To the editor:
In spite of a modest start with the purchase of a 20-acre island in the Aroostook River in 1839, Mr. John Allen developed an exceptionally productive farm. Aided by awards from the State of two sizable “treaty lots” following the Aroostook War, Allen became the most successful of Presque Isle’s early real estate agents – and creditors. Mr. Joseph B. Hall, editor of the Aroostook Herald (later merging with the North/Star to become The Star-Herald) had a wholehearted interest in Presque Isle’s history. The following article by John Allen was published in the paper on December 25, 1884.
“After seeing a little sketch of the first settlement of Presque Isle and the first schools in the Herald not long since, and being an old settler in Maysville, now one-half of Presque Isle, I thought it might not be amiss to give a little sketch of the Maysville part of town. [South Presque Isle and Maysville annexed each other on February 14, 1883.]
I first came there in February 1839. At that time there were but two dwelling houses in Presque Isle and one of them was a gristmill. Captain Dennis Fairbanks lived in a part of it and it was a nice comfortable dwelling.
In Maysville (Letter G, Range 2) there were on both sides of the river nearly 30 settlers, among whom were, John Beckwith, Daniel Currier, Amos Heald, Plummer, Lewis Bradley and his brother Henry, Eben Oakes, Stephen Sutter, Thomas Navay, T.J. Hobart, Story Hooper, Jacob Weeks, Ferdinand Armstrong, William Johnston, Joseph Blake, A. Johnston, John Rafford, Elias Brown, Nathan Gardner, Butler, Isaac Thomas, William Pyle, Lewis Johnston, Cyrus Pomroy, John E. Raymond, Thomas Elliot, Philo Bean. A portion of them were from the Province, and some had commenced their settlement as early as 1822 [including Lewis and Charles Johnson]. I commenced farming there in 1840 and in 1841 moved my family there.
The only road the settlers had prior to 1839 was the river, by canoes in summer and on the ice in winter. The first school was taught by Miss P. Eastman in the summer of 1841. She was a graduate of Readfield Seminary and was a most excellent teacher. She taught a number of terms. We never failed of a school a year since, and now we have the privileges of the most favored country in the state.
Now Presque Isle village has no less than 25 stores, 18 of them built since our last May fire and most of them number one and well filled.”
As a piece of history, this writer has a $124 one-year mortgage issued by John Allen to James A. and Catharine Sutter on November 28, 1857. James A. Sutter was listed in the 1850 Census (at age 54 years) as a farm laborer. Collateral was the family’s 100-acre farm on the Reach Road. Evidently, the balance due with interest was paid in full.
Presque Isle
