The Portland daily press., 1882-11-24
YOUTH.
Hist ory OF woodstock, Maine.

DIR. William B. Lapham, editor OF the Maine
Farmer, h as just issued from the press of
Stephen Berry of this city, in volume of three
hundred and fifteen pages, bound in cloth.
very excellent and complete history of the
town of Woodstock. Town histories are always
Improbable to the author, but very valuable
to his townsmen and to the general historian,
and exceedingly interesting to the public when
they preserve, as does this, anecdotes of in
dividuals which illustrate the manners and
characteristics of our ancestors. The Doctor
was native of the town, and the work was a
labor of love to him. 1t is eighty-four years
since the first clearing was made, and sixty
seven since it was incorporated as town, and
of those who participated in the organization
the last have passed away. 1t is interesting to
note how many familiar names occur in the
history, showing that the children of the early
townsmen have found homes in our city as
we'll as elsewhere. Like all New England
towns, Woodstock has sent out its children
broadcast over the land to make homes for
themselves in more favored spots, and
wherever they may have settled, we are sure
they will hail with delight this story of their
native town and of their old townspeople.
Space will not permit a summary of the nara
tive, but it is familiar picture of early New
England life, with its struggle with the wilder
ness, its pinching economy, hard labor, scanty
schooling, clearing of forests and building of
roads; its long journeys to markets, its forest
fires, and sufferings in the frequently recurring
hard times Woodstock was early and
prominent in the Washingtonian movement.
and the result was prosperity, and rolling off
of the burden of debt that had hung over the
inhabitants. This is significant comment on
the argument that freetrade in liquor would
make prosperity in business. The town has
given one governor to the State, in the person
of Sidney Perham, and many distinguished
names are found in these pages
We find here answered question often ask
ed as to why SO many of our Oxford towns were
named after old tunes. 1t seems the old COM
poser Maxim was in the habit of naming his
tunes after the towns. He composed wood
stoeko at a wedding feast. where it was sung
with great JUNCTION by the guests. Hallowell,
Hebron, Turner and Buckfeld were also hon
ored by his compositions.
The following is SO connected with our own
history that we give IL in full:
HUNTING FOR BURIED TREASURE.
sold Doctor Bryant, one of the first two set
tiers of Woodstock, also called from his root
digging propensity, DR.. "Digeo," was firm
believer in ghosts and witches. He also be-
lieved that JEWELS Island, in Casco Bay, was
the place where Capt. Kidd deposited his mon
ey, and he often went there and searched for
it. His idea was that Capt. Kidd, after bury
ing his treasure made one of his men swear to
guard it, and then killed him and buried him
above the iron chest containing the gold.
hau ANY, IN Sanrnhino the O0ld efTupR
the chest, the sentinel ghost would always
make some demonstration to brighten him
away. If the searcher could only hold his
peace and keep on with the work he would
aword, the charm would be broken and all
would be lost. DR.. Bryant once told in the
hearing of the writer how he and Hector
Fuller, a colored man, once went to
the Island fully, determined to brave
everything and bring away the coveted
treasure So, nerving themselves by
the free use of elixir vita and laying in a
little store in case of need, they proceeded to
the Island. Observing all the required for
malities, they commenced to dig, the moon
down several feet, one of them took the crow
bar and striking into the earth at the bottom
OF the pit, it hit upon something that had
decided metallic ring, when instantly there
with family of pigs. They understood this
to be demonstration of the guard, and re-
solved to stand their ground, but the animal
became ferocious and caught one of the dig
gers by the leg, which brought from him
profane ejaculation, when 10 and behold, the
animal and her family disappeared, the pit
was filed up and they found themselves sit
ting upon the shingy beach with the tide wa
ter almost touching their feet. Listeners to
this marvellous story generally believed it was
an hallucination caused by their rotations, but
nothing would so offend the Doctor as to hint
at such thing"
To illustrate the poverty of early days in
Maine we select the following:
LOG CABINS.
ssMrs. Lucretia Nutting, who died year or
two ago in Perham, Aroostook county, at a
great age, came into Woodstock to work when
she was quite young and when the settlers
were but few. In conversation with the writ
or a short ii one before her death, she spoke of
her impressions when she first came to this
town. 1t was after dark when she came up
by the old, then the new county road, and she
said she saw occasionally what appeared to her
to be stacks of hay placed at intervals
along the road d, but on passing them again in
the day time, she found they were the huts of
the settlers. They were built of logs and COW
cred with bark, and not much larger than
moderate sized stacks of hay. yet IL was in
these same huts that many of the staunch and
representative men of the town wore born"
The family sketches are very full and will
afford infinite satisfaction to all interested.
Nineteen pages of fine type are devoted to the
diary of Stephen Chase for the years 1901 10
1906 and almost as much more to the complete
census Of 1870 1t closes with complete in
dex of names. The book is illustrated with a
picture of Bryant's Pond and portraits of lead
ing men, ONLY three hundred COMES have