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


The Coos Tor STATED Road ran from
Wilton in Franklin County, Maine
!. through that part Of Township No.
which is not included In Carthage
r through Weld, Township No. 9, Byron
Andover, Andover West Surplus, ant
1 Grafton, to the New Hampshire line
= Strictly speaking this covers the who'll
of the road, though there was connect
Q ing road through Success township II
D New Hampshire, past Success Pond, Il
q the Androscoggin River in Milan, ant
q perhaps beyond there the Connection
River. Nominally 1t was route to tn
, Kennebec River, being sometimes callet
0 "The Coos Road to Hallowell;" but
southeast of Wilton, that route would b,
Q through territory already we'll settled
, by roads which really had no claim t
the name.
q Any account of the road would be In
f complete unless something was said o
the conditions which produced 1t, bu
r the events of that time are 80 closely re
. lated that 1t is hard to select a starting
D point.
For present purposes perhaps it is bes
? to begin with the time when the Massa
] chusetts authorities began to surve!
land ahead of the immediate demand
Before that date, those who intended t.
purchase had selected their lands al
. most anywhere they wished. This lef
irregularly shaped pieces of the less de
/ sirable land, and was prolific source Of
disputes over boundary lines, because
nearly all tried to hold more than wa
theirs by right. The eastward flow
ing tide of settlement, which followed
the close of the Revolutionary War, had
caused demand for estates land" which
, made 1t desirable to know more accurate
, ly the amount of land conveyed.
Townships A, B, and G were surveyed
in 1902 by John Peabody; but they were
measured again, and sold to entirely
different parties from those who paid
for Peabody's survey. Township A was
bounded on the east, and on the south,
by land already granted; on the west by
New Hampshire line; on the north by
Township B. TWAS so large that it was
divided later into three parts, known as
Al, Az, and AS, being Riley Plantation,
Grafton, and nearly all of Newry. In
the same year, Peabody surveyed tract
represented very nearly by Roxbury and
Byron, but this survey was never used,
the land being included in Townships
to s, laid out for the state by Samuel
Titcomb in 1903. Temple, Avon,
Phillips, Carthage, Weld, No. @, Rox-
bury and Byron, now represent this
group very nearly, except that the east
erly part of No. @ is included with the
larger part of No. 81 in Phillips, while
the easterly part of No. A is not included
in Carthage.
Township No. 8 of this group was sold
Feb. Is, 1894, to Jacob Abbott. He hav-
ing petitioned the legislature of Massa-
chusetts for the opening of road from
the Kennebec River to the upper
Cohoas on the Connecticut River" a re-
solve was passed June 20, 1904, granting
him four thousand acres of land in
Township No. 6, to be laid out in one
tract adjoining one of the sides of the
township, on condition that he open
such road from Pennington or "Tyngs-
town." (Wilton), to the New Hampshire
| line "toward the Upper Cohoas." 1t
was to be a Sufficient passable road" for
teams and carriages, to be twenty feet
wide and to extend north of Weld Pond.
On it's completion "to the satisfaction of
the committee on the Sale of Eastern
Lands" he was to receive deed of the
four thousand acres. The road was
finished late in 1907, and the deed of
the land made Feb. Z, 1900, the tract be-
ing laid out next to his previous pur-
| chase.
Unless land would yield a large
amount of pine timber and was near the
large streams, profit could be made only
by finally selling it in small quantities
| to actual settlers. 1t will be seen that
most of the land in these two groups OF
townships could be made of value only
by attracting settlers; also that this road
was made through them in such way
as would pass through as much as posi-
BILE of the land where it would be needed
for that purpose, with the already we'll
started settlement at Andover as half
way station. If the real object of the
road had been to reach the navigable
part of the Kennebec from northern
New Hampshire, the natural route after
reaching Andover would have been
along the Ellis and Androscoggin Rivers
to Jay, or it might have been through
Roxbury and Carthage. But the two
townships just named were better
situated to attract settlers without the
road than Weld and Byron. This seems
to have been the reason for the proviso
that the road must pass north of Weld
Pond. In like manner, from their near
ness to previously made settlements,
Temple, Avon, and Phillips could do
without it, so Wilton, instead of Farm
ington, was made the eastern end. Posi-
bly,, too, this turning further south,
would make the talk of It's being an i'm
portant through route, seem more
plausible to the people who were eagerly
seeking to better their condition by
making new homes in the wilderness.
| If more is needed to show that the sale
of Maine land was the chief reason for
the outlay made by the state, 1t only
needs to be remembered that Massachu.
sets invariably looked out first for self
even at the expense OF others. The
Coos Road to Hallowell" served simply
as taking phrase, no matter how sim
cere Jacob Abbott or any other promoter
of the idea may have been.
Probably a sufficient passable road
then was no better than logging road
for winter use must be now. The trees
would be cut as low as possible; and,
with 30 much wood to be removed, some
corduroy would be natural, both as q
part of the rude leveling and in Doggy
places. Bridges may have been few and
fords many, as was the rule on the early
roads; but, If 30, an exception must have
been made at Swift River in Byron
where the name, "Coos Bridge" will
probably stick forever, though Its origin
may be forgotten. The narrowness Of
the river channel here, with its almost
perpendicular walls perhaps thirty feet
high for some distance, furnished q
cheap and fairly safe location for a
bridge which was reached by a consider.
able curve to the south from the most
direct route between the mountain gaps
leading to the valleys of Ellis and Of
Webb's Rivers.
From what follows, 1t is not likely
that the state expended any more on the
road. As soon as any considerable num-
Der of people were settled in township,
they seem to have assumed the burden
of its support. 1t was easier to repair
this road than build new, SO changes OF
location on its eastern part were few and
not important. For some reason (prob-
ably to reach other territory in northern
New Hampshire) road was located
from Andover through townships G and
B, passing near Umbagog Lake, in 1910,
to New Hampshire line. This more
northerly route seems to have been a
successful rival of the westerly part OF
the older road which amounted to very
IL IL N&