From the History of Arookstook County, Maine Volume I compiled and Written by Hon. Edward Wiggin copyright 1922 by George H. Collins The Star-Herald Press, Presque Isle, Maine Contributed by Androscoggin Historical Society http://www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm HISTORY OF AROOSTOOK FORT FAIRFIELD Fort Fairfield is one of the historic towns of the County of Aroostook and its history dates away back to the stirring and exciting times of the Aroostook War. Indeed what may be called the "ancient history" of the town antedates that bloodless struggle by many years. The town as now organized includes what was formerly Township D, Range 2, and also the township immediately north of it known in the ancient annals as Plymouth Grant. The earliest history of the present town of Fort Fairfield has to do with this last named township. In the year 1806, the good people of the town of Plymouth, Mass., wishing to build a breakwater to protect their harbor from the surging waves of old ocean, applied to the General Court of that good old Commonwealth for aid in their undertaking The State thereupon granted them a township of land to contain 36 square miles in the far off wilderness of the District of Maine. The resolve making this grant to the town of Plymouth was passed on March 4th, 1806, and the deed was executed by the authorized agents of the State of Massachusetts on December 19, 1807. In this deed the grant is described as "a certain tract of land lying in the County of Washington, equal to the contents of six miles square as the same was surveyed by Charles Turner, Junior, Esquire, in the year eighteen hundred and seven. Bounded as follows, viz.:-Beginning at a beech tree marked S. E. C. P., standing on the eastern boundary of the District of Maine, fifty five miles north of the source of the Schoodic Waters, and running north, thirteen degrees east, six miles to a fir tree marked sixty one miles, thence running west, thirteen degrees north, six miles to a stake, thence running south thirteen degrees west six miles to a maple tree marked S. W. C. P., thence running east, thirteen degrees south, six miles to the beech tree first mentioned, together with all the islands in those parts of the Aroostook River which are included within the aforesaid bounds, together with all the privileges and appurtenances thereto belonging, excepting and reserving for the use of the Commonwealth, and as a common highway forever, the main channel of the said River Aroostook, in its course through the said Township, the said Township containing twenty three thousand and forty acres, including the River Aroostook running through the same, as will more fully appear on a Plan of said Township, now lodged in the Office of the aforesaid Agents." The deed contained the usual conditions in favor of all settlers who might have settled on the tract previous to January 1, 1784, (This provision was made necessary by the treaty of 1783.) and provided for the setting apart of lots for the first settled minister and for the ministerial and school fund. It also bound the grantees to "settle in said tract twenty families within six years, including those now settled thereon," This deed is signed by John Read and Wm. Smith, as agents for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and witnessed by Geo. W, Coffin and Moses Greenleaf. It will be seen that the deed describes the township as surveyed by Charles Turner, Jr. It appears, however, by well attested documents that Park Holland also surveyed the township Nov. 6th, 1807, which was previous to the date of the deed. Why the two surveys were made in the same year does not appear, but it is a fact well known to the older residents of the town that there were two well defined lines on the northern side of the town, each of which was afterwards claimed as the true line, and that important lawsuits grew out of this double line. The courts decided that the southernmost of the two was the true line. When the boundary line between Maine and New Brunswick was run, after the Ashburton treaty, it cut off a slice about half a mile in width from the entire eastern side of Plymouth Grant, as surveyed by Holland and Turner. The western line of the Grant remains the same. Hence, when Township D., immediately south of Plymouth, was afterwards run out, measuring six miles wide from the boundary line, it extended some half mile farther to the west than Plymouth, which accounts for the "jog" in the town of Fort Fairfield, where the two townships join. No authentic history that I tan find places 'any white man on the town now Fort Fairfield previous to this survey of Holland's in 1807. The oldest settler on the town of whom we have any reliable record was Michael Russell, who came up the river from New Brunswick in 1823 and settled on the south side of the Aroostook River a short distance above the falls, on the PIymouth Grant. - Other early settlers who came from New Brunswick and settled along the Aroostook River in Plymouth Grant, on the south side of the river, are the following: Name Date of Settlement Anthony Kean 1829 Daniel Turner 1832 William Turner 1832 William White 1829 Bernard McLaughlin 1829 William Bishop 1831 Amos Bishop 1831 Job Everett 1835, Thomas Bolier 1834 John Lovely 1837 Afred Giberson 1837 John Twoddle 1838 Patrick Finlan 1839 George Murcheson 1840 David Ross 1841 William Everett 1841 North side of river Peter Fowler 1827 Margaret Doyle 1827 William Lovely 1827 Samuel Davenport 1829 Daniel McLaughlin 1831 Chomas Whittaker 1832 James Rogers 1833 Thomas Rogers 1833 Charles Walton 1834 Robert Whittaker 1835 Richard McCarty 1836 Joseph Davenport 1836 Thomas Armsden 1836 Justin Gray 1837 Thomas Gibney 1838 Henry Heard 1838 Samuel Farley 1839 David Boober 1839 Charles Boober 1839 William Houlton 1839 Brinard Guigey 1840 Edward Guiggey 1840 Very early in the settlement came James Fitzherbert, af-terwards famous in the history of the Aroostook War, and set-tled at the mouth of Fitzherbert Brook, now called the Haines Brook, in what is now the lowervillage. His home was in Township D, as the Aroostook River here bends to the south for a short distance, then turning northward again and entering the Plymouth Grant. Fitzherbert was followed by John Dorsey and Benj. Weeks, who also came from New Brunswick and settled on the south side of the Aroostook River. Dorsey's log house was near the river, a few rods below where the railroad station now stands. Weeks' house was near the mouth of what was then known as the Weeks Brook, on the spot where J. A. Fisher's dwelling now stands, near the middle of the village. About 1830 also came David Burchell, J. W. White, an old English soldier, and John Rediker. These settlers all made homes at points near the river which was their only highway, as there were then no roads and the whole country was a track-less wilderness except where the logging roads of the lumber-men led in winter to the river. They made small clearings and raised little in the way of crops at first, depending mainly for support upon cutting the shore timber and floating it to Fredericton, where they bought supplies and boated them back up the river to their homes in the forest. After a time they cleared sufficient land to enable them to raise a few oats and small quantities of hay to sell to the lumbermen who had operations in this vicinity. Up to this time the settlement was a provincial colony and the settlers acknowledged allegiance to the New Brunswick government. The land upon which they had settled was a part of the dis- puted territory, and New Brunswick claimed and exercised jur-isdiction over it. The time was near at hand, however, when this fair and fertile region was to become a part of Yankee land, and when the American Eagle could soar in triumph over the greenwood and perch undisturbed in the lofty forest trees. In 1838, Gov. Fairfield sent an agent named Buckmore to this region to ascertain what operations provincial lumbermen were making on the territory claimed by Maine. As much tres-passing was found, Sheriff Strickland and Land Agent McIn-tyre started with a posse to arrest or disperse the trespassers. In February, 1839, the posse came down the Aroostook River on the ice from Masardis, and camped at the mouth of the Little Madawaska River in the present town of Caribou. McIntyre and a few companions came on down the river to Fitzherbert's to pass the night. A large number of the trespassers had collected at Tobique (now Andover) and it is thought that Fitzherbert sent them information that the Maine officers were at his house, for during the night a squad of them came up the river and captured McIntyre and took him away to Fredericton. Strickland fortunately escaped and started in hot haste for Augusta, leaving the posse in command of Capt. Geo. W. Towle, with orders to proceed across "the Reach" on the Aroostook River in the present town of Presque Isle, near where Jacob Weeks now lives. There were some sixty two-horse teams loaded with men, arms and supplies. They went across the portage as ordered, but instead of stopping at the Reach, as soon as they struck the ice on the Aroostook they turned their horses' heads up river and dashed on in hot haste and made no stop of any length until they were back in their old camp at Masardis. A poet of the period thus describes this masterly "advance to the rear" of the posse: "Then shook the ice so smooth and even, Fast rushed the teams past Number leven, And ere the clocks had pointed seven They halted at Masardis." Col. McLaughlin, a provincial officer of high standing, and warden of the disputed territory, proceeded to Masardis and ordered the posse off the territory, whereupon, in retaliation for the capture of McIntyre, our brave troops placed him under arrest and posted him off to Bangor. Fitzherbert was also arrested soon after and taken to Bangor. A part of the posse under Capt. Towle soon afterwards returned down the river and established a military post which they named Fort Fairfield, in honor of Gov. John Fairfield. The detachment was under the command of Capt. Wm. P. Parrott of Massachusetts, until November, 1839, when Capt. Towle resumed command. They built two block houses, one on what is still known as Fort Hill, and the other on a knoll about a quarter of a mile distant, near where the covered bridge now is. They also stretched a boom across the Aroostook River opposite this last named block house, for the purpose of stopping and holding the timber cut by provincial operators, whom the State of Maine regarded as trespassers. The Maine posse remained at Fort Fairfield until relieved by United States troops in 1841, Capt. Towle having been in the meantime succeeded in the command by Capt. John B. Wing. In 1841, a company of United States Infantry came up from Hancock barracks at Houlton, under command of Capt. Van Ness, the second in command being Lieut. Ricketts, who afterwards as Major General Ricketts, won fame in the War of the Rebellion. General Ricketts now lies in an honored grave in the National Cemetery at Arlington Heights. The other officers were Lieut. Michaels, Lieut. McCall, Surgeon Coolidge and Major Graham, Paymaster. These troops built a stockade around the block house on Fort Hill, within which they erected quarters for the soldiers, and outside the enclosure they built a spacious and substantial building for officers' quarters and several other buildings for the Commissary and Quartermaster's Department, allso blacksmith, sutler's store, etc. Mr. W. Holman Cary was sutler of the post. The stockade was built by standing timbers twelve or fifteen feet long on end in the ground, and on the inside, square timbers were laid horizontally one upon the other to the height of four or five feet. Against these timbers, on the inside a thick embankment of earth was thrown up. All remains of the block house and also of the stockade have since been removed with the exception of the embankment, or parapet, which still remains. It is six sided and is something more than one hundred feet in length on each side. The building erected for officers' quarters is still standing in a good state of preservation. It is, owned by Dr. Decker and occupied by himself and other families as dwellings, and contains three tenements. The company of regulars remained until 1849, when they returned to Hancock barracks in Houlton. The attention of the people of Maine was thus called to this fertile region, and some of the original posse remained and took up land and made themselves homes. Mr. Joseph Fisher, an old and well-known citizen of Fort Fairfield, who died on April 15, 1890, came with the company of regulars in the capacity of waiter for the officers' mess. When the troops left, Mr. Fisher remained, and lived at Fort Fairfield until his death. The clearings made immediately after the Aroostook War were all on Township D, which is now the south half of the town. In the meantime, the road from Presque Isle, or Fair banks as it was then called Fort Fairfield had been cut through by the State and settlers commenced to make clearings along the road. J. Tucker came from Orono and took up a lot near where the Union Meeting House now stands at the junction of the Presque Isle and Houlton roads, then called "the two mile tree," it being two miles from the river at Fort Fairfield. George A. Nourse of Hallowell, now a lawyer in California, took up the lot which is now the Rollins farm. William Whitney and his two sons from Corinth made a clearing on what is now called Whitney Hill, about three miles from the village, taking up several lots. Levi Hoyt commenced a clearing about the same time on the west side of the hill. B. D. Eastman and his brother Otis settled on the lots next beyond, toward Presque Isle, and one Bragdon from Corinth, settled on the farm now occupied by Stephen Conant. D. G. Palmer and Jonathan Hopkinson from Kennebec County, took lots next to the Presque Isle line, and Henry Currier commenced a clearing back in the woods north of the Presque Isle road. These men all came soon after the settlement of the boundary dispute and were the first Maine settlers on the town, the earliest settlers having, as we have said, all come up the river from New - Brunswick. At about the same time a settlement was commenced at what is now called Maple Grove in the south part of the town, on what is now the road from Fort Fairfield to Baine. Sanford Johnson settled on what is now the Judge Cummings farm, E. P. Whitney on the James Johnson farm, and Hiram Stevens, who came in with the posse, cleared up what is now the Thurlough farm. J. Wingate Haines came from Kennebec County and took up the fine large tract now included in the splendid farm occupied by his son, A.,L. Haines, the present member of the board of agriculture from Aroostook. Freeman Ellis first took this lot and made a clearing and Mr. Haines bought his improvement. Deacon Edward S. Fowler, Addison Powers, Isaac Ellis Leonard Spooner and Freeman Ellis, all from Piscataquis County, took lots along south of Mr. Haines, away to the south line of the town. Deacon Fowler, Isaac F. Ellis, and Addison Powers moved their families to the town in 1843. They, with Freeman Ellis, made a chopping of forty-five acres in the adjoining corners of their four lots, eleven acres on each lot, but all in one clearing. They built a camp twenty feet square, in which the four families lived while separate houses could be built, and in this camp the Congregational Church of Fort Fairfield was organized, in October, 1844. Gen. Mark Trafton of Bangor was sent in by the U. S. Government in 1843 and established a Customs House at Fort Fairfield, where he remained for about twelve years, and then returned to Bangor. His son, John B. Trafton, then a young law student, came in the spring of 1844, and opened a law office and also engaged in lumbering and farming. Mr. Trafton has for many years been one of the foremost citizens of the town and also a well known member of the Aroostook Bar, as well as a prominent man in the councils of the Democratic party. We are indebted to him for much valuable information in regard to the early settlement of the town. The settlement increased very slowly for a number of years and was subjected to all the hardships and privations incident to a pioneer settlement in the wilderness. During the time the troops were here the settlers did much of their trading at the sutler's store and after the dispute was settled traded down the river at Tobique and Fredericton. W. H. Cary, the sutler, remained and kept a few goods for a number of years and was the first postmaster of Fort Fairfield. He afterwards sold out to R. & A. McBrien, who came from Houlton and traded on a somewhat larger scale. They failed about 1850, and John McClusky, afterwards Colonel of the 15th Maine Regiment, bought the store and employed A. L. Wellington to carry it on. Mr. McClusky afterwards sold the store to, John Allen of Presque Isle. Mr. Allen sold to A. C. Cary who opened a large stock of goods in 1863 and has ever since been one of the principal merchants of Fort Fairfield. Dudley F. Leavitt of Bangor, who accompanied the Maine posse in the capacity of storekeeper, secured the passage of a resolve in the Maine Legislature soon after the treaty, giving him some ten or twelve lots of 160 acres each in aid of building a sawmill. He afterwards sold out to Timothy Frisbee and S. B. Pattee, who built a sawmill on the Fitzherbert Brook. A. P. Heywaod of Houlton bought Frisbee out and continued in partnership with Pattee for several years, when he retired, and the firm became Pattee- Hyde. Mr. Stephen B. Pattee was a prominent citizen of Fort Fairfield. He was three times elected to the Legislature and was local agent for State lands in Northern Aroostook. He was appointed Deputy Collector of Customs at Ft. Fairfield in 1849, and held the office four years. He was reappointed in 1861 and resigned after two years' service. He died at his home in Fort Fairfield March 2, 1866, aged 52 years. The first grist mill was built about 1858 by Randall and Foster from Montville. It was located on the east side of the brook opposite the Pattee sawmill. This was burned a few years ago and the privilege was sold to W. A. Haines, who built a new mill which he still occupies. The first school in town was a private school opened as early as 1845 by a Miss Thompson, in one of the tenements va-cated by the troops. Miss Polly Eastman also opened a private school about the same time in the Maple Grove settlement. Miss Heywood, a sister of Mr. A. P. Heywood, afterwards taught a school in the block house on Fort Hill and was followed by Miss Angnes Johnson, now Mrs. A. C. Paul who taught in the block house in 1848. The block house was also used in thoses early days for holding religious meetings. We have stated that all the earliest settlers of the town came from the Province of New Brunswick up the St. John and Aroostook Rivers and settled along the banks of the Aroostook River. Some of these settlers had grants from the British Government and many of them were squatters on what they supposed to be British territory. After the treaty of 1842, there was an uncertainty about the titles of these settlers who had thus without being consulted been transferred from the jurisdiction of the British Crown to that of the government whose emblem was the Stars and Stripes of free Columbia. In February, 1843, when Edward Kavanagh was acting Governor of Maine, the legislature passed "Resolves authorizing the appointment of commissioners to locate grants and determine the extent of possessory claims under the late treaty with Great Britain." Under these resolves Gov. Kavanagh appointed Philip Eastman, John W. Dana and Henry W. Cunningham as commis-sioners. Similar resolves were also passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts, and Samuel C. Allen, John Webber and Sam-uel Jones were appointed as commissioners from that State. After investigating the claims of settlers on the St. John River, which was done partly in 1843 and completed in 1844, one com-missioner from -each State came to the mouth of the Aroostook River on the 17th of October, 1844. Both States had, in the February preceding, passed additional resolves extending the powers and duties of the commissioners. The two who came to the Aroostook proceeded through all the settlements along the river as far up as Masardis, and carefully examined each settler's claim 'aim. Lots were set off to all settlers "whose improvements had beer. commenced within six years before the date of the Treaty of Washington," and also to those holding grants from the British Government. As an instance of the red tape required in doing business when two governments are concerned we may here state that as the commissioners Wished to obtain copies of the grants made by Great Britain, to aid them in their work, one of them, in May 1843, went to Fredericton bearing a letter from Gov. Kavanagh to the Lieut. Governor of New Brunswick, requesting copies of the grants. The New Brunswick governor declined to comply with the request coming from the State Executive, but suggested that the application should be made by the President of the United States, through the British Minister at Washington. In June, 1843, Gov. Kavanagh addressed a request to the Secretary of State at Washington, by whom it was presented to the British Minister, and by him transmitted to the home government in England. In July, 1844, the copies were furnished to the Secretary of State at Washington and by him transmitted to the Governor of Maine, who sent them to the commissioners. All this formal correspondence between two nations was required in order that an Aroostook settler might have a valid title to his farm. The "metes and bounds'' were then set off and the settlers title was fully confirmed. Very soon after the treaty the Plantation of Letter D. was organized. This included all the settlers along the Aroostook River in Township D, Plymouth Grant and Eaton Grant. Subsequently Eaton Grant was organized as Eaton Plantation, and Plymouth Grant as Sarsfield Plantation, Letter D alone retaining the old organization. Thus they remained until 1858, when "D" was incorporated as the town of Fort Fairfield, and a few years later Sarsfield Plantation was annexed to it, forming the town as it is today. Settlers from different parts of the State began to come into the town soon after the treaty. In August, 1844, Charles R Paul came from Solon and commenced blacksmithing in the old government blacksmith shop. Mr. Paul is still alive at the ripe age of seventy- two and is one of the sterling citizens of Fort Fairfield. His wife, Mrs. A. C. Paul, is a prominent temperance worker and an active member of the non- partizan Womens Christian Temperance Union. The county settled very slowly until after the editorial excursion of 1858, when quite a tide of immigration set in. Many lots were taken up in Fort Fairfield and adjoining towns and new clearings were made in every direction. Many of these new comers had not sufficient courage to stay and fight the battle to a finish, but most of those who had the required "sand" are today independent farmers with comfortable, homes and broad, fertile fields. The first schoolhouse in the town was built in 1859, on the hill about opposite the railroad station and about the same time the Union Meetinghouse at the junction of the Blaine and Presque Isle roads was commenced. During the three or four years immediately preceding the war the population of the town received quite an increase. Many new farms were commenced which today are among the finest in the town, new stores were opened in the village and the outlook was most encouraging. But in the early sixties, when the country called her sons to rally for the defence of the old flag, many of these sturdy pioneers left their new homes a-ad "fell in" to swell the ranks of the "three hundred thousand more" who hurried forth to answer the call of "Father Abraham." The severe drain of the war was especially felt by these new Aroostook towns and, during its continuance, a check was put upon their growth and development. This, however, was more than compensated for by the good times that followed the return of peace, when a new impetus was given to immigration and during the decade from 1860 to 1870 the population of Fort Fairfield was more than doubled. From that time to the present, its growth has been stead rid continuous. New business enterprises have been started from time to time and the fine agricultural resources of the town have been developed to a wonderful degree. Like the other towns 'in the Aroostook Valley, Fort Fairfield received a mighty impetus from the opening of the railroad. A branch of the New Brunswick railway was completed to the village in 1875, which entirely revolutionized the business methods of the town and brought the producers of this fertile region into com munication with the markets of the outside world. Starch factories were erected and large tracts of rough, stumpy land, hitherto used only as pasture, were cleared and smoothed for the potato crop and then seeded down to broad fields whose clean and even surface was fitted for the working of farm machinery. Potato buyers for the outside market soon ,discovered the excellence of the Aroostook tuber and thus the business of shipping potatoes was established and today Fort Fairfield is the most prominent shipping point for potatoes north of Houlton. The village of Fort Fairfield is mainly located on a high intervale on the south side of the Aroostook River, though the village corporation includes both sides of the river !and quite a number of citizens live upon the north side. The plain upon which the business portion of the village is built is quite narrow, the land rising somewhat abruptly at a short distance from the river, and the frowning parapets of Fort Hill overlook the main business street and remind us of the stirring times when two great nations were arming for a war about their line fences. Owing to the formation of the land the village extends for about two miles along the banks of the beautiful Aroostook River, nearly all the business houses being located on this one main street. Although the buildings are nearly continuous for the entire distance, yet the citizens speak of the upper and lower village, the, dividing point being perhaps about by the railroad station, and Haines Mill being the central point of what is spoken of as the lower village. The majority of the stores are in the upper part of the town. Hardly had this b eautif ul, village got well started in the new era of prosperity following the advent of the railroad, when it was visited by a disastrous fire. In the spring of 1879, nearly all of the business portion of the town was consumed by a conflagration which left only a heap of smoking ruins where a few hours before stood a thriving and prosperous village. It was a severe blow, but the citizens rallied at once and, in no way disheartened or discouraged, commenced to rebuild in a more substantial manner. A second fire occurred in 1883, which swept over nearly the same territory and inflicted severe loss of property. Again the citizens went to work with courage and energy and erected the fine stores and blocks which now adorn this pleasant village. In an agricultural point of view, Fort Fairfield is one of the best towns in the Aroostook Valley. The southern portion of the town, formerly Township D, Range 2, is a solid block of exceptionally good farming land, with very little waste ferritory. The surface of this tract is composed of swells of land, but is not broken by abrupt hills to any extent. It is well watered and is covered all over with large and well cultivated farms, occupied for the most part by intelligent and progressive farmers. The Fitzherbert Stream runs the entire length of this township in a northerly direction parallel with and a short distance from the New Brunswick line. The northern portion of the town, formerly Plymouth Grant, and subsequently Sarsfield Plantation, lies for the most part on the north side of the Aroostook River, although the river enters the township well up on its western side, whence it flows in a southwesterly direction to the village leaving quite a large cor ner of the township on the south s ide of the river' The town of Fort Fairfield was incorporated March 11, 1858. In 1860, the population was 901, which was more than doubled in the next decade. In 1880 the population was 2807 and the valuation of the town was $468 471. The population by the census of 1890 was 3526 and the valuation was $893,593. Fort Fairfield has a splendid future before it and its enterprising and public spirited citizens are deserving of success.