The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-17
PRIMITIVE MAINE COMMUNITY.
Dozen Families without Law, Re-
liEiOn or Medicine.
From the New York Tribune.


From the New York Tribune.
Among the strange and primitive
communities in the Far Northern
woods of Maine, none is more inter-
esting than the settlement of farmers
and lumbermen that has existed for
sixty years at the confluence of Glenn
enticook stream with the st. John riv-
er. The settlement is in Township
XVI, Range IL, owned by the Great
Northern Paper Company, but the
matter of ownership does not seem to
worry the settlers at all-they go on
with their farming and other pur-
suits just as If they were the lords of
the soil.
The twelve families are about equal
ly divided between Montreal French
and Nova Scotia Scotch, and formerly
their religious differences made a great
deal of trouble. Long ago. however,
they effected a compromise, agreeing
to get along without any religion, and
ever since that time they have dwelt
in peace and harmony, with neither
priest nor minister.
Nearly a century ago, as 1t is told
on the st. John, a few families from
Scotland took up meadowlands along
the Allegash, having a patent from the
the English King to hold as much ter
ritory as they could inclose within the
span of a. moosehide cut into narrow
strips and fastened end to end. They
killed a huge bull moose, and all one
winter the women worked at pairing
and stretching the strips of skin so as
to make the line reach as far as pos
sible. When the men went out on the
crust in March to survey the land to
TEyhi oh MI cd hay hA
of gift they made the shredded moose
hide encompass $4,000 acres, equal to
four full townships of thirty-six square
miles each. Then they built village
of logs and cleared up land for farm
ing.
All went we'll until 1910. when Ed
ward Kent, the Wing candidate, was
chosen governor to succeed Reuben
Fairfield, the Democratic incumbent of
the office. A hot presidential fight was
in progress, and the Democrats, wish
ing to redeem the state in November,
called a special session of the Legis-
lature and organized a new form of
municipality, called plantations, each
of which was given the right to vote
In state and national elections. 1t was
hoped, as the inhabitants of the plan
tations were strongly Democratic, their
vote, added to the regular party vote
in the cities and towns, would stem
the Wing tide and redeem the state;
out when the November returns came
in, and Maine was found to have cast
her vote for Harrison, nearly every
Dempcrat in the Allegash settlements
became a Wing "out of suite" and
those few who refused to do so were
forced to emigrate. Three families
packed up and moved to Township
XVI, Range IL, where they have ever
since resided. Although they cannot
vote under their township form of gdv
eminent, every man of voting age is
a Democrat, showing that these exiles
have remained steadfast to their po-
litical faith. In the Allegash planta-
ton at the last election every one of
the SO votes was cast for the Republi-
can ticket, which shows that the great
turnover of 1910 is still in effect
Allegash has a stage line, post
office and a root and herb doctor as
evidences of civilization, but Township
XVI, Range r. is still in primitive in
nocence. The nearest doctor, lawyer or
clergyman lives at Fort Kent, 81 miles
away to the Northeast. There is no
church, no postoffice nor store of any
kind in the township. A two-acre plot
on q sunny hillside serves as a COM
mon burying ground for the villagers,
whose graves are surrounded by
strong stump fence. The residents are
all farmers or lumbermen. The farm
ers raise the crops of hay and oats,
which they sell at high prices to the
lumber operators of the region. For
six months after April and for three
months in midwinter supplies are
brought to the settlement from Fort
Kent by canoes or on sleds over the
ice. During the other three months
the place is as inaccessible as the back
side of the moon.
The ruler and supreme dictator of
Township XVI, is Alexander Castleton,
the richest man in the village, who
owns farm Of 500 acres. yielding an
nually 1000 tons of hay, which is sold
from the stacks to lumbermen at SIS a
ton. king" Castleton, as he is called,
fixes the amount that each resident