mansion, near the spot where "the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep," and amid the fragments of their humble monuments which she had caused to be demolished; though there, we regret to say, her bones were not destined to remain. 1825. The Thomaston Bank, the first institution of the kind in this town, or this vicinity, was incorporated, Feb. 22, 1825, with a capital of $50,000. J. Gleason, J. Sprague, D. Rose, R. Foster, of Thomaston, E. Smith and W. McLellan, of Warren, and I. G. Reed, of Waldoboro', were the first directors, who, May 31st, elected J. Gleason president, and J. Sprague cashier. Proposals were soon after issued for constructing a suitable building of granite; and that now occupied was erected in the course of the summer. Gleason held the office of president till 1831; when he was succeeded by Edwin Smith, two years; Edward Robinson, one year; and Richard Robinson, 21 years; till 1855, when the present incumbent, Wm. Singer, was chosen. The cashiers, since Sprague's death in 1826, have been John Paine until 1840, John D. Barnard, till his death in 1858, and Oliver Robinson, the present incumbent. The business of this bank was commenced with caution and managed with success, until 1831, when it was discovered that $11,000, consisting of bills done up in packages, were missing from the vault. The doors were found locked as usual, everything in order, and the directors were not more shocked and amazed at the loss of the money, than perplexed and confounded by the mysterious manner of its disappearance. No one had the key of the vault but the president; and, after many attempts to account for it otherwise, suspicion began slowly and unwillingly to point toward him or some member of his family. Even the cashier, though a brother-in-law, began to have misgivings, and went so far as to say to him in one of their consultations, none but you and I, Gleason, have had access to the vault; the money is gone; I have not taken it, and I don't see but you have." It was a hard case for the worthy president; the implication preyed upon his health, and was supposed to have caused the sickness which resulted in his death in 1832. But in the mean time, circumstances transpired which completely exonerated him, and directed suspicion to a different quarter. was ascertained that a large amount of Thomaston bills had been deposited in a bank in Dover, N. H., by Isaac Snaith, a native of England and one of the recent factory firm at Mill River. The large amount deposited by one individual led to suspicion, and he was indicted for the theft. At his protracted It trial at Warren, in April, 1831, sufficient evidence was adduced to convince most people of his guilt; yet, by the liberal use of money in feeing some four or five of the ablest lawyers in the State, he succeeded in raising doubts in the minds of the jury, and was acquitted. After the trial, however, a bunch of false keys, done up with a ball of putty in a piece of cloth, was found in Thomaston, near the bank, partly concealed under a fence in a brook or gutter, where Snaith had been allowed to stop a few minutes by the officer in charge. This removed all doubt of his guilt; and the bank immediately commenced an action against him in the courts of N. H., whither he had now removed. But the jury were unable to agree, and the matter was finally compounded by his paying $2000, a sum about sufficient to cover the expenses the bank had been at in sustaining the prosecution. The loss, about $12,000, resulting from this affair, and some bad debts, was made up by withholding dividends. The bank has since been successfully managed, and its credit has never been impaired; the stock having risen from 10 or 15 below par at that time to its present high premium. It now pays a dividend of 10 per cent., numbers 780 stockholders, and its discount day is Monday.* On the 17th day of May, 1825, was issued the first number of the THOMASTON REGISTER, the first weekly newspaper ever established in this town or anywhere in the old county of Lincoln, east of Wiscasset. It was got up chiefly by the friends and agency of Mr. Ruggles, who entered into a three year's contract with Edwin Moody of Hallowell, to print the paper for $500 a year; whilst he himself was to manage the editorial department, furnish paper, and receive all income. Esq. Prince, according to an agreement, immediately commenced adding a new story to his store at Mill River for the printing office; which, after an ineffectual attempt to induce Moody to locate in another place and under different control, was taken, near the office of Mr. Ruggles. The mechanical part of the paper was in general well executed with care and correctness; and the editorial, with modest ability and with an apparent freedom from party bias, until the approach of the Presidential election of 1828, when, under the editorial care of Mr. Cilley, it became a warm political paper in support of Jackson's administration. In Sept. 1831, Mr. Moody having lost his wife by consumption and concluding to remove to New Hampshire, transferred the establishment to Abner Knowles, one of Ruggles's law students, who had that * Hon. Wm. Singer; Bank Commissioners' Report, 1862, &c. 30 season commenced practice at Mill River village. The paper was continued by him under the name of INDEPENDENT JOURNAL, and printed by Wm. S. Tyler, assisted by his fellow apprentice under Moody, H. P. Coombs, till the spring of 1832, when the establishment was sold out to Geo. W. Nichols and brother. This year, 1825, in consequence of a new law of the State, School agents instead of the former school committee, were chosen; and, conformably to another provision of the act, the town voted that each School District should choose its own School Agent in district meeting. This mode of choosing agents, however seems not to have succeeded satisfactorily; and in the year following, the town returned to the old method. Hawes's, in lieu of the old Webster's spelling book, and Bezout's arithmetic this year made their appearance, and were partially introduced into the schools, but gained no very lasting place. The latter was a French work, translated by Nathaniel Haynes, a recent graduate of Bowdoin, and another, we believe, of Mr. Ruggles's law students; but who subsequently left this town for Bangor, edited the Eastern Republican of that place, married Caroline I. daughter of Hon. Wm. D. Williamson, the historian of Maine, and died in 1837, at the age of 38. Another student in Mr. Ruggles's office, at this time, was Jonathan Cilley; who, Sept. 9th, the day after graduating at Brunswick, set out for this place, taking a seat in the chaise of H. Prince, Jr., who had been over to witness the commencement exercises; and it may be noted as a coincidence, that, on their way hither, they called a few moments on Prince's sister, a young lady then attending school at Wiscasset, who was destined to be the wife and widow of his companion. Another accession to the legal profession and social refinement of the place was made about the same time in the person of Wm. J. Farley; who after graduating in 1820 at the early age of 18, had studied law in his native Waldoboro', and now commenced practice here under the prestige of a distinguished family and honorable connections. From the same town, M. R. Ludwig of the medical faculty, also, (who had commenced the study of his profession with Drs. Bowman and Caldwell of Somerset county and completed it with Dr. John Manning of Waldoboro',) commenced his successful career here as a physician, and, on the appointment of Dr. Rose as land agent, three years later, succeeded to his practice. He has educated a greater number of young men for his profession than any other physician in the county. Among his students have been Drs. Jona. Huse, now in practice at Camden; Joseph Huse, who commenced practice at Blackington's Corner, where he died in 1839; Gardner Ludwig, now in the practice at Portland; Warren Ludwig, now in Boston; Daniel Rose, Jr., now a successful practitioner in Thomaston; Wm. Hobby, now preceptor of Belfast Academy; Henry C. Levensaler, surgeon of the 8th Maine regiment, and Medical Director of the Southern department; and Moses M. Ludwig, his only son, who was in study of the profession at the time of his death in 1858. Dr. John Merrill, from Topsham, also came the same year, 1825, and went into a similar career of business in the eastern village, now Rockland; where he still continues practice, besides having filled several official and responsible stations. The anniversary of St. John's was celebrated here on the 24th, by the Masons of Amity, Orient, St. Georges, and Union lodges; when an oration was given by Rev. J. H. Ingraham, a dinner provided for the brethren at Capt. John Copeland's, and, for the ladies, at Col. J. Haskell's. Gen. Lafayette, then in Portland, had been invited to be present on this occasion; but the prolonged and grateful honors bestowed elsewhere, compelled him to decline. Several citizens of the town, however, had the gratification of beholding this early and gallant defender of our country's independence. Among them, Capt. B. Webb, in the brig Montpelier, was the first to greet his arrival at Alexandria, by the discharge of a 14pound gun which he had on board; Mr. Ruggles, as Speaker of the House of Rrepresentatives, presented to him the members of that body, at Portland, June 25th, together with an invitation of the selectmen and citizens of Thomaston to visit this place; and Gen. E. Thatcher, at an interview at Saco, on the 24th, renewed, in behalf of the four lodges, an invitation to the place on some future occasion; to which Layfayette made a feeling reply alluding to the residence of his "excellent friend Gen. Knox." Under different circumstances, it is presumed the General's visit would have been extended to this town according to his original intention. Had Mrs. Knox been living and in the affluence of her former days, nothing could have afforded her greater pleasure than a visit from her old acquaintance, the companion and friend of her husband and of Washington; but had not death supervened, her own circumstances and those of her family the noble mansion in decay and the marks of dilapidated fortunes but too apparent on all about it-render it too probable that she would have felt more mortification than pleasure, and have said in her heart what her son Henry did not hesitate to express, "I have no wish to see him." The meeting would probably have been a melancholy one to both parties. The Fourth of July was, this year, celebrated at Wessaweskeag; the religious services being performed by Messrs. Washburn and Ames; the Declaration read by Asa Coombs; an oration delivered by J. Ruggles to a crowded house, and a collation served up by Anthony Hall, at which E. Snow, Jr., presided, assisted by H. Prince, Wm. Stackpole, and Wm. Heard. Cannon and music accompanied each sentiment; and everything went off well. The Regimental Muster was largely attended this year at Blackington's corner, but the military turn-out was not so great as usual. a symptom that the martial spirit was beginning to decline. A volunteer company of riflemen, however, called the Thomaston Guards, was organized for service in cases of emergency in the State penitentiary, and, Aug. 22d, made choice of Ballard Green for captain, John O'Brien, lieutenant, and James Vose, ensign, This company, under a succession of different officers, continued its organization till disbanded in Feb., 1843. A Rifle Company in East Thomaston, also, was formed, either in this or the following year, of which Alexander Barrows was captain, John Brown, lieutenant, and Alanson Dean, ensign. Among the many casualties of this year, may be noted the burning of the hatter's shop of Henry S. Swasey near the present house of T. Rose, Thomaston, on the evening of New Year's day; loss $700. On March 16th, Wm. M. Bentley, a young seaman with Capt. Almond Bennett, was lost at sea, supposed to have walked overboard in his sleep-he having been addicted to somnambulism; and, Sept. 3d, the brig Mark of East Thomaston, returned without her valued and enterprising captain, Mark Spear, who died at Martha's Vineyard, on passage home from the Chesapeake. This season also, Jairus Munroe was severely injured by a premature explosion in a lime quarry which, wholly destroyed his sight; but, after some efforts to regain it, (to aid which, the town voted in 1827 to loan him $50, and again in 1835 gave up his note for the sum as farther encouragement,) he learned to pursue his former business in the dark, and, by perseverance, industry, and economy, brought up his children, acquired a good property, and receives a large share of the respect and admiration of the community. A similar acccident befell John and Josiah Achorn, Sept. 15th, whilst drilling out a charge in the lime-rock; the latter losing a hand, and the former being severely injured in the head and eyes. Benjamin Snow, whilst greasing the cogs of a wheel in the gristmill at Wessaweskeag, Oct. 13th, had his arm caught between |