To the editor:
In 1838, Maine Governor John Fairfield sent an agent named Buckmore to the lower Aroostook Valley “to ascertain what timber operations New Brunswick lumbermen were making on the territory claimed by Maine. As much trespassing was found, Sheriff Strickland and Land Agent McIntyre started with a posse to arrest or disperse the trespassers,” according to Edward Wiggin, in “History of Aroostook.”
Lofty white pines along the Aroostook River made choice single-tree ship masts for the Royal British Navy. In February of 1839, the posse (sixty two-horse teams loaded with men, arms, and supplies) came down the Aroostook River on the ice from Masardis.
“On hearing the clanking of arms and the tread of the State militia,” the English “fled to safe quarters, leaving timber cut in the woods, throwing logs from their sleds and leaving tons of fine timber on the landings, and even leaving their cooking utensils in some instances,” reminisced Mr. Jacob Hardison, who settled on Letter H, R.2 (Caribou) in the spring of 1839.
The posse stayed on at Fort Fairfield until relieved by United States troops in 1841. The boundary dispute, known as the bloodless Aroostook War, was settled by treaty on August 9, 1842. Soon after, the Plantation of Letter D (Fort Fairfield) was organized.
One member of the Maine posse was Mr. Hiram Stevens, who remained in Letter D to “clear up” a farm awarded to him by the State. Years later (1857), Mr. Stevens reported to Augusta as one of 23 members of the newly-reorganized (and State-funded) Maine Board of Agriculture.
Board members were experienced agriculturists from around the state. Mr. Stevens was chosen to his seat by the North Aroostook Agricultural Society, formed to “aid in the development of Aroostook resources.”
Mr. Stevens reported “our society was incorporated in 1850, and the first show was held in 1851 [now the Northern Maine Fair]. The result of its efforts and influence is chiefly seen in a marked improvement in its stock. The effort now is to excel in breeding the best cows, steers and oxen.” Mr. Stevens noted much need for reducing waste of stable manure (a precious fertilizer) and furnishing cattle with warm shelter.
“In 1851 I raised thirty five and a half bushels of wheat to the acre. This crop I entered for premium, but did not get it, from the fact that a friend of mine in another township raised thirty-seven and a half bushels to the acre.”
Mr. Stevens followed his oat crops with a crop of hay or grass seed. “I will here state that if I should seed down for hay, I should sow on ten pounds of clover seed, and eight quarts of herdsgrass, to the acre, which would be less expense than seeding with clover, only.”
The North Aroostook Society’s Report for 1858 noted “the neat stock in the vicinity of Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield has a considerable infusion of Durham and Hereford blood – the latter of which is held in high esteem.
More recently the Devons have been introduced and are becoming very popular. J. Wingate Haines, who has long been a resident of Maple Grove and has large experience in the various breeds, says the Devons are justly celebrated for being docile and quiet, hardy and cheaply kept, and as working oxen active in their movements and of great endurance.”
Mr. Haines, originally of Kennebec County, had obtained a grant of wild lands from the state in 1845 in Letter D. He was president (and founder) of the North Aroostook Agricultural Society in 1851 when Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, editor of the Maine Farmer, was orator of the day that October at the society’s cattle show and fair.
The show was held “among the stumps, for the land [on the site of the present day Northern Maine Fairgrounds] had not been cleared long.” Dr. Holmes delivered his address standing in an ox-cart. Writing in the Maine Farmer, December 4, 1851, he noted “the weather was serene, calm, and beautiful – and so were the ladies; and, of course, all passed off pleasantly and happily.”
Steve Sutter
Presque Isle
