AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY, MAINE PT1

My 5x great grandfather Amos Upton died on this date at Norway, Maine in 1838
and I wanted to do a blogpost about him. I already have his Revolutionary War
Pension file (which has the best handwriting I've seen so far on a document)
but I also did a Google search to see what else I could find online about him.

There's something about my ancestors named Amos on the Barker side of
my Dad's family. I've done posts about Amos Hastings, Amos Hastings Barker,
and now I've found some interesting stories about Amos Upton. I found them
in the book David Noyes wrote and self-published in 1852, The History of 
Norway [Me.]: Comprising a Minute Account of Its First Settlement, 
Town Officers, Interspersed with Historical Sketches, Narrative and 
Anecdote (Google eBook).

It starts with Amos' arrival in the Norway area from North Reading Massachusetts
where he was born:

"This year Amos Upton came down from Reading, Mass., and felled trees on the
lot south of Fuller's Corner, and moved his family in Sept., 1790." p16


Within a few years Amos was well established there and helping newcomers
as these next two excerpts about the year 1793 show:

"Fuller agreed with Amos Upton, (who was a kind of carpenter, and also partly a
blacksmith) to erect a house and barn for him, early in the spring and summer of
1794, with the intention of moving his family to his new home."  p23


 Apparently there was some delay in the house construction:

"I said that Mr. Fuller moved his- family to his house; but Mr. Upton had not yet
erected the house as Fuller expected; therefore he went into- Mr. Upton's house,
and there remained till late in the fall. After Fuller's arrival, Mr. Upton commenced
in good earnest about the buildings. They went into the woods and cut timber, and
erected a barn in season to put in his grain, and a house as fast as they could. Fuller
procured boards at Rust's mill, and rafted them up to the head of the pond, and then
hauled them up to where they were to be used. The barn was thirty-two feet by fifty,
and the house twenty feet by thirty-eight, and a story and a half high—the largest 
establishment in the Cummings Gore; they got the house so as to move into it, in 
November." p24




In the early days of the settlement,  Amos had another important distinction: he owned
the only horse in the community. This story included his son Francis, who is my 4x
great grandfather : 

"Previous to this time there was but one horse in the Cummings Gore, and that an old
white-faced mare, owned by Amos Upton; and she was used by all the neighbors to
go to mill. They used to lash the bags on to the saddle, a huge, coarse thing made for
that purpose, and let the old mare plod her way along the little pathway. Aaron Wilkins
says (and he knew all about it) she would crook around the trees and rocks very carefully,
so as to avoid hitting the bags against them. Before they had any other practicable
conveyance to Portland, Francis Upton, the oldest son of Amos Upton, went to Portland
with the old mare, and carried a small hog to market, having it laid across the pack saddle,
and strongly lashed on with cords; he went on foot himself, leading or driving the old mare,
and only reached Dudley Pike's the. first day, and put up there that night". p31