Haskell Plantation
Yesterday I undertook a family history project. I am now beginning, I hope, a project to record information concerning the early settlement by my ancestors of my home town of Greenville, Maine, originally called Haskell Plantation (or Haskell's Plantation, whichever).
For beginners, the south half of Greenville, or at least six square miles of it, was set aside in 1811 as a grant for the creation of Saco Academy which became Thornton Academy in 1821. This grant of land was supposed to raise the sum of $3,000 to help finance the new school. I'm using the Wikipedia article for Thornton Academy as my reference. Saco Academy first opened in 1813. Oddly enough a distant relative of mine, Ezra Haskell, a cousin many times removed, was the teacher and apparently the second "preceptor" of this school from 1814 to possibly 1819. Reference pages 24 and 51 of this book published in 1899 Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society Second Series, Vol. X.
From this same book, page 42, I derive that the school chose to raise the $3,000 by taking donations from "subscribers" in 1811, raising $3,825. So they still had the land up north after having raised the required $3,000 as near as I can tell. Page 5 of this book is my reference for the six square miles and the $3,000 required endowment.
From this same reference, a few years after the departure of Ezra Haskell as the school's teacher and "preceptor" the school chose to raise money by somehow transferring the six square mile grant to a much more direct relative of mine, Nathaniel Haskell, my great-grandfather's grandfather. One square miles is 640 acres. The book gives a confusing overview of the transactions involved. From page 40 of the book a committee was appointed in 1820 to decide what was the best way to deal with this half township of land and in August 1820 they decided to sell it provided they could raise $3,000 in the sale. Then in October the committee was authorized to sell the land for "not less than $2,500" by 10% down payment and the rest by mortgage.
On page 40 through 42 the book yoyos so it's hard to make out what really happened. There was a sale in 1824 to Nathaniel Haskell. Another land transfer was dated November 7, 1828 which appears to transfer land from Haskell to the trustees. In March of 1830 it was somehow agreed again to sell the land to Nathaniel Haskell. Somewhere along the way Haskell was required to pay $2,584.92 although he apparently only paid them $460.10 (page 41).
Years ago I found in the indexes for the registry of deeds in Dover-Foxcroft that there was some back-and-forth in these land transfers. At the time, it appeared that the majority of the six square miles transferred back to the academy although Haskell himself kept some and some was sold by Haskell to some of the early settlers. The book speaks of additional sales by the academy of this land starting in 1837. One sale in 1843 to Frederick Young raised $300 at $1.50 an acre.
The book doesn't say how much money they did raise but it concludes on pages 41 and 42 that they raised $971.10 from sales to Nathaniel Haskell and Young.
There was a fire in 1848 that closed Thornton Academy and it wasn't reopened until 1889.
For beginners, the south half of Greenville, or at least six square miles of it, was set aside in 1811 as a grant for the creation of Saco Academy which became Thornton Academy in 1821. This grant of land was supposed to raise the sum of $3,000 to help finance the new school. I'm using the Wikipedia article for Thornton Academy as my reference. Saco Academy first opened in 1813. Oddly enough a distant relative of mine, Ezra Haskell, a cousin many times removed, was the teacher and apparently the second "preceptor" of this school from 1814 to possibly 1819. Reference pages 24 and 51 of this book published in 1899 Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society Second Series, Vol. X.
From this same book, page 42, I derive that the school chose to raise the $3,000 by taking donations from "subscribers" in 1811, raising $3,825. So they still had the land up north after having raised the required $3,000 as near as I can tell. Page 5 of this book is my reference for the six square miles and the $3,000 required endowment.
From this same reference, a few years after the departure of Ezra Haskell as the school's teacher and "preceptor" the school chose to raise money by somehow transferring the six square mile grant to a much more direct relative of mine, Nathaniel Haskell, my great-grandfather's grandfather. One square miles is 640 acres. The book gives a confusing overview of the transactions involved. From page 40 of the book a committee was appointed in 1820 to decide what was the best way to deal with this half township of land and in August 1820 they decided to sell it provided they could raise $3,000 in the sale. Then in October the committee was authorized to sell the land for "not less than $2,500" by 10% down payment and the rest by mortgage.
On page 40 through 42 the book yoyos so it's hard to make out what really happened. There was a sale in 1824 to Nathaniel Haskell. Another land transfer was dated November 7, 1828 which appears to transfer land from Haskell to the trustees. In March of 1830 it was somehow agreed again to sell the land to Nathaniel Haskell. Somewhere along the way Haskell was required to pay $2,584.92 although he apparently only paid them $460.10 (page 41).
Years ago I found in the indexes for the registry of deeds in Dover-Foxcroft that there was some back-and-forth in these land transfers. At the time, it appeared that the majority of the six square miles transferred back to the academy although Haskell himself kept some and some was sold by Haskell to some of the early settlers. The book speaks of additional sales by the academy of this land starting in 1837. One sale in 1843 to Frederick Young raised $300 at $1.50 an acre.
The book doesn't say how much money they did raise but it concludes on pages 41 and 42 that they raised $971.10 from sales to Nathaniel Haskell and Young.
There was a fire in 1848 that closed Thornton Academy and it wasn't reopened until 1889.
Update March 1, 2020
Here is a short historical article about Haskell Plantation and Greenville that I hadn't seen before:
Taken from the 1880 book History of Piscataquis County , Maine... by Amasa Loring
This information was provided by this Greenville history website:
Greenville, Maine Genealogy
This information was provided by this Greenville history website:
Greenville, Maine Genealogy
posted by Bill | 7:24 PM
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