Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-01-08

Fort was turned into a store. The
few settlers who had remained at
Fort Western and in the vicinity
during the hazardous days, traded
at the store which Captain Howard
conducted.
The products of the country were
sent to the outside world in the YES
sci which Captain Howard QUILTED.
And he received goods which he in
turn sold to the settlers. The sons
entered in business with their faith
err. their names being Samuel and
William.
Besides being a store keeper, a
trader and a shipper, Captain How
ard built a saw mill about a mile
north of the Fort. This was located
in the vicinity of what is now called
Kennebec Siding and where saw
mill has been conducted ever since,
for the greater part of the time.
AS his Golfers began to fill up,
Captain Howard built a home be-
fitting his station in the community.
The new Howard manor was erected
i'll 171O and was of imposing pro-
portions, standing high and lofty
among its humber neighbors. This
Howard manor was burned in 1866.
SdPlstlil IlOW di u DSCtiilc lllc iIdS
istrate of the settlement and he con-
Quoted the duties of his office in
conscientious manner. In fact his
entire dealings in the community
We're upright and honest. His was
considered the most influential man
in the valley for many years. Dur
ing the Revolutionary days he was
an ardent Patriot and was men,
Der of the court which tried the
Tories.
The trust which the settlers placed
in Captain Howard also found eX-
preston in his two sons. They fol-
Flowed in the footsteps of their faith
er in honest dealings with the peo-
pie. Captain Howard died in 1877
at the age of 50.
Thus Fort Western, holding the
store as it did for so many years,
became the center of the community.
But the growth of the community
was slow. In 1862. two years after
the Fort had been left in the keep,
ing of Captain Howard, seven log
houses, all on the east side of the
river, comprised the settlement.
-Iany more homesteads were taken
up and in two years, ten more homes
had been build from the handy
forest
For the first time, the whole re-
gion was surveyed in 1861. Lots and
sections were marked off, many of
these marks holding strength in the
law courts today.
Cushnoc was no longer the name
of the place. 1t was called Fort
Western, the name embracing the
community. In 1771, Fort Western
was Incorporated as a town by the
name of Hallowell. Captain How
ard was one of the first selectmen
and for nine years town treasurer.
! And while the identity of Fort
Western was submerged in the new
named community. it served many
years of usefulness down through
the years. For years, before Fort
Western was purchased by Mr.. Gan
nett and presented to the City, it
was used as q tenement house. The
romance and the history about the
old place, was hard to imagine, dur
ing the days it had drifted into q
mediocre lodging house.
Under the order of Mr.. Gannett,
two experts on Colonial architecture,
William Sumner Appleton and
George Francis Dow. Investigated
the original architecture and ar
rangement of the Fort. Tearing
down the barriers of years and
bringing into it's own, it took many
weeks of painstaking labor to put old
Fort Western where it is today.
Through the years that the Fort had
been used as a dwelling and store
house, fireplaces had been bricked