Sprague's Journal of Maine History Vol. II JULY, 1914 No. 3 page 103-145 & 153-162 Sangerville Centennial 1814-1914 On June 13, 1914, in accordance with a vote of the town at its last annual town meeting the people of Sangerville commemo- rated the hundredth anniversary of its incorporation as a munici- pality. At 8.30 a. m. a parade of floats, antiques, etc., numbering in all about sixty, accompanied by three bands of music from Guil- ford, Monson and Milo, headed by James Lynch who acted as chief marshal, marched through the principal streets of Sangerville and Guilford villages. It was an excellent representation of historical features of the town of both the past and present. At the head of the line was a small body of men attired to represent the Red Men as they would have appeared one hundred and thirteen years ago when that territory was a primeval wilderness. The next was a log cabin on which was inscribed "The first house in Sangerville, built by Phineas Ames in 1801. " Another interesting antique was an old band loom, being operated by some one weaving cloth who impersonated a housewife of the olden days; this was followed by a loom of the latest type making cloth as it is made today in the factories of Sangerville. There was a large assemblage of people from Sangerville and adjoining towns, and it was estimated that they numbered several thousand. At 1.30 p. m. the literary exercises were held in the open air in front of the Town Hall. Mr. Alfonso F. Marsh, who was presi- dent of the day, introduced John F. Sprague of Dover as the his- torian, Honorable Willis E. Parsons of Foxcroft as the orator, and Professor William S. Knowlton of Monson as the poet, of the oc- casion. Speeches were also made by His Excellency William T. Haines, Governor of Maine, who was present with his staff, and Honorable Stanley Plummer of Dexter, all of whom, except Gov- ernor Haines, were natives of Sangerville. Hiram Percy Maxim of Hartford, Connecticut, a son of Sir Hiram Maxim, who like his 104 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY father and others of the Maxim family, is a scientist and inventor, and the inventor of what is known as the Maxim Silencer, also ad- dressed the meeting and read a speech written by his father, Sir Hiram Maxim of London, England, which appears in full on an- other page. Immediately following this program was an exhibition in the Town Hall by Mr. Maxim, of moving pictures and stereopticon views, representing Sir Hiram operating the Maxim machine gun in various positions, one being a picture of himself and King George inspecting the gun; the great Gun and Steel Plate Manufactory of Vickers' Sons and Maxim; Sir Hiram's residence in London and in- terior views of the same; the whole presenting one of the most notable features that has probably ever been seen at any Centennial celebration in Maine. These pictures were taken especially for this occasion. A cablegram was received during the afternoon from Sir Hiram and read by Mr. Maxim to the audience, as follows: "Centennial Committee, Sangerville, Me., LT. S. A. Con- gratulations Dear Old Sangerville. (Signed) Maxim, London, England, Norwood Rd. S. E." Among the floats were the following: East Sangerville Grange, V. E. Sanders Marsh, A. F. Marsh, Sanders Bros. & Co., Degree of Honor, Music and Drawing, J. T. Club, Queens of Avilion, Our Schools, East Sangerville and Campbell's Corner Schools, South Sangerville Grange, U. S. Separators, Wedding of 1814, Wedding of 1914, Page, Spearing Co., Log Cabin, Hook and Ladder Co., Modern Loom in action (Sangerville Woolen Co.), Old Loom in action, Two Pony Teams, Indians, First Settlers, Sangerville Woolen Co. and J. W. Leighton, SANGERVILLE CENTENNIAL 105 20 Teams (Clarence Drew), Old Flax Wheel (Mrs. Mary Campbell), Mrs. Louise Genthner, decorated Automobile, Mr. A. 0. Campbell, decorated Automobile. The committee awarded the first prize for the most attractive float, to the East Sangerville Grange and the second prize to Mrs. V. ("leaves for the old loom. The log cabin received the first prize for antiques and Mrs. Mary Campbell received the second prize for the old flax wheel. One of the features of the parade was a carriage containing thirteen babies, the mothers of whom were: Mrs. June Dexter, Mrs. Bessie Sawyer, Mrs. Maud Clukey, Mrs. Sadie Gifford, Mrs. Grace Witham, Mrs. Nellie Grant, Mrs. Agnes Andrews, Mrs. Flora Leighton, Mrs. Flora Lewis, Mrs. Lilla Diffin, Mrs. Robie Perkins, Mrs. Lottie Seabury, Mrs. Helda Folley. 106 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Historical Address By John Francis Sprague Mr. Chairman, and Fellow Citizens: One hundred years is not a great span of time if measured by the recorded history of the progress of man's civilization, but if measured by the tremendous events which have transpired since the first day of the century whose milestone we mark today, it is equal to many centuries which have passed since man began to make rec- ord of his doings. One hundred and thirteen years ago a man of bravery and sterling qualities left his home in Hancock, New Hampshire, and penetrated the wilderness, where is now the town of Sangerville, and on a spot near Lane's Corner on what was in subsequent years known as the Marr place, chopped down the first trees, had the first "burnt piece," built the first log house and began the first settle- ment of this town. His name was Phineas Ames' and for thirteen (a) The original family name was spelled E-a-m-e-s and this branch the family changed it to A-m-e-s about 1750. Phineas Ames was born in Rutland, Massachusetts, October 26, 1757, and descended in the fifth generation from Robert Ames, who came from England to Massachusetts sometime previous to 1661. It is not known ex- actly where he first landed, but it is known that he resided in Andover, Mas- sacbusetts, in 1661. Phineas Ames was a Revolutionary soldier. His first service in the Continental Army appears to have been eleven days, commencing August 20, 1777. Edgar Crosby Smith, in Sketches of Revolutionary Soldiers of Piscata- quis County, (Piscataquis Historical Society Collections, Vol. 1, Page 155) says: "His second service of which we have any record is that of his enlist- ment of September 27, 1777. After the battle of Bemis' Heights, Septem- ber 19, 1777, reserves were hurried on to Saratoga to assist Gen. Gates. Ames enlisted in Capt. John Boynton's company. Col. Sparhawk's regi- ment, under the command of Major Jonas Wilder, and this regiment were ordered to join the army of the Northern Department. It is probable that he arrived at the seat of war in season to participate in the battle of Oc- tober 7. Burgoyne surrendered and laid down his arms October 17, 1777, and many of the militia companies were then discharged. Phineas Ames' discharge was dated October 18, 1777, the day after Burgoyne's surrender. Service, twenty-nine days." Francis M. Ames of Dover is a grandson, and Judson Ames of Foxcroft is a greatgrandson of Phineas Ames. HISTORICAL ADDRESS 107 years this humble settlement, which was since expanded into the prosperous town with its busy factories and fertile farms which we know today, was, in honor of this first pioneer named and known as Amestown. Other settlers sighting the smoke of his little cabin curling through the tree tops and attracted by that location soon commenced other clearings, and made their own little openings and laid foundations for future homes. His first white neighbor was from the same state as himself, James Weymouth of Lee, New Hampshire, who came about one year later. This town was Number Four in the Sixth Range of towns north of the Waldo Patent. By order of the General Court of Massachusetts it was conveyed, on August 2, 1802, to John S. Fazv.(a) Subsequently Colonel Calvin Sanger of Sherborn, Massa- chusetts, purchased three-fourths of it and soon after became its sole owner. Loring (b) says that Phineas Ames made a survey of the town sometime previous to 1807, " and that his survey proving inaccur- ate, Colonel Sanger employed Isaac Coolidge from Massachusetts to make a re-survey of his portion of the town, the southeast quarter having been already lotted out by Moses Hodsdon. Many of the first settlers came from Sherborn and vicinity. One of the earliest of these was Walter Leland, who came in 1809. About three years later his father, Henry Leland, who was also a native of Sherborn and was born April 30, 1761, moved here and lived with his son Walter, and resided on the same farm until the time of his death June 26, 1835. He was a soldier in the Revo- lutionary War, having been mustered into the service April 27, 1777, and served three years in Captain Alexander's Company of Colonel Edward Wigglesworth's Regiment of the Thirteenth Regi- ment of the Massachusetts Line.' From an old account book that Walter Leland left, his son, Jediah Phipps Leland, now living, recently furnished me with the following copy of an entry in this book: (a) Owners of Maine Lands in 1820. Vol. 2, page 21 of the JOURNAL. (b) Loring's History of Piscataquis County. (1880) p. 75. (c) Sketches of Revolutionary Soldiers in Piscataquis County by Edgar C. Smith. (Piscataquis Historical Collections.) Vol. 1, p. 177. 108 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Sherborn, Mass., April 30, 1809. I started for the Province of Maine to take charge of Colonel Calvin Sanger's saw and grist mill. I had charge of the mills until Isaiah Knowlton bought and took possession of the same in April, 1817. Walter Leland. 1817. Walter Leland. He arrived here about the last week of the following May. He first settled in East Sangerville on land that is now known as the Fogg farm. He made the first clearing on that place, and lived there until 1836 when he moved to an entirely new and wild lot of land and began the building of another farm, which is one of the well known Leland farms in East Sangerville, where he resided until his death, January 8, 1883. The Leland family of Sangerville descended from John Leland, born in London in 1512. His descendant, Henry Leland, born in England in 1625 and who married Margaret Badcock, came to America in 1652 and died in Sherborn, Massachusetts, April 4, 1680.(a) Walter Leland was three times married. His first wife was Louisa Oakes of Sangerville. His second wife's name was Dane and she lived but a short time. His third wife was Hannah M. Bennett of Sangerville. He was the father of five children by his first wife; Sarah Phipps, b. Oct. 5, 1813; Walter, b. Nov. 12, 1815; Lydia Brown, b. Dec. 15, 1817; Laura Matilda, b. July 3, 1820; Chauncy Col- ton, b. Jan. 13, 1822. His children by his third wife were Jediah Phipps, b. Aug. 5, 1834; Henry Lowell, b. May 14, 1836; Joseph Brockway, b. March 7, 1838; Adelade Elizabeth, b. May 12, 1841; Mary Helen, b. Feb. 12, 1845; Adeline Ellen, b. Aug. 21, 1847. Walter Leland has also left a record that the following with their families comprised all who were living in the settlement when he arrived in 1809. Phineas Ames, Jesse Brockway, Nathaniel Stevens, William Stevens, Timothy Hutchinson, Solomon Oakes, Levi Oakes, Abel Oakes, James Weymouth- (a) The Leland Magazine and Genealogical Record of Henry Leland and his descendants. (Boston, 1850.) Pages 9 and 10. HISTORICAL ADDRESS 109 The Lelands of Sangerville have remained in the old homes and on the old farms of their sires, have adhered with commendable zeal to the same occupation inherited from them and the most honorable one known to the world. They are men of staunch and rugged character, and types of the highest kind of American citizenship. The late Henry L. Leland was during his life well known through- out Maine as an authority on agricultural subjects. Other early settlers were William Farnham who came here from Norridgewock, and Eben Stevens, a carpenter. Enoch Adams can from New Hampshire and Eleazer Woodward from Vermont. He was a millwright and superintended the building of Sanger's Mi11s since known as Knowlton's Mills. Two young men in his employ were Guy Carleton and Oliver Woodward. About 1812-13 Guy Carleton began the building of a sawmill near where is now Sangerville Village, soon adding to it a grist-mill and in 1816 started a carding mill at the same place. He was active in the af- fairs of the Amestown settlement and of the new town of Sanger- ville, named in honor of Colonel Sanger. His name appears with frequency on the early town records and he was second selectman during the first two years of the town's existence. His name ap- pears in these records occasionally as "Colonel" Carleton. That little river which courses its way oceanward through this village, has been, ever since his day in honor of his memory, called "Carle- ton Stream. " In 1817 two brothers left Sherborn with a horse and pung and drove to this forest country where the were destined to become prominent in the new town, to build for themselves substantial homes and rear families who have all made an impress upon the community. These were Isaiah and William Knowlton, and they arrived here March 9, 1817. They preceded their father, whose name was Isaiah, by only a short time as he came here in the fol- lowing May. Two adjoining farms were settled and cleared by these brothers. Isaiah, Jr., soon became owner of the Sanger Mills; and from that day down through the generations since, Knowlton's Mill in East Sangerville served well the inhabitants for miles around, and although its wheels are now idle it yet stands as a landmark of the days of the fathers and when we used to "go to mill" there so 110 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY many years ago; and it is a reminder of the worth and industry of Captain Knowlton. Isaiah Knowlton, Jr., was married to Clarissa Spooner Febru- ary 20, 189.1. One of their sons, William Smith Knowlton, has won fame as a teacher of public schools and academies in Maine and Massachusetts. He has been a teacher for about fifty years and is still in the service. He was ordained as a Baptist clergy- man many years ago and frequently acts in that capacity. He is an eloquent speaker and has filled public positions with credit and honor. He has represented Piscataquis County in the Legisla- ture of Maine in both the House and Senate. He has also been an author of books and various publications and his writings rank among the highest of Maine writers. "The Old Schoolmaster or Forty-five Years With the Girls and Boys" is the title of one of his most entertaining literary efforts. It was published by Burleigh & Flynt, Augusta, Maine, 1905, and is a charming story of his life work as a teacher of schools. The name of Benjaniin C. Goss appears in the first records of Sangerville and he was its second town clerk. He was born in New- buryport, Massachusetts, February 24, 1787, but the exact date of his settlement here is not known. In the convention which assembled at Portland, October 11, 1819, for the purpose of forming a constitution for the State of Maine, among the delegates elected from Penobscot County towns, which are now a part of Piscataquis County, were Samuel Chamber- lain of Foxcroft, Benjamin C. Goss of Sangerville, Joseph Kelsey of Guilford, William R. Lowney of Sebec and Eleazier W. Snow of Atkinson, who was afterwards the first Judge of probate for the new county of Piscataquis. In the biographical sketches of the members of this conven- tion appended to "The Debates and Journal of the Constitution, is the following "Benjamin C. Goss, Sangerville, was a town clerk a few years, a shoemaker by trade, taught school. He possessed good native endowments and possessed qualities that might have led him to high literary and political Position. He seems to have removed to (a) The Debates and Journal of the Constitutional Convention of Maine. (Augusta, Maine, 1894) p. 117. HISTORICAL ADDRESS III Sangerville from Readfield, and after a few years returned to Read- field. " Although the act of incorporation was passed by the Legisla- ture in 1814, the inhabitants of the new town of Sangerville de- layed acting under it until March 13, 1815, when they applied to Nathaniel Chamberlain of Foxcroft, a Justice of the Peace, to call the first meeting for organization. This meeting was held March 23, 1815, and a subsequent one to raise money for town purposes was held April 3, 1815. During the first few years many special town meetings were held for the purpose of accepting of town roads laid out by the selectmen and raising money to pay for the same, and also to fix the limits of school and highway districts. In the early struggles of these pioneers and first builders of a town, money was not as com- mon and plentiful as in our more fortunate times and at each annual town meeting for many years it was voted to take of the inhabi- tants, grain, such as wheat, corn and rye, as currency in payment for taxes. At the first meeting it was voted to allow one dollar and thirty-four cents per bushel for wheat and one dollar for rye and one dollar for corn. For a long while two tithing-men were chosen among the necessary town officers. This was an ancient custom of the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans and is of extreme antiquity. The first mention that we have of it is in Genesis where Abraham allows the king a tenth of the spoils taken from his enemies. Usually tithes were one-tenth of the annual profit of the land and were paid for purposes of church support. As the town meeting system developed in New England the office of tithing-man had a broader significance, and while his office pertained largely to church affairs, he became latterly more of a peace officer or a kind of Sun- day constable who saw that people came to church and obeyed all of the old rigid Puritan laws relating to "keeping the Sabbath Day holy. " He attended Sunday meetings, compelled the people to go to Church and with a fox tail wand kept them awake during the sermon. This office has during the last half century become entirely obsolete in Maine. At a meeting held in April, 1817, Samuel McClanathan, Guy Carleton and William Oakes were chosen a committee "to furnish school masters and mistresses. " 112 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY At the first town meetings some one was always found who had the public welfare so much at heart that he collected the taxes free of expense. Later they began to pay a small compensation of less than one per cent and for many years it did not exceed one and one- half per cent. Leonard Dearth was also one of the Sherborn pioneers to San- gerville. He was born in Sherborn in 1792 and died in East San- gerville in 1880. The exact date of his settling here is not known but it is supposed to have been about 1813. He married Fanny Carsley of Sangerville. He cleared up and cultivated a large and thrifty farm at East Sangerville, where he resided during the re- mainder of his life. He was a man of sterling qualities and his descendants have all been worthy and prominent citizens, among whom are Freeman Daniel Dearth, a leading lawyer and political leader of Dexter; Charles F. Dearth, a well known business man of Foxcroft, and their brother, the late Doctor Leonard Dearth, a na- tive of Sangerville, who recently died in California. Enoch Leathers was born in Dover, New Hampshire, October 2, 1763. On November 15, 1788, he married Marv Cilley of West- brook and settled in Buckfield. Later he had a residence in Brooks and in Crosbytown, now Etna, Maine. On November 26, 1829, his youngest daughter, Lois Aseneth, married Jonathan Roberts, a young man who had just settled in Sangerville, and at about that time he moved here and be- came a resident, where he remained until he went to Foxcroft with his family in about 1849. He died in the ninety-fifth year of his age and his remains rest in the cemetery at East Sangerville. HISTORICAL ADDRESS 113 Edgar Crosby Smith, in his sketches of Revolutionary Soldiers of Piscataquis County, (Piscataquis Historical Society Collections, Vol. 1, pp. 174-175) states that he was a soldier in both the wars of the Revolution and of 1812. He enlisted in the Continental Army in June, 1782, in the Company of Captain Samuel Cherry in Colonel George Reid's Regiment. He served two years and re- ceived an honorable discharge in 1782. In the war of 1812 he was in Colonel Ripley's Regiment and took part in several engagements, among which was the Battle of Lundy's Lane. The first attempt to have a settled minister in town was at a town meeting held on the first Monday in April, 1815, when it was voted not to accept of William Oaks as their minister. In 1820 an article appeared in the warrant to see if they would call elder John Daggett "to settle with them as their Minister" and the record states that "the vote was taken for and against and was against giv- ing him a call. " The next effort in this direction was at the meet- ing of March 18, 1822, when it was voted "to give Elder Daniel Bartlett a call to come and preach upon trial with us." And on the fourth day of December, 1822, it was "voted that the ordi- nation of Mr. Daniel Bartlett be at the schoolhouse near Carleton's Mills the 24th day of December and that the selectmen be a com- mittee to receive the said Bartlett after his ordination as town minister, agreeable to a former vote of said town & make all other arrangements that said committee may think proper." On the eighteenth day of June, 1822, it was "voted that Elder Daniel Bartlett (a) be town Minister by his giving back one half of the land that belongs to sd town for the first settled Minister to be divided by Esq. Joseph Kelsey, Abraham Moore & Alexander Green- wood. Equal in value to the Congregational Society in sd town & the sd society agree to expend their part for the support of preach- ing equal with the Baptist Society in each part of the town & the sd Bartlett is to have his choice after divided." The report of this committee is as follows: Presuant to the vote of the town of Sangerville appointing Joseph Kelsey, Abraham Moore & Alexander Greenwood, Esqs., a Committee to divide according to quantity & quality the lands in said town granted to the first settled minister. Have attended that service & reported as follows: That they value Lot No. one in the (a) Daniel Bartlett was a minister in the Baptist denomination. 114 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY first range at two dollars & twenty five cents per acre; Lot No. one in range eighth at one dollar & twenty five cents per acre the last had 140 acres & the first 168 acres Making a difference of one hun- dred & one Dollars & fifty cents to be paid to the congregational society or if the lot No. 1 in the first range is divided forty five acres to be taken of in the following manner or the west side line by a line parallel with the west side line of sd lot Dated June 27, 1822 agreeable to their report to me Isaac Macomber, Clerk. The following is also a part of the Record: June 21, 1822 Agreeable to notice given by the selectmen who were requested by the said town to give Elder Daniel Bartlett in- formation with regard to his being chose & on what conditions as towns Minister have attended that service and he came forward & declared his acceptance. Attest. Isaac Macomber, Clerk. Thus it seems that Daniel Bartlett was the first settled minis- ter in the town. In the early days of Maine our pauper laws were so lax that it was possible for towns to set up paupers at auction in open town meeting and bid them off to the lowest bidder. That is, the one who would agree to support the person who was a town charge the cheapest was given the job, and whatever work such person could perform belonged to the one who bid of such person. Sometimes the bids were merely nominal, only one or two dollars for a year, the labor of the pauper evidently being the principal object in the transaction. And as it is typical of a custom that prevailed in that day not only in Sangerville but probably in nearly all other Maine towns, I copy the following which occurred at a special town meeting held November 19, 1823: Voted to put up to the highest bidder Mrs. D's. three children separately for one year & the persons that bid them off are to board & clothe them & if they should be sick the town to pay the Doctor's bill, only Rachael the oldest was bid off by Mr. Oliver M. Brown for thirteen dollars and seventy-five cents for one year. Hiram was bid off by Mr. William Cleaves for eleven dollars & seventy-five cents for one year. Voted that Mrs. D. be set up at the same as the others & that she & the youngest be put up to- gether. Mrs. D. and the youngest was bid off by Mr. Oliver M. Brown for eight dollars per year. This method of caring for the town's poor was cruel and un- just, being no less than one form of human slavery. The privilege under the law to proceed in this way was so flagrantly abused, and HISTORICAL ADDRESS 115 it became such a state wide disgrace, that the Legislature of Maine by Chapter 19, of the Public Laws of 1847, passed the following "It shall not be lawful for the inhabitants of any town in this State, by its overseers or otherwise, to permit any poor and indigent persons, chargeable to such town, to be set up and bid off by way of auction, either for support or service. " And this has ever since been the law of Maine upon this subject. This is one of the statu- tory changes and one of many events which mark the evolution of the final absolute dissolution of the united interests of church and state in Maine. The history of races, of nations, of states and of towns dem- onstrates the steady advancement and the unfaltering progress of man; and we behold it right here in our study of these old Sanger- ville town records, not only regarding this matter and the abandon- ment of tithing-men as town officers, but in other things which they disclose. The poets and the philosophers of all the ages have seen and understood this great truth. We see with the eyes of Whit- tier: And step by step, since time began, I see the steady gain of man. Or with Tennyson: Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns. Somehow the human race has always desired the use of stimu- lants in the form of strong drink and in later years it has been deemed wise to regulate and restrict such use as far as it may be possible so to do. The Legislature of Maine by Chapter 133 of the Public Laws of 1821, approved March 20, 1821, enacted "that no person shall presume to be a common victualler, innholder, or seller of wine, beer, ale, cider, brandy, rum or any strong liquors by retail . . . . . . except such persons be duly licensed as is hereinafter provided, on pain of forfeiting the sum of fifty dol- lars," etc. The licensing board consisted of the selectmen, treas- urer and town clerk of towns, and the assessors, treasurer and clerk of each plantation; such persons to meet on the second Monday of September of each year for the purpose of acting on applications for licenses. The law instructed this board to license for one year 116 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY as retailers of strong drink, "as many persons of sober life and con- versation, and suitably qualified for the employment, for which they may severally apply to be licensed, as they may deem necessary. These licenses paid into the town treasury the sum of six dol- lars for this privilege and the town clerk received twenty-five cents for recording each license. The first record of the doings of the licensing board in Sangerville was on Monday, the ninth day of September, 1822, at the dwelling house of Isaac Macomber, when a license was granted to Isaac Macomber "as a retailer agreeable to law." It seemed, however, that Mr. Macomber was unable to sat- isfy all of the demands of this nature, for on January 28, 1823, "Mr. Edward Mitchell was licensed as a retailer until the next annual meeting in September." In 1825 the business of retailing strong di-ink and grog bad increased so that five persons were li- censed, namely: Edward Mitchell, Moses Ayer, Isaac Macomber, Thomas Mansfield and Thomas Fuller, an innholder. For the first several years the town meetings were usually held in dwelling houses, but about 1823 tbey began to hold them in "the schoolhouse near Carleton's Mills." The first list of jurors pre- sented to the town by the selectmen and accepted as such by the voters was on April 17, 1823, and were is follows: William Par- sons, Guy Carleton, Thomas Fuller, Robert Carleton, Wing Spooner and Abel Brockway. It would have been both a physical and mental impossibility for any one to have prepared an accurate outline even Of the early history of Sangerville in the short time allotted to me by your com- mittee. I could on1y take the old records available, and what they reminded me of, and the meager information of a few older persons which were attainable and make an attempt to give you an indis- tinct and what is simply a bird's-eye view of the life and labors of these first settlers in the town of Sangerville. There were four dis- tinct points of settlement in the town; East Sangerville or Lane's Corner; Carleton's Mills or Sangerville Village; South Sangerville, (which later included Brockway's Mills), and Gilman's Corner, and French's Mills in the southwesterly part of the town. The settlers in East Sangerville came largely from Sherborn, Massachusetts, and the Gilmans and their neighbors from New Hampshire, while the sources of the Carleton Mills settlement were more mixed, coming HISTORICAL ADDRESS 117 not only from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but from other towns in Maine and from other portions of New England as well. Benjamin Lane at Lane's Corner and Stephen Lowell at Carle- ton's Mills were among the first storekeepers in town. The Gil- mans of Gilman's Corner became famous for the making and selling of winnowing,, mills to the farmers for many miles around, and for a while Moses Gilman kept a small store at Gilman's Corner. I recall Lucian French of French's Mills as a man, for his day and generation, of more than ordinary intelligence and of rather superior intellectual attainments. He was a mechanic and quite studious along these and mathematical lines, but I remember him wore as an enthusiastic follower of William Miller in his religious belief or what is now known as a Second Adventist. The Baileys, Lougees, Parsonses, Brockways, Bishops, Maxims, Folsoins, Spragues and Fowlers were among the first settlers of South Sangerville. Rufus Brockway was from the Province of New Brunswick. His son, Cyrus Brockway, was quite prominent in town affairs and was at different times one of the selectmen. His daugh- ter Helen married the late Colonel Charles A. Clark of Cedar Rap- ids, Iowa, a prominent lawyer of the Middle West,' and a native of Sangerville. Among other men of note who are natives of this town the name of Colonel Stanley Plummer of Dexter should not be overlooked. Samuel Maxim was a prosperous farmer whose farm adjoined that of Heircy Bishop. He was a brother of Isaac Maxim, who lived for a time in the Nickerson house opposite the home of Cyrus Brockway at Brockway's Mills. Isaac was the father of Sir Hiram Maxim and it was in this Nickerson house that Sir Hiram was born. In my boyhood days it was called the "Young Cyrus Brockway house" as Cyrus Brockway 2d, a nephew of Cyrus, son of Rufus, rcsided there for several years after the Maxims moved out. It was the Sons and daughters of the first settlers that I knew in my childhood days, and they were sturdy, frugal and industrious people. The old time musters with their annual jollifications, cider, rum and long sheets of gingerbread were then only a memory to be related to the younger generation by the old gray haired Colonels, Majors (a) Colonel Clark died at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, December 22, 1913. 118 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAI-NE HISTORY and Captains who had survived from the glorious days of the old Maine Militia. I can recall the flocks of sheep being driven down the Bishop Hill by the Farnhams, Andersons, Damons, and others to be washed at the falls at Brockway's Mills which were on the outlet of Center Pond. All of the neighbors thereabouts washed their sheep at these falls and a jug of good old cider usually accompanied the sheep washing process. I can see the pedlers with their carts top heavy with great sacks of paper rags, which they bought in exchange for their wares at three cents per pound; drovers, who went through the country buy- ing large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep for the Brighton mar- ket. I can see the "old stragglers" that made periodical visits and who were of a similar type to our present wandering Willies, for the latter day "tramp," had not then been evolved. I remember perhaps more distinctly than any of them "Old Straggler French" whom David Barker has immortalized in his poem "To Leather French." Then the scanning of these old records brings vividly to mind the days when tallow candles and the blaze from the pine knots in the fire-places furnished the evening lights. I remember Sangerville in those days as a type of the country places in Maine as they existed a half a century ago or more. It had several large common school districts and there were saw, shingle and grist-mills at the village, at Knowlton's, Brockway's Mills and French's Mills, but these grist-mills could only grind corn and grain into meal and could not bolt wheat, barley and rye into flour, so when that was to be done, we around Brockway's Mills, hauled our grists either to Dexter or Guilford, and those around East Sanger- ville I think generally went to Dover for this purpose. As the best description that I can write of the old neighbor- hood I quote the following from "Cy Strong's Neighborhood" in Backwoods Sketches:(a) Those were good old days, never to return, for the conditions can never again be the same. Although they lived far apart in many instances, they were very social and enjoyed life. Besides (a) Backwoods Sketches, John Francis Sprague, (Augusta, 1912) p. 147. HISTORICAL ADDRESS 119 meeting each other every Sunday at the schoolhouses to attend re- ligious meetings, they would also meet together to do considerable of their farm and household work. Not a quilt was ever made in the Strong neighborhood except at a quilting-bee, when the women and older girls would all assem- ble at the home where the quilt was to be made, and when it was finished the affair would wind up with all the men and boys being present at a generous supper of baked beans, pies and twisted doughnuts sweetened with molasses. Then the visiting women would all inquire of the hostess how she made such nice mince and pumpkin pies, and while riding home on the oxsleds would turn up their noses to each other and say that they were about the mean- est pies they had seen this year. All of the apples were prepared for drying at paring-bees, all of the corn was husked out and made ready for the shed chamber at huskings, and from time immemorial the finding of a red ear of corn by a blushing maiden was the signal for a diversion in kissing; all of the houses and barns were raised at raisings and the men and women all attended to assist the good woman of the house in pre- paring a big supper. Not least in the round of gaieties was the piling-bee. When any of the neighbors had a ten or twenty acre lot of trees which had been cut down in long wind-rows and which they called "a fell piece," they would set it on fire and get a good or a poor burn as the case might be, but after the fire many huge charred trees remained, which had to be junked up and rolled into piles to season for a second burning. When ready for the first pil- ing, the farmer would send invitations to all of the neighbors to come to his piling-bee and the same festivities would follow the pil- ing of the burnt piece that followed the making of the quilt, the paring of the apples, the husking of the corn and the raising of the barn. Then the young folks had their spelling, singing and writing schools in the long winter evenings in the schoolhouse when all were merry and gay. Each month of May was also a jolly time for the boys and girls, and more than one courtship was the result of the annual hanging of May baskets to each other's doors. An unwritten law governed the custom that the hanger must make a loud knock at the door when he or she left the basket, which was always made from some bright colored paper, and the recipient, if present, must give chase and catch the hanger, if possible. When thus caught, hugging and kissing followed, as a matter of course. When Mary Farnham hung a May basket for Martin Osgood she enclosed a neat little note upon which was written: A Martin is a pretty bird, The sweetest songster I ever heard; And I have come a rod or more To hang a basket at his door. 120 SPRAGUE'S JOUIINAL OF MAINE HISTORY Martina caught Mary, and as others had a hand in it the cat was out of the bag, for several saw the billet. But Martin and Mary didn't care much, as they were quite sweet on each other. If poor Martin hadn't died with consumption there might have been a wed- ding some day . . . . . . The lights and shadows of life in the old neighborhood are now only fading memories. Cy Strong and his sturdy neighbors long since passed into the mysterious be- yond. Some of the sons and daughters have taken the same dark journey, others are now wrinkled men and grayhaired women in other climes and places. The cows graze the hillside as then, the fields of waving grain are as golden, the clover is as fragrant, the flowers bloom as beautiful, the birds sing as sweetly and the sun shines as brightly as in the good old days when drovers, peddlers, travelers and old stragglers would inquire how far it was to Cy Strong's neighborhood. About the year 1784 Samuel Maxim and his, brother Ephraim moved from Wareham, Massachusetts, to New Sandwich in the Province of Maine, afterwards (1798) incorporated as the town of Wayne. Subsequently their father, Nathan Maxim, moved from Wareham to Wayne and resided with them until his death. Isaac Maxim, the son of Samuel, was born in the town of Stronog in the District of Maine, October 16, 1814, and died in Wayne April 29, 1883. He moved into what is now Piscataquis County before the county was incorporated. He married Harriett Boston Stevens in Blanchard, Maine, October 14, 1838. His son, Hiram Stevens Maxim, now known throughout the civilized world as Sir Hiram Maxim, was born in that part of Sangerville known as Brockway's Mills, in what was formerly called the Nickerson house, February 5, 1840. Isaac Maxim resided with his family for many years in several different towns in Piscataquis County before his departure for Wayne. My own recollection of him is that of a mail of full height, well proportioned, with keen black eyes, a massive forehead, with hair and a lengthy beard whitened by the frosts of many winters, giving him a truly patriarchal appearance. Although never hav- ing had but a limited education he was during his life a profound student of such subjects as engaged his attention. His favorite themes of thought were of matters that pertained to the mechan- (a) Martin Maxim is the one referred to. He was a promising young -an who died in early manhood, and was the son of Samuel Maxim and a cousin of Sir Hiram, and the young lady was a daughter of Deacon Joseph Fowler. HISTORICAL ADDRESS 121 ical arts and inventions and also scientific and theological subjects. As his son Hiram said of him in after years in an interview pub- lished in the Pall-Malt Gazette: "He was a philosopher if there ever was one" yet he was a dreamer more than he was a practical man of affairs. It was from him that Sir Hiram received the first impression of the principle in mechanism upon which is founded the famous Maxim Machine Gun, that has made the name of Hiram Stevens Maxim world renowned and has placed him in the ranks of the world's greatest and most eminent inventors. But while the germ came from the father, it was the son's genius that developed and perfected it and made it of practical use to the armies of the world. Someone has said that the people of this world are divided into two classes, viz. : "The men who have seen visions and the herd that has laughed at the visions and the visionary. Isaac Maxim saw visions and dreamed dreams, but I will always remember him with reverence and respect for he was not only a man of' great intellect but thoroughly honest and upright and gave in- spiration to a family of inventors who are not dreamers but pre- eminently men of affairs. Sir Hiram Maxim is a resident of the world and not of any one commonwealth, nation or kingdom, and deals, makes contracts and does things with great governments, and with sovereigns and potentates that represent millions of the world's inhabitants. He is one of the world's great inventors, the peer of a Newton, a Morse and a Franklin, and a compeer of the great Edison. William G. Clark was for many years a lawyer in Sangerville. He was for a time town clerk and held other town offices. He reared a large family, his sons becoming leading and influential men. Colonel Charles A. Clark of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was one of them. Moses Carr, fated to become an important factor in the indus- trial expansion of the town, and who lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and one years, was born in Vienna, Maine, April 22, 1810. He married Sally Ladd of the same town. As a farm laborer in his native town he had earned and saved about three hundred dollars, and with this money in his pocket, and his wife and father accompanying him on a sled drawn by a pair of oxen, 122 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY in the winter of 1831, he moved to Sangerville and purchased a farm then having been but little improved by a few acres of cleared land and a log cabin. Here he developed a fertile farm which was his home during his lifetime. In his day there were no railroads in this part of Maine, and not only all of the travel here from other parts came over the highways in stage coaches, but all of the merchandise supplied to these inhabitants had to be hauled from Bangor on what were called "tote" teams. Mr. Carr early became a toter to and from Bangor. Then he extended his toting or teaming to the lumber camps in the woods at the north of us and would purchase products of the farmers and haul them to the lum- ber camps and sell them at a profit. One of the products that he handled with great success was called "cider apple sauce. " Then the farmers' wives were skilled in an art that at sometime during the past fifty years, was, apparently, suddenly and simultaneously lost by the farmer folk all over the State of Maine. In my opin- ion this was the richest and most delicious table sauce ever known of or used by any people in this world. It was to me like Brutus' idea, "a dish fit for the gods." While few if any today appear to have the least conception of how it should be made the process was then a matter of common knowledge. Farmers with large orchards in the neighborhood where I lived when a boy, farmers like Samuel Maxim, Heircy Bishop, Josiah S. Folsom and Joseph Fowler, would each make several barrels of it every fall. Moses Carr soon founded a successful business in purchasing barrels of apple sauce of them and selling it to the lumbermen. As a farmer, teamster and dealer in farm produce he amassed a fortune which in later years he successfully used in enlarging and develop- ing the woolen industry in this town. The later prosperity of Sangerville is largely indebted to Moses Carr and his sons and to the late David R. Campbell and his sons, for their activities in establishing here the business of manufactur- ing woolen cloth. Another early Sangerville family that made its mark in town descended from Elder William Oakes or as the family name is some- times spelled in the old records, Oak. He moved here from Skow- hegan, Maine, and was a descendant of Nathaniel Oak, born in England in about 1645 and who emigrated to Marlboro, (now HISTORICAL ADDRESS 123 Northboro, Massachusetts), about 1660-5. His son, William Oaks, Jr., was a colonel in the Maine Militia and active in the affairs of the new town. He was born in Canaan, Maine, November 8, 1795. He married Mary Weymoutb, May 3, 1819. In the "Family reg- ister of Nathaniel Oak of Marlboro, Mass., and his descendants" by Henry Lebbeus Oak, published in 1906, 1 take the following relating to him: "8 children; Abner, James, William, Albion, Valentine, Wil- liam, Marv, Augustus. Colonel William Oaks was a very promi- nent citizens Colonel of Militia holding town, county and state af- fairs. It is regretted that a more detailed account of his life has not been furnished. Many of his descendants are in the professions -lawyers, teachers, engineers and artists." The late William P. Oakes of Foxcroft was one of his sons, a graduate of Colby College, a member of the bar, but better known throughout eastern Maine as a civil engineer and land surveyors While he resided in Sanger- ville he was for many years chairman of the board of selectmen and held the same position a part of the time while be resided in Fox- croft. The first marriage in Sangerville after its legal organization was that of Joseph Morgridge to Miss Olive Oakes, who were united in marriage May 15, 1815, by Samuel McClanathan, justice of the peace. He appears to have been the only justice of the peace here for several years and until 1821 when the name of Benjamin C. Goss appears in this capacity. Then followed Guy Carleton, Isaac Macomber and Samuel C. Clark. Among others of the leading men of Sangerville whom I can recall and who were either of the earliest settlers, then venerable, or their hardy sons and daughters, were Enoch Adams, Enos A. Flanders, Benjamin Lane, John S. Cleaves, Phileoman C. Parsons, Leonard Dearth and John Parsons; the Jacksons, the Farnhams, the Ponds, the Ordways, the Weymouths and the Carsleys. John Parsons, who was my grandfather oil my mother's side and also the grandfather of the Honorable Willis E. Parsons, your orator today, was the son of Kendall and Elizia (Bryant) Parsons and was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 15 1781. His first home in Maine was in the town of Canton and it is not known just when he moved to Sangerville, but I believe it to have 124 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY been prior to 1830. He died in Easton, Maine, March 26, 1871. 1 can remember well of listening to his stories of the privation, the cold seasons, the severe winters and the toil and suffering of his early life in this town. About 1820 Jeremiah Abbott of Andover, Massachusetts, settled in the adjoining town of Dexter and soon built a little card- ing mill which was the beginning of the woolen industry in that town. My Grandfather Parsons has often told me of shearing his sheep, taking the fleeces of wool on his back and carrying them down through the woods to Abbott's Mill, or as he expressed it "to Mr. Abbets" to be carded into rolls and later to be by the good wife spun into yarn and finally woven into cloth for family use. The Jacksons of Sangerville have always been numbered among the worthy and substantial citizens of the town. They descended from William Jackson who moved here from Litchfield, Maine, in March, 1812. One of his sons, Myrick S. Jackson, went from San- gerville to Bangor when a young man and resided there during the remainder of his life. He was long engaged in a successful mer- cantile business in that city. Alden D. Jackson still lives on the old homestead farm. It would require much time and tedious research, as much as it ought, in justice to their memory, to be done, to assemble ma- terial facts relative to these rugged pioneers who first came into this wilderness and in a fierce battle for existence laid the foundations for the beautiful, comfortable and luxurious homes which we see to- day throughout this prosperous town. And they accomplished more even than the building of homes; they were founders of a town and co-workers with other dauntless spirits who carved out a County and erected a State. JOHN FRANCIS SPRAGUE of Dover, Maine Son of Elbridge Gerry and Sarah (Parsons) Sprague; born in Sangerville, July 16,1848. He is a descendant of William Sprague who was born in England in 1609 and emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629 and later to Charlestown, Massachusetts, and about 1635 moved to Hing- ham, Massachusetts. William was the son of Edward Sprague of Upway, County of Dorset. England, who died in 1614. He was educated in the common schools at the Brockway's Mills district in Sangerville; was admitted to the Piiscataquis Bar in 1874; commenced the practice of law at Abbot Village, Maine, that year and moved to Monson, Maine, in 1879, where he resided until 1910, when he be- came a resident of Dover, Maine. Was a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1885-1893; member of the Republican State Committee 1887-1891. He is, referee in bankruptcy for Piscataquis County; trustee of Monson Academy; member of the Maine Historical Society and the National Geographic Society and president of the Piscataquis Historical Society; mem- ber and president of the Maine Society. Sons of the American Revolution; member and a past president of the Maine Sportsmen's Association; member of the Odd Fellows and Masonic orders; author of "Piscataquis Biography and Fragments; story of Doric Lodge;" "Se- bastian Rale, A Maine Tragedy of the Eighteenth Century;" "The North Eastern Boundary Controversy and the Aroostook War," etc., and is now editor of Sprague's Journal of Maine History, 126 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Oration By Honorable Willis E. Parsons Mr. Chairman and Citizens of Sangerville: I am pleased to Upon this, your one hundredth anniversary, I am pleased to greet you, and happy to recognize in the town of Sangerville a mu- nicipality which stands as one of the solid, substantial units of our beloved Commonwealth, one which has no superior among towns of like population in the best state in all the Union. For intelligence, integrity and moral worth, the people of Maine are unsurpassed by any in our proud galaxy of states, or other portions of the civilized world. Your history has been written by one of your own distinguished sons, John Francis Sprague, lawyer and author, and I shall only re- fer to it in a general way. Our fathers who cleared the way and conquered the wilderness were of that hardy, Puritanical stock which believed in right living and good government, establishing as the foundation thereof the church and the school wherever it went, whether to the prairie lands of the West, or to penetrate the rugged forest of Maine. From the landing, of our Pilgrim fathers upon the rock-bound coast of New England until the present time, the sturdy, persever- ing, self-sacrificing pioneer, whether seeking freedom to worship God, laying the foundation of a mighty empire, stren g thening polit- ical and religious liberty, or seeking a home for self and loved ones, has endured hardships and privations which make him worthy our highest praise and admiration ; and those who laid the foundation of your beautiful, prosperous homes in Sangerville deserve as a rec- ord of their heroic deeds a monument more enduring than the im- perishable rocks of the everlasting hills. Many before them had located upon the. banks of the Penob- scot, that great highway to the sea, and were almost as much at home in the boat or swift-gliding canoe as upon the land. Timber was cut upon the shores and the taking of it to market and return- ing with the fruits of their labor had renewed them of much of the privation that was to be the lot and experience of those who located away from the river in the dense forest which they must clear to raise food for their dependent families. But the brave men and women of Sangerville were equal to the task. They overcame every obstacle. They not only made for themselves comfortable homes, but maintained schools for their children that laid the foundation for useful lives. As the felling of the trees and clearing away' the forests let in the sunlight and warmth, so their industry, perseverance and ill- tegrity laid a moral and social foundation for the intelligence, hap- piness and prosperity of today. We should now remember their noble work, their self-sacrificing toil, as we gather from their im- perishable harvest. Those early pioneers certainly knew what toil was; they knew what it meant to conquer the forest and make the wilderness blos- som as the rose. Their day's work was not measured by hours, but lasted from sun to sun, or from daylight to dark. The log cabin was built, the trees were felled, limbs lopped; and then when they had dried a little. came the burning and piling, and the burning of the piles, and when the land was cleared, spudding in the potatoes, beans and corn, and sowing the oats, wheat, rye and barley, yes, and buckwheat, too, for what would a new country be worth with- out buckwheat griddle cakes; and when not attending to their crops they were shaving shingles to take to that growing town on the Penobscot to exchange for produce at the store, and a little, very little, cash, or working on the highways and in the winter in the woods while the good wife and boys looked after the stock and did the chores, or the boys and girls attended to the work about the place while mother spun the yarn and knit the socks and mitts, or wove the homespun cloth that her husband and little ones might be warmly clothed. And into that labor of love, entered the boys and girls of Sangerville, for the Johns and Jims and all the Bills, as well as Tom, Dick and Harry, helped father, and Susie and Marv and all the other girls helped mother, and sometimes the girls worked on the farm. And they all went to school in the winter, and the boys took turns building the fires, and the teacher boarded around-, and some- times there were spelling schools and excitement ran high, and the boys would pluck up courage to go home with the girls and by and by William would become steady company for Marv and a little 128 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY later a new home would be started up here in the wilderness; and who shall say that those young people were not just as happy up here, toiling for themselves and posterity, as the millionaire of to- day, for in all this heroic labor there were pleasant hours as well as sad, sunshine as well as shadow, and yet we can little realize today the privations and hardships of those early pioneers, who in this and other localities in the interior of our state, toiled unceasingly that they might erect and maintain for themselves and families comfort- able homes and establish communities which should grow and de- velop into a blessing to all posterity. Your first settler, Phineas Ames, in 1801, was soon followed by others, and the men who followed the bridle path and erected the log, cabins, felled the trees and planted the see(], trusting in God for the harvest, had something in mind other than a mere sub- sistence, and soon schools were established, and, possessing that deep-seated interest for the spiritual welfare of their children that has ever characterized our people, religious services were held in the log schoolhouse and the little community of Amestown or Sanger- ville so grew and prospered that in 1814 a charter was asked for and granted by the General Court of Massachusetts, June 13 of that year, and the town of Sangerville entered upon her first one hun- dred years of usefulness. Several years later, in 1822, your first settled minister, Elder Daniel Bartlett of the Baptist persuasion, be-an his labors among you, ministering to the welfare of your small community, in sick- ness and health, in sorrow and gladness, by' the bedside of the dying and at the marriage rites, guiding. the aged as well as the young, making the interests of the new settlement his own, ever pointing to a higher life, advocating that religious faith, morality and right living which still obtains in the good town of Sangerville. The fruits of his labors and of others like him, we now enjoy, and few there are, whether professed Christians or not, who do not wish to do some good in the world. The martyred Lincoln, who among all the beacon lights of history, save Washington alone, still remains the surest guide to the American people, said, "God forbid that the world should not be made better for my having lived in it." And in his great life work he ever recognized that higher Power, before Whom earth's mightiest conqueror is but a grain of dust, or even as the shadow that fleeth away. Only two years before your incorporation, the war was de- clared with England and there was here in this little community, as in Foxcroft and the surrounding towns, much alarm in regard to the Indians. I have been unable to find any written history of Sangerville, but it is fair to presume that the same apprehensions as to the con- duct of the Indians prevailed here as in Foxcroft. There fortifica- tions were advocated, houses were strongly barred, and some families abandoned their homes for safe locations. That town was on the great highway of the Indians from the St. Francis Tribe on the St. Lawrence down Moose River to Moosehead, down the Wilson to Sebee Lake, and so on down the Piscataquis and the Penobscot Rivers to the Penobscot Tribe at Old Town. Much evidence has been found in the way of flint arrow heads and other stone implements around the shores of Sebec Lake, show- ing that it was one of their tarrying places and a favorite resort. Ai-id from there they made frequent excursions into the surround- ing country in quest of game and often called at the white man's cabin. But as the war progressed and the Indians showed no dis- position to be unfriendly, all fears subsided and the fortifications were never built. From your earliest settlement agriculture has been a leading industry and it may well be said, few towns, if any, have better farms, more prosperous people or happier families than those who dwell upon the hillsides or in the dales of good old Sangerville. What more independent life can be led than is enjoyed by him who tickles the soil that it may laugh with a harvest; who enjoys the fruits of his own labor in the open, close to nature, with nature's God as a partner, Who sendetb the rain and the sunshine, and giveth the harvest. Sangerville is one of the leading agricultural towns of our state and agriculture is the principal industry of Maine and of America. In that fact lies the salvation of the great Republic, for the farmer not only feeds us all but, far removed from the corruption of con- gested districts, possesses a hi-her tone of morality and right think- 130 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY ing and living than is usually enjoyed in our American centers of population. The cities, too, draw their life blood from the country towns and rural population. A few years ago my attention was called to the fact in the Maine Legislature that everyone of the representa- tives and senators from the largest city in Maine were born in the country and most of them upon the farm. The farm, young man, is the best place in all the world to raise good citizens and the rural districts of our state are no exception to that rule. I am going to assert that no great city in America could long survive without the energy , life and brains drawn from the country, but ere many generations had elapsed, would either be like Sodom and Gomorrah, or so degenerated as to be a disgrace to civilization and civic righteousness become as one of the lost arts. Sangerville has been, also, a prominent manufacturing town, and from the early sawmill, grist mill, and carding mills your streams long since learned to turn the wheels of a mightier industry and the hum of machinery in your village has long gladdened the hearts of your people, millions of dollars going to support your families and build up your town, making this prosperous community what it now is. You have been fortunate indeed in having such men as the Carrs and the Campbells among you, who, as your own citizens, have taken pride in seeing their town prosper, and who, unlike a foreign corporation, have at times run their mills at a loss rather than shut down, knowing the effect that closed doors would have upon their neighbors and the entire community. Surely such men are appreciated by you. The noblest work of God is man, strong, fearless, self-reliant, ready for the conflicts ready to engage in any contest which makes for the elevation and advancement of his fellowmen. And Sanger- ville has certainly produced men. One of the world's greatest men still living, a mighty genius, Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, was not a product of the great metropo- lis, New York, or of lettered Boston, but was born, reared and edu- cated in the town of Sangerville, where his father was one of your early settlers of limited means, unable to give his boys more than a common school education. But Hiram Maxim, inheriting his father's inventive genius, coupled with practical ideas, has been one of the world's great benefactors in that his deadly weapons of war- fare have actually made for peace. There comes to my mind many other families who have made your town famous. The Clark brothers, noted lawyers of the Middle West and gallant soldiers of the Civil War, Colonel Charles A. Clark receiv- ing a medal from Congress for bravery and gallant services in that memorable struggle. The Carrs and Campbells, who built up your great industries and whose descendants are still with you. Moses Carr, who died but a few years ago at the advanced age of one hundred and one, and David R. Campbell have left monuments behind them of more value than bronze or marble. The Knowlton family at Knowlton's Mills, conspicuous among them, Professor W. S. Knowlton, Maine's famous school teacher and author and legislator as well, and we are happy to greet the old veteran today as poet of this occasion. Colonel William Oakes, as town officer and otherwise, was long identified with your growing community and other sections of the county, was president of the board of trustees of Foxcroft Acad- emy, held other important positions in county and state, and was a commanding figure in Amestown. He built the first framed house, which was occupied by him and later by his son, William P. Oakes, as a family homestead. It still stands on yonder hill just over the stream that turns the wheels of your industries, its timbers staunch and sound as in the days of yore. He was of New England stock and heritage, being a direct descendant of Nathaniel Oakes of prominence in colonial days. One of his sons, William P. Oakes, long chairman of town of- ficers of Sangerville and later occupying the same position in Fox- croft, when a young man, after leaving college, studied law but on account of ill health took up land surveying and by his great abil- ity and the soundest integrity became one of the greatest surveyors that Maine has ever known. Often appointed court surveyor, his judgment and skill were never questioned, and the very name of Oakes added luster to your town. Honorable Stanley Plummer of Dexter, distinguished legis- 132 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY lator, orator and financier, is another illustrious son who first saw the light of day in the rugged town of Sangerville, and I have thought that his sterling character and powers of oratory might be due to the early inspirations which he gathered from the magnifi- cent scenery of Piscataquis and that grand uplift of mountain brow which reaches from Mt. Abraham on the west to old Katahdin, king of mountains, on the east. Honorable John Francis Sprague, your historian of today, is modest in the extreme, but nevertheless an able lawyer, politician, and author of note, prominent legislator in days gone by, versatile writer and now editor of "Sprague's Journal of Maine History." He and I are own cousins and used to go to school together in our native heath over in his famous "Cy Strong neighborhood." Honorable E. A. Thompson, late of Dover, noted physician, prominent politician of Maine, holding many important positions in county and state, used to take pride in the fact that Sangerville was the town of his birth. And sometimes, after enumerating a long list of your illustrious sons, would add, "and you know, Par- sons, you and I were born in Sangerville." Captain Abner T. Wade, of wide experience and knowledge, commanding appearance and great executive ability, was a strong personality of the town for many years. And in the early days there were Barnabus Bursley, our first register of probate; Daniel Dearth, father of a large family of boys and girls, a son, Judge Freeman D. Dearth, still practicing law in Dexter and postmaster of that town many years; Doctor Leonard Dearth, who practiced medicine in Foxcroft and later in Los Angeles; another son, Charles F. Dearth, former sheriff of Pis- cataquis, a prosperous citizen of Foxcroft. The Leland family of pioneer days whose descendants, thrifty farmers, still till the soil on the paternal acres to the third and fourth generations in the fertile Leland neighborhood. Thomas A. Sanders, and scores of others whose descendants have made your town and the Piscataquis valley a desirable place in which to dwell, are too, numerous to mention here but still revered by you. And during all this time your citizens have been interested not only in the progress of your own community, but in the world about you, in the gigantic strides of the Republic and forward march of the century. One hundred years! How brief a span in the history of the world, in the life of nations! And yet during that period what mighty Changes have been wrought upon this continent and other parts of the civilized world. Your citizens have been interested in them all. They have discussed them over the newspaper and periodical, and the more im- portant ones in groups and by the roadside. They have seen the slow mail, requiring; weeks for transmission across the continent, transplanted by the telegraph and telephone. The old stage coach replaced by the lightning express and overland limited moving sixty to one hundred miles per hour. The slow sail- ing vessel giving way to the huge leviathans of the deep and ocean greyhounds crossing the Atlantic in five days or less, and all lighted by electricity snatched from the clouds. And now, located as you are in the central portion of the state, you are expecting soon to see the flying machines, like huge birds of passage, hovering over your town or alighting on some of your smooth fields, their occupants to revisit the scenes of child- hood. And your young people, instead of discussing the anti- quated automobile, will be talking of the fancy (lips, curves and coasting thrills of the up to date machine. Great progress has been made in all the arts and sciences, and the town of Sangerville, like the rest of the universe, has benefited by it. The good housewife's duties have been lightened by the sewing machine and other inventions, while labor saving machinery upon the farm has exceeded the predictions of the most visionary. The new discoveries in science are continually startling the wise as well as the foolish, and through all the changes the nation has been growing and expanding as no other people upon earth, our progress being the marvel of the world. Mr. Parsons next referred in growing terms to our own state, the grandeur of the nation, the possibilities of the future, and some of the grave questions which, under ever-changing conditions, will have to be met. If the Republic endures, it must rest upon the bonor and integrity of the people. Much depends upon the rural HONORABLE Willis ELLIS PARSONS The son of Levi and Lydia (Ellis) Parsons was born in Sangerville, May 16,1854. Mr. Par- sons read law with the late Honorable Augustus G. Lebroke and was admitted to the bar in 1878 when he immediately formed a partnership as Lebroke & Parsons, which continued until his election as county attorney in 1884. He served three terms as county attorney, and was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1895 and the Maine Senate in 1897, serving on the Judiciary Committee and taking a leading part in legislation. He has been a member of the Republican State Committee; is one of the trustees of Foxcroft Academy; was presidental elector in 1912 and is now a member of the Board of Trustees of the State Hospitals. He is prominent in the order of Odd Fellows, having served as grand patriarch of the Grand En- campment of Maine and is now grand representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge. He is a member of the Society of Mayflowers and has twice served as governor of that society in this State. He is also a member of Mosaic Lodge, F. & A. M., of Foxcroft, is a member of the Chapter of St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar, of Bangor, and anoble of Kora Temple of Lewiston. He has acquired fame throughout the State as a political orator and public speaker. 135 ORATION 135 population, upon the great agricultural sections of the country. Like the rest of Maine, Sangerville is interested. "Her work is not finished," said the speaker, "but is just begun. She must continue to rear stalwart sons and daughters, who, as they go forth into the world, will be armed and equipped with right principles and the highest sense of justice toward all, that they may do their part in upholding the institutions of their fathers, and maintaining to all posterity the noblest nation that has ever blessed the sons of men, that beneath her flag, the emblem of liberty and good government, there may ever dwell a free, united and happy people." Speech of Sir Hiram Maxim (Read by Hiram Percy Maxim) Ladies and Gentlemen of Dear Old Sangerville: No one could regret more than myself my inability to be with you on this occasion-the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Sangerville. Let me tell you something about my early days in Sangerville. Shortly after my father, Isaac Maxim, married Harriet Stevens, built themselves a little house not far from Brockway's Mills, cleared a few acres of land and built a large barn. But I was not born in this little house. My father and mother went to Brock- way's Mills and took lodgings in old Estrus Nickerson's house and it was there that I was born on the fifth day of February, 1840. In the early spring, they returned to their little farm and lived there until I was six years of age. The thing that I remember the most is seeing a big bear chas- ing our sheep. My mother screamed and the bear stopped and looked at us; my father ran for his gun but before he could get out the bear was in the swamp. From the little farm we moved to French's Mills where my father had two wood turning lathes, one of the common sort for 136 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY turning bedstead posts, etc., and the other for turning wooden bowls which were much in demand at that time. We did not live very long at French's Mills however, but moved away to Milo, returning again to Sangerville village in the summer of 1856, where I worked for Augustus Williams making drag rakes and went to school in the winter following. At that time the village people used to assemble at Owen William's store of an evening. Cotton Brown's adopted son had been to Massachu- setts and brought back a first-class set of boxing gloves. I used to box with the boys of my own age but the boys of the same age as my brother Henry would not box with him because he was such a hard hitter. I remember one evening he was matcbed against a boy three years older than himself. He said it wasn't fair but Cy Prince was there, as large as life and twice as natural, and said, "That's nothing, I've often put on the gloves with old Elder Clark and he is more than twice as old as I am." Cy Prince was about thirty-two and Elder Clark was over eighty. By the way, Elder Clark was a cousin to my mother. His wife died while we were at Sangerville village and one day while I was walking up the main street I noticed approaching me what I took to be a very dapper young city man. He was dressed in black broadcloth with a black satin vest, white necktie, patent leather boots and the shiniest kind of a silk hat. He wore lemon colored kid gloves and carried the slimmest kind of a black cane with a gold head. His hair, eye- brows and moustache were jet black but his face was about the color of lard. It was old Elder Clark and a week later he was married to a maiden lady of forty. I regret exceedingly that I have nothing classical to write about Sangerville although I have a very soft spot in my heart for it, the land of my birth. Many years after I left, Sangerville I revisited Maine and of course Sangerville. I first visited Captain Samuel Maxim, my uncle who lived near Brockway's Mills, and the second day I started to walk through the woods down to French's Mills. As I emerged from the woods I saw a very old man working on the land with a hoe. When he saw me he dropped his hoe and walked towards me, seized my hand and said, "It is Hiram," then he commenced to laugh, lie said that I was "the queerest boy that ever lived." SPEECH 0F SIR Hiram Maxim 137 remonstrated and said that certain1y I was very much like other boys. "Not a bit," said he, "I was in your father's house at one time and you had a big bottle fly. You were holding it by both wings and pulling. Of course one wing came out and then you said in a very thoughtful manner, 'that fly's wings were not put in even ; if they had both been of the same strength they would both have come out at the same time.' Then again, you were the only boy in the world that would cut down a big tree with a butcher's knife. You caught every fish in the river and left nothing for any- one else." Of course the people in the State of Maine are nearly all of pure English descent. After living many years in New York City and coming to London it appeared to me that nearly everybody was fresh out from the State of Maine, they looked and talked alike. I have carried many of my State of Maine habits with me through my life; I have never tasted tobacco in any form ; I only commenced to di-ink wine after I was forty, but the quantity that I drink is not great; I am, however, very fond of my tea and it is the on1y drink that I care for. I wish I could weave some little romance round my sojourn in the town of Sangerville, but I can only think of one little episode: I was not very old at the time; my another left me with old Ma'am Edgley for the day and it appears that I (lid not behave myself as I should. The old lady was not particularly fond of children, especially naughty boys of tender age, so she twigged my ear with her thumb and finger; tier nail cut through the rim of my ear and made a notch that has lasted all my lifetime. When my mother retiurned home and found the blood running down my neck and my shit saturated there was a lively scene which I shall never forget. I shall have the notch in my ear to remember Ma'am Edgley. Goodbye and good luck, dear old friends in Sangerville. 138 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Speech by Honorable Stanley Plummer Honorable Stanley Plummer of Dexter spoke in part as follows: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been long out of practice in the art of public speaking and did not come here to make a speech, as your committee well knows. But I was born in this town and that is why I am here to- day for I have little respect for the man who does not love the place of his nativity-the old town in which, wherever else his feet may have strayed, wherever else his interests may have centered and his life focused, the first toddling step of his infancy was taken. Colonel Plummer then spoke for some time in a vein reminis- cent of the people and events of his early life, saving of his mother's birthplace: On the way to this celebration when we approached the high land at Jackson's Corner, near the spot where Uncle Sam Farn- ham, hale and hearty at eighty-four, was killed by lightning, with tender emotions I looked upon the fields on which my maternal grandfather toiled hard for his daily bread and very little more; the very house in which my dear mother's eves first saw the light of day, July 4, 1825, the old spring, too far away to suit our modern ideas of convenience, from which she helped to carry water, sweeter than the sweet waters of Europe which fall into the Golden Horn, for their frugal meals, and the remnants of the beautiful grove with its rocks and big boulders still undisturbed, on which as a little girl she delighted to play and as a big girl to sit and dream and dream as is the wont of our New England maidens of all generations. After more reminiscences suggested by the road leading to the farm of his paternal grandfather, the big woods which have now dis- appeared, and the immense boulder which his Bible-reading grand- father told him was cleft in twain at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, and the village, in his boyhood called the "mink-hole," but now thanks to water power development, one of the neatest, thrifti- est and most beautiful in the state, he closed as follows: Now, Mr. Chairman, while I am not ready to say that Sanger- ville is the best town on earth, coming as I do from the town which touches its southern border, I unhesitatingly say, it is next to the best. One regret presses constantly on my mind and heart today and STANLEY PLUMMER 139 that is that Owen B. Williams, William P. Oakes, Charles A. Clark, Doctor E. A. Thompson and the grand old centenarian, Moses Carr, did not live to see this anniversary today. How pleasant for us as well as, doubtless, for them would it be could they be here in body I as we love to hope they may be ill spirit. Fortunate is the town which has a citizenship so loval and pa- triotic that it could not let this anniversary day pass without due celebration and fortunate is the town which numbers among its liv- ing native sons such an orator as Willis E. Parsons, such a his- torian as John F. Sprague, and such a poet as William Smith Knowlton. HONORABLE STANLEY PLUMMER was born February 25,1846, in Sangerville,Maine. When seven years of age,he removed with his parents to Dexter, Maine, which has since been his domicile, except when he has been absent in the public service. He was educated in the public schools, Foxcroft and East Corinth Academies, Bow- doin College, and the Albany Law School. At the age of twenty-two, he became a Representatives in member of the House of the State Legislature from Dexter. He was county supervisorof public schools for Penob- scot County for two years; was chosen city solicitor of Bangor, but before entering upon his duties went to Washington to be chief clerk of the Department of the Interior. After two years' service in that position, he was made internal revenue agent, and served for years in all parts of the country. He was postmaster of the United States Senate for four years. In 1895 he was again a member of the State House of Representatives, and from 1899 to 1903 he was State Senator from the Tenth Senatorial District. In 1896 he was a Reed delegate to the Republican National Convention held at St. Louis, and the same year he presided over the Republican State Convention of Maine. During the four years, 1888 to 1892, he was colonel on the staff of the governor of Maine. In 1904 he married Miss Elisabeth Bur- bank, born in New Hampshire but then a resident of Boston, and-.together they made a tour of Palestine, Egypt and Europe. WILLIAM PITT OAKES Weymouth) Oakes and a direct descendant of Nathaniel Oaks who came to Massachusetts from England in 1660. He was born in Sangerville, March 8, 1838, and died in Foxcroft, Maine, February 1, 1913 son of Colonel William and Mary (Oakes) Oakes. He was a gradate of Colby Col- lege. For many Years he was a successful school teacher and was a member of the Piscata quis Bar. He was far famed throughout Eastern Maine as a very competent civil engineer and and surveyor. A writer for the press at the time of his decease well said of him: "Few men in Piscataquis County have left a record so full of usefulness, good Citizenship, fearless integrity and sound judgment as has William Pitt Oakes." LIST ()F CENTENNIAL COMMITTEES List of the Centennial Committees EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Alfonso F. Marsh, Chairman, Walter It, Farnham, Leslie M. Seabury, Secretary" John A. Wheeler, John Farr, Treasurer, Leslie 0. Demeritt, S. Valentine Ripley, Will E. Leland, James Lynch, John L. Howard, Elmer J. Prince Fred S. Campbell, Forest L. Hutc inson, Charles H. Sawyer, George P. Williams. RECEPTION COMMITTEE Mr. and Mrs. C. Winslow Thomas, Mr. and Mrs. Sanger A. Knowlton, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie 0. Demeritt, Representing Patrons of Husbandry. Mr. and Mrs. Omar F. Carr, Representing the Masonic orders. Mr. and -Mrs. Alfonso F. 'Marsh, Representing Independent Order Foresters. Mr. and Mrs. James Lynch, Representing Knights of Pythias. Mr. and Stillman Hutchins, Representing Ancient Order United Workmen. Mr. and Mrs. C. Leslie Weymouth, D. of H. HISTORICAL COMMITTEE. Alfonso F. Marsh, Will E. Leland, Walter R. Farnham. COMMITTEE ON ADVERTISING. Elmer J. Prince, Alfonso F. Marsh, Leslie M. Seabury. BALL COMMITTEE. John Farr, Floor Manager, Alfonso F. Marsh, Assistant Floor Manager. Aids. Thomas C. Parshley, Sangerville. Orville D. Carr, Sangerville. George P. Williams, Sangerville. Harry M. Bush, Dover. Frank Washburn, Guilford. Paul D. Sanders, Greenville. JUDGES ON PARADE. Archie L. Getchell, Bar Harbor. Harry M. Bush, Dover. Hiram Percy Maxim, Hartford, Conn. COMMITTEE ON SPORTS. Harold M. Carr, Forest L. Hutchinson, Arthur A. Witham. JOURNAL OF M 146 SPRAGUE'S AINE HISTORY James Lynch, S. Valentine Ripley, Fred S. Campbell, COMMITTEE ON PARADE. John L. Howard, George P. Williams, Will E. Leland, John L. Demerritt. COMMITTEE ON DECORATIONS. Elmer J. Prince, Fred S. Campbell, Walter R. Farnham. PROGRAM COMMITTEE. Marsh, Harold M. Carr, I Will E. Leland, Elmer J. Prince. Alfonso F. Marsh, John Farr, James Lynch, COMMITTEE ON REFRESHMENTS. John Farr. COMMITTEE ON MUSIC FOR PROGRAM. Harold M. Carr, Chas. N. Stanhope, Clifton E. Wass, Mrs. Maud Genthner. COMMITTEE ON COLLECTION OF ANTIQUES. D. Alden Jackson, Josiah F. Prince, George Pond Kendall P. Knowlton, ibal H. Campbell, Freeland D. Thompson, Hann Martin V. Smith, Charles Oakes, S. Valentine Ripley, Frank B. Lewis, Melvin J. Jewett, Gideon Dexter, Samuel M. Gile, Enoch A. Flanders, George H. Douty, Forest L. Hutchinson, Jedediah P. Leland. 140 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY HONORABLE WILLIAM SMITH KNOWLTON To whom reference is made on page 110. (Courtesy of Bangor Daily News) Remembrance in Rbynic By PROF. WILLIAM S. KNOWLTON. I haven't a theme, I knew 'twouldn't do, To politics talk wit II election in view - And yet I lament, with tearful regret, I can't say a word for the sweet suffragette. If I talk about sin, and things that are evil The Lawyer will think I mean him, or the devil. If I talk about death, that monster so grim, The doctor will think I am squinting at him. But, says the croaker, "the, Centennial Is the theme of the day for Poet and all." But, Pegasus' flight, tho' near to the stars, unshackled, free-lanced, and leaping all bars, Will fall to the earth in direful distress, In attempting to follow Bro. Parsons' address. And Sprague, so skilled in antiquarian lore, Can produce the jog-book of old Father Noah, REMEMBRANCE IN RHYME Could tell if the apple that Eve did devour Was bitter or sweet, or pleasant, or sour. Fair Sangerville, All hail! thy birth, Fairest land, to me, on earth. Each pond and river, hill and dale, Wood and stream and grassy vale, I love not less, though long away, The prodigal returns to-day. Like Manhannock's rocky shore, Black Stream lily padded o'er,. Majestic hills, whose native oak Still survives the axman's stroke, The towering church upon the hill, The blacksmith's shop, and Carleton's Mill, The fairest farms in ill the State And orchard fields, select and great, These all come back to me to-day, A tired child, come home to play. And what more lovely stream than this, Our boundary line, Piscataquis? Ah! Centre Pond, a sparkling gem, A diamond in a diadem, I sat, one day, beside that lake, Where every echo echoes make. Where water lilies fill the air, With perfume never known elsewhere. Where oft, at morn, or eve, or noon, Weird notes were heard, of duck or loon. The circling wood of spruce or pine, Perfumed the air like eglantine, The white birch, through the denser shade, Fantastic ghosts and shadows made. The daisied field of Spooner's land, Seemed a tiara ' s golden band. The fish hawk , circling round for prey) The Iambs in Flanders' field at play, The tiny waves along the shore, Sang their chansons o'er and o'er. The fragrant fir distilled its balm, The pine tree sighed a holy calm. In retrospection still I see They all come, back to-day to me. Here Father Sawyer preached and prayed, And married many a swain and maid. OD Muster Days-but stop, my pen- There wasn't prohibition then. My early youth I now recall, And memory reproduces all. Who don't remember Johnny Cleaves, With paper cap and rolled up sleeve,, With quaint conceit and ready joke? He always spat before he spoke. And Joseph Fowler, tall and slim, Sad of face and long of limb. He led the choir on Sunday, too, And sang as only saints can do. Stood first on heels and then on toes, And sang "old Hundred" through his nose. 142 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY And Colonel Oaks, with beaver hat, Gold headed cane and silk cravat, Was quite sublime, inspiring, grand. Lord of mansion, stock, and land. Silas Coburn's wrinkled face, Lapse of time will ne'er efface. He dyed his hair at sixty-two, Put on the soldier's coat of blue. More lasting fame he said he found, Than on domestic battle ground. Remember Aunt Lois, just under the hill, Her humble abode is standing there still. When arrayed in her best, with neckchief of blue, She surpassed any fashion plate, ancient or new. Even the suit Queen of Sheba had on When she humbugged that wily old King Solomon. She regarded the novel as a work of the devil, Put poetry, too, all on the same level. Read Uncle Tom's Cabin, every word, through and through, And read it again, then read it anew. "Papy" Gilman, called the "Squire," Of politics would never tire. He'd talk all night and sleep all day, And drove an antique "one-hoss shay." Remember Leonard Dearth, "By Gad," Was the only oath he had. He made sweet cider, so they say, And mowed potato tops for hay. He once had been a Democrat, And oft among the leaders sat. He then became Republican, And read the Tribunes, every one. My father was an old time Whig, Of the Daniel Webster Rig. When Daniel died, and Clay and Pratt, My father turned a Democrat, So he and Dearth could ne'er agree, And both were stubborn as could be. They'd argue long with zeal and zest, And never give the tongue a rest. And Heircey the Bishop, though his stature was short, Had a voice like Goliath of Gath. His whisper was mild as the dove's in its cote, But Niagara roared in his wrath. And good Deacon Drake, I remember quite well, He told me one Sunday I was sliding to hell. I ran to the house, put up my sled, And spent the whole day in terror and dread. The Deacon came of Puritan stock, Was firm in his faith as Plymouth's big rock. He hated the Baptists, and put on a level Universalist, Methodist, Bishop and Devil. And Brother Bridges, tall and straight, I heard him preach at eighty-eight. A grand old man, with classic face, He might have filled a broader place. He preached on Sundays, not for pay, And worked his farm each other day. And Brother Perry, staid and slow, REMEMBRANCE IN RHYME 143 With hair as white as driven snow, He'd preach at ten and afternoon, And cat his lunch in church at noon. In winter time, when north winds drove, They'd eat their dinner round the stove, They then would fill a long T. D., And smoke and talk Theology. At one o'clock with might and main, The preacher would expound again. The wreaths of smoke that round his head A whitened halo seemed to spread, An incense from an urn of clay, That drove all bitter thoughts away. While listening to some rash tirade, When preacher seekd to just upbraid, I've often thought that a T. D. Would soften his theology. Their children they trained in the fear of the Lord, Prayed with them first, then handled the rod. The boys were taught to reap and mow, To hold the plow, and real) and sow. And when he drove his old "mobile," It was a harrow with one wheel. They weren't allowed to courting run Till they were fully twenty-one, And when the climax came at last, To make the contract strong and fast, He'd to the old man straightway hie With sheepish look and downcast eye, And ask, as though in colic pain, "Please-Sir-may-l-have Mary Jane?" The girls were taught to knit and sew, And spin the wool, and flax, and tow. They'd on old Dolly's bare back hop, Take, her to mill or"blacksmith shop. They did their hair up in a knot, Each satisfied with what she'd got. Build looked as sweet in homespun tow, As costly silk, or calico. Each another saw, when Jane was wed, She had a cow and feather bed. When Rebel shots on Sumpter fell The house of Clark, in Sangerville, Became a camp of warriors true, Each one arrayed in Northern Blue, Went forth the Country's life to save, And wrench the shackles from the slaves They are sleeping now. For a moment let's pause, And let our heart beats record our applause. And others there are who gave up their all, And gathered at once at Abraham's call, And millions of men, through the length of the land, Honor, today, that patriot band. The sons of William G. Clark referred to were Whiting's., James and Frank, who were members of the First Maine Heavy Artillery, and Colonel Charles A. Clark, who was a member of the Sixth Maine Regiment. There were three other sons, George, Eugene and William G. Clark. These last named were too young to enlist. William G. is the only one now living, who is a lawyer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.-EDITOR. THE WOOLEN INDUSTRY OF SANGERVILLE 155 The Woolen Industry of Sangerville By Honorable Angus 0. Campbell At the close of the Civil War, some of the enterprising citizens of Sanger- ville, seeing that if the town was to be anything more than a cross road, with a blacksmith shop in the corner, formed a mutual company and built a building suitable for a woolen mill. Among those identified with this company were A. T. Wade, Jacob True, 0. B. William,,,, Moses Carr, Rob't Ordway, Edwin Jewett, Stoughton Newhall, and others which I can't now recall. Tills building was leased to D. R. Campbell and Wm. Fairgrieve, who took possession in 1868. Mr. Campbell purchased the interest of Mr. Fairgrieve in 1874 and ran this mill successfully until 1889 when he sold to the Carr family, who do business under the name of Sangerville Woolen Co. The original buildings were burned flat in 1891, but with indomitable energy they at once built a new and much better plant which has run continuously with marked success. The present officers Frank S. Carr, President; Fred H. Carr, Treasurer, and H. M. Carr, General Manager. In the year 1881, a stock company officered by Moses Carr, President; Abner T. Wade, Treasurer, and 0. B. Williams, Agent, built the Carleton Mills, on the original Carleton Mill privilege. This mill ran with variable success until 1910, when it was purchased by the Sangerville Woolen Co., who have since run it as a part of their plant. In the year 1885 the citizens of the town said to D.R. Campbell that if he would build a modern mill oil the lower privilege on Carleton stream,they would provide a site and build a dam. Thee fulfilled their contract, and in 1886 he erected one of the best mills in New England. In 1890 he took in his sons, A. 0. and D. O., and the company was known as D. R. Campbell & Sons, until 1900 when a close corporation called the Campbell Mfg. Co. was formed, the officers being D. R. Campbell, President, D. 0. Campbell, Treasurer, and Angus 0. Campbell, Agent and General Manager, which continued until the death of D. R. Campbell in 1911, when the heirs consolidated with a mill they owned at Dexter and it is now known as the Dumbarton Woolen Mills, the officers being Angus 0. Campbell, President, and George Park, Treasurer and General Man- ager. ager. The woolen industry has been the means of changing Sangerville from a small rural community to a large, prosperous village, filled with neat homes mostly owned by their occupants. The mills employ about two hundred opera- tives, and there is disbursed each month in wages the sum of fifty-five hun- dred dollars. The operatives are happy and contented; there are no labor unions, and there has never been a labor strike. Documentary History of the Town of Sangerville FROM PAPERS ACCOMPANYING CHAPTER 25, ACTS OF 1814 To the Honorable Senate and the Honorable House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General Court Assembled The Petition of the, undersigned, Inhabitants of Township Number four in the sixth Range of Townships north of the Waldo Patent & West of the Penob- scot River in the County of Hancock and District of Maine, Humbly shows, that there are about forty Families-in said Township who, in their present situation, laborer under many Burdens and Inconveniences which they are persuaded, might be removed or greatly alleviated if they were in a situation to enjoy the Privileges of an Incorporated Town DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF SANGERVILLE 157 They therefore respectfully request your Honorable Bodt that they ma by Incorporated into a Town by the Name of SANGERVILLE Bounded Easterly by Township Number three in the sixth Range of Townships, Southerly by Number four in the fifth Range Westerly by Number five in the sixth Range and Northerly by a part of Number five & a part of Number six in the seventh Range of Townships & in Duty bound will ever pray I c Sam" M Clanathan Walter Leland John Carsley Ebenezer Carsley Ellis Robinson Ebenezer Stevens Nath" Stevens John Stevens Edward Magoon Phi. Ames Daniel Ames Nathaniel Stevens Jr. Samuel Ames William Stevens Thomas Riley Samuel Waymouth James Waymoth Aaron Woodbury In the House of Representatives Feb y 11th 1814 Read & committed to the committee on Towns to consider & report. Sent up for concurrence Timothy Bigelow Speaker In Senate Feb. 15. 1814. Read & concurred t John Phillips Presid In Senate June 3. 1814 Read and Committed to the Committee on Towns Sent down for concurrence t John Phillips Presid d In the House of Representatives June 3: 1814. Read & Concurred Timothy Bigelow Speaker ACT OF INCORPORATION. Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen. An act to establish the town of Sangerville in the County of Hancock. Sec.l. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled and by the authority of the same That the township numbered four in the sixth range of township, north of the Waldo patent,in the county of Hancock, as contained within the following described boundaries; be, and hereby is established as a town by the name of Sangerville, viz: north by a line drawn on the middle of the river Piscataquis, east by the township numbered three in the sixth range, south by the township numbered four in the fifth range, and west by the township numbered five in the sixth range of townships. And the in- habitants of the said town of Sangerville are hereby vested by all the corporate powers and privileges, and shall also be subject to the same duties and requisitions DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF SANGERVILLE 159 as other corporate towns, according to the Constitution and laws of this Common- wealth. Sec. 2. Be it further enacted that any Justice of the Peace, for the County of Hancock, is hereby impowered, upon application there issue a warrant, fore' to ' directed to a freehold inhabitant of the said town of Sangerville, requiring him to notify and warn the inhabitants thereof, to meet at such convenient time and place as shall be appointed in the said warrant, for the choice of such officers as towns are by law required to choose and appoint at their annual town meeting. In the House of Representatives, June 13, 1814, this bill, having had three several readings, passed to be enacted. TIMOTHY BIGELOW, Speaker. In Senate, June 13, 1814, this bill, having had two several readings, passed to be enacted. JOHN PHILLIPS, Pres. June 13,1814. Approved CALEB STRONG ' See. Office A true copy June 5, 1814 Attest. A true record of copy. Attest, SAMUEL McCLANATHAN. PETITION FOR ORGANIZATION, ETC. March 13, 1815. To Nathaniel Chamberlain, Esquire, one of the Justices of the Peace in and for the County of Hancock. The Subsecribers free holders and Inhabitants of the town of Sangerville named in the foregoing Incorporation bill hereby re- quest that you issue a warrant as the law directs for the Organiza- tion of said town. Dated at 8angerville this thirteenth day of March, A. D., 1815. Names of petitioners. John Carsley, Ebenezer Carsley. Ellis Robinson, Edward Magoon, Samuel McClanathan, Walter Leland, Phineas Ames, Samuel Ames, Ebenezer Stevens, William Stevens. WARRANT Hancock ss. To Edward Magoon one of the free holders and Inhabitants of the Town of Sangerville. Whereas by an act of the General Court of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts passed the thirteenth day of June, A. D. 1814, Incorprorating the town of Sangerville in the said County of Hancock, it is enacted that any Justice of the Peace in said County may upon application issue a warrant to a freehold inhabitant of said town requirng 'him to notify and warn the Inhabitants to meet at some convenient time and place for the choise of such officers as the law directs towns to choose and appoint at their annual town meetings. And where John Carlsey and nine others of the Inhabitants of the said town of Sangerville have requested me to issue a Warrant for that purpose These are therefore in the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts to require you to notify and warn the freeholder, and other Inhabitants of said town, qualified by Law, to vote in town. affairs, to meet at the Dwelling house of William Farnham March 23, in said town on thursday the twenty third day of March Inst., 1815 at one of the Clock in the afternoon there and then to act upon the following articles, viz: Art. 1 To choose Moderator to govern said Meeting. Art. 2. To choose a Town Clerk. 160 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Art. 3. To choose three or more Selectmen. Art. 4. To choose Assessors of Taxes. Art. 5. To choose a Collector or Collectors. Art. 6. To choose one or more Constables. Art. 7. To choose a Treasurer. Art. 8. To choose all other necessary Officers. Art. 9. To agree where the town will hold their meeting in future. Art. 10. To act upon any other business that the town may think fit. And you are to make due return of this warrant with your, doings thereon unto myself on or before the day and time of meeting as you will answer your defaults under the pains and penalty of the Law. Given under my hand and seal the thirteenth day of March, A. D., 1815. Signed. Nathaniel Chamberlain, Just of Peace. RETURN OF WARRANT, ETC. Hancock ss. March 16, 1815. Pursuant to the within warrant to me directed. I have notified and warned the Inhabitants of the town of Sangerville as the law directs to meet at the time and place and for the pur- poses therein expressed. Signed. Edward Magoon. Record of proceedings at meeting. At a legal meeting of the Inhabitants of the town of Sangerville holden at the Dwelling house of William Farnham in said town on thursday the twenty third day of March, Anno Domini 1815 the following articles were acted upon, Viz: Art. 1. To choose a Moderator. Made choise of Nathaniel Chamberlain, Esquire to govern said meeting. Art. 2. To choose a Town Clerk. Made choise of Samuel McClanathan. Art. 3. To choose three Selectmen. Made choise of William Cleaves, Guy Carleton, & Charles Morgridge. Art. 4. To choose Assessors. Voted to choose three and made choise of William Cleaves, Guy Carleton, & Charles Morgridge. Art. 5. To choose one or more Collectors. Voted to choose one and made choise of John Carsley, who procured Stevens Spooner & William Farnham, who acknowledged themselves his sureties for the faithful performance of the duties of Collector & Con- stable. Art. 6. To choose a Constable. Made choise of John Carsley. Art. 7. To choose a Treasurer. Made choise of David Douty. The above Officers sworn into office by Nathaniel Chamber- lain, Esquire, Just the Peace. Art. 8. To choose all other necessary officers. Made choice of John Carsley, Andrew Philbrick and William Hinckley to serve the town as Fish Wardens. . Surveyors of Boards, made choise of Levi Proutvand David Douty. Surveyors of Shingles and clapboards, made choise of Ebenezer Stevens. Fence Viewers, made choise of Phineas Ames, Jacob Jewett and Andrew Philbrick. Hogreeves, made choice of William Hinkley, Andrew Philbrick, Samuel Ames, Moses Rollins, Enoch Adams and Joseph Clough. Pound keeper, made choise of William Farnham. Field Drivers, made choise of William Hinkley, William Oakes, William Cleaves and Daniel Austin. The above Officers were qualified or sworn into Office by Nathaniel Chamberlain, Esquire, Just of Peace. A true copy of Original Record. B. C. Goss, Attest. 1815. April 2, 3. MEETING FOR TOWN BUSINESS. At a Legal meeting of the Inhabitants of the town of Sangerville assembled at the Dwelling house of Jesse Brockway on the first Monday of April, A. D. 1815, to act on the following Articles, 162 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Article 1. To choose a Moderator, made choise of Stevens Spooner. Art. 2. To see if the town will accept of the report of the committee chosen to divide said town into School districts. The report was ac- cepted. Art. 3. To -choose Highway Surveyors, made choise of David Douty, James Waymouth, Samuel McClanathan, John Carsley, William Oakes & Joseph Clough. The above surveyors sworn by Town Clerk. Art. 4 & 5. To see how much Money the town will raise to make and repair town roads-Voted to raise four hundred Dollars for the above purpose and to allow ten cents per hour for labor on said Roads, and voted that the surveyors should be collectors. Art. 6. To see how much money the town will raise for the support of schools-Voted to raise one hundred and fifty dollars. Art. 7. To see how much money the town will raise for to defray town charges-Voted to raise one hundred dollars for that purpose. Art. 8. To see if the town will take grain to pay town charges. It was a vote-Voted to allow one dollar and thirty-four cents for wheat per bushel and one dollar per bushel for Rye and one dollar Do 1815. Art. 9. To see if the town will allow Samuel McClanathan, John Carsle & Enoch Adams for their services the year 1813-Voted to allow their accounts. Art. 10. To see if the town will exempt William Haynes from paying a poll tax-Voted that he should be exempted. their Minister- Art. 1 1. To see if the town will accept William Oakes as Voted to strike out said Art. Art. 12. To see if the town will raise money to build a Bridge across North west stream near Carleton Mills-Voted to raise thirty Dollars. Art. 13. To see if the town will allow Edward Magoon for warning the S. town Meeting-Voted to allow hint one Dollar and fifty cents. Art. 14. To see if the town will allow Samuel McClanathan the Money which he paid for the expence of the Incorporation Bill- Voted to allow said account. Art. 15. To see if the town will dissolve this Meeting. It was a vote. A true Copy of Record, Sam'l. McClanathan, Town Clerk. Art. 16. To choose a committee to divide the town into School districts made choise of Samuel McClanathan, John Carsley, William Cleaves, Guy Carleton and Charles Morgridge. Art. 17. To agree where to hold future Meetings-Voted to hold said Meetings at the Dwelling house of Jesse Brockway. 1815. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL DISTRICTS. April. To see in what way the Town Meetings shall be warned-Voted to warn Meetings by posting warrants. Art. 19. To see if the town will accept of the report of their committee chosen to divide the Town of Sangerville into School Districts. REPORT. Your Committee chosen to divide the Town of Sangerville into School districts held at the Dwelling house of Jesse Brockway on the first day of April, 1815. DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF SANGERVILLE 163 The division is as follows. Viz: School District Number one is bounded as follows-' District Beginning at the North west corner of Lot No- 10 in the first ge No. 1. of lots thence South to the South line of said Town r .. I t ,thence Eas to the North east corner of said Town, thence West to the first mentioned bounds, which is to constitute district No. one. District Number two is bounded as follows. Viz: Beginning at the North west corner of lot No. 1, in the first District range of lots thence West to the North west corner of said Town th ence South to range No. 4 which shall constitute District No. 2. Number two. District Number three is bounded as follows: Beginning at the range line between the third and fourth ranges at the West line of said Town thence South to the South west 1815. corner of said Town thence East to District No. 1-thence west No. 3. to the first mentioned bounds which is to constitute District Number three. Signed. Samuel McClanathan John Carsley William Cleaves Committee Guy Carleton Charles Mogridge Attest. Sam'l McC han, Town Clerk. Copy of Record from original. Attest. B. C. Goss. MEETING FOR CHOISE OF STATE OFFICERS. 1815. At a Legal meeting of the Inhabitants of the town of Sangerville April assembled at the Dwelling house of Jesse Brockway on the first Monday of April, 1815, to give in their votes for Governor, Lieut. Governor and Senators. The votes where as follows: For Governor Gov. His Honour, Samuel Dexter had twenty-one votes. His Excelleney, Caleb Strong had nine votes, James Carr, Esq. had one vote. For Lieut. Governor. Lt. Gov. Honorable William Gray had twenty-one votes, Honorable William Phillip has eight votes. Rep. Sen. Mark L. Hill Martin Kinsley and had twenty-two William D. Williamson, Esquires votes each Benjamin Hasey had nine votes Esquires each Copy. . ttest. McClanathan, Town Clerk. B. C. Goss. 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