Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-02-13
WHY IS NOT T4NCEBORU INCORPO
RATED?
IT, tbe Editor of the Journal:

| TC the EuIfor OF me journal:
While our Solons are in Legislature assem-
bled, would like-through the columns OF
YOUR valuable paper--to call their attention
to few facts concerning the plantation OF
Vancebero'; for it seems to me they are
either deceived, or else this thriving settle
ment would have been Incorporated last year
This plantation is situated on the extreme
frontier, is crossed by the (. < n. A. H. IL ;
and was first brought into notice by the Shaw
Brothers locating tannery here IN 1862; In
the fall of that year, the L. 5. appointed
/ Denuty Collector here and established Gus
tom House. and so rapidly did the settlement
/ increase in population, that the census OF
| Of 1870 showed over three hundred inhabi-
tsnts During that year, the people, seeing
the necessity of some kind of an organiza-
ton, petitoned the County Commissioners
and were organized as plantation, supposlng
that would be sufficient 70 give them schools
and the benefit of the school lands; but find
ing that a question was likely to arise about
the lands, and not being able to settle def
nitelv either through the Land Agent or the
laws in whom the title really rested, they
very wisely concluded to petition the Legis-
lature of 1873 for an act of incorporation as
town.
No special pains were taken to get the Pc
tilion numerously signed, for none dreamed
that such an act of Justice would be opposed.
But in the mean time the township had been
purchased OF f. II. Todd, Esq, by the firm
of f. Shaw, Brothers, and remonstrance
was put in circulation, and by misrepresenta-
tons, as many were induced to sign 1t as
signed the petition, although many OF them
were not residents of the place.
The petitioners, then. in the orief time
they had, circulated another petition, and
few of the remunstrants, when they learned
the facts, signed 1t, and man was sent to
appear before the committee with statement
OF the case which, when the committee had
heard, they granted bill without dissent
ing voice The bill passed the House, but
was tabled in the Senate, on motion OF Mr..
Shaw, where it lay until nearly the close OF
the session, when it was called up and foot
balled back and forth from the House to the
Senate for day or two, and finally, in the alb
sence of part of the Senators, by MAJOR
ity of one it was referred to the next Legs
lature.
Now, why was this? Why was not an act
of incorporation granted tins plantation as
well as the plantations OF kingman, or No.
I, Range 4, neither Of which exceeds us in
valuation, population or scholars? Why this
sectional favor? No reason was assigned for
the delay nor could there be, for adj these
plantations asked tor vas incorporation for
the same reason, viz; To secure the
school lands from plunderers. But while
Kingman and the Others have secured
theirs, Vancsboro during the rast summer
notw outstanding the efforts of the plantation
officers, through the Land Agent, to prevent
it, has been stripped of hundreds Of dollars
worth of timber and bark, thus taking the
money the State generously donated to edu-
cate It's citizens, TO enrich private parties.
| We do not like to doubt the honesty of our
legislators, but we feel towards them very
much as you would, MT. Editor, toward a
person who had tied your hands while
another party robbed your pocket
By the reports of the Legislature, L see
that the same farce is being enacted again,
and it looks as though there might be little
log-rolling IN this matter. For | am inclined
to think that VaRceboro' is not solitary
case. And it seems passing strange too that
less than half of the Senate should thus Sc,
at naught the expressed opinion of majority
of the House, the intellig. Mt committee that
originated the bill, and the petitioners that
asked TOR it.
We do not feel like being thus Knocked any
longer, and we hope that the present Legisla-
ture will incorporate us, as in justice the
last should have done, or give some rea
son why it is not Justice, for justice is all
that is asked for by NANCEBoRo'.