Charles H. Vickery, my great-granduncle, was born in Glenburn, Maine, on 20 Dec 1838, the second child of Stephen Thayer and Betsey (Gibbs) Vickery. On 19 Dec 1853 he drowned in Pushaw Lake. The following article appeared in the Bangor Daily Whig & Courier:
A boy fourteen years of age, oldest son of Mr. Stephen Vickery of Glenburn, was drowned at Pushaw Pond on Monday evening. He was going to attend a singing school when several men who wished to get across the pond met him and as he had his skates with him they requested him, to haul them cross. This he attempted to do but fell into a hole in the ice and could not be recovered. Two of the men fell in but were taken out.
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SOURCE: Bangor Daily Whig & Courier (Bangor, Maine), 21 Dec 1853
Monday, May 19, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
martin mower's thoughts on stock feeding
Here's an editorial written by Martin Mower in 1851 that appeared in the Bangor Daily Whig & Courier.
Stock Feeding
We have several times alluded to the improvements and experiments of Martin Mower, Esq., of this city, in his farmer operations. One thing is certain and obvious, that from some cause his farm makes a much better appearance than formerly, and is also much more profitable.
The following statement of his, relative to his method of feeding stock, will doubtless be interesting to our agricultural readers, and perhaps suggest to them some improvements:
"I have raised, the last season, one thousand bu. English rutabaga turnips at a cost satisfactory, and placed them in a cellar so constructed and ventilated as to keep them in perfect good order, at one end of which there is a cooking apartment where I have set a potash kettle covered steam-tight, which holds four bushels of turnips. To cook the turnips I add to them two pails of water, fetch them to a boil, and then close the furnace door. The following morning they are thoroughly cooked, and are then put into a half hogshead tub with one pint of salt, and mashed to the consistence and appearance of pumpkin prepared to put into past for pies. In this state they are given hot to twelve cows and a horse and devoured voraciously. In addition to this I give them as much straw and coarse hay as they will eat clean.
I give this, not as a result, but to elicit the views of your correspondents in conducting an experiment to a favorable result.
I ought to have said that the steam is carried some forty feet through a wooden pipe and condensed in the fodder, in the middle of the barn floor.
MARTIN MOWER
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SOURCE: Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Bangor, Maine, 27 Jan 1851
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
thoughts of manure by martin mower
Well, it seems our distinguished ancestor, Martin Mower, was a strong proponent of cooking manures as illustrated in this article which appeared in the Bangor Daily Whig & Courier back in 1850.
There is very little excuse now for farmers being ignorant of any of the essential scientific or practical information regarding their great art. They have only to attend to the current reading of the day, as to matters respecting agriculture to keep up with the improvements that are made. The press is teeming with matter of the deepest importance to farmers, and much of it a genuine practical character., unfolding in an easy manner the principles of science adapted to the culture of the earth, and making familiar the great laws of nature having relations to the agricultural art. Among these publications is a beautiful volume published by Messrs. LEONARD SCOTT & Co., of New York, which contains the lectures delivered before the New York State Agricultural Society and the mebers [sic] of the Legislature of New York during the last winter. The subjects of which they treat are the relations to practical agriculture of physical geography, geology and minerology [sic] , meterology [sic] and chemistry, with the means by which general scientific knowledge may be diffused and made available for the improvement of agriculture and the general elevation of the agricultural classes. They were received with great favor at the time of each delivery, and are now collected into a volume with the view of subserving the interests both of agriculture and science. They present in a lucid manner the results of recent scientific investigation, and throw much light on the rationale of many of the operations of husbandry.
These enterprising publishers are now issuing that great work, to which we have repeatedly called attention, "The Farmer's Guide to Scientific and Practical Agriculture," by Henry Stephens of England, and John P. Norton, Professor of Scientific Agriculture in Yale College.
The Working Farmer, a monthly publication by Professor Mapes, is a work of great merit, particularly upon the all important subject of manures and the cooking of manures, a matter which is not sufficiently understood and attended to even by those who can appreciate the value of manures in farming.
In the remarks of Capt. Martin Mower of this city, at the Penobscot Agricultural Show, there was a great fund of valuable practical information upon this subject of cooking manures, which we fear was not fully understood and appreciated. The speaker endeavored to give the why and the how and in this order. It would have been better in a popular audience, such as was there assembled, to have given distinctly and consecutively the how and have left the why for another occasion, or for a brief suming [sic] up. One fact he stated of much interest, that by his method of cooking manure he had no difficulty in reducing bones in one year to an impalpable powder, thoroughly mixed with his compost or held in his liquid manure. There can be no doubt, we think, that even with his imperfect and somewhat clumsy manner of treating his compost manure, he derives very great advantage in his soil. We have seen full evidence of this in an examination of his fields and his crops. He has the true idea about the necessity of cooking manures, and he will be able to by and by, with his improvements, to bring the labor of the processes into better shape. The compost heap made of muck, leaves, saw dust, stable manure, offal and other organic matters, should be frequently saturated with a liquid of lime slacked with salt water, plaster, soot, ashes, charcoal dust, night soil, urine, soap suds, and all the wast liquid made in a dwelling, spent lye of soap, &e. This liquid passing through the heap, not only imparts virtue to the materials in the heap, but insures entire decomposition of the whole. The compost thus made and frequently turned over, becomes fit food or plants and performs the double office of decomposing other substances in the soil and rendering them useful, which otherwise would remain for a long time inert without such treatment.
But we cannot pursue this subject further now, and have only thrown out these hints and suggestions to call attention to some of the matters which should engage the earnest attention of all who would be successful farmers.
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SOURCE: Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Bangor, Maine, 22 Oct 1850
There is very little excuse now for farmers being ignorant of any of the essential scientific or practical information regarding their great art. They have only to attend to the current reading of the day, as to matters respecting agriculture to keep up with the improvements that are made. The press is teeming with matter of the deepest importance to farmers, and much of it a genuine practical character., unfolding in an easy manner the principles of science adapted to the culture of the earth, and making familiar the great laws of nature having relations to the agricultural art. Among these publications is a beautiful volume published by Messrs. LEONARD SCOTT & Co., of New York, which contains the lectures delivered before the New York State Agricultural Society and the mebers [sic] of the Legislature of New York during the last winter. The subjects of which they treat are the relations to practical agriculture of physical geography, geology and minerology [sic] , meterology [sic] and chemistry, with the means by which general scientific knowledge may be diffused and made available for the improvement of agriculture and the general elevation of the agricultural classes. They were received with great favor at the time of each delivery, and are now collected into a volume with the view of subserving the interests both of agriculture and science. They present in a lucid manner the results of recent scientific investigation, and throw much light on the rationale of many of the operations of husbandry.
These enterprising publishers are now issuing that great work, to which we have repeatedly called attention, "The Farmer's Guide to Scientific and Practical Agriculture," by Henry Stephens of England, and John P. Norton, Professor of Scientific Agriculture in Yale College.
The Working Farmer, a monthly publication by Professor Mapes, is a work of great merit, particularly upon the all important subject of manures and the cooking of manures, a matter which is not sufficiently understood and attended to even by those who can appreciate the value of manures in farming.
In the remarks of Capt. Martin Mower of this city, at the Penobscot Agricultural Show, there was a great fund of valuable practical information upon this subject of cooking manures, which we fear was not fully understood and appreciated. The speaker endeavored to give the why and the how and in this order. It would have been better in a popular audience, such as was there assembled, to have given distinctly and consecutively the how and have left the why for another occasion, or for a brief suming [sic] up. One fact he stated of much interest, that by his method of cooking manure he had no difficulty in reducing bones in one year to an impalpable powder, thoroughly mixed with his compost or held in his liquid manure. There can be no doubt, we think, that even with his imperfect and somewhat clumsy manner of treating his compost manure, he derives very great advantage in his soil. We have seen full evidence of this in an examination of his fields and his crops. He has the true idea about the necessity of cooking manures, and he will be able to by and by, with his improvements, to bring the labor of the processes into better shape. The compost heap made of muck, leaves, saw dust, stable manure, offal and other organic matters, should be frequently saturated with a liquid of lime slacked with salt water, plaster, soot, ashes, charcoal dust, night soil, urine, soap suds, and all the wast liquid made in a dwelling, spent lye of soap, &e. This liquid passing through the heap, not only imparts virtue to the materials in the heap, but insures entire decomposition of the whole. The compost thus made and frequently turned over, becomes fit food or plants and performs the double office of decomposing other substances in the soil and rendering them useful, which otherwise would remain for a long time inert without such treatment.
But we cannot pursue this subject further now, and have only thrown out these hints and suggestions to call attention to some of the matters which should engage the earnest attention of all who would be successful farmers.
....................
SOURCE: Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Bangor, Maine, 22 Oct 1850
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
farms of martin mower and james parker
Here's a newspaper article I recently uncovered from 1853 that refers to two of my 3rd-great-grandfathers, Martin Mower and James Parker. In addition, I believe the E. H. Gibbs included would be Ebenezer H. Gibbs, brother of my 2nd-great-grandmother, Betsey (Gibbs) Vickery.
Report on Farms
To the Trustees of the Penobscot Agricultural Society
The Committee appointed to examine Farms entered for the Society's premium for the year 1853, having attended to that duty would beg leave to report: That the whole number of farms entered were five, by the following persons, by Martin Mower of Bangor, E. H. Gibbs, Lowell Marston, and James Parker of Glenburn; and E. F. Crane of Kenduskeag.
In the examination of these farms, your committee were much gratified, in finding them in a prosperous and flourishing condition, not withstanding the last three successive dry seasons, that have exerted such an unfavorable influence on farming operations.
The first farm examined was that of E. F. Crane, containing about 110 acres of land, and about 70 under improvement; that is, to mowing, pasturing and tillage. The crops on this farm, excepting the hay crop, the convenience of buildings, the privilege of and convenience of water for the house and barns; the orchard and the improved breed of swine, were equal and perhaps superior to any other examined.
The second farm examined was that of Martin Mower, containing 100 acres of land. The soil of this farm is of a very superior character, and in all parts of it, very similar. It is capable of making one of the best of farms, as doubtless it will under the control and management of Mr. Mower, its owner; who being well versed in agricultural science, makes this knowledge available to practical purposes of agriculture. In manufacturing manure, Mr. Mower has few equals and less superiors.
The hay crop on this farm was tolerably good, and the turnip crop very superior.
The third farm examined was that of E. H. Gibbs, containing 125 acres of land, principally to mowing and pasturing. His barn was well filled with hay. On this farm which but a few years ago was grown up to bushes, unproductive and comparatively in a state of barrenness, now, by his energy and perseverance, has the appearance of neatness and thrift.
The fourth farm examined was that of Dr. Lowell Marston, containing 125 acres, mostly improved. This farm deserves particular attention. It consists of a variety of soils, which for descriptive purposes we will divide into high land, low land, and meadow land. The high land is used for pasturing. The lower land is laid up into sinks or beds, with an even curve, resembling a turnpike, and thirty six feet wide. This portion of the farm is under a high state of cultivation, producing from two to three tons of hay to the acre. The meadow land is improved and rendered more productive by the draining process. There were the most perfect specimens of ditches we ever saw, producing the most satisfactory results; some of them 60 to 79 rods in length, from two and a half to three feet deep, and to appearance perfectly straight. The turnpike that runs from the buildings through the farm, the fences, the sheds and cellars, for manufacturing and protecting manure, and whatever pertains to the management of the farm, were done in a workmanlike manner, and bore the appearance of order and neatness.
The fifth and last farm examined was the one presented by James Parker, Esq. of Glenburn, containing 140 acres. This was a very good farm, and with the energy and perseverance possessed by Mr. Parker thirty years ago, he would make it a pattern farm; and although Mr. Parker is on the down hill of life, yet his barns were filled with hay, his orchards with delicious fruit, and his flocks and herds in his fields, more than convinced us that he retained all of the judgment and prudence, and much of the vigor of his more youthful days.
The claims with some of the competitors were so equally ballanced [sic], it was with difficulty that your committee could determine to whom they should award the premium; but after a patient and careful examination and comparison, they at length came to the conclusion to award the Society's first premium.
To Lowell Marston of Glenburn, for the best farm, $8.
Second best to E. F. Crane of Kenduskeag, $4.
Third, to Martin Mower of Bangor, $2.
Respectfully submitted,
Per order,
E. F. CRANE
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SOURCE: Bangor Daily Whig & Courier (Bangor, Maine), 30 Sep 1853.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
meaghs graduates!
Congratulations to Meaghs! 
Graduate of Saint Joseph College with a BA in Communications-Multimedia
Graduate of Saint Joseph College with a BA in Communications-MultimediaMay 10, 2008
Here is Meaghan with her proud grandparents
Here is Meaghan with her proud grandparents
Saturday, May 3, 2008
earl o. terrill interment service
Earl Owen Terrill
(24 Sep 1915 - 9 Mar 2008)
Uncle Earl's ashes will be interred in Pleasant View Cemetery, Glenburn, on Saturday, May 17th at 2:00. He will be buried in the Terrill lot, joining his parents, George Wentworth and Daisy Lucinda (Grant) Terrill, his baby brother Jacob Leonard Terrill and his sister Effie Elizabeth (Terrill) McDonald.
happy birthday george mower
On 13 May 1827, George was born to Martin and Mary (Underhill) Mower in Bath, Sagadahoc Co., Maine. This is according to the Mower Family History by Walter L. Mower. Proof of his birth in Bath would be most welcome. Inquiry made to that city resulted in a response that the records for that time period were a casualty of fire.
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