ANCIENT TRAVELS and a FORGOTTEN INN in READFIELD

Robert Waugh, Sr. settled in Readfield about 1768 – one of the very first to live in the back country of Lincoln (now Kennebec County). He owned lot #98 – which included 2½ miles of frontage on the east shore of Chandler’s Mill Pond (Lake Maranacook). Those passing through this area often utilized that section of his shore frontage called “Waugh’s landing” since it was located across the pond from James Craig’s ferry.

James Craig was also one of the first to arrive in Readfield. Most people associate his name with Factory Square since the start-up of his saw mill and grist mill at that location launched Readfield’s 150 year old industrial period. Before he developed Factory Square, however, Craig owned and lived on lot #68 on the west shore of Chandler’s Mill Pond.   

Robert Waugh’s son, Robert Jr., built a home and inn circa 1790 on the road from "the corners to Winthrop mills" (Winthrop Road) which was located slightly northwest of Craig’s ferry landing. Adjacent to Waugh, Jr.’s inn there was also a livery stable and blacksmith shop.

Albion and Annie Bryant bought the Waugh Jr. homestead in 1931, and their family owned it for about sixty years. According to their son Robert the upstairs still had a room that expanded across the entire front of the house when they moved there. They were told this design accommodated a row of beds where weary travelers had rested in the days of yore. The old livery sat on the south side of their dooryard as did a hitching post. The elder Bryant moved the livery so it was adjacent to the house, and used it as his garage. It remains there to this day. He also built a partition in the second story bed chamber to create more rooms for his growing family. The exterior configuration looks much the same as it must have 200 years ago. Robert Bryant was once told by a family historian that this house was the first frame house built in Kennebec County. Documentation of that has never been found.

Slightly south of Waugh’s inn was the intersection of an old east-west crossroad once used by settlers. More than likely this same route had been trod by the Indians for centuries before. It was still in regular use well into the mid 19^th century. Bryant recalls an old stone bridge on that byway that crossed a small pond on one side and a stream on the other. He also remembers when his father used to cut meadow hay near there. By the 1970’s this section was utilized only by woodsmen and, as a result of their activity, the road is no longer detectable.

On that stretch is also the “great bog,” which runs about a mile north to south. The road passed through the southern end on the most stable ground, but anyone who happened to stray in that area could encounter peril. One of the Bryant’s daughters shared that her mother warned her, as a child, to stay out of that bog because “a whole team of horses went into the quick sand out there one time.” Winthrop historian David Thurston mentioned that “great bog” in his Brief History of Winthrop 1764-1855. Thurston wrote of Unite Brown, who settled in this area about the same time as Craig and Waugh, Sr. Brown and his young son Jeremiah went moose hunting one cold day in the late autumn and they ended up lost in the “great bog”. As night approached Brown wrapped Jeremiah in a newly skinned moose hide to protect him from the elements. Then he started a fire and stayed awake all night to keep it going, but come daylight he still had to pry the frozen moose hide off his boy. That occurred nearly 30 years before Waugh’s inn offered refuge from nature’s elements.

 

The leg through the bog eventually led to Craig’s Corner on Sturtevant Hill Road – so called because James Craig owned land there also. From Craig’s Corner the course took a slight stint north then a left turn onto East Road which was discontinued long ago but it is still evident on modern maps.  Today, though impassable by vehicle, the East Road leads through the Readfield Town Forest and the Macdonald Woods before it reaches North Wayne. Thus we had the east-west route that once linked the ancient Indian waterways that settlers came to call the 30 Mile River and the Cobbosseecontee waterway.

When early travelers saw smoke coming from the chimney and light streaming from the window at Waugh's inn they must have felt such relief! They would have warmed by the fireplace in the great room, and savored the smell of the boil pot stew as it simmered away in a large cast iron kettle. Johnny cake and homemade bread must have tasted like delicacies, as did Indian pudding or other sweet treats waiting for them. The men folk may have enjoyed a mug of hard cider or rum, the children some milk from the innkeeper’s cow, and the ladies a cup of tea, before they climbed upstairs to get some much needed rest. The bed chambers were unheated and the beds held hard straw-filled mattresses and scanty woolen blankets. Those conditions would be undesirable today, but in times gone by it was an extraordinary improvement over sleeping in the elements where dangers lingered.

Yes, Craig’s ferry and Waugh’s landing were welcome sights to be sure for they were indications that Waugh’s inn would soon be in sight. How things have changed for travelers who speed through the fair town of Readfield today.  

This article was written by Dale Marie Potter-Clark who is the Historical Consultant for the Readfield Historical Society. She also offers community education about Readfield’s history, and organizes "Readfield History Walks".   FMI visit www.readfieldmaine.blogspot.com. 

 

(C) 2014 All Rights Reserved by Dale Potter-Clark

This article appeared in Lakes Region Reader March 28, 2014