North Cobbtown Road

Cobbtown Road is today two roads, North and South Cobbtown with a stretch in between that is no longer a public way. Here is the result of Corelyn Senn's extensive research and exploration of a section of our town that today is known for its summer cottages. Corelyn Senn, who lives on South Cobbtown, has spent years exploring the cellar holes, wells, stone walls, dams, gravestones and other remnants of that once vibrant community. Each new feature led her to the Waldo County Registry of Deeds to piece together the chain of ownership.

NORTH COBBTOWN ROAD

Cobbtown Road is the oldest Town Road in Lincolnville. It ran from what is now Route 52 all the way to Ducktrap Harbor and was well used by the end of the 18^th century as goods were carried along it to the Harbor. Ducktrap Harbor was developed first and then next was the Pitcher Pond end where Hezekiah Batchelder had built a sawmill on what was then called Batchelder Stream, now Kendall Brook, by the end of the 1790s. What is now South Cobbtown Rd was never used for much except as wood lots. This part of North Cobbtown Rd from about 10^th Ave to 5^th Ave began to be developed by the 1820s. There may have been squatters here before that but we have no cellar holes to prove it. They may have had more temporary shelters to use while they logged.

All the land here was under the control of Gen Henry Knox by 1785—he was granted it by Samuel Waldo. Knox appointed George Ulmer as his land agent. George Ulmer owned sawmills and shipping and stores and just about everything down at Ducktrap Harbor and he owned the big house that is still on the corner of South Cobbtown Rd and RT 1. His job was to sell land and make those who had already settled on land pay for it. Due to a number of business dealings that enraged Knox, Ulmer lost his position, Knox foreclosed on 2,000 acres and by 1801 he had became quite poor. About 1822, moved down to the outlet of Pitcher Pond near his daughter and son-in-law where he received the profits from a sawmill and lived until his death in 1825.

Meanwhile, by 1806, Knox also lost his lands. He went into debt and was foreclosed on by Israel Thorndike, David Sears and William Prescott from Boston. They became the agents for selling almost all of Lincolnville.

In order to do this they divided the Town into Ranges and Lots, each lot being approximately 100 acres. This area is Range F. It went from up on the mountain down to about Fifth Ave. From there on, 501 acres had been mortgaged by George Ulmer to Abiel Wood from Wiscasset in 1802. Ulmer had mortgaged the land to Knox and then tried to clear his debts by mortgaging it to Wood but Wood foreclosed on him in 1805 and he lost it. Wood died in 1811 and in 1824, his lands were divided up by the court among his children and they sold them as lots as well. All the lots here generally went from Pitcher Pond to the Ducktrap River in long strips.

DRINKWATER FARM: these are the foundations of the house and barn of Wyman Drinkwater. There are people who still remember buildings being here. Wyman was a ship’s captain from Northport. In 1834, he bought 115 acres running from Pitcher Pond to the Ducktrap River for $580.00. He moved here with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two young sons. In 1838, Elizabeth died and she is buried in the Ulmer Cemetery above Ducktrap Beach. In 1839, he married Ruth Knight and they raised 8 children that we know of including the two he had with Elizabeth. . Wyman lived here until his death in 1882 and then his wife sold it in 1885 to Ernest Drinkwater.

There is another cellar hole further along the road. It is the first trail on your left and is only a little way up on the right. You cannot miss it.

We do not know who built the house. In 1872, Zealor Richards sold the land to Wyman Drinkwater and “reserved the right to remove the buildings at his pleasure.” This land was originally part of the Drinkwater Farm but it was sold to Margaret Barrows in 1847. She bought 2 other parcels that included land down by the bogs and she and her husband farmed it. The 1859 map shows her house as being closer to that area and I have found some mostly filled in remains of what could be a small cellar hole in the area. Perhaps she and her husband started down there but they had 10 children and may have moved up here to a bigger house. I like Margaret because when she sold her lands she doubled her money—perhaps that was due to her houses and her good farming on poor land.

DRINKWATER/FIELD CEMETERY: This cemetery was part of the Drinkwater Farm When Ruth, sold the farm in 1885 she put in the deed, “reserving for myself the burying ground on the farm.” Interestingly, neither Wyman nor Ruth are buried here (they are buried in Northport) and as we know, Wyman’s first wife is buried in the Ulmer Cemetery at Ducktrap.

This cemetery has only one grave in it that we can identify. It is that of Joseph Field who died on October 12, 1885. He was a Mason as we can see from his stone. When he died, Joseph was living on RT 1 but he was born just down the road here and also lived on the abutting land. We will see the cellar holes of both places.

People who know the area from 50 years ago remember more stones here. We don’t know whose they were but we have some guesses as to who might have been buried here. Joseph Field was married to Almira who died in 1870 and there is no record of her burial spot. A common custom was for the husband to be buried with the first wife and the fact that Joseph’s second wife, Laura, is buried in Maplewood gives credence to the possibility of Almira and Joseph being buried together here.

Joseph’s father, Edward, whose cellar hole we will see, homesteaded 25 acres down the road and lived there almost all his life with his wife Hannah. He loved this land and so it seems reasonable to think that Edward and Hannah might both be buried here.

George and Lois McCobb lived down the road, moving there before 1826 and keeping the farm until they died in 1878 and 1881 respectively. Lois was Wyman Drinkwater’s sister. Andrew (brother of George) and Almira (sister of Wyman) McCobb lived on the next farm for most of their lives but they are buried in the French Cemetery with marked stones.

George and Lois, however, have no marked stones in Lincolnville or Northport Cemeteries so they might have been buried near their farm where they lived their whole adult lives and where they died.

There are some small fieldstones. Could these be Drinkwater, McCobb or Field children? The only child whose death we know of is Evaline McCobb, child of Lois and George, born in 1844, who died in 1845.

Now we come to Lot #5 which to me is the most fascinating lot. It is the mystery lot because it holds so many secrets we have not yet unlocked—and perhaps never will.

It is 100 acres running from Pitcher Pond to the Ducktrap River. The first information we have on it is the sale to John Kimball of Belfast in 1828 for $450.00. He kept it until 1834 and presumably logged it off because when he sold it he got only $150.00. Another interesting thing is that when he sold it he lopped of 25 acres on the river side and down the road. He did not say why he did this but we think we know .

Edward Field, the father of Joseph, homesteaded these 25 acres at least as early as 1827, and lived here almost until he died in the early 1870’s.

When John Kimball sold the 75 acres in 1834, he sold it to Thomas Frohock, Jr. who just happened to be the brother of Edward Field’s wife, Hannah, so perhaps that had something to do with lopping off the 25 acres. Thomas and his wife Elizabeth, lived there with their two daughters for 17 years, and developed what must have been a good farm with a big house and barn whose foundations we shall see. So successful was the farm that when he sold it in 1851 to Andrew Tarbell he was paid $600.00 for the seventy-five acres.

Andrew Tarbell sold the 75 acre farm to John Duncan for $550.00 in 1856. In 1857, Duncan took off more acreage on the river side and abutting the previous 25 acres. Although he only owned 25 acres over there he seems to have increased it to 30 acres for the sale. That was the joy of “more or less” that shows up in most deeds. Duncan sold the land for $70.00 to Rufus Maddox who built a house and two wells. We suspect there were two because one went dry. (Cellar hole and wells)

He sold the remaining 50 acres on this side to Joseph Field for $200.00 in 1857. Joseph and his family were already living there and they continued to until 1867.

Mystery #1: Back in the woods here is the grave of William Delano who died on March 15, 1826. Try as we might, we cannot find out who he was. He has a beautiful stone with a weeping willow and an urn and the epitaph:

His Savior’s smiles dispell’d the gloom

And smooth’s his passage to the tomb

So someone cared when he died and spent some good money on it. He was buried before the land was divided up because his actual grave is just over the line into Lot 4 although the cemetery within the walls is in both Lot #4 and Lot# 5. Note the very big stone wall coming up to the boundaries and marking the dividing line between lots

From 1826 until the early 1830’s much of this land was “contracted” to people who had not yet bought it. I am wondering if this land might have been contracted to William and that is why he was buried here. There is no record that he ever bought it. I have been searching for the records of Thorndike. Sears and Prescott but have not yet found their papers.

The Frohock Farm: also lived in by Andrew Tarbell and Joseph Field and their families. There is a large cellar hole for the house and by dowsing, Rosey believes that the well was at the end of the house. I have not been able to find any other. We also have the barn foundation and more than likely it was joined by other buildings—Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn. There are a lot of stonewall which probably enclosed pastures—there were also many on the Drinkwater Farm.

Mystery #2 We have a very unusual stone structure on this lot. The front part of it is a retaining wall about 40”-48” high which we think was built across the front of a ledge rock. This retaining wall is possibly 8’ wide. In it, near one end is a stone lined “pit,” oval in shape, 3’-4” This is almost level with the top of the ledge whose dimensions we do not know—but big. Off to the side is a pile of stone that looks like it was pushed off the ledge and had once been some sort of a foundation. In studying it, we now believe that the foundation was 18’X24’. We have thought of all sots of possibilities starting with it being a sheep shed but all that stonework mitigates that. Also, recently we found pieces of pottery in the dirt on the ledge and we now believe this to have been a house. What we believe to be a well is 15’ away. The best guess after talking with archaeologists and archaeological historians is that it was a half-cape, with a stone foundation. It seems pretty odd that anyone would build a house like that after there was the big house to live in so in my fantasy I wonder if this could have been William Delano’s house. So far I have not found a name plate for the door!

Edward Field’s cellar hole: this is where Edward Field homesteaded his 25 acres as early as 1827 when he married Hannah Frohock. He was given this land when John Kimball sold the other 25 acres to Thomas Frohock, Jr. He and Hannah raised 7 children here. Edward apparently loved this land and in 1868 he indentured himself to his wife so that he could stay there even though she moved in with Joseph. He paid 1 cent a year and she had the right to come in anytime to inspect for repairs and cleanliness. In 1870, Joseph bought the farm to help out his parents (he paid them $500 for it and a few months later sold it for $250.00) Edward then moved in with Joseph. Edward died soon after, while Hannah died in 1885, just before Joseph. There are several wells on this land.

Across from this cellar hole are a whole bunch of cellar holes and way back in is a well. I believe these belonged to Jennie Manning and her husband, John, who bought the land in the 1870s. Jennie was widowed and managed the farm by herself but in 1921, she could no longer manage it or pay the taxes and gave it to the Town of Lincolnville in exchange for a life lease for herself.

Just on the other side of the wall, putting it into Lot #6 is a small cellar hole and I have not been able to figure out whose it was.

At 8th Ave there was the Cobbtown School. We are not sure when it opened but it closed in 1898. Edith Philbrook was a teacher there and her diary is at the Museum. Between 1829 and 1850 the following children were living here in School District 13:

Children of:

Andrew and Almira McCobb--5 children

George and Lois McCobb--8 children

Thomas Frohock, Jr--2 children

Edward and Hannah Field--7 children

John and Margaret Barrow5 children

Wyman and Ruth Drinkwater--6 children

Levi and Mary Thomas--2 children

Samuel and Harriet Thurston--4 children

39 children!

In the 1850s the Tarbells moved in with children and when they moved away Joseph and Almira Field moved in with children as did Rufus and Esther Maddocks and Huse and Sarah Richards. No wonder Edith Philbrook had a job!

This is as far as we will walk but I will give you some information on other places.

Now we move down to 4^th and 5^th Avenues

This is the area settled by the McCobb brothers, Andrew and George. They came from a well-to-do ship building and sailing family in Boothbay. However, they were orphaned when George was 10 and Andrew was 6 and it is unclear who raised them and how they made their way to Lincolnville. In 1826, George married Lois Drinkwater, sister of Wyman, and was living on the Town Road. We know this because the Town Report states that he was reimbursed by the Town for some repairs he made in front of his house in that year. Lot #6, consisting of 115 acres from Pitcher Pond to the Ducktrap was contracted to him and by 1832, he bought it for $664.00 from Thorndike, Sears and Prescott. George lived here until he died in 1878 after which his widow lived there until she died in 1881 and their daughter, Mary, continued living there. We can still see the remains of where the house and barn were although many of the foundation stones have been removed to make walls and outdoor fireplaces. It is on private property so please get permission before you go there, but if you go in the driveway of #372, the house with the new driveway, you will see the old foundation in front of the current house. A little to the right, facing the road and between the house and the road is the old well and more to the right of that are the very decrepit remains of the barn foundation.

Andrew did not buy his land until 1836, and it was an abutting lot but was a different sale/ George Ulmer had sold about 501 acres of land to Gen. Abiel wood from Wiscasset in 1802. It appears that Gen Wood did not do anything with the land and in 1811 he died, In 1824, his children had a Commission divide the land up between them and then began to sell it. Andrew bought one of these pieces consisting of 92 acres in 1832. There are very poor remains of a foundation if you go down 5^th Ave just a little way and look to your left. That was Andrew’s house and still further to the left you can just make out the remains of the barn. Andrew moved to RT 173 before he died in May, 1884 and his wife, Almira Drinkwater, sister of Wyman and Lois, died in August of the same year. They were married in August of 1825.

This brings me to point out that this community at that time had quite a few young couples:

August, 1825, Andrew McCobb married Almira Drinkwater

August, 1826, George McCobb married Lois Drinkwater

July, 1827, Edward A. Field married Hannah Frohock

January, 1829 Levi Thomas married Mary Spaulding

September,1832 Wyman Drinkwater married Elizabeth Bragy

It is interesting that 3 of these couples were married around the time that Willie died. I wonder if Willie had someone he planned to marry too. They all must have known him.

In 1826, when William Delano died

Edward Field was 24 years

Andrw McCobb was 26 years

George McCobb was 31,

Wyman Drinkwater was 19

Thomas Frohoock, Jr was 16

Levi Thomas was between 20-30

Perhaps more important for the community was that George and Andrew McCobb, along with William and John Prescott built a saw mill in 1831 on what was then called Batchelder Stream, now Kendall Brook. It was down the road which is now a snowmobile trail opposite 4^th and 5^th Aves. It was on land owned by the Prescotts and was probably Lot #3 of the Wood Estate and was purchased from Lydia Wood. The entire piece of land was 116 acres and sold for $116.00. Rights to parts of the mill were sold back and forth for many years. I don’t know when it ceased to be in use. The road that went by the mill went through to what is now RT 52 andso logs could berought in from either end. The road goes through there today as a nice trail and at the end of it is the foundation of a house and barn belonging to William Wadsworth who married yet another Drinkwater sister, Mary.

There are other homes on the road to the mill starting from North Cobbtown Rd. As you enter it, go across the stonewall on your right and then turn to follow the direction of the “road.” You will see a rise and at the top of it is a big cellar hole. This was probably built by Levi Thomas in 1833 and then bought by Sarah and Huse Richards in 1854. They bought 50 acres with the house for $250.00. Huse was a blacksmith and perhaps the remains of his shop are beside it. There are quite a few old bricks there. Sarah’s four daughters who were her heirs sold the land to the Inhabitants of Lincolnville for $1.00 each in 1884.

If you walk the trail down to the Brook and then follow the stones of the dam to their end you come to the small cellar hole of Harriet and Samuel Thurston. Harriet bought 5 acres from Reuben Branard (who owned part of the mill) in 1848 for $30.00. In 1856, she sold it to her husband for $20.00 and in 1866, he sold it to Jason Hills for $25.00. I have not found a well and wonder if they used the water from the mill pond. They had four children.

Continuing on the road and across the bridge and up the hill there you come to Isaac Bryant’s cellar hole if you turn right into a sort of field. It is hidden by a stand of trees as you walk along the road. Isaac probably bought it in 1844 from Joseph Huse and it was a part of Lot #3 from Lydia Wood. This land must have been on the edge of the mill pond. He also owned other land in the area purchased from George McCobb, Wyman Drinkwater and Levi Thomas in 1839. Isaac died in 1872 and left the main part of his farm to his wife Julia. Other parts he left to a son and grandson. The grandson was a Sylvester although raised by his grandparents but thus the Sylvester family became very involved with this land.

Now we move down to the gray farmhouse at the end of the road and to the Pond and its outlet into Kendall Brook. The house is known as The Kendall Farm because it and the land around it was owned by Thomas Kendall. He was actually a miller rather than a farmer. He bought the land in 1836, and it was sold by his widow and children in 1870. He also gave his name to the Brook. However, the whole place has a history that is older than that. In the late 1790s Hezekiah Batchelder built a sawmill on the stream and at that point gave his name to the stream. On the old deeds it is called Batchelder Stream replacing the name of Meadow Stream.

In 1812, John Wilson and his wife, Polly Ulmer Wilson, daughter of George Ulmer, bought 146 acres with a dwelling house, barn, grist mill and a new saw mill from John Russ who had married another Ulmer daughter, Sally. The original Russ parcel, originally Ulmer land, was 315 ½ acres with a sawmill, grist mill and 3 dwelling houses. Over the next 20 years the land belonged to either a Wilson or a Russ as the grandsons, George Russ and George Wilson each owned it. In 1823, when George Ulmer Russ sold the land to his cousin, George Ulmer Wilson, he made sure, in his deed, that his grandparents, Polly and George Ulmer were cared for: “hereby understand that my grandfather, George Ulmer, and my Grandmother, Mary Ulmer, shall have the use of the grist mill and sawmill together with as much land as they choose to improve during their lives.”

In 1825, John and Polly Ulmer Wilson were living in the gray house and we believe that George and Polly Ulmer were living farther down the road behind where Glenn Lang’s house is now—by the big pine tree. There was a mill office right by the pond. John Sprague and his family lived and farmed down the little road called the Dam Road today.

Behind and to the left of the Kendall Farm is the Kendall Cemetery. We hope to have a chance to access and asess it in the near future. We know that Harriet Huse Wilson, wife of George Ulmer Wilson is buried there. She died in 1830 at the age of 22.

Her epitaph reads:

Here resteth

The mortal part of

Harriet Wilson

After a painful sickness

Which she bore with great patience

Fell asleep in the Lord

Sept 17 1830

At age 22

Buried with her are her 3 young daughters: Harriet Wilson, age 5 months died on August 25th and Sarah Wilson, age 2 years and 7 months, died on September 4^th. Emily, I believe died at just 6 days of age. I think it then says that the children died a few days before their mother. Then there is a long epitaph we have not yet seen but it looks like it begins, “O’er this dark ground…”

There are also graves of the Kendalls. One is a son, Miles, who died at age 20 and has an upright stone:

Miles

son of Thomas and Mary Kendall

Died April 27, 1849

There are three other small stones that we know of with just initials, MK. GK and TK. We believe them to be Thomas and Mary Kendall and Gilbraith, another son who died at age 29 about 1860of consumption.

But, now there is another mystery here. We also believe that George Ulmer was buried here in 1825, the first burial in the cemetery. However, his grave was moved to Camden in 1900, by the Masons who thought he deserved a more distinguished resting place. It is likely that his wife Polly was also buried here when she died in 1834, but there are conflicting stories as to whether she was moved or not. We hope to be able to look for her stone. Both Harriet Wilson and George Ulmer had stones that are flat on the ground so it is assumed that hers would also be like that. It will be exciting to find out who else is buried in that cemetery.

Names: Reading deeds can often be confusing because of the changing names of places. Here are a few that are helpful to know.

Kendall Brook—it was originally called Meadow Stream (there are many Meadow Streams in Lincolnville history!) , Next it became Batchelder Stream and it was called Hills Stream for a while. It is now Kendall Brook. Stream was used rather than Brook in the 1800s.

Ducktrap Mountain--it was called Peaked Hill in the early 1800’s

Pitcher Pond--the Pond was called Picked Hill Pond, Ducktrap Pond and finally Pitcher Pond after Lewis Pitcher who rented the Kendall Mill and also owned a large mill on the Northport side.

Corelyn Senn

August, 2014