My research for this watershed is now (January 2020) completed.
Previously I had done enough to write a short article about the western portion of the watershed for Appalachia, an Appalachian Mountain Club magazine. The article is the the file below.
My new book on Piscataquis watershed logging:
832,000 Acres: Maine's 1825 Fire & Its Piscataquis Logging Aftermath
It is a free chapter by chapter download at the University of Maine Raymond Fogler Library Digital Commons at the following address:
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistory/
Updates and corrections will appear below and in added files as they become available.
1825 fire updates
(posted 05/26/20)
addendum: Thank you to Estella (Tootie) and Wayne Bennett
"Uncle Dan" Breaks the Record at Onawa"
"Not many are acquainted with the amount of business carried on at Onawa during the fall and winter in the spoolwood business. As many of the readers of the Observer know, at Onawa is situated the electric mill of the Willimantic Linen Co. Each year this mill operated by power five miles distanct, cuts into spool bars from 2500 to 3000 cords of white birch. This amount of business necessarily requires a large number of horses from all over the counrty during the winter months. As usual in a large crew some rivalry has existed as to who could haul the largest load to the mill.
In justice to the teams we wish to say that the mill is situated two hundred feet above the level of the lake across which all of this wood has to be hauled. This rise of two hundred feet has to be made in going seventy five rods which makes the road very steep in several places. The honors of the largest load for the winter belongs this winter to a Foxcroft team owned and driven by Daniel Foss. During the winter several of the younger teamsters have hauled loads which they considered could not be beaten. But all were much surprised when on Saturday, March 5th Uncle Dan landed at the mill a load which eclipsed all former ones. This load, which scaled two and one half cords, was bought to the mill without seemly extra effort on the part of the team or teamster. When it is taken into consideration that a cord of birch weights from seventy to seventy five hundred pounds it will be seen what enormous weight two and one half cords would make. something over nine tons. We should be glad to hear from others engaged in similar work for we think we have the record to beat."
(posted 02/24/20)
1. Correction: Thank you to Alexandra Conover Bennett. On page 36 under "Willimantic" the phrase "5 miles" in the fifth line should be "11 miles." The map on page 108 has the current location of the Willimantic community, not the old one at Big Wilson Falls, which is over a half mile above the Elliottsville township south townline. The correct spelling of "Toby Falls" is "Tobey Falls."
(posted 02/05/2020)
1. Addendum: Thank you to Estella (Tootie) and Wayne Bennett for informing me that in Walter M MacDougall's book, Settling the Maine Wilderness: Moses Greenleaf, His Maps, and His Household of Faith, 1777-1834, chapter 7 pages 37 and 38 have a description of the fire with specific stories for Williamsburg and Seboeis. New information here emphasizes they were fighting fires in the woods before October 8, 1825 and that the land around the base of the Greenleaf Hill on which their homes rested had burned reflecting that maybe that the previously burnt land is what saved their home. This is one of the best of the early writings about the fire.
2. Addendum for East Branch of the Pleasant River: As I was searching for records of 1840 pertaining to logging west of Seboomook Falls, I notice an 1840 Maine legislature charter approved for the Ebeme Company. (That is the spelling on the charter, not Ebeemee.) The charter pertained dams, canals, and other river improvements that would improve log driving and applied to the length of the river above the Brownville dam. The incorporators were Samuel Thatcher, Jr., Dominicus Parker, George W. Coffin, and James A. Ide. So far I have not located any action taken by this company.