Monson, Maine: Along the Old Savage Road Sprague's Journal of Maine History PUBLISHED QUARTERLY Vol. I OCTOBER, 1913 No. 4 " We must look a little into that process of nation-making which has been going on since prehistoric ages and is going on here among us to-day, and from the recorded experience of men in times long past we may gather lessons of infinite value for ourselves and for our children's children." -JOHN FISKE. Along the Old Savage Road When Monson, Maine, was first settled in the early part of the nineteenth century a highway was built from Monson to the town of Grecnville. Its terminus in Greenville was at what is known as the "East Road" in the Young neighborhood, about one and one-half miles from the shore of Moosehead Lake. This road was laid through the central portion of a plantation known as Fullerstown, deriving its name from H. W. Fuller, a prominent citizen of Augusta, who purchased three thousand acres of land of the Massachusetts Medical Society and employed Alexander Greenwood to lot it out into one-hundred-acre farm lots. ID 1824, Eben and David Marble purchased what was known as the Whitney tract in this plantation and commenced to clear up farms at what has for a long time been known as Shirley Corner. In the same year Nelson Savage made a clearing on the Little Wilson River in the same township, built mills and erected other buildins , and soon Savage's Mills was quite a busy place. Nelson Savage was also storekeeper, postmaster and ran a tavern as well. Among the settlers there was the late Clark Carter, who subse- quently moved to the town of Shirley. Others who resided Dear the mills and along the Savage Road in Wilson and in the north part of Monson were James Savage, a brother of Nelson, Timothy 146 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Packard, some families by the name of Jacobs, a McLanathan family and numerous others of whom there is now no history and whose record has entirely faded out. In 1836, Fullerstown was incorporated by an act of the Legis- lature as the town of Wilson, but the settlement did not expand as its promoters bad anticipated and twelve years later at the session of 1848 the Legislature passed an act dismembering the town and annexing parts of it to the towns of Shirley, Greenville and Elliottsville. In those days the people appeared to have a penchant for building roads over the highest pinnacles of land, and this senti- ment seemed to have predominated in Monson, and one of the steepest hills in town, Doughty Hill, was unwisely selected for the main traveled way to Moosehead Lake and the Savage Road was abandoned. The building of a road over Doughty Hill was the last and fatal blow to the struggling hamlet along the Savage Road and by the banks of the picturesque Little Wilson River. Monson now maintains a short piece of this old road as far as the Chandler Watson farm. From there on is only the outline of the old Savage Road traveled only by the wild beasts, hunters for game and visiting sportsmen, for during the past fifty years a dense wilderness has grown up where once the hum of industry and toil was heard. The huntsman and sportsman who now follow the old trails in that vicinity are startled by beholding strange signs of a former life in the midst of a wilderness. Among great spruce trees he sees old gravestones, weather-beaten and stained, but which tell of the sacred spot where loved ones were laid to rest, over whose remains the winds from the mountains now shriek their wild requiems among the branches of poplars and birches. He views with amazement the ruins and decaying remains of homes once the scenes of activity and which once knew all the joys, sorrows, hopes, fears and the strife and friction of human life, hidden in the shadows of a dark forest. The town has vanished from off the earth and no one remains to tell the story of its struggles, its triumphs, its defeats, the ALONG THE OLD SAVAGE ROAD 147 prattling of its children, the valor of its men or the love of its women. There you see some struggling apple trees curiously inter- grown with the forestry, and near by are the fragments of a cellar wall by the side of a little brook dancing its way to the river and murmuring its song as it did when man's abode was there. You see the remains of an old time fire-place and a chimney yet standing. Had these silent old landmarks of a half century ago the power of speech, what secrets might they not unfold, what bright and dreary shadows of life, what delights and heartaches might they not reveal Statement of the Ownership, Management, circulation, etc., of Sprague's Journal of Maine History published quarterly at Dover, Maine, required by the Act of August 24, 1912. Note.-This statement is to be made in duplicate, both copies to be delivered by the publisher to the postmaster, who will send one copy to the Third Assistant Postmaster General (Division of Classification), Washing- ton, D. C., and retain the other in the files of the post office. NAME OF POST-OFFICE ADDRESS. Editor, John F. Sprague, Dover, Maine. Managing Editor, John F. Sprague, Dover, Maine. Business Managers, John F. Sprague, Dover, Maine. Publisher, John F. Sprague, Dover, Maine. Owners: (If a corporation, give names and addresses of stockholders hold- ing 1 per cent or more of total amount of stock.) JOHN F. SPRAGUE, Dover, Maine, Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: NONE. Average number of copies of each issue of this publication sold or dis- tributed, through the mails or otherwise, to paid subscribers during the six months preceding the date of this statement, (This information is required from daily newspapers only.) F. SPRAGUE, JOHN F. SPRAGUE, Sworn to and subscribed before me this eighteenth day of July, 1913. EDGAR C. SMITH, Justice of the Peace. My commission expires August 16, 1918. Enjoy David C. 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