Front matter (continued 2)

Dentists

W. G. Fuller, E. P. Blanchard, E. M. Soule.

Lawyers

Albert Bingham, Mr. Dinsmore, Samuel Benson, William Weeks, J. F. Fernald, James B. Murch, E. K. Boyle, A. F. Watson, James Libby, Jr.

Methodist Ministers

Thos. Perry, John Atwell (1817), Sullivan Bray (1820), Benj. Bryant, Eliot Fletcher (1828), Peter Burgess, Rufus Day, Cyrus Scammon, Theodore Hill, Geo. Pratt, James Hutchinson, John Benson, John Pingree, Isaac Moore, Gould Elliot, Kendrick Meservey, Mace Clough, Otis Jenkins, Josiah Brown, Wm. Bray, Levi Shaw, John Marsh, Henry Blood, Isaac Roberts, Phineas Higgins, Nelson Whitney, Rufus Dixon, Chas. Knowlton, John Simonton, Moses Miller, Alonzo Clifford, Gustavus Chadwick, Wm. Clifford, Edmund Tunnicliff, James Morelan, John Bennett, Seth Beal, Wilson Lermond, Thos. Wright, Willis Meservey, Mr. Dodge, Wm. Baker, Mr. Merrill, Edwin Burrill, Willis Luce, Chas. Ross, Erastus Wall, B. H. Tucker, James Ainslee, Wm. Snow.

GRADUATES OF NORMAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

Eastern State Normal School

James E. Kelly, Herbert L. Rand, Harry Moore, Ethel Clark, Mabel A. Bacon, Marietta Bacon, Joseph Farwell, Thos. Knight.

Bridgewater Normal School

Herbert L. Rand.

Bates College

George C. Chase, J. Aubery Chase, F. Wallace Chase, George B. Files, Fred J. Chase, Chas. Roseland, Harold Roseland.

Boston University

James E. Kelly (Law School).

Vivian H. Taber (post-graduate work at Columbia University).

Bowdoin College

Frank L. Dingley, Granville C. Waterman, Stephen Boothby, Herbert Chase, Albert Winslow Paine, William Spinney, James Craig (Med.), B. Bartlett Whitney (Med.), Clarendon M. Whitney (Med.).

Colby College

George Snell, Chas. Chase, Chas. Foster, Solomon Hunt, William Lincoln Jones, Benj. Fowler, E. Kelly, Herbert Kelly, Austin Thomas, Asa Jones, Albert Blanchard.

Dartmouth College

Nelson Dingley, Jr., Ephraim Murch, 2d, Jesse E. Cook (Med.).

Leland Stanford University

Stillman S. Berry (post-graduate work at Harvard).

University of Maine

Wesley Webb, Joseph Rackliff, Curtis Boyce Mitchell, Benj. W. Blanchard, Maurice D. Jones, Lynn Rand, Philip Grant.

New York Medical College

Alexander Boothby.

Oxford University, England

Eliza J. Perley (also studied in France and Germany).

Tufts College

Harry L. Truworthy (Med.).

Wellesley College

Sybil Berry.

Yale University

P. W. Whitaker.

Baltimore Dental College

Ellery P. Blanchard, E. M. Soule.

Harvard Dental College

Arthur Rand.

Merchants

The first store in “The Settlement” was owned by Chandler Hopkins. In the village, Isaac Adams and Thomas Chandler traded where Jack Van Deets lives, and Allen Taber where Mrs. L. H. Mosher’s store now is. They were the first traders in the village. Then came the following: E. K. Ada, J. A. Adams, C. A. Adams, Henry Baker, Alfred Berry, S. S. Berry, J. S. Bither, Gustavus Broad, Thos. Chandler, W. R. Chandler, A. H. Clark, H. M. Clark, Sanford Colson, T. B. Cook, Thos. Cornforth, John Crie, Nelson Dingley, A. L. Estes, Henry Farwell, Joseph Farwell, Joseph Gilkey, George E. Grant, H. H. Grant, Moses Hanson, B. F. Harmon, Josiah Harmon, Fred Hunt, Asa Howe, Karam Brothers, Henry Kelly, Ansel Kelly, Samuel Kelly, George E. Linkfield, E. E. McCauslin, C. E. Mitchell, C. B. Mitchell, L. H. Mosher, A. R. Myrick, James G. Patterson, J. F. Parkhurst, Benj. Pattie, John Rackliff, Willard Rand, Frank Rice, J. S. Rollins, Thos. Snell, Daniel Spring, Harry Stearns, Benj. Stevens, Jr., Allen Taber, Clement R. Taber, James R. Taber, Chas. Taylor, Edgar Tolman, N. D. Webb, Robert Webb, L. H. Whitaker, F. A. Whitehouse, E. T. Whitehouse, Hiram Whitehouse, Elijah Winslow, Nelson Vickery, N. W. Vickery, Volney Vickery, John A. Van Deets.

Station Agents

Alfred Berry, G. Fred Terry, Harry Walker, Fred A. Whitehouse, E. T. Whitehouse, Mr. Files, H. M. Gregory, Beverley Robinson.

Insurance Agents

Chas. Taylor, Chas. Stevens, George Taylor, Lynn Stevens.

Milliners

Sarah Colbroth, Susan and Hannah Sturgis, Mrs. Heman Fowler, Mrs. Rhoda Mitchell, Lydia Harmon, Mrs. Nellie Turner, Mrs. G. E. Linkfield, Mrs. Lucretia Moulton, Mrs. L. H. Mosher, Mrs. Lottie Nutter, Caroline Fuller, Sonnie Mallett, Mrs. E. M. Soule, Lelia Smith, Mrs. Ethel Whitehouse.

Shoemakers

R. B. Stone, Benj. Fogg, Otis and Daniel Starkey, Thorndike Blethen, Nathaniel Rice, Bryant and Amos Moore, John Chase, W. N. Woodsum, James Myrick, Asa Jones, Joseph Small, O. J. Whitten, Lewis Thompson.

Blacksmiths

Chenery Broad, Fred Burrill, Isaac Avery, Miller Munroe, Joseph Munroe, David Dyer, George Sherman, B. T. March, Chas. Means, William Gerrish, Chas. Graffam, Chas. Stroples, D. H. Davis.

Tinsmiths

—— Call, N. C. Knight, H. M. Clark.

Barbers

John Van Deets, Archie Tozier, Lewis Thompson, Frank L. Tozier, C. A. Adams.

The following items concerning men who have gone out from our town to make places for themselves in a larger world, and who have met with unusual success, may be of interest:

THE BRACKETT FAMILY

But few of the present generation are aware that the well-known Brackett family once lived in Unity. Their home was where Chas. S. Cook now lives. Mr. Reuben Brackett married Elizabeth Starkey of Vassalboro. Being members of the Friends’ Society, they settled near that church. That Mr. Brackett was esteemed and acknowledged a leader among his friends, is corroborated by the fact that there are those still living who remember hearing their parents quote him as authority on matters under discussion.

Besides the work on his farm, he manufactured clocks and oilcloth carpets, and was the first man in the United States to use rubber on fabrics. He had a family of four sons and one daughter. Edward Augustus was chairman of the Fish Commission of Massachusetts for thirty-five years. Col. Gustavus B. was colonel of an Iowa regiment during the Civil War and head of the Pomological Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., for fifteen years. Walter M. is the greatest painter of fish in America. When you visit the House of Representatives in Boston and look at the historic codfish hanging in their hall, remember that the finishing touches upon it show the skill of Walter M. Brackett.

I have visited Mr. Brackett several times in his studio. He is now over ninety years old, but he does not look it, and is, he says, perfectly well. He gives one a cordial greeting, which seems to come from his heart. A man of sterling character, strong in his friendships, he attracts to him many friends. That my readers may know the estimation in which he is held by those who have known him many years, I give a letter written by Edgar Aldrich, judge of the United States Court of Appeals, which he gave me permission to use:

Judge Aldrich’s Letter

United States Courts Boston

Boston, April 21, 1913.

Mr. Frederick H. Mills, Secretary of the Boston Art Club, Boston, Massachusetts. Dear Mr. Mills:

My heart is broken because I find myself obliged to go away, and because I cannot be present at the complimentary dinner to be given by the Boston Art Club to Walter Brackett, in celebration and in honor of his coming 90th birthday. A complimentary dinner to a man of ninety “whom time in passing has forgotten to make old”—a complimentary dinner to a man who has painted “to immortality”—is something which ought not to be missed. But, alas! alas!

Mr. Brackett is one of those rare men whose lot it has been to touch manifold things, and sweetly to adorn everything he has touched: the course of his life stretches across a broad field of social and industrial development and change, yet through it all he has scattered only sunshine and sweet flavor. His life has been full of helpful good cheer, happy generosities, and glorious optimisms.

Whether beneficent graces are born with the man, or whether they are acquired, Walter Brackett has used them most graciously, and while helping himself to a happier life, he has spread their sunny influence upon all who have been fortunate enough to know him, and have companionship with him.

While he has toiled with the brush, his inspiration, his impulse, his genius, and his skilful touch have given life and energy to canvas.

He has made the beauties that grace the seas, the world’s forest streams, and its silvery lakes, grace and adorn the homes, and entrance the lives of admiring men, women and children.

Still, because truth must be told, it must be said that Walter Brackett’s salmon sometimes disturb the poise of those who look upon them. They are so full of life and energy that admiration is often startled by the sudden fear that they may dart away to their natural haunts, and find a hiding place under the shelving rocks of some deep, dark pool of the rushing mountain waters.

While we admire Walter Brackett’s creations, in the field of art, for their richness and beauty, we admire the man the more for the richness, the simplicity, and the beauty of his life. Whether he talks to you of the closer and sweeter companionships of life—the acme of art—the sports of the woods, the streams, and the seas—the reposeful life of the camp, in the forests, under the starlit blue skies of the north—the magic spell of the wondrous eloquence of Ingersoll—the strangeness, and the mysteries, of the caprices of Rufus Choate, or of Edwin Booth—or of Webster and his cavernous eyes, and his stately walk as he appeared upon the streets of Boston—he is ever a man of fascinating interest.

He is happy and safe in his ninety years; and he has made this world better by living in it. He will brighten the broader sphere when he enters there, yet may his years here be many and happy.

With affection and esteem for Mr. Brackett, I remain,

Sincerely yours,

Edgar Aldrich.

THE DINGLEY FAMILY

Nearly eighty years ago, Mr. Nelson Dingley of Durham, Maine, moved into this town, and at once took a prominent place in town affairs. He purchased the place now known as the Methodist parsonage, and built the store now owned by C. Boyce Mitchell, where he engaged in trade.

He had at that time one son, Nelson Dingley, Jr., who afterward made a name for himself in the political life of his state and country. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1855, edited the Lewiston Journal for twenty years, served in the legislature (1862-73), was elected governor in 1874, and elected to Congress in 1881. He was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. His name survives in the Dingley Tariff Bill, passed in 1897.

Frank Lambert Dingley, brother of Nelson, Jr., was born in Unity, Maine. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College, and is the present editor of the Lewiston Journal.

THE CHASE FAMILY

Members of the Chase family, as has been mentioned earlier, were among our earliest settlers. William Chase, 1st, and Mary, his wife, came to America with Governor Winthrop in 1630 and settled in Roxbury, Mass. One of his descendants, Stephen Chase, 5th, born in Durham, Maine, and his wife, Hannah Blethen, born in Swansea, Mass., came to Unity in 1782. They raised a family of ten children, three boys and seven girls, nearly all of whom settled in Unity. Descendants of the Chase family have always remained with us as men respected and influential. George C. Chase, born in this town, is now the president of Bates College, a man well known in the educational circles of New England.

DR. JOHN T. MAIN

Among the older people, the name of Doctor Main is always spoken with respect, and they will tell you at once that he was not only a fine physician, but a gentleman of the first order, whose influence was always toward the uplifting of all with whom he came in contact. For a number of years he was the only doctor in Unity, where he had a large practice.

Dr. Main was born in Albion, May 25, 1831. By the law of heredity, young Main, whose father was a teacher as well as a farmer, showed an aptitude for study. He taught school in Freedom and Thomaston, and was sent to China Academy, to the Medical College at Castleton, Vermont, and finally to Harvard, where he was a private tutor. He was for some years a private pupil of Oliver Wendell Holmes, giving special attention to microscopy. He married Miss Ferrie Williams and settled in Unity. They had one son, Dr. Frederick W. Main of Jackson, Michigan.

During the Civil War, Dr. Main served as assistant surgeon in the Second Maine Regiment. In 1872 he went to Jackson, Michigan, where he became one of the well-known physicians of central Michigan. He belonged to the Masonic Fraternity and was also a member of the G. A. R.

LAKE WINNECOOK

In early times the stretch of water lying to the northwest of Unity Village was called the “Twenty-five Mile Pond,” because of its distance from Fort Halifax. During the childhood of the older citizens and up to fairly recent times, it was designated by the simple name of “Unity Pond.” It was a good fishing ground on dull days when there chanced to be spare time, and the pond lilies attracted in the summer season, but no one guessed the possibilities hidden away in its blue depths and pine groves for many years. In later years this piece of water has been called “Lake Winnecook.”

The lake is seven miles long and three miles wide. It is bounded by the towns of Unity, Troy and Burnham, Unity lying on the south and easterly sides. The section of land beyond the cemetery, extending into the lake toward Burnham, was named “The Horseback,” the extreme north end was called “The Point.” At some seasons of the year, the water is very low between this and the Burnham shore, and used to be forded by a few daring ones like Ephraim Braley. Near the end of “The Horseback” was the Indian burial ground. Before the railroad was built, this was one of the finest sections of land to be found.

The lake was well stocked with shad and alewives before dams were built on the rivers. I have heard old people say that when the wind was northerly, the fish would be driven into the cove in such numbers that one could take a basket and dip them up. Gibbs Tilton was very fond of fishing; his favorite place was the deep hole near the northeast end of “The Horseback.” The boys envied Uncle Gibbs his skill, for he always had a good catch. Some of the boys—and I think Editor Dingley was one of them—used to say that his luck was caused by the spitting of tobacco juice on the bait. As a fisherman, he was followed by “Didymus” Thompson, who had great luck in catching pickerel.

Soon after the railroad was built, considerable ice was cut in the lake for shipment, but owing to the cost of transportation, the work was given up, and now only enough for local consumption is harvested.

There was a time when George Fred Terry, F. A. Whitehouse, Albert Bacon and others were greatly interested in iceboating, but that has passed.

The lake is now a great pleasure resort in summer. Cottages have been built on its shores, motorboats may be seen conveying summer visitors across the lake, while on smaller boats the young of both sexes exhibit their skill in capturing the wily bass, the elusive pickerel and the pretty little perch with which these waters abound.

CAMP WINNECOOK

Camp Winnecook for boys is under the direction of Herbert L. Rand, principal of the Training School, State Normal School, Salem, Mass. The camp was established in 1903, and ranks high among camps for boys.

I quote from Mr. Rand’s booklet:

“This camp has one of the most beautiful and healthful locations to be found in New England. The lake is seven miles long and three miles wide. Its water is as clear as crystal and as pure as spring water. The camp occupies a tract of twenty-five acres of fine forest, having a westerly slope to the water’s edge.

The purpose of this camp is to develop in its boys a worthy character, to make them sound and vigorous of body and mind, to weave their days into a larger pattern, and draw the outline of a more self-reliant type of boy.”

WINDEMERE PARK

This park is situated upon the east shore of Lake Winnecook, one mile from Unity Village. It was purchased from Eben F. Thompson by the Unity Lake Land and Improvement Association, and covers thirty acres. One-half of the lot is covered with noble pines, and thrifty cedar and fir trees, making it one of the healthiest spots to be found—an ideal resting place.

For eleven years, James R. Taber was president and general manager of the association. When he took charge, there was no water upon the place. A meeting of the stockholders was called to see what action they would take about piping water from a spring which they owned, about one-half mile distant. Authority was given to do this work. Capt. Chas. Baker, James R. Taber and L. H. Mosher were placed in charge. The job cost $700.00.

Hon. A. J. Billings, then a member of the State Senate, took some of the water to the State Board of Health at Augusta for analysis. Doctor Billings received the following letter:

Hon. A. J. Billings, Senate Chamber, Augusta, Maine.

Dear Sir: On a separate sheet herein enclosed, I give the figures obtained in the analysis of the sample of water sent by Mr. Libby, February 25. The result shows no evidence of polluting matter, and there is almost complete absence of all organic matter. It is a good and pure water for drinking purposes, with a medium degree of hardness.

Yours truly,

A. G. Young, Secretary.

Analysis of Spring Water at Windemere Park

Silica 48.15; alumina 32.5; magnesia 10.14; protoprid of mangonese 0.28; protoprid of iron 7.92; water 0.5, equals 99.49.

The Clough Veteran Association, G. A. R., have a large memorial hall at Windemere, built in 1896, where the veterans of the G. A. R. and their friends meet annually on the 13th of August for a reunion. Gorham Clough gave liberally for the building of this hall, ably assisted by the Hon. A. J. Billings of Freedom.

Windemere Lodge and Cottages: The Park hotel, a commodious and attractive building, well fitted up for the convenience and pleasure of summer visitors, is under the management of Norman J. Merrill. Eighteen or twenty cottages, some under the hotel management, others owned by private individuals, are filled each summer with visitors.

Along the shore, both to the north and south of Windemere, are the summer homes, both of our own citizens and of those who came to us as strangers, but who in their long sojourn with us have been adopted as friends.

THE UNITY CENTENNIAL

On July 4, 1904, Unity celebrated her one hundredth birthday. A few days later, the following account was printed in one of our dailies. As it contains all details, I give it exactly as it then appeared.

The one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Unity, and the one hundred and twenty-eighth of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was observed Monday by a celebration such as has seldom been seen within the boundaries of Waldo county.

Gurney A. Stevens was marshal of the day, with George B. Pillsbury, Arthur Rand, and W. S. Libby as aids.

On all the committees the names of leading citizens were placed. Hon. James R. Taber was chosen president, and has labored faithfully to this end. This gentleman has been a member of the State Senate for two terms, and has held the positions of superintendent of town schools and postmaster for almost twenty unbroken years. He is president of the Windemere Park Association, church trustee, and holds other important positions in the town and society affairs. To the present affair he has brought ripe judgment and unflagging zeal, and now has the pleasure of knowing that his labors have not been in vain.

Another indefatigable worker in this celebration has been Dr. J. E. Cook, of the school board, and one of the prominent physicians of Waldo county. Upon the shoulders of this gentleman has fallen a large share of the burdens of the day, and he has been a powerful factor in its success. As chairman of the entertainment committee, he has had full charge of getting up the parade, and this feature alone has been worth going miles to see. Never has anything of a like nature been undertaken on so great a scale here before, and never has anything been carried out with such perfect success in every detail.

The other committees were as follows: Reception, L. H. Mosher, chairman, Dr. W. G. Fuller, C. E. Mitchell, Crosby Fowler and George Mosher. With each of these gentlemen were associated their wives, and to their tact and diplomacy much of the success of this committee was due.

The committee on music was made up of F. M. Fairbanks, E. D. Chase and Dr. E. M. Soule. All the affairs connected with printing and advertising were conducted by E. D. Chase, Dr. C. M. Whitney and F. A. Whitehouse.

Not least among these various committees was the one on fireworks, and this was composed of J. A. Adams, L. S. Knights and Dr. E. M. Soule. These committeemen had to arrange a vast amount of details, as anyone who has ever got up one of these celebrations must know. They did it, however, and they did it well.

The procession was led by the marshal, mounted, followed by the Second Regiment band of Belfast, numbering 21 pieces. Next came the town officers, special guests and old residents in carriages.

The first float was an allegorical representation of “Liberty.” The goddess was represented by Miss Edna Whitten, and she was attended by twenty-five young ladies, all dressed in white.

Lyle Stevens and Miss Isador Stevens, representing George and Martha Washington, followed, mounted.

The float following had for its subject, “An Old-fashioned Kitchen.” Howard Taylor drove, accompanied by Clifford Whitten.

Next in line came Freedom Lodge, K. of P., 16 men, and a small delegation from Burnham Lodge.

A feature of the parade was a decorated pony cart driven by Master Borden Granger.

Following this was a float advertising Sprague’s fly killer, driven by E. B. Moulton.

Next in line came several antiquated vehicles. F. A. Bartlett drove a rig of the style of 1776. He Was accompanied by Miss Thompson in antiquarian costume. In addition to the time-worn condition of the wagon, the style was also followed in respect to the harness, which had wooden hames without the collar. J. S. Rollins drove an outfit, the carriage dating from 1804, while Crosby Fowler and John M. Thompson rode in a one-horse phaeton built in 1838. Mr. Thompson is the oldest man in Unity, being in his 75th year. In contrast, A. H. Winters of Waterville and C. E. Stevens drove up-to-date turnouts.

Considerable interest was aroused by the exhibit of the Portland Packing Company, on whose float was a miniature corn shop in full operation.

The fact that the occasion was a patriotic one was emphasized by the presence of the members of the G. A. R., led by a drum corps. Some were on foot and others were in carriages. Unity’s contribution to the list of the preservers of the Union was a generous one, but the number of survivors is rapidly decreasing.

“The Twentieth Century Kitchen” was a fine exhibit furnished by Adams & Knight. Not only did it show the full equipment, but also the busy housewife was present to add human interest to the display.

The first duty of the Maine pioneers after they had felled the trees, uprooted the stumps and removed the boulders was plowing the ground, and this was ably illustrated by E. E. Getchell and A. J. Harding. Two pairs of oxen, driven by the former, pulled a plow in the hands of the latter. The costumes were true to life, and the accessories corresponded well. The plow was of the type of 1798. The same scheme of contrast which was followed elsewhere in the parade here held sway. Directly behind appeared the latest thing in plows, a “nobby” article, drawn by one horse. This latter exhibit was furnished by B. R. Hunt & Son.

The Sunny Vale Farm, J. H. Ames, proprietor, and the Crescent Shore Farm, Wilbur E. Reynolds, proprietor, furnished respectively a harrow and a potato planter, both of the newest type. A sprayer, drawn by one horse, was exhibited by George Webb.

Much admiration was aroused by the fancy grocery exhibit of L. H. Mosher.

A fine appearance was presented by Invictus Lodge, No. 38, I. O. O. F., which had 41 men in line. The centennial year will be marked by still another event, when in September their fine new hall, now in process of erection, will be dedicated.

Considerable laughter was occasioned along the line by an ox team with clowns in black faces. The driver was George Braley, and the following were the members of the chorus that sang along the route: Mont Lassell, Benjamin Jones, Milton Lovejoy, Bertie Braley, Ralph E. Reynolds, Oramendal Braley, E. W. Reynolds and R. B. Hillman.

More farm machinery followed. A horse hay-fork was displayed by E. M. Jones. Leslie Bennett carried a scythe and an old-fashioned short-tined hay-fork. Frank Harding drove a mowing machine for B. R. Hunt & Son, Paul Ames a tedder and Wilbur C. Nutt a hay-rake for the same firm.

A hayrack load of school children from various parts of the town was chaperoned by Miss Grace Bartlett, one of the teachers.

Miss Lelia Smith drove a rig that caused many a pleased exclamation from onlookers. The carriage was prettily decorated with daisies, the color scheme being yellow and white. Her companion was Miss Edith Frost.

C. C. Fowler’s creamery exhibit was driven by Herbert Whitten.

Green and white was the color scheme of the decorations displayed by Miss Grace Pendleton and Miss Ellen Reynolds. Daisies were used to advantage, and the effect was very pleasing.

To the interest of the parade from the manufacturers’ standpoint, W. H. J. Moulton & Son contributed largely. Their exhibit was a dray load of spool bars, shingles, laths and clapboards.

Herbert Mitchell was the driver of a float bearing an old-fashioned flax pounder and wheel and a rag-carpet loom.

A squad of reapers with sickles was next in order. They were Rufus C. Danforth, J. H. West, William Hamlin and James Dickey. Following came a McCormick reaper, driven by George Mosher.

The Unity band appeared in black face, but rendered some lively selections, notwithstanding. The driver of their float was Herbert West, and the members of the band who participated were Harry West, Frank Tozier, Frank Ross, Luville Whitten, Dr. Soule, Shepard Shute and Seth Pendleton.

A unique feature of the parade was an “automobile.” It was a home-made affair. From the rear projected a pair of shafts, and in these a horse was fastened. George Parsons steered the outfit, while Ernest Hogg gave attention to the source of motive power.

The following, dressed as clowns, occupied the float representing the old-fashioned trades from Unity Plantation: Perley Getchell, Arthur Marr, Mott Reynolds, James Bacon, James Brown, George Bickford, Irving Ryant, F. W. Danforth, H. C. Stover, Herbert Cook and Robert Styles.

Next in order came a well-mounted troupe of “rough riders,” as follows: Warren Spinney, Fitz Hamilton, Lynne Stevens, Edwin Webb, Everett Jones, Arthur Goodrich, C. A. Means, A. W. Spaulding, Nelson Rackliffe, Delmont Gerry, C. W. Willey, H. L. Waning, C. A. Harding, N. W. Pushor.

“The Barge of State” was a prettily decorated float occupied by twenty-eight girls. J. A. Winters was the driver.

Six boys constituted the Unity juvenile fire department, and they were thoroughly equipped with a hand-tub, hose and a ladder.

The last, but not by any means the least, amusing feature of the parade was A. L. Bennett in diabolical costume, bearing the legend, “And the devil came also.”

Such was the great parade, which was witnessed by fully 2000 persons. It was not a mere agglomeration of haphazard contrivances, but it showed throughout a plan that had been carefully executed. All praise is due the indefatigable members of the various committees and the participants.

The literary exercises came at 1.30 P. M. The crowd, now greatly increased, gathered on the Central House grounds, where the speakers were to make their addresses. Hon. J. R. Taber presided, and called on the local pastor, Mr. C. H. Ross, for prayer. President Taber then gave the historical address, which was followed by President Chase’s address and the reading of the Centennial Poem.

WELCOME AND HISTORICAL NOTES

Read at the Unity Centennial by Hon. James R. Taber

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have gathered today to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of our town. One hundred years of continuous growth and continuous prosperity lie behind us. In 1804, the primeval forest stood here undisturbed save where, here and there, some hardy settler had made a clearing for his home. In 1904 a prosperous town has taken its place.

As we recalled the past, as we recalled that from which we have developed, it seemed fitting that we should celebrate our progress and that we should invite to rejoice with us those who are interested in the present development of the town, and those who also knew it in its earlier days.

You have responded loyally to the summons, and, in the name of the citizens of Unity, I welcome you here today. Come to our homes—they stand open to you; appeal to our hospitality—you will not find it lacking; visit the scenes of your childhood—you will be welcome.

You are our guests. It is our pleasure to make you feel that you have indeed come home; that the old town welcomes back her sons and daughters with joy and pride, and asks in return only their loyalty and support.

The human mind has always a passion for beginnings, for the first things in a man’s or nation’s life, and it is for the gratification of this natural interest that I have been asked to give before this assembly a few facts which I have gathered from time to time concerning the beginnings and early history of Unity.

It is only a few days since I was informed that this labor would devolve upon me, otherwise I might have presented the subject matter in greater detail and more pleasing form.

A hundred and twenty-five years ago, Unity was like the greater part of Maine, all forest land. Not an axe nor a hammer had been heard within its limits. Occasionally, a wandering Indian passed through, or a settler in search of a home, but that was all, until two of the latter, Carter and Ware, journeying across the country, pitched their tent near the outlet of Unity pond and finally settled there.

This is the first settlement of which we have any record, and the first name by which the town was known was the Twenty-five Mile Pond Plantation, so called from its distance from Fort Halifax in Winslow, which still stands. It was at the time of the Indian troubles and the new settlers were soon driven from their home, but when these difficulties had ceased, Carter returned and became the founder of one of the early families of the town.

In 1782, Stephen Chase, many of whose descendants are today citizens of Unity, came riding through the forest with his family, a strong, hardy man, ready to battle with difficulties in clearing and settling the new land. His settlement was on the “horseback,” near the east shore of the pond, but later he built the first frame barn and frame house in the town, on the site now occupied by the residence of F. A. Whitten.

Stephen Chase was a preacher of the Society of Friends, and for many years ministered to the people in that capacity. He lived to the age of eighty years, and his wife attained the remarkable age of one hundred and six years.

A few years after Mr. Chase’s settlement, in the field notes of Hayden, the surveyor, this minute was made: “I found upon the stream leading from Unity pond to the Sebasticook a man by the name of Mitchell, building a mill upon what I called a very good mill privilege.” This was on the site of the present Moulton Mill. The first grist mill of which we have any knowledge was built upon the rapids, just above this. A rude dam was constructed, and water conducted through a hollow log, onto an overshot wheel, which furnished power for the mill.

Civilization having advanced thus far, new settlers were not lacking. Between 1792 and 1810, the following men came to the town: Clement Rackliff, Benjamin and Lemuel Bartlett from Limington; Simeon Murch from Gorham; John Melvin from Manchester, N. H., the latter settling on a farm now owned by his grandson, John Thompson. This same Mr. Melvin brought with him apple seeds and planted the first orchard in the town.

Joseph Woods came from Standish and settled on the farm now owned by Wesley Woods. Mark Libby, Robert Carll, Henry Farwell and John Perley arrived here at about this time. They came on horseback, sometimes guided only by the blazed trees, bringing with them their tools, a few household implements and indomitable courage.

We find in the records that it was during this early period that the first barn was built on the F. A. Whitten place, and the second, which still stands, on the C. C. Fowler farm. A grist mill also was built at the Farwell Mills.

Rufus Burnham, M. D., for whom the town of Burnham was named, moved to town and afterward purchased the first stove ever brought into Unity. This was set up in the house now occupied by the speaker. Other settlers were Cornforth, Kelley, Parkhurst and Hunt.

The first settlements had been made on the “horseback”; here and there a house arose in different parts of the town, but the real trend of civilization tended now toward the central part of the town, or what is now the J. H. Cook district, and it is there that we find houses were going up and schools and churches built. This was called “The Settlement,” and it was at this time the business center.

A man by the name of Brackett lived on the place now owned by C. S. Cook, and manufactured clocks and oilcloth carpeting. The first store was kept by a man by the name of Hopkins, in the house now belonging to George Murch. In this same settlement, Joseph Ames made hand rakes, and beyond to the eastward was the dwelling of Dr. Knowles, who served thirty years in succession as town clerk. Houses were erected on the sites of the present Varney, Hussey and Larrabee homesteads, and the settlement became large and prosperous for the period.

Meantime, municipal government was to be thought of. The first plantation meeting was held at the home of John Chase, on June 30, 1803, and the second at the residence of Lemuel Bartlett. The first town meeting was held at the home of Benjamin Rackliff, an innholder.

Like the Massachusetts brethren who founded churches almost before they founded their homes, these settlers early looked to the religious welfare of the community. Before a church building could be thought of, two societies had been formed, the Friends and the Baptists, the former under the leadership of Stephen Chase, the latter under John Whitney. The first church, however, of which I find any record was built by the Methodists, not far from the home of Peter Ayer, in 1826. One year later, the Friends’ church was built, on the site of the present church of this denomination. A Congregationalist church, erected on the main road, near the B. B. Stevens place, was afterward moved to the village, and, the society having disbanded, was sold and taken down. The present Union church was finished in 1841.

But even earlier than this, the little settlement on the hill, in spite of the work incident to settlement in a new and uncleared land, had remembered the need of education, had felt the stimulus that leads fathers to wish for their sons a better education than they themselves had, and had built schoolhouses for their youth.

A little after the nineteenth century came in, clearings were made and business was transferred to Unity Village, or Antioch, as it was then called. The first schoolhouse built at the village was on the Pond road, beyond Bartlett’s barn, and was moved to the C. E. Stevens place, afterward to the present site of Harrison Damon’s house, and is now occupied as a dwelling by A. W. Harding. The old brick school building followed, which stood on the site of the old White schoolhouse, both of which have been superseded by our present modern building, which ranks among the finest in the villages of the state.

These are a few of the facts which may be of interest to you. Of the life of the period, interesting though it is, I have no time to speak. Our ancestors were honest, hardworking, God-fearing men, who struggled for existence at home in the early life of our state; and when the call came, four went out bravely to help conquer the British. These men were John Melvin, Thomas Fowler, James Packard and Nathan Parkhurst.

In the war of 1812, eleven responded to the call: Robert Blanchard, Nathaniel Stevens, Josiah Murch, Elisha Bither, George I. Fowler, Archelaus Hunt, Eben Reynolds, Robert Carll, Nathaniel Carll, Dean and Mark Libby. Two went to the Mexican war: Otis Whitmore and Joseph Bither. I find on the roll the names of eighty who fought loyally for the Stars and Stripes in the Rebellion of 1861. Those who remained at home, worked with a will, we read in the records of the industries that now sprang up. A grist mill was built, now called “Conners’ Mill,” which is nearly a hundred years old; plows and stoves were manufactured by T. B. Hussey; a grist and cloth mill was put up at the Farwell Mills; other mills followed in different parts of the town, and factories were built.

Among the early California pioneers who went around Cape Horn in the ship, Hampden, in 1849, were Hon. Crosby Fowler and his brother, Dutton, Stephen and Joseph Rackliffe. In 1852, Charles Taber and Gorham Hamilton went by way of the Isthmus, and in 1854, J. F. Parkhurst, Crosby Fowler and Wilbur Mitchell went to Missouri, bought two hundred head of cattle, and drove them over the mountains to California.

It should be noted as an item of interest that one of the masts of the ship, Constitution, was cut on the C. E. Fowler place and hauled to the Sebasticook river by sixteen yoke of oxen, one pair being necessary to haul the rum.

But the glory of a town, like that of a nation, is in the men and women that it sends forth. Unity has sons who have won high place in the business, the political and the educational world. Go to Florida and you will find there as manager of the Ponce De Leon, one of the largest hotels in the country, a son of our former hotel keeper, John L. Seavey. One of the worthy citizens of Jackson, Mich., is John T. Main, M. D., formerly of Unity; Nelson Dingley, Jr., who was afterward governor, member of Congress, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, spent his boyhood days here.

Hon. John Crosby, whose eloquence has electrified vast audiences, first practiced upon the school boys of Unity; George C. Chase, now the honored president of Bates College, is a native of our town; the noted painter, Walter M. Brackett of Boston, was also born in Unity.

Friends and Fellow Citizens:

We are proud of our ancestors and their work, we are proud of our town as you see it today, and if this anniversary shall strengthen our pride, shall increase the loyalty of our citizens, and cause our hearts to beat with a stronger love and patriotism for our native town, those who have labored for this day will feel that the recompense has indeed been sufficient.

PRESIDENT CHASE’S ORATION AT THE UNITY CENTENNIAL

Mr. President, Sons and Daughters of Unity, Friends and Fellow Citizens:

We celebrate today the birth of a nation and the beginning of a town. One hundred and twenty-eight years ago today was born the United States of America. One hundred years ago was held the first town meeting of Unity. To the hasty thinker, the connection between the events that we commemorate may seem remote and obscure. But every student of history knows that the impulse of the men who planned this double commemoration was sane and true to fact.

The nation and the town! Both are representatives of popular government. Both are products of a movement whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, but a movement whose genuineness and significance arrested the attention of Tacitus 2000 years ago as he gazed with wonder upon the independent communal life of our ancestors ere yet they had left the forests of Germany.

Of the progress of this movement toward representative government until it issued in the destruction of feudalism and the dominance of the people, through their House of Commons, over vested rights and hereditary privileges, over the long endured self-assertion of lords temporal and lords spiritual, we are told in the pages of Macaulay, Hallam and Greene.

But we all know that it has had its splendid and complete culmination upon this continent. And it began upon these shores with local self-government. We know, also, that of the two variations of the old English stock, the country in the south and the town in New England, the town has proved itself the true exponent and embodiment of the democratic ideal. Barring some perversions and inequalities due to the narrowness and bigotry of the times, town government as set up in Plymouth, Salem, Lynn, Dorchester, Newton and Boston, was the beginning of that government of the people, by the people and for the people, “which shall not perish from the earth.”

First the town, then the state, and finally the nation. And the nation existed in the town as the oak exists in the acorn. As settlement after settlement was formed and sent off its hardy children to make new beginnings in the wilderness, it was simply inevitable that the towns when developed and organized should combine to form the state; and in spite of local pride and short-sighted views of public policy, it was equally inevitable that the states should in due time combine to form the nation.

In the town was the genesis both of state and of nation. It was the town that first inured men to the atmosphere of self-government, that produced a body of genuine free men, disciplined them to healthy self-control, and taught them to subordinate individual aims to the public welfare. It was the town that awakened and developed public spirit, patriotic pride, and generous self-denial. It was in the rude legislation of the town that the talent for leadership was evoked and developed. The men who had faced and had solved the problems of building roads, of caring for the poor, of maintaining order, and of promoting health, intelligence and morality under the conditions presented in the administration of the town became the men capable of dealing with the larger and more complicated problems of the state and the nation. John and Samuel Adams, Hancock, Warren and Otis did not suddenly present themselves as leaders of the people in the struggle against British tyranny and in the still sharper struggle that followed in the building of the nation. They were already picked men, tried and approved as wise counsellors and able executives in the life and management of the town.

So in each of the original New England States. So in Maine when the district of Massachusetts had attained to the dignity of statehood. The men who came to the front and who proved themselves equal to the discussion and decision of different questions were the men who had been trained amid the humbler exigencies of the town. Nine-tenths of the men whose names appear upon our lengthening list of governors, congressmen and United States senators were born and bred and prepared for leadership amid the life and activities of the country town. This is no less true of the educators, journalists, speakers, writers, jurists, and thinkers that have moulded public opinion and shaped the destinies of our country. Most of the early champions of the anti-slavery cause had breathed the pure air and felt the quickening life of the country town.

We cannot forget that the first martyr to that cause was born and reared but a few miles hence in a town adjoining our own. The poets whose genius has brought lustre to our literature were first aroused and inspired while living the simple life of the town. Whittier and Longfellow were country boys; and Lowell tells us that in his youth and young manhood, Cambridge was only a village. Horace Greeley was born in a humble town of New Hampshire, prepared for his great career as journalist in the woods of Vermont, and disciplined for his great editorial responsibilities of after years by hard apprenticeship in the service of rural printing offices and country newspapers. So with Seward. So before Seward with Webster. So with the political giants of our own State of Maine, with Fessenden, the Hamlins and the Morrills.

These and others like them were the men who formed public opinion, and by their courage, conviction, earnestness and persistence brought on the irrepressible conflict that issued in the war for the Union, the downfall of slavery, and the nationalization of freedom. The men who by their valor on the battlefield and their wise and courageous leadership in Congress saved our Union were not during their childhood and youth clothed in soft raiment or brought up in the enervating atmosphere of the city. It is not too much to say that we owe to the town and the moulding, educating and inspiring influences of its healthy and straightforward methods of government, the preservation of our nation and its position as the leader in the civilization of the world.

But if the town conditioned the nation, no less did the nation condition the town. No less is it essential to the very existence of the town today. The towns found themselves obliged to unite to form the state; the states to form the United States. The towns had early learned their inter-dependence; the states more slowly learned theirs. Today no one of our forty-five states would dream of a separate independence. Imagine if you can the condition of forty-five or fifty sovereign and separate nationalities within the territory of the United States—forty-five to fifty distinct monetary, tariff, postal and commercial systems, with custom houses and customs officers all along the boundaries of each, with conflicting charters for our great industrial organizations, with different currency for each sovereignty, with endless jealousies, bickerings, strifes, reprisals, contentions, and conflicts. Compare these nameless and indefinable aggregations of people with the nation that now presents its solid front to the world. How long would one of these petty nationalities be proof against the cupidity of the great powers of Europe?

And what would citizenship mean under such conditions? Today the humblest American finds safety at home and protection abroad. Whether within his own municipality, state or nation, whether upon the high seas, or upon foreign soil, whether among civilized men or barbarians, his life, his property and his rights find shelter beneath a flag known and honored throughout the entire world. There is no thinking man in all our territory today who does not know that all he possesses, all he enjoys, and all he hopes for depend upon the maintenance of our national government. Indeed, it is difficult to comprehend how only forty years ago the dream of a southern confederacy was possible. It was possibly only to men who for sixty years had been perverting their moral sense and warping their judgment in the endeavor to find arguments for an institution that seemed to them so essential to their material welfare.

We all know that without the protection and support of our noble government the vast material resources of our country would still be undeveloped—its quarries comparatively untouched, its mines unexplored or reserved to the cupidity of foreigners, its great prairies uncultivated, its commerce undeveloped, its railroads unbuilt, and the entire structure of our civilization material, intellectual and moral, still lacking a foundation. We might indeed have in part our territory, our sea coast, our mountains, forests and rivers. But in the words of Wooster, “What are lands and seas and skies without society, without government, without laws? And how can these be preserved and enjoyed in all their extent and all their excellence but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government?”

All these advantages of our great Republic are obvious. But there is one advantage less likely to be appreciated, and that is the effect of a great and growing free government like ours upon the ideas and aspirations of its people. It was nearly 2000 years ago that the Great Teacher uttered the words, “Life is more than meat.” But we have not yet fully grasped their significance. The breadth and value of any life, whether that of beast, bird or man, are determined by that life’s relations. Mere animal life through its whole wide range from polyp to man is a helpless routine of obedience to blind instincts. In the true meaning of the word, education is possible only for human beings. Guided by instinct, the bird can affect certain adjustments to its environment. But these adjustments are few, sharply limited, and can scarcely be said to be the product of thought. The sparrow of today flies, feeds, builds its nest, rears its young, and makes a periodical migration precisely as the sparrow did these things in the time of our Saviour. We speak of training the dog, of educating him. But at best he learns a few tricks, forms a few blind habits, exhibits a wealth of unreasoning affection, and lives and dies within the definite boundaries prescribed for a dog. The best educated dog of today has never advanced in intelligence and attainments beyond the dog that welcomed Ulysses to his island home and died from excess of sudden delight.

Man is man and not a mere brute because of the infinite number and variety of relations that he can sustain and appreciate. In all this universe of matter and mind with their myriad manifestations, there is nothing alien to the thought of man. He alone can find “sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, and good in everything.”

But to the savage, only a few of these relations are actual. To prepare men to enter into the endless, the illimitable relations for which they were created, is the work of civilization, of education, and there is nothing that so civilizes, so educates, as the union of human beings with their fellows in the pursuit of common interests, the attainment of common purposes. Would you know how meagre even human life may be, visit the solitary hermit, the lonely dweller in the forest, or the prisoner confined in his cell, shut out from communion with his fellow beings. The grandest service rendered by our country to its citizens is the broadening of their horizon, the multiplying of their interests, the exalting of their ambitions, the summoning into exercise of the dormant powers of heart and mind.

Imagine if you can how “cribb’d, cabin’d and confined” were the first settlers of Unity. Twenty miles remote at the beginning from the nearest settlement, most of them a hundred miles away from their earlier homes; in the heart of a great forest, with no roads, with scarcely a pathway leading out into a life of larger activities; without schools, without churches, without books or newspapers, almost without neighbors; centering of necessity their entire thought upon their humble homes, with their wives and their children; passing whole days, nay months, with no companions save their families and their own thoughts; dependent upon some new immigrant or chance comer for even an echo from the outside world—how dreary, how distressingly limited must have been the lives of their souls.

And they were only more isolated than their fellows. All Maine was largely a wilderness 100 years ago, and even in the most favored portions of New England the only means of communication was on the seaboard by slow-moving sloops and schooners, and in the interior by horseback riding, or at best by the lumbering stage coach. It was exactly 100 years ago that Lewis and Clark began their famous expedition across the continent, first making an exploration of the Missouri. They were 171 days in making 1600 miles, a little more than nine miles a day. A journey that required nearly six months can now be made by railroad in less than two days. They were, indeed, in a country remote from the habitation of men; and yet it was a country not so very different in its main features and its means of communication from what was then, for the greater part, the wilderness of Maine.

Now, our fathers and mothers who settled this town were men and women of vigorous minds, of warm human sympathies, and of the largest potential interests and activities. They exercised their minds upon the problems immediately confronting them, and thus attained an intellectual vigor that made them masters of the situation. As their number increased, as settlements multiplied, roads were built, schools established, trade and occupations developed at their doors, their horizon grew and they attained through these instrumentalities to some good degree of mental freedom.

When the State was organized in 1820, they found a new field for political activities and were brought into new and important civic and social relations. But it is safe to say that the great, enlarging, fructifying and inspiring influence that quickened their minds, created their ideals, sharpened their mental and moral vision and put them in good degree into possession of their inheritance as human beings, was the developing life of our common country. When in 1782 our ancestors first set foot upon the shores of yonder pond, they probably brought with them the knowledge of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in the fall of the preceding year. But it could not long have reached them before they began that toilsome journey by boats and rafts up the Kennebec and Sebasticook into the waters of the lake on whose borders they settled. Little they knew of the issues of the long conflict. But doubtless their hearts were lighter and their feet trod more firmly as they talked with one another of victory and of peace.

How much they knew of the treaty of peace with England in 1782, of the heated discussion and threatened divisions between that time and 1789, when the Constitution was adopted, whether they clearly understood the distinction between the Federalist and the Republican conception of what the new government should be, whether they awaited with eager interest the ratification of the new form of government by one state after another until its adoption was secured, about all this we know absolutely nothing. But we may reasonably believe that news of these exciting matters occasionally reached them and drew their attention from their own toilsome lives to the broader interests of their country. We may be sure that they rejoiced in the election of Washington to the Presidency, and that in some way when he declined to be a candidate for a third time in 1796 they became acquainted with the spirit and tenor of his immortal farewell letter, with its forecast of the greatness and glory of the nation at length safely launched, and with his fatherly warnings against the dangers which his prophetic eyes saw only too keenly.

However meagre the news that reached them, however little of the spirit and life of the growing country was communicated directly to them, yet even that little was broadening the scope of their thoughts, relieving the drudgery of their toil, and developing in them an appreciation of their privileges as American citizens. In 1804, when Unity was incorporated, the country seemed on the verge of war with Great Britain; and the exciting stories passing from lip to lip, of the impressment of American seamen, of the destruction of our navigation by the decrees of France and the blockades of Great Britain, finally of our own Embargo Act, resulting in the loss of all our commerce and the paralysis of all our infant industries, must have reached the citizens of the new town, and have aroused their anxiety and kindled their indignation. That the War of 1812 was of absorbing interest to them, is clear from their own contribution of nearly a half dozen men to the ranks of our soldiery. It is clear, also, from the fact that Andrew Jackson, the hero of that brilliant after-battle at New Orleans, was henceforth the popular idol of the State of Maine. From 1815 onward, the name of Jackson rivalled that of Washington in the place that it held in the affections of our people. A study of family records with the first names of children clearly establishes this.

When in 1820 the question of Maine’s admission to the Union as an independent state was before Congress, the coupling of the fate of our membership in the Union with that of Missouri and the heated discussion that followed whether the admission of a free state must be balanced by that of a slave state, the people first began to follow with an interest that steadily increased the multiplying problems presented by the institution of slavery. Probably the long conflict which then began was the most potent factor in developing a consciousness of the dignity and meaning of American citizenship. The discussion kept up for the forty years between the admission of Maine to the Union and the beginning of the Civil War, considered simply as a means of mental development and especially of training men to analyze the functions and aims of our government, probably effected more than any other agency in awakening true patriotism, in developing the spirit of humanity, and in giving to legislation a distinctly moral scope and purpose. In 1830 followed the great speech of Webster in reply to Hayne. And soon its most brilliant passages were upon the lips of every schoolboy in declamation and debate.

Other great issues, such as internal improvements, the Monroe Doctrine, tariff system, and the United States bank, were also powerful educators. The closing of the United States Bank by Jackson, in particular made an impression upon the people of Maine, and the $2 or more received by every inhabitant of the State in the distribution of the surplus still further endeared Old Hickory to the hearts of our people.

The Presidential elections played an important part in helping the people to feel the unity of their government and its direct relations to themselves. Possibly there are persons in this audience who can remember the wild excitement that prevailed in the Harrison campaign of 1840, when log cabins, cider barrels and raccoons were carried about in procession and the rallying cry was, “Old Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!”

But it was the slavery question, its various phases, that most steadily held the attention and summoned to its discussion, in protest or apology, the whole people. The Mexican War, with its results, derived its chief interest from its relation to this question, and the brilliant orators who opposed it furnished another supply of fervid declamations to the school boys. From 1845 to 1860, political discussions superseded in large part the ordinary themes of conversation. They were in vogue not merely at the caucus, the convention and the election, but at the dinner table, the neighborhood party, in the corner grocery, and even in the shop and the field. During this period, references to the Wilmot Proviso, Mason and Dixon’s Line, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott Decision, Squatter Sovereignty, the conflicts and troubles of “bleeding Kansas,” the threats of such ultra southerners as Toombs of Georgia, and citations from Webster’s Seventh of March speech, together with Theodore Parker’s terrible denunciation of our foremost stateman gave color and direction to public speech, newspaper criticism, and ordinary conversation. Although I was but six years old at the time, I distinctly remember hearing my father read aloud in the family sitting room one evening Parker’s scathing rebuke to Daniel Webster and his unmeasured invectives in character. Greeley through his Tribune gained his greatest power. In half the farm houses in Maine, the Weekly Tribune was awaited with an eagerness only less intense than that with which we watched for the news from the Potomac.

It was in this period that the various organizations formed in opposition to slavery were at length concentrated in the new Republican party. The campaign of Fremont and Dayton versus Buchanan and Breckinridge repeated the excitement and enthusiasm of the Harrison campaign, but there was much more seriousness in discussion and a far profounder appreciation of the issue involved. How well I can remember the clear and logical and yet impassioned discussion in which leading Democrats and Republicans of Unity engaged when on town meeting days they gathered in an open spot or in some angle of the fence near the old town house. I received no small part of my education during some six years of that period in listening to these discussions and in reading the Tribune.

In ’59, the audacious invasion of Virginia by John Brown startled the whole country, and in ’60 came the nomination and election of Lincoln. And with these events came the premonitions and beginning of secession. Never was the newspaper of more absorbing interest to the people of the north than in that eventful winter, spring and summer of ’61. Practically the whole body of northern people were awakening to a great purpose to crush the rebellion, the determination to save the Union. How vividly it all comes back, the rapid organization of volunteer companies and regiments! I seem to hear now the stirring music of the fife and drum as through our own streets and past our own doors marched the first company formed in Unity. It was getting to be serious business and the nation grew in a few months more than in many years previous. Everybody present past fifty years of age has at least some memories of the tragic events of the war for the Union.

People of Unity, along with the people of the whole north, attained during these brief four years to a stature as patriots, to a mental and moral growth as men and women, to a conception of the purpose and destiny of our nation of which they had not dreamed themselves capable. They had learned to subordinate individual interests to great public ends; and with the people generally they attained a moral elevation that has not been wholly lost in the nearly forty years that have passed since these stirring scenes.

The fortunes of our nation since the period of war and reconstruction have been less fascinating and absorbing, but they have constantly been contributing to the development of our people, to an appreciation of the inheritance bequeathed to us by our fathers. The discussions over the issue of paper money and the resumption of specie payments, the arguments by our political leaders for and against the protective tariff, the theories presented respecting the function of gold and silver in meeting the monetary needs of the people, the sympathy of our republic with the oppressed Cubans, the Spanish war followed by the dwindling power of Spain—and the reconstruction of the political map of our territories, the returning loyalty of the people of the south, the interminable discussions as to the nature and value of the fifteenth amendment—and the status of the negro, the rapid development of the material resources of our country following the construction of the great railroads to the Pacific, the agitation over the construction of an inter-oceanic canal, the modifications of our treaties with England in order to secure this result, and the adoption at last of a definite plan for the realization of this great ocean highway—all these movements and events have been upon a scale quite in contrast with the humble beginnings of our national life, and have furnished themes rich, varied and stimulating for the further education of our people.

Within the last fifteen years the rapid consolidation of wealth, the enormous and still growing power of corporations and trusts, the more than princely fortunes acquired by individual citizens, the extremes of poverty and wealth more marked than at any previous period of our history, and great questions respecting the ownership of the means of production and the moral rights to the soil have brought to us questions largely still unsolved and requiring for their solution the broadest popular intelligence, the most constructive statesmanship, and the highest order of patriotism to which we can hope to attain. That with the blessing of God the agitation of these questions will result in still further strengthening and enriching the popular mind and developing the spirit of philanthropy and mutual helpfulness, and will in due time lead to their successful solution, history, experience, the evident providence of God in the unfolding of our nation hitherto, and the world’s need of the blessings that we alone seem prepared to give, afford reasonable ground for inspiring hope.

Citizens of Unity: Amid all this growth in the wealth, power and influence of your country, you and your predecessors have been no passive spectators, no selfish and satisfied receivers. Freely indeed have ye received, but you have also freely given. The example and influence of this town have on the whole contributed to the welfare of your State and your country. From the beginning, industry, thrift, intelligence and morality have in the main been characteristic of our population. You have been faithful to the inheritance bequeathed to you by your ancestors. You have shown a commendable energy, wisdom and skill in developing the resources of the town, you have taken a noteworthy interest in the education of your children. Through your fidelity in these and in other respects, the town has always borne a good name. You have contributed your quota of reputable men to the various callings and professions. You have done your share in providing wise and prudent political counsellors, patriotic and efficient legislators, public-spirited men and women.

One of the most honored and useful governors of our State, afterward for years a recognized leader in the national Congress, a writer, a thinker, an economist of international reputation, passed his youth and early manhood and received his elementary education in this town. His brother, the leading journalist of our State, and one of the trenchant and vigorous writers of our time, passed a still longer period of his life in this community. Still another of your sons has won distinction in journalism in another State. You have reared one United States senator, five State senators and two counsellors to our chief executive. Your sons and daughters are not unknown in educational work. You have sent out lawyers and physicians who will become distinguished in their professions, business men who have reflected credit in the training that you gave them. The great body of your citizens have been honest and true in all the relations of life. You have contributed soldiers to all of the wars in which our country has been engaged. More than 80 of your sons represented you in the war for the Union.

Unity, like Maine, has been a good place from which to migrate, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of your children since our town was incorporated have become citizens in remote parts of the country. Some of the most enterprising and energetic of your sons made their way around Cape Horn to California in 1849. And others subsequently reached the same destination by means of the isthmus. Within the last twenty years, large numbers of your most vigorous young men have gone to the far west; 100 of them, I am told, to the single State of Montana.

As civilization advances and pioneer conditions disappear, families diminish in size. This is a law co-extensive with the human race. Instead of families of twelve, fifteen, and even of twenty-one, records of your early life which I do not exaggerate, the parents of this town now number their children by twos and threes. The remarkable change in the great industrial enterprises of our century which has occurred within the last forty years has still further reduced your population. The butter factory and the creamery have superseded the home dairy, and a hundred domestic duties once assigned to women have wholly disappeared. The development of the vast grain fields of the west has made it uneconomic for the farmers of Maine to raise wheat and other cereals. The application of inventive skill to the production of farm implements now enables one man to perform in planting, hoeing, haying and harvesting what formerly required three. These and other industrial changes enable a population scarcely one-half of that once credited to our town to develop its resources and protect its business interests.

Under circumstances like these, it is not strange that the census of 1900 reported a population of a little less than 900, in contrast with the 1557 reported forty years earlier. But if the population of our town has declined, not so its wealth. In 1860 its valuation was $297,564. In 1900 its valuation was $364,683. Since the warm rays of the July sun found their way into the first clearing in 1782, never has it looked down within the boundaries of this town upon families so prosperous and happy, upon material comforts so general and pronounced, upon fields so well filled, schoolhouses so tasteful and substantial, evidence of thrift so significant.

In only one respect does it seem to me that we have occasion for serious concern. Unity, so far as I can learn, still maintains worthy moral standards. Her people as a whole are still honest, neighborly and just. These results, must we not confess, are due in great part to the sturdy moral character, and, I may add, to the piety, reverence and practical Christian lives of many of her earlier settlers. We cannot lose in one generation or in two, the fruitage of the noble lives that have preceded us. But if Unity is to maintain her reputation for thrift, intelligence and character, she must look carefully to the sources of all that is good in modern civilization—to the Bible, to the church with its doors open every Sunday and its pulpit occupied by an intelligent and efficient pastor. Unity can prove herself and her citizens no exception to the great law that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” that reverence and the inculcation and practice of the golden rule are essential alike to manhood and womanhood and to material prosperity.

Citizens of Unity: As you gaze upon the goodly prospect before you, wherever you turn your eyes you find evidence of the toils, the sacrifices, the devotion to home and family, the wise foresight, the generous public spirit, the care for education, the respect for character, and the reverence for God that have brought you this choice inheritance. As you ride with your families in comfortable carriages along your highways, do you try to recall and imagine the patient toil, the energy, the inventive skill that constructed these roads, built these bridges, and made the homes of this town accessible one to another? As you walk over your fertile fields and your beautiful pasture lands, as you wander amid the fruitful orchards that bring you wealth and happiness, do you think of the men and women who first came to this town? Into these fields, into these homes, they wrought their very lives. Many of you bear the names which they bore, and retain the distinctive family features, the peculiar mental traits of your fathers.

We all owe a debt to them that we can never pay, save as in the spirit with which they wrought we maintain, improve and enrich the heritage that they have left us, and in turn bequeath it to our children, that they with energies unimpaired by us, but rather increased, intensified, and ennobled, may in turn pass on to their descendants a legacy ever more ample, more precious, more helpful to our country and to mankind.

CENTENNIAL POEM

By Miss Muriel Chase “The Song of Freedom”

A band concert and a reception now followed. At eight in the evening the fireworks were set off, under the management of F. M. Fairbanks, aided by E. D. Chase, Geo. E. Grant and John Hamilton, and at a late hour the grand ball was opened in the new hall of Adams & Knight. Morning came and the Unity Centennial was over.

THE UNITY OF 1916

The Unity Centennial has long since passed. More than a hundred and thirty years have gone by since Ware and Carter tramped through the forest and began their little settlement. The forests have gone, few traces are left of the rude beginnings from which our town was shaped, the twentieth century is all around us.

A stranger passing through our town sees everywhere evidences of skill and prosperity, fine farm buildings, carefully cultivated acres, up-to-date machinery, good roads. Everything is well kept. It speaks of New England order and thrift. It suggests wholesome, wide-awake men and women. In the village a broad, level, straight street, shaded by noble trees, extends the entire length. The streets are lighted with electricity, there are telephones and electricity within the homes. Old homes are here, built nearly a hundred years ago, with broad fronts and colonial doorways, suggestive of early days when the home was the center of all social life; trim, modern homes are found, too, better suited to the needs of the modern family. Within the limits of the village are twelve stores, a church, high school building, bank, hotel, central telephone station, two public garages, blacksmith, tin and shoe shops, two steam mills, two creameries, corn factory, grist mill, and two large public halls. Property values have increased rapidly in the last few years. Many strangers have found homes among us and have received a genuine welcome. They have found our people honest, upright and industrious.

Transportation and mail service is no longer a problem. The rural free delivery visits all parts of the town. Automobiles for business or pleasure are at one’s call. The railroad affords quick transportation for all products with three daily trains to Boston. This is the Unity of 1916.

Our town has an honorable past, a prosperous present, its future will be as broad and worthy as the vision of its citizens permits.

DESCRIPTION OF REAL ESTATE

Adams, C. A., built his store in 1914, lot from J. A. Adams.

Adams, J. A., had his place from Ellen M. Taber, she from her father, Eli Moulton, he from Austin Thomas, M. D., he from John T. Main, M. D., he from heirs of Rufus Burnham, M. D., they from Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Winslow, who built the house in 1842. The lot was from Rufus Burnham, the masonry was done by Henry Kelly.

Ames, Jacob, had his place from his father, he from E. E. York, he from E. L. Woods, he from John White, he from Amos Webb. Some of the land was formerly owned by Benj. Fogg. The barn was the carriage shop owned by Harrison G. Otis, and stood opposite G. T. Whitaker’s residence.

Bacon, Alonzo, from J. H. Farwell, he from O. J. Farwell, he from Weston Whitten, he from his father, Oliver Whitten, he from Jonathan Stone, who bought the Doctor Knowles place and moved the barn onto this place. The Knowles house was torn down. Stone bought the north half of the Peter Jackson place, and moved the large barn down to this place. The Jackson house was torn down. Stone bought one acre of ground where the buildings now stand, of Otis Starkey, a shoemaker. Starkey had it from John W. Ames, he from Robert Jackson.

Bacon, George, from Melville Willey, he from R. R. Spinney, he from John Royal, he from Ansel Perkins.

Bacon, Henry A., from heirs of Mrs. A. H. Clark, they from L. H. Mosher, he from Wm. Hamilton, he from Sarah, widow of Hoyt Hunt, she from Albert Watson, he from the Roberts heirs, Roberts from Josiah Harmon, he from Sherwin Crosby, who built the original house. A. H. Clark built the stable. The house has recently been remodeled.

Bacon, Joseph A., from Hezekiah Stevens, he from Nathaniel Stevens, he from the proprietors. The house Mr. Bacon now lives in was built by Amos Billings. Levi Bacon, father of Joseph A., purchased the buildings on the east side of the road from James Banks. He built two sawmills and had four brickyards; the buildings were destroyed. The land is now owned by H. B. Rice and G. A. Stevens. Daniel Whitmore first settled the Bacon place, but the proprietors shifted him into the village. The White Indians made more or less trouble at this time and drove the surveyor out of the woods.

Bacon, Walter, from Eleanor Perkins, she from Benj. March, he from Chas. Taylor, who purchased the lot from Jesse Whitmore and moved the Nathaniel Rice house onto it.

Bagley, Elmer, from Mrs. Julia Mitchell, she from Eugene Reynolds, he from William Bither, he from Jerry Connor.

Bagley, Leon, from J. S. Bither, he from Lemuel Reynolds, he from Russell Reynolds, he from Blin Fuller of Albion. Russell Reynolds bought the cheese factory from J. R. Taber and built the present house.

Barlow, William, from James Libby, he from the Clough, Fogg and Moulton syndicate, by which the house was built, lot from Benj. Fogg.

Bartlett, Chas. J., from his father, Jefferson Bartlett, he from his father, Lemuel Bartlett. Jefferson built the house and stable; Charles, the large barn in 1880.

Bartlett, F. A., from his father, Benj. Bartlett, he from his father, Stephen Bartlett. The brick house near the station was inherited from his father; he had it from Stephen Dyer, he from John Chase, he from his father, John Chase, who built the house and barn. The new stable was built by F. A. Bartlett. This farm originally embraced all the land where now stand the Bartlett & Chase steam mill, the railroad station, the Leonard property, the Hood and Turner Center creameries, the bank, the Ward place and the western part of E. D. Chase’s place.

Berry, Ruel M., purchased his place from Gorham Clough, he from Eli Moulton, he from Lucretia Moulton, widow of his son Luke, Luke from Newell Murch, he from Josiah Harmon, who built the buildings, lot from Benj. Fogg; carpenter, W. R. Chandler.

Berry, Ruth, from her father, Hon. Samuel Berry, he from Chas. Marshall, he from Jonathan Stone, he from Solomon Files, he from heirs of Alexander Boothby, they from a Mr. Twitchell. Dr. Boothby built the two-story part of the house, Mr. Berry the shed and stable, Mr. Twitchell the ell. The lot was from Jefferson Bartlett.

Bessey, Walter, from Chas. Flye, he from George Flye, he from his father, Elijah Flye.

Betts, R. W., from J. A. Tweedy, he from Stephen Files, he from heirs of A. W. Fletcher, Fletcher from James Morse, he from Benj. Williams, he from Jacob Severance, he from Raymond McManus, he from Clement and Nathaniel Seger.

Bither, Silas, from heirs of Elisha Bither, he from Joseph Green, he from Madison Mitchell, he from Isaac Mitchell, who built the house in 1812, also the sawmill. Elisha Bither built a grist mill.

Blanchard, A. L., from Amander Rackliff, he from his father, Capt. Amander Rackliff, he from his father, D. Rackliff, who cleared it.

Blanchard, Alton, from heirs of Jeremiah Harding, he from his father, Josiah Harding, he from his father, who cleared it. He came from Cape Cod, Mass.

Blethen, Mrs. I. R., from her husband, I. R. Blethen, he from N. C. Knight, he from heirs of William Bither, he from heirs of Albert Watson, he from Nelson Webb, he from Rev. Dexter Waterman, he from Rufus Burnham, he from Luther Mitchell, who built the house in 1840.

Bridges, George, from the widow of Eugene Boulter, Boulter from his father, Royal Boulter, he from his father, Daniel Boulter, he from Simeon Harding.

Brown, Clarence, had his place from J. P. Libby, he from Henry Bacon, he from T. J. Whitehouse, he from James Hall, he from A. T. Woods, he from heirs of B. Carter.

Brown, Mrs. Joseph, from her husband, Joseph Brown, he from heirs of Mrs. Edwin Hall, she from Wheeler Danforth, he from N. C. Knight. This house was built by H. G. Otis and has been owned by several different persons. Mr. Chapman, pastor of the Congregational church, lived there at one time.

Carll, Thomas, from his father, Robert Carll, who cleared the place. He had his title from the State of Massachusetts.

Chase, Alice, from heirs of Jacob Chase, who built the buildings. The land was purchased from Jesse Mitchell.

Chase, E. D., from his father, B. F. Chase, he from his father, Hezekiah Chase, he from Harrison Chase, he from his father, Job Chase.

Chase, Frank L., from heirs of Herbert Stevens, he from his father, Chandler Stevens, who built the present buildings, he from Frederick Stevens, who settled it.

Chase, Horace F., from D. V. Rollins, who built the original house, lot from C. J. Bartlett. Mr. Chase rebuilt and remodeled the building into the present fine cottage, he also purchased from C. J. Bartlett the large adjoining lot upon the lake shore.

Clark, Alfred, from heirs of his father, D. P. Clark, D. P. Clark from Aaron Davis, he from ’Squire Harvey, he from the proprietors.

Clark, H. M., from Jacob Stearn, he from Archie Tozier, he from Austin Thomas, he from W. H. Rolfe, he from T. J. Whitehouse, he from Jonathan Stone, he from W. R. Chandler, he from Hiram Whitehouse, who built it. For many years the shop was used for the millinery business.

Clifford, Augustus, from J. O. Clifford, he from John Waning, he from Ira Parkhurst, he from Chas. Hathaway, he from Abial Knight, he from N. C. Knight, he from Roscoe Chandler, he from Henry Moody, he from Asa Small’s widow. The main house was built by Capt. Chas. Baker, near T. O. Knights’ place, and moved to its present location, where additions were made.

Clifford, J. O., from James Libby, he from Elias Fowler, he from James Libby, he from J. H. Damon, he from R. W. Files, he from Charlotte Kelley, she from Amos Moore, he from Samuel Stevens, he from James Banks, who built the buildings upon land purchased from Joseph Chase.

Clifford, Walter, from heirs of Salome Harding, she from George Murch, who built the house. The barn was moved from the E. M. Jones place.

Coffin, Mrs. Sarah, house built by a Mr. Murch, lot from the George Murch farm.

Connor, Harry, Simon and Etta, from their father, Simon Connor, he from his father, Col. James Connor, he from Daniel Whitmore. Col. Connor and Lemuel Bartlett built the grist mill in 1840.

Cook, Chas. S., from his father, James H. Cook, he from his father, Daniel Cook, he from Jacob Taber, he from Reuben Brackett, he from Joshua Sinclair, who built the original buildings, which were burned.

Cook, Thos. B., from Isaiah Tuttle, he from Hollis Reynolds. The lot where the house stands was from the Col. Connor farm, the remainder of the land was from the Burnham farm, the main house was formerly Dr. Burnham’s office, and stood where Taber’s stable now stands. L. B. Fogg bought it and moved it to its present location. Mr. Tuttle built the stable.

Cookson, Orzilla B., from Elisha Cookson, he from his father, George Cookson, he from Daniel Webster, he from Ichabod Spencer, he from a Mr. Linn. Mr. Carr built the house.

Cornforth, F. R., from Mrs. B. T. March, she from the widow of Levi Whitten, he from Stephen Files, he from heirs of James Kelly, who built the buildings.

Cornforth, Isabel, and sister, from their father, Robert Cornforth, he from Robert Cornforth of Waterville.

Cornforth, Mrs. Leon, from heirs of Mott Cates, he from his father, Allen Cates, he from R. W. Files, he from Thomas Carter, he from Abraham Cookson, he from Sumner Glidden, he from John Scribner, who settled it.

Cornforth, Richard, and Eli V., from their father, Otis Cornforth, he from his father, Richard Cornforth.

Crosby, Mrs. Frank, from her husband, he from Esbon Nutt, he from G. A. Hunt, he from William Crosby.

Crosby Percy, from heirs of Peoples Crosby, he from Josiah Crosby, he from John Scribner, he from the proprietors.

Damon, Mabel, from her father, Harrison G. Damon, he from Samuel Kelly, he from widow of Joseph Small, Joseph Small from a Mr. Lamb, he from Mrs. H. C. Chandler, she from Greene Carter, he from Daniel Carter, he from O. J. Whitten, he from Gorham Hamilton, who built the buildings.

Dean, Chas., from his father, he from John M. Thompson, he from A. T. Woods, he from his father, Joseph Woods.

Denaco, Charles B., from Buchaner Bryant, he from his father, Hiram Bryant, he from Joseph Larrabee.

Dobson, William, from A. R. Murch, he from his father, Edmund Murch, he from Daniel Cook, he from James Hussey. The “Point” belonging to this farm, Edmund Murch bought from William Taber, he from Joseph Stevens, he from his father, B. R. Stevens.

Dodge, Mrs. E. C., from her husband, E. C. Dodge, he from heirs of William Hamilton, he from L. B. Fogg, he from A. W. Myrick. The lot was from Daniel Harmon, who bought it from the Southwick heirs. The barn was purchased from N. C. Knight, where he lived, where Clarence Brown now lives.

Douglass, Asher, from Walter Besse, he from Washington Nickless, he from Alfred Clark, he from Asa Douglass, he from Lemuel Mosher. Asher Douglass’ place on the other side of the road he had from Hiram Bryant.

Douglass, William H., from Warren Kendall, he from Henry Douglass, he from Robert Douglass.

Downer, Edwin, from Fred Nichols, he from George Nichols, he from James M. Libby, he from Thos. Keene, he from Thos. and Nathaniel Banton, they from their father.

Dutton, F. H., from John Murch, he from N. D. Webb, he from his father, Woodbridge Webb, he from his father, Samuel Webb, who was born in England. John Murch built the stable.

Edwards, Leon, from his father, C. F. Edwards, he from Ralph Pillsbury, he from his father, George Pillsbury, he from L. H. Whitaker, he from Nelson Rackliff, he from A. R. Myrick, he from John Harvey, he from Samuel Davis. Fifty acres on the north side were purchased from J. R. Taber, which he had from his father, William Taber, he from Jesse Connor.

Eldridge, A. D., from S. P. Larrabee, he from G. W. Clark, he from S. S. Berry, he from his father, James Berry. The original buildings on this farm were on the other side of the road. S. S. Berry built the present house, Washington Small was the carpenter.

Fairbanks, F. M., from A. W. Myrick, he from L. B. Fogg, he from Daniel Harmon, he from the Southwick heirs. Thomas Snell built the house; the basement was used as the tannery store.

Farwell, Almond, from heirs of John Farwell, they from Eben Farwell’s heirs, Eben from his father, Henry Farwell.

Farwell, Fred, from Wheeler Danforth, he from S. P. Larrabee, he from Marcellus Whitney, he from Elias Jones’ heirs.

Farwell, J. H., from Arlow Twitchell, who built the house in 1907. George L. Whitten was the carpenter. Farwell built the stable in 1908, lot purchased from G. B. Pillsbury.

Farwell, Joseph, from heirs of E. A. Patno, he from Byron Pillsbury, he from Rev. C. H. Ross, he from Julia Mitchell, she from Nathaniel Jackson, he from heirs of Burnham Bither, land from Jesse Connor and William Taber.

Fisher, Joseph, from John Snedbery’s heirs, he from John Coffin, he from R. W. Files, he from a Mr. Elwin, he from D. B. Harding, he from Simeon Harding, who settled the place.

Fogg, B. A., from Flora Watson, she from her mother, Mrs. A. F. Watson, she from her father, Asa Stevens, he from Miller Monroe, he from Alonzo Hamilton, he from Gorham Hamilton, who built the first buildings, the lot from Jefferson Bartlett. William Hamilton was born here in 1838. B. A. Fogg built the present buildings.

Foster, Henry, from his father, Ephraim Foster, he from Samuel Rollins, he from Gustavus Morse, he from Charles Hudson, he from John Webb, he from Richard Whitten, he from Reuben W. Murch, he from Wm. Fergeson, he from Nahum Fergeson, he from George Hunt. Mr. Foster also owns the place known as the town farm. The town had it from Hosea B. Rackliff, he from his father, Benjamin Rackliff, he from the proprietors.

Foster, Llewellyn P., from Mrs. S. E. Parkhurst, she from N. P. Parkhurst, he from his father, Hale Parkhurst, he from his father, Nathan Parkhurst, who came from Rowly, England.

Fowler, Charles S., from heirs of Henry Moody, Moody from Charles Bessey, he from David Gilpatrick, he from Thomas Gilpatrick.

Fowler, Charles S., from his father, Hon. Crosby Fowler, he from his father, Thomas Fowler, he from the proprietors.

Fuller, W. G., built his house on lot purchased from F. A. Bartlett.

Gallison, B. F., from J. A. Adams, he from Charles Stone, he from Henry Prescott, he from Isaac Adams, he from Joshua Adams.