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wheat in their corn-fields. The potatoes are sprouting up, and give hopes of a small crop. The apples which had not been beaten from the trees by the hail were so bruised on the upper side, that that side had ceased to grow; while the other side grew as fast as though there had been no hail. There was not a mess of green sauce to be had in all the neighborhood. I saw the frogs. They appeared to be pursuing an easterly course, and had progressed to within about fifty rods of St. George's River, where I saw many of them hopping on the west side of a wall, by which they had been obstructed in their course. They were green and speckled, and of a small size. Yesterday, a man told me that their number was greatly diminished. He supposed they had died.”1

LIGHTNING.

June 29, 1815. During a terrific thunder shower in the morning, James Lermond, aged about forty, living in the house with his brother William, at the east part of the town, was killed by lightning. Being at work on the highway, he went home to get shelter. After hanging up his hat, he stood at a table, with his face towards the window. The lightning came down the stud of the window about as low as his breast, then leaped to his breast, passed down his body, made a hole through the floor, and threw him backwards towards the fire. The ashes were scattered over his face. He was killed instantly. By the same stroke of lightning, the front door and the studs were thrown out, and the mouldings above and the window were thrown in. Glass in the several windows around the house was broken out. A stud from the west side was carried across the chamber, and hurled several rods through a window on the east side. The second story of the house was torn in pieces. The lightning ran in every direction. From careful observations, it was evident that its course had often been upward.

"August 8, 1819. Four weeks ago, we had a fright1 Letter of Dr. J. Sibley.

ful tempest. The lightning struck a large barn belonging to Ephraim Boggs, in Warren1 (half a mile south of Moses Morse's), and burnt it to the ground. The same day the lightning struck a balm-of-Gilead tree near Moses Morse's house, and a stump in his fence, which it set on fire. William Hart's barn was also struck at the same time, and Mr. Metcalf's 2 cowyard fence. The next Saturday after Mr. Boggs's barn was burnt, he had another barn of the same size on the same ground finished, doors all swinging; and I am told that thirty men dined together on the barnfloor. The old barn had in it about ten tons of old hay. The new barn was built almost entirely by charity.

"Last Sunday, we had another shower; the lightning burnt Noah Rice's barn, containing much hay. Obadiah Morse's barn, with forty tons of hay, was set on fire by the lightning; but the fire was extinguished.3 The same day, lightning struck in many places elsewhere. Last Monday, our people were all in motion, declaring that they would do equal to what Warren had done, Teams driving through all the town with timber and lumber for Capt. Rice. Wednesday, phoenix-like, the barn began to rise from the ashes, and before night it was covered with boards. It is very large, and makes a fine appearance. I am told it contains ten tons of hay, which has been given to Capt. Rice.

"P.S. Aug. 9. Alas! this is not all. Yesterday, the lightning visited us again, and burnt a barn filled with hay for Lemuel Wentworth,2 struck Christopher Newbit's house, and killed a child belonging to Jotham Davis.

"Within four weeks, I have seen three large barns with much hay burnt to the ground by lightning; and the fire in another barn kindled by lightning has been

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Mr. Morse hastened to the barn, rolled up the hay, and trod on it, and thus smothered the fire; but his hands were badly burnt.

extinguished, and a child killed, and all within three miles of the place where this is written.

"Lemuel Wentworth had a load of hay on his wagon to carry to Capt. Rice, when his barn was burnt. It stood in the old barn; new barn burnt. Hay unloaded."

"On Sunday morning, May 25, 1823, at 5 o'clock, a chimney in the dwelling-house of Jason Ware was struck by lightning. The chimney and house were injured, and a brick was removed from the hearth. Mrs. Ware and a son, though sitting one in each corner of the fireplace, were not hurt. Mr. Ware, being in the act of placing a backlog, was struck on the head with the fluid, which burnt and broke the thick woollen coat on his right shoulder and arm, destroying the principal part of the sleeve above the elbow, setting on fire his cotton shirt, burning his flannel waistcoat, ripping both seams in the leg of the boot, and breaking and burning the foot of it. His hair and eyebrows were singed; and the injury, which was of the compound nature of a bruise and a burn, extended down the right side of the neck, over the shoulder and arm, and down the thigh, leg, and foot [and perforated his boot near the heel]. He fell instantly, and was apparently dead. Cold water was thrown into his face [friction was resorted to], and he exhibited signs of life. He was then held erect, and cold water poured upon him profusely. Applications of poultices, and subsequently of plasters, were made to the wounded parts; and shortly the skin, which to a considerable extent was entirely dead and black, was removed in large pieces. In a fortnight he was able to walk, and in a reasonable time recovered a comfortable state of health, though not so good as before. The shock appeared to add something to the infirmities of age.

"The same stroke of lightning tore a large timber from the roof of the barn of Matthias Hawes, about 25 rods distant; while several cattle in the stall below did not receive any injury. Some persons said they

perceived, both at the house and the barn, a strong smell of brimstone; others compared it to gunpowder." 1

Aug. 25, 1840. The lightning struck the store of Henry Fossett, in the north-west part of the town. Robert Rokes, of Appleton, sitting on the counter, was killed. On a bench below him, which was placed along against the counter, sat, on one side of him, John Rokes, of Hope. He was stunned, and so injured that he did not recover for many weeks. On the same bench, but on the other side of Robert Rokes, sat Jacob Sibley, leaning forward. He was stunned, and carried home in a wagon. His burns were so deep,

that he did not become even tolerably well till the following spring; and the state of his physical system, and the large scars and ridges, which resemble the twists in ropes, make it obvious that the effects will be seriously felt through life. Thomas Fossett and Robert Pease were stunned, and slightly injured, but shortly recovered. Paul Lincoln was stunned, and so seriously injured, that for some time his life was despaired of; but after some months he recovered. Henry Fossett, the only person in the store who was not hurt, and but for whose escape the store and all the persons in it would undoubtedly have been burnt, was behind the counter at the time, and threw out the cotton batting which had been ignited. The wounds would not have been so deep, if, amid the confusion, water had been thrown upon the clothes, which continued to burn for a long time after the sufferers were struck down.

HEALTH AND LONGEVITY.

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"People never die in Union was the remark of a native of Thomaston; and probably there are not many towns in Maine, in which the deaths are fewer or the sickness less, in proportion to the number of inhabitants. This, however, like other towns, has had seasons of extensive mortality. In 1792-3, the throat

1 Dr. J. Sibley's Letters.

distemper, as it was commonly called, carried off a very large number of the children, and spread a general mourning through the small population. In 1826 the dysentery was very prevalent and fatal.

Consumption, too, has called off one after another from some families, till but very few members remain to mourn over the departed. In such cases, it is not unnatural for those who are fast wasting away, eagerly to adopt any suggestion for relief from the destroyer. Accordingly, in 1832 and 1833, a few persons put in practice the proverb, that the burning of the lungs of relatives who died of consumption would cure that disease in the living. One body was exhumed several months after death, and the vital parts were burned near the grave, which was in the Old Burying Ground. The theory seemed to be, that the disease, being a family disease, would thus be burned out or exterminated. But death still claimed the fair and the beautiful as his own.

Some idea of the general healthfulness of the place may be formed from the following memoranda by the Rev. Mr. True, which purport to notice all the deaths in town, inclusive of infants, for the several years to which they relate :

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When the census was taken in 1830, there were 17 males and 16 females above 70 years of age; and in 1840 there were 15 males and 24 females. In 1835 there were 26 or more persons who were as much as 75 years of age. It is thought that the oldest person who has died in town was the widow Abigail Messer, probably 99.

Without attempting an analysis of the causes of the healthfulness of the place, it may be observed, the

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