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  Eastern Maine and the Rebellion: being an account of the principal local events in eastern Maine during the war

  Ruel H. Stanley and George O. Hall

  Introduction

  It has been our endeavor in these pages, to depict the scenes and incidents occuring at home, during the Rebellion, rather than the giving of a minute description of the varied experiences of the thousands, who marched away from Eastern Maine, at their Country's call.

  We lay no claim to high literary merit, simply placing before you, in condensed form, the facts; believing that as the memories of the older readers are quickened, and the younger generation learn of the experiences of fathers and mothers, in their efforts to preserve the Union, all will find something of deep interest.

  R.H. Stanley / Geo.O. Hall

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  Report of Commissioners appointed under resolve approved March 10, 1887, to investigate condition of settlers in Madawaska Territory

  State of Maine

  Sample text:

  The work of these commissions and all deeds and conveyances made under their reports, it must he remembered, had reference only to lands on which there were settlers at the date of the treaty, 1842. The settlers who dwelt on these lands were a sturdy, contented race, and not inclined to be migratory. Many of them had large families, and with the rapid increase of population their children, and children'si children have come forward to be the heads of families. At first, provision was made for them by a division of the treaty lot owned by the father; but there is a limit to such subdivision, and soon these river or treaty lots were occupied to their full extent. The population then broke over the boundary lines of the treaty lots and the younger generation spread out in nearly every direction. Under laws then existing these settlers could secure title to the wild lands, under certain conditions, by payment therefor in labor on roads.

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  The Narraguagus Valley : Some Account of its Early Settlement and Settlers

  James Alphonso Milliken

  A glance at the map of the western part of Washington County will show that any treatment of the early settlement upon the Narraguagus River, necessarily involves more or less of the histories of Steuben, Milbridge, Harrington and Cherryfield.

  Steuben was formerly township "No. 4, East of Union River," and No. 5 comprised the territory now included in the towns of Milbridge and Harrington. The town of Cherryfield is composed of No. 11, Middle Division, Brigham Purchase, and of the northeastern part of what was formerly Steuben. All that part of Cherryfield lying south of the mills on the first or lower dam was, prior to 1826, a part of Steuben, and was called Narraguagus to distinguish it from the settlement in the southwestern part, which was called "Head of the Bay," and the postoffice at Cherryfield was called "Narraguagus" until within some twenty-five years past. What is now the flourishing town of Milbridge was a part of Harrington until 1848. Harrington (No. 5) was incorporated as a town in 1791, Steuben (No.4) in 1795, Cherryfield (No. 11) in 1816, and the northeast part of Steuben was annexed to Cherryfield in 1826. I find that prior to the incorporation of Harrington, that township and No. 11, Cherryfield, held their plantation meetings and kept their records as one organization. At that time most of the settlers in Harrington lived at Mill River, where the earliest settlement was -made. There was no settlement at what is now Harrington village until several years later.

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  The western boundary of Massachusetts: a study of Indian and colonial history

  Franklin Leonard Pope

  Preface

  In the following historical sketch, the substance of which was embodied in a paper read at the quarterly meeting of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society, in May, 1885, an attempt has been made to trace with some care the sequence of events which led to the final establishment of the existing boundary between the states of Massachusetts and New York.

  The history of this particular boundary has been involved in political complications, which tend to confer upon it a more than local and temporary consequence. Indeed, it is not improbable that the collateral results of the present investigation may be, by many, regarded as of more interest, if not actually of greater importance, than those more immediately aimed at.

  Among the indirect results which have thus rewarded the author's researches, may be mentioned the new light which has been thrown upon the local history of the Indian nation originally occupying the country between the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers; a connected relation of the origin, progress, and results of the anti-rent troubles, which disturbed the peace and good order of the state of New York for more than a century; and the important fact, now for the first time clearly established, that the permanent settlement of Berkshire county was commenced by pioneers from the valley of the Hudson, at a very much earlier date than has hitherto been supposed.

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  4th Annual Report of the Temporary Home for Women and Children of Maine

  Temporary Home for Women and Children of Maine

  The Managers of the Temporary Home for Women and Children present their fourth annual report with an increasing confidence in their work, claiming that their charity is "far-reaching and true." While the immediate wants of these needy ones are first attended to, the best efforts of the ladies are given to show them it is happier to lead better lives than degraded ones -- to bring personal influence to bear on each, to persuade them to industry, thrift, honesty, faithfulness to their children, and all that tends to a higher morality; in short, "to give right direction to lives that from inheritance, misfortune or wrong doing would otherwise tend to poverty and sin."

  One of our greatest aids in these efforts is the influence of a home -- a blessing hitherto unknown to most of our inmates; many of them return during a change of places as to their own home, and we find them susceptible to the reformatory control of the matron and her assistant.

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  Practical Suggestions on Indian Affairs

  Mary Clementine Collins and American Missionary Association

  To the Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs :

  I now endeavor to comply with your request to give you m writing some of my own ideas in regard to practical work among the Indians. I can speak only for the Dakotas, as my acquaintance with Indians does not extend beyond this tribe.

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  3rd Annual Report of the Temporary Home for Women and Children of Maine

  Temporary Home for Women and Children of Maine

  It is with a feeling of great satisfaction and even of gratitude that we present the third annual report of the work of this society.

  A year ago found us with our new building insured indeed and well begun but with only part of the necessary funds secured. But thanks to the faithful efforts of the managers and the generosity of some of our friends outside, the needed amount was raised, so that we entered our new home early in November free from debt.

  The building has proved to be admirably adapted to our needs and is not only an essential factor in the physical well-being of the inmates but contributes largely we believe to the success of the more important part of our work-the reforming and elevating of those for whom we labor.

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  Report on Supplying the City of Ellsworth, Maine, with Pure Water

  H. A. Hancox

  Introduction

  "Gentlemen: I have the honor to herewith respectfully submit for your consideration a plan for supplying the City of Ellsworth with pure water for domestic and industrial uses, as well as for the purpose of subduing fire."

  What follows is boilerplate arguments for convincing the unconvinced in the value of public water systems. Not until page 10 are any specifics to Ellsworth detailed. Potential sources of water are Simmons Pond, Union River, Reed's Pond, Little Rocky Pond, and Branch Pond.

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  2nd Annual Report of the Temporary Home for Women and Children of Maine

  Temporary Home for Women and Children of Maine

  The plea for the Home recently sent out by the Executive Committee has made it unnecessary to say anything of the general purpose of our work, which indeed is, by this time, becoming quite well-known, and has left us free to give a simple account of the year's doings, and to furnish some details which perhaps may make still clearer the object of the institution we represent.

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  1st Annual Report of the Temporary Home for Women and Children

  Temporary Home for Women and Children

  In reviewing the work done by us, in this, the first year of our organization, it seems desirable to give a brief sketch of the causes which led to the establishment of the Home. Early last spring a few ladies met to incorporate a new charitable society, having as its object, ''to provide shelter for the women and children of the State, who might be found in the streets, or in bad homes, in police stations, or in public institutions, or discharged from imprisonment, or who are reduced to dependence on public charity and who are not elsewhere provided with a beneficent home influence."

  lt had been for years the aim of the station committee of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, to provide for women discharged from imprisonment, homes in some neighborhood, where the surroundings should be such as to encourage them to make a fresh start in life. But places are not found without searching, where a woman of wrong tendencies and a dark record in the past will be received, and the need was deeply felt of a temporary place of shelter, where a good influence could be exerted and the first impulses given towards a better life, while efforts were making towards procuring a more permanent home.

  There was a desire to help another class of women also, whose weak moral natures had led them to yield to temptation, and who had been made to feel in consequence that they were outside the reach of sympathy, and that any effort to lead a virtuous life was hopeless. Many of these were in homes where all the influences were bad, and the only hope lay in removing them entirely from their former associations. In addition to those of openly immoral lives, there were others who needed to be shielded from temptation, especially children, who from unfortunate surroundings were almost sure to grow up into vicious and dangerous members of the community, should they have no restraining and ennobling influences thrown around them.

  A consideration of all these facts, led to the meeting which has been referred to, for the incorporation of this society. This was held on April 6th, 1882. Later, the number of ladies was increased and constituted a board of managers, an advisory board of gentlemen and an auxiliary state committee were chosen, and the organization completed.

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  The City of Bangor in 1883: Published by the Bangor Board of Trade

  Bangor Board of Trade

  Pamphlet describes itself as : "A condensed historical and descriptive review, together with a brief statement of facts relating to her commercial and manufacturing advantages, industries, and resources. Also her heading manufactures and exports for the year 1882"

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  Old Town and Milford Water Power

  J. R. Bodwell and Milford Land and Lumber Company

  A brief pamphlet seeking investors to buy land in Milford and Old Town, Maine, so that an public/industrial water power supply system may be constructed for use of those and surrounding towns.

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  History of the Boston and Bangor Steamship Company [Formerly Known as Sanford's Independent Line (1823-1882)]

  Boston and Bangor Steamship Company

  The Sanford Steamship Company was incorporated in 1875; the wharf properties at several landings on the Penobscot River, and the steamer Cambridge and Katahdin having been owned previous to that time by a private association or firm, formed in pursuance of the laws of the State of New York, under the style of the Sanford Company, the line being generally known as Sanford's Independent Line.

  In 1875, these properties were all transferred to a new corporation, and the Sanford Steamship Company was incorporated and organized under the laws of Massachusetts. In January, 1882, by an enactment of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the corporate name of the Sanford Steamship Company was changed to the Boston and Bangor Steamship Company.

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  A Sketch of Bangor

  George F. Godfrey

  Jacob Buswell came to Bangor in 1769, and settled on the banks of the Penobscot River, near the foot of what is now Newbury Street. Others from Massachusetts and elsewhere soon followed him.

  The settlement was originally called and written Condeskeag. Later, when it became large enough to be incorporated, its name was Sunbury; but in 1791 an act of incorporation was obtained, and the town was named Bangor, from an old psalm-tune popular at that time.

  For thirty years succeeding the advent of the first pioneer, few people came to this locality, -- there being but 277 inhabitants in 1800; in 1830 there were but 2,868.

  In 1834 Bangor was incorporated a city. At present (1882) its population is about 20,000; but being the shire-town of Penobscot County, centrally located at the head of navigation on the Penobscot River, and the headquarters of a large lumber business, it gives the impression of being much more populous. Surrounded as it is by numerous small towns and a large agricultural district, it is a trade-centre of no little importance.

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  City of Bangor: City Councils and Mayors from the Incorporation of the City, in 1834, to 1881

  City of Bangor, Maine

  A listing of the members of the city councils and common councils of Bangor, Maine, from 1834 to 1882, as well as a directory of Bangor Mayors for the same time period.

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  A Circular to Sea Captains and Other Seafaring Men

  Portland Society of Natural History

  Pamplet serves as a plea to the seafaring public by the Portland Society of Natural History to help in gathering objects from the ocean and about the ocean to add to its collections

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  The Consolidated Hampden Silver Mining Company

  Consolidated Hampden Silver Mining Company

  The Consolidated Hampden Silver Mining Company is composed of two corporations organized under the general laws of Maine: The Dunton Silver Mining Company of Hampden, Maine, and the Hampden Silver Mining Company; whose property and capital stock were united under one management by a special act of the Legislature of Maine, approved February 13th, 1880.

  Pamphlet contains: 1) Geological Report upon the Dunton Mining Property by W.F. Stewart, Geologist and Mineralogist, Bangor, Maine, November 25th, 1879; 2) W.F. Stewart's letter from March 27th, 1880, to the President and Directors of the Consolidated Hampden Silver Mining Company; 3) The State of Maine's act, which was approved February 13, 1880, to consodiated the Hampden Silver Mining Company and the Dunton Silver Mining Company; and 4) The by-laws of the Consolidated Hampden Silver Mining Company

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  Old Boston for young eyes

  Mrs. Ephraim Peabody

  Boston, Dec. 1, 1880:

  My Dear Children: - I think it will interest you to hear about Boston in former days; and I shall tell you not only what I myself remember but also what I have heard from still older persons. Boston was built on a peninsula,- which is. a point of land not quite surrounded by water, but connected with the mainland by a narrow neck. This neck is now so built upon and enlarged by filling in the water on either side that you could scarcely discover it, but on it was the road leading to Roxbury, which is now called Washington Street. You could fee the water on both sides of the road in my youth,- the ocean on one side, and Charles River on the other. The Indians called this peninsula Shawmut.

  Mrs. Ephraim Peabody

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  The New Book of Chronicles in Eight Chapters [Compiled by the Dexter Correspondent James Dwight Maxfield of "The Newport Times"]

  R.O. Robbins

  A parody of Maine politics circa 1879, written in the form of a chapter of the Bible, recounting the contentious four candidate1879 Maine gubernatorial race. A huge cast of characters and political parties are present. "King Gasslon" clearly refers to the Governor of Maine from 1879 to 1880 Alonzo Garcelon. Garcelon oversaw the "Greenback" controversy, when he investigated alleged voter fraud and determined that the Democrats and not the Republicans had won a majority in the legislature. Senator James Blaine arrived at the Capitol in Augusta with a hundred armed men to protest the results, and Garcelon called out the state militia. Intervervention by a group lead by Joshua Chamberlain helped to restore order. Garcelon's term as Governor ended less than two months later.

  The incident was profiled in the books Ballot Battles by Edward B. Foley, and Joshua Chamberlain: The Soldier and the Man by Edward Longacre. It was also detailed in a November 2020 article from Downeast Magazine by Brian Kevin called (online) "What Happened When a Maine Governor Tried to Rig an Election" and (in print) "A Governor Tries to Steal an Election."

  James Dwight Maxfield, the author, served on the staff of Daniel F. Davis, the winner of the race, and rightful successor to Garcelon [Source: September 16, 1884, Lewiston Evening Journal"]. "The men of Daniel" are one of the characters Maxfield references throughout the piece.

  A truly interesting semi-first hand, yet satirical, account of a forgotten incident of Maine's political and social history known to many at the time as "the Twelve Days that shook Maine."

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  Report of the Commissoner Appointed by the Governor and Council of Maine to Locate and Survey Bridges Across the St. John and St. Francis Rivers, Connecting the United States with the Dominion of Canada

  State of Maine

  Introduction

  The undersigned, Commissioner appointed to confer with the authorities of the Dominion of Canada or their representatives, upon the subject of bridges across the St. John and St. Francis rivers, and to report upon the importance, number, location, estimated cost, and any other fact, asks leave to report: That I proceeded to the Barker House in Fredericton, N. B., and by arrangement by telegraph, I met the Hon. Charles F. Perley, Chief Engineer of the Dominion from Ottawa, and after a full and free conference and inter-exchange of views, be directed George E. McLaughsan and Francis Lawler, his assistant civil engineers, to accompany me and fix upon the location and make the survey, estimates of costs, and all necessary information connected with this great national enterprise.

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  Picturesque Maine

  Moses Foster Sweetser

  Opening paragraphs:

  Maine, the Pine Tree State, covers an area of about thirty-two thousand square miles, nearly half of the soil of New England; and is equal in size to Scotland or Ireland, or to Belgium and Holland combined. It is more than double the size of Greece, and one-seventh as large as Texas. A tenth of this area is occupied by inland lakes, the reservoirs of the great rivers; and nearly two-thirds is still primeval forest, from whose timber scores of cities are yet to be built throughout the Atlantic States. It is in this noble wilderness, large enough to ingulf States and principalities, that the abounding natural attractions abide which draw myriads of visitors each returning season.

  The population of Maine is not far from six hundred thousand souls, dwelling by the rivers, in the belt between the ocean and the forest, and subsisting mainly by commerce and manufactures. Swarming from this northern hive, like their Gothic ancestors, scores of thousands of enterprising pioneers have migrated to the far West, to found new realms in the silent heart of the continent; or have spread through the elder Atlantic States, where their energy and determination are everywhere conspicuous.

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  Nathaniel Hawthorne: An oration delivered before the alumni of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, July 10, 1878

  Joseph White Symonds

  Sample paragraph:

  At the age of fourteen, Hawthorne came to reside with his mother in the house which her brothers had built for her on their new lands in Maine -- a large house, the walls of which are still standing, near the shores of Sebago Lake, in Raymond. He lived there several years, at different times, including some of the vacations of his college course. They were days of delight. With gun or fishing-rod in hand, he wandered at will through the unbroken forest, skirted the shores of the lake in his bouat, watching the lights and shadows on near and distant mountains, or, in winter, when the moonlight was on the ices, skated alone till midnight, building fires to chase the black shadows of the forest from the shores.

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  Petition for Home Protection: Issued January 8, 1877, by the Bangor Chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union

  Mary Crosby

  A plea by Mary Crosby of Bangor, Secretary of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, to the Women's National Christian Temperance Union petitioning for the Congress of the United States to prohibit the sale of alcohol in the United States

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  The new story of the state of Maine : with an appendix

  Enoch Knight

  Opening:

  There is a fine old saying, that you cannot tell by a single wave the tide is ebbing or flowing; but if you look steadily at the land you will soon determine whether it is being submerged or is enlarging its area. So that we may judge of the consequence and the promise of the Pine Tree State tonight I am to ask you to look over its domain, larger than all the rest of New England, its twenty millions of acres, and its three hundred miles of seacoast, comprising beach, marsh, and headland, storm-beaten or "kissed by the sunshine of the mist."

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  The State of Maine Vs. The Maine Central Railroad Company, 1876: Arguments for the State [concerns recovery of assessed taxes]

  State of Maine, Supreme Judicial Court

  Argument of the State presented by L.A. Emery, Attornery General of Maine:

  Sample text:

  The State itself has here come into court, and demands of this corporation that it contribute its fair share toward that revenue without which, State, Court and corporation must all perish together. Yet, here the corporation pleads immunity purchased for a price. The plea ought to be instantly overruled. Sovereignty is beyond price.