Reminiscences of Earlier Berlin
By Louville Paine, Sulphite Mill
In talking over “old times” and studying a map of Berlin Falls as it was in 1861, it suggested that the map and a collection of reminiscences would
be interesting material for the Bulletin. The suggestion brought forcibly to mind the often repeated saying, that also occurred the highly bedecked negro girl in the audience of the colored help on General Gordon's plantation, when they were assembled for the annual Christmas talk by the General's daughter, now Mrs. O. B. Brown. When informed that it was over 1800 years since Christ was born, the girl exclaimed, "Fo de Lor's sake, how time do fly." My father moved from Milan to Berlin in 1866, when I was three years old. That time has thus flown, and ones old enough
to write reminiscences is food for thought.
History has it that the settlement at Berlin Falls was the result of the pine-lumber business. It is said that pine clapboards were sawed here before the railroad was built, and were hauled with ox teams 50 miles to Harrison, Me., where they were put on canal boats, taken down Long Pond, Songo River, Sebago Lake, through the canal to Saccarappa, now Westbrook, to tidewater. Traces of the old road over the hill to Shelburne, just back of Forbush Park, can be pointed out by Hon. John B. Noyes.
Before the railroad came in the early fifties, the Hutchinson Mill was built near the mouth of Bean Brook. Later on, H. Winslow & Co. built on the site of the present Brown Company sawmill. Horner and Hastings built on the site where CityHall stands; Gower and Wilson, where Fceney's drug store is; Dexter Wheeler, a few rods back of the C. M. Hodgdon block. Daniel Green operated a steam sawmill at the foot of the "Bog"; J. W. Wheeler, one at Jericho; and A. H. Gerrish, a water-power mill at the Cascade, from which he hauled the lumber to Berlin station with ox teams.
The pine "boom" collapsed. The Horner & Hastings dam went out. The mills of Gower and Wilson and of Dexter Wheeler burned. Berlin Falls was left without much business, and its unused buildings were going to rack and ruin. This state of affairs existed about a dozen or fifteen years. Then the lumber business picked up, and spruce logs were worth $3.50 per M, landed on the banks of the Androscoggin. This news was hailed with much joy by the settlers on the river.
At the time my father came to Berlin, all was alder swamp, mud, and brush betwoen the occasional houses. In a mill built by their father, Wm. A., the Wilson "boys,"' George, Frank, and William, made salt boxes from poplar, shingles, and spools out of white birch. Daniel Green made shingles and spool stuff on the Gower and Wilson site. For early traders, Moses T. Cross kept a general store; Daniel Green kept supplies for his boarding house and employees, and sold some to the public; Wheeler and Paine, and Ira Mason had general stores; and a little later Wilson Bros, opened a general store. In length of time Wm. Moffett made the record. Because of an injury to his leg caused bya colt when he was a young man, he was
prevented from doing able-bodied work. He learned the cobbler's trade, and for more than fifty years conducted the business, most of the time in the little old shop that stands yet upon Exchange Street. His shop was the gathering place of the idle wise (perhaps you might call them), and all of the weighty questions of the day were profoundly discussed and settled there. A few chairs in a store were as much a necessity as the stock in trade.
Sometimes it looked as if a man were more comfortable in a store sitting on a nail keg or barrel than he would be in his rocking chair at home.
Daniel Green had the distinction of becoming the wealthiest man in town. It was justly due him that he did. He had a firm conviction that the wonderful water power would some time be needed for manufacturing purposes, and he lived to see his "dream come true." After the pine business "petered out," he began to acquire all the land possible in the vicinity of the village, "while the getting was good." His mill activities are referred to elsewhere. He drained and planted the "Bog" to cranberries at an expense of about ten thousand dollars, but the frost proved disastrous to the venture. He donated the land for Eagle Hall and gave the site on Exchange Street for the Universalist Church, now the Jewish Synagogue. He was somewhat "quick to anger," and naturally many things would happen in his varied activities that would vex him sorely. One time someone was
trying to "put something over" on him. This caused him to exclaim with considerable heat, "Some people think they are doing God's service if they can get a dollar out of Old Man Green!"
The first boom that started land values up, came when H. H. Furbish built the Forest Fibre Mill just below Tube Mill No. 2; and the next, when the Glen Manufacturing Company built its paper mill on the island at the "Big Pitch"; and the end doesn't seem to be yet. Dexter Wheeler was agent at the Grand Trunk Station along 1860 to 1870. One man did it all, sold the tickets, handled the freight and baggage, telegraphed by tape, tended the switches, and in addition sold confectionery, sweet cider, and lemonade. He was a very thrifty, economical man and therefore became "forehanded."
With his kindly qualities of heart, he is said to have helped more people out of financial difficulties than any other man in town. Later on, for a period of eleven years, he and Gardner Paine conducted a general store, first in the building now occupied by the Chevrolet Company and lastly under Eagle Hall on Green Street. After a lapse of more than fifty years, old timers from Milan have said to me, "Wheeler and Paine, awful good fellers to deal with."
A. K. Cole succeeded Dexter Wheeler as station agent and was there many years. He saw great changes in railroading in the way of improvement and efficiency. There are many people who remember his superior mental equipment, and, had not his ambition for a medical career been thwarted by sickness, he would undoubtedly have become famous in that profession. A list of young men who learned railroading and telegraphy under him
would contain such names as Oscar Oswell, Chas. Gerrish, Jim Lavin, Geo. Twitchell, Frank Gerrish, and Owen, his son.
Ira Mason returned from a financially successful trip to California about 1868 and moved his family down town into what was afterward called the "Beehive." It was formerly used by the Horner and Hastings Company as a boarding house. Mr. Mason bought the building at the north of Green Square (recently torn down to build the Margolin Block) and ran a general store until his death. His very agreeable personality drew him many customers and friends. His interpretation of my child name, "Villie," was "Villain," just to tease me. Mrs. Mason, now nearly 90 years of age, and four children, Bret, Maria, (Chamberlin), Persis (Rich), and Althea (Linton), survive him. A fortunate acquisition of land from the "Narrows" down,
including "Fibreville" and "St. Giles" before the "boom," brought him and his heirs a very substantial fortune.
The keeping of the New England country tavern was almost a profession by itself. Nearly every town had one, and most of sthe keepers were "characters." Berlin had one in the person of Merrill C. Forist. He was a school teacher, justice of the peace, postmaster, a fine penman and taught writing school, a good talker, and a famous story teller. His tavern was the old Green Block on Green Square, lately torn down. Afterward he built the Mt. Forist House on the site of the Newberry store in anticipation of "summer boarders" and became a hotel keeper. Quite a number were attracted here by the wonderful scenery, and he did some business in that line. Mt. Forist was named for him. The wild and picturesque scenery has always been a matter of much interest to the visitor from away. It is told that a man riding through on the Grand Trunk dropped his paper as the train came to a standstill at the station and looked out, up against bare Mt. Forist, "Well, I swum," said he, "I never was out of sight of land before 1"
Richard Perkins built and lived in a house near the Grand Trunk Station. He was head millwright for H. Winslow and Company. His son, James, has held the same position for the Brown Company for many years. From lack of school advantages he was unable to read or write, but his daughter read the papers to him, and with the keen memory noticeable in such cases, he was reputed to be the best infomed man in town. He was said to be
somewhat "tempery," and woe to the man who did not let "discretion be the better part of valor," and aroused his ire. It is told how he chased a prominent citizen around the stove in the G. T. Station, until he got "one to the jaw" straight from the shoulder. "There," he said, "I guess he will not shave again for a while."
Among the most pleasant, lingering impressions is the memory of Mrs. W. W. Brown, wife of the founder of the Berlin Mills Company. She was a woman of such a winning personality and kindly spirit as to endear her to all who came in contact with her. Perhaps some of the old timers will remember a birthday party given for her son, Herbert, at the edge of the woods back of the Brown House. The watchful care with which she looked after the comfort of the guests made the children feel at ease and enter into the spirit of the occasion.
Fashion decreed that for a man to be dressed up, he should wear a black suit (which lasted him four or five years as "best"), long-legged calf or hip boots (cow-hide for working), a "boiled" shirt with detachable cuffs, a little bow tie, a paper collar; and to cap the climax his hair should be well oiled. Hair oil was a standard commodity. But best of all for that purpose was bear's oil, usually a scarce article. The Noyes family were our next door neghbors and some hunters. They had a bottle of bear's oil out in the snow cooling. While playing in the yard, I saw the bottle and, not knowing its valuable contents, crushed it under foot, which they thought an act of "pure cussedness," rather than one of innocence, probably on account of my reputatoin. By the way, Harry of the third generation, with two notches on his bear gun for last season, bids fair to uphold the reputation of his forefathers.
"Uncle" and "Aunt Joe" Blodgett lived a short distance below the territory taken in by the map, where Herman Miles now lives. The ell of the present house was the original house. "Aunt Joe" had a spinning wheel, of course, and also a loom on which she wove cloth for the family clothes.
Herman Alton, a son, was a carpenter and builder and was known by the whole community. A job done by him could be depended upon to be thorough and substantial. He built Eagle Hall, and was the first Santa Claus in it. Daniel another son, was a carpenter. He served his country through nearly all of the Civil War. He met his death when the G. T. Station burned in 1872. As he was trying to salvage a trunk for a neighbor, the
chimney fell on him, killing him instantly. He lived on Green Street next to Samuel Andrews in a house built after the map of '61 was made. Of two children, Edward and Lizzie, Edward survives.
Dexter Blodgett moved down near the Gorham line, and, with some farming, he plied his trades of sled, wagon and boat building, mill repairing, blacksmithing, and bear hunting. He built a wire bridge across the river and made it possible for
people to go over and see the beautiful Alpine Cascades. Mrs. Blodgett conducted a refreshment stand at the head of a long flight of stairs up the high riverbank. There she dispensed such articles as peanuts, candy, cigars, cheroots, etc. Her strong card, however, was a very excellent pop beer, put in quart stone bottles with the corks tied down with a strong string. From sad experiences with blackened eyes, several of us learned to hold those bottles pointed the other way, when we untied the string.
The old Alpine House at Gorham (now a part of the Mt. Madison) was run many years by John R. Hitchcock. He became wealthy and among other things sported a very fine team. He often drove to Berlin. How we boys did look with awe at the outfit and people! The high sleigh, the fur coats and caps and robes, gauntlet fur gloves, tall high-stepping horses, silver-mounted harnesses and a long string of bells around each horse presented a
picture of wealth that we might envy but hardly appreciate.
"Tinker" Robbins lived near the brook and hill that bear his name, on the Gorham road. He was a man who laid downcertain rules concerning the conduct of his household. He claimed a serious infraction of some of those rules by his wife. He went to town and bought an old-fashioned salt codfish, and took it home and gave her a good spanking with it. "After that," he said, "she was always just as good a woman as a man need have to
live with."
From the nature of the items in this contribution to the Bulletin, it is impossible to present them with much semblance of chronological order.
A word of explanation concerning the map. It was given to my father by the maker, Capt. John M. Wilson, an old surveyor from the Magalloway. He was an intimate friend of the Paine family in Milan. The names were not on the map originally, but fortunately Hon. John B. Noyes, who came to Berlin in 1861, remembered and supplied them all.
be interesting material for the Bulletin. The suggestion brought forcibly to mind the often repeated saying, that also occurred the highly bedecked negro girl in the audience of the colored help on General Gordon's plantation, when they were assembled for the annual Christmas talk by the General's daughter, now Mrs. O. B. Brown. When informed that it was over 1800 years since Christ was born, the girl exclaimed, "Fo de Lor's sake, how time do fly." My father moved from Milan to Berlin in 1866, when I was three years old. That time has thus flown, and ones old enough
to write reminiscences is food for thought.
History has it that the settlement at Berlin Falls was the result of the pine-lumber business. It is said that pine clapboards were sawed here before the railroad was built, and were hauled with ox teams 50 miles to Harrison, Me., where they were put on canal boats, taken down Long Pond, Songo River, Sebago Lake, through the canal to Saccarappa, now Westbrook, to tidewater. Traces of the old road over the hill to Shelburne, just back of Forbush Park, can be pointed out by Hon. John B. Noyes.
Before the railroad came in the early fifties, the Hutchinson Mill was built near the mouth of Bean Brook. Later on, H. Winslow & Co. built on the site of the present Brown Company sawmill. Horner and Hastings built on the site where CityHall stands; Gower and Wilson, where Fceney's drug store is; Dexter Wheeler, a few rods back of the C. M. Hodgdon block. Daniel Green operated a steam sawmill at the foot of the "Bog"; J. W. Wheeler, one at Jericho; and A. H. Gerrish, a water-power mill at the Cascade, from which he hauled the lumber to Berlin station with ox teams.
The pine "boom" collapsed. The Horner & Hastings dam went out. The mills of Gower and Wilson and of Dexter Wheeler burned. Berlin Falls was left without much business, and its unused buildings were going to rack and ruin. This state of affairs existed about a dozen or fifteen years. Then the lumber business picked up, and spruce logs were worth $3.50 per M, landed on the banks of the Androscoggin. This news was hailed with much joy by the settlers on the river.
At the time my father came to Berlin, all was alder swamp, mud, and brush betwoen the occasional houses. In a mill built by their father, Wm. A., the Wilson "boys,"' George, Frank, and William, made salt boxes from poplar, shingles, and spools out of white birch. Daniel Green made shingles and spool stuff on the Gower and Wilson site. For early traders, Moses T. Cross kept a general store; Daniel Green kept supplies for his boarding house and employees, and sold some to the public; Wheeler and Paine, and Ira Mason had general stores; and a little later Wilson Bros, opened a general store. In length of time Wm. Moffett made the record. Because of an injury to his leg caused bya colt when he was a young man, he was
prevented from doing able-bodied work. He learned the cobbler's trade, and for more than fifty years conducted the business, most of the time in the little old shop that stands yet upon Exchange Street. His shop was the gathering place of the idle wise (perhaps you might call them), and all of the weighty questions of the day were profoundly discussed and settled there. A few chairs in a store were as much a necessity as the stock in trade.
Sometimes it looked as if a man were more comfortable in a store sitting on a nail keg or barrel than he would be in his rocking chair at home.
Daniel Green had the distinction of becoming the wealthiest man in town. It was justly due him that he did. He had a firm conviction that the wonderful water power would some time be needed for manufacturing purposes, and he lived to see his "dream come true." After the pine business "petered out," he began to acquire all the land possible in the vicinity of the village, "while the getting was good." His mill activities are referred to elsewhere. He drained and planted the "Bog" to cranberries at an expense of about ten thousand dollars, but the frost proved disastrous to the venture. He donated the land for Eagle Hall and gave the site on Exchange Street for the Universalist Church, now the Jewish Synagogue. He was somewhat "quick to anger," and naturally many things would happen in his varied activities that would vex him sorely. One time someone was
trying to "put something over" on him. This caused him to exclaim with considerable heat, "Some people think they are doing God's service if they can get a dollar out of Old Man Green!"
The first boom that started land values up, came when H. H. Furbish built the Forest Fibre Mill just below Tube Mill No. 2; and the next, when the Glen Manufacturing Company built its paper mill on the island at the "Big Pitch"; and the end doesn't seem to be yet. Dexter Wheeler was agent at the Grand Trunk Station along 1860 to 1870. One man did it all, sold the tickets, handled the freight and baggage, telegraphed by tape, tended the switches, and in addition sold confectionery, sweet cider, and lemonade. He was a very thrifty, economical man and therefore became "forehanded."
With his kindly qualities of heart, he is said to have helped more people out of financial difficulties than any other man in town. Later on, for a period of eleven years, he and Gardner Paine conducted a general store, first in the building now occupied by the Chevrolet Company and lastly under Eagle Hall on Green Street. After a lapse of more than fifty years, old timers from Milan have said to me, "Wheeler and Paine, awful good fellers to deal with."
A. K. Cole succeeded Dexter Wheeler as station agent and was there many years. He saw great changes in railroading in the way of improvement and efficiency. There are many people who remember his superior mental equipment, and, had not his ambition for a medical career been thwarted by sickness, he would undoubtedly have become famous in that profession. A list of young men who learned railroading and telegraphy under him
would contain such names as Oscar Oswell, Chas. Gerrish, Jim Lavin, Geo. Twitchell, Frank Gerrish, and Owen, his son.
Ira Mason returned from a financially successful trip to California about 1868 and moved his family down town into what was afterward called the "Beehive." It was formerly used by the Horner and Hastings Company as a boarding house. Mr. Mason bought the building at the north of Green Square (recently torn down to build the Margolin Block) and ran a general store until his death. His very agreeable personality drew him many customers and friends. His interpretation of my child name, "Villie," was "Villain," just to tease me. Mrs. Mason, now nearly 90 years of age, and four children, Bret, Maria, (Chamberlin), Persis (Rich), and Althea (Linton), survive him. A fortunate acquisition of land from the "Narrows" down,
including "Fibreville" and "St. Giles" before the "boom," brought him and his heirs a very substantial fortune.
The keeping of the New England country tavern was almost a profession by itself. Nearly every town had one, and most of sthe keepers were "characters." Berlin had one in the person of Merrill C. Forist. He was a school teacher, justice of the peace, postmaster, a fine penman and taught writing school, a good talker, and a famous story teller. His tavern was the old Green Block on Green Square, lately torn down. Afterward he built the Mt. Forist House on the site of the Newberry store in anticipation of "summer boarders" and became a hotel keeper. Quite a number were attracted here by the wonderful scenery, and he did some business in that line. Mt. Forist was named for him. The wild and picturesque scenery has always been a matter of much interest to the visitor from away. It is told that a man riding through on the Grand Trunk dropped his paper as the train came to a standstill at the station and looked out, up against bare Mt. Forist, "Well, I swum," said he, "I never was out of sight of land before 1"
Richard Perkins built and lived in a house near the Grand Trunk Station. He was head millwright for H. Winslow and Company. His son, James, has held the same position for the Brown Company for many years. From lack of school advantages he was unable to read or write, but his daughter read the papers to him, and with the keen memory noticeable in such cases, he was reputed to be the best infomed man in town. He was said to be
somewhat "tempery," and woe to the man who did not let "discretion be the better part of valor," and aroused his ire. It is told how he chased a prominent citizen around the stove in the G. T. Station, until he got "one to the jaw" straight from the shoulder. "There," he said, "I guess he will not shave again for a while."
Among the most pleasant, lingering impressions is the memory of Mrs. W. W. Brown, wife of the founder of the Berlin Mills Company. She was a woman of such a winning personality and kindly spirit as to endear her to all who came in contact with her. Perhaps some of the old timers will remember a birthday party given for her son, Herbert, at the edge of the woods back of the Brown House. The watchful care with which she looked after the comfort of the guests made the children feel at ease and enter into the spirit of the occasion.
Fashion decreed that for a man to be dressed up, he should wear a black suit (which lasted him four or five years as "best"), long-legged calf or hip boots (cow-hide for working), a "boiled" shirt with detachable cuffs, a little bow tie, a paper collar; and to cap the climax his hair should be well oiled. Hair oil was a standard commodity. But best of all for that purpose was bear's oil, usually a scarce article. The Noyes family were our next door neghbors and some hunters. They had a bottle of bear's oil out in the snow cooling. While playing in the yard, I saw the bottle and, not knowing its valuable contents, crushed it under foot, which they thought an act of "pure cussedness," rather than one of innocence, probably on account of my reputatoin. By the way, Harry of the third generation, with two notches on his bear gun for last season, bids fair to uphold the reputation of his forefathers.
"Uncle" and "Aunt Joe" Blodgett lived a short distance below the territory taken in by the map, where Herman Miles now lives. The ell of the present house was the original house. "Aunt Joe" had a spinning wheel, of course, and also a loom on which she wove cloth for the family clothes.
Herman Alton, a son, was a carpenter and builder and was known by the whole community. A job done by him could be depended upon to be thorough and substantial. He built Eagle Hall, and was the first Santa Claus in it. Daniel another son, was a carpenter. He served his country through nearly all of the Civil War. He met his death when the G. T. Station burned in 1872. As he was trying to salvage a trunk for a neighbor, the
chimney fell on him, killing him instantly. He lived on Green Street next to Samuel Andrews in a house built after the map of '61 was made. Of two children, Edward and Lizzie, Edward survives.
Dexter Blodgett moved down near the Gorham line, and, with some farming, he plied his trades of sled, wagon and boat building, mill repairing, blacksmithing, and bear hunting. He built a wire bridge across the river and made it possible for
people to go over and see the beautiful Alpine Cascades. Mrs. Blodgett conducted a refreshment stand at the head of a long flight of stairs up the high riverbank. There she dispensed such articles as peanuts, candy, cigars, cheroots, etc. Her strong card, however, was a very excellent pop beer, put in quart stone bottles with the corks tied down with a strong string. From sad experiences with blackened eyes, several of us learned to hold those bottles pointed the other way, when we untied the string.
The old Alpine House at Gorham (now a part of the Mt. Madison) was run many years by John R. Hitchcock. He became wealthy and among other things sported a very fine team. He often drove to Berlin. How we boys did look with awe at the outfit and people! The high sleigh, the fur coats and caps and robes, gauntlet fur gloves, tall high-stepping horses, silver-mounted harnesses and a long string of bells around each horse presented a
picture of wealth that we might envy but hardly appreciate.
"Tinker" Robbins lived near the brook and hill that bear his name, on the Gorham road. He was a man who laid downcertain rules concerning the conduct of his household. He claimed a serious infraction of some of those rules by his wife. He went to town and bought an old-fashioned salt codfish, and took it home and gave her a good spanking with it. "After that," he said, "she was always just as good a woman as a man need have to
live with."
From the nature of the items in this contribution to the Bulletin, it is impossible to present them with much semblance of chronological order.
A word of explanation concerning the map. It was given to my father by the maker, Capt. John M. Wilson, an old surveyor from the Magalloway. He was an intimate friend of the Paine family in Milan. The names were not on the map originally, but fortunately Hon. John B. Noyes, who came to Berlin in 1861, remembered and supplied them all.
