The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1914-08-13

uaroy, Rlcnaru ndLIIlon, Oeotkc 0nAtn,
Joseph Ford, Isaac Morey, Thomas Froth.
ingham, James Thorndike.
Known to have been settlers OF the
town prior to the incorporation, by the
private records of Deacon John Marden,
the grandfather OF Mr.. Allen Goodwin:
the historian of Montville, to whom
am indebted for this and other interest.
ing data, are the following: Samuel
Thompson, Rufus Rowell, Joseph Ma
son, Rufus Carter, Rufus Smith, Eben-
ezer Everett, Nicholas Gilman, Moses
Smell, James Wallace, and Mr.. Knight.
A local history gives the following
names of settlers prior to 1917. Ma,
nasseh Sleeper, John Pattee, John Bart
lett, Bailey Moore, Thomas Donnell.
Dwelley Lincoln, Spencer Trask, Thomas
Hill, Jonas Blanden, David Wyman,
Joseph Sanford, Absalom Howes, Eph.
rain Conant, Isaac Hodgdon, J. Dunnell,
Samuel Wellman, Peter Robbins, Benja-
min Ems.
Under date of April 4, 1914, at an ad-
journed meeting of the first called, the
town voted to expend 81 800 for repair
ing and amending highways, $500 for
school buildings, and $500 for the support
of public schools in districts. The first
road through the township had been sur
veyed by county commissioners in 1899,
! it being a part of that from Augusta to
Belfast, passing through West and North
Searsmont and Belmont. 1t was a most
Doggy and dangerous way through the
low lands. Ladies on horses. saddled
with saddlebags laden with brass candle
sticks and other household utilities, not
to say ornaments, rode over it, crossing
log culverts and brook swollen ravines
with thrilling experiences, told to grand
children in fireside romances. The first
town meeting records show that the
town of Searsmont soon engaged in road
improvement and new highways. The
adjourned meeting of the first town
meeting voted to accept the way laid
out by the assessors of Greene Planta-
ton under date of Oct. u, 1912, two
hundred rods from the county road near
the westerly line of Joseph Ford, south,
orty-five degrees west, about three rods
vest of John Morrow's house, to the
Montville line. The first town meeting
Vas at Whittier's Mills, NOW the village)
in the school-house.
By the excellent records of the grants
| from the Waldo patent, Transcribed from
| the originals in Hancock county by the
present Register of Deeds in Waldo
county, Hiram P. Farrow, son of Nathan
and brother of Luther Farrow, all late
of Searsmont, 1t appears that General
Henry Knox and David Sears decided
lands in Searsmont, Thorndike and Pres
colt quitclaiming, as follows, the grant
ees taking the lands for homesteads
with few exceptions, and few desig-
mated as in Greene Plantation locating
! perhaps within the limits of the town of
| Belmont:
To Andrew Cragie in 1897; Henry Jack
son, 1898; Alexander McClain, 1901
Josiah Cross, 1903; Josiah Dow, Greene
Plantation, 1904; Benjamin Smith, 1904;
Daniel McCurdv, 1904; James Bicknel,
1905; John L. Gilman, 1905; Samuel Cum
bingham, 1905; Dudley Stickney, 1905;
Robert Perigo, 1906; Abraham Marden,
Greene Plantation, 1906; Richard Kim
ball, 1906; Israel Thorndike. ct ais, 1906;
Joseph Ford, 1908; Joseph Muzzey, 1909
James Nesmith, 1910; Lydia Milliken,
1910; Cornelius Bennett, 1910; Rufus
Carter, 1911; Thaddeus Hubbard, 1911;
Thomas Whittier, 1872; John Morrow,
1874; Richard Hamilton, 1874; Jona-
than Frohock, 1914; Thomas Frohock,
1915; Lewis C. Clark, 1915; Joshua
Hemingway, 1916; Philo H. Wash
burn, 1876; William Heating, Jr.,
1877; Thomas Arnold, 1917; Almond
Gushe, 1919; Hannah Evans, 1920. Ralph
C. johnson, 1920; David Wyman, 1921 !;
Joseph Bryant, 1921; Joseph Fletcher,
1921; Joseph Muzzey, 1921; Harry Haz-
eltine, 1921; Reuben Smith, 1921; Will
lard Robbins, 1922; Richard Small,
1922; Charles Mahoney, 1922; Huse
ct al, 1922; Miles Cobb, 1923; Thomas
Arnold, 1924: John S. Kimball, 1924;
Amos Barrett, 1926; Osgood Maho-
ney, 1925; Isaac Woodman, 1926; Peter
Rowe, 1926; Nathaniel Robbins, 1927;
Eleson Annis. 1S49.
Hepzabah Wyman took deed of David
Melvin of Lincolnville in Plantation Bon
aparte next to Philip Mariner, August
81, 1903. Nathan Hilton of Portsmouth,
N. H., took deed of land from David
Melvin of Lincolnville in Plantation Bon
aparte, next to Isaac Morey, May s.,
1904, General Knox and widow of Wy
man stated as living on the other half,
! Tie first settlers of Searsmont lived in
that part of the town which is known as
North and West Searsmont, then part
of Davlstown: and by the surveys of
1903 and 1907 their home. estates fell in
Searsmont, and not in MontviIle. Hum
phrey Hook and Jonathan Bagley, the
first settlers of record, built the first
mill in town at North Searsmont, on the
site at the lower end of the mea low.
Thomas Whittier built the next mill
previous to 1914, probably at the village.
In 1877 was built the first mill at Wood
mans Mills; the same year Edmund
Woodman settled there. About 1921
Harry Hazeltine settled in town and
built mills, and lived in the large hip.
rooted mansion, monumental mark of
the home life of those early DAYS. About
1928 Miles Cobb built Cobb's Mills, and
near that time Joseph Muzzey built the
mill and tannery at the Muzzey bridge.
In 1912 Ansel Hook built a mill on the
stream in North Searsmont, where the
present mill stands.
The past merchants of the town were
Sumner Pattee, Gilmore & Woodman.
Alexander Farrow, Charles Farrow.
Henry Bradbury, James Moody, Elisha
Bean, David Cobb, ]. F. Marden. David
Cross and John Thompson. The present
merchants are Cobb & Paine, V, A. Sim
mons and Walter S. Poland. David Cobb
and his son, now of Cobb & Paine. have
been merchants in the village for over
fifty years.
Thomas Whittier built the Whittier
Tavern in 1903.
After the Hazeltine mansion was built
1T was during some of tho o,rI;o, 800.