Radio Script #792

Little Talks on Common Things

January 26, 1969

Mr. Gordon Costley, who lived on a Sidney farm that is now a part of the Wyandotte Mills property, let me look at some old documents that cast light on the history of that area of Waterville that lies along the Kennebec from Kennedy Highway to the Sidney line. The Costley farm was part of one of the original lots surveyed by John McKechnie for the New Plymouth Company in 1769. The first numbered lot north of the line was No. 82, originally owned by Wellington Hamblin. No. 83, whose first owner was James Crommett, was the lot, part of which now constitutes the Costley property.

There has been some dispute about the dimensions of different parts of the McKechnie survey. There are, in the old records, frequent references to 100-acre lots. Yet we know that at least in what is now the heart of Waterville, the McKechnie lots had a width of 40 rods on the river and extended back one mile to the line now marked by the First Rangeway. Now an acre contains 160 square rods, but 40 rods multiplied by 320 rods (the length of a mile) is only 12,800 square rods, instead of the 16,000 that would comprise a hundred acre lot. So, to make a hundred acres, the lots would have either to be wider than 40 rods or longer than a mile.

It is known that in some places lots were 50 rods wide, which with a 320 rod length would make exactly 100 acres. But an old deed in the possession of Gordon Costley proves that those McKechnie lots on the west side of the Kennebec never did include so much as 100 acres. James Crommett, the original owner of Lot 83, sold it very early in the 19th century to Abial Moore. When in 1836 Moore sold a part of the lot to Nathan Perry, the wording of the deed gives us information about the size of the original lot.

First it shows Lot 84, the next one to the north, was at that time owned by Oliver Trafton, though its original owner by deed from the Plymouth Company had been Nathan Lowe. It also shows that in 1836 what we know as the Trafton Road had not been built because Moore’ s deed to Perry refers to lithe allowance for a road”.

But the most important evidence in this old deed is contained in the final statement, “containing about 201 acres, more or less. it being better than one-fourth of Lot No. 83”.

Now one fourth of 80 acres is, of course, 20 acres, and the description of 201 acres as “better than one-fourth of Lot 83” is pretty good evidence that Lot 83 was made up of 80 acres, not 100 acres. The price Moore received for those 20~ acres seems today ridiculously small, for Perry paid him only $450. Yet I have no doubt Moore made a good thing by the sale. The original purchasers of the Plymouth Company lots. when they bought here after the building of Fort Halifax in 1754, unless they made settlers’ arrangements (in which case they sometimes paid nothing) bought those lots for one dollar an acre. That was what James Crommett probably paid. When he sold to Abial Moore. he may have received as much as $2.00 an acre or $160 for the lot of 80 acres. That would mean $40 as the value in 1800 of one fourth of the lot. So, when Moore got $450 for that one fourth in 1836, he probably had a profit on it of at least $400. or 1,000 per cent.

Three years later Moore sold to Perry 25 additional acres, and note how the price had gone up. For those 25 acres Moore got $950, or $38 an acre. The wording of that 1839 deed is of some interest. Here is what it says: “Beginning on the west side of the Kennebec River on the north line of the Lewis farm. where the fence on the bank of the river now stands; then north 66~ degrees west to a stone on the east side of the road and the south side of the bars nearest Moore’s dwelling house; thence crossing the said road and keeping the same course to the west side of the rangeway on the west end of the river lots; thence north along the west line of the rangeway to the south line of land owned by the same Nathan Perry; thence east along Perry’s land to the Kennebec River; thence south along the west side of the river to the bound begun at; containing 25 acres, more or less; together with the buildings situated thereon. The rangeway on the west side of the lot is not included in this deed. This land is a part of Lot 83.”

We now see why the place,had increased so much in value. The deed of 1836 conveyed no buildings. But the deed of 1839 included Moore’s house and barn, so Perry’s $950 included more than the price of the land. Twenty-six years later, in 1865, Nathan Perry added another piece, secured from a relative, Harry Perry. It contained ten acres, for which Nathan paid $475.

The wording of the deed shows some of the changes in ownership along the River Road that had occurred since 1839. Here are the words: “Commencing one-half mile from the Kennebec River at a split stone placed in the ground between lots of land formerly owned by Daniel Lewis and Joseph Davis; thence west on lands formerly owned by said Davis 123 rods to lands of Stephen Butterfield; thence north on said Butterfield’s 13 rods to a spotted beech tree; thence east on land of said Nathan Perry 123 rods; thence south 13 rods to the first mentioned bound.”

After Nathan Perry died his widow sold to Dora Sawtelle, and here we have another interesting deed: “A certain lot of land with the buildings thereon, commencing at a stake and stones on the line between land formerly owned by the late Nathan Perry and land now owned and occupied by Eugene Drummond, at the junction of said line with the Kennebec River; thence west to a stake and stones at the junction of said line with the River Road, so called; thence across said road to a stake and stones on the line between the lands of Drummond and Perry at the junction with said road on the west side; then continuing west 150 rods; thence south 13 rods to a stake and stones at the junction of said line with land owned by the heirs of Delwin Hamblin; thence west along the line between Perry and Hamblin to a stake and stones at the junction of said line with land formerly owned by Samuel Trafton; thence north along the line between Trafton and ~erry to the first cross road running between the River Road and the Eight Rod Road; thence east along the line between said cross road and Nathan Perry’s land to the River Road and across that road between the lands of Perry and Trafton to the Kennebec River; thence south along the river to the starting point first mentioned. It being the same premises formerly owned by Nathan Perry as his home farm and occupied by him at his decease. containing about 75 acres.”

Gordon Costley’s father. Arthur, came to Waterville from Nova Scotia early in the 20th century. and bought that farm from the Sawtelles. On it Gordon’s father and mother lived until their deaths about a quarter of a century ago. For some time Gordon. a bachelor, has lived alone on the place, where he did a brisk business in recent years renting saddle horses to summer campers and others. He has been very active in the Sidney Riding Club.

In Gordon Costley’s possession is another paper more unique than the old deeds. Most deeds are in legal language that makes them very much alike. They interest us only in the information they give us about locations and owners. But when one runs across the written decision of the town fence viewers, he has something unique. I always supposed fence viewers were concerned with the location of a fence. but a decision made by the Waterville fence viewers down on the River Road in 1891 shows us that they had sometimes to decide which of two parties must build and maintain a particular fence.

It seems that Mrs. Rachel Perry, widow of the Nathan Perry we have been talking about, had a dispute with her neighbor, Eugene Drummond. who by that time had become owner of the Trafton farm, concerning the line fence between their respective properties. So Charles Soule and Howard Morse. fence viewers of Waterville. were called in to settle the matter. On September 16. 1891 which, by the way, was exactly one month before I was born — the two fence viewers reported their solemn decision. Let us now see what they had to say: “A disagreement having arisen between Mrs. Rachel Perry and Eugene Drummond as to their rights in the partition fence hereinafter described, we, on application of Mrs. Perry, have personally examined the land to be fenced. and we do hereby determine that Mrs. Perry shall build so much of the fence between her land and Drummond’s as lies from the road leading from Waterville to Augusta toward the west bank of the Kennebec River, beginning at the east line of said road and extending to a point 32 3/4 rods east from the road and we hereby assign that part of the fence to be built and maintained by her. We determine that Drummond shall begin on the line of the aforesaid lands at the point 32 3/4 rods from the River Road and build the fence to the high water mark of the Kennebec River, and we assign to Drummond that part to be built and maintained by him.

“We also determine that the parties shall build as follows between their lands on the west side of the River Road: Drummond shall build the fence from the west line of the road to a point 71 rods west. and Mrs. Perry shall build from that point to the northwest corner of Drummond’s land and thence south to the southwest corner of his land. We therefore assign to each party the above parts of the fence to build and maintain. We also determine that each party shall build the fences assigned to him or her within 30 days from this date.”

So we now know how the Waterville fence viewers dealt with disputes about the keeping up of fences 77 years ago.

Perhaps you noticed that, in the decision of the fence viewers. what in the older deeds was referred to as the River Road. was by then called “the road leading from Waterville to Augusta”. That clearly reveals that. as late as 1891. the old stage route down the River Road through Sidney was still considered the usual way to Augusta. not the somewhat longer route through Winslow and Vassalboro. When William Mathews took the stage in 1828 to carry money to Boston for the Waterville Bank, that is the way the stage took him to Augusta and Hallowell. whence he took ship to Boston.

Year: 1969