Morris tribune., 1900-03-31
A STRANGE VILLAGE,
No Voters, Ne Taxes, and Yet It Is Right
in New England.

No Voters, Nc, Taxes, and Yet It Is Right
in New England.
Hastings is a little village seated
amid the White Mountains, on the
boundary between Maine and New
Hampshire, and is the most unique IN
New England, perhaps in the civilized
w@rld.
1t contains three hundred inhabitants
within the village proper, with as many
more at work cutting and hauling lum-
Der to the village from the slopes OF
the surrounding mountains. 1t has
two large manufacturing industries,
large store and boarding houses,
ItMenty-six residences, pOstOtfce, cleo
trio plant lighting streets, store, etc.
! railroad, telephone, fine school, relig-
| ions societies and services, excellent
water system and sewerage-in short,
as many modern conveniences as any
village of it's size in New England
Yet DIT is neither city, town, plantation,
or even an incorporated place. 1t liz
nothing.
Its inhabitants pay no taxes Of any
| SORT Babies have been born there have
grown to manhood and become heads
of families and have never known
what it was TO pay one cent for taxes.
There is, Of course, wild land tax
and "a state tax On the mill property.
but these are paid by non-residents
and are something with which the In
babitants have nothing to do. On the
! other hand No inhabitant can vote
They are, as a rnle, well educated, the
daily papers have "a large circulation
here, the people are well posted in cur
rent events.
1t lis the most cosmopolitan village
in New England Every nation on
earth is or has been represented here.
The most remarkable thing about
this most remarkable place is the en-
tire absence of crime. Notwithstand-
ing this Heterogeneous population there
are no police, not even constable.
There was a sort of constable there.
but his commission expired about a
year ago, and his Duties had been SO
light he did not consider lit worth his
while to renew it,
This is the only village In the United
States to which there lis no carriage
road. The only means of transpOrta-
ton to or from the outside world is
by railroad.
This territory was granted to Rich
ard Batcheldor by the state of Massa-
ehusetts about one hundred years ago
Forty years ago G.. A. Hastings of
Bethel and D. e. Hastings of Frye |
burg, bought twenty thousand acres |
here, practically the whole regien. In |
1861 they sold the right of way through |
their territory. the mill site al the vii |
1age and twenty acres to the Wild Riv-
ef Lumber Company of Island Pond,
vt. This company purchased at the
same time forty thousand acres of |
timber in Beams Purchase, just across
the New Hampshire line.
They put in the big steam mill,
store, most of the houses the electric
system, water system, sewers, ETC.
They cut their timber at Beams Pur:
chase and haul it by rail to their steam
mill here, which saws sixty thousand
feet day, when run to its full capac-
ity.
Carl Storrs may be termed the father
of the settlement, as he holds every
public Office so satisfactorily that no
other man has been thought of in con
nection with the positions. He is the
company's agent, bookkeeper, paymas
ter, trial justice, postmaster, police,
Globe.