Radio Script #1070

Little Talks on Common Things
December 28, 1975

In 1820, when Maine became a separate state, a division was made between Maine and Massachusetts of the uninhabited, vast forest lands of the new state. Popularly called “the wild lands”, to which Massachusetts relinquished any claim many years ago, they are still a source of dispute and controversy 155 years later in our own time. Recent sessions of the Maine Legislature have been deeply involved in what seems to be a complicated and perplexing issue – what are the rights of the big paper companies, and what are the rights of the people of Maine regarding these lands?

On this program we have no intention of adding our own ignorance to the current dispute. We wish only to call your attention to some events of the past. The very year that Massachusetts first organized as one of the United States of America, 1786, its legislature passed an act to run a lottery for the sale of Eastern Lands, meaning the state’s uninhabited lands in Maine. That act contained a provision, long the practice when Massachusetts granted or sold land for townships, pertaining to what were called the reserved lots. Anyone lucky enough to win a township in the lottery must agree to reserve one hundred-acre lot for its first minister, another for the support of the ministry, a third for support of the common schools, and a fourth for the benefit of Harvard College. In 1824, Maine changed the reservation to 1,000 acres, all for public benefit as determined by the Legislature.

In 1828, Maine sold 4 townships for $66,000 (27 cents an acre) to get money to build the new State House in Augusta, where the capital was to move from Portland. In 1837, Maine granted 200 acres to every non-commissioned officer who had served at least three years in the Revolution or to their widows. The “get rich” boom in timberlands started about 1839 and many large parcels rapidly changed hands. Between 1824 and 1855, the state sold to private purchasers, many of them timber companies, a total of 2,834,597 acres, at an average price of 59 cents an acre.

One huge give-away came in 1869, when the Maine Legislature granted free to the European and North American R.R. Co. 100,000 acres. That was the company that built the railroad line from Bangor to St. John, New Brunswick. Less than half of its length was in Maine, Bangor to Vanceboro.

In 1956 the pulp and paper companies owned 6,618,000 acres of Maine land. Some complicated law cases arose out of the grant to Revolutionary soldiers. For instance, when a law was passed in 1837, the Land Agent gave a deed to one Samuel Cook, not himself a veteran, but the assignee of one. Years went by, and no one paid taxes on the land. The court ruled that, when land reverts to the State because of non-payment of taxes, the original owner has a better claim than the purchaser of a defective tax title. It further held that the fact that a person had held the tax title for more than 20 years, had taken off timber from part of the land, and had cultivated part of it, did not divest the true owner of his title to said wild, unoccupied land. If the conveyance from the State had been done in accordance with the law, which it was not, a different decision might have been rendered in this case.

Samuel Cook had died in 1861. It was 24 years later, 1885, when his heirs tried to recover a large portion of the acreage deeded to him in 1837, taking it away from purchasers to whom the state had illegally sold it after non-payment of taxes. The defending present owner objected to the form of the land agent’s original certificate and claimed that such a deed was never authorized by law. A pertinent Resolve of 1828 contained the phrase “and to their heirs and assigns”. This particular case hinged on the meaning of this phrase. The plaintiff alleged that it meant to whomever assigned. The defense contended that it meant only a person to whom a soldier assigned his land at the time he received it. It was pointed out that the earlier Massachusetts Act of 1804 gave 200 acres to “each soldier and to his children, if there by any; if not, to his widow”. In 1837, when many Revolution soldiers had died, the Land Agent believed that the act gave him authority to convey to an assignee of a soldier’s claim, and he acted accordingly. The court upheld that Resolve of 1828 and declared, 57 years later, that the agent had acted correctly. Cook’s heirs thus won their case.

Another legal action reveals trouble over cutting timber on the wild lands. It was the case of Soper vs. Lawrence Brothers, brought in 1902, an action to recover the value of a large quantity of logs alleged to have been cut by the Lawrences on Township 3, Range 6, west of the Kennebec River in Somerset County. The Lawrences admitted they had cut logs on the township within the past six years, and declared they had legal right to do so because they held title to the south half of the township, and had permits from the owners of the north half. Soper claimed an undivided interest in 29/72nds of the township, deriving his title from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Lawrence title to the south half derived from A. and P. Coburn of Skowhegan by warranty deeds. In 1872, the Coburns had conveyed the entire township to A. and W. Sprague. The next year, Sprague sold it to the newly formed Coburn Land Co., which in turn mortgaged it to the original owners, A. & P. Coburn. In 1874, the Coburns foreclosed, gaining full title again to the land.

In 1880, Abner Coburn, acting for himself and his deceased brother Philander, sold the south half of the township for $33,000 to Wildes and Snow, another firm of lumber operators. Five years later, Wildes and Snow sold their half to Lawrence Brothers. The Coburn heirs still retained the north half. Soper claimed that, at the time of the conveyance by A. & P. Coburn to Sprague, the Coburns only owned one-fourth of the township and could not legally have conveyed all of it.

It at once became apparent that, while Soper’s suit sought only compensation for logs, the case involved the more serious question of title to the township as wild land.

A State Law of 1895 pertaining to the case stated, in substance, that when the State has taxed wild land, and the State Treasurer has deeded it, or part of it, for non-payment of taxes, and the new grantee has paid taxes on it continuously for twenty years, and during the period no former owner had paid any tax on it or given other indication of ownership, no former owner shall have any valid claim to the land.

The court, in an interesting and precedent-making decision, held for the defendant Lawrence Brothers. The court’s reasoning was substantially as follows: “It has been repeatedly held by the Maine courts that title to wild lands cannot be acquired by merely taking a deed of a township or a tract of timber land, running lines around it, keeping off trespassers, and making occasional lumber operations on it fora period of 20 years. Such acts have not been deemed sufficient to establish title. While title to farming land might be acquired by 20 years of such possession, wild lands cannot be so acquired. The act of 1895 clearly makes such acquisition not applicable to wild lands.

“If the act of logging is done by one who holds recorded deeds to the entire tract, the statute of 1895 applies. It does not apply to one who owns only an undivided, fractional interest in said tract.

“It is clear that the Lawrences claimed and occupied the entire south half of the township and cut a portion of the logs sued for from the north half under permit from the Coburns, who held the north half under recorded deeds. The Lawrences paid $33,000 for possession of the south half and expended $35,000 more in permanent improvements for the purpose of taking off lumber. The plaintiff does not claim that he ever paid any taxes on the land.

“The Legislature deemed it just to recognize a distinction between wild and cultivated lands. The statute protects no one unless he had paid taxes and held exclusive possession for twenty years. In this case the Lawrences have done that.”

If this all sounds a bit complicated, it only goes to show us ordinary folk that even the distinguished judges of our Maine courts had trouble untangling the titles to Maine’s millions of acres of wild land.

Now let us turn to another subject that concerned Maine taxpayers in 1805, fifteen years before Maine became a separate state. In 1805 the Massachusetts Legislature laid a tax of $133,302 as a state tax on all the Massachusetts towns. At that time, Maine had only six counties and it is significant to note the number of towns in each. York had 29 towns, Cumberland 34, Lincoln 30, Kennebec 45, Hancock 27, and Washington 8. In the entire District of Maine there was a total of 173 incorporated towns. Naturally the largest tax was levied upon Portland, because it has always been the state’s largest city. Portland was assessed to pay $1,872. Lewiston paid only $242 and Bangor the small amount of $56. Six York County towns paid a larger tax than any other place in the state except Portland. They were York, Kittery, Wells, Berwick, Saco and Biddeford. My native town of Bridgton, that never in its 200 year history has had more than 3,000 people, paid an 1805 tax of $117. Other now small places that were then larger than Bangor were Sidney, Fairfield, Canaan, Castine, Hebron and Buckfield.

On that tax list were a number of towns that have since changed their names. Saco was then Pepperelboro; China was Harlem; Albion was Fairfax; Jefferson was Ballstown; Brunswick was Pejepscot; Montville was Davistown; Friendship was Meduncook; and there were a dozen others.

Thirteen years later, when a similar tax was levied in 1818, there was no incorporated town in what is now Aroostook County. Tax was levied on only ten places in that vast area. While Portland paid nearly $2,000, the tax on Houlton Plantation was $1.60. The same amount was called for from what was designated on the tax list as “Half county, next to state line”. Others were Groton Academy, $1.60; and Township 11, Range 2, $1.80.

And with that bow to taxes in the years shortly before Maine became a state, we must say goodbye until next week, in fact, goodbye until next year.

Year: 1975