The Oxford County Copperheads Residents thronged an 1863 rally at South Paris

The Oxford County Copperheads

Residents thronged an 1863 rally at South Paris

by Brian Swartz

By late summer 1863, Republicans detected a Copperhead behind every rock maple and white pine in Maine, and pro-Republican newspapers like the ironically named Oxford Democrat in South Paris fed the hysteria.

A well-designed and thoroughly read weekly published every Friday in South Paris, the paper sprinkled its August 14 edition with such headlines as “Portland Copperhead Convention,” “Copperhead County Convention,” and “The Peace Advocates in the Copperhead Democracy.”

And how did the Oxford Democrat define Copperheads? As “the friends and followers of Jeff Davis in this state,” the paper described the pro-peace advocates who convened in Portland in early August. Reading like a Republican poster pasted to a South Paris barn, the article about the “Portland Copperhead Convention” called the event “a convention of the old stagers,” where “more fanatical rant and vulgar abuse of free institutions and a free government was never witnessed.” Then “a Union meeting” took place in Portland on Saturday, August 15, and the Oxford Democrat waxed eloquent about Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard speaking to participants. From Leeds in Androscoggin County, Howard had lost his right arm in combat 15 months later.

He was a real hero, not a Jeff Davis backer. “Urging the setting aside of a party feeling” so Mainers could focus on saving the United States, Howard reminded his listeners “what the unflinching bravery of our armies had accomplished” in 1863, the South Paris reported.

But the Copperheads were everywhere in Oxford County, weren’t they? Were many pro-Union men left? Their nerves probably rattled by the incessant Copperhead coverage, Lincoln backers in Androscoggin County called for a

Largest selection of custom modular homes and manufactured homes

207-539-8881 │ 1-800-670-3808 │ www.twintownhomes.com 804 Main Street • Route 26 • Oxford, ME 04270 • Est. 1955

Oxford Hills

Chamber of Commerce 4 Western Avenue South Paris, ME 04281 www.oxfordhillsmaine.com 207.743.2281

Norway/Paris Soft Serve

~ Located at Old So. Paris Train Station ~

Open 7 Days at 11am Good Food! Good Drink! Good Friends!

• Full service dining and bar on Norway Lake • Gorgeous view for all seasons • Come by boat or sled

Haddock • Pasta • Salads Burgers • Pizza • Subs

Open Mon. - Sat. 11-Close Sunday Noon - Close Our Own Famous BBQ Pork Family Owned & Operated since 1982 Norway Lake Road, Norway 743-8434

Union County Convention to be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, August 25.

Its name masked the fact that the convention was a Republican event “to nominate county officers.”

Surely Oxford County’s pro-Union supporters could do better?

Yes, they could. “Grand Union Mass Meeting!” proclaimed an Oxford Democrat headline on Friday, August 28. “A Mass Meeting of the citizens of Oxford County” would be held at Union Grove “between South Paris & Norway Village” on Tuesday, September 1.

The big guns would appear. Just beginning his national ascendancy in Republican circles, state representative James G. Blaine would speak, and so would Hannibal Hamlin, a Paris native. From New Hampshire would come U.S. Senator Daniel Clark.

Apolitical in his avowed party affiliation, focused solely on defeating the Confederacy, Howard would speak, too.

“The paramount importance of the issues involved in the coming election … demand that this shall be the grandest demonstration the County ever witnessed,” the Oxford Democrat proclaimed. “Let there be such a gathering as shall carry consternation into the already shattered ranks of traitors in our midst.”

P.S.: “The ladies are especially invited.”

If “the weather” should “prove unfavorable,” organizers planned to move the event “to Agricultural Hall, which will accommodate a large number” of people. The building was arranged so “that one speaker can address an audience on each floor,” according to the Oxford Democrat.

The weather held on September 1. The ladies came. They brought their children, and they brought their men — who had no choice in the matter if they were smart. People packed “the beautiful forest of pines” known as “Union Grove,” the newspaper reported three days later.

“At an early hour carriages commenced pouring in from every direction, and soon Union Grove was filled with such an audience as could not fail to inspire the hearts of the speakers,” a reporter noticed. “All parts of the county were represented; all trades and professions came out to hear.”

Returning to that one-line invitation extended on August 28, the reporter stressed, “The patriotic mothers and daughters were there in overwhelming numbers.”

Calling the meeting to order at 10 a.m., Ezra F. Beal of Norway successfully nominated Colonel William Wirt Virgin of Norway as the event’s president. Raising the 23rd Maine Infantry Regiment a year earlier, Virgin had just brought his boys home from garrisoning forts near Washington, D.C.

At appropriate times, “the North Bridgton band … furnished excellent (cont. on page 50)

Maine’s fi rst choice in excavating for 50 years!

Complete Residential & Commercial Site Work

Certifi ed Septic System Installer

Family business since 1968

“ For all your excavating needs” 207.583.4632

wilsonexcavatinginc.com

Vinyl tile stripping, waxing, bu ng, & other commercial services Free Estimates • Day or Night Service

Luke Niedner - Proprietor 207-859-0205

Road Building Lot Clearing

Wilson Excavating, Inc.

Waterford, ME

207.592.2509

www.LLTimber.com

Lukeus Flagg

Owner LFlagg2509@gmail.com

(cont. from page 49) music,” and the Norway Light Infantry “fired salutes, at Norway, both morning and evening,” a reporter observed.

Virgin introduced the first speaker, the pro-Union E.B. Turner of Texas. People listened as in his Texas drawl, Turner explained that while a slave-owning Democrat, “he was grateful” to escape the Confederacy to stand “to-day on Freedom’s ground.”

“Are you willing to be a traitor, or will you support the government?” Turner asked. “God smiles on America when she is true to her mission of Universal Freedom.” He spoke into the early afternoon, so attendees broke briefly for lunch. Hannibal and Clark then delivered “able and telling speeches” that ate through the afternoon’s schedule, the Oxford Democrat noted, and the Union Meeting adjourned about 4 p.m.

No mention was made of Hamlin or Howard speaking.

Did the South Paris rally achieve its goal? Well, the mood had certainly shifted in Maine’s northwestern mountains, the Oxford Democrat claimed on September 11. “From every part of glorious Old Oxford, we have the most cheering reports. Her noble sons are alive to the great interests pending in the coming election ...”

From Buckfield to Hebron to Canton Mills to Peru Center, Rumford Centre, and Hanover, a South Paris journalist traveled Oxford County to learn what was happening at the local level. “Everywhere we found our friends full of enthusiasm and hope,” he reported on September 11, just three days before the state and national election.

“The gallant sons of Old Oxford … are for the union, the constitution and the old flag,” the journalist wrote.

KEITH HADLEY

INC We Deliver! Hadley’s

Serving Western Maine for over 50 years! Sand • Loam • Gravel Backhoe • Dozer Work • Trucking Septic Systems • Road Building “Where Quality Never Goes Out Of Style” ~ Auto Sales ~

Rt. 26 • W. Paris, ME 674-2466 • 592-6755

of Maine

“From Our Forest to Final Form”

AUTHORIZED SALES CENTER

New Equipment Sales & Service Ross Clair, Manager/Sawyer

Annual Events MAY - Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament at Turner Highlands MAY- Livermore Falls History Night & Cruise In SEPT. - Apple Pumpkin Festival DEC. - Olde Fashioned Christmas Festival at Boothby’s Orchard and Farm in Livermore www.jay-livermore-lf.org

Long Green Variety

Come Meet Rocko the Moose Intersection of 108W and Rt. 4 Livermore, ME

Agency Liquor Store • ATM Sunoco Gas • New England Coffee Soda • Beer • Tobacco • Lottery Pizza & Sandwiches • Ice Cream

Give someone a special gift that will be enjoyed all year long...

A subscription to Discover Maine Magazine

You’ll find our subscription form on page 44 of this issue.

Four Winds Too

Lobster Co. & Redemption Center

― Kristin Workman ―

• Fresh Seafood • Family Functions • Company Parties 68 Main Street - Livermore Falls, ME

Open Daily

897-6648

We Do Large Orders

FINLEY FUNERAL HOME

207-897-3588

15 Church Street Livermore Falls, Maine

www.fi nleyfuneralhome.com

BRAGDON-FINLEY FUNERAL HOME

207-933-4444