JOHN MARDEN LETTER-A HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF PALERMO ME. by Allen Goodwin Belfast, ME: The Age Publishing Co. 1896 Page 1-10 PREFACE Who is there that does not wish to know what has passed among his ancestors in early day. In preparing this brief record of Palermo, it has been my aim to present to the reader what has long past, and I have endeavored to insert only facts, based upon good au- thority and wish the readers to remember in reading these old names that they long ago passed way and many of these old names that have been handed down to the second and third generation. Many thanks are due those who have in any way assisted in preparing this work and it is my desire that it may be of interest to those of the present day and the rising generation -ALLEN GOODWIN. CHAPTER I. I have in my possession an account of the early settlement of Palermo, written forty years ago by my grandfather, Deacon John Marden. Thinking it may be of interest to some of the residents as well as former residents of the town, I have concluded to have it published, together with other facts concerning the early history of Palermo. My grandfather came to Palermo, Maine, in 1793, with his brother, Deacon Stephen Marden, who took up a farm on what is now known as Marden Hill. He made his home with him for eight years. Then he settled on the farm joining, and their brother Benjamin on one joining theirs on the west. He was deacon of the First Baptist Church for many years. He died August 25, 1860, at the age of eighty-one years. The only one of this children now living is a son, Nathan L. Marden of Veazie, Maine. I remember my dear old grandfather, as his presence adorned the home of my childhood, and I think of him as the good old Elijah who sat by the brook side. Listen to what he has to say: "I, John Marden, was born in the Town of Chester, in the County of Rockingham and the State of New Hampshire, Feb. 18, 1779. When I was in my third year my father was killed by the falling of a tree in the Town of New Hampton, and County of Strafford, N.H., on the nineteenth day of June 1781. He was forty-four years of age. My mother was left a widow in poor circumstances, with the care of eight children, and one added to that number on the twenty-ninth of September following. It being in the time of the Revolutionary war she had many hardships to encounter, having but little but her hands and good economy to support her family, yet she bore her trouble with a good degree of Christian patience. In the year 1783 a treaty of peace was signed between the United States and Great Britain, which gave her some relief. In the year 1790 my eldest brother moved her and the younger part of the family to the town of Canterbury, where she spent the remainder of her life in comfortable circumstances to the day of her death, which was on the third day of November, 1830, aged about ninety-one years. January, 1793, I came into the District of Maine, at the age of fourteen years.--in the County of Lincoln (now Waldo) and took up my residence at a place called the Great Pond Settlement at the extremity of the Sheepscot Pond. I had many hardships to encounter being the only youth in the place. The nearest mill was twelve miles, through a lonely wood, with but little better than a footpath and spotted trees. Yet with pleasing prospects I looked forward to the time when this good land would be settled. When school houses and mills would be built and roads made, and this wilderness would become a fruitful field. I took great pleasure in visiting my friends in N. H. once in every three years, although I had to travel the distance of two hundred and twenty miles on the frozen ground in the month of November or December. I worked with my brother, Stephen Marden, until I was twenty-two years of age, when I bought the farm on which I now live, with the barn then built and a loghouse thereon. April 23, 1801, I was united in marriage with Mary Bagley of Liberty, and moved on to the farm that spring with a pleasing prospect of enjoying happiness. For three of four years we were favored with good health and our crops came in bountifully and all thing bespoke prosperity. Jan. 22, 1805, I was severely wounded by the falling of a tree. Then my sufferings were very great. Yet my mind was happy in the Lord, and I could truly say 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.' On the third day of February I had my left leg amputated above the knee, which was very expensive at that time, so that my future prospects of happiness in this world began to decay. In April following we chose our town officers for the first time. I took a part with them in collecting taxes and serving precepts, etc. This year with the past will long be remembered as a season of great religious excitement in this town and vicinity. A Baptist Church was organized that season and many were added therto. I was baptized and added to the church at the next August conference. On the tenth day of September my companion was taken sick and died on the sixteenth-- with rash and putrid wfever--aged about twenty-two. My little son died on the twenty-first, aged three and a half years. I had two children left to the mercies of the people. A daughter, Eliza, two years old and a little son, Hiram, six days old. Then was my house left to me desolate and everything of this world's was clothed in gloom. All my future prospects gone and the lonely graveyard was the pleasantest place that I could visit. I could truly say with the Psalmist: 'Had not thy word been my delight When earthly joys were fled, My soul oppressed with sorrows' weight Had sunk among the dead.' I was then led to put my trust in the Lord and since that time I have witnessed much of his goodness. I disposed of my children where they were nursed with tenderness and care. I left my house and attended to my business in Town that fall. In the winter I went to New Hampshire to visit my friends. I returned in the spring and finished my collecting and engaged in Town business again. In the year 1805 I let out my farm to Elder Robinson and Dr. Pratt with little expectation to pay the bills and save the farm. I earned what I could. I found I had many friends to encourage me and made me some presents. I was encourage to try and pay the bills and save the farm. This season I formed an acquaintance with Mrs. Eunice Ward of Harlem (now China) which was left a widow about the same time-- and near the same age, with three children, two daughters and a son, the eldest sic years and the youngest seventeen months, with about seven or eight hundred dollars worth of property for their support. She was a professor of religion and a member of the Baptist Church in Harlem. We were united in marriage on the twenty-fourth day of August, 1806, and moved home an commenced keeping house that fall. She assisted me to pay the bills and stock the farm. I was encouraged to pursed a course of farming for a living and attend to Town business and such labor as I could do. Soon after this I was chosen Town Clerk and kept the records, which was continued about twenty years. In the year 1816 I was appointed firs Post Master in Palermo, which was continued about seven years. Having the company and assistance of a prudent and industrious companion I have enjoyed much peace of mind for many years and have witnessed much of the goodness of the Lord. We were members of the First Baptist Church in Palermo forty-five years. We took much satisfaction with our Christian friends both in prosperity and in adversity. In the year 1850 my companion was sick, and died Feb. 28, 1851, aged seventy years and four month. We had nine children. For a few years past I have witnessed much what I read in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes of the aged. 'Yet God is the strength of my heart. Although He cause grief yet He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. He has been my friend and protector in youth and middle age, and I trust He will not forsake me when my strength falls. Therefore will I trust in Him as long as I live.' Where I reside is about twenty mile northeasterly of Augusta, then called (Fort Weston). The inhabitants east and north of my residence were but few at that time. Several small settlements were made in the woods, and generally called after the first settler or by an old Indian name of the ponds or streams. The lad was very good for crops of corn and rye. Each settler made heir choice for a farm. No taxes were called for at that time. There were no framed buildings east or north of my residence for the space of twelve or fifteen mile and three or four miles to the south and west until the next April, 1793, when two barn frames were put up, to the great joy of the settlers, but more so to the owners. After about ten years Townships were laid out, and petitions were sent to Massachusetts for incorporation, which were readily granted. Then school houses were built and roads were made. Then this wilderness began to bud and blossom like a rose and soon became a fruitful field. In the year 1820, this district was admitted into the Union with the other States, by the name of Maine, to the great joy of the inhabitants. Now while I am writing, the increasing wealth and population of Maine leads my mind back to the days of my youth, when these settlers were all laboring men, engaged in their several occupations, such as clearing land, raising crops, putting up buildings and fences in the summer and fall. In the winter and spring all engaged in lumbering, hunting and sugar making, which was much of it done in the forest at that time. These settlers were all very poor, but as 'happy as clams' and as friendly to each other as monkeys. What a change has been made since my acquaintance no further abroad than even within the County of Waldo. Then, what is now Palermo had twenty-six families; Montville and Liberty both had about twenty families and Freedom had none. Belfast village was but thinly inhabited. Some parts of it was like a forest of evergreen. There was no wharf at that time. Coasting vessels were loaded with cordwood by wheeling on a partly hewed stick of timber from the shore to the ship. There were but two traders in the village at my firs acquaintance, namely, NaSmith and Creamer. The road from Montville to Belfast was through a forest of swamps without any bridges. The horses had to all go in one track through the swamps, with a ridge between their stepping places, to give a foot person a chance to walk over the wet places with out wading through the mud and water. Now from here to Belfast is one of the best of stage roads, passing through among wealthy farmers, merchants and mechanics. And now Belfast is one of the pleasantest cities in the State, with one of the best, safest and pleasantest harbors that can be found on the Eastern shore. In plain view of all the shipping which sails on the Penobscot Bay, and in view of the Castine light-house, also of the level, rich and beautiful country bordering on the north-eastern shore of that beautiful bay, together with a partial view of Islsboro and Castine on the south and east, to a distance of twelve miles, which adds much to the beauty of the place. With a regular line of Steam-ships from Bangor to Boston, coming to and going from the wharves daily." I rejoice in the prosperity of Maine, but I cannot repress the rising sigh; nor withhold the falling tear. I look around for my old contemporaries and find so few of them left. The enquiry is, where are they? Answer, there are cut down by the seythe of time, and housed in the silent grave. And the few that are left are worn down with age and infirmities too numerous for me to name. Some with the loss of sight and hearing; some with the loss of their limbs; some with palsied hands; and others with general debility's, etc. And but very few, if any, are able to take care of themselves, but have mostly given themselves up to the care of their children, or grandchildren, or the town to provide for them. And very soon the last will be gone the way of all the earth, their bodies turned to dust, and their names forgotten, and Maine will be inhabited by entire strangers to what has passed in my day. Now a telegraph line is erected the whole width of the State of Maine, from city to city, from New Brunswick to New Hampshire, to the length of four or five hundred miles. Again, look at the railroads that are already completed, and those that are now under way. All the above has been done in about twenty years. Who would have though that the stream of intemperance could have been turned and dried up by the art of man, when its width and depth was sufficient to run a mill to saw lumber to build a village as large as Unity or Freedom, so that the stream now can be forded and soon I trust will be like a rill, running under ground, and the bed of the river will soon become like a fruitful field. Written at Palermo, June 8, 1855, at the age of 76 years. Signed, JOHN MARDEN c) 1998 Courtesy of the Me GenWeb Kennebec County Site ************************************************* * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. 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