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There are in the town a few families of the society of Friends. 4. NUMBER OF EDUCATED men. There are four persons in town who have had a collegiate education. These are two lawyers and two physicians, one of whom only practices at present. The academy is now in a flourishing state, and sixty students attend it this fall. The number of scholars is larger at this time of the year than at any other, as many young men attend for the purpose of being qualified to keep school in the winter. Of the seventy-two scholars on the catalogue for the present term, twenty are pursuing classical studies.*

5. OCCUPATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS, ETC. Nine-tenths of the inhabitants are employed in agriculture. Their money they obtain chiefly by the sale of live stock of neat cattle and horses. The cattle have been sold to butchers near Portland; but more recently they have been sold to drovers who have carried them to Brighton; and several traders have purchased them, and had them driven there for sale. Hay is the most valuable growth of the soil, and for this the land is very suitable. Some cattle are driven in the spring from Scarborough and other lower towns to be pastured in Limerick and other adjacent country for growth or to be fatted. Much of the land cannot be ploughed to advantage from its being very moist, and falling or settling down heavy after being turned up. The higher and better land needs to be broken up or ploughed after bearing grass for several years in succession. Next to grass, corn and potatoes are the principal articles of produce. Oats and rye are raised, but in small quantities. By far the greatest part of the wheat used in the town, is raised in it, but the climate is not so favorable to it as to corn, the summers being too hot for summer wheat, and the winters too cold for winter wheat; but the seasons, when corn fails from the moisture and cold, are usually very favorable to wheat. Butter is made in large quantities, and sold at the country stores, or

1 Autumn, 1830. [The lawyers were Joseph Howard and John McDonald. The practicing physician, William Swazey.]

*[The academy was incorporated in 1808. It was one of the last acts of Governor Sullivan's life and administration to sign the act of incorporation, which he took great pleasure in doing, for the early interest he had in the town as proprietor and pioneer, and to which he had given its name. A new academy building was erected in 1851.-Ed.]

else is kept till winter by the wealthier farmers, and then carried to a seaport to market. A quantity of cheese is also sold. Orchards do well, and more cider is made than is for the interest of the town.

Fencing is chiefly stone wall for which there is about a sufficiency of stone on the ground. There is no cedar or other durable wood in sufficient plenty in this town or the neighboring towns for fencing. For temporary fences, and for lands occupied by tenants and those who do not choose or are not able to incur much present labor, board fences are generally used. There is still some log fence, but stone walls are prevailing.

LUMBER. Considerable quantities of boards are sawed in town, from timber growing on the land, which are hauled by oxen to Portland. Some square timber is also carried down. Saco and Kennebunk and Kennebunkport are markets to which there is some resort. Shingles also are made, and are sold in small quantities to traders in the town, who afterward send them to market. Some clapboards are made also; but the quantity of shingles made is small, and of clapboards much less.

MANUFACTURES. A flock of sheep is owned in every farmer's family. Some of the wool is sold in fleeces; but it is chiefly made into cloth; and this supplies the wants of the family, assists in paying laborers, and is bartered at the stores; but these two last items are small. Not more than one-eighth of the woolen worn in the town by the men, is from factories foreign or domestic; but a larger proportion is worn by women. Woolen cloth is the most important domestic manufacture; and the work for which young women are hired is principally to spin and weave. Few put out their wool to be manufactured from home.

The next manufacture is of cotton. Though cotton factory cloth is now so cheap, yet some cotton cloth is still made in families; the warp being spun from cotton, and the filling, or woof, being usually factory cotton thread. This cloth is stouter than factory cotton, and wears longer; and therefore is thought by some to be cheaper to them on the whole, though the first cost is greater. For laboring men, or any men who take much exercise, domestic woolens will last nearly twice as long as factory woolens, and will only cost about half the amount per yard;

but the difference is much smaller, and is not perhaps more than one-third in favor of domestic cottons.

Flax is another article manufactured in the family. Most farmers have a patch of flax. This is pulled, and spread on the ground in the fall, to rot the stalk, and then it is bound up in small bundles, and laid by itself in the barn; and in the clear, dry days at the close of winter, when the stalk will break most readily, it is broken and then beaten, or swingled; and it is wrought into cloth, either all linen, or linen and cotton. Only coarse fabrics are made of it. Since shoes and boots are pegged instead of being sewed less attention is paid to the growing of flax. Chaises have been made in the town for six or seven years, and have met with a ready sale. Wagons for a single horse have been made some years longer, and are made in greater numbers. About fifty-four wagons are owned in the town; and about thirty-one chaises, whereas ten years ago there were but about six; and there are, besides, some chaises and wagons owned for sale. Some gigs are also made.

Bureaus, chairs, and other articles of cabinet work are made; and shoes and hats also are made in such quantities, as to be sent abroad into other parts of the country for sale. Leather is made here in a considerable quantity, in part from foreign hides, and a quantity of leather is carried away to market.

COURSE OF TRADE. Portland is the principal market, though there is some resort to Saco, Kennebunk, and Kennebunkport. They who saw boards send them to market generally by their own teams, and they bring back cash, West India produce, or manufactured goods. Cash is obtained principally by boards. In winter sleigh loads of butter and pork are carried by single horses to market. In the spring, summer, and fall, butter is taken to the neighboring stores, and is bartered there; and is then sent to market by the traders in kegs, firkins, or barrels, and sold for money, or given in payment for foreign goods. Different kinds of grain, Indian corn being by far the principal article, are carried to the stores in the same manner, and by the traders are sent to market. Barter is almost the only method of trading. The several mechanics, blacksmiths, shoemakers, and others, are paid chiefly in produce or mechanical articles; and

farmers exchange their productions chiefly for what they consume in their families.

6.

MEETING-HOUSES, ETC. There are three meeting-houses, the Congregational, the Calvinist Baptist, and the Free-will Baptist. There is an Academy, which stands on a hill near the village, and visible from the Portland observatory, though probably more than twenty-five miles distant on an air line. There are eight district school-houses. Saw-mills, six; grist-mills, three; carding-machine, one; tanneries, five; taverns, three; stores, five.

7. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, ETC.

Limerick Female Cent. Society organized

1815.

28 members.

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The air is pure

8.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE WEATHER DEATHS.

and salubrious. The inhabitants are not very liable to fevers. Consumption is the most prevalent disease.

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In 1799, an unusual mortality prevailed; and the throat distemper carried off many children in a sudden manner. Rev. Ebenezer Kinsman lost four in a few weeks; and four of Mr. John Perry's also died. In 1810, the town contained one thou-` sand one hundred and seventy-seven inhabitants, and in 1820, one thousand three hundred and seventy-seven, so that between these dates, the deaths on an average, will be about one to one hundred and twenty-four of the population yearly. In 1830, the population was one thousand four hundred and twenty.

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9. INDIAN HISTORY. Limerick probably was never much frequented by Indians. When the natives infested the settlements on the sea-coast, they came from Canada, by the Kennebec, the Androscoggin, the Saco, or over the lakes of New Hampshire by Dover. Settlements were made in New Hampshire, and in Picqwaket, now Fryeburg, before they were made here. The only trace of former inhabitants that has come to my knowledgo is this. Mr. Jonathan Hill, in digging the cellar of his house, where the land had not been before cleared, about three feet below the surface, came to rocks that appeared to have been laid together for a fireplace. Stone fireplaces in new settlements are made thus: large rocks, with their sides fronting, compose the back, and rocks, with longitudinal fronts, form the jambs; but in this fireplace, the ends of the rocks made the front of the jambs. Much ashes lay about the fireplace, and also some pieces of earthen-ware.

The word Ossipee is, I presume, of Indian origin, and from its prevalence may be supposed to have been the name of a tribe in earlier days of Indian history. There are two rivers called Ossipee, Great Ossipee and Little Ossipee. There is a hill in Waterborough adjoining Limerick, called Ossipee. There is a pond

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