The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-03-12
[spEc1AL TO THE rREss.l

Union, Me-, Marohs11th. The pictur-
esque little town of Union, one Of the
prettiest places in the State of Maine
nesting as it does among the rugged
hills and numerous ponds for which
Knox county is noted; the little village
appropriately called "Union." (for in
defense of that glorious reality, it is
claimed to have furnished more men
for the war, in proportion to it's size than
any other town in the STATED, the patriotic
village that offered the first poor ''boy
in blue" and literally boy, for he was but
IS, to be cut down by rebel bullets at
bloody Bull Run this little spot, SO
distinguished in many ways, has once
more resumed its place
UPON THE MAP
of the Dirigo State and is again in COM
munication with the world at large.
OF course the freshe did it.
Around and about the town of Union
is a numerous collection of large and
small ponds and the connecting link be-
tween these ponds is the Georges river, a
tiny little stream, that ordinarily tum-
bles and gurgles along over its rocky
bottom, with hardly energy enough to
carry it from one pond to another.
But the freshet changed all this. The
big hills that surround them on every
side made mighty feeders for the numer-
GUS ponds, and the people of that vicini-
ty saw the innocent little Georges river
transferred to raging torrent.
The bridges of Union were not built
to Withstand swift running streams and
they sucoumbed to the. changed condit.
ions Of affairs and quickly foated off,
Fortunately there are no very large
BRIDGES IN UNION,
and the damage is easily repairable.
About every road over a hill in the
town, was turned into rushing stream,
and highways, private ways, stone walls.
harms, cellars and farms suffered badly.
The greatest damage to the town will
result in the injured roads which it will
be long, hard and expensive job to put
back into shape again in the spring.
The farms along the ponds and rivers
suffered most-and suffered badly.
. The Georges Valley Railroad is appro-
priately named. from the fact tn at i
runs along the edges of the little river
and the slopes of the ponds. In the
recent floods the course of the railroad
was almost entirely obliterated from the
sight. 1t was buried under liberal
depth of water for almost the entire dis
lance from
UNION TO WARREN,
at which latter place, connection Is made
with the Maine Central railroad.
The land over which the Georges Val
ley road runs is naturally very low, and
the water once overfowed the tracks
1t showed a great disinclination to leave
the roadbeds and attempts were made
at once to keep nature to the work O
removal. The elements were impatient;
Jack Frost had a grudge against the
road, and paid it off. He made visit
suddenly one night and in tbs morning
the water had all gone, but had left an
Aggravating legatee in the shape of
solid ice.
The Georges Valley railroad was all
right, it's tracks were intact, it's road
bed was but little injured, but it was
anywhere from a foot to two feet below
the surface of the ice There was moth
ing to do but to dig down to the road
SO General Manager Mitchell secured all
the men that were. available and the
digging process commenced. 1t was slow
work, but it progressed steadily, and
in week from the time of the freshet.
the little train. the pride of the Georges
Valley, ran along the path through the
ice that had been dug for it on "reg-
ular time" and Union once more re-.
joices in the daily receipt of the PRESS
and unola SAINTS mails.