The independent-reporter., 1924-05-22


standing Two of his daughters,
married Rev. George W. Hathaway.
Mary was the first wife and seven
children resulted from the union.
After her death, the clergyman mar
ried her sister, Ann. They had no
children.
The late Harlow Bigelow used to
relate that there at one time stood
log house on the bank of the river,
near where the present Municipal
Building now stands, in which tray-
elers were lodged for the night. The
name of the owner Is not known.
Sometime previous to 1910 man by
the name of Simon Marston built a
frame house to take the place OF the
log cabin. He was always spoken of
as "Sime Marston from Taunton,
Good Lord, this being his form of
reply when asked where he had come
from. In 1910 Marston was succeed
ed in ownership by Moses Pike. 1t
is said that he built the Judge Bach
ellor House. now owned by the Misses
Florence and Mabel Pooler. William
Lewis conducted the business of inn
keeping after pike In the small house
on the river bank 1t appears, the
structure containing practically three
rooms and he sold out to Silas Turn
or. believed to have come here from
Norridgewock
On coming to what is now Skowhe-
gan, Mr.. Turner rebuilt and enlarged
the three room house which he
bought of Lewis and 1t therefore was
known as the Turner House, until its
destruction by fire In May, 1881, al
though it may have been advertised
in the papers as the Skowhegan Stop
Hotel. Those who followed Silas
Turner as proprieters of the hotel are
recalled as being Solon and William
Hapgood, Mr.. Butler from Farming
ton and Hight and Hussey who sold
to William G. Heselton IN about 1852.
After the structure was burned 1t was
rebuilt by Frank Il. Heselton. son oil
William c., and was opened in Dec
ember, 1881. Others brothers in the
same family, William H.. Martin b.
and Edward c. we're more or less con-
neeted with the establishment and II
became widely known as very de-
sirablc and comfortable hotel. Will
liam Chandler also ran the Heseltoh
for h while under lease and the prop
erty was finally sold to the late Rich
ard w Brown. The hotel was burned
in about 1899 but before this one
wing had been moved to location
near the Maine Central railroad sta
tion and under the name OF the Maine
Central Hotel Is still conducted by
Fred Towle. Other parts of the
buildings are used in connection with
some of the structures near the Mum
icipal Building. Mr.. Brown sold the
lot to the town for the structure just
referred to-
The site now occupied by what re-
mains of Hotel Coburn, has long been
identified with hotel interests AS
in most of the other cases. its early
history is hard to determine. The
Red Dragon" seems to have been the
first hotel built on the spot. John
Wyman was one of the earliest pro-
prieters, and possibly erected the
building. Then, as now, there was
store in the lower part. This was
also conducted by Mr.. Wyman. Even
Weston's letters tell us that business
was done almost entirely ON credit.
Times were hard after the war of
1912 and collections were difficult
with the result that after few years
he was not able to meet his obliga-
tions and his Boston creditors closed
him out He retained the tavern,
compromised with the creditors, as