ANDROSCOGGIN HISTORY October 1991 Newsletter of the
Androscoggin Historical Society No. 4

Contributed by Androscoggin Historical Society
http://www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm


SOCIETY ACQUIRES 1849 FIRE ENGINE

The Board of Directors voted at its August meeting
to purchase for $2400 the Excelsior No. 2 hand pump
fire-fighting engine pictured here. This was one of
a pair of the first engines used in the Lewiston-
Auburn area. The City of Auburn fire department will
house the vehicle. 

HISTORY OF THE EXCELSIOR NO. 2 Research by Clarence
E. Penley

Prior to 1849 there was no organized effort to
control fire in the village that was growing around
Lewiston Falls. In that year the Lewiston Falls
Village Corporation was formed and was granted its
powers by the Maine State Legislature as recorded in
Special Laws of Maine, Volume 6, 1847-1856.

The corporation was authorized to raise money for
the purchase, repair and preservation of one or more
fire engines, hose and other apparatus for
extinguishment of fire, construct reservoirs and
aqueducts to supply water for said engines, for
erecting and maintaining suitable engine houses,
organizing and maintaining within the limits of said
corporation an efficient fire department.

The corporate limits included a portion of the Town
of Lewiston in Lincoln County and a portion of the
Towns of Auburn and Danville in Cumberland County.
The southern boundary was the Little Androscoggin
River to its junction with the outlet of Taylor
Pond.

The officers of the corporation were to be three
assessors, collector, treasurer, and clerk. The
assessors were to levy taxes upon the polls and
estates of residents and the estates of non-
residents within the limits of the said corporation.
The assessments on the estates shall consider value,
location and its hazard of loss by fire. The polls
were not to be in excess of $.50 per person.

Josiah Little Esq. and Alonzo Garcelon, or either of
them, were authorized to issue a warrant directed to
some member of the corporation to notify the legal
voters to meet and to vote by ballot on the question
of accepting the Act creating the corporation. The
Act was approved on July 30, 1849.

On October 30, 1849, the Excelsior Engine Co. #2 was
formed with Jesse Lyford (later a mayor of Lewiston)
as its foreman and G. W. Foss and Orrin Morse as
assistants. This company of 57 men was to be
stationed on the west bank of the Androscoggin River
(now Great Falls Plaza). At the same time the Engine
Co. of Androscoggin #1 with 57 members was formed
and stationed on the east bank in the Town of
Lewiston on Chapel Street.

On November 26, 1849, Hunneman and Co. of Roxbury,
Mass., delivered to the corporation two 5½" bore
hand tubs known as Androscoggin #1 (Tub #365) and
Excelsior #2 (Tub #374), the tub numbers being those
of the Hunneman Company.

Each engine was an open tub with a copper lined tank
mounted on four wheels and hauled by hand. Two
piston type pumps -- one on either side -- ejected
the water as six to eight men on each side pushed
down on the rails. If the hand tub were near a
source of water, then a suction hose twenty feet
long could draw up the supply. Otherwise the tub had
to be filled by a bucket brigade.

The Hunneman Company manufactured hand-operated fire
engines from 1792 to 1883 when steam fire engines
forced the hand engines off the market. William C.
Hunneman, the founder of the company, was a
coppersmith, and learned his trade in the shop of
the old master, Paul Revere.

The Lewiston Falls Village Corp. continued until
1856, when the Legislature passed an act creating
the Lewiston Village Corp. and the Auburn Village
Corp. The Lewiston company received the hand engine
Androscoggin #1 and all other properties situated in
the Town of Lewiston. The Auburn company received
Excelsior #2 and all other properties located in
Auburn and Danville.

Alonzo Garcelon and Daniel Holland were authorized
to place a notice in the Lewiston Falls Journal
calling voters in the corporate limits to vote by
ballot on the question of accepting the Act to
create Lewiston Village Corp. The same procedure was
followed in Auburn by James Goff and Edward T.
Little with notice to voters published in the
Democratic Advocate. The act creating the Auburn
Village Corp. was approved March 14, 1856.

The new Auburn corporation had for its officers:
clerk, Ambrose Harriman; assessors, Edward T.
Little, Nelson Dingley and John Merrill; treasurer,
Phillip Briggs. Excelsior #2 chief engineer was
Charles Clark, with assistants S. P. Miller, W. H.
Waldron, and George Drinkwater. Police officers and
night watchmen were Benjamin Dunn, Asa P. Miller,
Thomas Littlefield, Andrew Pettingill, and John
Merrill.

On March 18, 1867, the Auburn town meeting voted to
authorize the selectmen to purchase the fire engine
and other properties of the Auburn Village Corp. The
equipment was in need of repairs. An appropriation
of $550 was voted to repair the engine and shingle
the station roof.

In 1870 the Auburn City Council voted $5500 to buy a
steamer and on November 12, 1870, voted $6500 for
construction of a new Engine House at Court and
Spring Streets. On June 16, 1871, Steamer Co. #1 was
formed to operate the steamer and attending hose
reel. After 1875 interest in the Excelsior began to
wane and by 1878 it was not being used.

In 1878 the City Council voted to station Excelsior
#2 at North Auburn. The Engine Hall of 2½ stories
was built at North Auburn in 1880 "between the
bridges." Excelsior #2 was kept on the ground floor
along with road machinery. The second floor was a
social hall and used some time as a grange hall. In
1884 the North Auburn Company disbanded.

On February 2, 1887, Excelsior #2 was leased to an
independant company, Veteran Firemens Association,
on condition it be kept in Auburn except to attend
musters. Signers for the company were Adam or Abram
Libby, foreman; Charles P. Hunt, 1st asst. foreman;
Edward W. Dunn, 2nd asst. foreman.

On April 2, 1890, the Excelsior was sold to the town
of Buckfield.

On March 23, 1906, the Veteran Firemans Assn. was
reorganized under officers George Allen, pres.; H.
M. Sprague, sec.; Fred M. Rollins, treas. At a
reunion banquet of former members at Lake Grove
House on May 1, 1906, the V.F.A. voted to purchase
the Excelsior from Buckfield. By July 4, 1906, it
was back in Auburn, appearing in the parade in the
neighborhood known as the "city of Perryville."
(Newspapers of the day refer to Perryville as the
city located "beyond the railroad, north of the
watering trough.") Excelsior was housed in a small
building on the westerly side of Turner St. south of
the M.C.R.R. bridge. 

On October 6, 1906, a meeting was called at Engine
Hall for a hearing on the request by V.F.A. to the
City Council to move Engine Hall "intown" to house
Excelsior #2. Citizens of No. Auburn turned out in
force. The petition was denied. On December 15,
1912, Engine Hall was destroyed by fire.

At some point Excelsior was purchased by Franklin
Reed, who later loaned his fire equipment collection
to the Society for the Preservation of New England
Antiquities. When Mr. Reed decided to sell his
collection and SPNEA decided they could not maintain
it, we took the opportunity to purchase the
Excelsior #2 in order to return it to the community
where it had served.

Some material in this article was previously
published in Clarence Penley, Geneva Kirk Gridley
Barrows, Historic Lewiston: Its Fire Department
(Auburn, Maine: 1989), pp. 2-4, 26.

AHS HISTORY (Part Three) by Harold Dutch

We pick up the society's story in the year 1950.
Clarence E. March was elected president; Wesley A.
Small, clerk; Imelda Thibault, treasurer; and Mrs.
Henry A. Pierce, custodian. The office of curator,
listed since 1942, was not filled nor mentioned
again in the '50s. This was an active decade for the
society, and we'll devote this space to our
benefactor Everett A. Davis.

At a directors meeting on November 14th, Mr. Davis,
who lived in Lewiston, offered property he owned in
Auburn to the historical society: a two-story house
and barn at 83 High Street, being rented at the
time.

Everett A. Davis was the great, great grandson of
Amos Davis, a pioneer settler and the first Davis in
this area. Everett Davis lived on Lisbon Road in the
family homestead. He had written a history of
Lewiston, based on the Elder Papers that David and
Elizath Young recently edited to be published by
Heritage Books under our sponsorship. Mr. Davis was
elected to the AHS board in 1947 and made an
honorary member in 1950. He was a retired president
of Peoples Savings Bank, 83 years of age at the time
of his gift. When in 1909 he married Thirza Wagg,
who died in 1948, he owned a variety store on Ash
Street in Lewiston. The newspaper reported he was a
"prominent Republican, ex-tax collector, former
member of Lewiston city government." The Davises
produced no children.

His offer was that the house become the society's
meeting place for 20 years, with meetings starting
in two years. At the directors meetings in December
and January, discussion centered on the extensive
repairs and renovations needed to make the property
suitable for a museum, which the minutes referred to
as the "Davis-Wagg Museum." A list of repairs
included an oil burner to replace a coal furnace,
refinishing ceilings, papering walls, replacing
electrical and bathroom fixtures, and remodeling the
barn as space for the museum. The board voted to
continue renting the property.

Attorney Willis Trafton Jr., a new member of the
board, was to talk with Auburn assessors about
abatement of taxes and later reported they agreed to
reduce the assessed value by 50 percent. He then
requested that the city council appropriate an
amount for the society's use equal to the tax. There
is no report of the council's response. In 1951,
$1,000 was offered anonymously if the society raised
$5,000 for the renovations needed, and the next
year, an additional $1,000 was offered, but in later
minutes there is no further mention of money
raising, leading us to belive the amount was never
realized.

Rental income from the property brought in a little
over $600 a year, but, of course, at the same time
money was being spent on upkeep. Cost and care of
the property was obviously of deep concern to the
directors. It was suggested in 1952 - the year
Everett Davis died - that a reduction in rent be
offered a new tenant if he would do repair work on
the house. Funds were voted to buy materials for the
repairs. In 1953, the directors were authorized to
sell the property "if an advantageous offer is
received," and in November, 1954, it was up for sale
at $7,000. It was sold, according to the Registry of
Deeds, in June, 1955, to Floyd R. Ray, real estate
agent. The price is not recorded.

The Davis estate in October of 1953 sent the society
$19,000, and the following year, an additonal
$1,612. Mr. Davis also left the society books and
papers, a steel safe, and a steel cabinet. And thus
ends our story of Everett A. Davis, put together
from, at times skimpy, meeting minutes and treasury
reports. His gifts were certainly a boon to the
historical society when it really needed help. At
the end of 1949, the cash balance was $344.98; at
the close of 1959, the balance in cash, savings
banks, and treasury notes was over $24,000. In the
next issue, we'll take up other business of the
society in the '50s and the work of Clarence March.

BOND ISSUE FOR PRESERVATION OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS

On the November ballot in Maine you will find a
combined bond issue question for $3.5 million for
major renovations and improvements at state parks
(including $1.5 million for Fort Knox) and $1.5
million for preservation of buildings on the
National Register of Historic Places that are owned
by nonprofit organizations or municipalities. The
latter would establish "a matching grant program to
restore and preserve historic buildings open to the
public, including the State House, which is not
subject to the matching requirement." If approved by
the voters, the program would be administered by the
Maine Historic Preservation Commission. This passed
the House last June 94-47 and the Senate 30-3. A
similar bond issue was defeated in the 1990
election.

THE DIARIES OF TRUE WOODBURY

True Woodbury was a native of Newbury, Mass., and
came to Pejepscot, now Danville, about 1781, as one
of its earliest settlers. He later built a frame
house, that was the oldest in Danville. Woodbury
kept a diary for many years, which was stored up in
the attic. When the old house was demolished several
years ago, many volumes of the diary were destroyed.
The few yearly volumes that this Society has were
picked out of the debris of the house. We have the
diaries for 24 December 1805 to 18 February 1808 and
11 April 1810 to 27 August 1823. There also is an
account book with entries between 1770 and 1803, as
well as some diary entries for the period 1776-1779.

Here are a few entries from lost portions of the
diary that were published in a newspaper article:

September 1824 11 Training in this Town at mr.
Buckleys

14 General Muster to Day at Walnut hill North
yarmouth

October, 1825. 17, we finisht Gathering Apples and
Spread the flax.

November, 1825. 24, thanksgiving throughout this
State Moderate wether we took up our flax.

September 1826. 19 Isac Evleth Come here to Make
Shews. Brother Loring and his wife Staid here Last
Night.

September 1826. 23 a Cold Rain Storm Isac Evleth
finished five pair of Shews that is one pair for My
self one for My wife one for Betsey one for Nancy
and one pair for Sally I paid one Dollar Down Cash
Silver.

29 Isac Evleth had one bushel of corn

October 7 Isac Evleth had one Bushel of Apples cold
weather we began to hall in Some Corn

July 1826. 9 Sunday a fine hay Day the Grass hopper
is a Burden to Man and a Burden to the hungry Beast.

11 we halled in the 8th and 9th Loads of hay weather
hot I planted 170 hills of corn where the plants was
Eat

12 I planted 56 More Corn hills Got in the 10th and
the 11th and the 12th Load of hay I was to Royals
Store Excessive heat this Day

August 1826 2 Betwen the Hours of one and two After
Noon there fell a Storm of Hail here Larger than
Musket Balls it Broke 40 Square

s of Glass in the fore Side of My House out of 4
windows

January 1826. 15 thaer fell hail and Rain that froze
to Ice to Meke 2 or 3 inches Last Night it appeared
Afterwords there was 4 or 5 I Am this Day Seventy
years of Age Pray I that God Would fit and prepare
me for My Great and Last Change I Am thy unworthy
Sarvant

NEWSLETTER INDEXED IN GPAI

The Genealogical Periodical Annual Index has
accepted this newsletter for indexing. Genealogists,
libraries, and historical societies that subscribe
to GPAI now will have access to the articles we
publish, as well as learn of our holdings that might
be relevant to them.

Androscoggin Historical Society County Building
Auburn, Maine 04210