The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-11-24
The Railroad Interests Of Aroostook.

The Railroad interests Of Aroostook.
NO. TWO. r
MIR. EDITOR I'm former article / noticed
some facts in connection with the railroads Of
Aroostook of vital importance not only to the
people of the Aroostook valley but also to the
capitalists and commercial men of Portland
and other cities who have business relations
with us. / have shown that the distance from
Portland to Presque Isle, BY the way of Wood
stock and the New Brunswick railway, is Alb
miles; by the way Of Danforth and Houlton it
is 300 miles, By a road leaving the e. & N.
A. railroad at Mattawamkeag, it is 276 miles.
BY the recently projected route from Dexter
to Presque Isle, we are told it is 175 miles,
from Dexter to this village, making it 29S
from Portland to Presque Isle by that route.
By the longest of the three named routes it is
a saving of 113 miles, and by the shortest it is
saving of 1877 miles, and by the Dexter route
saving of lis miles.
1t is easy to see at glance that 115 miles of
railroad to be travelled by the people of north
ern Aroostook, and over it to be compelled to
transport all their freight, when it can be
avoided, is a tax which would be, unbearable,
burden upon our prosperity perfectly ruin
oas. Portland nor Bangor cannot long have
the Aroostook trade, if it is to pay tribute
tax like that to New Brunswick.
In order to show how much this tribute VIII
he. will 90 into some particulars. The enor-
mity of this tax upon the industry and trade
NAV be seen by showing the approximate
| amount of our carrying trade
| In 1869, at a meeting of the citizens OF
| Aroostook, at Presque Isle, for the considera-
| ton of our railroad interests, committee OF
| thirty of the leading citizens of the principal
towns in the county was appointed to collect
and report the commercial situation OF the
county and the amount of its trade and trans
portation business Nathan Perry, Jr, Esq,
leading merchant of Pressure Isle, was chair
man of that committee. SCI
After some weeks of investigation and cor
respondence, Mr.. Perry reported and puol'sn-
| ed that the value of merchandise sold in
eleven towns (Houlton was not included) was
| 1921, 600 In Is towns there were lo0 stores,
| is towns tuot including HoultoD) imported
| 1902 tons of merchandise. 81, 100000 shingles
| were exported and 1566000 clapboaros. Qua
| tistics were also collected of the farm proaucls
in The various towns. This was twelve years
/ ago. Since that time the population, wealth.
| and business have, in the Aroostook valley
| especially, more than doubled, in many towns
trebled and qusdrupled. Presque Isle Tor a IN
stance, at the last previous census mao ozI
inhabitants, in 1880 il mad 1905. In 1865 Tue
farmers of this town raised 10000 Dusneis Oh
potatoes and 1900 bushels of wheat. by ene
| census returns of 1880, the farmers OF fresque
Isle produced 140,436 bushels of potatoes ana
$3.50 bushels of wheat In 1870, the taxable ssae
| valuation of Pressure Isle was $1oO.7oo IN Iooo
| il was $3.50, 325. Since 1869. the starch manu-
/ featuring of AroostoOk has grown up iron
i nothing to more thaE 5000 tons ANNUALLY
aud the raising OF potatoes tor distant
! market has become au immense ousiLess
The population of the county hss IN
creased from 22,479 in 1860 To- n 1 1oe ~
1880, and our valuation from 81, 49, 40 ~
1860 to ST 1854 932 II is fair then 10 say Tor the
purposes Of this paper that the transportation