will an annuity of $150 to be paid in April and October of each year, till the close of 1870, out of 35 shares in the Thomaston Bank; which shares, in case the said annuity should remain unpaid for six months, were themselves to become the property of the said church and parish. This church, consisting of 14 members, was constituted March 8, 1838; and May 30th, Rev. Samuel C. Fessenden from Portland, was ordained its pastor. On this occasion, the services were by Rev. Messrs. Chapman of Camden, McKeen of Belfast, Cutter of Warren, and Woodhull of West Thomaston. Mr. F.'s salary, $500 at first, was increased from time to time to $800, and raised by subscription. In addition to this, the society having sold the parsonage presented by Mr. Kimball, for $2,300, procured another at a cost of $3,334, and made a present of the same to Mr. F. on the condition that Seth Grosvenor of N. Y., a maternal uncle of Mrs. Fessenden, should relinquish his claim of $1400, which the society had borrowed of him. Mr. F.'s acceptable services continued till Oct. 28th, 1855, when he resigned with intent of aiding in the establishment of a new denominational paper; and his resignation was accepted by advice of council, Feb. 4, 1856. Rev. Finlay Wallace, a native of Scotland, was ordained Dec. 23, 1856, with a salary varying from $700 to $800 a year; but his resignation took place Oct. 7, 1859, and he has since returned to Great Britian. Rev. Wm. A. Smith succeeded, who was ordained May 14, 1861, with a salary of $800; but in 1863 left for the army as chaplain of the 19th Maine regiment. The pulpit is at present supplied by Rev. E. F. Cutter, late of Belfast. The deacons of the church have been Iddo Kimball, Cephas Starrett, and Jos. G. Torrey. The chuch has, with more or less steadiness at different intervals, increased from the original 14 members to 100, the present number. It It is somwhat remarkable that its Sabbath school has generally kept even pace with the church, commencing with 7 scholars and now numbering about 100. It has a library of about 300 vols.*

June 7th, 1834, the Christian Telescope, a small semimonthly paper, was commenced by Rev. N. C. Fletcher, and printed by John Ramsey, at the western village the first year, but removed in May, 1835, to the eastern. It was devoted to the propagation and defence of the doctrine of Universal salvation; and, by the strenuous exertions of its editor, supported itself nearly two years, when it was merged in the Chris

* Geo. W. Kimball, Esq, and Records. Will of Iddo Kimball, Esq.

ton.

tian Intelligencer, Gardiner, of which Mr. F. became editor. In 1833, this gentleman had come to East Thomaston, and taken charge of the Universalist Society there, since known as the Universalist Society of Rockland; of which he continued pastor, with exception of a few intervals, till 1847,preaching half of the time in 1833 and '34 at West ThomasThe society consisted of scattered individuals and families gathered from different parts of the town, and held its meetings in the old Brick edifice near Brown's Corner. In 1837, that house was sold; and their present house of worship in Rockland was erected and finished in 1838. In 1843, a church of 60 members was organized; and the society was very flourishing. Mr. F.'s salary was raised by subscription, and besides his onerous clerical and editorial labors, he was an active member of the School committee, and is said to have attended more funerals and marriages at that time than all the other settled ministers of East Thomaston. His immediate successor was Rev. John Bovee Dods, who preached half the time in Union, where he resided, and half the time here, where he was soon succeeded by Rev. H. A. Walworth of N. York. After a short time the latter resigned his charge here, and removed to Lincoln. In 1850, the proprietors incorporated themselves into a regular society according to the statute; and their first meeting was held Sept. 19th, when a constitution was adopted, all the old debts against the house assumed, and a tax on the pews of $800 for their payment voted. In 1852 $750, were subscribed to induce Rev. L. B. Mason of Haverhill, who had preached here two Sabbaths, to become the pastor, but he declined; and there was only occasional preaching in 1853 by Revs. E. G. Brooks of Lynn, and G. G. Strickland from Saco. In August, however, Rev. J. O. Skinner from Chester, Vt., accepted an invitation and continued his very acceptable services as pastor six years, till his resignation Oct. 9, 1859. He has since been settled at Nashua, N. H. His salary was raised a portion of the time by a tax on the pews, several of which, in default of payment, were sold. Before his coming, the house was put in thorough repair; in 1854 an organ was added, and in 1857 gas and other improvements. In the census of 1860 it was valued at $6000; and there was at that time a S. S. library of 550 volumes.*

1835. During the winter of 1834-5, in the week end

* Ch. Telescope, Nos. 16 and 23, Vol. I.; com. of Rev. N. C. Fletcher; Records of Society, &c.

ing Dec. 20, the mercury ranged at sunrise, in East Thomaston, from 40 to 120 below zero. In March following, severe weather was experienced at sea. Joshua, son of Job Perry

of that village, was lost overboard from ship Franklin, on her outward bound passage; and, on the tempestuous night of March 22d, the schooner Glide, Capt. John Pillsbury, from Boston, with passengers on board for the same village, was, with great difficulty and loss of her masts, saved from destruction at White Head, by the active aid of Jos. Berry, light-keeper, and other inhabitants there.

As proof that education was advancing, we note that, April 20, the town authorized the Report of the Superintending School Committee to be published. But no report was made for the next ten years, on the ground that the first one, carefully and elaborately prepared by Rev. N. C. Fletcher, was refused a hearing at the meeting to which it was presented. In 1846, however, the town voted that such reports should be made.

The meeting for the election of State officers, Sept. 14, was held in the vestry of the new meeting-house at East . Thomaston; its few occasional meetings called there having been heretofore held in school-houses. Cilley was re-elected to the Legislature by a decided majority; but, for a choice. of his colleague, the meeting was adjourned from week to week, till Oct. 5th, when Rev. N. C. Fletcher was elected by a majority of one. His chief competitor on this occasion was Charles Pope, who received at the several trials 239, 187, and 228 votes. Mr. Pope, a resident of the place for more than twenty years, was endowed with a graceful exterior, an easy address, a fine taste, keen feelings, a cultivated imagination, and a high relish for all the amenities of social life. But he lacked self control, too readily yielded to the temptations of appetite; and, having been disappointed in love as well as in business, he lived a single life, with no steady employment or family attractions to awaken the stronger sensations, without which life became a burden, and, to obtain which, he too often resorted to animal indulgences and occasional moral obliquities. His friends hoped at this time that a seat in the Legislature, with its responsibility and excitement, might be the means of arresting his downward progress and saving him to himself and the community. They failed, however, to elect him, and this man, so noble in many respects, but so infirm of purpose, felt the failure as the extinguishment of his last hope. It was not without many a pang that he beheld the gulf into which he was sinking, but from which

now he had not the necessary energy of will to escape; and, gradually losing his strength of body and mind, ended his days in the poor-house.

A Fair, the first in the place, it is believed, of those devices since so frequently resorted to in raising money for various objects, was held July 4th, by the ladies of West Thomaston, with much success.

The house of Abner Knowles, Esq., built by Capt. Piper, on the site of that now owned by Mr. E. D. Blood, was, in September, together with his barn and valuable horse, destroyed by fire. Its origin was unknown; and Mr. Knowles becoming dissatisfied with his situation, soon removed to Bangor.

1836. This year, by order of the town, a committee of which Edward Robinson was chairman, purchased ten acres of land near C. S. Tilson's and built a large two-story Poorhouse and house of correction, for which the treasurer was authorized to borrow $3000. Here the paupers were maintained under overseers, Thos. Tolman, John Spear, and perhaps others, till it was sold on the division of the town in 1848.

*

A road was this year laid out from Mrs. Walker's in this town to meet one in Warren leading from the new or Upper Toll-bridge then erecting;a work opposed, at the time, by Warren on the ground that it would be, as it has since proved, an obstruction to the navigation of the river by small vessels, gondolas, and newly built ships in their passage down from the shipyards above. But it was highly advantageous to this town, opening as it did a market for the wood and bringing hither the trade of the south-western portion of Warren; and, being urged in the legislature by the talents and influence of Mr. Cilley, was obtained without difficulty.

The Lime Rock Bank, the first institution of the kind in what is now Rockland, was incorporated April 1, 1836, with a capital of $50,000, which, by Act passed July 3, 1847, was increased to $100,000, but which again, in consequence of losses by bad debts and depreciation of real estate, was reduced to $75,000. Its charter was renewed in 1846. The first president was Knott Crockett, who held the office till the time of his death in 1857, and has since been succeeded by Hiram G. Berry, till his death June 3, 1863, since which, John T. Berry has been acting president. Wm. Thomas was

* This bridge was at first wholly situated in Warren; but, by an alteration of boundary made in 1864, the eastern half is now in Thomaston.

the first cashier, succeeded by E. M. Perry, Alonzo D. Nichols, and the present incumbent, C. C. Chandler. The building at first provided for it, was of granite, situated in Main street, Rockland; but the Bank was, in Oct. 1857, removed to the Berry Block on the same street, and, since the establishment of Knox county, the former building has been used as an office by the clerk of the courts. The present capital of this Bank, according to the commissioners' report, is $70,000,-paying in 1863 an annual dividend of 5 8-10th per cent., to its 151 stockholders.

The selectmen, April 18th, according to a legal provision, defined the territorial limits of the three militia companies then contained in the town; which limits corresponded in the main with those of the three subsequent divisions of Old Thomaston. These companies were at this time commanded as follows; viz., company A, in the north-east by Capt. Wm. S. Ulmer; company I, in the south-west by Lieut. Alfred Rollins; and company E, in the south-east by Capt. James Dow.

In September, the votes for Representative to Congress were, in this town, for Jere. Bailey, whig, who at that time represented the district, 116; for Jonathan Cilley, democrat, 309; Edwin Smith, democrat, 13. A second trial was made Nov. 7th, when Presidential electors were chosen; at which Cilley received 318 votes, only two short of the vote given to Van Buren electors, who represented the full strength of the party. On the third trial, however, Feb. 6, 1837, although Judge Bailey received about the same number as before, and John D. M'Crate, 15 votes, Cilley's vote was swelled to 377, and he was elected. Thus, in spite of the common opposition of the whig party, then powerful in the district, and that of a remnant of the late opposing faction led on by J. D. McCrate of Wiscasset, a political aspirant and former friend of Cilley, the latter had the satisfaction to see himself triumphant over them all, and placed in a position where his talents, energy, and independence might find a more extended field of action. "At this time," writes his classmate, friend, and biographer, Nat. Hawthorne of literary celebrity, who had been spending a few days here reviving the former intimacy, there was in Mr. Cilley " very little change, and that little was for the better; he had an impending brow, deep-set eyes, and a thin and thoughtful countenance, which, in his abstracted moments, seemed almost stern; but, in the intercourse of society, it was brightened with a kindly smile, that will live in the recollection of all who knew him.