The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1914-02-19
BINGHAM PEOPLE II THE WEST
This Somerset County Town Has Done
Her Duty in Aiding the Building up
Ola New Country

Ever since the dawn of history the
march of empire has been westward.
There has always been certain
alurement in following the pathway
of the setting sun to those venture
some spirits who do and dare. In
the early days of history we find the
Thonecians skirting along the shores
of the Mediterranean sea. exploring
the coasts of Asia Minor and of
Greece, their course ever westward,
and later on the Greeks making the
same westward movement. The
founding of the Rome followed, to be
followed later by the expansion of the
Roman Empire until the whole of the
then known civilized world was under
the government of Rome. But west
ward expansion did not cease then,
not even when the wide waters of the
Atlantic ocean rolled away from the
western shores of Europe unknown
and uncharted, and superstition filled
the sea with unknown horrors, there
were still venturesome and brave men
who dared the terrors and endured
the suffering that is always the part
of the pioneer in any movement for
the betterment of the world A thou
sand years ago the Morse Vikings in
their small craft that today would not
be considered hardly safe to go out
side of safe harbor, made the peril
Gus voyage across the Atlantic and
discovered a new world. This new
world was so far away the dangers
were so great and the thrall OF SUI
perstition was so strong, that it was
hundreds of years before there arose
another spirit strong enought to dare
the terrors of an unknown deep, and
bring to the knowledge of the world
the new land lying beyond the sea.
With the discovery of Columbus in
1892 the movement westward which
had so long lain dormant was resum-
ed not only by Spain but by all or
nearly all European nations, and
North and South America were both
settled to certain extent. The set
Elements of course were along the
seacoast and the waterways at first,
and we do not have to go many years
back in history to find what is now
the United States was only a narrow
strip of land lying along the Atlantic.
seaboard Even before the close of
the Revolutionary War the western
movement had begun and it has con-
tinued ever since until this broad
ocean, from Canada to the Gulf of
Mexico is filled with millions of inhab-
itants making it one of the most pros
porous and powerful nations on the
earth.
The first movement to the West was
from the inhabitants of the states bor-
dering on the Atlantic seaboard. Be
fore this however, there were a few
trading posts along the great lakes,
the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers, established by French from
Canada. In New Mexico, Arizona and
California there were a few Spanish
Missions and a few towns, but no
settlement on a large scale. From
the eastern states for many years went
| the pioneer in the new land. Every
state has sent her sons and daughters
and Maine has done her part in popu-
lating the great west, and Bingham as
a town has sent her full quota. Even
before Horace Greeley gave his famous
advice of GO West young man, go
West" Binghams sons and daughters
were moving to the new country.
Among the very first to ge west from
Bingham was William Baker more
than eighty years ago, and who settled
| in what is now the state of Mime
sofa. He was soon followed by Will
liam and Ephraim Head and their
families. Abel Heald moved to Iowa
and soon after died there. Charles
Fred, Chandler, Joshua, Maxcy and
Eugene Goodrich, Josiah Russell
Albion Baker, Walter Frame, Carl
Colby, Charles Parlin, Mark Blunt and
Joseph Steward settled in California
Charles and Thomas Leadbetter, Man
ley Lowe, Thomas Dinsmore, Oscar
Adams, Chester and Frank Blunt In