<\/p>\n
I have often mentioned the important part played in early Maine economy by potash. In the very first settlements along the Kennebec, it was wood ashes that provided the only cash crop. For instance, when the first homes were carved out of the wilderness at Skowhegan and Norridgewock, the only way to get rid of the trees that were cut down was to burn them. Only a very small part of the wood was needed for building.<\/p>\n
It was a lucky thing for Maine settlers that this vast production of wood ashes coincided with a tremendous boom in potash. The rapidly expanding wool industry of England demanded huge quantities of potash for the many cleansing operations then necessary in the process of woolen manufacture from raw wool to finished cloth.<\/p>\n
Very early in the settlement of the Kennebec Valley a potash kiln was set up at Hallowell, and by 1790 Jacob Southwick had a big kiln going at Getchell’s Corner in Vassalboro. To those kilns for many years the settlers carried their ashes by canoe and barge in summer, by sled in winter. Even then the settler saw little money in return for his ashes. Almost without exception, every man who operated a kiln also ran a store. So, when Jacob Southwick down at Getchell’s Corner accepted a dozen barrels of ashes from some settler at Norridgewock, he gave the settler credit for articles to be purchased at the Southwick store. Frequently the credit was to offset charges for goods the settler had already purchased over many months of need, while he was accumulating a new shipment of ashes.<\/p>\n
I am indebted to Mr. Harold Hayes of East Pepperell, Massachusetts for the oldest original deed that I have ever seen, and that deed is concerned with potash. Mr. Hayes, the father of a present Colby student, is a dealer in antiques, old books and documents, and is very much interested in the early history of Maine. Knowing of my similar interests, Mr. Hayes kindly sent me this old deed — not a later copy, but the original document, signed by Thomas Brown of Boston on January 1, 1771 — four years before the beginning of the American Revolution.<\/p>\n
By this deed Brown conveyed to three other men — John Gould, John Troutback and Robert Gould — a half interest in a potash house on Arrowsic Island, together with the land on which it stood. That old potash kiln is described as standing on that part of the island near the mouth of the Kennebec River, which was at the head of a cove north of Thomas Moulton’s dwelling house.<\/p>\n
Along with the kiln, the deed conveyed “one half part of all the materials and utensils kept there pertaining to the process of making potashes, as well as the privilege of landing anything on the adjacent land and a right of way to transport goods by carts or carriages to and from the potash house.”<\/p>\n
The same deed also conveyed to the same three men a third part of another potash house in Pownalborough, besides a third interest in a store house and wharf on the Pownalborough shore of the Kennebec.<\/p>\n
What this old deed reveals is that, as early as 1771, potash kilns were in operation, not only far down the Kennebec at Arrowsic Island, but actually up the river as far as Dresden, for which the old name was Pownalborough. In fact, the Pownalborough potash house, referred to in this deed, is said to have stood for many years on the river bank nearly opposite the head of Swans Island, not far from the site of the still-standing, venerable Pownalborough Court House.<\/p>\n
Along with this old deed, Mr. Hayes has presented me with a copy of the Rules of Order and the List of Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the year 1816. It reveals clearly something I have told you before: namely, that while every incorporated town in Maine was then entitled to send at least one representative to the Massachusetts Legislature, many of the towns did not avail themselves of the privilege. So, on receiving this old pamphlet, the first thing I did was to turn to the counties of Massachusetts that lay inside of what is now the State of Maine, and see how fully they were represented at the Legislature in Boston in 1816.<\/p>\n
In that year there were nine counties in the District of Maine. In order, from the Massachusetts line to the Bay of Fundy, those counties were York, Cumberland, Lincoln, Kennebec, Oxford, Somerset, Hancock, Penobscot and Washington. As you would expect, the counties nearest Boston were better represented than were the counties farther away. There were in 1816 eleven incorporated towns in Washington County, but only one of them had a representative present in the 1816 Legislature. That one man was Ebenezer Ingles of Machias. Bangor and Hampden were the only two towns among Penobscot County’s eighteen communities that sent representatives to Boston. Hancock did somewhat better, representatives showing up from Castine, Buckstown, Ellsworth, Blue Hill, Sedgwick, Deer Isle, Lincolnville and Belfast. Somerset, a comparatively new county, had only five of its 26 towns represented. Even the county seat of Norridgewock failed to send a legislator, but Eleazer Coburn was there from Bloomfield, Elisha Nye from Fairfield, and John Wyman from Canaan. The only other Somerset towns whose representatives reported in Boston in 1816 were Starks and Anson.<\/p>\n
Kennebec County did rather well. Fifteen of its 32 towns were represented, three of them by two representatives each. It is interesting to note that in 1816, while Hallowell and Winthrop were both large enough to be entitled to two legislators, Waterville rated only one. The same was true of Gardiner, although Augusta was entitled to two. The towns in the southern part of the county were better represented than were the northern towns, and we must remember that Kennebec then included a large part of what is now Franklin County. No representatives showed up from New Sharon, Chesterville, Farmington and Temple, although John Tufts did register from Wilton.<\/p>\n
Waterville’s representative was Daniel Cook, and Vassalboro’s was Samuel Redington, but Winslow p~ssed up its chance to send anyone at all. Other towns that failed to be represented were Dearborn, Harlem, Malta, Fairfax and Joy. Do those names surprise you? Were they really in Kennebec County? Indeed they were. They are simply old names for towns that today have newer names. Dearborn is now Smithfield; Harlem is China; Malta is Windsor; Fairfax is Albion; Joy is Troy.<\/p>\n
In 1816 one of Maine’s largest communities was the town of Wells. It had five representatives in the Massachusetts Legislature, only one less than Portland’s six. It is interesting to note that Joseph Perkins represented a town the name of which we have seen return to the Maine map only since 1957, after an absence of more than a hundred years. That town is Arundel, which happily returned two years ago to its ancient name after being called for a century North Kennebunkport.<\/p>\n
Besides Portland and Wells only five towns in the whole District of Maine were entitled to more than two representatives. North Yarmouth had four, and there were three each from Buxton, Gorham, Saco and Waldoboro.<\/p>\n
It is surprising to note some of the towns that sent two representatives to Boston. They included not only the larger places you would expect to see listed, but such other towns as Hollis, Scarborough, Minot, Warren, Litchfield, Livermore and Deer Isle.<\/p>\n
In 1816 the Joint Standing Committees of the Massachusetts Legislature each consisted of only five members — two senators and three representatives. Maine was well represented. Richardson of North Yarmouth was on the Committee on Accounts; Green of South Berwick served on the Committee on New Trials; Lee of Bucksport was on Interior Fisheries; Thompson of Lewiston was on the Incorporation of Towns and Districts; Bradley of Fryeburg was on Applications for Manufacturing Companies; Wood of Winthrop served on the Committee on the Incorporation of Parishes and Other Religious Societies.<\/p>\n
On the important Committee on the Eastern Lands. Maine had two members, Fuller of Augusta and Morrill of Wells. It was that committee which, in the previous year, 1815, had assigned to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution a township of land in Penobscot County. That was the first grant given by the Massachusetts Legislature to the new institution which would later become Colby College.<\/p>\n
There was also a legislative Committee on Ministerial Lands. That had to do with land set aside for the support of the ministry throughout the State of Massachusetts. Every township in Maine, for instance. had a lot set aside for the first settled minister and another the proceeds of which were to be used for the support of a ministry or church in the community. That, of course, meant the established church of Massachusetts, known as the standing order -the orthodox, Congregational Church. The law was later liberalized, especially respecting the District of Maine, so that it permitted a town to employ a minister of another faith. But not until Maine became a separate state was the law repealed that required every town to provide preaching at the taxpayer’s expense.<\/p>\n
Hamden of Woolwich served on the Committee on Turnpikes, Bridges and Canals, as did also Senator Williamson, who represented the counties of Lincoln, Hancock, Washington and Penobscot. He was Judge William D. Williamson, who sixteen years later, in 1832, wrote the now famous Williamson’s History of Maine.<\/p>\n
On the Committee on Banks and Banking was Wallingford of Wells, while McIntire of York represented the District of Maine on the important Committee on Applications from Sick and Wounded Soldiers. Still living in 1816 were many veterans of the Revolution, and the War of 1812 had ended only the year before.<\/p>\n
Applications for pensions, especially from men who claimed disability caused by military service, were numerous. Since the Federal Government was slow to grant relief, and since the regiments had been recruited as state units, it was to the state legislature that the former soldiers usually appealed.<\/p>\n
Skimming through this old pamphlet, it is interesting to note the names of famous Massachusetts men who served in the state legislature in 1816. In the Senate were Josiah Quincy and Harrison Gray Otis, Timothy Fuller and John Pickering. In the House were John Cotton of Boston, Leverett Saltonstall of Salem, Samuel Endicott of Marblehead, George Choate of Ipswich, William Whitney of Watertown and Thomas Greenleaf of Quincy.<\/p>\n
As one’s eye runs down page 25 of the old booklet, a familiar name at once attracts the attention; for in 1816 Worcester was represented in the Legislature by Abraham Lincoln. Of course this was not the more famous Abraham Lincoln who, when his namesake was sitting in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was himself only a seven year old boy in a lonely cabin in Kentucky.<\/p>\n
It is probable, however, that there existed a distant relationship. All of the Massachusetts Lincolns were descended from Samuel Lincoln who had come from the Norman cathedral town of Hingham in England to Hingham, Massachusetts in 1637. Abraham Lincoln suspected, but could never establish, relationship with these New England Lincolns, but after his death genealogists clearly proved the connection. Samuel Lincoln’s grandson, Mordelair, left Massachusetts for Pennsylvania, where he became prosperous as an iron worker. He had a son named John who named his own oldest son Abraham. It was that Abraham, whose son Thomas was the father of America’s beloved President, Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n
Year: 1959<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #422, Broadcast on May 24, 1959<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[800,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}