, which stood upon the site of the house now owned by the heirs of
the late William H. Knight. The house of two stories has since given
place to a house with smaller dimensions.
This was the second
lodge organized within the present limits of the County of Penobscot,
and the thirty-fifth within the limits of Maine.
It embraces
members from adjoining towns, including Exeter and Dexter, and was known
as the Penobscot Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.
Some of the
leading members living in Garland were Isaac Wheeler, Philip Greeley,
Jeremiah Flanders and William Godwin. Years later, the headquarters of
this lodge were removed to Dexter.
The
legal voters of Garland were summoned to meet on April 7, 1823, to vote
for a representative to Congress. For this office William Emerson of
Bangor received forty votes; Obed Wilson received four votes.
Neither of these candidates was elected. There was, however, a
significance in the large relative vote of Mr. Emerson which is worthy
of mention. It had no relation to party politics or locality. He was a
merchant in Bangor, and had rendered valuable assistance to that
inhabitants of Garland in the time of their sorriest need at much
personal risk.
At the opening of 1817, there was great
destitution of seed for the crops of the approaching summer, a fact that
had found place in the heart of the generous merchant. With rare
thoughtfulness, and rarer generosity, he advised them to prepare the
largest possible acreage for crops, and accompanied his advise with the
offer to furnish them with seed which had been with held by the
disastrous summer of the preceding year, and to extend to them the
privilege of making compensation when more propitious seasons should
provide the means to pay.
The grateful people of garland believed
that a man possessing the fine personal qualities that had been
exhibited by Mr. Emerson, would worthily represent them in Congress if
elected. It afforded them as opportunity to exhibit their grateful
appreciation of remembered generosity which they did not fail to
improve.
The annual town meeting was held also on the seventh of
April. Philip Greeley was chosen moderator; Reuben Bartlett, clerk;
Reuben Bartlett, Ezekiel Straw and Daniel Ladd, selectmen and assessors;
Isaac Wheeler, Samuel Warren and Daniel Ladd, superintendent school
committee; Philip Greeley was appointed collector of taxes, and a
compensation of two cent. voted him. Isaac Wheeler was chosen treasurer.
The town voted to raise one thousand dollars to make and repair
highways, three hundred dollars for the support of schools, to be paid
in grain, wheat ay one dollar and twenty-five cents, corn and rye at
eighty-207 four cents each; and thirty-five dollars for the purchase of
powder to be paid in the same currency. One hundred dollars was voted to
pay the town charges, fifty-five dollars was voted to pay town charges,
forty-five dollars in grain. The fifty-five dollars mentioned in this
vote was the first money raised in garland as payment of taxes. It may
fairly be inferred from this fact that money was not overabundant in the
early years of the town’s history.
Previous to 1823, the highway
tax had been paid in labor, and all other taxes in grain.
The
legal voters of Garland assembled to cast their votes for governor and
other officers on September 7th. For governor, Albion K. Parris received
forty votes. For representative to the Legislature, Cornelius Coolidge
of Dexter received twenty-two votes; Nathaniel Oak of Exeter received
eleven votes.
This election resulted in the choice of Mr. Parris
for governor, and Mr. Coolidge for representative to the State
Legislature. It is worthy of note that while the full vote for governor
for the same officer was forty.
What is now Garland village did not grow as fast as other parts of
the town. This was due to the repressive policy of the agent of the
proprietors, who would not sell land only at prices much above its real
value. Of the forty-five petitioners for an Act of Incorporation in
1810, not more then three or four resided within the limits of the
present village. Of the forty-five families living in the town in 1820,
only five families resided in the village. The first store in the
village was built in 1823 by Isaac Wheeler, Esq. Upon its completion,
Abraham Cox and John Walker, afterwards a well-known merchant of Exeter
for many years, put a stock of goods into it. Their success was not
flattering and they abandoned the business after a short trial. The
building has since been used for a various kinds of merchandising. For
the last twenty years it has afforded a very convenient place for the
purposes of a post office.
Following Cox & Walker, it has been
occupied in turn by Charles Reynolds, Charles Plummer, Calvin S. Oak, a
Mr. Durham, Johnson & Preble, (N. W. Johnson and Wins Preble) and Henry
C. Preble. A millinery business by the late Mrs. Octavia Hobbie, Miss
Lizzie Rideout, and the late Mrs. Nathaniel Johnson, for several years.
Returning to the events in 1823, garland was favored by the coming
of several families during that year. among these was the family of
Joseph Sergent, who purchased the farm upon which his brother William
made a beginning in 1802, now the residence of James Rideout.
Mr.
Sargent emigrated from Boscawen, N. H. His goods were brought to Bangor
by water, while his family made the journey to the same place overland.
Leaving their children at Bangor, they made the trip to Garland with
horse and wagon. Their ride to this place was along a road that bore but
faint resemblance to New Hampshire turnpikes. Arriving at their new home
they found but little to inspire confidence or hope for the future. The
home they had left behind, from which they had been driven by adverse
fortune, was furnished with all the comforts and conveniences that
characterized the best homes of the rural districts of New Hampshire at
that time. The home they found at the end of their journey was scarcely
suggestive of home.
The family moved into the house of a neighbor
to remain until their own house could be made habitable. The contrast
between the old and the new home was the occasion of much grief to Mrs.
Sargent. Although naturally of a lively and cheerful disposition, she
spent many an hour in weeping when alone. But she was a woman of the
heroic type and resolutely concealed her own sadness when in the
presences of others. By the force of industry and good management,
prosperity at length returned to this family, bearing with it the well
earned enjoyments that blessed their earlier life.
The annual town meeting in 1924 was held on March 30. Philip
Greeley was chosen moderator; Reuben Bartlett. town clerk; Daniel Ladd,
Ansel Field and Walter Holbrook, treasurer; Isaac Wheeler, Samuel Warren
and Ansel Field, superintending school committee, and Daniel Moore,
collector of taxes, for a compensation of two per cent.
The town
voted to raise one thousand dollars to make and repair highways, four
hundred for the support of schools, and fifty dollars to buy powder and
defray town charges. For the first time the town voted that all taxes
except highway should be paid in money. The first step toward this
policy had been taken a year earlier.
The election for the choice
of governor and other offices was held on the second Monday of
September, when Albion K. Parris received thirty-four votes for
representative to the State Legislature. Mr. Coolidge was the successful
candidate.
An event of more
than local interest occurred in Garland in 1824. It was nothing less
than the mustering of the companies of the fifth militia. Other
regimental musters occurred in town, but a description of one will
answer for all. The troops were assembled on the level field on the
north side of the road leading to Dexter, belonging to Isaac Wheeler,
Esq. There were no buildings, public or private, upon this street at
that time. Where now stands the town-house, the Congregational church
and parsonage, and private residences, there were tents and booths for
the sale of gingerbread, pies, and food of a more substantial character
for the hungry, new cider and beer for the thirsty youngsters, and
something stronger for the older people. Indeed the latter drink
sometimes acquired mastery over men who were among our best citizens.
There was here and there a dance-floor of rough plank where men
under the influence of the favorite New England beverage disported by
scraping the bottoms of their heavy boots to the music of a cracked
violin.
The year 1824
marked the opening of a Presidential campaign. The politicians of the
Congressional district of which garland was a part, called a convention
to assemble on the day, and at the place of the general muster, to
nominate a candidate for presidential elector and to organize for the
campaign. Jonathan Farrar, a well known citizen of Dexter, was nominated
for elector. A large committee was appointed to prepare an address to
the voters of the district setting forth the issues involved in the
campaign.
Bangor, Levant, Charleston, Exeter, Dexter, Corinth and
Garland were represented in the committee. Garland was represented by
Philip Greeley and Amos Gordon. The assembling of the two such bodies as
the regimental muster, and the Congressional district convention on the
same day may be regarded as a ‘red Letter’ day in the early history of
Garland.
The legal voters of Garland
assembled on September 12th to vote for governor and other officers.
For Governor, Albion K. Parris received eighteen votes; Enoch
Lincoln received fourteen votes.
For representative to the
Legislature, Winthrop Chapman received twenty-four votes; Reuben
Bartlett received seven votes.
Mr. Parris was elected Governor by
a large majority. Neither of the candidates for the State legislature
supported by the voters of Garland was elected. Cornelius Coolidge of
Dexter was the successful candidate. The representative class embraced,
at that time, the towns of Garland, Exeter, Corinth and Dexter.
The farmers of central Maine were
favored with abundant crops in 1825. The continual warm weather of the
summer season resulted not only in abundance of crops, but in early
harvests, thus giving the farmers a long autumnal season for its
appropriate work. At that 213 time a majority of the farmers in this
section were increasing the area of their crop-producing lands from year
to year. In the work of clearing the lands of the forests that covered
them, fire was an indispensable agency.
Late in the summer, and
early in the autumn of 1825, fires were extensively kindled in the aid
of clearing lands, and the farmers congratulated each other upon getting
"good burns," but the warm weather that had given them good crops, early
harvests, and aided them in getting "good burns," had also dried the
surface of their lands, and had made everything of a combustible nature
food for flames. By the last of September, wells had become dry, rivers
and streams had been greatly reduced in volume, and brooks had
disappeared.
The late Rev. Amasa Loring, who was warmly engaged
with his neighbors in efforts to arrest the progress of the flames, says
in his History of Piscataquis County that much of the cleared land
contained decaying stumps, and was enclosed with log fences, while the
stubble upon the grain and mowing fields was thick and rank, and all as
dry as tinder, and that fires that had been set did not go out, but
lingered and smouldered still, and that in the evening of October 7th,
after a still and smoky day, a violent gale from the north and northwest
fanned these smoldering fires into a furious and rushing blaze. Men and
boys were hurried to the earlier points of danger, but were soon
summoned back to fight the fire from their own threatened dwellings. As
morning broke, the wind subsided, and the fires lulled away relieving
the terror of the stricken and very weary inhabitants. With respect to
the results of the disastrous fire - Mr. Loring says - "Almost every
man’s wood-land had been burned over, and much of its growth killed,
large tracks of timber land had been severely injured and many buildings
destroyed."
Hon. John E. Godfrey says in his Annals of Bangor,
that the roaring of the fire was like thunder, and was heard at a
distance of from twelve to fifteen miles. Houses, barns, saw-mills and
grist-mills were destroyed. He also says that there were burned in
Guilford four houses and five barns, in Ripley eleven houses and nine
barns, in Harmony four houses and five barns, in Dover one barn, in
Monson one barn. There were other buildings burned, and the damage to
the timber lands was enormous.
There is still a lingering belief
in the minds of some of the citizens of the counties that suffered from
the ravages of the fires of 1825, that they originated from the burning
of hay in northern Penobscot, by the order of the State Land Agent, to
cripple the operation of the plunderers of the timber lands belonging to
the State. It is not necessary to go so far as to find the origin of
these fires. In the widespread and severe drought of that time, the
necessary conditions for starting fires were present in almost every
town. The exceptions were towns where there were no smoldering fires to
be fanned into furious flames.
Mr. Loring, a participant in the
fight against the on-rushing flames, says that the fire had marked its
way from Moosehead Lake across the country. In his Annals of Bangor,
Hon. John E. Godfrey says, "The enemies of the land agent were not
unwilling that he should have the reputation of originating the fires
which had caused such devastation in the northerly part of Penobscot
County, when he caused the hay cut by trespassers to be burnt," and adds
that although this was not the case, yet the Indians had been impressed
with the idea that it was.
The town of Garland was on the line of
the advancing flames, but before it was reached the wind had ceased, and
the town escaped. Nevertheless its inhabitants had suffered keenly with
terror and anxiety.
The annual town
meeting of 1826 was held on April 6th. Abraham J. Cox was chosen
moderator; Reuben Bartlett, town clerk; Reuben Bartlett, Isaac Wheeler
and Ansel Field, selectmen and assessors; Abraham J. Cox, treasurer, and
Isaac Wheeler, Isaac E. Wilkins and Ansel Field, superintending school
committee. Walter Holbrook was chosen collector, and a compensation of
one and nine tenths per cent, voted for the service.
The town
voted to raise three hundred dollars for the support of schools, twelve
hundred dollars to make and repair highways, and two hundred dollars to
defray town charges. A step had been taken in 1823 towards the policy of
requiring taxes to be paid in money. With the exception of that year all
taxes but highway taxes, which were paid in labor, had been paid in
grain at prices determined by the town each year. In 1826, and since,
taxes, except for making and repairing highways, have been paid in
money. The town voted "That the remaining three eights of the public
lands be divided between the religious societies which have not received
any, according to their numbers."
The legal voters assembled on
the 11th day of September to vote for governor and other officers. For
governor, Enoch Lincoln received twenty-six votes, William Godwin
received six votes; Ezekiel Whitman received five votes. For
representative to the State Legislature, Reuben Bartlett of Garland
received twenty four votes; Daniel Ladd of Garland received twenty-two
votes; Lewis Goulding of Garland received one vote.
Enoch Lincoln
was elected Governor. Winthrop Chapman of Exeter, who had received no
votes in Garland, was elected representative to the State Legislature.
The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams occurred on the 4th of
July 1826. The news of the death of those two eminent men carried
sadness into every town, village and hamlet in the United States. Both
had participated in the stirring events that had led to the
Revolutionary War. Both were members of the convention from which had
emanated the immortal Declaration of Independence, embodying truths that
have given the people of this country the best government in the world,
and that are destined to revolutionize all other governments. Mr. Adams
had been the second and Mr. Jefferson third President of the united
States. It was a remarkable coincidence that these eminent men, who had
been associated in establishing the foundations of this government, and
of administrating its affairs in turn, should die on the same day, and
that day, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The
voters of Garland had met on the 11th of September, 1826, to ballot for
a representative to Congress. This Congressional district embraced the
counties of Penobscot and Somerset. The territory of the county of
Piscataquis was at that time embraced within the two counties above
named. There having been no choice at this trial, another occurred on
December 18th, 1826, which, like the first, failed to elect. The third
trial occurred on the second of April 1827, which also failed to elect.
At the present time we hear much lamentation over the degeneracy of
political methods and practices. People who indulge in such lamentations
would do well to study the methods and practices which were prevalent in
the earlier history of Maine.
In his Annals of Bangor, Judge
Godfrey gives us some information upon this matter. Referring to the
aspirants for Congressional honors, and their friends in this
Congressional district, he says, "The candidates nominated by convention
and individuals were respectable men, but it mattered not who were the
candidates, when one obtained sufficient prominence, he was pursued by
the friends of others with a bitterness that would be hardly excusable
in savages. Like death they pursued the shining mark; no matter how
sensitive the subject or how pure his life, if there were the least flaw
in this armor of his character it was found and pierced, and reamed, and
rasped, until it would seem to be the most rickety and unsubstantial
character in existence."
He also says that Governor Lincoln’s
proclamation in 1827 for a day of fasting and prayer might well have
been carefully studied by the politicians of the time. As the sentiments
of this proclamation are good for all times, an exact will not be out of
place here. "I recommend to every one to observe the day as a Christian;
if he be under the influence of any vice, to banish it; if in error, to
correct it; it under obligations to others, honestly to discharge them;
if suffering injuries, to forgive them; if aware of any animosities, to
extinguish them, and if able to do any benevolent act to any being
created by the Almighty power to which he owes his existence and his
faculties , to do it. Especially I recommend that being members of one
great community, we unite as one Christian politicians so that we may
render perpetual the peace and prosperity of our country and of this
State."
Although there has been a manifest improvement in
political methods and practices since the early days of Maine’s
statehood, there is still left a wide margin for further advancement in
this direction.
The year 1827 witnessed a
continuation of the contest for a representative to congress. There had
been three abortive trials to elect. The fourth trial was also a
failure. Through the period of these failures to elect, this
Congressional district was without representation in Congress. The
failures were due to the manner of nominating candidates.
Small
coteries of men, at different points in the district, nominated personal
friends without regard to the preference of the voters at large. To such
as extent was this practice carried, that there were sometimes from six
to ten candidates for Congressional honors before the voters of the
district. As an illustration, at the third trial of the protracted
contest which has been described, the voters of Garland distributed
their votes to seven different candidates.
After repeated failure running through two years the
friends of the administration met at Garland met on the sixteenth day of
August, and nominated Samuel Butman of Dixmont as their candidate for
representative to Congress. Mr. Butman was the successful candidate.
The annual meeting for town business was held on April 2. The
officers were Walter Holbrook, moderator; Reuben Bartlett, town clerk;
Reuben Bartlett, Daniel Ladd and Samuel W. Knight, selectmen and
assessors; Isaac Wheeler, treasurer, and Isaac E. Wilkins, Moses Buswell
and Isaac Wheeler, superintending school committee. William Godwin was
chosen collector of taxes, and his compensation was fixed at three per
cent.
For governor, Enoch Lincoln received
twenty-seven votes; William Godwin received six votes; Ezekiel Whitman
received three votes.
For representative to the Legislature,
Reuben Bartlett received thirty-one votes; Elijah Skinner received three
votes; William Eddy received three votes; David A. Gove received one
vote.
In the State at large, Enoch Lincoln was elected governor.
Reuben Bartlett was elected to the Legislature.
The division of
the public land reserved for the first settled minister became the
occasion of considerable trouble to the town, and perhaps to the
minister as well. The Rev. Isaac E. Wilkins was entitled to five eights
of this land by virtue of an agreement with the town, but no division
between the contracting parties had been made. A committee had been
appointed to propose a division of land, but the records fail to show
that any action had been taken by the committee.
Subsequently Mr.
Wilkins was authorized to select a committee for this service. This had
not been done. At a meeting held November 28th, the town voted "that a
Reuben Bartlett, Joseph Prescott and Isaac Wheeler be a committee to
make application to the Court of Common Pleas for a committee to divide
the land which the inhabitants hold in common with the Rev. Isaac E.
Wilkins unless the said Wilkins cause it to be divided immediately by
virtue of a vote passed September 11, 1827."
Samuel P. Sargent is authority for the statement that his father,
Joseph Sargent, raised the barn now standing on the farm of James
Rideout, on the ninth of April, 1827, and that Major Merrill had a team
plowing on the David Allen place on the same day.
This statement
respecting the earliest of the season of 1827, finds confirmation in
Judge Godfrey’s Annuals of Bangor, wherein he says of the same season,
that cucumbers measuring from five to six and one half inches long were
picked in Bangor on the eleventh of June which were the earliest that
had then been raised in the country. The methods of forcing the growth
of vegetables now employed were not in use then.
At the annual meeting of 1828, held March 31st, Joseph Prescott was
chosen moderator; Reuben Bartlett, town clerk; Reuben Bartlett, Daniel
Ladd and Jeremiah Flanders, selectmen and assessors; William Fairfield,
M.D., Rev. Isaac E. Wilkins and Isaac Wheeler, Esq., were chosen
superintending school committee. Samuel Knight was chosen collector, and
a compensation of two and seven tenths per cent, was voted for the
service.
The town voted to raise fifteen hundred dollars to make
and repair highways, three hundred dollars for the support of schools
and two hundred dollars to defray town charges. The highway tax was to
be to be paid for which men and oxen were to be allowed twelve and one
half cents per hour until the 15th of September, and eight cents on and
after that date.
Among the practices of the earlier years of the
town’s history, was that of allowing cattle to run within the limits of
the highways for pasturage. This practice was an ever present menace to
the growing crops which were often seriously damaged by cattle that ran
at large on the highways. It forced the farmers to build and maintain
fences between their growing crops and the highway, which was, perhaps,
the most serious burden they were forced to confront. It led to
disputes, neighborhood quarrels and litigations.
In 1822 the town
voted "that neat cattle be prohibited from going at large from the first
day of June to the first day of November, 1828."
Similar action
was often taken by the town un subsequent years until the State made it
the duty of every owner of stock to fence his own stock in, and relieved
him of the burden of fencing other men”s stock out. As the result of
this policy, many a farmer has been relieved from a burdensome
necessity, and the aggregate of saving has run largely into the
thousands.
On the 8th day of September, 1828, the legal voters of
Garland balloted for governor and other officers.
For governor,
Enoch Lincoln received twenty-nine votes; Solomon Parsons received
twenty-four votes; Daniel Emery received fifteen votes' William Emerson
received one vote.
For senator to State Legislature, Nathan
Herrick received eighteen votes; Reuben Bartlett received seventeen
votes.
For representative to the Legislature, Samuel Butman
received twenty-one votes; Samuel Whitney received seventeen votes; and
William Emerson received one vote.
In several instances the
successful candidate for the Legislature failed to get a single vote in
Garland. This was the fact in 1828. Although Winthrop Chapman of Exeter
failed to get a single vote in Garland, he was the successful candidate.
Such results were due to the fact that the caucus system of the present
time was not so fully developed, and its authority not so fully
acknowledged then as now.
In the presidential elections of 1828,
Garland gave a small minority for the National Republican candidate,
John Quincy Adams. Andrew Jackson, the Democrat candidate, was elected.
In 1828 the town established the first cemetery within its limits, in what is now known as District No. 7. Its location is near the schoolhouse in that district, and is known as the Burnham Cemetery. before this, the dead had often been buried on the premise of relatives, and their graves had been subjected to neglect and desecration when such premises changed hands. Walter Holbrook, Moses Gordon and Daniel Ladd were appointed to enclose the cemetery and superintend the removal of the dead from their scattered resting places thereto.
The annual meeting on 1829 was
held on March 30. Joseph Prescott was chosen moderator; Charles
Reynolds, town clerk; Reuben Bartlett, Daniel Ladd and Samuel W. Knight,
selectmen and assessors; Reuben Bartlett, Treasurer; Isaac E. Wilkins,
Reuben Bartlett and Charles Reynolds, superintending school committee.
Jeremiah Flanders was chosen collector, and a compensation of two and
nine tenths mills voted for the service. The town voted to raise two
thousand dollars to make and repair highways, to be paid in labor at
twelve and one half cents per hour for men and oxen until September
15th, and eight cents after that date. Three hundred dollars was voted
for the support of schools and two hundred dollars to defray town
charges. The inhabitants were forbidden to pasture their cattle in the
roads during the period of growing crops.
The inhabitants of
garland met on the 14th of September, 1829, to provide for the
rebuilding of a bridge across the neck of the pond, a little way north
of the village mills. A contract was made with Daniel Moore to furnish
the necessary timber for the bridge.
The legal voters assembled
on September 14th to ballot for governor and other officers.
For
governor, Samuel E. Smith received forty votes; Jonathan G. Minturn
received seventeen votes. for representative to the Legislature, Reuben
Bartlett received forty votes; Cornelius Coolidge received twenty votes.
The political canvas of 1829 had been bitter, and the result was
unsatisfactory to both parties. Mr. Hunton was elected governor, and Mr.
Chapman representative to the Legislature.
In the year 1828 or 1829, Isaac Wheeler, Esq.,
one of Garland's pioneers, was at work in his field, on what is now
known as the Foss farm. At work with him, was Joseph True Jr., then
scarcely more than a boy. On the opposite side of the road was the house
where the Clark family now resides, which was then occupied by the Rev.
Isaac E. Wilkins, Garland's first settled minister.
A county
temperance society had been organized embracing in its membership some
of the most prominent men in the county. The subject was a theme for
discussion in many of the towns. Mr. Wheeler and young True had in
earnest conversation upon the subject which resulted in their going to
mr. Wilkins with the request that he would write a pledge, which he
cheerfully consented to do. The three men signed it and from this
transaction emerged Garland's first temperance society.
From 1820 to 1830 there was an
accession to the town of about seventy families. Among these were the
families of Reuben Bartlett, Abraham True, Joseph True Sr., Joseph
Prescott, Joseph Sargent, Dr. Seth Fogg, Benjamin Pressey, Rufus Inman,
Thomas B. Saunders, Walter Holbrook, Samuel Warren, William Warren,
William Mansfield, Ansel Field, Samuel W. Knight, Zebulon Knight, Daniel
Ladd, Jeremiah Ladd, William Buswell M. D., Asa W. Soule, Gains Soule,
Lewis Soule, Haskell Besse, James Powers, Leonard Leland, John Davis,
James Robbins, William Soule, Gideon Rollins, John Hamilton, Joseph
Strout, Joseph Johnson, John Johnson, Israel Colley, Lewis Goulding,
Amos Higgins, William Doble, William Sargent, David Sargent, Aaron Hill,
Elisha Nye, Rufus Soule, Phineas Batchelder, John H. Batchelder, Mason
Skinner, James March, Jacob Quimby, Samuel Greeley, John E. Ladd, James
Parker, George Curtis, Russell Murdock, Isaac E. Wilkins, William
Fairfield M.D., Herbert Thorndike, William Rollins, Fifield Lyford,
David M. Greeley, Eben Battles, Seth Smith, Isaiah Stillings, Eliab
Stewart, Andrew Smith, David Moore, James Holbrook, Benjamin Mayo.
A few of the above names are those of young men who were not heads
of families previous to 1830, but became so after that date. The
population of Garland in 1830 was six hundred and twenty-one, an
increase of three hundred ad forty-six in ten years. There were but few
events in the period under review worthy of special notice.
The
town had enjoyed a happy exemption from the remarkable discouragements
and hardships that had characterized its earlier history. the allegiance
of its citizens had been transferred from the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts to the State of Maine. The town had settled Rev. Isaac E.
Wheeler as its first minister. The Free Will Baptist church had been
organized in 1825. Several school districts had been established, and
the advantages for instruction of persons of school age extended. The
policy of paying taxes, excepting highway taxes, in money had been
established, indicating that this convenience of civilization was
becoming more abundant. Roads had been improved and extended. The crops
had generally been good, and the people had been fairly prosperous.
Transcribed by Fran Jones Libby, David Brann, Jennifer Godwin, and Grinnell MacLeod Wood II
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This page was last updated
04/28/2025