The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-10-25

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER %. 1871
The Growth Of Aroo,,oos
.ORTLAND

the population of the county rank with Ok.
ford, Somerset and Waldo If it does not on.
ceed them. No section of Maine suffered so
severely from the war. The tide of immigra.
tion from our own State and New England
mad just begun to set strong into the Aroos-
LOOK county. For two years it had been a
marvel; but when the alarm of war was eiv
en- the hardy pioneers that the two or three
| seasons previous had gone into the forests
with axes on their shoulders came back again
with muskets. No part of the State did so
well. 1t is estimated at the lowest calcula-
tion that thousand soldiers had gone out of
Aroostook before the system of quotas was
instituted, by which larger part of this
number was lost to the credit of Aroostook
towns and plantations. In aftertime these
were greatly distressed to make up their quo
tas, having lost all former enlistments and
havlrg an enrolment that included all of
these. In many instances it fell with crush
ing hardship upon small plantations and the
INSTANCES are not rare where every able-boded
man went to the wars. The men were often
followed by their families, and the rayages of
the war prevented many OF these from re-
turning TO the homes just began. But de-
spite these hindrances, Aroostook shows in
the census of 1870 large and what is still
better, a healthy growth.
Every year new townships are opened by
settlers and the number of settlers in the
older ones greatly increased. For instance,
in 1860, there were not twenty-five inhabi-
in, Nm ,hn. nuI. III
township west of Linneus. The census of
1870 shows population of about 500. Many
others will show corresponding gain and all
the older towns healthy growth in popula-
ton.
But the increase in population is not the
only indication of prosperity. 1t has been
ten years since we previously visited Aroos-
took, and in that time great changes have
been made and gratifying increase of prop
erty is manifested ON all sides. Houton,
from. small village, with scarcely a fine
house, with its courts held in an academy
hall, with three rather dilapidated churches,
has been transformed into one of the finest
villages in Maine, with new public buildings,
with larger number of really elegant, not to
say magnificent, residences than any town of
Its size in the State can boast, with costly
stores and large halls, with two or three new
churches aud the old ones repaired, with
two newspapers and other appointments
OF first-class town. All this before rail-
road. What may we not expect now THAT
the scream of the Iron Horse is heard every
day? Presque Isle, burnt up almost in 1860,
has not only grown largely in its size and
trade, but in the elegance of its stores and
residences. No town in the county shows
greater evidence of healthy and vigorous
than Presque Isle. The same may
be said of Fort Fairfield and Caribou, the
latter being vigorous little village where
there was none ten years since. At Alva and
Bridgwater villages have sprung up where
there were none ten years since. This pros
perity is as marked through all the farming
towns in new, tasteful and even ylish houses,
taking the places of the pioneers, in large,
well built barns, good fences, better carriages,
better clothes, furniture, food. We can name
men by scores who went to Aroostook twenty
years ago with only their hands, stout will
and helpless family, now wealthy, if a man
having large farm, large crops, large stocks,
and money enough to get all he wants is a
measure of wealth. Said a man to us the
other day, 81 am going to visit my old home
in Cumberland County where L have not
been for twenty-one years. 1 am satisfied
with Aroostook." Having learned his name,
we thought he might be, for in that time he
had made a competency and one OF the best
faims in Maysville. We met, on the stages,
young men from our seaboard towns, full of
courage who. were returning from making
their first "choping" to which they will re-
turn in the spring.
The towns of Aroostook are free from
nicinal- -dobt, MOI having PAID out large war
bounties and standing the draft instead The
town of Hodgdon in ten years has built ten
new school houses, ten miles of new roads
u'ostly through the woods has paid off the
debt existing before the war and
arising theIefrom and has ID thousand dollars
in collected funds on hand as a surplus. In
some respects it is model town, not having
at the present time single pauper in a
population of thousand not single lndi-
vdual worth more than $4,000. 1t den'rtol-
crate rumshops.
As we have said bsf5re, in all these towns,
all the people who practice industry and ex-
ercse ordinary care are gradually accumulat-
ing property. If they have done SO in the
past, they are sure to do so hereafter. Once
there was hardly an article raised on the farm
that would bring money, and several years
there was not an article raised that would
command decent price in cash. In 1S47-S-
o, the town of Linneus voted to pay all its
taxes except State and county in the products
of the farm, the town treasurer keeping
huge bins for grain instead of safe box
Teachers were compelled to take their pay in
vats at forty cents bushel for they could get
two Yankee shillings in HoultoH.
Lnneus was then one of the best towns
but that nor any other town now asks to pay
irs taxes in grain, for nearly every article has
a cash value.
Such, we trust, will give view of the
growth of Aroostook in the war decade and
before. In view of this may we not have
high anticipations for the growth of this SCAR
den of New England" in the nextr