FORT HALIFAX DAM NEEDS BUSTING.
Mr. Bruce Bowman of Palmyra, Maine.
Raising another dollar from Kennebec Trout Unlimited members
so we can save the Sebasticook River.
Seven pound Atlantic salmon
were "small" for the Sebasticook
Excerpted from: Carleton Edward Fisher. 1970. History of Clinton, Maine.
Kennebec Journal Press. Augusta, Maine.
"For the early pioneers food in the form of fish could be easily had,
as there were plenty in the clear, cold waters of the Kennebec and Sebasticook
Rivers. During the early period fish were chiefly of value as a food to
sustain them, but it was not long before the fishing industry became an
important source of income.
"When Rev. Paul Coffin toured the area in July 1796 he reported in
his journal:
'July 30th, Clinton. Rode two miles to Capt. Jonathan Philbrick's on Sebasticook,
just above the falls, where they catch herring and shad. Thousands of barrels
of herring have been taken this spring. They put four quarts of salt to
a barrel of them, and when salted enough, they smoke them. They are then
handy and quite palatable. Mr. Hudson and three thousand of them hanging
over one's head in his shop or smoke house. A pretty sight.'
"George Sullivan Heald described the fishing activities of his father,
Capt. Timothy Heald. Captain Heald was living on the Sebasticook in Winslow,
but his activities will give some indication of the fishing industry in
the area. During 1797 he had a fish seine catching shad and alewives, for
which he received one thousand dollars besides some material for building
a house. The fish were transported to market in a large box made by laying
a double floor of boards twenty feet square, placing boards around the outside
until it would hold forty barrels, then the top was covered with two thicknesses
and the corners bound. These fish were sold for one dollar per barrel and
sent to the West Indies for the Negroes.
"Alewives, also called herring, and shad were the predominant fish
to be caught, but some salmon were to be had. The Sebasticook River had
fewer salmon in comparison to the Kennebec River. This situation may have
been caused by the lack of adequate spawning grounds. In any case, they
were not in sufficient quantity to be important commercially, but some of
them must have been of good size. Isaiah Brown, who had a store at what
is now Benton Station, credited Joseph Proctor for a salmon caught in 1807.
Brown wrote in his ledger, "one small salmon, Wt. 7 1/2 lb. at 5 cents
per lb., 38 cents." The fishermen in town today would certainly like
to catch some of those 'small' salmon out of the Sebasticook.
"Dams, which were so necessary if the mills were to use the water power,
did not help the fishing. The first dam, erected at the upper falls in what
is now Benton Falls, was built before the Revolutionary War and had a gap
for fish. In 1809 another dam, twelve feet high, was built at the lower
falls, with no fishway. It stood for five or six years, and in that time
had so impoverished the fisheries that the selectmen cut it away. The town
in 1814 obtained an act authorizing them to control the fisheries. At the
annual town meeting in March 1815, the fish committee was authorized to
deliver gratis to each of the town's inhabitants a quantity of fish not
exceeding two hundred to each individual. Furthermore, should anyone omit
to apply in the season of taking the fish, he was to be entitled to as many
from the treasury of the fishery as would be equal in value to the quantity
he was to have received from the committee.
"In 1817 it was voted to auction off the fish privilege. The first
division, from the Winslow line to Sebasticook Bridge, went to William Richardson,
Jr. for $70. The next division, from Sebasticook Bridge to Isaac Spencer's
south line, also to Richardson for $117. The third division, from Spencer's
line to Capt. Andrew Richardson's south line, went to Joseph P. Piper for
$55.50. From Richardson's line to the upper limits of the town, David Gray
paid $16.50.
"While the inhabitants seem to have found it better fishing in the
Sebasticook rather than the Kennebec River, this may have been due to two
factors: first, the river could be spanned easily by weirs and, second,
the town was astride the river. Thus, the voters could control the fishing
industry. This was not possible on the Kennebec, for Fairfield had possession
of the west bank.
"The fishing soon started to decline. In April 1817 the town voted
to petition the legislature to pass laws for the removal of numerous large
weirs and other obstructions in the Kennebec River, which were ruining the
fishing up the river and on streams emptying into it. Nothing came of this
effort. In 1818 the town entered the price-fixing stage in the fishing trade,
voting the price of alewives to be two shillings per hundred and shad at
six cents each. In 1819 the price of shad was fixed at eight cents.
"In 1838 the last fish treasurer was elected and, although the town
voted the following year to auction off the fishing interest, the end to
great fishing had come. Its doom had been sealed by the construction of
a dam at Augusta; no provision was made for the passage of fish over the
dam."
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