Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-09-18

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payment of the previously named tax,
and the money expended on the road in
1922. The principal owner, Benjamin
Joy, petitioned for repayment OF the
money he paid to redeem his land; this
request was refused. He brought an
action against the county for money had
and received, which went to the law
court on a case stated by the parties.
The plaintiff claimed that the road was
laid out by the state, to be kept in re.
pair by the state alone. The court held
the tax illegal, and that the plaintiff was
entitled to recover, because the road was
not laid out by any court of sessions,
shut merely by an individual acting
under contract" thus disregarding the
fact that the "individual" derived his
authority from the same source as the
court of sessions, also the fact that the
road had been public highway for
more than twenty years.
This technical victory of the wild land
owners was Immediately followed by q
petition headed by Enoch Lincoln, then
a member of Congress, and a resident OF
Paris Hill, asking for location begin
ming at the east line Of No. 4 ION the
Coos Road so-called" thence through
No. 4, Weld, Berlin, No. s, AndOver,
Andover Surplus, e and B Ito New
Hampshire line where the Coos Road
so-called now strikes the same" 1t
will be seen that the petitioners living
at the county seat far away from the
road, made some mistakes. The Coos
Road did not pass through Berlin (the
easterly part Of No. 81, G nor B. The
court determined to have the road locat-
ed from the east line of No. 4 to An
dover, leaving out the part through No.
|6. The reason for this omission does
not appear. The standing committee
for making locations, surveyed the part
of the road through No. 9, and reported
It with the rest; its location was secured
in 1927 by another petition. A tax of
ten cents per acre on No. @ to build the
road through that township, was grant
ed the same year on petition headed by
Joseph g. Cole, who had then been a
practicing attorney in Paris about q
year. This last petition was evidently
county seat supplement to the local
petition.
Here ended the history of the road in
it's original character of state institu-
ton. Its western end had passed into
oblivion, and the eastern division was
now merged in the system Of county
roads. Its original purpose and Its
establishing engaged the attention OF
some of the most prominent public men
of Massachusetts,. It's standing had to
be determined by the highest court of
Maine. It was no slight factor in the
early history of Its section, still, though
we'll known seventy years ago, it is now
almost forgotten. If the travel from
northern New Hampshire ever used the
road, it was early diverted; the part
which went through the northern part OF
Oxford County, passed from one route
to another till the railroad came with it's
radical changes in transportation con-
ditions.
A few words in conclusion about points
of interest in connection with my sub
ject. In the language of the Indians
living in the northern part of the Con-
necticut River valley, the name Coos Is
said to mean The Pines. They gave
this name to the great meadows "below
the fifteen.mile falls, above Newbury,
Vermont, also to similar meadows above
those falls about Lunenburg," on &C.
count of the great number of pine trees
there. The former place came to be
known as Lower Coos; the latter as
Upper Coos. The history Of Coos Coun.
ty says the principal way to reach the
Upper Coos was the Connecticut River,
another was the valley of the Am
monoosuc River.
The Indians are said to have had a
trail from Canada to the Penobscot
River. By this they went from Lake
Memphremagog up the Clyde River to
Island Pond, Vermont; then crossed to
the Nulhegan River; down this and the
Connecticut to the Upper Ammonoosuc,
up which they followed to Milan, where
they crossed to the Androscoggin valley.
The Upper Coos Meadows in Lancas-
ter, New Hampshire, were permanently
settled In 1784. Northumberland, where
the Upper Ammonoosuc enters the Con-
necticut, was incorporated Nov. 16, 1779.
Other towns near by are OF about the
same date, but the settlements were
very slow about getting across to the
Androscoggin.
Therefore it would seem that the pro-
motors of our Maine "Coos Road" may
have thought route from the Kenne-
bee, by the way of the Upper Am.
monooLuc valley, to the northern part OF
the Connecticut valley, practicable.
w. q. JENNIE.