"To the Honorable Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, in General Court assembled:
The petition of the subscribers inhabiting near Crooked river humbly showeth
that in said river is a kind of trouts of an uncommon size, weighing from
three to fourteen pounds. Some have been caught which weighed seventeen
pounds. These fish run up the river in the months of September and October,
but are scarce at all other times of the year. They have been, and might
continue to be, very beneficial to all who inhabit near said river, which
runs from a pond in Oxford, near Bethel southerly line; from thence it runs
through said Oxford and through Waterford, a part of Norway and Phillip's
Gore, Otisfield, and a part of Raymondtown into a gore between Raymondton
and Flintston, where it falls into Songo River and with it into the Great
Sebago pond.
These fish have for several years been prevented from passing up said river
by wares built wholly across the water by inhabitants near the mouth thereof,
and as there is no law to prevent them, they not only boast of having availed
themselves for all the benefit of the fish in years past, but declare they
are determined to do it in the future, to the great injury of the other
inhabitants above them, who have (or ought to have) equal right to the benefit
of the fish. We therefore humbly request your Honours to take the case into
your consideration, and to make a law for preventing the obstruction of
these fish in said river and its connections in the months of September
and October, and as in duty bound will ever pray."
Signed by:
Asael Foster
Osgood Carleton
Jonathan Riggs
John Scribner
Simon Scribner
Willoughby Scribner
Thomas Wight
David Ray
Mark Knight
Jonathan Moor
Osgood West
Carleton Spurr
George Pierce
Isaac Bartlett
Eleazer Bartlett
John Bartlett
John Kilbourn, Jr.
William Shattuck
Daniel Holden
Joseph Scribner
Timothy Fernald
Samuel Knight
Joseph Morse
Joseph Spurr, Jr.
Samuel Spurr
David Thurston
Joshua Leavitt
John Carleton
David Carleton
Source: Maine Fisheries Commissioners Report for the Year 1884. Maine Public
Documents, 1884, Vol. 1. Maine State Archives.
Massachusetts Acts & Laws, 1800, Chapter 20.
An Act for the Preservation and to Regulate the Taking of Fish in Crooked River & Songo River, in the Counties of York & Cumberland.
Be it enacted by the Senate & House of Representatives, in General Court Assembled, & by the Authority of the same, That if any person or persons shall, make, build or erect and weare or dam in or across either of the said rivers, or shall suffer any weare or dam to continue or remain in or across the same, or shall take and fish in said rivers, or in any of the streams or ponds running into or connected with the same, in the months of September or October, excepting with a hook and line, the person or persons so offending shall forfeit and pay for each offence, a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars, nor less than five dollars, to be recovered, by indictment, in any Court of General Sessions of the Peace in either of the counties aforesaid, wherein each offence may be committed -- one half of which sum shall enure to the use of the poor of the town where said offence may be committed, the other half to him or them who shall prosecute for & recover the same.
Approved June 16, 1800.
Source: Massachusetts Acts and Laws.
Petition of inhabitants of Waterford for the removal of all dams on the
Crooked River -- 1823
"To the Hon. the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of
Maine in Legislature assembled, January A.D. 1824 --
Respectfully represent the undersigned inhabitants of the town of Waterford
in the County of Oxford; that Crooked River, so called, runs through said
town. That said river formerly abounded with fish of various kinds, the
taking of which were considered by your petitioners a great privilege and
help. That in consequence of the erection of mill dams and other obstructions
on said river below said town of Waterford said fish are now entirely prevented
from coming up said river -- Your Petitioners would therefore pray, that
an act may be passed by your Hon. body directing and ordering all individuals
interested in and about said Mill dams and obstructions to remove the same.
And as in duty bound will ever pray.
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