Author: Anonymous
Title: Manuscript Document, Related to Highways in the City of Baldwin, Maine
Description: Baldwin, ME, By the author, 1822. Manuscript; 7 1/2 x 6; laid paper, folded and sewn with a string to form a notebook; pp. [8]; text and tables to pp. 1-4, in brown ink; fore-edge unevenly trimmed; light spotting, mostly to margins; in very good condition. An early 19th century document, it addressed Joel Libby, one of the surveyors of highways in the town of Baldwin for the year 1822 and presented him with a list of assessments of estates, in the form of large, detailed tables, of the people in the town, and their respective proportions of seventy two dollars and twenty seven cents "to be expended in labor and materials upon the highways" within their limits. It listed allotments of ten cents per hour for men's labor and ox labor and ten cents per hour for a good plough and six cents per hour for a good cart. The manuscript also stated that any deficiencies from people not paying would be put in the next assessment for a town tax. The town of Baldwin, now part of the Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, was originally known as Flinstown and was founded by a grant to the survivors of the Company of Captain Flint of Concord, Mass in 1774. It was incorporated in 1802 and named after one of its earliest settlers, Loammi Baldwin. At the time, the town was said to be "destitute of a meeting house and minister" and that the first roads constructed through it were in a "dangerous condition for teams, carriages, and horses." Apparently, in the following years, efforts had been made to improve the condition of the roadways. Very good .

Keywords: Boston Vbf, Roadways, Northeast


See more books from our catalog: Americana