strations, first came into vogue. On the 11th August, a large boat mounted on wheels, with a full cargo of whigs, proceeded from E. Thomaston to Wiscasset to attend a political gathering; and, prior to the September election, an able and courteous discussion took place between Chandler of Thomaston, whig, and Moore of Waterville, democrat, held in the open air in front of the Congregational church, at the eastern village.

A comet, quite.brilliant, but without a train, was observed in the N. E. by a number of our citizens, about Feb. 20th, apparently flashing up at times, and with an eastward motion. August 23d, a tremendous storm of rain, thunder, and lightning, passed over this town, in which a store was struck at East Thomaston, and Mr. Liddy, of the Beech Woods, was knocked down while sitting at the window, but recovered. The year was somewhat remarkable for its uniform, agreeable, productive and healthy, character. On the 19th May, Capt. Burton Vose, an active mariner of this town, while descending the Mississippi in the brig Caucasian, in assisting to let go an anchor on a sudden emergency, had one of his legs caught in the chain cable and badly crushed. Being thirty miles above New Orleans, he was taken down in a small boat under a scorching sun; and although, on his arrival, amputation was performed as speedily as possible, mortification ensued, and, in about four days after the injury, he expired.

At the close of the year died Hezekiah Prince, Esq., who had honorably mingled in most of the transactions of this place for the preceding half century. After his removal from St. George, of which he had been the first selectman, 1803, and many years afterwards, representing it in the General Court from 1808 to 1811, he had removed to this place and, besides the varied business and offices before noted, was agent for receiving and paying out pensions to most of the old soldiers of the Revolution here, and was, in 1831, a member of the Senate, and once or more of the Executive council. He was an active and exemplary member of many moral and charitable institutions and especially of the Baptist church, which he first joined in St. George, having been baptized with his wife and five others in George's River, April, 1808. He was fortunate in his marriage with one who was a ready participant in all the amenities and charities of social, religious, and domestic life. Their home was prized alike by the transient visitor and constant boarder, and the union so auspiciously begun here, could scarcely be said to have been

suspended by death,-husband and wife both passing away in the course of one month.

1841. No licenses having for the last dozen years, according to the town records, been granted for the sale of intoxicating liquors, an article was this year inserted in the warrant to see if the selectmen should grant such; but the question was decided in the negative, almost unanimously. Many voluntarily relinquished the traffic; and the cause of temperance.was never more promising. The same vote was again passed in 1842; though the town then voted, (in deference to the Washingtonian principles, at that time coming into vogue,) to pass over the article to prosecute for all violations of the license law. Independence was celebrated at West Thomaston by the Washington Temperance society, consisting of 99 zealous and enthusiastic members. Formed in procession, with banners, each wearing on the breast a badge of Washington, they marched to Mill River and back to the Congregational church, where prayer by Mr. Woodhull, the Declaration by H. P. Coombs, and an oration by Rev. F. W. Baxter, were listened to; thence to the unfinished Unitarian church, to a dinner provided by Capt. T. A. Snow, on tables. well supplied with sparkling glasses of clear cold water, and richly decorated. Before the end of the month, the members of this society amounted to 130; and on the 4th August a second celebration, more numerous and enthusiastic than before, was held by the two Thomaston societies with those of Warren, Waldoboro', and Cushing, who, after appropriate exercises at the Congregational church, marched to the music of the East Thomaston band to a spacious field above the Prison corner. Here, around a lofty liberty pole erected for the occasion, their new Declaration of Independence was read, adopted, and signed by the officers of the several societies; and, after appropriate speeches, the vast assembly retired full of gratification at the present, and hopes for the future success of the cause.

A Bible Society seems to have been in existence here, and, probably at an early date; but no records are found. The society, however, Sept. 26, 1841, was revived at W. Thomaston, the old constitution amended, active officers appointed, and, during the year, $45 expended in bibles for distribution, or sale at cost, among the citizens, seamen, and sojourners. After five or six years, interest in it gradually languished, and the old officers held over till 1856; when Rev. R. Woodhull, being about leaving town, called a meeting and resigned as secretary and treasurer; his reports were accepted, but, not

being recorded, no further doings can here be given, except that he was succeeded by D. J. Starrett.

The house of the First Universalist Society in West Thomaston (the frame of which was raised June 22, 1841,) being now completed, was dedicated to the service of God on the 28th Oct on which occasion the exercises were by Rev. Messrs. H. C. Leonard, M. Dudley, M. Forbes, F. Hodgdon, and F. W. Baxter. The society had been formed in 1833, and held their meetings in the yellow school-house near Mill River. Rev. F. W. Baxter preached a part of the time, and, though also engaged in teaching, was considered the pastor, -remaining with the society until 1842, when he took charge of that in Rockport. But, in 1840, Col. E. C. Tilson and others started the project of erecting a meeting-house for the use of the society; and, a sufficient number of subscribers having pledged themselves to take pews in a house to be located between the Mill River bridge and Prison corner, Horatio Alden, L. Levensaler, and E. C. Tilson were appointed a committee to select a site and superintend the building of the same. This committee subsequently engaged Col. Tilson to build the house and take his pay out of the pews sold. Ground was broken in the spring of 1841, and the house completed and dedicated as before mentioned. A church was formed and the ordinances administered by Mr. Baxter and his successor, Rev. Henry C. Leonard, who was installed as pastor Dec. 25, 1841, when the sermon, charge, and right hand of fellowship were given by Rev. N. C. Fletcher of East Thomaston. Mr. Leonard continued his acceptable services two years; after which the pulpit was supplied by occasional preaching only, until the coming of the Rev. O. J. Fernald; at which time the old society was dissolved, and a new one formed. Mr. Leonard removed and was a settled minister 12 or more years at Waterville, and, since the present rebellion commenced, has been chaplain of the 3d and subsequently of the 18th Maine regiment.*

Education was at this time advancing towards its present encouraging condition; and a high school at E. Thomaston was this year taught by James Fogg, Esq., as it had been the preceding year by Lewis W. Young. Mr. Fogg was a native of Berwick, attended the academy there and studied medicine for a time, but, after overcoming many obstacles, entered Bowdoin College and had graduated the present year, 1841. Here, besides being a successful and popular teacher, he read

* Abstract from the records, furnished by Hon. B. Fales.

law, probably with Mr. Lowell, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice; but, after marrying a daughter of O. Fales, he left the place and many warm friendships, in Feb. 1847, to enter upon the mercantile career in Boston; resided in Charlestown, Mass., where he filled many offices of trust; and died in Hudson, N. Y., July 26, 1855. To his High School succeeded that of Henry Paine, a graduate of Waterville, whose faithful services in the cause of education here have been continued more or less down to the present time. A young ladies' private school of high order, by Miss S. Spofford, for several years preceding 1851, was also taught in the same village; and the city, into which that village has been transmuted, still enjoys her highly appreciated labors.

A regimental muster was held in Ingraham's field, under command of Col. Wm. S. Ulmer; and the East Thomaston Artillery company was organized this year, the first officers of which were Jona. Crockett, F. Cobb, and Wm. T. Sayward.

During a thunder shower on the night of April 2d, the house of Rice Rowell, in South Thomaston, was much shattered by a stroke of lightning, which appears to have entered the western sill, passed circuitously under the floor, through which it forced a passage by raising and demolishing two boards in a sleeping apartment; thence, passing by a bed resting on the floor, it found its way up the chimney, knocking out several bricks into other apartments and breaking almost every pane of glass in the house. In the apartment mentioned were two beds, besides the temporary one of straw before named, on which last two of Mr. R.'s daughters were reposing, who were both so badly injured, and their flesh lacerated as if by a knife, that one of them, Margaret, aged 14, died after two hours of extreme suffering, and the life of the other was for a time des paired of.* May 16th, a fire broke out between two and three o'clock in the morning and consumed two shops in the yard of the State Prison, which, with the leather, carriages and corn stored in them, amounted to a loss of about $9000; supposed to have been the work of a discharged convict. On the 18th August, Samuel Partridge was struck on the head by a board, which fell from the top of a building at East Thomaston, and caused his death in forty-eight hours. The year was marked by an abundance

*Thomaston Recorder, R. Rowell, and Hon. B. Fales; the last considers the fluid to have first passed down the chimney, and returned through the floor of the room.

of caterpillars, grasshoppers, and a summer drought, during which a fire raged on the company lot, so called, in this town, and which was broken up by a short but remarkably copious shower, September 4th.

1842. The birthday of Washington, Feb. 22d, was celebrated at East Thomaston by the Washington, Lafayette, Martha Washington, and Juvenile Washington temperance societies of that place, the two latter in procession meeting the two former in the Baptist church, which was tastefully decorated with banners, portraits of Washington and the other Presidents, and overflowing with interested auditors of services by Revs. Fessenden and Fletcher, an address by Jas. Fogg, and reports of the several societies. The fourth of July was also celebrated in the same village by these societies, when, after a banner presentation by Miss E. Holmes, in behalf of the Juveniles, prayer by Rev. Mr. Atwell, reading of the two Declarations, one by H. Burpee, the other by James Crockett, an oration was delivered by James C. Madigan, a young lawyer at West Thomaston, who soon removed to Madawaska. An excellent dinner, served by Wm. T. Sayward, was then partaken of by over 400 guests, and suitable sentiments drank in Nature's purest wine. At a town meeting held at the same village July 14th, it was voted to instruct the selectmen to enforce the law relating to the vending of spirituous liquors, and similar instructions were reiterated in 1843

The surface of affairs was, about the first of September, slightly ruffled by the arrival at East Thomaston of the U. S. steam frigate Missouri, a spectacle at that time so novel that it drew together immense crowds of visitors from all the surrounding region, crowding her decks and admiring her neat, orderly, and formidable arrangement.

On the 16th and 17th Feb., occurred a most violent gale or hurricane, with some rain. A large portion of the balustrade on the Knox mansion and many of the trees were destroyed; greatly injuring the appearance of that venerated spot. A barn at Blackington's corner was prostrated; three others, at the head of Tolman's Pond unroofed; and not less than six chimneys blown over at East Thomaston village, where, as also at Owl's Head, Georges River, and at various other points between here and Cape Cod, the shipping in general of this place was more or less damaged, driven ashore, bilged or sunk. On the night of Nov. 30th, also, a severe S. E. gale drove two vessels ashore at Owl's Head, one at Heard's beach, Ash Point, and caused many to drift from