The Portland daily press., 1886-12-16
MAINE FoLK-LAND.
The Acres Held in Trust for Future
Towns.
Story of the Celebrated Bingham
Purchase.
Ho.. William King OF Bath Acquired
kingfIeId.
Correspondence Of the Press
STATE House,
AIfQIraTA naa IL 1900

State lands, Just completed by the committee
OF the Governors Council. is one Of the few
duties left to the public officers who care for
the diminished public domain Of the State.
The $4,000 acres on which the committee
placed valuation Of $751; 600 Is all that Is
left Of the millions Of acres once open 10
purchasers and settlers. And this Is not abb
solutely the property Of the State, but scat
tered in lots Of about nine hundred or thOus-
and acres each, Is held In trust for townships,
each Of which includes one Of these lots.
which it will possess when on attaining the
dignity Of town. To those who are well
acquainted with the history of the lands Of
Maine the responsibility of the State for
these lots is no mystery. But the record may
| be OF interest to those who have not had the
| advantage Of prying into the records Of the
| State Land Office, or Of hearing 1t from Land
| Agent. Packard, who knows the story Of
Names settlement from the Plymouth Grant
| TO the last clearing In Madawaska. To ex-
| plain the position Of trust held by the State
with relation to these $4,000 acres Of land,
it Is necessary to 90 back as far as the years
Just following the Revolutionary War. Vet
Grams OF that war had become pioneers in the
remoter parts Of the Province Of Maine, then
part OF Massachusetts. To perfect the IL
les Of these settlers, and
OPEN UP THE WILDERNESS
to other pioneers. Massachusetts established
the first Land Office in Maine In 1874. All
the settlers established prior to a certain
date secured their titles by paying the ex-
penses Of the surveys. which were at once
carried ON by the Land Office. 1t was the
year OF the establishment Of the Land Office
that the act was passed which has resulted
IN giving to Maine its present trust. This
act directed the committee for the sale Of
Eastern Lands" In the conveyance Of each
township, Ito appropriate two hundred acres
Tor the use OF the ministry, two hundred acres
Tor the first settled minister, two hundred
and eighty acres for the use Of the grammar
school and two hundred acres for the future
disposition Of the General Court" In 1888
this law was modified so as to require in
every township six miles square a rsserva-
tlon OF -four lots Of three hundred and TWEEN
ty acres each: one for
THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER,
one for the use Of the ministry, one for the
use Of schools, and one for the future appro-
priation Of the General Court" This law
continued inforce as long as Maine remained
aprovince of Massachusetts. and when she
became State in 1920, Massachusetts in
cluded in the Act Of Separation this clause
I'm all grants hereafter to be made by either
state of INDICATED land within the said dis
trict Mainel, the same reservation shall be
made for the benefit OF schools and Of the
ministry as have heretofore been usual in
grants by the Commonwealth" But as time
Went on there was no end OF trouble from
tnls arrangement; The churches, as new
ones were established, wanted their share Of
the land for the ''use Of the ministry" and
the subdivisions were frequent and yexa-
tious. In 1924 the Legislature OF Maine
passed law that I'm all cases where lands
nave been granted or reserved for the use of
schools in any town within this State. the
lee in which lands Is not already otherwise
vested, the same shall be, and Is hereby de-
clared to be, vested In the inhabitants of
therein torerer. The Revised Statutes give
the care OF these trust lands TO the Land
Agent and empower him to sell the timber
and grass. or the right to cut the same, "for
cash. But whenever the town takes Dos
cease.
Thus the chief care Of the land Office Is
trust continued lit by the Maine Legisla-
ture from the General Court Of Massachu-
setts. But the Land Agent has other duties.
lie IS custodian Of the documents relating to
land whenever the State has been party to
any transaction. On his shelves are bound
volumes OF the deeds given by the State to
original settlers, and Of field noteslof survey
ors,, with the names Of Barker and Bur-
the
DOCUMENTS ARE VERY INTERESTING.
There are the certificates Of Park Holland,
the old surveyor who laid out the first lots in
Bangor. and grandfather Of Luther Eaton,
lately known as competent civil engineer
of Bangor. Holland records in these aged
and yellow certificates, which were found
about dozen years ago In an old woOdbox
IN the basement Of the Massachusetts State
House, that in the autumn Of 1901, as a SER
want OF the General Court, he laid out the
n1ss = ~ 10Y OF land IN Bangor. He started from
SUCK and stones" on the Penobscot and
laid out for Timothy Crosby one hundred
acres next what Is now the Hampden line,
below Crosby,s ship yard He laid out nu-
merous other lots Of 100 acres each for other
settlers; one OF these tracts was worth
about eight dollars, or
EIGHT CENTS AN ACRE,
which is some less than 1t costs to get the
mud brushed off your boots in the Bangor Of
to-day. There are also certificates of sur
yeys for Hampden, where Ephraim Ballard
ran out the lines, and for Newburg. Hermon
and Eastp0rt. These papers were somewhat
dilapidated when found in Massachusetts,
but have been saved by pasting them on
thick papers bound in book form.
Land In Maine was not worth much in the
last part OF the last century, as is shown by
the papers relating to the Bingham purchase
Excepting the early grants, such as were
guaranteed by the Plymouth or Waldo pat
ents, the Bingham Purchase was the most
important transfer of land ever made in
Maine. AT the close Of the Revolutionary
War Massachusetts found herself much in
debt; and to clear herself, determined to sell
some Of the wild land in Maine Henry
jackson OF Massachusetts, a Revolutionary
colonel, and Royal Flint Of New York, first
bought two million acres In Maine at 10 cents
an acre. This was in 1871, and the contract
with the General Court, written in a fine, ele-
CANT hand, is yet in the Land Office. jackson
and Flint assigned their claim to William
Dp D9er and Henry Knox, the famous general.
They in turn assigned IL to William Bng-
ham OF Philadelphia. Their assignment,
written on parchment, Is also in the Land
ONCE. General
KNox's SIGNATURE
is peculiar, Fl. Knox, written in a round
hand, the X being written on the right leg
Of the ii, apparently to economic time. 1t
was in 1892 that this transfer was made, and
William Bingham became the purchaser Of
the ten million acres, which were in what
are now the counties Of Hancock, Washing
| ton, Somerset, Piscataquis and Franklin. The
| bargain, which Is preserved in manuscript
stlpulates how the ten cents an acre should
be paid, and provides for the rights Of such
| settlers as might have selected any part of
the land for their homes. Appended to this
agreement, with the signatures of William
Bingham and the agents Of the Massachu-
setts General Court, appears the name Of
1
hand: Weston was the surveyor who made
| the plans, and well known man in the
| Province of Maine. He had daughter, Ma
| ry Weston, and in his declining years he
gave her, with his compasses and claims to
| young man named Eleazer Coburn. The
| young man became one OF the best known
surveyors and lumbermen of the State; the
| young woman became the mother Of twelve
children, among whom were
| A GOVERNOR OF MAINE
and member Of Congress. 1t is rather re-
markable that Of this large family not
male descendant remains to transmit the
name Of the young surveyor.
One Of the conditions of this agreement
which Bingham signed with the representa-
tives Of the General Court, related to the
settlement OF the lands. Bingham bound
himself and his heirs and assignees TO put on
TO the lands four hundred settlers within
five years; then two hundred annually for
| three years afterwards then at the rate Of
three hundred and seventy five annually for
| four years. In twelve years there must be
! Twenty-Five hundred settlers on the lands OF
the Bingham purchase. As late as 1928
after Maine had been set off as a separate
State the General Court still sent agents to
LOOK AFTER THE SETTLERS
on the Bingham tracts. Two Of these,
| Charles HAYDEN and James Dinsmore have