Penobscot County
MEGenWeb
Transcribed by Fran Jones Libby, David Brann, Jennifer Godwin, and Grinnell MacLeod Wood II
It has been said that the life of a country or a community
is the essential fact of history. While the history of the lives of the
early settlers of Garland may be devoid of interest to the general
reader, it cannot fail to be of interest to their descendants.
A
very few of the first houses in Garland, including those of the first
two or three settlers, were built of logs. The proprietors of the
township had built a saw-mill before other houses were needed. A
saw-mill has also been built in the township now known as Dexter, which
accommodated the settlers of the western and northwestern sections of
Garland.
Sawed lumber now took the place of logs in the
construction of buildings. Nails made one by one, by the blacksmith of
the township were used. The first framed house in the township was built
by Joseph Treadwell for John Tyler, upon the farm now owned by Charles
Brown. Mr. Treadwell was the grandfather of our present citizen, Joseph
Treadwell. He came from New Gloucester, Maine, in the summer of 1802, on
horseback, bringing his tools with him, cut, hewed, and framed the
timber and hauled it to the building site, raised and covered the body
of the house.
To the regret of many of our older citizens, this
quaint old house gave place to one of more modern construction years
ago.
The early houses had, as a general rule, only a single room
upon the ground floor. In this, the unwieldy loom, the spinning wheel,
and bed for the family found a place. There were no partitions save
quilts and comforters that served as such. The pride of the housewife
was a large, red dresser, with open shelves at the top, where were
displayed the shining rows of bright tin dishes.
A heavy cleat
door, swinging on wooden hinges, furnished with a wooden latch,
indicated the place of ingress and exit.
On the outside, the door
was opened by a string attached to the latch, which passed through a
hole above it to the inside. When the family retired for the night, the
string was pulled in for the safety of its inmates. The second floor was
of rough boards or splits placed across the floor timbers. Sometimes
straight poles laid closely together across the floor timbers were made
to do service as a floor. The second floor was reached by a ladder.
"Shut in from all the world without
We sat the clean-winged hearth about:
Content to let the north wind
roar
With baffled rage at pane and door.
While the red logs before
us beat
The frost line back with tropic heat.
"What matter how
the night behaved?
What matter how the north wind raved?
Blow
high, blow low, not all its snow
Could quench our house fires’ ruddy
glow."
- Whittier.
The capacious stone fire-place with
smoke flues of boards or sticks embedded in clay mortar, was a marked
feature of the early homes. Such chimneys were sometimes burned without
much injury to the house. The various appliances for kindling fires at
the present time were then unknown.
It was therefore necessary to
preserve fire from night until morning. This was done by protecting the
glowing coals with ample covering of ashes. In case of failure to
preserve the fire through the night, the only resort was to borrow from
the nearest neighbor regardless of distance.
The first thing of a cold winter morning was to lay the foundation for an all-day fire. The ample bed of coals, that had reposed under a covering of ashes, was scraped aside with the large iron shovel. A log of birch or maple of the average size of eighteen or twenty inches in diameter had been drawn in on a hand sled or raised up on end and hitched along, first on one corner and then on the other. This was placed in the back of the fireplace and upon it a back log was laid. A large fore-stick was placed on the andirons in front. The foundation of the all-day fire was now complete. Kindling and fine wood, dried between the jambs of the capacious fire place, were used to start the fire. In due time the "frost line” was forced back towards the rear of the room. The open fire was used to cook the food of the family. In the long-handled frying pans, heated by the glowing coals, meat, fish and game were cooked. Indian meal, rye meal, and rye and Indian meal mixed, were spread upon long, shoal tins and baked by the heat of the open fire. A fat, nicely dressed chicken or other fowl, handing by the legs before the glowing coals of the huge fireplace, held by a flaxen string fastened to the floor timbers above, was not as unusual sight.
The blaze of the large open firs
furnished all the light needed in the main room for ordinary purposes.
If the boys and girls desired light to prepare their lessons for the
next day’s school, they would bring pine knots from the forest for the
needed additional light.
Portable lights were prepared by coiling
a narrow piece of twisted cotton cloth in a dish of lard. Tallow candles
run in moulds came into early use.
The furniture of the early settlers, if indeed the word thus used if not a misnomer, was of the rudest description. The substitutes were such as could be made with the saw, axe, auger and shave, supplemented by nails from the hands of the common blacksmith.
"I hear the humming of the wheel -
Strange music
of the days gone by -
I hear the clicking of the reel,
Once more
I see the spindles fly:
How then I wondered at the thread
That
narrowed from the snowy wool,
Much more to see the pieces wed,
And
wind upon the whirling wheel."
- Walter Bruce.
The material
that entered into the clothing of the early settlers were wool, linen
and cotton. Some of them brought woolen yarn from the homes of their
childhood. Sheep in small numbers were early brought into the township.
Almost every family cultivated a small piece of flax, which when ready
for harvest, was cut and spread evenly in rows, where it remained until
the bark of the plant that concealed the long, fine fiber was decomposed
by the influence of sun, dew and rain. Then under cover of barn or shed
it was passed through a flax-brake, a clumsy wooden machine worked by
hand. This was the first step in the process of ridding the fiber of the
bark. The process was completed by the use of a large wooden knife,
called a swinging-knife, by which the fiber was cleared of the small
pieces of bark still adhering to it.
The fiber was then passed
through the hatchel to free it from the short, coarse fiber called tow,
which was utilized for various purposes. It was now drawn into thread on
the small wheel and woven into cloth which was used as clothing for men,
women and children, also for table linen and toweling.
Any
surplus above the wants of the family was readily sold in Bangor. It was
often exchanged for cotton, which in turn was manufactured on the wheel
and loom for home use or sale. Cotton and wool were also transformed
into cloth by wheel or loom.
It must not be inferred that
spinning and weaving of the early days were irksome to those who
performed them. To the ears of the ambitious housewife, the hum of the
wheel upon which the thread was drawn from the wool, and the rattle of
the shuttle, passing swiftly back and forth between the warp and the
woof, associated as they were with the future comfort of husband and
children, were music as inspiring as that of band or orchestra. The
movements of the maiden, vying with the mother for excellence of
achievement at the wheel, were as graceful as any fashionable ballroom.
The food of the early settlers of the township was
simple and substantial. Salt pork, salt beef, game and fish from the
forest and stream, entered largely into their food supply. Johnny cake,
rye cakes, and cakes of rye and Indian Meal mixed, were baked in oblong
tins by the heat of the coals of the open fire.
This was before
brick ovens came into use. Hasty puddings were also relished. In some
families bean porridge was a favorite and convenient dish. It could be
made in large quantities and its keeping qualities were good, as
according to the old proverb, bean porridge hot or cold, is best when
nine days old.
The soil of the township was well adapted to the
production of wheat, ad sometimes forty bushels of that cereal were
produced on a single acre of land. Wheat cereal flour entered but
slightly into the food supply of the period, on account of the lack of
machinery to manufacture it into flour.
Maple
syrup was one of the few luxuries of the early settlers. The boys of the
families looked forward to the season of its manufacture with fond
anticipation. The methods employed were of a rude character.
It
the latter part of February the work of preparation was begun. By the
aid of the gimlet and jack knife, wooden conductors were made to carry
sap into troughs, which were used instead of the tin pails of the
present time. The troughs were made from logs of basswood, about three
and one half feet in length, and fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter,
split into halves, which were hollowed with an axe, and subjected to
heat to close the pores of the wood to prevent leakage.
When the
period for active operation arrived, the troughs and conductors were
distributed to the trees of the sugar orchard. Small holes from four to
five inches deep were bored into the trees, three to four feet from the
ground, into which the conductors were driven.
The clumsy troughs
were placed to receive the sap as it ran from the trees, which was
generally gathered in the morning, and poured into a receptacle placed
at a central point.
Two or more iron kettles were suspended from
a horizontal pole far enough from the ground to allow a hot fire beneath
them, which forced the water off, leaving the syrup for the delectation
of family and friends.
Separated from parents,
brothers and sisters, and the companions of their earlier life, and subjected to
hardships and privations common to them all, the primitive settlers who met as
strangers became fast friends at sight. Scattered over the entire area of the
township, through the mistaken policy of the original proprietors, the
interchange of visits was much less frequent than would have been the case had
they been compactly located.
They were a very hospitable people, and the
latchstring was always out, not only to the inhabitants of their own township,
but to those of other townships.
Visits were more common in winter than
in summer. The men were more at leisure. Horse or ox-teams could be driven at
will among the trees at this season. A pair of quick-moving steers hitched to a
common ox-sled was regarded as a good turnout.
John Morgan, one of the
early settlers of the township now known as Dexter, who was on neighborly terms
with the people of Garland, was accustomed to boast of a more aristocratic
turnout than an}' of his neighbors possessed. He was the owner of a carpenter's
bench which, turned bottom up on his ox sled, was supplied with a generous layer
of clean straw whereon his family could rest their feet, and seats of boards,
supported by the sides of the bench. The visiting party being protected by
comforters and quilts, and the quick-moving oxen attached to the sled, now
started joyously on their way to friends who were ready to receive them with
open arms.
In summer the people went from house to house on foot or
horseback. The conditions of life in the new township which have been described,
refer particularly to the first ten years of its history.
At the beginning of the present century,
the township was covered with a heavy forest growth. There were gigantic
maples whose spreading tops had waved in the storms of centuries, and
whose massive trunks having no marketable value were relentlessly
consigned to the flames. There were also the tall, towering pines whose
trunks had never been disfigured by the "King’s Mark." Intermingled with
these, were many varieties if humbler growth, all of which must give way
to sunlight and civilization.
The removal of this imposing forest
growth required courage and muscle, both of which the pioneers of the
township possessed in large amounts. The felling of the trees was
generally performed in the month of June.
Armed with his favorite
axe of polished steel and keen edge, the pioneer commenced his attack
upon that portion of the forest that came within the scope of the year’s
plans. After careful inspection of the configuration of the ground, and
the inclination of the trees, he chopped into both sides of each, on a
strip of one to two rods wide, and of indefinite length. One of the
giants of the forest with widely spreading branches was then felled,
which, descending with great force, carried with it the trees next in
range, and these, in turn, carrying others, until all that had been
nitched reached the ground with a terrific crash. This in the vernacular
of the period was a "drive." The breaking of the strong, course fibers
of the trees, subjected to this irresistible force, was sometimes heard
on a clear, still morning, two or three miles away, and was strikingly
suggestive of human agony.
The next step in clearing land was the
dropping of the limbs from the prostrated trunks of the trees, with the
axe, the only tool which has not been radically changed in form within
the last hundred years.
The limbs and leaves were packed together
to facilitate the burning when the torch should be applied in the coming
autumn, or more frequently, in the following spring. When the large
amount of combustible matter was believed to be in condition for a "good
burn," fires were stared at different points.
The terrific
roaring of the flames, as they leaped from point to point, rising above
the surrounding tree tops, and the dense volume of smoke that shut off
the light of the sun, lingered in the memories of our fathers until the
end of life.
The "felled pieces" having been cleared of the
leaves and small limbs by fire, the work of hand-pilling was next in
order. This meant the piling by hand of the larger limbs and brands that
had not been reduced to ashes. When these piles were burned, the land
was ready for the reception of seed, from which sprang the first crops,
embracing corn and subsidiary crops, such as potatoes, beans, and garden
vegetables.
Corn and other seeds were
planted in the patches of land between the blackened trunks of the
prostrate trees.
The planter provided himself with a little bag
which was suspended from his waist, filled with seed, and a hoe with a
bland about three inches wide, with a handle fifteen to eighteen inches
long. With his strong right arm, he thrust the hoe through the scurf on
the surface of the ground into the under laying loam, threw the seed
into the incision, and pressing the earth above the seed with his foot,
he passed on, repeating the process until the planting was completed.
If he had been favored with a ‘good burn,’ only a little labor was
required from the planting to the harvesting of the crops.
There
were two classes of harvesters, bipedal and quadrupedal. As soon as the
kernels of corn began to take form on the cob, the bears and smaller
quadrupeds began their harvesting. Various expeditions were put in
requisition to limit the depredation of these animals, but not with
entire success.
But in spite of these drawbacks, the pioneer
obtained a fair crop of corn, any surplus of which, above the needs of
his family, entered into the currency of the period at prices fixed by
common custom.
The next step in the clearing of the land was to
divest it of the trunks of the trees that were scattered over it. These
were cut into sections, hauled together, placed in piles and burned. The
land was now ready for the crop of the second year.
The second
crop, in the first ten years of the township’s history, was more often a
crop of rye than of any other, because there were early facilities to
grind it. The soil was well adapted to the growth of wheat, but this
crop was neglected on account of the lack of expensive machinery for
reducing it to flour. Bread if rye meal, mixed with corn meal, was
regarded as excellent food.
Grass seed was sown with the grain
for the second crop, and the grass springing there from, became the crop
of the third year. The pioneer enlarged this "opening" each year by this
process that has been described, and the same alternation of crops
followed in each triennial period, until at midsummer, his eyes were
greeted with waving crops of grass and grain, and in autumn, he received
the cheerful salutation of his tasseled corn, and watched the gambols of
his growing flock.
He now enters a new decade. The township
having assumed a corporate existence, had exchanged the elongated name
of Lincolntown for the euphonic name of Garland. The first kiln of
bricks having been made in 1812, upon the old homestead of the late
William S. Haskell, the huge stone fire-places began to give way to
brick fire-places and ovens.
The annual
own meeting of 1813 was held at the house of Isaac Wheeler on the 5th
day of April. Josiah Bartlett was chosen moderator, Jacob Garland, town
clerk, Isaac Wheeler, William Blaisdell and Joseph Garland, selectmen
and assessors. The Rev. John Sawyer, Isaac Wheeler and Joseph Garland
were chosen superintending school committee.
It was voted to
raise one hundred and fifty dollars for schools, six hundred dollars for
highways, and one hundred dollars for town charges. It was voted to pay
town charges ad school money in corn, rye and wheat. at six, seven and
nine shillings per bushel respectively.
Town meetings were not of
so frequent occurrence in 1813 as in the two preceding years.
The
second and last meeting for municipal purposes in 1813, was held on the
30th of October, at the house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., and was devoted to
the consideration of roads and bridges.
A
building was erected at West Garland about the year 1813, possibly a
year earlier, by Stephen Kimball, a citizen of Bangor, and Abner
Sanborn, who was afterwards for several years a prominent citizen of
Garland, for the purpose of wool-carding and cloth gathering.
Messrs. Kimball and Sanborn put up a building, also for the
manufacturing of potash from wood ashes, of which the large quantities
of hard-wood consumed in the capacious fire-places of the times,
afforded an abundant supply.
Asa Soule, who afterwards made a
beginning on the land adjoining the town farm, was given charge of the
wool-carding and cloth dressing business. He was succeeded by Benjamin
Mayo, a brother of the late John G. Mayo, the well known manufacturer of
Dover Foxcroft.
About the same time Edward Fifield built a saw
and grist mill upon the site now occupied by the mills of Lewis Crowell.
He also built a house which was his home for several years.
In
the early efforts to utilize the water-power at the outlet to Pleasant
Pond, the present village at West Garland had its origin. In later
years, and farther down on the stream, Horace Gordon and his son, H.
Lester Gordon, have used the water power at West Garland for
manufacturing purposes. Still farther down Amos Gordon has a saw and
shingle-mill.
The annual meeting for town
business was held at the house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., on the 4th day of
April. Josiah Bartlett was chosen moderator, and Jacob Garland, Town
clerk. Ezekiel Straw, Benjamin Gilpatrick, Jr., and Isaac Copeland were
chosen selectmen and assessors, and Isaac Wheeler, Esq., was chosen sc
treasurer. Rev. John Sawyer, Isaac Wheeler, Esq., and Abner Sanborn were
chosen superintending school committee.
The town voted to raise
eight hundred dollars for highways, two hundred dollars for schools,
seventy-five dollars to defray town charges and fifty dollars to buy
powder and balls. The treasurer was voted a compensation of six dollars,
and the collector was allowed five and three quarters per cent, for
collecting taxes.
The election of state and county officers was
held the same day.
To the inhabitants of
the Penobscot Valley, the year 1814 was a year of excitement. The war
with England had been in progress for two years, but hitherto it had
been waged at a distance. Now it was nearing, and citizens of military
age were in constant expectancy of being called into active service. On
the 17th of August, 1814, the United States ship of war, the Adams,
carrying twenty-five guns, was driven by stress of weather upon rocks
near the Isle au Haut, a small island near the southern limits of
Penobscot Bay, and disabled. Her gallant commander, Captain Morris,
immediately took her up the river to Hampden for repairs. The Adams had
been preying upon English commerce, having captured several English
vessels within the preceding three months. For these reasons she was to
the English an ardently coveted prize. When the accident to the Adams,
and its locality, had come to the ears of the enemy, its capture was
immediately determined upon. On the first day of September 1814, Captain
Morris of the Adams was waited on by a messenger who came in hot haste
to inform him that several English vessels were making their way up the
river.
Captain Morris, well knowing that the coming of the enemy
meant a desperate attempt to capture the Adams, hastened to establish a
battery of fourteen guns upon the wharf, and another of the nine guns on
an elevation fifty rods down river. While the mariners were placing the
guns in position, Captain Morris, obtaining an interview with General
Blake, who was in command of the land forces, assured him that if he
could be protected from a flank movement by the enemy’s forces, he could
easily arrest the passage of his vessels up river. This interview, at
which some of the prominent citizens of Hampden and vicinity were
present, disclosed a fatal lack of decision and unity of sentiment as to
what should be done in the emergency that confronted them. Some of the
citizens fearing that resistance would lead to the destruction of the
town were in favor of throwing them selves upon the magnanimity of the
enemy.
Captain Morris declared in a few brief and burning words
that nothing could be hoped from British magnanimity, and added - -
‘Keep the enemy from outflanking me and I will arrest the passage of his
vessels up the river. These are our respective duties, and we must
discharge them’.
At the close of the interview, Captain Morris
returned to the wharf to complete arrangements there, and General Blake
entered upon the work of making a disposition of his forces which
numbered about five hundred men. Early in the morning of September 3d
the enemy bean to move towards the American line of defense. A heavy fog
resting upon the river and banks covered his incipient movements. Soon
the British regulars emerged from the fog, and moved towards the
position held by General Blake. Their firm and regular movement,
confident bearing, and imposing uniforms, carried terror to General
Blake’s undisciplined troops. After an exchange of a few rounds, General
Blake’s line gave way near the center, which was followed by a general
and precipitate retreat.
Captain Morris, soon finding his
position untenable, spiked his guns, set fire to his vessel, and with
his men made his escape to Bangor.
It is not necessary to the
purpose of this narrative to describe in detail the various acts of
‘magnanimity’ toward those confiding citizens who exhibited such eager
readiness to throw themsevles upon the mercy of an insolent and
relentless foe.
At the
beginning of the War of 1812, through the agency of Captain Isaac
Hodsdon of Corinth, afterwards widely known as Major General Hodsdon, a
company of militia was organized at Garland. Captain Hodsdon was a young
man of great military enthusiasm and marked ability, ans an ardent
supporter of President Madison’s administration.
The members of
the company, over thirty in number, met at the barn of Isaac Wheeler,
Esq., and organized by the election of Thomas S. Tyler, captain; Isaac
Copeland, Lieutenant, and William Blaisdell, ensign. Despite the
apparent general acquiescence in the propriety of a military company,
there was a secret and strong opposition to it that had been quieted by
the tact of Captain Hodsdon, but not subdued. The reasons assigned by
the opposition were that the isolated position of the town should exempt
its citizens from military service, and that the cost to the members of
the company for arms and equipments, added to other burdens of their
condition, would be a great hardship.
There was, also, a
political reason that was at the basis of opposition of some of the
citizens. This was opposition to the existing national administration,
and to the war then in progress.
From the considerations that
have been named there resulted a tacit understanding that, at the
expiration of the time allowed the officers-elect to decide whether they
would accept the commissions they had been offered, they would decline
them. Such action would make it necessary to go over the ground again
and involve delay.
In defiance of the expectations of the
citizens, the officers-elect accepted the commissions tendered them, and
the company became a verity.
The holding a military office in
these days was a distinction that appealed to the pride of the
ambitious, and some of the citizens of Garland were uncharitable enough
to charge that the honor of military titles was the motive that led the
officers-elect to accept commissions in violation of promises not to do
so.
The organization of the company having been effected, its
members were called together at regular intervals for inspection and
drill.
The night of September 2d, 1814,
was dark and rainy. The citizens of Garland had retired to rest at the
usual hour with no suspicion that their slumbers would be disturbed
intil the light of morning called them to the duties of a new day.
At the midnight hour the family of Moses Gordon was awakened by the
galloping of a horse into their dooryard, quickly followed by a violent
rapping at their door. Promptly presenting himself, Mr. Gordon was
confronted by a well-known citizen of Exeter, Jonathan Palmer, whose
nervous and excited bearing indicated startling news.
The
British, he said, having captured Castine were on their way up the
Penobscot to capture the frigate Adams, lying at the wharf at Hampden
for repairs, and to make an attack on Bangor. The company in Garland
must be ordered at once to report forthwith for service at Hampden. A
few minutes later, Mr. Gordon was in the saddle riding at the top of the
horse’s speed to the residence of Captain Tyler, who lived where Thomas
McComb now lives. The slumbers of Captain Tyler were as rudely
interrupted as had been those of Mr. Gordon a half hour earlier.
Mr. Gordon was ordered to warn the company to appear at the residence of
Isaac Wheeler forthwith with arms and equipments. Disregarding darkness,
rain and rough roads, Mr. Gordon executed Captain Tyler’s order with
remarkable dispatch. Nearly all the men answered to the roll-call in the
morning.
Early in the day of September 3d, the company was on its
way towards Hampden. Most of the men had provided themselves with
horses. The company moved on without special incident until they reached
Levant, now Kenduskeag. Here a rumor reached their ears that the enemy
had passed Hampden and was in possession of Bangor. But the company
moved forward until it reached the foot of the long declivity, now know
as the Jameson Hill, where they met a squad of marines from Adams, who
confirmed the rumor.
After abandoning the Adams, Captain Morris
and his men proceeded directly to Bangor, with the purpose of getting to
Portland by the way of the Kennebec. At Bangor, he divided his men into
three squads, and as the country between the Penobscot and Kennebec was
sparsely settled, he ordered the several squads to go from the one river
to the other, by different routes, to insure adequate subsistence on the
road. One of these squads came to Kenduskeag, and from this point took a
westerly course to the Kennebec River.
It was this squad the
Garland company met at the foot of the Jameson Hill, and which confirmed
the rumor of the occupation of Hampden and Bangor by the British. As
nothing was to be gained by continuing the march towards the place of
the late conflict, the larger part of the Garland company turned their
faces homeward.
Individuals of the company, however, pushed on to
get a sight of the insolent and hated redcoats.
The movements of
the marines having for many months been confined to the vessel’s deck,
some of them had become footsore and lame by their hurried march over
the rough roads through the forest. Our men from Garland having heard of
the exploits of these marine in the capture of British vessels, were
filled with admiration for their bravery, and sympathy for their present
hardships. It was, therefore, with patriotic satisfaction that they
offered these tired marines the use of their horses to carry them to
Kenduskeag, where they were to be served with a substantial dinner by
Moses Hodsdon, and the horses were to be left for their owners.
But the Garland soldiers found to their sorrow that brave men were not
always strictly honest. Several of the marines seemed to believe that an
extension of their ride was of more consequence to themselves than a
good dinner at Hodsdon’s, or the fulfillment of their promises to their
benefactors. They, therefore, skipped the dinner and rode on. Moses
Gordon was one of the victims of misplaced confidence, and in company
with others, he borrowed a horse, and went in pursuit. Darkness soon
enveloped the pursuing party, which coming to an old camp in the woods,
within the limits of the present town of Stetson, turned in and spent
the night.
Starting early in the morning, they reached the camp
of fugitives, in the same town, as they were about to resume their day’s
march. Being sharply rebuked for their treachery, they declared with an
expression of injured innocence, that they were then exactly where, as
understood it, the horses were to be left.
An incident occurred
on the return march of the Garland company which greatly amused the rank
and file. They were moving leisurely along, talking of the exciting
events of the previous night, and of the morning’s march, when suddenly
there emergd from the shadows of the heavy forest growth a tall, lean,
cadaverous specimen of humanity, with a high forehead and elongated
chin, who approached them, musket in hand, with long and rapid strides.
The perspiration was running down his cheeks in streams, and boded peril
to some invisible foe, whatever the form, or wherever the locality of
that foe.
He was making his way with such impetuosity that he
scarcely slackened his pace to notice the returning soldiers, much less
to inquire into the logic of their movement from, instead of towards,
his supposed theatre of conflict. But they challenged his attention so
sharply that he lingered with ill concealed impatience to hear their
explanations, then resuming his march with accelerated movement, he
exclaimed, "I don’t care Ð I will have one shot at the Redcoats anyway!"
During his parley with the soldiers, he was recognized as a
prominent citizen of Exeter, and it should be said that when in normal
conditions, he was a man of good personal appearance.
Not many of the citizens of Garland enlisted in the War of 1812.
Simon French, the father of our citizen, the late Eben French, enlisted
in one of the two companies detached from General Blake's brigade. John
Jackman, father of our late citizen, Justus and James Jackman, enlisted
in another company of the same brigade. These companies were stationed
at Eastport. Mr. Jackman, afterwards known as Captain Jackman, was a man
of great size and strength and abounding good nature. In his intercourse
with others, he often carried a disputed point by jokes and
pleasantries. On one occasion he went to the commissary department with
a complaint of the bread ration, when the following colloquy occurred -
"What's the matter with the bread?" the officer in charge asked. "It is
so dry and hard the men are in danger of breaking their teeth," was the
reply. "The men must have poor teeth," said the officer, with an
exasperating expression of incredulity. Nothing daunted, Mr. Jackman
repeated the complaint in intensified form. "It's so hard," he said, "I
can force fire from it with the back of my jack-knife." "I'd like to see
you do it," replied the officer; whereupon a messmate of Mr. Jackman
stepped forward with a loaf of the discredited hard bread, and passed it
to him. Pulling a huge jack-knife from his pocket, he examined the blade
very carefully as well as the loaf, which was to be an important factor
in the performance, as if to find whether the conditions were favorable
to success.
He now commenced the effort to coax sparks from the
loaf, but while crumbs rattled over the floor, there were no sparks of
fire. The ludicrous performance drew peals of laughter from the waiting
crowd. Presently the promised sparks began to light up the scene. The
laughter became more boisterous, but our garland soldier was no longer
its subject. The sparks that amused the crowd, came from the impingement
of the knife upon a gun-flint concealed in the loaf. This was before the
invention of the percussion cap. The quality of the bread ration was
improved by this incident.
Town meetings
in Garland in 1815 were of frequent occurrence but, to a great extent,
barren of results. The division of the town into school districts, the
location of schoolhouses and roads, were subjects of perpetual
discussion, both in and out of the municipal gatherings.
The
annual meeting of 1815 was held at the residence of Isaac Wheeler, Esq.,
on the 13th day of March. Ebenezer Greenleaf was chosen moderator, and
Moses Gordon, clerk. The selectmen for the year were Isaac Wheeler,
Esq., Benjamin Gilpaterick and Amos Gordon. The same persons were chosen
assessors. The Rev. John Sawyer, Isaac Wheeler, Esq., and James Parker
were elected superintending school committee. Moses Gordon was chosen
collector, his compensation being fixed at five and three fourths per
cent. The town voted to raise three hundred dollars for the support of
schools; one hundred and twenty-five dollars to defray town charges, and
seven hundred dollars to build and repair roads, and to allow twelve and
one half cents per hour for labor.
A town meeting was held at the
house of Isaac Wheeler, Esq., on November 4th, 1815, “to see what
measure the town will adopt respecting the divisions of the county.”
Previous to this time, Garland had been a constituent part of the county
Hancock. A general movement had been inauguarted to secure the
establishment of a new county.
Isaac Wheeler, Esq., Ebenezer
Greenleaf and John S. Haskell were chosen a committee to petition the
Legislature of Massachusetts for the proposed division. At this meeting,
John S. Haskell, John Chandler, Cutteon Flanders and William Church were
appointed tithing men. The appointment of such officials was of regular
occurrence in the earlier years of the town’s history. Their duty was to
preserve good order during divine service. There being no schoolhouses
in town to this date, and the persons named residing in different
sections, would seem to indicate that religious meetings were held at
private houses or in open air at different parts.
The sixth and
last town meeting of 1815 was held on the 25th of November, at the
residence of Isaac Wheeler,Esq. The inhabitants came together to make
one more effort top harmonize differences respecting the location and
building of schoolhouses, but without practical results.
The settlement in the Province
of Maine in favor of receding from Mother State had been gaining
strength from the beginning of the War of 1812, and took form of
organized action in 1816. In his history of Maine, Mr. Williamson
informs us that early in the year of 1816 forty-nine towns in the
District of Maine petitioned for separation in the corporate capacities,
and that there were petitions from individuals in about as many more
towns for that same objective.
On the 18th of January the legal
voters of Garland in town meeting assembled, passed the following vote:
"That the town petition the Legislature for a separation of the District
of Maine from the State of Massachusetts, and for its erection into an
independent state." The selectmen and town clerk were instructed to sign
the petition in behalf of the town. It may fairly be inferred that
Garland was one of the forty-nine towns alluded to by Mr. Williamson as
voting for separation.
Influenced by these petitions from nearly
one half of the incorporated towns of the district, the Legislature of
Massachusetts sought a fuller expression of sentiment upon the question
of separation. In furtherance of this purpose, it directed that meetings
be held in all the towns and plantations in the district, on the 20th of
May, and that the voice of the legal voters should be taken on the
following question: "Shall the Legislature be requested to give its
consent to the separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts,
and the erection of said district into a separate state?" On this
question the legal voters of Garland voted as follows: For separation,
twenty-six; against separation, five. While the general result in the
district showed that a decisive majority of those who voted favored
separation , only a minority of voters gave their vote. This result
disappointed the Separationists. Nevertheless, a law was passed by the
Legislature, prescribing the conditions of separation, and directing
that the legal voters of the towns and plantations should assemble on
the first Monday in September and give their yeas and nays upon the
following question: Is it expedient that the District of Maine be
separated from Massachusetts and become an independent state?" The
result in garland was: For separation, twenty-six; against separation,
eight.
The general result showed a majority in favor of
separation but this majority was much smaller them required by law which
governed the proceedings. Thus the measure was, for the time, defeated.
Until the year 1816, the meetings for town
business had been held at private houses, generally at the house of
Isaac Wheeler, Esq. religious meetings had been held at private houses,
or in the awe-inspiring shadows of the grand old forest.
In the
year 1816, the town meeting was held in the school house, afterwards
known as the Center schoolhouse in town. It emerged from clouds of
opposition, disputation and declamation. It was the first schoolhouse in
town, and having been built for certain special purposes, other than
schools, it was larger than any house of the find in town until the
village schoolhouse was built thirty-seven years later.
It was
located in the dense forest, at the nominal center of the town. To the
early inhabitants, the old Center schoolhouse never ceased to be an
object of interest.
There they often met to discuss and perfect
measures for the benefit of themselves and children. There they went to
deposit the ballot which, though "a weapon that comes down as still as
snowflakes fall upon the sod," was yet a factor in determining whether
they should be blessed with the kindly influences of intelligent and
conscientious statesmanship, or cursed with malignant and incompetent
Partisanship. There they sent their children to be instructed in the
rudiments of knowledge that they might be prepared to act well their
parts in the drama of life. There they met for religious conference and
worship, ere yet they were favored by the regular and more public
ministrations of Wilkins, having been called by vote of the town,
labored faithfully for a period of five years to promote the moral and
spiritual welfare of the people.
The annual town meeting for municipal business in 1816, was held
March 14th, in Garland’s first public building, the Center schoolhouse,
which was still standing in the unfinished condition. The meeting was
organized by the choice of Ebenezer Greenleaf for moderator, and Moses
Gordon, town clerk, Josiah Bartlett, Benjamin Gilpatrick and Ebenezer
Greenleaf were chosen selectmen and assessors, Thomas Gilpatrick was
chosen treasurer and Philip Greeley, collector. His compensation was
fixed at three and one half per cent.
Isaac Wheeler, Abner
Sanborn ad Moses Buzzell were chosen superintending school committee. It
was voted to raise five hundred dollars to support schools, one hundred
and fifty to defray town charges and fifteen dollars to buy powder and
balls. It was voted that all taxes, except the highway tax, should be
paid in grain wheat at one dollar and fifty cents, corn at one dollar
and twenty cents, and rye at one dollar and ten cents a bushel. The
second meeting of 1816 was held on the 12th of April for the transaction
of some important town business. In the afternoon of the same day the
citizens deposited their votes for governor, lieutenant governor,
senators and councilors. The vote for governor was: For Hon. Samuel
Dexter, twenty-four; for Hon, John Brooks, fifteen.
In this
election Mr. Brooks was elected as the successor of Governor Strong.
Another town meeting was held on April 20th to transact business
relative to the building of schoolhouses and making of roads.
The citizens of Garland and of this section of the
Province of Maine, the year 1816 was the beginning of a new epoch. Until
1816, Garland had been a part of Handcock County, a section of country
extending from the Penobscot Bay on the south, to the utmost northern
limits of the state. It embraced territory nearly as large as one third
of the present state of Maine, and larger than the present State of
Massachusetts. Castine was its sire town, although Bangor had been
constituted a half shire town years earlier, and a registry of deeds had
been established there, still all court business was transacted there,
still all court business was transacted at Castine, which was so remote
from the extreme northern settlements of the county that the inhabitants
of these settlements were subjected to serious inconvenience when
required to attend court.
A movement had been made a years
earlier for the establishment of a new county, many petitions having
been sent in this Legislature of Massachusetts in furtherance of the
object. Garland was one of the towns that petitioned. In response to
these petitions, the Legislature of Massachusetts passed an act on
February 15th, 1816, to incorporate the county of Penobscot, which
provided that it should take effect on the first day of April, 1816.
Bangor was made the shire town of the new county.
The existence
of a new county created the necessity for new offices and officers to
fill them. With the exception of registrar of deeds, these officers were
to be appointed by the governor. he was to be elected by the towns of
the new county. The legal voters of Garland assembled on the 27th of May
and voted as follows:
For John Wilkins, eight votes; for Charles
Rice, one vote.
Mr. Wilkins was elected registrar by an almost
unanimous vote. The legal voters of garland assembled at the Center
schoolhouse on November 4, 1816 to vote for representative to Congress.
Hon. Martin Hinsley received fourteen votes. Hon. John Wilson
received nine votes.
The year 1816
has been aptly characterized as the year without a summer. Several of
the preceding summers were so cold as to suggest a possible future
famine. This tendency to frigidity reached its greatest intensity in the
summer of 1816. The phenomenal coldness that year was not confined to a
small area. It prevailed through the United States and Canada and
extended to Europe. That there were reasons for alarm, especially in the
new settlements of eastern Maine, already impoverished by untoward
events extending through several years, will be understood by a perusal
of the followings graphic account from a reliable source.
"The
year 1816 was known throughout the United States and Europe as the
coldest ever experienced by any person then living. Very few persons now
living can recollect it. The following is a brief summery of the weather
during each month of that year. January was so mild as to render fires
almost unnecessary in parlors. February, with the exception of a few
says, was like its predecessor. March was cold and boisterous during the
early part of the month. The latter part was mild. April began warm but
grew colder as the month advanced. May was more remarkable for frowns
than smiles. Buds and fruits were frozen. Ice formed half an inch thick.
Corn was killed and again planted and replanted so long as there was the
slightest prospect of success. June was the coolest ever known in this
latitude. Frost and ice were common. Almost every green thing, including
fruit, was destroyed. Snow fell to the depth of seven inches in Vermont,
and Maine, three in the interior of New York and Massachusetts. There
were a few warm days in June. It was called a dry season. The wind,
fierce and cold, blew steadily from the north. Mothers knit extra socks
and mittens for their children shivering in the spring. Wood-piles were
renewed. Planting and shivering went together. Farmers worked out their
taxes on the roads in overcoats and mittens. In Vermont, a farmer had
driven his sheep to pasture some miles away at the usual time. On the
7th of June there was a heavy fall of snow. The cold being severe, the
owner went to look after them. As he left the house, his wife said, "It
being June, if I do not return in a reasonable time send the neighbors
after me." Night came, the storm had increased, and he was still absent.
"The next morning the neighbors were alarmed and started in search
of the missing man. On the morning of the third day, he was found with
his feet badly frozen and unable to walk.
"July was accompanied
by frost and ice. On the 5th, ice of the thickness of common
window-glass was found through-out New England, New York and some parts
of Pennsylvania. Indian corn was nearly all destroyed except on elevated
lands. August was more cheerless than the early summer months. Nearly
all the corn that had escaped thus far was so badly frozen that is was
cut for fodder. September furnished about two weeks of the mildest
weather of the season.
"October produced more than its share of
cold weather. November was cold and brought snow and sleighing, In
marked contrast with the preceding months of 1816, December was mild and
comfortable. Such is the summary of the general weather conditions of
the phenomenal year of 1816."
To us, who are at a remove of
eighty years from that phenomenal year, the forgoing description may
seem to have been inspired by a spirit of unrestrained exaggeration, but
it is confirmed by the traditions of experience of the early inhabitants
of central Maine.
In his Annuals of Bangor, Judge John E. Godfrey
says, "The season was remarkable for the low state of the thermometer.
In June the cold was severe. It snowed on the seventh and eighth. Water
froze for several nights, and on the 10th, the ice over puddles would
bear a man. Great numbers of birds ere so benumbed that they could be
readily taken in the hand, and many perished."
The Rev. Amasa
Loring, in his history of Piscataquis County, says of the year 1816: "On
the 29th and 30th days of May, snow fell to the depth of five inches.
From the sixth to the tenth of June, there were frequent snow squalls,
and every morning the surface of the ground was found frozen. Every
month during the summer frost was visible. On the sixth of October,
three inches of snow fell. No corn was raised this year in any part of
northern New England. Early rye and wheat ripened, but were much
pinched, and potatoes came in light and watery.
The almost total failure of crops in the fateful year
of 1816 put the faith of the inhabitants of Garland in their ability to
maintain their foothold upon the lands where they had toiled many a
weary year to make homes for themselves and their growing families, to a
severe test.
Previous to the year 1816 they had been sorely
buffeted by adverse circumstances, and now, when they had reached the
threshold of what seemed like a brighter future, this disastrous year
came t them with crushing force. Many of them were carrying a burden of
debt incurred in the purchase of their lands, which they were bravely
striving to pay.
A typical case was that of Moses Gordon. In the
year 1815 he had felled ten acres of trees, partly on the land now owned
and occupied by his son Albert, and partly upon the Murdock place, with
the purpose and expectation of reducing his debt.
The conditions
of exposure to the sun and soil favored an abundant crop. The early
spring months had passed, and the calendar indicated the advent of the
corn-planting season, but there was nothing in the atmospheric
conditions to suggest the presence of that usually joyous season:
nothing to inspire courage, confidence or hope. Planting was postponed
from time to time for the hoped-for favorable change, which failed to
come. At length in sheer desperation, with the assistance of several
neighbors, Mr. Gordon, commenced the work of planting. It was now well
along in June, the month in whichر"If ever come perfect days." But
instead of sunshine and warmth, there were snow-squalls and frosts
almost daily. Men were obliged to resume their winter clothing. The
summer passed, and harvest time came, but it brought disappointment
instead of corn.
The value of the entire crop of corn harvested
was not equal to that of the seed planted. The same disastrous results
came to nearly all the farmers who attempted to raise corn. There is a
tradition, however, that William Godwin raised a crop of corn in 1816,
on an elevated farm, a little east of the present residence of Charles
Greeley, formerly known as the Calef or Cram farm. Perpetual breezes
over the hilltop kept the growing corn almost constantly in motion, thus
resisting the action of the frost, and allowing the crop to grow and
ripen.
While the corn crop was virtually a failure in Garland,
crops of wheat, rye and potatoes were partially successful, but wheat
and rye were much pinched, and potatoes were small and watery. The
inhabitants of this region were greatly perplexed with the question of a
food supply until the crops of 1817 should ripen, if, indeed, the unborn
year should prove more fruitful than the present.
Forest, lake
and stream could be depended upon for the usual supply of game and fish,
but beyond these the prospect was not inspiring. But expedients were at
hand. Mashed potatoes and pumpkins were mixed with flour, corn and rye
meal to increase the quantity of bread supply. Potatoes and pumpkins in
milk was an esteemed dish. Clover heads stewed in butter often took the
place of more nutritious food. Fields and thickets were scanned for
berries.
In
1816, Stephen A. Berry, then a boy of ten years, was living with his
parents in New Durham, N. H. The hardships of the family are typical of
those that were common throughout New England. Mr. Berry says that the
years 1815-16-17, constituted a period of privation and hardship without
parallel within the memories of the oldest inhabitants then living.
The year 1816 was the most memorable of these. On the 7th of June
snow fell to the depth of seven inches. No corn ripened sufficiently for
seed, and as an article of food, it was very nearly an entire failure.
Wheat was but little used for food. Machinery for grinding it was very
imperfect, and the methods of preparing it for the table were very
crude. Rye and corn meal were much more highly esteemed.
The crop
of rye in 1816, while light, was not an entire failure. Mr. Berry
relates an incident of his own experience. In the vicinity of home,
there lived a Mr. Ela, a wealthy farmer, who had raised a large field of
rye. After the rye had been harvested with great care, Mr. Berry, then
ten years old, obtained permission to glean the scattered heads, and
with the assistance of a sister, older than himself, entered upon the
work with zeal and courage.
At the end of several days' diligent
labor, the young gleaners bore the gathered heads of rye in triumph to
their home. Aided by their good mother, they soon relieved the heads of
their treasures. Breezes from the hilltops separated the chaff from the
grain. The reward of their youthful toil was eight quarts of rye which
the boy Stephen bore to the mill a mile from home and soon returned with
the bread, and the family sat down to a "square meal" for the first time
in several days.
Mr. Berry says he does not remember whether
there was other food before the family on that occasion, but he does
remember that there was bread and a plenty of it, and that no
achievement of his subsequent life gave him more satisfaction than this.
Later in the season the Berry family arose early one morning to find
there was not a mouthful of food in the larder. The father quickly
summoned his two sons: Ira, who was afterwards for many years a
prominent citizen of Portland, and Stephen. The three went to the river
at a short distance from the house, where they unexpectedly found an
abundance of fish ready to take the bait upon their hooks.
After
fishing for a brief time, a sudden shower of rain came upon them, when
the fish instantly disappeared in the deep water, whereupon Stephen
quaintly remarked that this must have been done to avoid getting wet.
The breakfast that followed was characterized by abundance rather than
variety.
To the inhabitants of Garland, the year
1817 opened with gloomy forebodings. The struggle for bread that had
characterized the year just closed, must of necessity be intensified until the
harvest of 1817 would, perchance, bring relief.
Each year, following the
year 1813 down to that of 1816, had been more unfruitful than the preceding
year. This engendered the apprehension that the year to follow might be more
disastrous to growing crops than the year that had just closed. In looking
forward, it is not strange that the disheartened people indulged in serious
questionings of the future. Was the sun losing its warmth? Would the seasons
continue to grow colder? Had Providence designed this cold region for the
habitat of wild animals instead of the home of civilization? Would the harvest
of the new year bring relief? Will the best twelve or fifteen years of our brief
lives, which have been devoted to the work of making homes in this eastern
wilderness, years of struggle, hardship, privation, and severe toil, count for
naught in the battle of life? And after all, shall we be compelled to abandon
all our earthly possessions here and fly from the ills we now endure to those we
know not of?
The early months of 1817 were not reassuring. January and
February were intensely cold. The spring months were very chilly. They failed to
dispel the clouds that had so long hung dark and heavy over the people.
The month of July brought a cheering change to the desponding
dwellers of this region. The sun resumed its wonted power over
vegetation. Alternations of sunshine and rain were followed by a
remarkable change of the growing crops. Autumn made its advent laden
with an abundant crop of grain. The protracted period of despondency now
gave place to courage and hope.
An incident of the spring,
summer, and autumn of 1817 was the presence of an innumerable multitude
of wild pigeons. They flew through the air in clouds, often obscuring
the light of the sun. They infested fields of grain doing much damage.
Although esteemed as an article of food, they were caught in such
numbers that bushels of them were thrown to the hogs. Forty to fifty
dozen was not an uncommon catch in a single day by a single individual.
The early inhabitants of Garland held many of
the business men of Bangor in grateful remembrance to the latest hours
of their lives for the kindly forbearance and encouragement received at
their hands in the time of their direful extremity.
Those of our
people whose indebtedness was to be paid in farm produce, were
generously granted such extension of time as their necessities required.
If, perchance, any of them had a surplus of grain to turn over to their
creditors, they were allowed to retain it for their own, or their
neighbor's use, until more propitious seasons should afford more
abundant means of payment.
Seed was generously offered to those
who would promise to put it into the ground, to be paid for at the
convenience of those accepting the offer. Conspicuous among these
helpful friends was William Emerson, the following tribute to whose
personal qualities was cut from a Bangor paper:
"Mr. Emerson
gained a fine reputation in those days (1816 and 1817) by his tender and
benevolent treatment of the poor and, in fact, of all who needed his
assistance. He never took advantage of sudden rises in prices of
articles of food or clothing. He took pains to secure a plenty of seed
for the farmers, at prices, and on terms of credit that suited their
circumstances, and in many ways tried to lessen the burdens of his less
fortunate or less thoughtful neighbors."
This sketch of the
considerate and unselfish acts of Mr. Emerson harmonizes with traditions
from the early inhabitants of Garland, and it is fitting that a record
of such acts should find a place in the annals of the town of Garland.
The annual town meeting of 1817
was held March 19 at the Center schoolhouse. Josiah Bartlett was chosen
moderator, and Isaac Wheeler, town clerk. Isaac Wheeler, Philip Greeley
and Benjamin Gilpatrick were chosen selectmen and assessors. The
selectmen were chosen superintending school committee. Thomas
Gilpatrick, Jr., was chosen treasurer, and Philip Greeley, collector of
taxes, whose compensation was fixed at three and three fourths per cent.
It was voted to raise one hundred and seventy-five dollars for the
support of schools; eight hundred dollars to make and repair highways,
and one hundred and fifty dollars to defray town charges. At the same
meeting, the town voted to use the money that had been voted for schools
to defray town charges. This vote left the schools without
appropriation. At a subsequent meeting, it was voted that one hundred
and fifty dollars of the sum voted for town charges, at the previous
meeting, should be expended for schools. The people of the town were
still working at cross purposes respecting school districts and schools.
A second town meeting was held on April 7th at the Center
schoolhouse. The main object of this meeting was the consideration of
matters pertaining to roads. It was voted to allow twelve and one half
cents per hour for the labor of men and oxen, and for the use of plows,
and eight cents for carts while in use.
The year 1817 made a new epoch in the history of roads. Heretofore
roads had been located and built by the town almost exclusively with
reference to the requirements and convenience of its own citizens. The
time had now come when its necessities and convenience must, to a
certain extent, be considered with reference to its relation to other
towns. A county road extending from Bangor to the present county of
Piscataquis, through the towns of Glenburn, Kenduskeag, Corinth, Garland
and Sangerville, towards Moosehead Lake, had been projected. This road
is now known as "the old County road" and the section of it within the
limits of Garland was about seven miles in length.
At its second
town meeting of 1811, held April 7th, the town voted to expend three
hundred dollars of the eight hundred dollars that had been voted at the
annual meeting upon the section of the county road between Church's
mills and the south line of the town. It also voted to allow for the
travel of men and oxen to and from their work, on the above named
section, six cents per mile. This allowance was limited to men living
north of Church's mills, while the allowance to laborers south of the
mills was four cents per mile.
At a town meeting held on the 7th
of October, 1811, it was voted that every citizen of Garland who pays a
poll tax should work one day on the county road north of the late
residence of Enoch Jackman. The site of this residence was near the
place where the original county road intersected the present county road
to Sangerville, a little north of the present residence of Henry
Merrill.
A year later the town voted to raise twelve hundred
dollars to build and repair highways, and that one half this sum should
be expended on the county road. The building of the first county road
was a severe burden upon the inhabitants of the town.
On April 7th, the town balloted for governor with result as follows: Hon. John Brooks received fourteen votes; Hon. Henry Dearborn received sixteen votes.
The
annual meeting of 1818 was held March 14th. The officers chosen were
Isaac Wheeler, Esq., town clerk; Benjamin Gilpatrick, John Trefethen and
Abner Sanborn, selectmen and assessors; Ezekiel Straw, treasurer; Philip
Greeley, collector of taxes, whose compensation was fixed at two and
three fourths per cent. Ezekiel Straw, Edward Fifield and John Trefethen
were chosen superintending school committee.
On the 6th day of
April, a town meeting was held for the transaction of important business
which had been omitted at the annual town meeting. No money had been
voted at this meeting for any purpose. It may safely be assumed that the
omission was due to a bitter division of sentiment upon questions
pertaining to schools and roads. At the meeting of April 6th, the town
voted to raise twelve hundred dollars to make and repair highways, one
half of this sum to be expended on the county road, and the balance on
other roads of the town.
It was voted to raise three hundred
dollars for the support of schools, one hundred dollars for the support
of the poor, twenty-three dollars to purchase powder (presumably to make
a noise on muster day) and seventy-five dollars to defray town charges.
There is no record of the raising of money for the support of the poor
until the year 1818.
Until this year (1818) it had been the
policy of the town to have all taxes, except the road tax, paid in grain
at prices fixed each year by vote. This year it was voted that taxes,
except the road tax, should be paid one half in money and one half in
grain, wheat at one dollar and fifty cents, rye at one dollar per
bushel, provided that these grains should be delivered to the treasurer
by the first day of February, 1819, otherwise the whole tax, except the
road tax, must be paid in money.
When in 1850, our late citizen, Ezekiel Straw, who had been treasurer of the town in 1818, transferred his farm to George A. Brann, the latter found grain bins in an out-building which in size were greatly disproportionate to the requirements of the farm. Asking an explanation of the former owner, he was informed that they had been provided for storing the town's grain received in payment of taxes. The acceptance of grain by the town in payment of taxes will explain the large percentage paid from year to year for the collection of taxes.
The legal voters of Garland
balloted for governor on April 6, with result as follows: For Hon.
Benjamin Crowningshield, Anti Federalist, nineteen votes; for Hon. John
Brooks, Federalist, twelve votes.
A town meeting, held November
2, 1818, only emphasized the bitter disagreements upon the question of
schoolhouses.
The impoverished condition of many of the citizens of the Province of Maine, superinduced by the adverse effects of the War of 1812, and intensified by the failure of crops in 1816, was followed by an emigration from the State to the West, estimated at from ten to fifteen thousand people. This demoralized sentiment was called the "Ohio fever." While some of the towns of the Province suffered severely by the loss of citizens from this cause, the loss to Garland was slight.
In contrast with several seasons preceding that of 1817, the year 1818 was characterized by a summer remarkably favorable for the growth of vegetation. The crops of grain were abundant. The "Ohio fever" had spent its force, and the tide of emigration had begun to set towards Maine.
The autumn of 1818 witnessed
a military gathering at Bangor which for enthusiastic interest has
never, in time of peace, had a parallel in Penobscot County. The
mortification engendered by the feeble opposition to the passage of the
British ships and troops past Hampden to Bangor towards the close of the
War of 1812, and the tame surrender of those places had rankled in the
bosoms of the inhabitants of Penobscot valley.
Young, ambitious,
and rising military officers of the time, who had not participated in
the Hampden affair, believed that special efforts to improve the morals
of the militia were imperatively demanded. Arrangements for a muster of
the troops in large numbers at Bangor followed.
The ardor of the
younger officers, conspicuous among whom was Colonel Isaac Hodsdon of
Corinth, in evoking the necessary enthusiasm from the people, was
commensurate with the importance of the end in view.
The date
fixed for the proposed military assemblage was September 21st. At length
the impatiently awaited day dawned. At an early hour the third, fourth,
and fifth regiments of the first brigade, embracing thirty companies,
took the places assigned them on the ample field selected for the
review. In the absence of the Brigadier General, the command devolved on
Colonel Hodsdon. The large cavalcade of officers, dressed in gay
uniforms, on spirited horses, the stirring music, waving flags, rattle
of musketry, roar of cannon, and the evolutions of the soldiery, drew
forth the wildest enthusiasm from the crowds of people in attendance.
The interest of the occasion was greatly enhanced by the presence of
Governor Brooks, who reviewed the troops and expressed his warm approval
of the success of this notable demonstration. The Garland company of
militia was present under the command of Captain Philip Greeley.
Previous to the year 1818, through a period
of sixteen years, the nearest post-office had been at Bangor which was
twenty-five miles away. During that period mail matter for the
inhabitants of Garland was sent from the Bangor office by any reliable
person of the town, who happened to be in Bangor, and left with some
resident of Garland, who esteemed it a pleasure to distribute it to the
scattered homes as opportunity occurred.
A mail route extending
from Bangor, through Garland, to Skowhegan having been established, a
post-office was located at the house of William Godwin, who resided on
the road to Dexter, opposite of the Maple Grove Cemetery, in the year
1818, and Mr. Godwin was appointed postmaster. A Mr. Hayden of Skowhegan
ws the first mail-carrier over this route. His stopping place at the end
of the first day's travel from Bangor was at Isaac Hopland's, where Mark
C. Jennings now resides.
The mail was carried on horseback for
the first few years. This service involved hardship and, not
infrequently, serious danger. During the spring and autumnal freshets,
the corduroy bridges over low and swampy lands were often transformed
into floating bridges of dangerous character.
Bridges over small
streams would sometimes float away in the interim between trips. Mr.
Hayden's contract expired in 1822. He was followed, as contractor, by
Colin Campbell of Corinth, and Calvin Osgood, afterwards a citizen of
Garland, to carry the mail.
Mr. Eddy, who commenced service as
mail-carrier in 1822, communicates the following information respecting
the circuit he traveled to get the mail to the offices upon his route.
Starting from Bangor, he passed through the present towns of Glenburn,
Kenduskeag, West Corinth, Exeter, Garland, Dexter, Ripley, Harmony,
Athens and Cornville, to the objective poin, Skowhegan.
On his
return, he passed through the towns of Canaan, Pittsfield, Hartland, St.
Albans, Palmyra, Newport, Etna, Carmel and Hampden, to Bangor. Some
sections of the return route of Skowhegan must have been of a somewhat
zigzag character.
Mr. Eddy gives the names of the postmasters
upon his route in 1822 as follows: Mark Trafton at Bangor, Moses Hodsdon
at Kenduskeag, Richard Palmer at West Corinth, Reuben Bartlett at
Garland, Dr. Gilman Burleigh at Dexter, John Todd at Ripley, Mr.
Bartlett at Harmony, John ware at Athens, Thomas Smith at Cornville,
John Wyman at Skowhegan, Mr. Tuttle at Canaan, Mr. Foss at St. Albans,
now Hartland, Dr. French at North St. Albans, William Lancey at Palmyra,
Mr. Sanger at Newport, Hollis Friend at Etna, Deacon Ruggles at Carmel,
Mr. Stetson at Hampden Corner and Mrs. Vose at Hampden Upper Corner.
The adventurous mail-carriers had their regular stopping places
where they rested at night, except when delayed by stress of weather,
bad conditions of roads, or accident, when they stopped wherever night
overtook them.
At the close of Mr. Campbell's term of service, in
1826, the roads had been so much improved as to admit of the use of a
two-horse covered carriage for carrying the mail and passengers. This
was a step forward in the march of improvement which was highly pleasing
to the early inhabitants. Lawrence Greene of Dexter now began to carry
the mail, and passengers, from Bangor to Dexter.
Among Mr.
Greene's passengers there would appear occasionally one or more of the
dusky inhabitants of Indian Old Town. It was a great marvel to the small
boy, who cast a frightened look into the carriage, that Mr. Greene
should dare to carry representatives of a race whose history had been so
long and closely associated with the tomahawk and the scalping-knife.
About the year 1830 the mail-route was changed. Diverging from the
original route at Corinth, it ran by way of Exeter Mills and Exeter
Corner to Dexter. From this time onward, Garland was supplied with mail
matter from the Exeter Corner office. This change was followed by
serious inconvenience to the residents of Garland for many years. If the
mail-carrier made his appearance at the Garland office on the day he was
due, he regarded himself at liberty to fix the hour to suit his own
convenience. He was sometimes a day late as a matter of convenience to
himself.
On one such occasion the mail had been changed and the
carrier had started along, when the postmaster, Dr. Joseph Springall,
rushed out into the street, bare-headed, as if some sudden thought had
inspired the movement, and with characteristic humor exclaimed -
"Halloo, young man! Say, when are you coming this way again?"
The annual meeting of 1819 was held on March 16. The officers chosen
were Philip Greeley, moderator; Isaac Wheeler, clerk ; Isaac Wheeler, Josiah
Bartlett and Ezekiel Straw, selectmen and assessors ; Isaac Wheeler, Moses
Buswell and Josiah Bartlett, superintending school committee; John Chandler,
collector, with a compensation of one per cent., and Ezekiel Straw, treasurer.
The town voted to raise four hundred dollars for schools ; one thousand
dollars to build and repair roads, and eleven dollars and fifty cents to erect
guide-boards. A second town meeting was held on April 5th, to act upon various
matters of business, but nothing of importance resulted.
On the same day
a vote for governor was taken when Hon. John Brooks, Federalist, received
thirteen votes; Hon. Benj. Crowningshield, Democrat, received nineteen votes.
A third town meeting was held on April 17, when the town voted that one half
of the sum voted at the annual meeting for support of schools, also the
seventy-five dollars voted for town charges, might be paid in wheat at one
dollar and fifty cents, corn at one dollar and twenty-five cents, and rj^e at
one dollar per bushel, if delivered to the treasurer by the first day of
February.
The most severe burden resting upon the early inhabitants of
Garland was the construction and repair of roads. The original withholding of
every alternate range of land from sale, had necessitated a large mileage of
roads. The incoming of new settlers from year to year increased the burden of
road building. In addition to roads for local convenience, a county road running
obliquely across the town, which had been established in 1817, had increased the
burden of road building.
In the years of 1817 and 1818, the town had
taxed its inhabitants to the extent of their ability to pay, towards the
construction of the county road. But the public was not satisfied with the
progress made, and the town was indicted. A fourth town meeting was held on the
4th of May to consider the method of dealing with the indictment, when it was
voted that four hundred dollars of the one thousand dollars, raised at the
annual meeting for building and repairing roads, should be expended on the
county road, and that three hundred dollars, in addition, should be raised by
assessment.
John S. Haskell was appointed agent to answer to the
indictment upon the road. Philip Greeley and William Godwin were appointed to
superintend the labor upon this road.
On the 26th of July the legal
voters of Garland assembled to act upon the following question: "Is it expedient
that the District of Maine shall become a separate and independent State on the
terms and conditions of an Act entitled an Act relating to the Separation of the
District of Maine from Massachusetts proper, and forming the same into an
independent State." The number of votes cast was twenty-four which were all in
favor of separation. In the State the majority in favor of separation was very
large.
The act submitting the question of separation to the people of the
Province of Maine, provided that if a majority of fifteen hundred should be
given for separation, the Governor was to make proclamation of the result on, or
after, the fourth Monday of August, 1819. This Act also provided that each
corporate town should be empowered to send at least one delegate to a convention
to be held in Portland, on the second Monday in October, to form a constitution.
The legal voters of Garland assembled on the 20th day of September to choose
a delegate to the constitutional convention with result as follows : Amos Gordon
received eighteen votes; Abner Sanborn received ten votes; Moses Buswell
received five votes.
At the appointed time Mr. Gordon was found in his
seat at the convention. The legal voters of Garland were called together on the
6th day of December for the purpose of expressing their approbation or
disapprobation of the constitution emanating from the convention. The votes,
fifteen in number, were all in favor of the constitution as reported from the
convention. An application in due form was made to Congress, for the admission
of Maine to the Union, and on the third day of March, 1820, it was admitted to
the Union by an act to take effect March 15, 1820.
From this date, the
Province of Maine, which, in the language of Governor Brooks, had been bone of
the bone and flesh of the flesh of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, became an
independent State. Whatever Maine has been in the past, whatever she is now, or
whatever she may become, it is certain that no state can boast of a more
illustrious or better parentage than Maine.
An incident of the
constitutional convention was a somewhat sharp discussion of the question,
"Shall the new state be styled the State of Maine or the Commonwealth of Maine?"
Fortunately, the good sense of the convention led to the shorter and simpler
designation.
The population in the
second decade increased but slightly. In 1810 it was 236. Ten years later, it
was 275, an increase of only 39. While the roads had been somewhat extended and
improved, and school facilities somewhat enlarged, the condition of the average
family had not improved. The poor had been growing poorer, and the debts of the
more independent had been increasing. A few families had moved into town, a
larger number had moved away.
Among those who had cast their fortune in
the town in the second decade was the family of Plynn Clark, which settled upon
the place now owned by Leonard Hathaway. Simon Morgan, from Elkinstown, moved
into town in 1811 or 1812, and occupied the place vacated by Mr. Griffin, the
first tanner, which was located at the foot of the slope west of the residence
of David Dearborn. The Rev. John Sawyer came into the township as a missionary
before its incorporation, and purchased the lot of land on the hill where D. F.
Patten resides, and built a house about the year 1813, where he lived with his
family for several years.
David Crowell lived for a short time on the
place a little west of the schoolhouse, in District No. 7, now owned by David
Allen. He was afterwards a well known citizen of Exeter. He left Garland about
the year 1818.
Philip E. Badger moved into West Garland in 1818, or a
year later, and occupied the place where the Lawrence family afterwards resided
for many years. Ellery Stone is now the owner of the same place.
Nathan Merrill, the carpenter and spinning wheel maker, left Garland
in 1810 or 1811, and took up residence in Charleston in 1811. The
families of William Dustin, John Grant, Andrew Kimball, William Sargent,
James McLure and William Church, left the town in the period including
the years of 1814-15-16 and 17. Most of these families emigrated to
Ohio, allured thither by glowing descriptions of the productiveness of
the soil of that state.
Many of these families suffered keenly
the discomforts of homesickness but, alas, they were too poor to return.
An emigrant to Ohio from Exeter wrote to a friend he had left behind
that his wife had shed enough tears of homesickness enough to grind a
bushel of wet corn.
While extravagant descriptions of the
advantages of western life promotes emigration thereto, repellent
influences here contributed to the same result. In addition to the
ordinary hardships of pioneer life, the people of these eastern towns
had been subjected to extraordinary hardships that followed in the wake
of the War of 1812. The interruption of commerce by the Embargo Act had
been a severe blow to the whole country. Near the close of the war,
navigation between Boston and Bangor had been suspended. Goods from the
former to the latter place were hauled by ox teams.
Our citizen,
William Stone, is the possessor of a axle tree that was part of a wagon
that had been used in the transportation of goods from Boston to Bangor.
Another citizen, the late Capt. John Jackson, assisted in forging this
axel-tree.
The war had closed in 1814, but scarcely had the
blessings of peace dawned upon the inhabitants when the cold seasons of
1814-15 intervened to cut off the food supply.. Causes other then those
that have been mentioned tended to the decrease for change of place.
Wherever they are, they long to be somewhere else. This longing for
change is contagious, sometimes infect- 192 ing the whole neighborhood.
Families are sometimes influenced to change of residence by an existing
special cause.
The emigrants of Enos Quimby, one of the early
settlers, from Garland, was due to a special cause. The locality of his
home was infested by innumerable swarms of mosquitoes at certain
seasons. They rushed into his unprotected dwelling in clouds. The dire
discord of their music coupled with their thirst for blood, disturbed
the peace of mind of Mrs. Quimby by day, and her dreams at night.
Patiently enduring the annoyance until patience ceased to be a virtue,
she declared that she could not and would not submit to it longer. She
carried her point, and her family sought a new home in another locality.
It was a fine illustration of the force of a woman's will as described
in an old couplet -
"When she will she will you may depend on't,
When she won't she won't and that's the end on't."
It must not be
inferred however that Mrs. Quimby lacked courage to meet ordinary
discomforts of pioneer life. These she could laugh at. The mosquito
scourge was quite another thing. It is said that passengers are
sometimes driven from boats on the lower Mississippi by swarms of
voracious mosquitoes that infest it's banks; that the boldest rider upon
the fastest horse dares not in the month of June encounter these
blood-thirsty pests on the rank and fertile prairies of northern
Minnesota. They have been known to demoralize brigades of soldiers on
the march from point to point.
Maine's former historian, Mr.
Williamson, estimated that Maine's lost from ten thousand to fifteen
thousand inhabitants in consequence of the War of 1812, and the cold
season of 1814-15 and 1816.
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