Maine’s History Magazine
3 It Makes No Never Mind
James Nalley
4 One Winter Morning In Maine
Don’t forget to flip the switch!
Christine Laws
10 No County Snowstorm Could Stop This Train
The first B&A train to Houlton
Brian Swartz
14 The Dickeys Of Fort Kent
Preserving Maine’s last blockhouse
Charles Francis
18 The Founding Of Presque Isle
Where the river meets the stream
Charles Francis
22 Caribou’s Soldier Named America
Adapted from “Maine at War”
Brian Swartz
25 Fooling Mother Nature In Washburn
Winter storm demolishes bridge construction
Brian Swartz
29 The Governor Neptune
Steamer opens the upper Penobscot to commerce
Charles Francis 33 Easton’s “Last Mile Project”
An effort to provide broadband access
Brian Swartz
Publisher Jim Burch
Editor Dennis Burch
Design & Layout
Liana Merdan
Field Representative
Don Plante
Contributing Writers
Charles Francis
Christine Laws
James Nalley
Brian Swartz
AIt Makes No Never Mind
by James Nalley
t the time of this publication, the Thanksgiving holiday will be around the corner and Mainers will be gearing up for two time-honored traditions: the traditional turkey feast and watching football. However, there is a third tradition: the Turkey Trot, which is a fun, active way to begin a day that is mostly spent eating and lounging around.
As for the numbers of Turkey Trots and participants, they are staggering. According to runsignup.com, in 2023, a total of 920,761 people participated in 833 races across the country. Interestingly, this is an increase of 160,000 people, compared to 2022. Based on these numbers, it is clear that the phrases “earning your meal” and “running off your pie” are still on people’s minds.
As for its history, the first recorded trot occurred in Buffalo, New York, in 1896, when the local YMCA hosted an 8K (4.97 mile) race on Thanksgiving Day. It drew only six runners, with four finishers. As stated by Runner’s World magazine, “One runner excused himself after two miles and another dropped out when his ‘late breakfast refused to keep in its proper place.’ The winner, Henry Allison, crossed the line in 31:12 (averaging a six-minute/mile
pace).” This trot in Buffalo is the oldest continuous footrace in North America, beating San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers (1912) and the Boston Marathon (1897).
In the early 1900s, the idea of Turkey Trots rapidly spread along the East Coast, with races in Pennsylvania (1908), Ohio (1909), and New York (1916). Over time, the races grew in size and number. Currently, the Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot is one of the largest in the country, with more than 20,000 finishers.
Surprisingly, women joined the Turkey Trot in Buffalo for the first time in 1972. Over time, the trots included children, making it the family friendly event that it is known for today. In line with the idea of fun, costumes have also become part of the race tradition. According to Geoffrey Falkner, Director of Communications for the Buffalo Turkey Trot, he estimates that this tradition began in the early 1980s, when runners dressed up as Canadian hockey players. Soon after, others began dressing up as turkeys, pilgrims, etc.
Regarding the Buffalo racecourse, it has changed many times over the years. However, two aspects have remained: It is still five miles, and it is held on
Thanksgiving Day (regardless of rain, sleet, or snow). Currently, the race is capped at 14,000 runners, all “earning their meals.” As for those in this region of Maine interested in turkey trotting, there is the Caribou Turkey Trot (with several others “Down East”). Located at Caribou High School, registration starts at 8:30 a.m., walkers start at 9:45, and the 5K starts at 10. The cost for the race is only $13.
At this point, let me close with the following jest: A turkey was chatting with a bull. “I want to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, “but I don’t have the energy.” “Well, why don’t you nibble on my droppings?” replied the bull. “They’re packed with nutrients.” The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch. The next day, he ate some more dung and reached the second branch. Finally, after eating more, he proudly perched at the top of the tree. Then, he was spotted by a farmer, who immediately shot the turkey out of the tree. The moral of the story: Bulls$%t might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.
One Winter Morning In Maine
Don’t forget to flip the switch!
by Christine Laws
Every home has a list of tasks that must be tended to every day. In Farmer Boy, author Laura Ingalls Wilder gives us a sneak peek into her husband’s boyhood home, sharing some snapshots of his family’s nightly indoor chores in New York State: Almanzo rubs tallow into his moccasins while big brother Royal greases his boots to keep them waterproof. Mother and the girls wash the supper dishes. Meanwhile in the cellar, Father cuts up carrots and potatoes to feed the cows the next day.
Now fast-forward 157 years from a night in New York to one winter morning in Maine.
Here at my home in Amity, we too divide up the tasks; I sometimes wonder how we even ended up with these jobs. One of mine is to turn off the
porch lights. One switch is in the living room; the other is in the kitchen, several inches below the emergency switch for the furnace. I hardly glance at these switches, because I have done this so many times. And yet, occasionally, somebody reports that one — or both — of the lights has been left on all day.
In 2023 on the morning of February 4, I performed my morning task of turning off the outside lights. And to make doubly sure, I think I might have even made a second swipe at the kitchen switch on my way to another room. That morning was especially cold, since Canada had sent us some arctic air, a common export. Many Maine
towns experienced windchills in the 40-below range in the northern part of the state; Frenchville plummeted to a record-breaking 61-below zero. (When your fuel tank sits outside, you cringe at those record-breakers, feeling more than a little vulnerable.)
Otherwise, that Saturday was normal. We ate a leisurely breakfast; my husband and I sipped our usual cups of coffee; our children guzzled some orange juice. And then I heard my husband speak these dreaded words on that frigid winter morning: “I think we might have a problem.”
Immediately I knew what was wrong — the furnace. How had I expected the fuel line to function properly on a day like this? The heat had come on at some point that morning, but it had been a while. My husband had noticed and tried to make the furnace start, but to no avail.
Eventually he called the fuel com(cont. on page 6)
(cont. from page 5)
pany, and we waited for the technician to arrive. We figured he would be busy on a cold morning like this one; it sure was nerve-racking before he climbed our porch steps. How much would this cost? Was it just a frozen line, or was there more to it? Could this even be fixed? What would a new heating system cost, anyway? Questions pelted my mind like the blowing snow pelting our fuel tank.
Why shouldn’t the line freeze? After all, neighboring New Hampshire’s Mount Washington set a record that same day—108-below zero, the coldest windchill ever recorded in the United States. So, Mainers were not alone when we experienced those frigid winds on February 4.
Of course, Mainers are no strangers to the cold. Maine ranks in the top ten states for coldness, not surprisingly. Our coldest day was on 16 January 2009: Big Black River saw 50-below
zero — and that was the actual air temperature, not the windchill.
I am not sure if Amity broke any records that day; I was too busy fretting over our nonfunctioning furnace. Meanwhile, my husband had gone for groceries and the rest of us waited for help with the heat.
Finally, the answer to my prayers trudged up the porch steps, no doubt weary from the many emergencies he had already responded to that morning. Greatly relieved, I ushered him in while my children watched from the living room. “Here is the furnace,” I proclaimed, pointing. “It stopped working sometime this morning.”
The furnace man got right to work. First, he scanned the kitchen wall and said, “Let’s see,” as he … flipped a switch and waited. My mouth dropped open, and my eyebrows shot up as the furnace began its familiar hum.
“Do you mean — the switch — was
… OFF?!” Suddenly I felt both delighted with the prospect of heat and disgusted with myself for taking up his time. I apologized.
“That’s all right,” he assured me. “I like easy fixes.”
Then I turned toward the living room, my mind grasping for an explanation. “It must have been one of the children,” I reasoned. “Maybe the switch was accidentally turned off this morning by one of them.”
“Oh, I’d be willin’ to bet!” exclaimed the tech, glancing meaningfully into the living room. “Them evil kids and their designs!”
Somehow his comical corroboration made me feel better for having neglected to check that emergency switch. How could we have been oblivious to something so obvious? Now we owed the fuel company $95 since the furnace fellow had to come by to flip that switch for me.
to make matters worse, the more I considered my morning routine, the more I began to wonder. … Hadn’t my hand been positioned a bit too high that second time I breezed through the kitchen? Had I been the one to turn off the emergency switch when I meant to
Well, one thing I do know is that our daily tasks tend to differ from those in the nineteenth century when Almanzo Wilder was growing up. Before a frigid morning some of us might top off fuel tanks or buy batteries, bread, and milk at the grocery store. Others might simply struggle to pull the correct switch. But next time the furnace fails to warm us up on a winter morning in Maine, I plan to include “Check the Emergency Switch” on my to-do list.
MAINE
No County Snowstorm Could Stop This Train
by Brian Swartz
International intrigue, nefarious business dealings, and a mighty snowstorm couldn’t deter southern Aroostook County residents from seeking their own railroad in the 1890s. Thirty years earlier, during the Civil War, young men from Houlton, Linneus, Smyrna, Oakfield, Amity, Hodgdon, Littleton, Monticello, and other towns sprouting on the Aroostook County plateau, fought in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. They “saw the elephant” (a Civil War euphemism for experiencing combat) and witnessed a world hundreds of miles from Aroostook’s rolling hills, sparkling rivers, and streams. When they returned home after the war, these young men matured into farmers, foresters, and businessmen who spurred economic development in
southern Aroostook County as the 19th century waned. The rich county soil grew potatoes and trees, and a family could accrue wealth by delivering products to American markets.
These opportunities lay to the south, but Aroostook’s rivers flowed east into New Brunswick. To reach markets in Portland, Boston, Providence, and New York, businessmen had to first export their goods across an international border. Aroostook freight moved to Saint John via the St. John River or the New Brunswick Railroad, which had extended a spur to Houlton in the mid- l 860s.
Aroostook residents clamored for an American-owned railroad that would connect the geographically isolated county to central Maine and distant (and burgeoning) American markets. Support for a proposed Northern Maine Railroad Company reached fever pitch in Presque Isle, Caribou, and adjacent towns in the late 1880s. This “internal” railroad, as surveyed, would extend from Mattawamkeag to Presque Isle, and would attract the Maine Central Railroad as operator. Several towns pledged financial support for the Northern Maine Railroad, and surveyors soon completed their work. Backers awaited, in vain, for an official ground-breaking ceremony.
Political and economic pressures exerted in Augusta and New Brunswick effectively scuttled the Northern Maine Railroad in the summer of 1890. The Aroostook Republican, serving Presque Isle and central Aroostook County towns,
reprinted a Kennebec Journal report that, “it was expected that the Maine Central Company would at least consent to lease the Northern Maine Railroad when completed. For some reason, that company has quite recently withdrawn from all negotiations regarding building the road. The Canadian Pacific Railway has gained control of the New Brunswick Railroad and no doubt will use their powerful influence to prevent any other line from being built into Aroostook County.” The Canadian Pacific Railway had already done so. The Maine Central Railroad, owned by the Boston & Maine Railroad, sent much traffic across the Canadian Pacific Railway. If the Maine Central insisted on supporting the Northern Maine Railroad, the Canadian Pacific Railway would divert traffic to a Boston & Maine competitor, Canadian Pacific officials advised their Maine counterparts.
Ironically, that threat echoed the
political intrigue engulfing the Maine Legislature as the Maine Central Railroad lobbied to maintain its chokehold on other Maine railroads.
Sometime in the summer of 1890, county residents realized that “two Maines” really did exist: the prosperous south, defined as Bangor and points west and south to the New Hampshire border, and the economically throttled “everywhere else,” defined as points east and north to the New Brunswick border. The Northern Maine Railroad never turned dirt. Frustrated by the Machiavellian machinations that had killed their dream, the county’ s movers and shakers entertained other railroad proposals.
Albert A. Burleigh, then a successful Houlton businessman, epitomized Aroostook’s Civil War veterans now reaching their 40s and 50s. Wounded in combat and captured by Confederate troops, he had emerged from a (cont. on page 12)
(cont. from page 11)
Rebel prison to develop an extensive economic network that placed him in direct contact with friends and business acquaintances who wanted a railroad. The problem, Burleigh noted in early 1890, lay in relying on fickle southern Maine capital. Instead, Aroostook County could pledge $500,000 — 5 percent of the county’s $10 million net value — to finance a railroad overseen by commissioners drawn from throughout the county. Burleigh and two backers, James F. Holland and Charles E. F. Stetson, petitioned the Maine Legislature to charter a railroad. Two other groups also petitioned the Legislature to authorize railroads in Aroostook County. The Aroostook Republican strongly advocated Burleigh’s project, which would be opposed “by rich and powerful railroad corporations,” widely recognized as “the Maine Central Railroad or the
Canadian Pacific Railway. Aroostook will understand whose hands are at its throat.”
Burleigh waged a brilliant campaign to convince Maine legislators to authorize a new railroad for Aroostook County. He garnered vital support from Bangor business leaders and politicos by pledging that the railroad would reach the Queen City and be named the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad. The 65th Maine Legislature authorized the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad on February 13, 1891. The 200-mile railroad would extend from Bangor to Caribou, with spurs reaching elsewhere into Aroostook County. Backers moved quickly. Surveyors fanned north from Brownville, the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad’s intended junction with the existing Bangor & Piscataquis Railroad, which was folded into the new rail-
road, on June 1, 1891. Grade construction started in 1892; track laying began in July 1893. Crews wielded pick and shovel to create suitable grades. The railroad line vaulted the Penobscot River and crossed countless streams and flowages. All this work required time, and as the Aroostook County winter closed in on them in November 1893, the track layers outpaced the crews ballasting the railroad bed. Work continued into a frigid, snow-swept December, and in Houlton, residents eagerly awaited any train, as long as it arrived from the south.
The Houlton Pioneer Times reported a week before Christmas, “At last, at 1 p.m., Saturday, December 16, 1893, a locomotive in the care of Bangor & Aroostook Railroad General Manager Franklin W. Cram, entered Houlton station in a blinding snowstorm. Church bells rang, cannons were
fired, and steam whistles blew. Bundled against the wind-driven snow, people crowded around Engine No. 16 as though it’d performed some heroic deed, to hear it puffing and panting, as though to announce the fact that it’d been triumphant in overcoming all obstacles and had, at last, succeeded in reaching Houlton.”
A pounding snowstorm could not deter an Aroostook County train from reaching its initial destination. County snows would become legendary in Bangor & Aroostook Railroad history, but on this Saturday, nothing could prevent the train from arriving in Houlton.
The Dickeys Of Fort Kent
Preserving Maine’s last blockhouse
by Charles Francis
The Fort Kent Blockhouse in northern Aroostook County is one of the most intriguing structures in the State of Maine if not the country as a whole. The reason for this is that when it was built in 1839 and 1840 it was already an outmoded defensive structure. Simply put, no wooden structure — no matter how thick the logs of its walls — could withstand direct hits by even the smallest cannon of that day. However, the United States Army did choose to order its construction and it now stands as the last blockhouse to have been built east of the Mississippi and perhaps in the whole country. For this reason it is one of Maine’s most important histor-
ic sites and worthy of its designation as a National Historic Site. However, the Fort Kent Blockhouse might not even exist today had it not been for the dedication of the Fort Kent Historical Society and a man by the name of Cyrus Dickey.
Cyrus Dickey was one of the most influential figures in northern Aroostook County in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At one time or another he owned a variety of businesses, including sawmills and the famous Hotel Dickey, which had been established by his father, Major William Dickey. From 1904 to 1927 he served as a Deputy Collector of Customs for a 200 mile stretch of the
St. John River. In addition, he was one of the founders of the Fort Kent Trust Company as well as one of its early presidents. Cyrus Dickey was also one of the founders of the Fort Kent Historical Society, and as such was one of the instrumental figures in the Society’s purchase of the Fort Kent Blockhouse. Probably the chief reason Cyrus Dickey had been interested in preserving the Fort Kent Blockhouse was that his father had been involved in the construction of Fort Kent itself, having first come to the Aroostook region as a militia officer during the so-called “bloodless” Aroostook War. Before going into the elder Dickey’s involvement
Contact: Steve Johnson at 207-316-5631 nstar1res@gmail.com
Jenny Madore at 207-316-4645 jennorthernstar@gmail.com
it is necessary to consider the structure and function of blockhouses.
The reason why the Fort Kent Blockhouse is so significant is that it is one of the last defensive structures — if not the very last — constructed in the United States using the building techniques of a much earlier time period. To view the Fort Kent Blockhouse is to view the product of the skills and labor of carpenters of a time long past.
The two-story blockhouse, along with the garrison house, was one of the most familiar landmarks in the towns of early Maine. Most were constructed of logs and featured loopholes on both floors. Its most unique feature was the second story, which projected several feet out over the first. This design made it possible for defenders on the second floor to fire directly down through loopholes in the floorboards at attackers
on the ground that might be trying to force the door or set fire to the exterior walls. Because it otherwise looked like a perfectly square log cabin — a few were octagonal — most people think its name came from its blocky shape. This was not the case, however.
The term blockhouse relates to the blocks of wood that fitted perfectly into tray-shaped loopholes in the walls and floor of the house itself. Each block had a long wooden handle with a cord through a hole at the end. The cord was attached to the wall or floor. When a rifleman was reloading, he thrust the block back into the hole to block incoming bullets or arrows. When he had reloaded he pulled the block out by its cord. It was an ingenious system designed to fit circumstances requiring an absolute minimum of motion and as short a period for action as possible.
Prior to the construction of the Fort Kent Blockhouse no blockhouse had
been built in Maine since Fort Halifax in 1755. The Fort Kent Blockhouse differed little from it or earlier blockhouses except that there were cannon ports on the lower level.
Major William Dickey became involved in the construction of Fort Kent after the withdrawal of federal troops from Fort Kent in 1840. The first officer to oversee construction of the blockhouse and the fort had been a Captain Nye in 1839. In the fall of that year Nye was replaced by Captain Stover Rines. In the summer of 1840 Rines and his men were withdrawn and a state militia company, which included William Dickey, took over the fort for the next four years. When William Dickey’s tour of duty ended he returned to his hometown of Gardiner. This is the Dickey connection to the Fort Kent Blockhouse.
By the early 1860s William Dickey was back in the Aroostook region (cont. on page 16)
(cont. from page 15)
sporting the title of major and buying up timberland and establishing the Hotel Dickey. In the late 1860s or early 1870s he was joined by his son Cyrus after the latter graduated from Colby College. Together the two Dickeys established a major logging operation in the township which was to bear the name of Dickeyville for a short time. Later it was renamed Frenchville.
In 1922 the federal government put the Fort Kent Blockhouse up for sale. Under government regulations of the time state, county, and municipal governments had first bid on purchasing any federal property of significant historic value that was put up for sale.
In 1922 the Fort Kent Historical Society, in part due to the efforts of Cyrus Dickey, was able to raise enough money so that with an additional grant from the state the Fort Kent Blockhouse was purchased and repaired. Today the blockhouse is a state memorial main-
tained in part by the Boy Scouts. Thanks to its current caretakers as well as the Fort Kent Historical Society and Cyrus Dickey, the craftsmanship of its builders has been preserved. To see the Fort Kent Blockhouse’s hand-hewn timbers and carefully wrought ironwork around the doors and windows is to step back to a time when painstaking work was the norm rather than the exception and to get an idea of the character of men like Major William Dickey, who were ready to risk their lives to maintain the integrity of their state.
The Fort Kent Blockhouse
The Founding Of Presque Isle
Where the river meets the stream
by Charles Francis
It is generally accepted that Ferdinand Armstrong was the first person to settle what would come to be known as Presque Isle. While Armstrong could be said to be the first permanent settler at the juncture of Presque Isle Stream and the Aroostook River, he was by no means the first to dwell there. In fact, there had been a small garrison of British soldiers stationed there as early as 1780. And, even before that, a small party from Quebec had maintained a semi-permanent camp there for trading with the Indians. It was the latter who were probably responsible for the name Presque Isle or Presqu’ile as the French Quebecois and later the British of New Brunswick called it. Moreover,
this little outpost in the vast north woods wilderness for a time played a central role in the struggle between Quebec, or Lower Canada as it was known then, and New Brunswick for domination of the highlands of the St. Lawrence.
The Quebecois explorers who were the first to come to Presque Isle got there by an extremely circuitous route. They came over the Height of Land which separates Maine and Quebec, and traveled down the Kennebec to Skowhegan. In doing this, they were using the trail that Benedict Arnold had used in his attempt to invade Quebec. From Skowhegan, the explorers traveled by oxcart to the Penobscot, which they poled up until they reached the
Aroostook region. They then followed the Aroostook River to Presque Isle Stream, where they set up camp and began trading with the Indians.
A Lower Canada presence on the Aroostook River did not sit well with authorities in Fredericton. At that time, New Brunswick was still a part of Nova Scotia, though Thomas Carleton had been sent there as governor in preparation for it to become a separate province.
In 1780 Carleton was given two regiments of British regulars. He stationed the bulk of them at Fredericton. However, he also established two small garrisons further inland, one at Grand Falls and the other where the Quebe-
cois had been trading at the confluence of Presque Isle Stream and the Aroostook River. In British military records the garrison is named Presqu’ile. The purported reason Carleton gave for stationing troops inland was to ward off possible attacks by Maliseet Indians. The real reason, however, was for Nova Scotia or New Brunswick to be able to prevent incursions from Quebec into the region. At the time, Lower and Upper Canada were totally separate from the Atlantic provinces, and there was a fierce rivalry between the two regions as to which would play the greater role in British imperial policy. The big fear that the Atlantic provinces had was that the provinces in the interior of the continent would establish a trade route by land to the Atlantic for use when the St. Lawrence River froze over in the winter.
At this time, the British in general and Thomas Carleton in particular ac-
cepted Mars Hill Mountain as the furthest extent of American territory. Carleton’s big fear was that the boundary between Quebec and New Brunswick, which had never been established, would be set at the St. John River.
The garrisons at Grand Falls and Presqu’ile continued to be manned until 1815. At that point, the British government came to view them as superfluous. That year, however, New Brunswick settled a number of officers and men of the disbanded 104th Regiment in the area stretching from Grand Falls to Presqu’ile. This was to maintain the demarcation of what New Brunswick considered its border with Quebec.
Ferdinand Armstrong was the first settler to come to Presqu’ile. Camping there in 1815, he decided that it was the perfect location to make his home. He returned with his wife in 1819 and built a house on Bradley’s Island. By 1825 there were seven New Brunswick fami-
lies living in the immediate area. ln 1828 Dennis Fairbanks built the first mill in the little community. From that time on, the settlement grew steadily — first as a lumbering center, floating logs down the Aroostook River to the St. John, and later as an agricultural center.
The garrisons at Grand Falls and Presqu’ile never did play an active role in establishing the border between New Brunswick and Quebec. Nor did the former officers and men of the 104th Regiment play any significant part in the “bloodless” Aroostook War. The only altercation between those who then lived in Maine and those who lived in New Brunswick occurred in a bar in Houlton when a few who had too much to drink got into a fistfight.
Caribou’s Soldier Named America
Adapted from “Maine at War”
by Brian Swartz
Asoldier named America sallied forth from Caribou to save America during the Civil War. While history also identifies him as “Americus” Bartlett, he officially was named America F. Bartlett.
After Maine became a state, government-hired surveyors transported their chains, transits, and other equipment north to Aroostook County and laid out townships amidst its rolling hills and thick forests. Along future Presque Isle’s northern boundary appeared two side-by-side townships extending even farther north: Township 13, Range 2 on the west and Eaton Grant on the east. Laid out along those townships’ north-
ern boundary was Township 14, Range 2.
The state renamed Township 13 “Letter H Township” in 1848, nineteen years after Alexander and Polly Cochran came from New Brunswick and settled inland from where the Caribou Stream flowed into the Aroostook River in Township 13. Letter H Township became “Lyndon,” then a plantation by the same name, and finally the town of Lyndon in 1859.
The state renamed Township 14 “Letter I Plantation” (also called Forestville Plantation). Lyndon annexed Eaton Grant and Forestville Plantation in 1869 and changed its name to “Car-
ibou” in 1877. Caribou has been the name ever since.
Meanwhile, farmer America Bartlett and his wife, Lydia, were living in Hartford in Oxford County in 1860. They had four children, but lost daughter Adelia in 1838 and son A. Fairfield a year later. The “A.” apparently stood for “America,” because when Lydia Bartlett gave birth to a son in October 1840, his father named the baby America Fairfield Bartlett.
Lydia died in 1854. Farmer Bartlett married Cynthia Osgood (almost 19 years his junior) in 1856. They had a daughter and a son together by 1860. Drawn by Aroostook’s rich soil, and
already accustomed to winter’s deep snows and cold, many early settlers of future Caribou (and elsewhere in the County) came from hilly and rocky Oxford County. America Bartlett moved his family from Hartford to Letter I Township in summer 1861. He took up farming and became a land agent and a timber cruiser.
He did fairly well economically. America Fairfield Bartlett likely helped his father lay out and build roads, including one that ran over hill and dale and across running water east to Limestone.
The Civil War was a year old when America F. and five “men from Letter H cruised in No. 15 Township, now New Sweden” in early 1862, wrote future Caribou historian George Whitneck. The township was “a solitary wilderness” full of trees, but the men “felled trees and made choppings” (clearings) where log cabins could be built. Amer-
ica planned to establish a home in No. 15. He never would.
Given his patriotic first name, America seemed less than enthusiastic about joining the army. He stood a muscular 5-10 and had blue eyes, light hair, and a light complexion. He was a 22-year-old “laborer” from Forestville Plantation when drafted on Saturday, August 15, 1863. However he felt about the war, he did not skedaddle to nearby New Brunswick, as other Mainers did.
Mustered on September 21, he went as a private to Co. C, 19th Maine Infantry Regiment, stationed in Virginia. When acting Orderly Sgt. William H. Emery made “a complete record” of Co. C on December 1, 1863, America Fairfield Bartlett was listed as a “conscript,” among the 41 draftees sent to bolster the company’s depleted ranks. The 19th Maine had taken heavy losses at Gettysburg; every able-bodied conscript was needed.
Unlike many conscripts who deserted before ever reaching their units, America Fairfield Bartlett reported for duty. He soon fell sick, however, and the illness ravaged him so badly that the War Department ordered him “discharged for disability” on January 2, 1864.
Leaving the army at Stevensburg, Virginia, America got as far as Washington, D.C. before dying there on January 16. His father and stepmother buried him in Hartford Center Cemetery in Hartford. He likely lies there near his mother, Lydia.
Although Caribou did not yet exist as a town when he died, Maine would officially credit America post-war as a Caribou soldier.
Fooling Mother Nature In Washburn
Winter storm demolishes bridge construction
by Brian Swartz
When Washburn residents decided to bridge the Aroostook River in 1901, Mother Nature waited until winter to express her irritation about the idea.
Ray Chapman, in his book Washburn: An Informal History, relates how Mother Nature opposed the human effort to span the Aroostook, the main flowage in central Aroostook County. Ferries had served the town quite well during the 19th century, but as the clock ticked toward a new century, “the need for a bridge was growing each year, and there was much talk and agitation about building one,” Chapman described a prospective public improvement.
Washburn lay upstream from Presque Isle at the confluence of the Aroostook River and Salmon Brook. As at Ashland, yet farther upriver, residents worked at area sawmills, on farms, or in the woods. A day’s journey by horse-drawn wagon (in summer) or sleigh (in winter) took people into Presque Isle to shop, but the inferior local roads ― a problem throughout Maine before bituminous pavement ― limited such an adventure to absolute necessities.
The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad had reached the County less than a decade earlier when, in 1901, Washburn residents decided to solve their bridge
problem by that grand American approach: form a committee. The men appointed to this committee (women had not yet won the right to vote) were Alexander Easler, J.B. Harris, A.E. Howes, C.L. Stoddard, George Umphrey, Turner Willey, and J.L. Woodman.
Unlike their descendants 90 years later, Washburn taxpayers did not look to Augusta for financial assistance. “The state was not yet in the bridge-building business,” according to Chapman. The State Highway Commission, precursor to the Maine Department of Transportation, did not exist. Neither did the Federal Highway (cont. on page 26)
(cont. from page 25)
Administration, fuel taxes, or matching funds. “The burden (to build a bridge) fell on the town,” Chapman wrote.
Reviewing its alternatives, the bridge committee agreed to construct a dual span steel bridge. This would cross the river on abutments made from “granite stone imbedded in concrete.”
For $13,000 ― a high price for a single town (imagine the MDOT telling Bath and Woolwich to split the $200 million price tag for a replacement Carlton Bridge) ― the American Bridge Co. contracted to build the span.
Unfortunately, no one consulted Mother Nature. Perhaps the God-fearing Anglo-Saxons living in Washburn should have consulted a Micmac medicine man about placating the river spirits. For some reason, the project apparently irritated Mother Nature, who bided her time.
“Work progressed very well during the summer, and the abutments were
put in,” Chapman wrote. The Aroostook River froze ― hard ― and by mid-December 1901, a “working trestle” linked Washburn’s opposite shores.
Then a warm front softened the Aroostook cold, and an approaching cold front triggered heavy rains across the County. Warm temperatures weakened the river ice, upon which “part of the bridge” rested. The ice broke up, and runoff raised the Aroostook. The trestle and the bridge components placed on ice bid Washburn “adieu” before vanishing downstream.
To its credit, the American Bridge Co. did not surrender to peevish Mother Nature. Working through the deep Aroostook winter, a construction crew assembled another trestle across the abutments and quickly finished the bridge.
Mother Nature probably chuckled as she watched the best efforts made by humans. Before the bridge opened
to traffic, “another thaw and high water carried away a full span,” according to Chapman. To remind people about her perfidy, Mother Nature deposited “some of the bent steel to rust on the first island downstream.”
Stoddard, Easler, Woodman, and other members of the bridge committee probably stood on the Washburn shore that day and wondered, “what did we do wrong?” There was an obvious problem: Mother Nature would not let them build their bridge. The obvious solution was to count their blessings (no human casualties) and forget the project.
But Washburn residents, being financially practical Yankees, refused. They had contracted to spend $13,000 for a bridge, and they intended to get a bridge.
The committee negotiated with the American Bridge Co. Look, this is the solution, the committee members rea-
Phill LeBoeuf 3232 Aroostook Rd. PO Box 347 • Eagle Lake, ME 04739 (207) 444-4535
overlookmotel.com
soned. “We raise the abutments four feet, or above flood stage, and you folks simply rebuild the bridge.”
The apparent idea was for the American Bridge Co. to raise the abutments before replacing the bridge. The bridge committee was “unable to place a contract,” however, so the town voted Howes to complete the task.
He hired a crew and spent municipal funds to buy granite blocks from the Houlton Granite Co. The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad brought the granite blocks to Presque Isle, where Howe and his crew loaded them for an overland passage to Washburn.
“These blocks were placed solidly in concrete abutments,” Chapman wrote, “and the bridge was raised the required four feet, at least on the west side, and properly leveled. “This bridge, completed in 1902, would stand until its replacement by an MDOT span 69 years later.
NORTH WOODS REAL ESTATE
“Serving
Yankee ingenuity had finally prevailed. When Mother Nature demolished the partially constructed bridge on December 20, 1901, a wise engineer might have examined the site and pondered, “Is this a 100-year flood or something that routinely occurs?” Designing to consider the actual problem ― the bridge was too low, not impossible to build ― the project engineer simply instructed his crew to rebuild the bridge at the same elevation.
But Mother Nature rudely reminded Washburn residents, who were depending on their engineer for sage advice, that “it isn’t nice to fool me.” They enjoyed the last laugh, though, when Mother Nature discovered she could not raise the Aroostook River as high as the humans could raise their bridge.
by
the new book Maine At War, Volume
to Sharpsburg tells the story of Maine’s involvement in the first 18 months of the Civil War, as experienced by Maine men and women who answered the call to defend and preserve the United States. Maine At War Volume 1 draws on diaries, letters, regimental histories, newspaper articles, eyewitness accounts, and the Official Records to bring the war to life in a storytelling manner that captures the time and period.
Released by Epic Saga Publishing. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers: 492 pages, 313 photos and illustrations. $30.00
Written
Maine at War blogger and Discover Maine contributor Brian Swartz,
1: Bladensburg
The Governor Neptune Steamer opens the upper Penobscot to commerce
by Charles Francis
On November 27, 1847 the steamer Governor Neptune was run over Piscataquis Falls to Nicketow, fourteen miles above Five Island Rips. The run, now long forgotten, was of history-making proportions. It opened the upper Penobscot, the Katahdin region, to passenger traffic and commerce.
Today Nicketow is Medway. As a general statement the run of the Governor Neptune to Nicketow was not a regular occurrence. Except at very high water, the steamer, and those that would join her, were run only to Five Island Rips. Actually the official landing place was in the Five Islands area,
which is the location of Winn village, a few miles below the Rips.
Prior to the coming of the Governor Neptune, travel to the Katahdin region and beyond had been by stage.
The Brewer and Sunhaze Daily Stage initiated travel between Bangor and Houlton on August 18, 1829. Stage travel wasn’t all that pleasant, however. The road — it would be better to say trail — following the Penobscot was rough. It was rooted and rocky, and travel along it was slow and sometimes dangerous, with passengers often suffering bangs and bruises. Steamers like the Governor Neptune changed all this. The only thing which would have been
better would have been a railroad. This would, of course, come, and when it did it put an end to the steamer business. It was the steamer, though, that provided the first real impetus for the growth of towns like Lincoln, Winn and Medway.
The man who was responsible for opening the upper Penobscot to steamer traffic was Wyman B. S. Moor, though the story of that opening does not quite begin with him.
On July 30, 1846 the Maine Legislature granted authorization to William Moor and Daniel Moor, Jr. and their assignees to improve the navigation of the Penobscot above Old Town. Improve meant deepening the channel, re(cont. on page 30)
Garnette Thompson & Nicole Blais Owners
(cont. from page 29)
moving gravel, sand, ledges, bars, rocks and so on. The Moors could build dams and locks, booms, piers, abutments and breakwaters. In short they could do about anything to the river they wanted. The authorization also included the sole right to run steamships. It extended for twenty years. It was a gem of a deal but William and Daniel Moor weren’t up to doing it. This is where Wyman Moor, brother of William and Daniel, comes into the picture.
The first thing Wyman Moor did was to have the Governor Neptune built. Starting in May of 1847 he ran her from Old Town to Piscataquis Falls. By mid-fall Piscataquis Falls was passable.
The first landing place of the Governor Neptune was across from Cottage House, a small hotel kept by Thomas Ranney. The exact location was just above the Lincoln and Winn line. It was here that Captain Cyrus Fay, Moor’s agent, had his house.
In 1851 the landing point was moved to Winn village. Paul Stratton built a much larger hotel than the Cottage House that year. The hotel was the beginning of the Katahdin area’s tourist industry. There is, however, a question about the choice of landing spot.
David Bryant was the pilot of the Governor Neptune. He was the first pilot on the Penobscot. It’s said that he was a very good pilot. If he had a drawback, it was that he drank too much. Bryant’s love of the bottle is sometimes
credited with the establishing of Winn village in its current location. Tradition has it that Bryant chose the site for the second landing when he was “in his cups.” There was actually a better landing spot a half mile or so below the spot Bryant chose, at Coombs Eddy. Some authorities suggest the Coombs Eddy area would have been “far more favorable for both landing and village.” The area Bryant chose was ledge, difficult for building construction.
In 1849 Wyman Moor got some unwanted steamer competition. That year General Sam Veazie, noted for his cutthroat competitive methods, began running the Governor Dana. Veazie had no authorization for this. It should be noted that Wyman Moor was also a general. What occurred was a battle of generals.
General Veazie did do some clearing of the river just below Piscataquis falls for a landing place. The Governor Dana ran as far as the falls. The Governor Dana did have a licence as a coastal steamer, but the Penobscot wasn’t tidal above Bangor, meaning the licence wasn’t good above Bangor. The result of all this was that Wyman Moor brought suit against Veazie in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Veazie lost.
Veazie appealed the decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The appeal went all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1852 the Supreme Court decided against Veazie. In part
the judgement of the court granted a “sum of one thousand and fifty-two dollars and forty-five cents for damages and expenses incurred by him [Moor] by reason of the interference with his rights on the part of the plaintiffs in error.” One might view the court’s decision as General Moor’s vindication and General Veazie’s humiliation.
A number of other steamboats operated on the Penobscot besides the Governor Neptune. There was the Mattanawcook and the Sam Houston. Steamboats were important because they carried people up and down the river. They also carried the mail, but more than this they carried freight — food, tools, and clothing, items that make for civilization and the building of communities.
From today’s vantage point we would consider fares and charges on the Governor Neptune and her sister steamers cheap. Passenger fares from Old Town to Winn never exceeded $2.50. Freight charges never exceeded $5.50. When on occasion a steamer went from Winn to Medway, passenger fare was $.25. The freight charge was $1.50.
There is one more point to be taken up regarding the Governor Neptune That is the question of whether the name of the steamer was appropriate.
The Governor Neptune was named for John Neptune, a Penobscot tribal governor, one of the most famous. His title wasn’t governor though, it was
lieutenant governor, a position Neptune held for some fifty years. Neptune was alive when the steamer bearing his name began traveling the Penobscot. He was born in 1767 and died in 1865. It should be noted that the islands the Governor Neptune passed in the river were owned by the Penobscots. Thoreau describes Neptune in his The Maine Woods. The naturalist describes a very wise man, one who understood the world and his place in it. Fannie Hardy Eckstorm and her family were friendly with Neptune. Eckstrom describes him as “having a Roman nose and as being an accomplished hunter with a keen mind and a cheerful, fun-loving nature.” One story has it that Neptune thought the naming of the steamer rather humorous. So was the naming of the Governor Neptune appropriate? That would seem a matter for opinion.
Vassalboro Manufacturing in Enfield, ca. 1899. Item # 1056 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
Easton’s “Last Mile Project”
by Brian Swartz
Acollaborative effort between the town of Easton, Aroostook County, and Spectrum recently expanded broadband Internet access into “the last mile” of this central Aroostook town.
Spreading across 38.93 square miles, Easton borders Presque Isle on the east, Fort Fairfield on the north, and Mars Hill on the south. Known in the 1850s as Fremont Plantation, Easton officially became a town in 1865. The town’s population has fluctuated from 320 people in 1860 to 1,215 residents in 1900 and a peak of 1,664 residents in 1950. The 2020 federal census found 1,320 people living in Easton.
The two main roads into Easton are Route 10 and Route 1A. From a traffic light at Main Street (Route 1) in Presque Isle, Route 10 runs east through farmland, turns into the Center Road at the Easton border, and runs through Easton village, which lies either side of Prestile Stream.
Splitting from Route 1 in Mars Hill, Route 1A runs north toward Fort Fairfield and bisects Easton. “The village and the industries are mostly on the westerly side of 1A, the farming is mostly on the eastern side of 1A,” Easton Town Manager Jim Gardiner said.
At one time large farms were locat-
ed east of Route 1A. With the passing of time much of “the land went fallow,” he said. Taking advantage of the reasonable prices, Amish families purchased farms and land and started moving to Easton. Today the Amish, who are Old Order, comprise about 15 percent of the town’s population.
Once “the Covid pandemic was over, the town of Easton in 2021 looked at the challenges it was bringing on,” Gardiner said. One challenge was “telehealth, not being able to have that ability for our seniors to interact with their health professionals.”
Another challenge was the growing population. “We had an influx of (cont. on page 34)
(cont. from page 33)
people who wanted to work from their homes,” Gardner said. With the Covid pandemic, people started moving to Easton from Arkansas, Connecticut, Missouri, New Jersey, and elsewhere to take advantage of living in “a small community” with its own elementary and high schools and “two huge industries” (McCain’s Frozen Foods and Huber Engineered Woods) that provide hundreds of jobs and a stable tax base.
Many new residents “came out of the heavier populated areas” in other states “to get out of the rat race,” according to Gardiner. People sought “just the serenity” of living in Aroostook County.
“One of the best places to live is out in the farmland” east of Route 1A, said Gardiner, an Easton native. “The land availability we have out there,” parcels ranging from 20 to 30 acres in size, have also attracted non-Amish to that side of Easton.
Spectrum already provided broadband to almost all of Easton west of Route 1A, but “we have about 138 homes” east of that highway “that were not being served” by adequate Internet access, Gardiner said.
Town officials decided in 2021 to solve that problem by expanding broadband access east of Route 1A; the project also involved a few properties west of the highway. The town dedicated $125,000 of its ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds toward the project and applied to Aroostook County for additional ARPA funding.
In latter 2021 the county had received some $13 million from ARPA, Gardiner indicated. Setting aside $3 million, county commissioners invited all County towns to apply for “for a grant of up to $300,000 to do certain projects,” he said.
Some towns discussed forming a committee to develop broadband, but
Easton “just went on its own” and “chose to apply for a grant to expand broadband to the east side” of Route 1A, Gardiner said.
The county commissioners awarded Easton a $300,000 grant, and “we now had $425,000” toward the project’s estimated $700,000 cost, Gardiner said. “We had a gap” in terms of funding, so the town contacted Spectrum and explained that it, and not the town, would make money on broadband coverage. Spectrum then provided $270,000 to fully fund the project. That sum includes “in kind” services, such as running the broadband lines east of Route 1A.
Spectrum “started running cable” in late 2022, got as far as possible before winter, and resumed running cable in April 2023, Gardiner said. The town referred to the broadband expansion as “the last mile project. It was a build out from what we already had.”
Wayne
When completed in September 2023, the project provided the homes east of Route 1A with “the availability to hook onto the Internet,” he said. “It’s probably one of the best things that has happened to us in a long, long time.” Gardiner and his wife, who live in the project’s coverage area, quickly signed up for broadband, which replaced their prior satellite TV service.
Broadband extends “right up to the [Canadian] border” in a few areas, he said. The project’s reception by the public “has been awesome. People are pleased.” One resident had Spectrum run fiberoptic cable some 400 feet from the road to his house.
“We’re starting to see development happen out on our east side,” Gardiner said. “We see the new people coming; they are building houses” east of Route 1A and elsewhere in town.
Name Address Phone
DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS
BUSINESS
A&L Construction........................................................33
A.N. Deringer, Inc. ........................................................5
Acadia Federal Credit Union........................................12
Adam Qualey Incorporated.........................................27
Aroostook Foam Insulation.........................................20
Aroostook Real Estate.................................................13
B&C Pit Stop Inc. ........................................................36
Babin Construction, Inc. ...............................................8
Barresi Benefits Group................................................19
Bolduc Avenue Health Center......................................13
Bolstridge Building, LLC................................................6
Bouchard Country Store..............................................14
Bouchard Family Farm................................................14
Bouchard's Seamless Gutters........................................3
Bowers Funeral Home..................................................5
Briarwood Motor Inn..................................................30
Buck Construction, Inc. ..............................................35
C&J Service Center.......................................................36
Caribou Self Storage....................................................23
Caribou Sub Shop........................................................22
Cary Brown Trucking & Excavation.............................29
Cary Medical Center....................................................23
Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce..................19
Central Building Supplies, Inc. ..................................32
Chez Helen..................................................................17
Children's Museum of Aroostook County....................18
City of Caribou............................................................24
Coffin's General Store.................................................35 Colin Bartlett & Sons, Inc. ...........................................3
Giberson-Dorsey Funeral Home..................................35
Graves' Supermarkets..................................................17
Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce.......................5
Griffeth Ford / Honda / Lincoln / Mitsubishi.................23
Ground Tek Inc. ...........................................................15
H&S Garage, Inc. ........................................................16
H.C. Haynes, Inc. .......................................................37 Hannaford - Caribou.....................................................36
Hebert Rexall Pharmacy.............................................15
High Street Market......................................................38
Hogan Tire...................................................................11
Hometown Fuels, Inc. .................................................21
Houlton/Canadian Border KOA......................................5
House in the Woods.....................................................29
Huber Engineered Wood, LLC......................................17
Inn of Acadia...................................................back cover
Irving Woodlands, LLC.................................................14
J. McLaughlin Construction, LLC..................................10
J.R.S. Firewood..............................................................8
Jerry's Shurfine.............................................................6
JJC Tree Service............................................................15
John's Food Store..........................................................7
Katahdin Trust.............................................................11
Ken L. Electric, Inc. .......................................................6
Kirkpatrick & Bennett Law Offices..............................36
Langille Construction, Inc. ..........................................25
Lennie's Superette.......................................................37
Levesque Business Solutions.......................................16
Limestone Chamber of Commerce..............................36
Long Lake Excavation..................................................16
LP Building Solutions..................................................11
M. Rafford Construction and Trucking.........................20
Machias Savings Bank - Caribou..................................25
Madawaska Community Health Center.......................13
Crandall's
Cushman & Sons Inc. ..................................................18
Danforth Yankee Grocer..............................................37
Desjardins Logging.....................................................26
Dirigo Waste Oil..........................................................10
Drinkwaters Cash Fuel................................................37
Dubois Contracting.....................................................12 Dubois'
Madtown Clothing......................................................16
Maine Association of Retirees.....................................10
Maine Cedar Specialty Products....................................4
Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife..............31 Maine Historical Society................................................4 Manpower Maine........................................................20 Maple Pig Bar & Grill...................................................18 Martin's General Store................................................12 Martin's Point Health Care - Lori Theriault.................22
