The Portland daily press., 1882-02-28

winch the long trucks with heavy loads, were
tugged by straining horses, under the whips
and loud cries of the truckman. Liquor was
layishly supplied to laboring men, and it made
them turbulent and uproarious. Adding to
the busy tumult were the teams coming into
town by the two principal avenues, over
behring's bridge and up Green street, or over
Bramhalls hill by way of Horse tavern
bringing charcoal from Marlborough, shocks
from Fryeburg, Hiram and Baldwin, hoop
poles, heading, cord wood and screwed hay;
and the Vermonters in their blue wooden
frocks bringing in their red pungs round hogs,
butter and cheese. Rev. Elijah Kellogg, Jr.,
gives lively picture of Portland at this time,
| on a winter morning:
Then you might have seen lively times. string
of board teams from George Libby's to Portland
Pier; sleds growing; surveyors running about
| like madmen, a shingle in one hand and rule
staff in the other cattle white with FROST and their
nostrils. hung with icicles; teamsters screaming
| and halloing, Herrick's tavern, and Hucklers
| Row. lighted up, and the loggerheads hot to give
| customers their morning dram
1t is with such scenes as these rising in
| his memory that Longfellow sings:
Iremember the black wharves and the slips,
And the sea-tides tossing free;
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips
And the beauty and mystery of the SHIPS
And the magic of the sea.
| Portland was lumber port driving brisk
| little trade with more tumult and hurrah than
now accompany the transaction of ten times
| the amount of business then done. In addi-
ton to its lumber trade, it had its distilleries,
| its tanneries, its rope walks and its pottery,
| the latter two of which SO impressed them
| selves upon the memory of the boy Longfel-
| low, that in after years they suggested his
| poems. "The Ropewalk' and "Keramos," the
"Song of the Potter" Men now living
| going back in memory to those bustling days,
| will tell you those were the times when bus-
| ness was lively, and think it but dull town
now though with five times the population
and many times the amount of business.
But let us push on into the heart Of the
"dear old town." Passing up Middle street,
where blocks of brick stores have already be-
gun to take the place of dwelling houses
which once lined it, we enter Market square.
1t wears an aspect quite different from that
which it now presents. 1t is surrounded by
small wooden shops, for the most part of one
story. On the left, as we enter, stands the
two story wooden house known as Marston's S
tavern, to which Mowatt was taken as pris-
oner by Colonel Thompson and his men, in
June, l775. Mowatt did not succeed in burn
ing it when, few months later. he bombarded
the town in revenge for this act of Thomp-
sons, but when it was removed in 1888, one
of his shot was found imbedded in the CHM
ney. In the center of the Square near where
now is the eastern end of old City hall, stand
| the hay scales and next to them the market
house, wooden building, and beyond these a
row of small wooden shops terminating in "a
heater nearly opposite the head of Preble
street. In one of these shops we shall find
Nathaniel Shaw, the saddler, accommodating
about his door that stratum of leather scraps,
which, when an excavation is made there
many years after. is viewed with wonder as
an ante diluvian relic. In "the heater is the
shop of II. Gray" the barber, and around the
square may be seen the familiar names of
David Trull, William Radford the cabinet
maker, and R. Horton, the gingerbread-man,
who dispensed his commodity from wheel
barrow
At the corner of Preble street, with its gar
den stretching far down that street, stands
the brick mansion occupied by the widow of
Commodore Edward Preble, the hero of
Tripoli, dead since 1907 Next to this, "some-
| what back from the village street 5" is the
| brick residence built by the poets maternal
| grandfather, General Peleg Wadsworth, and
| occupied by his father, Stephen Longfsllow,
| ESQ. This is the home of the poets boyhood,
| and in fancy we we may see him playing be-
| meath it's ancient portal, which still remains
unaltered. Beyond the Longfcllow residence,
| with its garden on either side, extending on
| the west to the corner of Brown street, stands
the two-story wooden residence of Reuben
Morton, on the site now occupied by Morton's
| block This house, raised to three stories,
now stands on Brown street. All the old
family mansions here have been made to give
way to the demands of trade save the Long
| fellow residence, which still sturdily main
| tains its position, while its ancient neighbors
| have given place to lofty structures which now
In front Of these mansions. extending from
| prehle TO Brown streets is the wood market
/ where the teams loaded with cord-wood
| brouobt in from the country. stand beneath
| the shade of row of trees with railing be-
/ tween them and the sidewalk. The patient
| oxen feed upon the hay thrown upon the
ground. while the wood surveyor measures
| the loads, and the teamsters bargain with the
/ tswnsmen. 1t is rural scene in the heart of
| the town. Passing few small shops beyond
| Brown street. we come to "The Freemason's
| Arms" the tavern built by Thomas Motley,
| grandfather of Thomas Lothrop Motley, the
| historian. Motley is dead since 1903, and his
| tavern. which gives accommodation to the
| board teams which come growing and creak-
| inc down Main (now Congress1 street of
winter morning. is now kept bv Sukey Barker
| The Motley bloek. in our day. perpetuates the
memory Of its builder. Oak street, which
enters Main street a short distance above
| Motlav,s boasts grove of red oaks and
| Craen street next beyond. leads down to
| Deer;no's woods. where for generations the
| box,s Of Portland have gathered acorns. and of
which our met SINGS.
And Deering,s WOODS are dresn siai anu ia'r'
NV heart mt' GOES e back s n to wand, wander there,
And among the dreams Of the days that were'