was now supposed to be forfeited, a number of persons in different parts of the town began to try their hands at it, but to no great extent for many years. Wm. Watson succeeded to Mr. Wheaton at the old, since called the Prison, quarry; and, in the course of a few years, the present Tilson quarry was worked by the three sons of Capt. Nat. Fales, who in process of years did considerable business at it, in spite of the formidable spruce quagmire through which their lime had to be transported to tide waters. Capt. Jenks also, soon after moving on to his farm, made trial of the quarry found on it, since known as the celebrated and much worked Beech Woods quarry.

There being a vacancy in the offices of the militia, Otis Robbins was chosen Captain; Robert Jameson, 1st Lieutenant; and Joseph Coombs, 2d Lieutenant; who were commissioned by Gov. Bowdoin, Aug. 4, 1785. The Company of this town was then styled the Fifth of the 4th regiment (First Brigade and Eighth Division) of militia in the county of Lincoln. Robbins was promoted about 1797 to the office of Major, which he held about five years, when he resigned and was honorably discharged, Oct. 26, 1803.

Snow, two or three feet in depth, again fell in April of this year; and the following winter was distinguished for deep snows and severe weather.

1786. For support of highways, the town this year returned to taxation in money, subject to a deduction to those who chose to work at the rate of 5s. per day for a man, 3s. for a yoke of oxen, 1s. 6d. for a cart, and 2s. for a plough from which it would seem the value of ox-work compared with human labor had greatly risen since 1777; and, among other symptoms of poverty and want of employment, the collector's commission as in July increased from the usual ninepence before voted, to one shilling on the pound.

The first vote of the town, so far as appears from the records, in which the ballots were regularly counted and returned, was that of 26 votes, this year, for Thomas Rice as county register.

May 8th, it was voted to procure a lot of land for the town's use as a Parsonage, and N. Fales, J. Simonton, and O. Robbins were appointed a committee to select and lay out a suitable lot of 200 acres, and make report at the next town meeting. It was also, for the first time, voted to build a pound, of good logs, on the land of James and David Fales, and that "one or both of the said men be pound keepers." At another meeting, July 25th, Capt. Jona. Spear, Lieut.

Hugh Killsa, and D. Morse, were appointed a committee to view the ground on the west side of Mill River to the southward of Wheaton's mill, and consider the propriety of the town's laying out a tract there to the distance of fifty or sixty rods, for the use of the town, as a common landing-place for lumber and lime. In the following year, such a tract was laid out by the selectmen, and accepted May 7th. This landing proved a great convenience to the inhabitants, who made it a common depot for lime, lumber, and other articles; and it still remains the property of the town of Thomaston.

Among the new arrivals, William Rowell, from Nottingham, N. H., one of the returned soldiers of the Revolution, who had been present at Bunker Hill battle, now came to Wessaweskeag, married a sister of Lieut. Mathews, resided for a time on the Mathews farm, and became the first settler on the Ephraim Snow lot, so called. His son, the late Rice Rowell, became the owner of the Mathews lot, which he occupied till his death, and on which, in 1813, he erected a saw-mill, near that of Snow, at Wear Cove. Nathan Pillsbury, also a Revolutionary soldier, came, not far from the same time, from Kittery; married, and settled at Owls' Head; where he carried on his trade as a blacksmith. Win. Chapman, a Quaker or Friend, the first if not the only member of that denomination in the place, came from Scituate and settled near the head of Owl's Head Bay. His father also resided here awhile, but returned and died in Scituate.

Of new roads, accepted this year, were one from James Brown's to the S. line of the town, one from the head of Owl's Head Bay to Jona, Crockett's, and one from the Warren road to N. Fales' or the Beech Woods; besides others recommended, from the bridge at Owl's Head Bay to Rendell's at Owl's Head Harbor, from the same bridge to Heard's at Ash Point, from near N. Crockett's at Ash Point to Wessaweskeag, and from the bridge near Coombs' to the S. line of the town.

In the first steps toward a separation of Maine from Massachusetts, taken by conventions this year held at Falmouth, this town, though invited to send a delegate by an article in the March meeting warrant, appears to have taken no part and was not represented.

The remarkably cold and dry winter of 1786-7 set in so early that, on Nov. 14th, the George's river froze hard enough to bear a horse and sleigh as low down as Watson's Point, and, on the 15th, even to its mouth. In the same month, the drought was so severe that, at low tide, the same river in

many places ceased to flow. Other streams and springs wholly failed; and it was difficult to get water for cattle or for grinding purposes, except at tide mills.

1787. In conformity with an act passed in 1785, the town this year chose a committee of five persons " to open ways and prevent the stopping of the fish, agreeable to law,"probably meaning the shad and alewives of Mill river.

In April a warrant was issued for a town meeting, to give in votes for Governor, &c., in which was an article to see what the town will do about building a meeting-house; but, as the records of the meeting did not get entered in the town book, we can only infer from the vote at subsequent meetings that a committee was appointed to look out a suitable site for such a purpose. In May, a new committee, consisting of J. Simonton, J. Crockett, T. Hix, W. Heard, J. Bridges, M. Wheaton, and D. Fales, was appointed for the same purpose and also to "search for convenient Lands for Personage, Ministerial, and School lots." From this vote it would seem the town was disposed to act as individuals had been in the habit of doing, in the absence of the proprietors of the soil; and take up such unoccupied lots as they might select, occupying by the right of possession until their title should be perfected by time or a settlement with the owners. Flucker, the proprietor of this part of the Waldo patent, having espoused the royal cause and forfeited his estate in consequence, Gen. Henry Knox, his son-in-law, (who had, as early as 1784, been appointed agent or administrator to settle the estate, and who, in right of his wife, a daughter of said Flucker, claimed to inherit one-fifth part of it,) was now, with other heirs interested, looking up their rights in the Patent, and had in 1785 obtained a resolve of the legislature extending its boundaries, on condition, as before mentioned, that he would quiet all the settlers on the lands they had taken up prior to 1775. This was satisfactory so far as it went; but, making no provision for those who had taken up lands during the war, (a measure which the difficulties of the times and the absence of the proprietors had compelled many to adopt as the only means of gaining a livelihood,) fell far short of their expectations. As these claimants were now expected to be here for the purpose of making some arrangement with such settlers, a large committee consisting of S. Brown, J. Crockett, Robert Jameson, J. Tolman, and T. Hix, was appointed at a town meeting, May 7th, of this year, "to discourse with any Claimers of Lands that may appear."

Whether any such "claimers" appeared or not, we are not

informed; but it is probable that Knox did not neglect the proprietary interest, but intrusted the oversight of it to some former agent here, or induced some other to come to the place for that purpose. At any rate, several of his friends, or employees, emigrated hither about this time or a little later. Capt. Thomas Vose, who had early gained his acquaintance. and good opinion in the army of the Revolution in which he had commanded a company of artillery, came from Milton, Mass., for the purpose of fencing out the Fort farm, which had, prior to the war, been in charge of Col. Wheaton. This he did with juniper posts and clear pumpkin-pine boards, the best and most costly in the market; commencing at the river and running up what is now Wadsworth street, Thomaston, and down the present Main street to Mill River. Of this farm, Vose now took the oversight; and, being a man of judgment and decision, he became a useful citizen and for many years, either by himself or as partner with Gen. Knox, did an extensive business at the present O'Brien store and wharf. He lived some years in the Wadsworth house, till he purchased and removed to that in which he spent the remainder of his life, and in which his son William still resides, at the foot of Wadsworth street. Spencer Vose, a relative of Capt. Thomas, came from Attleboro' about 1790, and commenced the tanning and shoemaking business on the south side of what is now Main street, Thomaston, near the western termination of the Mall. John Bentley came from Boston, burnt lime for Knox, and, being a man of good education, was also employed in teaching school. He was, we believe, for a time deputy sheriff; married here, and settled at the Meadows. William McIntosh, a young man from Scotland, employed by Knox in his personal service at Philadelphia, came hither at this time or a little later, and settled west of the Meadows, in consequence of an offer of his employer to give him a hundred acres of land on condition of his settling. Neglecting to get a deed, however, till after the death of Knox, he lost his land and a portion also of what was due him from the insolvent estate. Timothy Spalding also, with his sons Jedediah and James, came from New Meadows this year, and settled at Ballyhac, on the eastern side of the mouth of the Wessaweskeag; - leaving his name there to a Point and island or peninsula, of about 30 acres, not included in the Snow purchase.

Coasting vessels built on the George's River were now making frequent trips to Boston from this place; one of which was commanded by Capt. Thomas McLellan, senior, of

this town, and another by his brother Simon of Cushing. But we have no certain account of the building of any within the limits of Thomaston, prior to this year, when Mr. Snow built a small Boston coaster, the first vessel ever launched on the waters of the Wessaweskeag, or, so far as is known, in any part of the old town whose three divisions have since sent forth so many stately structures of the kind.

All the town meetings except one, at Jas. Stackpole's, had thus far been held at the house of Oliver Robbins. And now, in the warrant for the May meeting, an article had been inserted "to see if the town will allow" said Robbins " something for the trouble and for the use of his house as a Meeting House for sometime past." But, as Capt. N. Fales had built, or was building, a new house which might serve their purpose, the town, with the characteristic economy of corporations, which are said to have no souls, voted " that the town thinks that the article is not convenient." Accordingly the next meeting, Sept. 3d, was convened at "the New House of Capt. N. Fales." Framed buildings of any description were still a rarity in all parts of the town. Two barns, the first framed ones in what is now Rockland, were built about this time, and are still standing; one by J. Barrows, now owned by Otis Barrows, and the other by Jeremiah Tolman, now that of his son Jeremiah - both framed by Waterman Hewett.

At that meeting the contemplated division of the county of Lincoln was taken into consideration, in compliance with resolutions of the General Court in the preceding June, when the town voted that the Selectmen prefer a petition to that body, praying that this town may be annexed to the first of the three new counties. This request was ultimately complied with, and Thomaston as well as Camden was suffered to remain in the old county of Lincoln, whilst the territory to the eastward of these was, June 25, 1789, formed into the two new counties of Hancock and Washington.

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At the same meeting, the record says, “ voted and chose D. Fales, Jr., to serve on the Petit Jury for trials at the next Court to be holden at Waldoborough, on the second Tuesday of Sept. inst." This form of record was uniformly followed in all the selections of jurors; and there is no hint given that any of them were drawn by lot, until March 31, 1788, when I. Lovett was chosen Grand Juryman and Samuel Bartlett drawn from the box as Petit Juryman.

Three different subjects of special importance gave occasion to a town-meeting, Dec. 19th, of this year. One was the election of a delegate to attend the Convention that was