merce were, this year, in a very prosperous condition. The principal merchants and ship-owners at this time were, Col. Healey, Esq. Gleason, Maj. Foster, T. McLellan, Jr., B. Green, P. Keegan, W. Cole, W. R. Keith, and R. C. Counce, at the western village; I. Kimball, J. Spear, O. Fales, J. Lovejoy, C. Holmes, K. Crockett, and Ephraim Perry, at the Shore; J. Adams, at Owl's Head, and E. Snow, Jr., at Wessaweskeag. The Shore or eastern village had of late been rapidly gaining upon other parts of the town; its merchants had become wealthy; and its trade and navigation were thought to be about equal to that of the western village. An attempt was made in the course of 1827 to obtain the establishment of a daily instead of a bi-weekly mail; which was accomplished in the spring of 1828.

The first regular law office in that part of the town, was opened about this time by Edwin S. Hovey, who had studied his profession with Edwin Smith, Esq., of Warren, and, as his only predecessor, S. Jennison, had no office, and did little or no professional business, he may justly be considered the first lawyer in the limits of Rockland.

But the commercial prosperity of the place was not without some of its usual inconveniences. On the 5th of May, the brig Thomas and William, Capt. Colley, 19 days from Limerick, Ireland, with coal and 68 Irish passengers, arrived in the Georges, anchored half a mile below the wharf, and reported one of the crew, Washington Boyd, sick of a disease feared to be small-pox. Dr. Kellogg, being sent on board, could not determine the disease with certainty; but the vessel was laid under restrictions, with Mr. Breck as keeper, a red flag hoisted, and all persons forbidden to leave. By midnight the sick man died; and was immediately buried on Simonton's Point. Next day the vessel was cleansed, and it was hoped all danger was over. Yet, as this was the first appearance of the disease here, with all its traditionary horrors, and some of the crew had been on shore before the restrictions had been imposed, it is not strange that considerable alarm and excitement prevailed; and the restrictions were continued till the 11th, when many of the passengers came on shore. On the 13th, the brig sailed for New York, and, all on board being in good health, the public alarm subsided. On the 19th, however, a letter was received from the physician of the quarantine hospital, Boston, stating that the brig had arrived there in distress, with four of her crew sick with the small-pox. Upon this, immediate measures were taken to arrest the spreading of the disease here. H. Prince, Jr.,

then deputy inspector, rode express to Belfast and thence by water to Castine, returning, after an absence of only 24 hours, with vaccine matter; and all that could be was done to allay the new panic which, at this news, had seized the community. By the 22d, the selectmen had erected a hospital on Simonton's Point. On the 25th, news came from Boston that young Colley had died there of the small-pox; but as no cases had yet occurred here, the alarm began to subside, and the public mind soon after regained its usual tone. The escape was attributed to the general vaccination which had taken place a few years before. Further operations on the hospital were suspended; but, on the 18th of July, it was found convenient, as a case of small-pox occurred, in the person of a stranger by the name of Allen, recently from New York, who soon recovered. This building was, in September, accepted by the town, and remained till 1835.

A case of insanity occuring this year, the town authorized the person to be sent to the Insane Hospital, under the direction of the selectmen; and similar aid was, in 1831, 1843, and 1847, extended to others.

A plan to increase the revenue of the town by substituting itself for the Inspector General of lime, appointing deputy inspectors like other town officers, being accountable for their conduct, and receiving for the risk thus incurred the same compensation which the deputies had heretofore paid, was this year got up, and the town, Dec. 26th, unanimously voted "that the selectmen petition the Legislature for that purpose." Warren and, we believe, Camden also petitioned for a similar change; but, as the measure would have deprived somebody of a lucrative office, a secret but powerful opposition was got up, a hundred remonstrants during the winter obtained, and the Legislature voted it down.

Meetings of the Thomaston Mechanic Association were held in 1827, and a course of lectures on natural philosophy was commenced before it by A. Williams, Dec. 19, 1828, at Masonic Hall; but how long or with what success they continued, the author is unable to state. In 1843, however, such a society was incorporated, of which R. C. Counce was president, E. C. Tilson vice president, G. A. Starr secretary, and R. Jacobs, Jr., treasurer.

On the annual fast, April 5th, an able address in aid of the Greeks, struggling to free themselves from Turkish bondage, was delivered by Charles Cleland, Esq., and a contribution of $30 taken up, subsequently increased to $53, and forwarded to the Boston committee. Mr. Cleland was from North Yar

mouth, read law at Portland with Gen. Fessenden, and practised a few years at Waldoboro' previous to coming to this town. He was a man of prepossessing appearance, a social disposition, a cultivated taste, and no mean ability as a poet; but too infirm of purpose to resist dissipation, and too warmly attached to one political party to avoid trouble from the other. Money sent to the town by mail, failed to reach its destination. Cleland was accused of purloining it. By the exertion of Wheaton, postmaster, and Cilley, his assistant, a prosecution was commenced; a bill of indictment found; and in Dec., 1829, he was sentenced by the Court of Common Pleas to two years' imprisonment at hard labor; and it was not without great exertion on the part of his personal and masonic friends that he escaped conviction or an appeal to the Supreme Court. As Mr. Cilley was the chief witness against him, great exertions were made to discredit his testimony; and, not satisfied with having so far succeeded as to obtain Cleland's acquittal, his friends got up a review of the case, in which they alleged that Judge Weston charged the jury that Cilley's testimony was entitled to no weight whatever. This being published in the Eastern Argus, Čilley brought a suit for libel against Gen. Todd the publisher, and, in Sept. 1834, recovered $1150 damages. Unable to bear the mortification this affair caused him, Mr. Cleland soon left the place, was for some time editor of a newspaper in Detroit, Mich., and died, according to the public papers, in Houston, Texas, early in 1840, in the 45th year of his age.

On the 24th and 25th of April, an extraordinary freshet did much damage to bridges, roads, and mills, and was followed by stormy and cold weather, with some lightning and snow, for nearly three weeks. Yet the crops were excellent; although not wholly secured before the cold and snow set in, early in November.

1828. At town meeting, March 24th, it was voted "to authorize the lease of a part of the town landing for five years." This vote passed at the request of Samuel Albee, who had now been engaged in trade here some years, in the building since occupied as a dwelling by Hon. A. Levensaler, and which had been moved there by Jona. P. Bishop, a lawyer and teacher, who afterwards died in Medford, Mass. No use of this vote, however, was ever made. A new step was this year taken in educational affairs by setting off Oyster River neighborhood from district No. 3; removing the old schoolhouse to Woodcock's hill for its use; creating from its remainder and that part of No. 2 west of Mill River, a new

and extensive district; in which, after the erection of a commodious school-house near the Bank, monitorial and infant schools were taught with great success by Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Converse, who, after a time, removed and taught in Bangor.

Two new three-story buildings for public entertainment, were this year erected; one by Joseph Berry, called the Knox House, which was immediately occupied as a tavern by Chas. Sampson of Waldoboro', and not long after by his sonin-law, John Balch, a shoe-dealer from Haverhill, Mass. The other was of brick, at East Thomaston, by Jeremiah Berry for his own use, called the Commercial House, and which, under his management and that of his sons, was for many years the principal hotel in the place. A new hall which had been erected by Brown Stimpson and usually known as Stimpson's or Mason's Hall, was consecrated to Free Masonry July 17th of this year; when a highly wrought address was delivered by Mr. Cleland.

To show the rapid increase of the business, population, and wealth of the place, the following statistical account is given. There were, in the fall of 1828, 3700 inhabitants, (nearly one half of whom were under 21 years of age,) forming 643 families, and dwelling in 476 houses. The town contained four meeting-houses, two of them having bells, one bank, State prison, 15 school-houses, two post offices, five lawyer's offices, seven physicians, one deputy collector's office, one printing office, 32 stores, one watchmaker and jeweller, one book-binder, three cabinet makers, two marble factories, 15 blacksmith shops, 12 shoemakers' shops, one hatter's shop, one pottery, two saddlers, five inns, 149 coaches, chaises, gigs, and one-horse wagons, 204 ox-wagons and carts, 226 yoke of oxen, one cotton factory, four wool carding machines, four mills for sawing marble, one clothing mill, four grist-mills, one mill for picking oakum, one rope walk, two pump and blockmakers, two sail-lofts, one hospital, one light-house, two companies of infantry, one of Light infantry, two-thirds company of artillery, two-thirds company of cavalry, one company Thomaston guards, one of riflemen, one engine company, one fire club; shipping, hailing from the port, four ships, one bark, 22 brigs, 53 schooners, 14 sloops, one boat, total tonnage about 21,000; 30 wharves, and 160 lime kilns. Of these kilns, 12 were on the western side of Mill River below the bridge, five on St. George's below Mill River, three above between the bridge and Tilson's, five at Fort wharf, three at Foster's wharf, three at Gleason's, one back of Eaton's, six at Green's wharf, three at Woodcock's, and eight at Beech VOL. I.

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Woods; and this territory, viz., from Mill River to Oyster River, contained 16 wharves, seven at Mill River, and nine on the George's, above it. East of this region, there were at Jacob Ulmer's, 12 kilns; at P. Ulmer's, three; on road across Meadows, three; west side of Wessaweskeag River to St. George, six; east side of that river, six; at Maker's, two; on Meadow cross road to main road, two; north of Kimball's, eight; south of Kimball's, 30; down at McLoon's, nine; at Butler's, four; Blackington's corner, &c., 15; and round the bay to Owl's Head, 10; whilst of wharves in this part of the town, there were seven north of Kimball's, three near McLoon's, three about Owl's Head, and one or two at Wessaweskeag.*

The first side-walks of any extent in the place, were made in the west village, July, 1828, under the superintendence of H. Prince, Jr. The extreme muddiness of the roads during the unusually warm open winter and wet spring of this year, together with the frequent evening meetings, occasioned by the extensive religious excitement which prevailed, had, no doubt, much influence in bringing about this desirable improvement. New roads, or rather streets, as they now began to be called, were laid out, tasteful dwellings erected, ornamental and shade trees extensively planted, front yards and other grounds adorned with beautiful and fragrant flowers and shrubs. The MALL also was ploughed, leveled, fenced, and bordered with elms, which have now become an ornament to the place as well as an honorable memorial of the public spirited individuals who undertook it. As foremost in these improvements, we may mention the names of S. Dwight, distinguished for his taste in laying out and ornamenting his grounds, Casimir Lash for the introduction of rare flowers, choice fruits and the earliest successful cultivation of foreign grapes, and Wm. R. Keith for the many convenient and truly tasteful dwellinghouses built for himself and others and the planting of elms and other forest trees. In later years, many

have delighted their own and the public eye by their fine array of skilfully cultivated flowers, together with fruit trees and graperies, till now these lovely and useful appendages have become, or are becoming, more or less common in each of the three divisions of the ancient town.

Prior to this year, few buildings had been insured against fire. Marine insurances had been effected at Wiscasset, Portland and other places; but, for fire insurance, so far as any

*Statement of H. Prince, Jr., and Thomaston Register.