EARLY YEARS IN BANGOR

Some of those school mates are still living. There is Wade Brackett whose father was connected with the Boston and Bangor Steamship Company. Wade, all his life, has been connected with the Stickney and Babcock Coal Company. William, James and Samuel Robinson were sons of Samuel H. Robinson, who for many years kept a grocery store on Main Street. Lucy, John and James Cassidy were children of John Cassidy, a very wealthy lumber man. Millie, Ella, and Frances Donovan were daughters of Cornelious Donovan of the Bangor Police force. Coo Donovan, as he was known by his friends, was a great guy who took after his father and mother. I knew them both. He was a big, six-footer, and one of the best cops Bangor ever had. He was always kind no matter what a man's condition or looks. Many times I have seen him taking home some poor fellow who was unable to make it home, instead of locking him up. He would often times take them and put them in some back office until dinner time or for all night. On his way home from work, he would take them home.

His daughter, Frances, was a wonderful school teacher in our public schools for many years and is now retired.

In the cove where we went swimming were several wrecks of war vessels. Many years ago, the British attempted to come up the Penobscot River to take the city of Bangor and to capture the war vessels on the river. The vessels were put into the cove and destroyed to keep them from the British, but the British got only as far as Hampden and there the raid ended.

[This cannon was on one of  Commodore Saltonstall's sloops
of war blown up in Bangor's harbor during the ill-fated
Penobscot Expedition in August, 1776.  It was recovered in August, 1876.]

While the foundation for the new bridge from Bangor to Brewer was being laid, several cannon were taken from the river bed and were used as relics.

This cove has long since been taken over by the Maine Central Railroad. It has been filled in with coal ashes and gravel, making a freight yard for making up and storing freight trains.

Around the time these things were taking place, the Maine Central had only one track going out of Bangor. There were a few side tracks where idle freight and passenger cars could be stored and cleaned, readying them for the next trip out.

The old western depot, as it was called, was at the foot of Railroad Street, across from the depot. It was a coal stage where vessels loaded with coal were brought to be unloaded. This coal was to be used for fuel for the locomotives that pulled the freight and passenger trains to and from Bangor.

A little to the south of the depot were two round houses. These were used for cleaning and oiling the engines, getting them ready for the next trip out. Between these two houses was a turn table that was used to turn the engines so that they would be going the right way. The engines were taken to the coal bank at High Head and coaled up. Then they were ready to move.

Railroading was making great progress both in carrying freight and passengers. New equipment, more freight cars, more passenger cars, and bigger locomotives showed the improvement. More tracks were laid in the yards and double tracks now went out of Bangor, making it safer for everyone that used the railroad.

The old depot, where we used to go to meet our friends who came to us by train and say goodbye to them on their way home, had outgrown its usefulness. Another one, much bigger and better than the old one at the foot of Railroad Street, was built at the foot of Exchange Street. This modern and up-to-date depot could be seen the length of Exchange Street and was supposed to be the best in all of New England.

As the years went by and the world moved faster, people wanted to move faster. So the Maine Central had a new engine made and a train that they called the Flying Yankee. For many years, this train was a wonder and the pride of Bangor.

The Flying Yankee
 

This was the only change for a long time. But Bangor was growing, freight business was expanding, and people were using more passenger trains for traveling. This was the most comfortable way to travel. So a new and larger round house was built at High Point. It would handle much heavier equipment than had been in use. In fact, this same round house now handles the big diesel motors and the steam locomotives are all laid aside.

In the early days, the railroad came first in transportation because it was the fast way to get places. Ox teams were used for farm work and everything heavy. Horses were used for pleasure and local business. Later on, work horses replaced the ox teams because horses were much faster and could be handled more easily.

There were many truck men in Bangor who made a great deal of money by owning and using some of the best horses to be found. These horses would range in weight from eleven hundred to two thousand pounds each and were brought to Bangor from the west by several dealers. The biggest horse dealer was Charles Morse. He brought in car loads, selecting the horses himself, bringing them to his stable on Franklin Street. There he would hold an auction. Every two weeks, on Saturday, horsemen would come from miles around to buy horses.

Many of these horses were sent to the Maine woods to haul logs for the many mills along the Penobscot River or to haul pulp wood for the Great Northern Paper Company at Millinocket.

Some of the foremost truck men were Mactaugh Hughes, great-great grandfather of the Hughes boys of today. His home was on Walter Street. A native of Ireland, he had several sons. These were: Mactaugh, Jr., Martin, Jack, Peter and John. These boys were very young, but they could handle horses.

There was John Conners, a wood dealer; later came the Harris brothers and Craig Danforth. At the death of Mr. Danforth, a mover of heavy objects such as safes, pianos and all kinds of buildings, the business was taken over by his booker, Loran Coffin. He carried on the business for many years.

The Ham brothers owned and linked their own teams, hauling iron and steel from the railroad to N.H. Bragg, one of the oldest business houses in Bangor. N.H. Bragg is still doing business selling automobile parts of all kinds as well as whatever is in demand from their old line.

There were a great many more truck men, five and ten cent package delivery teams for small jobs, many public carriages, and hacks for funerals.

All of these things needed men to doctor sick horses and to keep their feet in good shape. There were two doctors that I knew very well as a boy. My father used to have them for his sick horses. One was Dr. Murch and another, Dr. Dwinal. This doctor lived to be nearly one hundred years old and was still practicing when he died!

Horseshoeing was very important. There were many blacksmiths in Bangor and they made a wonderful living. Some of these blacksmiths were: J.B. Atkin and son, C.M. Bragdon, W.L. Allen, G. Bragg, T.F. Cassidy, Charles Drew, Sam Fellows, H.S. Goodwin, A.T. Grant, W.R. Hobbs, George Leighton, John Mason and sons, Henry Smith and his three sons (Everett, Will and Normand). Many more fine men were noted for their knowledge in keeping horses' feet in good condition.

We of the older days never thought we would ever see the end of these things: the railroads, electric cars, horses, shipping on the river, buggies, oxen and depots. But these were all discarded for cars and gasoline trucks. I suppose the time will come when it will be hard to believe that these things ever existed.

There were men that owned stables where you could hire a horse and carriage for a half day or an evening for one dollar and fifty cents. What a thrill, taking your lady for a drive! Some of the livery stables and their owners were: Barnes and Mayo, M.F. Brackett, B.F. Brown, James Clark, Grand Central, Byther and Griffin, Mike Kane, C.L. Phillips, Albert Wright and many more.

Horse pulling was enjoyed and there was plenty of it! Everyone tried to have the best pullers and the best drivers. It happened that the big horses didn't always win. Sometimes a smaller pair of horses would take the prize. Mike Daily seemed to be able to find the best pulling horses as well as the best drivers. His best driver was a young man from Aroostook County named John Cummings. On one occasion, Cummings made an evener. This was a piece of oak wood about three inches wide, two inches thick and four feet long. The whiffle ties were hooked to it and springs were fastened to each end so the horses would pull even. Mr. Cummings carried this wrapped in a canvas and wouldn't let anyone see it until he was ready to pull his team. He won many matches. Mr. Cummings also invented the first potato seed cutter. For forty years he lived in Bangor. He died at the age of ninety-four.

It was a common thing to see several of John Connors’ teams on Main Street, either going to Hampden or coming to the city, loaded with pine or spruce slabwood to be sold for fuel. Since most people heated their homes with wood, it was common to see neat stacks of slabwood in most dooryards, drying for the winter use. John Connors called ten feet a cord and he charged two dollars and fifty cents for the load. It had to be paid for with cash. His business was a family affair, with the father and sons owning several teams which were driven by the sons. They lived on Hancock Street, which was owned mostly by people of Irish decent.

John's brother, Edward Conners, was a fine man who apparently had plenty of money, although I never saw him do any work. He had a fine home on State Street surrounded by beautiful shade trees, many of them elms. Bill, Gus, Charles and John were four of his sons. Gus was one of Bangor's very good policemen for many years. He is retired, but still living. Charles was City Solicitor for Bangor for some time.

Edward Connors, Sr. owned and operated Bangor Boom opposite what is now the Viner Brothers Shoe Factory. Together with his sons, he hired men to operate this business. There were many millions of feet of long logs coming from the Maine woods to this boom and these had to be sorted out for the several mills along the river. Edward, a sample of his native Ireland, could often be seen driving a beautiful pair of black horses hitched to a two-wheeled carriage that glistened like a mirror. His beautiful daughter always rode with him.

The Connors owned a tugboat named Connor which towed logs to many mills along the Penobscot River. One of these mills was the Dirigo of Brewer, now being used for a junk yard for old cars by A. Rolnick and Sons.

Another is the Hodkins and Hall in Hampden, Lowell and Ingalls and the Stearns Saw Mills, all shipping lumber to New York.

At the corner of Main and Railroad Streets was the Washburns Planing Mill. The lot is now being used for a filling station. At the foot of Railroad Street, across the railroad tracks, is the Wooden Box Mill. These boxes were used for shipping boots and shoes, clothing, dry goods of all kinds, and groceries. These boxes were shipped all over New England. Most of these mills sawed long lumber for shipping to New York and other places.

Plenty of wood slabs and blockwood was made for fuel, being brought up by the Connors family and sold in Bangor for fuel.

The Eastern Saw Mill in Brewer was owned by Fred Ayers of the Eastern Manufacturing Company. Mr. Ayers owned and operated a fleet of small vessels that sailed from Bangor to New York and as far south as Philadelphia. They carried all kinds of lumber from his saw mill to be re-shipped to all parts of the world. The vessels made a round trip in from three to six weeks, bringing back to Bangor coal, cement, pottery clay, pig iron, grain of all kinds, moulding sand, and fertilizer, among many other things.

Some of these things would go through the Maine Central draw bridge into the Kenduskeag Stream and as far up as the State Street bridge where J.F. Woodman started his coal business.

Some of these vessels were: The Maude Briggs, Kit Carson, Miniass War, Grace Davis, Cora Greer, Jonathan Cone, American Team and Mary Ann McCann.

Some of the Captains who were noted for their quick trips were: Captain Frank Gatchell (who had a license to sail a vessel anywhere in the world), Captain Will Gates, Captain Maddocks, Captain Mark Gray, and Captain Warren Atwood. These were small and brave men who could handle their vessels with the greatest of skill. Some of these men have been known to sail sixty miles up the Penobscot River and dock their vessel without the aid of a tug boat! All of these brave and wonderful men have long since made their last voyage.

The Morse Co. Mills were above the draw bridge. The logs from the boom were floated on the incoming tide through the State, Central and Franklin Street bridges. Then, one by one, their logs were taken over the wooden dam at the mill and floated under the old covered bridge and piled up on the banks of the Kenduskeag Stream. Sometimes these piles would be fifty feet high and more than a thousand feet long.

Morse Company Mill

It seemed that if the logs stayed in the water, they were not taxable. Piled up this way, however, the city of Bangor made the Morse Company pay a hefty tax on them.

The mill would start sawing as soon as the ice was gone in the Spring. From three o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock at night, the saws could be heard humming. No overtime pay, but men were thankful for a chance to work. The output ran into millions of feet yearly. Although lumber was used locally, some lathes and shingles were shipped to Bar Harbor and the bay ports. In the winter, part of the mill would operate, making doors, sashes, blinds and moldings of all kinds.

In 1898, great changes were beginning to take place. The coming of the electric car and the electric light, telephone and the horseless carriage (meaning the automobile) was going to change our way of living. As time went by and oil began to take the place of wood, coal and coke for home use, and as the big pulp mills were being built, the long lumber market began to lose out. The pulp mills' demand for wood was growing by leaps and bounds. Mills sawing lumber began to see their business dropping off. One by one, they left us. The singing of the old band saws is heard no more. The lumber that made Bangor famous and many Bangor men very wealthy has gone to make way for other industries. The ships and vessels that used to carry lumber out of Bangor to many parts of the world have long since gone.

The great colliers that used to bring millions of tons of coal to Bangor each year are also gone, giving way to oil and gasoline. Horses and wagons have disappeared from our highways, steamships have been laid aside. Our beautiful Penobscot River is almost forgotten, where it was once filled with excursion boats and yachts. The little Bon-ton number 1-2-3 that used to chug, chug, chug back and forth from Bangor to Brewer is gone. Remember how we used to take our children on these little ferry boats that we thought would always be with us, riding back and forth for a penny each?

What does all this mean to man-power, the mill men, the lumber men, the coal stevedores, blacksmiths and the many husky men, molders for foundries, sea captains and sailors? All of these men have had to find some other kind of work to do. The automobile has been responsible for most of these changes.

It is here that other industries have come in to take the place of others that had to discontinue. One of the new industries is the shoe business. There are now the Moccasins Co., Inc. on Oak Street, Kagan and Lown, a factory operated on lower Main Street known as the Bangor Shoe Co., J. Coombs Co., and the Viner Brothers. These latter boys started out with almost nothing, but they kept clinging until now they employ over five hundred hands!

These boys have never thought of themselves, but had a great desire to help others. So, with this in mind, they have made it possible for men and women to train for many jobs in the factory.

Some of these people are deaf and dumb. Some are crippled and not able to do all kinds of work. Some have been stricken with infantile paralysis. But these people have made fine workmen. Viner Brothers have made it possible for these people to take their place among people and become independent. God will bless these kind of employers for making these things possible. Otherwise, these people would not be able to find employment.  (click here to continue)
 

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