THE AIRLINE ROAD  by John Dudley

My good friend and author of this article on The Airline, John Dudley died May 28, 2022.

His all consuming dedication to the history of Alexander and that historic highway that connected Down East to the larger world, has left us with pages and pages of rare and valuable insights, facts and fiction. John was a prolific writer, but not so much of an Internet fan. That's where our friendship strengthened - he wrote and I posted his work to the Internet .

John inspired me in many ways - He was a consumate volunteer to our Sheepscot Valley Tree Pool and encouragment to the development of what became my Whitefield Archives and subsequent Whitefield Historic Albums.

The future of this and the remainder of John's internet work is uncertain, for I too have entered old age and have come to the realization that there are no guarantees, and so in that spirit I encourage you to download and or print anything from his collection on the Internet, that you would like to preserve.

Thankfully Digital Maine has added "The Airline Road " to their collection, thus guaranteeing its future .

 If you have a vision on how or who might be interested in maintaining John's timeless work, Please contact me . 

ADDENDUM TO AIRLINE ROAD

History is made everyday. Since the article on the Airline was written back in 2000, things have happened and I’ve learned of events that took place before that date. This addendum allows me to share some of those events, both recent and ancient. I hope that others will use this document and add to it. My thanks to those who shared with me, but any errors are mine. John Dudley

UNTOLD AIRLINE STORIES

Several topics about Airline history remain for someone to research. They include other mines or quarries are in the townships along the Airline, who is the ghost of Wilderness Lodge, the story of schools and religious history, and was this road part of the Underground Railroad. Recent history might include when did clean chips from the Chip & Sawmill in Woodland get shipped by Carrier Trucking to Rumford? How many loads a day, how many in all? And what are the details on the New Brunswick hog fuel [wood chips] getting shipped to Deblois to be turned into electricity that was sent back to NB?

Many travelers and all roadside residents have tales to tell. Enjoy what little has been written!

What follows cannot be considered a history of the Airline. It is a collection of eclectic information about the people and the land along this infamous road that hopefully will give the reader a sense of its history. This information is arranged in two ways, geographically from west to east, where we tell something about each town and township; and topically, where we describe events or activities that affected the whole road. One such event, happening in the summer of 2003, is the placing of mile markers along the Airline. These are to aid the State Police in locating accidents.

This road was designed to attract settlers to buy the lands owned by William Bingham and later by Baring Brothers Bank. It was Revolutionary War General David Cobb, Bingham’s agent, who felt that selling to farmers was the way for Bingham to profit from his investment. Cobb was responsible for laying out most of the roads associated with the Airline. Cobb retired in 1820. John Black, agent for Baring Brothers Bank, felt that lumber was the wealth that would provide his boss the needed profit. Black sold large blocks of land and developed the roads that followed the rivers.

TERMS ~ In this paper we will use names that are familiar to today’s readers. All historic names will be referenced. Therefore, we will describe the towns by their present names even when telling of events that happened before the towns were incorporated. The section on Airline Communities will tell about the historic names of the towns.

Concerning the road that most know as the Airline, and the State of Maine calls Route 9, it too had historic names. The first was General Cobb’s Great Road from the Penobscot to the Schoodic. General Cobb was William Bingham’s agent here in Maine. For many years in the middle of the nineteenth century it was called the Black’s Road after John Black, agent for Baring Brothers Bank. It eventually came to be called The Airline, after the Airline Stage Company that we will describe later. Of course, the road has had many local names. On early maps of Baileyville it is called the Alexander Road, and the folks of Clifton still refer to it as the Bangor Road. We will call this the Airline.

AIRLINE ROAD = BINGHAM’S 1797 SURVEY

This section is based, in part, on a report created by Park Holland for William Bingham and Baring Brothers Bank, owners of a million acres between the Penobscot River and the St. Croix River on the east. The report was in the Bangor Historical Magazine, Volume V, July 1889. Maine Historic Preservation Commission supplied the article. The map above likely was created by Holland to accompany the report. The original map is with the Baring Brothers Bank in London.

Apparently a plan had been proposed that Passadumkeag Township be acquired by Bingham and the Passadumkeag River be used via a portage to the west branch of the St. Croix to create a way west to east across the million acre purchase. This was the route explored, with Passamaquoddy guides, by Joseph Chadwick in 1764. This plan had a major weaknesses, the ends of this route were too far up river from each the head of navigation and it was a water route, not a land route.

Another problem was stated by Holland. TWP 26 BPPMD [now Amherst] had been contracted for by a Mr. Parsons, but he had not fulfilled his contract. So Holland avoided both concerns by following what we see on the manuscript map. Mr. Parsons did not follow-up on the contract.

Holland did this survey in 1797 to connect the existing mill village town of East Orrington on Sedgeunkedunk Stream to Township #6 PS [Baring], a mill town on the Schoodic or St. Croix River.

The site visited next after East Orrington was on the West Branch of the Union River, a place “proposed to be occupied” and called today Mariaville Falls. The settlement was to be on the West Side of the river.

Holland’s next site “In the Northwestern part of No. 17 is the Great Falls of the [Narraguagus] river, at which it is proposed that a mill should be erected. TWP 17 MD BPP had been run out into 160-acre settlers’ lots. It would be named Annsburgh after Bingham’s daughter who married Alexander Baring. Today it is the town of Deblois and the village on Route 193 is by the ‘Great Falls’. Phil White told of another set of rips on the West Branch of the Narraguagus in Townships 10 and 16. These rips at about a mile long would have been a good place for a mill settlement, but was not chosen. Today TWP 16 is wildland and TWP 10, served only by Route 182, is much unchanged in 200+ years. Decisions made in the past affect conditions today.

TWP 24 ED BPP [now Northfield] was the next mill site selected by Holland. It is located on the West or Main Machias River. This site, either at Holmes Falls or at Getchell Riffles, was never developed probably because mills already existed on this river at Machias.

“On the Eastern branch of the same river it is likewise proposed to erect a mill on No. 19, East Division.” This site appears to have been on Northern Stream and was never developed. Logs on the East Machias watershed were driven to existing mills in the village of named for the river.

Concerning Baring, Holland questions if the occupied site in No. 6 PS should be improved or to erect a mill at the rapids in No. 7 PS [Baileyville] at Sprague Falls in Woodland village or farther up river at Grand Falls.

These sites were called “hot house” communities. Each was to have a sawmill, a gristmill and housing for the sawyer and the miller plus for farmers as they prepared home sites on land purchased from Bingham.

The map and article from Holland’s field notes establish the proprietors’ desire to settle these million acres. The opening of General Cobb’s Great Highway from the Penobscot to the Schoodic further solidified the plan to fill the land with farms. It was John Black, agent for Baring Brothers and son-in-law of David Cobb, who determined that the lumber industry was more likely to succeed in land sales than farming

STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION ~ A spotted line that might follow the boundary between two townships became a foot- path through the woods and since has gone through four stages of change. First a road was opened for use by ox carts. Ox carts were single axle vehicles with wheels of great diameter, usually six feet. This allowed them to pass over stumps and rocks nearly three feet high.

Next, stumps and rocks were pulled; high places were cut, and low areas filled and swampy areas filled with logs laid crossways to the road, i.e. corduroy roads. All this to allow for travel by horse-drawn wagon. Horses are faster than oxen, and better roads were needed. A big change likely came in 1857 when the Airline Stage started using the route. The stage required even a better-maintained road. The third set of changes came as a result of the automobile. Parts or all the road was designated State Road in 1905. Starting about 1910 the road was widened and parts were graveled. Snow was plowed in some places beginning in the 1930s and parts of the road were tarred so that by the late 1950s the old horse road was all widened, tarred, and cleared for year round travel.

I doubt that any of us realized about 1970 when the state started rebuilding the Airline in Eddington and Baileyville that we would end up with a high speed connector road between Interstate 95 and New Brunswick. This road, that carries several hundred trucks in each direction daily, also is changing Airline communities into suburbs of Bangor-Brewer and Calais-Woodland. The cost of this highway reconstruction has been huge. For example, the last five jobs costs ranged from $1,350,207 per mile to $2,087,827 per mile. Six and ½ million dollars was spent on the four projects here in Alexander. What changes will the road bring in the future? Will the east-west highway be four lanes? Will the route become Interstate 395?

SURVEYS & MAPS FOR BUILDING THE AIRLINE

Was this road surveyed in the mid-1760s? It was at this time, after the Treaty of Paris gave the English control of Maine, that the government in Massachusetts had roads surveyed from the Kennebec to the Penobscot, and from the Penobscot to Quebec. Joseph Chadwick did the latter survey. We have found no evidence of a survey of a land road between the Penobscot and the Schoodic, but a water route is mentioned by Park Holland.

William Bingham acquired two million acres of Maine land in 1793. He hired Revolutionary War General David Cobb to be his agent. His job was to make Bingham’s investment in the two million acres of wild land pay a profit. One million acres parcel was on the upper Kennebec River and is called Bingham’s Kennebec Purchase. The second block of land is between the Penobscot River on the west and the Schoodic (St. Croix) River on the east. This was called Bingham’s Penobscot Purchase [BPP]. Coastal townships were not included in the purchase.

We can imagine Bingham and Cobb meeting in Bingham’s fine Philadelphia home and discussing how this land could be turned into money. This was in 1795 and the American Revolutionary War was over. The old coastal communities were crowded (by standards of the time) and young men needed land for farming. Thus the plan was for Cobb to market these lands to young farmers. And we can imagine the two men studying a map, maybe Osgood Carlton’s 1795 map, then taking a pencil and drawing a line from the Penobscot River easterly through these lands and agreeing to build a road along that route for the settlers to use. The map – plan exists at the Baring Brothers Bank in London is shown above along with Park Holland’s notes.

General Cobb built a great house at Gouldsborough and soon found some unhappy truths. Cobb listed these truths between 1795 and 1800.

First, as we all know, the land and climate of eastern Maine were not and are not suitable for farming. Cobb describes another natural feature of eastern Maine that did not promote settlement. “… those who come to view the country … have as frequently returned almost blind by the bites of flies and mosquitoes. You have no conception of the hosts of these devils that infest the thick forest at this season.”

Next, Cobb was to find that “the great body of the people of this country possess no regard to the rights of private property.” Cobb blamed the region’s slow development on “the vicious inhabitants who disfigured its landscape. Every inhabitant here is now a trespasser, a plunderer. They live by it, and therefore they will not cultivate the finest soil in the world. Their not doing this is the chief cause why the reputation on the country has been damn’d. If the people who live by lumbering, are indulged in cutting the forests wherever they please, they will have but little … appreciation of the soil.”

And finally Cobb wrote, “The greater part of the inhabitants of [Gouldsborough] follow lumbering and fishing, … and they are very intemperate, very lazy and very poor. It may be said in truth, altho’ disgraceful to the town, that the majority of the inhabitants are drunkards.” Cobb is referring to residents of the coastal towns, as well as some of his very own settlers]

Cobb must have been discouraged. However, he attempted to attract a different breed of settlers from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. He built houses in Gouldsborough for settlers’ families to live in while the men prepared homes in the wilderness. He surveyed and built a road up the Union River valley to Great Falls, near the south line of Amherst. Here a “hot house settlement” was created. In 1800 one of the best double saw mills in eastern Maine was built as well as several other buildings. In 1803 a gristmill was added. The community was named Mariaville after Bingham’s daughter, Maria.

Cobb advertised to attract young farmers. It is in a handbill dated September 1800 that he states that the road from Gouldsborough to Mariaville is complete and that “another road will be opened in the … spring to the Penobscot River….” This road ended at Eddington on the Penobscot, where today the Airline meets the river and turns sharply south to follow the river to Brewer. Thus it appears that the first stretch of the Airline was opened in 1801. A History of Aurora, Maine by Herbert T. Silsby, 1958, is the source of information in this paragraph.

Silsby goes on to tell that in 1802 the road from Aurora to Beddington was started. By 1810, the road from the Penobscot to Beddington was passable and on August 22 of that year a contractor started working on the rest of the road. And when in 1814 (on July 11th), the British threatened Moose Island (Eastport) the militia from Aurora and Amherst mustered under Goodell Silsby and started to march east to protect their fellow Americans. They got only as far as Beddington when word came that Eastport had fallen into enemy hands; the battle being over, the men returned home.

From all this we might assume that the Airline was complete and open to traffic by 1814. Obviously, the road was not plowed in winter and was deep with mud in the spring. Check out the maps to see if they reflect this hypothesis. A map published in 1815 by Moses Greenleaf does, indeed, show a line from the Penobscot to the St. Croix representing the ‘Airline.’

MAJOR CHANGES IN THE ROUTE ~ All along the Airline, the roadway has been moved over the years. Most moves are minor such as straightening the old road. Some changes have been major, and those we will try to describe here. The trip we will take down the Airline will be from west to east, therefore, the changes will be treated in that order.

In East Eddington, the original road went along the Bangor Water Works Road, swinging east after passing Bald Mountain (now called Woodchuck Hill), crossed Route 180 north of Maplewood Cemetery, by DeBeck Pond and on to Mariaville Falls. We have found no reason why this road was abandoned.

The roads over Chick Hill in Clifton and Pine Hill on the line between TWP 22 and TWP 28 were both abandoned in the 1920s because they were too steep for automobile traffic. Pleasant Mountain in Devereaux and Breakneck Hill in TWP 31 have had major route changes during the past 30 years to reduce grade and sharp corners. The road over Tug Mountain in TWP 30 was never built. Several of the hills on the recently rebuilt road are still so steep that modern traffic has problems. (Day Hill 10% grade, Schoppee Hill 12% grade, Hardwood Hill 8% grade)

MAPS ~ Finding early maps of the Airline presented several problems. Most obvious is telling whether the line drawn on the map represents a road or a planned road. Secondly, many old maps are not dated, and some dated maps have had roads added at a later date. The third problem comes from the mapmakers, some did not sign their work, and some may have adjusted the map for their own benefit. A fourth problem is where mistakes on one map are repeated by later mapmakers. One example of this is the 1838 Lewis Robinson Map of Maine. This map, on display at the Holmes Cottage in Calais shows a road from Crawford through Cooper to Pembroke, but no road through Alexander to Baileyville. There was a road from Crawford through Cooper, and there was the Airline through Alexander. This mistake was repeated on Colton’s Maine Map of 1875, and again on Grenville Donham’s 1905 Maine Map published in the Maine State Yearbook. All that being stated, here is what we have found.

An 1802 map by Osgood Carleton gives no hint of the Airline, but does have roads marked in coastal areas. This map has a road marked from Hampden west to the Kennebec River at Vasselboro. An undated map in the possession of Baring Brothers Bank in London shows a road from Orrington to proposed settlements at Mariaville Falls, Beddington Lake, Northfield, and at Northern Stream in TPW 19. A later map also in the possession of Baring Brothers Bank has a road from Orrington to the Davistown town line (Clifton) and a planned road east through Mariaville Falls on to the St. Croix River following roughly the present route.

Moses Greenleaf published a map in 1815 that showed the Airline going from East Eddington to Mariaville Falls then northerly to Amherst and hence easterly. John Black apparently copied that map in 1817 and on his map had labels for Mariaville Falls, Annsburg (Deblois), Beddington, and Alexandrea (in Frederick Allis book on William Bingham’s letters). John Brainard Mansfield’s Map of Maine (1855) shows the European and North American Railroad through Alexander, but no Airline. Of course the county wall maps generated about 1860, and the county atlases published about 1880 do show the Airline in its present location excepting Chick Hill, Pine Hill, Pleasant Mountain and Breakneck Hill.

Of particular interest is a petition dated 1829 and found in the Hancock County deeds office, volume 2, page 242. It is addressed to the Supreme Judicial Court and asks for a four-rod road between Brewer and Baileyville. It states that Rufus Gilmore, Samuel Lowder, Jr. and Andrew Strong were appointed by the court as a committee to view the proposed route at the expense of the petitioners. This committee was to make a plan for the new road and determine the probable cost of construction. The plan for the road covers 15 pages detailing the entire 81 miles, 160 rods. The bill for all this was $613.59 and was paid by the three counties. “…thence E 1 dg S 20 rods to Carleton Stream, 3 rods wide… to a stake marked XXR…” Carleton Stream and Little Carleton Stream are both in Washington County. A stream 3 rods, or 51 feet, wide likely is the main Machias River and the other is likely Pembroke Stream. Tracing this route on a modern map would be a great adventure.

AIRLINE ROAD - 1829 SURVEY

Here are a few more notes about this SURVEY, An unknown modern day surveyor has noted the “plotting is poor in places”.

Of course, measurement is never exact.

In Penobscot County the road was a county road [Brewer – Eddington – Clifton] and was 17 miles 24 rods long.

In Hancock County [Amherst – Aurora – Osborn – TWP 22 - TWP 28 – TWP 22] this was a private road and was 25 miles 100 rods long.

In Washington County [Beddington – Devereaux – TWP 30 – TWP 24 – TWP 30 – TWP 31 – Wesley – TWP 26 – Crawford – Alexander – Baileyville] this also was a private road and measured 39 miles 36 rods.

and a couple of observations,

The brooks and streams in Penobscot County were mostly crossed on bridges. At East Eddington Mill Brook was bridged and the name Stockwell appears as the next word.

In Hancock County no bridges are mentioned for crossing any of the three branches of the Union River. Near Pine Hill was Francis’ Gate. The Little Narraguagus and the Narraguagus were not bridged.

In Washington County east of Noble Rock over what might be Canoe Brook was a bridge. After travelling past Lowden’s Gate and a spring, Mopang Stream and all rivers and streams to the east have no mention of bridges.

and a guess for our readers to think about.

To cross a brook or a stream without a bridge seems reasonable, but to cross the Narraguagus, Carlton {Machias] or the East Machias rivers would not be easy except at a ford. Was the original Airline crooked because the road was from suitable stream crossing to suitable stream crossing, from ford to ford?

NAMES OF PEOPLE AND PLACES MENTIONED BY SURVEYORS

[in order, west to east] We know others were living along the surveyed way.

BREWER - start opposite mouth Kenduskeag Stream – Bill Hayes and David Hanna, historians of Brewer, both feel the site is near the Brewer end of the upper bridge to Bangor, near the Joshua Chamberlain statue.

EDDINGTON – Eddington Bend - Luther Eaton, Esq. – Ebenezer Davis – Ware Eddy – heirs of Davis Sibley - ___ Patridge - ____ McMahon - pound – bridge, Stockwell

CLIFTON – the Penobscot/Hancock county line

AMHERST – Union River [West Branch, no bridge] – Ellsworth road [rte 181] – Amherst/Aurora town line

AURORA – middle branch [Union River, no bridge]

TWP 28 – Francis Gate [does anyone know what this was?] – and 24 rods beyond the aforesaid East branch [Union River aka Starvation Brook. House Rock is between the gate and brook, but not mentioned.

TWP 22 – Little Narraguagus river [no bridge and no mention of county line]

BEDDINGTON – Narraguagus [no bridge, its just 26 rods east of the 39 mile marker]

TWP 29 – DEVEREAUX – Noble Rock [43 miles 200 rods from start] stake at bridge [14 rods east of rock, likely Canoe Brook] – Lowden’s Gate

TWP 30 – Mopang [no bridge] – three unnamed brooks within 104 rods [no bridges, camps near easternmost brook] – Dead Stream [?] – brook – camp – 57 miles from start

DAY BLOCK – TWP 31 – Carlton Stream 3 rods wide [no bridge, must be West or Main Machias River] – Carlton East Branch [about ½ mile from Machias River, Pembroke Stream] – stake near Stream [Old Stream]

WESLEY – Niles, [Robert, 88 rods east of 61 mile marker]

CRAWFORD – Machias [East Machias River] – stream [Rocky Brook] - Cooper Road – [today goes to Love Lake] - Stevens [Deacon Jacob likely lived at jct. Crawford Arm Road] - Seavey [by 1830 we find Aaron, Edward, Jacob, John, Joseph and William]

ALEXANDER – Bohanon [Annaniah] – County Road [today the Cooper Road] – town line [Alexander/Baileyville]

BAILEYVILLE – “standing on the Westerly side of the Houlton road, about 180 rods northwesterly of the line between the town of Baring and late Plantation No. 7 now Baileyville…” The total distance between downtown Brewer and the Houlton Road [Route 1] in Baileyville being 81 miles 160 rods.

What may be the first Maine State Highway map is dated 1931. It has our road labeled Air Line Road and indicated that some of it is graveled, and the rest is unimproved. None of the road was macadamized. Places listed on this map are Alexander, Crawford, Pokey, Pines, Wesley, Beddington, Aurora, Amherst, Clifton, and East Eddington. All these were names of post office sites, Pokey being in the south end of Crawford, and Pines being that part of Wesley east of Day Hill. Source: Osher Map Library, USM.

The earliest State Highway map with route numbers is dated 1934. This map labels the Airline as Route 9, and shows the following routes; 191, 192, 193, 179, 180, 181, and 175 (now 46). The map shows Route 9 from Berwick on the New Hampshire border to Route 1 in Baileyville. Source: Maine State Archives 1108-40, box 67.

A 1938 map of Maine bearing that stamp CONFIDENTIAL shows only the principal Routes of Military Importance. The Airline was one, as was coastal Route 1, and Route 2 from Bangor to Houlton. Source: MSA 1108.0318, box 67.

AIRLINE ROAD = MILE MARKERS

Between 1976 and 1986 Maine Department of Transportation put up mileposts all along Route 9, starting with #2 near the New Hampshire border in Berwick. In those days, Route 9 ended [or started] at the junction of the Houlton Road [Route One] in Baileyville. In those pre GPS days, these markers were to help locate high accident places for better signage or road realignment.

Even numbered signs [left] are often found on each side if the road. Odd numbered signs are smaller and harder to read. Listed here are the locations where-ever we saw a sign. If one did exist, we would see sign 194.5 near Chamberlain’s Statue.

Column #1 = mile marker; these start at the New Hampshire border in Berwick

Column #2 = distance in miles from start at west end in Brewer

Column #3 = distance in miles from east end – Route One in Baileyville

Column #4 = location by town(ship)

Column #5 = what you might see at or near the mile marker
 

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5

0 87.5 Brewer start near at jct. by Chamberlain’s statue

206 11.5 76 Clifton west of Eddington town line

208 13.5 74 Clifton east of Rt. 180

210 15.5 72 Clifton east of Parks Pond

214 19.5 68 Amherst near Archer Corner

216 21.5 66 Amherst near Haynes Brook – let your horse drink here

217 22.5 65 Amherst near intersection of Tannery Loop Road

218 23.5 64 Amherst Rt. 181 on south – to Mariaville Falls

220 25.5 62 Aurora Rt. 179, south to Ellsworth

221 26.5 61 Aurora Old Airline by URT office

223 28.5 59 Aurora west end of Whaleback

224 29.5 58 Aurora Whaleback

225 30.5 57 Aurora Whaleback

226 31.5 56 Aurora Hardwood Ridge

228 33.5 54 Osborn near Middle Branch Rd

229 34.5 53 TWP 28 by road to House Rock

230 35.5 52 TWP 28 top 28 Camp Hill – camp on south - steel gate on north

231 36.5 51 TWP 28 Lower Pinnacle Rd.

232.37.5 50 TWP 22 truck stop at top of hill, with benchmark

232.38.5 49 TWP 22 top Smith Ridge, west of Snack Bar

232.39.5 48 TWP 22 near rte 193 to Cherryfield

235 40.5 47 Beddington east of Hancock/Washington County Line

236 41.5 46 Beddington edge BB field east Bridgham house

237 42.5 45 TWP 29 near road to Gray Pond

238 43.5 44 TWP 29 west of Canoe Brook and jct. of old road

239 44.5 43 TWP 29 west of URT communication tower on top Pleasant MT

240 45.5 42 TWP 29 east end of old road over “Lovejoy Hill”

242 47.5 40 TWP 30 west of Mopang and rest stops

244 49.5 38 TWP 30 rest stop, top of hill - Keep Your Ash Out of Wash. Co

246 51.5 36 TWP 24 Wilderness Lodge

249 54.5 33 TWP 30 near road to Fletcher Field on north

250 55.5 32 Day Block Near Machias River & Eben Bacon’s stage stop

251 56.5 31 Day Block west of Pembroke Stream

252 57.5 30 Day Block east of Pembroke Stream

253 58.5 29 Day Block Breakneck Hill – George McCurdy died here

254 59.5 28 Day Block near Breakneck Road - was Airline - Sam Day’s home

255 60.5 27 Day Block state warden’s house on north - Cloud 9 site on south

256 61.5 26 Day Block Chain Lake Stream – Quinby’s 1880 mill site

257 62.5 25 Wesley near Cedar Road & Wilbur Day homesite.

258 63.5 24 Wesley west of New Stream and Fox Hill

260 65.5 22 Wesley west of taller tower at top of hill

262 67.5 20 Wesley by TWP 26/Wesley town line & Clifford Lake road

264 69.5 18 Crawford Hanscom Mill and home site

265 70.5 17 Crawford Rocky Brook

266 71.5 16 Crawford foot Sally Hill

268 73.5 14 Crawford east of McLeods Convenience Store

271 76.5 11 Crawford east of Durlings Corner

272 77.5 10 Alexander east of Crawford/Alexander town line

273 78.5 9 Alexander Mr. Ed’s Blueberry Shed & site 1822 school

274 79.5 8 Alexander east of South Princeton Road jct.

275 80.5 7 Alexander Lanes Hill – Alexander Elementary School at top

276.81.5 6 Alexander near Church of the Open Bible

279 84.5 3 Baileyville Bear Cove Road – Robb Watering Hole

280 85.5 2 Baileyville east side Farrar Hill

281 86.5 1 Baileyville near Sunset Camp Road

282 87.5 0 Baileyville Route One - 200 yards toward Calais – across Route

One [Houlton Road] from the mile marker stands Irving Convenience Store and Truck Stop as it was called when it opened in October 1985, just 30 years ago from this time as I create this record.

From west to east -------- AIRLINE COMMUNITIES

Let’s start at the Penobscot River and travel Downeast along the Airline Road, stopping along the way to visit the various political units and some of the natural landmarks, and to learn a little about each. We will venture north or south of the Airline occasionally, so keep your map handy.

WARNING! THE AIRLINE IS A HIGH SPEED HIGHWAY – DRIVE WITH CARE

PENOBSCOT COUNTY – this part was Hancock County until 1816

Eddington – (Township #10) This town was incorporated in 1811 and named for Colonel Jonathan Eddy, an Massachusetts born American living in Nova Scotia on land taken from the Acadians. He tried to get the people of Nova Scotia to join the other thirteen colonies in the American Revolution, but failed. He came to eastern Maine and with John Allen and the crew that won the 1775 naval battle that kept eastern Maine part of the United States. Source: History of Eddington by Carolyn Wood, 1976.

From Route 9, take Route 178 north toward Bradley and take the first left. There is a monument on Monument Drive, near the River. This apparently is where the Airline joined the River Road running between Bradley and Brewer. This is where we will start our journey. Here are the words on the granite monument.

Jonathan Eddy
1726 – 1804
A Captain in the French and Indian Wars
A Colonel in the Revolutionary War
A Representative to the Massachusetts Great and General Court – 1783
First magistrate on the Penobscot River
The Town of Eddington was named in his honor and was part of a grant to himself and soldiers who had fought with him in the Revolutionary War
Memorial erected in 1892 by his descendants

This part of town was called Eddington Bend. The early settlers cleared the first farms on the level land along the Penobscot River. Also along the river was the first post office (1800), the town (poor) farm, early businesses, and Riverside Grange #273 (actually located in Brewer) and the North Brewer – Eddington United Methodist Church.

As we start up General Cobb’s Great Road (Hill Street), we pass by an Old Settlers’ Cemetery where a granite marker shows where Eddy is buried.

After travelling six miles from Eddington Bend through what was farmland and passing by the school (1953 with later additions) and the fire hall and municipal office (1974 with addition) we arrive in East Eddington Village. Here on the right is Cumins Hall which was built by the East Eddington Farmers Club in the late 1870s. Today it is home for East Eddington Grange #301, established in 1889, and Boy Scout Troop 23.

EAST EDDINGTON – MAIL TIME!

This image was likely taken just west of the village of East Eddington, at the top of the hill. It looks like Davis Pond in the background. Rural Free Delivery was established in 1896, before that year mail was delivered only to post offices.

image from Maine Folklife Center

EAST EDDINGTON - CUMINS HALL

image from Maine Folklife Center

On the left at the corner of Merrill Road is East Eddington Community Church. The first sermon preached in this village was by Sylvanus Cobb in 1823. The East Eddington Meeting House Corporation was organized in 1842, but the present church building was not put up until 1891.

Just before we reach Jarvis Gore Road, also known as Route 46 (Route 175 on the1935 map) we cross Mill Brook that runs from Davis Pond to Chemo Pond. Chemo also was called Leonards or Nichols Pond. Along this brook were numerous mills including A. F. Merrill’s spool turning mill, Stockwells’ saw and shingle mill, Stockwells’ axe factory, and Howe’s grist mill.

Beyond East Eddington, the original road went along the Bangor Water Works Road, swinging east after passing Woodchuck Hill, crossed Route 180 north of Maplewood Cemetery, by DeBeck Pond and on to Mariaville Falls. This road was laid out for General Cobb to bring settlers to his development at the Falls. The reason this road was abandoned maybe that the Williams brothers blazed a road from East Eddington via Aurora to Great Pond (the present Airline).

Clifton – This land was part of Jarvis Gore, a large lot owned by Leonard Jarvis of Boston, later Surrey. Some called the place Hillsboro after settler Squire John B. Hill. It was incorporated as the Town of Maine, and months later in 1848 as Clifton for the colorful cliffs on the mountainsides in town. Sources: History of Jarvis Gore and Clifton, 1979, by Evelyn Gray Huckins; Guy Campbell, personal memories:

The Union River Electric Co-operative brought electricity into Clifton during the Second World War. Russell Mace of Aurora was the man most active in this endeavor. Amherst and Aurora also got power at that time. The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) Co-op was a product of Franklin Roosevelt’s administration.

Soon after we pass into Clifton we see R. Leon Williams sawmill on the right, this mill that specialized in white pine is being run by the third generation of that family. In the woods beyond the mill the road crosses over Woodchuck Hill Brook. Here in the late 1800s a man named McLellan had a water powered sawmill. Later on Luther Penney had a spool bar mill at this site. He sold the bars to Merrill in East Eddington.

At the intersection of the Scott Point Road was a school. Later the present building was put up and Roland Butterfield acquired it in the 1920s and ran a store here for many years. This was the place where three youths shot Jim in a hold-up. The building has fallen into disrepair.

Rebel Hill Road marks Clifton Corners, the historic center of town. One of the old houses still stands here. On the north side of the Airline was the home and store of W. F. Chute. Chute bought barrel hoops and had a hoop shop. He also owned orange groves in Florida. Guy Campbell and his brothers used to cut, split, and shave hoop poles for Chute. The post office was almost always located at the Corners.

The third building down Rebel Hill Road is Cliffwood Hall. This building was designed and built by Calvin Winfield Campbell for the Willing Workers. This group of women wanted a place in Clifton where social gatherings could be held. The place served for years as the town office and now is being renovated into the Clifton Historical Society headquarters. Farther out Rebel Hill Road is a gravel esker on which once stood the IOGT (International Order of Good Templars) hall. Its demise likely lead to the construction of Cliffwood Hall.

CLIFTON – CLIFFWOOD HALL [1892]   

  & HAROLD ALLAN SCHOOL [1863]

2015 images by jd

In the central part of Clifton is another collection of homes. On the north side is the home of Guy Campbell, who helped with this article. Guy was born on March 26, 1905 in Amherst. His family moved to this house in August 1909 after the death of his father. This was one of the places in Clifton that horses were changed for the stage. In Guy’s day, the stage ran only from Beddington to Bangor, and it was Guy’s job to have a fresh team ready for the driver, and to take care of the horses that had pulled the stage from Aurora.

Just east of Guy’s house is Clifton United Baptist Church. It descends from the Free Will Baptist Church that was organized in 1838. Across the Airline is Parks School or District #2, now a home. At the corner of the Airline and Mill Lane, across from the cemetery, is the place where Hoyt Parks had a fox farm in the 1920s. Hoyt was a descendant of Thomas Parks who came here in the 1830s. Down Mill Lane are two mill sites on Parks Pond Brook, at one site Crimmins Brothers and Chick made ladders with a water-powered mill, and Fabian Archer and his son George had a water powered sawmill at the other site. Mill Lane once connected the Airline to Rebel Hill Road and then was known as the Cross Road.

At Parks Pond, where the campground now stands, Earl Campbell had a sawmill. Many will remember the pipe that carried sawdust over the road. Guy was the millwright, ran the planner, and made molding for his older brother. In later years it was called Campbell – Williams mill, after one of the Williams brothers stopped working at that family mill in the west-end of town.

Part way down the hill, Chick Hill Road forks to the left (Stage Coach Road). This was the original Airline. The first part of the road is still used and it once went to the north of Peaked and Little Peaked Mountains. From west to east along this road, a hundred years ago we would have found the following families living; Judson Gray, The Parks brothers (Ernest, Dennis and Thomas), Arthur Rankin (here is another place where the stage changed horses), Triges at the top of the hill, Jim McKay, Calvin Campbell, and finally Archers at Archer Corner back on the present Airline. The road over Chick hill was abandoned in 1925 because the west side was so steep that it was unsuitable for automobiles, and it kept washing out. The steepest part of the hill, near the top, was called “Jack’s Pitch”, and was named for Andrew Jackson “Jack” Gilpatrick whose home was at the foot of the pitch.

On the new road, at the bottom of the hill, the road crosses Bradbury Brook, named for Elijah Bradbury, and the site of Archer Dam. The Airline now passes over the south side of Peaked on toward DeBec Pond, and then to Archer Corner. Earl Campbell had the contract to build the part of the road in Clifton in 1925. It has recently been rebuilt with passing lanes and no sharp corners.

CLIFTON – VIEW OF PEAKED MOUNTAIN IN 1958

Some things don’t change. This image taken from just east of the Stage Road intersection gives a grand view of Peaked Mountain taken in 1958 likely by Marcia (Grover) Williams of Crawford. The road has since been rebuilt, but the view still remains. Where are the towers?

The cliffs of Clifton attract rock climbers. The cliffs of Peaked Mountain are often busy with these ant size creatures from spring to late fall. Susan Wallace, granddaughter of Marcia, shared this image.

Great Pond Maine Quadrangle [1932] showing the old road over Chick Hill north of Peaked Mt. and the newer road to its south. Topographical map from UNH site.

HANCOCK COUNTY was incorporated on June 25, 1789, set off from Lincoln County.

Amherst was incorporated 1831 and named after Amherst, NH. Earlier it was called Mariaville North or North Mariaville and that name referred to parts of Aurora as well. Sources: Amherst, Maine ~ Her Settlement and People ~ 1790-1975; Along the Union River, 1997, both by Connee Hanscom Jellison.

As we enter Amherst we note that the 1925 road went straight toward DeBeck Pond, then took a 90-degree turn toward the north. At the pond, a group from Bangor set up buildings for lodging, dining, and entertainment. The 1925 road was rebuilt after WWII and it was on this modified turn that an accident happened on December 3, 1992. A Canadian tour bus with 29 senior citizens had been headed to New York City for the Christmas Lights Tour. It was snowing and slippery, and the bus driver was travelling too fast. There had all ready been an accident at the scene, and the bus crashed into vehicles, rolled onto its side in the ditch injuring all aboard. One man later died as a result. Of the 60 accidents that happened in Troop E area that day, the bus accident made the headlines.

About a mile north of DeBeck Pond was another of those 90-degree turns created in 1925. This was also modified after WWII , but we can still see the fields at the Archer place on each side of the Airline as we round a gentle turn toward the east. Brothers Anselm and Robert Archer came from Cherryfield about 1810. Some maps label this place Archer Corner. The Airline then passes over Jellison Hill and down to Guy Haynes Watering Trough, on the left at the first open area.

Next we come to the Tannery Loop Road which goes north from the Airline, crosses the west branch of the Union River, then runs southerly to rejoin the Airline at the center of the village, by J. G. Dunham’s store. This road passed several mill sites. Tisdale, Hewins, and Flowers of Boston set up the first tannery in 1832. Buzzell’s Tannery was a long term fixture here using 1500 cords of bark annually. Around thirty-five men were employed here in better times. There was also a sawmill, a box shook mill, and a gristmill located here at Governors Falls.

If we stay on the Airline we go down a hill and cross the Union River where at one time eels were trapped. Amherst also had a cheddar cheese factory. Imagine a snack of smoked eel and cheese. Makes your mouth water. The present bridge is called Sumner Bridge. It replaced one built in the 1920s and we can see the embankment just up river. At the top of the hill we see the Amherst Town Hall on the left with its Settlers’ Cemetery. At this cemetery, the old stones were in such poor shape that all 28 names found on them were placed in a new granite monument.

AMHERST
TOWN HALL & CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

2015 images jd

The village of Amherst with its town hall and church is east of the West Branch Union River. When the bridge over that waterway was last reconstructed, traffic was routed over the Tannery Loop Road and over an upriver bridge. Mark Honey tells us “The Tannery Loop Road was laid out for the teamsters coming and going from the Amherst tannery. The road eliminated the need to climb up Tannery Hill, and avoided the hills bracing the Union River on the Airline."

Next is the center of town with the Tannery Loop Road coming in from the north and the Mariaville Road on the right. On the left still stands the building that J. G. Dunham built about 1860 for his store. When the telephone came in, Dunham had the first and, for a few years, the only phone. When someone would get a call, Dunham would step out his door and bellow his or her name. He had a big voice. Still standing up the Tannery Loop Road is a large two-story house which was the Amherst Hotel.

Mariaville – This town on the Mariaville Road (Route 181) was settled in 1802, and incorporated in 1836. It was named for William Bingham’s daughter.

AMHERST & MARIAVILLE - MARIAVILLE FALLS

If we travel 2.9 miles down Route 181 we see on the west the sign pictured below. The gravel road takes us to the trailhead, From the trail we may see Mariaville Falls, but not the settlement that was there over two hundred years ago.

To find out what was there, we will depend on the research of Mark Honey of Ellsworth. Mark has written five history books about Hancock County and specifically about the Union River Valley. Each carries the title KING PINE, QUEEN SPRUCE & JACK TAR, History of Lumbering on the Union River, 1762 - 1929.

In Volume 1, page 139 we find a section titled ‘A New Dam, Community, and Mill 1798 – 1803. From that we learn that, “John Fabrique, a sawmill owner from Ellsworth, was chosen to build a dam and establish a model community at Mariaville Falls by General Cobb. This task (building the dam) was completed in August 1800. The road from Taunton Bay to Mariaville Falls was also completed in 1803. Capt. John Peters Junior and his brother-in-law Sabin Pond were chosen by General Cobb to build a double mill at the Falls settlement. The mill was one of the finest in eastern Maine. The mill was completed in 1801.

“A store was built at the falls, along with a boarding house for the workers. Some of the supplies were probably brought up the river by boat, and some by oxen. It was a long and difficult passage through virgin forest.

“The road to the Penobscot settlements was completed in 1803, with the grist mill built in the same year. James Grant and his wife Dorcas Beal would establish themselves on the western side of the West Branch, running a small tannery, and possibly a shoe shop. Zelotus Grover came to the Falls as a merchant. Emerson Orcutt, accompanied by his brother Seth, came from Brewer as a blacksmith. A small cemetery was also established at the Falls.”

In a separate letter from Mark Honey, he states that it appears that the roads were located to avoid building bridges. This thought is backed by the 1829 survey that appears elsewhere in this paper. To accomplish avoiding bridges, the road from Mariaville Falls to Taunton Bay (completed in 1803) would have gone south (on route 181) to North Mariaville, hence southeasterly on existing roads to route 179, then southerly to Ellsworth Falls following somewhat the present day road. This would mean only one major stream crossing was needed, the East Branch of the Union River. By the way, Mark feels that the northern part of 179 was not built for several years. Use a DeLorme’s Maine Atlas; map 24 to find your way.

Back at Mariaville Falls – this was the site of a good ford on the West Branch Union River. To travel east, go north on 181 to Amherst Corner and turn right. Now to travel west to the Penobscot settlements requires looking carefully at the map. After fording the West Branch at the Falls, the road likely crossed Jellison Meadow Brook, Jellison Pond Brook and somewhere east of Debec Pond the road turned north. After passing near Archer Corner the road reached Chick Hill where it turned southwesterly connecting to the Stage Road in Clifton.

West of Parks Pond, the road turned south crossing Route 180 near Maplewood Cemetery, hence south of Woodchuck Hill and out to East Eddington via the Bangor Water Company Road. If you think the present day Airline is crooked, trace this out on a map!

Editor’s notes - David Cobb was William Bingham’s agent responsible for the million acres Bingham owned between the Penobscot and Schoodic (St. Croix) rivers. I am not sure whether the road to the Penobscot settlements was directly westerly from the Falls or followed the road the Williams brothers blazed from East Eddington to Great Pond. Either route would have established one part of General Cobb’s Great Road from the Penobscot to the Schoodic. It was the Frenchman Bay Conservancy and Kelly Bellis that led me to Mark Honey.

Census records show that the investments made at Mariaville Falls paid off in population growth. Mark Honey tells elsewhere that by the 1810 census about fifty families had settled in the townships around this “model community”. TWP 14 [Waltham] 12 families, TWP 20 [Mariaville] 16 families, TWP 26 [Amherst] 13 families, TWP 27 [Aurora] 4 families, TWP 33 [Great Pond] 2 families. Shortly later settlers arrived in TWP 15 [Eastbrook] and TWP 21 [Osborn].

I especially thank Mark Honey for his phone calls with directions around his books and for all the time and effort spent in researching and writing this history. Through his work we see that Park Holland’s prediction in his 1797 report that the Mariaville Falls would “be occupied” was fulfilled.”

After we pass this intersection, on the left is the Amherst – Aurora Congregational Church built in 1844. The site of the Good Will Grange is on the right and at the bottom of the hill, on the north side, is the Smith Road. In 1839, John Black petitioned the Hancock County Commissioners for a road from Amherst to Passadumkeag. Was this the road? MDOT tore down the grange hall in 2002.

Stage Stop Clifton (Guy Campbell’s house)  

    Stage Stop - Aurora (Union River Telephone)

Aurora – In 1822, Aurora was organized as Richards Plantation. It was incorporated in 1831 as Hampton, likely after Hampton, Massachusetts hometown of Sylvester Clapp, first teacher and a minister. This name caused confusion with Hampden just south of Bangor. Some claimed that mail was misdirected. So in 1833 the name Aurora, meaning Goddess of Dawn, was adopted. Sources: A History of Aurora, Maine by Herbert T. Silsby II, Robert Stevens

As we enter Aurora we come to Route 179, the Ellsworth Road. On the southeast corner of that intersection is a white house with a red barn. This belongs to the Merrill Furniture folks now, but in 1860 was the site of a cooper’s shop. Up Route 179, on the side of Dunker Hill on the left is the brick schoolhouse built in 1827, the oldest public building in Hancock County. Across the road from the school is the cemetery. Farther along this road we would come to the populated part of Osborn.

Back on the Airline, as we turn left onto the old road, we are looking directly at Silsby Hill with a big tower at its top. Note as you drive along this section the large houses and barns. On the left we come to the Town Hall, part of which is used as the post office. The Airline Stage had a stop in Aurora where horses were changed. This house and barn are now part of the Union River Telephone Company headquarters.

AURORA – UNION RIVER TELEPHONE COMPANY

What follows mostly is found in detail in a history of that company written by Herbert Trafton Silsby II and his son-in-law Tim Plouff. SOMEBODY’S A TALKIN’ was copyrighted in 2011. It is an important record of a family, a business and an area that includes a major part of the Airline Road.

We all know the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell and patented in 1876. The authors tell us that the Maine legislature created guidelines for this invention in 1880. Small telephone companies appeared all over Maine including our Airline communities. A few such companies were:

Lakeside T. & T. Co. of Princeton to serve Alexander to Wesley [1899]

Washington Co. Telephone Co. to serve along Airline WEST to TWP 31 [1903]

Equalized Telephone Co. to serve Wesley [1908]

Forest T. & T. Co. to serve Washington Co. [1903]; in Alexander 1907 – 17.

These and the Narraguagus Telephone Company in Beddington disappeared during the Depression or following WWII. Some towns didn’t AGAIN get service for a decade or longer.

Three men were instrumental in creating the Union River Telephone Company [URT] including Herbert Trafton Silsby [1866 - 1936]. The company became a legal entity on February 3, 1905. By November 11th of that year Aurora and Amherst were connected to Ellsworth. The central office was at the Silsby 1819 home in Aurora.

                                Herbert Trafton Silsby [page 13]                                             “Man on Pole” [page 37]

Through New England Telephone and Telegraph Company URT subscribers soon had connections with Maine and the entire country. But expansion in its home area was slow because the population was small and scattered. All of or parts of Clifton, Otis, Amherst, Mariaville, Waltham, Great Pond, Aurora, Osborn and Eastbrook became part of the URT territory. Automated twenty-four hour a day dial-up service was added in 1960.

Alice Silsby’s 1929 Model A shown restored in 2009 image. Alice became second manager in 1936.

In 1974 URT was granted by the Maine Public Utilities Commission a territory that included townships 21, 22, 28, 34 and 35 in Hancock County and townships 18, 19, 24, 25, 30, 31 and 37 plus the towns Beddington and Deblois in Washington County. In 1975 these two towns were again connected to the world by telephone. Since the Narraguagus Telephone Company ceased survive after the war, in emergencies locals had to depend on the Forestry Service line at Lead Mountain.

In 1976 the U. S. Air Force built an Over the Horizon Back Scatter Radar Station in Township 19 Middle Division. Access to this area was via the Shadagee Road that went from the Airline just east of Wilderness Lodge to Columbia Falls. URT provided the communications link between the OTH site and Dow Field in Bangor. The line, mostly buried cable, allowed URT to connect customers around Montegail Lake in #19 to the world. Later, after OTH closed and the cable failed, URT installed a tower by the Airline on Pleasant Mountain to keep the TWP 19 connected to the world.

Today URT offers a digital subscription line [DSL] Internet service through its subsidiary Rivah.Net as well as telephone service to over 1500 customers. Now in existence for 110 years, it remains a family business managed by a forth generation Silsby. Copies of the URT book may be obtained at the telephone office in Aurora.

Towns and townships on the Airline road that are in the URT service area include from the west: Amherst, Aurora, Osborn, TWP 28, TWP 22, Beddington, TWP 29 [Devereaux], TWP 24, TWP 30 and TWP 31. URT has been, is now, and will be an important part of the Airline Road

As we leave the village, the road to Great Pont goes off to the north. Near this intersection was a brickyard and a series of sawmills, Llewelyn Silsby had the first, a horse powered mill. The second was steam powered, it took 14 horses to pull the wagon and the boiler for the steam engine. The present mill is inactive. Up the Great Pond Road a bit is the Airline Community School which today serves children from Aurora, Amherst, Great Pond, and Osborn. Was this the start of the road that was to go to Winslow Mills in Greenfield according to an 1837 petition?

AURORA – AIRLINE COMMUNITY SCHOOL
Built in 1971

image from Maine Folklife Center

Great Pond Quadrangle [1932]- The Airline enters the map about half way up the west [left] side. Route 179 to Ellsworth goes up over Dunker Hill. The road to Great Pond heads off to the northeast, while the Airline swings southeast over the Whales Back. UNH map -

Great Pond (Township 33 MD BPP) was incorporated on April 1, 1981. The west branch of the Union River, which crosses under the Airline at Amherst, rises in Great Pond. Joshua Williams and his sons Clark and Simon settled great Pond. They erected at sawmill here. Several Great Pond families later moved to Clifton, among them were Nathaniel Chick, and Alonzo Bragg.

After we have seen the built-up part of Aurora, we get back on the new road and cross over the Middle Branch of the Union River. The Richardson Road goes south from the Airline for several miles. Of course, several of that name resided here including Samuel who was a progressive farmer, had an electrical system for his farm, and owned the first automobile in Amherst or Aurora. This was the best farmland in town. There was a school in this neighborhood in 1881.

Old & New Bridges over the Middle Branch of the Union River 1933 & 1935 (MDOT)

The Whale’s Back, a two and one-half mile long alluvial ridge made by the last glacier, pulls the road in a southeasterly direction. When Louis Agassaz of Harvard examined this during the 1860s, it measured from 250 to 320 feet high. The middle branch of the Union River flows along the northeast or left side of this geological feature. The original road was just a set of wheel tracks. The last reconstruction was in 1982 when the roadway was widened and leveled. A scenic stop allows travelers to enjoy the panorama.

As we approach the end of the Whale Back we see that the old road went straight for about ½ mile to a sharp left corner, then uphill to a sharp right turn. Now we leave the Whale’s Back on a gentle “S” curve and start up a long grade that is Hardwood Hill. Its highest point is actually Birch Hill and from there we can see low Pine Hill directly ahead, and to the left is Humpback or Lead Mountain.

Osborn – was incorporated as Plantation 21, MD BPP on March 5, 1895. On April 4, 1923, its name was changed to Osborn Plantation to honor its first settler, Joseph Osborn, who came here in 1807. And on November 2, 1976, it became Maine’s 423 town. As stated before, the populated part of Osborn is along Route 178.

The Airline passes along the northern edge of Osborn on the eastside of Hardwood Hill. As we start down we see that the road should have gone straight over Pine Hill which is in Township 22. This hill was so steep that Model-T Fords and other early cars had to back up it. So the road was built going around the hill on the north side. The present road is the third one around the hill.

AURORA & TWP 28 MD – AVOIDING STEEP HILLS

Lead Mt. Maine Quadrangle 1945 print showing at left the old and then new roads up Hardwood Hill. Those corners were 90-degree turns into the 1950s. In the middle of the map we see the old road over Pine Hill and the new road that skirts the north part of the hill. Before fuel pumps in motor vehicles, steep hills were only a problem for oxen or horses going down hill. Gravity fed fuel in cars and trucks could not go frontward up steep hill. Note here how the road follows the township boundary lines.

Township 28 MD BPP – The Airline passes through a corner of township 22, then into TWP 28. On the northeast side of Pine Hill, where the old road came off the hill, it continued to the northeast and today this section has been abandoned. Up the old road a few hundred feet is “ House Rock ‘, big as a house and with a pole holding it from rolling into the road. Census records for all these townships along the Airline are hard to find. When found, they are often tucked on the last page of some incorporated town, sometimes not even in the correct county.

House Rock in 1957 in TWP 28                                Beddington Stage Stop (Schoppee House)

TWP 28 MD – WHAT IS IN A NAME?

John Dean’s 1862 map has the name BREWSTER affixed to TWP 28 MD. What is the source of this name? A search of deeds between 1851 and 1869 at the Hancock County Register gave no person, corporation or academy named Brewster owning land in TWP 28. Next door in Washington County TWP 29 carries the name Devereaux after its owner George St Devereaux.

Eli Oakes of TWP 28 was in the Civil War. He was in Company E of the 11th Maine Infantry. Was his home near where in 1928 surveyors placed Bench Mark “N 10 1928 ME” near an apple orchard? This information is from Ken Ross, author of Washington County, Maine in the Civil War.

Maps we have seen show no homes in TWP 28, but three possible sites exist. That the highway follows closely to the township boundary clouds the issue. First is the home of Eli Oakes, where did he live?

Second is the site of bench mark “N 10 1928” that was then described as being “at the top of a hill, in an old Apple orchard" and 532.748 feet above sea level. Rodney Hanscom recovered this benchmark in 2006 and documented it was located 0.10 mile north along gravel road leading to Middle and Upper Lead Mountain Ponds, right at old cellar excavation.” Who lived there?

The third possible home site was told to me by Phil White. According to the forest fire boss named Rodney Grant, at the top of 28 Camp Hill, on the north side was a farm that served as a winter stage stop for the Airline Stage. Long hills and steep hills existed between Silsbys in Aurora and Schoppees in Beddington. Deep snow made for hard work going up hill and slippery conditions made it hard on horses to hold back the sleds going down hill. Today a small open field indicates the former farm site. The driveway has a steel gate of horizontal bars. Who lived there?

This story was published in 1943 and may have happened in TWP 28. Phyllis Norman, her sister-in-law, Mrs. John King, Jr. and Walter Ellsmore, all of Milltown, were returning from Portland at Christmas. They left Bangor on the Airline at 8:30 Thursday evening and drove until the car became stuck in the snow. They spent that night huddled in the unheated car. In the morning they started walking toward Bangor and came upon an old woods camp which they broke into and built a fire. They ate some dirty pancake flour and had to melt snow for drinking. They spent Friday night there and were found on Saturday morning by State Police. They all survived the 36-hour ordeal.

In 1858 Alexander Dallas Bache (1806 – 1867) was on top of Humpback or Lead Mountain with a survey crew and the most modern instruments. Bache was superintendent of the Coast Survey. He was finding the longitude of prominent locations all along the coast of the United States. In this day before the Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, he was using astronomical measurements. He found the longitude of Thomas Hill Standpipe in Bangor and of the granite column behind the old Calais Grade School.

Jefferson Davis, who would become President of the Confederate States of America, was a classmate of Bache’s at West Point Academy. Davis had served the United States as Secretary of War and was Senator from Mississippi when, in the summer of 1858, he became ill from the heat and humidity of Washington, DC. He doctor suggested rest in a cooler place so Davis, his wife Varina and their two children came north to Bangor by train and east to Aurora by stage where they stayed the night at the Stage Stop. The next day they went to Humpback where an ox sled was used to drag them and their supplies to the peak.

Professor Bache was a very civilized man. An excellent cook, he prepared tenderloin steaks from Bangor, and fresh vegetables from local farms. The latest books were read and Bache even had a music box that played Verdi’s newest Italian opera. Davis and his family stayed at Humpback for three weeks.

Township 22 MD BPP – During the summer of 2003, the MDOT is constructing a rest area on the north side of the road in the central part of the unorganized township.

REPORT OF FOREST COMMISSIONER – 1904 gives the following on TWP XXII. ‘The township is roughly bounded by two roads. The Air Line Road crosses the northerly part of the township, and the Cherryfield Road parallels the easterly line, that also being the Hancock – Washington County line. The Center-line Road is a logging road that runs about 3 miles southeasterly through the township. The township is in two watersheds, Rocky Pond (now visible from the Airline) drains into the Union River. The easterly part drains into the Narraguagus. There were five logging camps in operation in 1903 each having between one and two dozen men. There are but two inhabited houses on the township, these located about two miles from the northwest corner, on the Air-Line Road.’ The site of these dwellings must be where today are a couple of camps and a small field, at the top of a knoll.

There are a few camps and houses in #22 today, plus the Airline Snack Bar. Lois Tenan has been at the Snack Bar for years and was featured in a 1976 article in the Bangor Daily News when telephone service arrived for the second time in this area. (Union River Telephone Company)

Just east of the Snack Bar, the Cherryfield Road or Route 193 runs off to the south.

Deblois – South of Beddington, on the Cherryfield Road, we find Deblois which was incorporated 1852 from Township 17 MD BPP. This is named for Thomas Amery Deblois who, along with John Black and Reuben Mitchell, acquired several townships from City Bank on May 19, 1845. These were Townships 31, 23 (now Beddington), and 17 (now Deblois), being 19840 acres. Excepted from the lands sold in Annsburg were 480 acres of settlers’ lots, 960 acres of lots reserved for public use, and 1760 acres with lottery rights. Deblois was once called Annsburg after William Bingham’s daughter.

BEDDINGTON – LITTLE NARRAGUAGUS & THE CHALK POND MINE

Between Route 193 and the Blacks Tannery Bridge over the Narraguagus River we find a stream flowing south under the Airline roadway. It is named the Little Narraguagus River and it flows through Chalk Pond on its way to the Narraguagus River. The 1829 Survey of the Airline Road lists the same names each of these two rivers.

East of this waterway is the County Line. South of that sign stood a sawmill owned by Walter Keith. He had a millpond that flowed into the Little Narraguagus between Chalk Pond and the Narraguagus River. That dam raised the water in Chalk Pond a little when the mill was in operation.

Chalk Pond is the site of an interesting development. The pond is about half-and-half in two townships and two counties, Beddington and TWP 22 MDBPP, Washington and Hancock counties.