LANE, John ~ 1800 US Census Readfield 2-2-1-1

John Lane 1761 - 1846

This is an excerpt from John Lane and Jere Page homesteads and mills on Beaver Brook in East Readfield. Follow this link FMI and / or to purchase the entire 12 page study.

John Lane[i] was born 12/18/1761 in Hampton, NH a son of Josiah and Elizabeth (Perkins) Lane.[ii]  He married Ruth Morrill 12/1/1784, whose parents were Micajah and Susannah (Clough) Morrill of South Hampton, NH. John, Ruth and their four oldest children came to Readfield from Gilmanton, NH about 1797.[iii]  In August of that year John Lane, a tanner, purchased parts of lots #135 and #136 for $200 from Robert Page, Esq. The purchase included all the land Page owned on the north side of the county road that “leads from Joshua Bean’s to the Kennebec River.” [iv] Lane’s neighbors were Joshua Johnson and Freeman Luce.

Lane built his home near the crest of the hill between Beaver Brook and Hutchins (also known as Hutchinson) Road.[v]  Some sources say that Lane built the current home of Ira and Marge Ellis[vi] but I found out that is not true.[vii] He actually built Mike Hutchison’s[viii] house located slightly west of the Ellis home. He also built and operated a flax (also called linseed) oil mill on Beaver Brook between the (current Ellis and Hutchison) homes; and he constructed the first dam on the brook which created the Mill Pond.[ix]

Flaxseed is 30 to 40 percent oil. A bushel of it can produce 20 pounds of linseed oil and 36 pounds of flax meal. That said, it takes a great deal of pressure to extract linseed oil from flax seed. In earlier times this was accomplished by using a press powered by oxen. As the industry grew to a larger scale, water powered mills took on the process, hence John Lane’s operation on Beaver Brook. Linseed oil is a drying agent, a binding agent in paint, a varnish, a hardener in putty and it is also used to create linoleum. It is also highly inflammable and will ignite spontaneously under the right conditions.[x] Lane’s oil mill did not burn though - he simply stopped operations about 1840.[xi]  He was eighty years old by then so that would have been a serious consideration – though his eldest son Joshua was living on the place with him and more than likely would have been working the mill.  It was probably the young East Readfield industrialists Peter and Joseph Sanborn who influenced the Lane’s decision when – about this same time – they established a large oilcloth factory at East Readfield village.[xii] 

 

Up until that time Lane’s oil mill must have done well. His home was quite impressive and his land holdings grew to 100 acres. After his initial acquisition in 1797 his name appears on many additional land transactions.[xiii]  In 1808 he bought 54 acres from Prince Luce – part of lot #136 abutting William and Ellis Luce’s properties. Those Luce men lived where Readfield Depot now lies. Interesting that this land had belonged to Beriah Luce – the same man who settled where Luce Memorial Forest is currently located, and where we history walked 10/25/2013. Beriah had sold this piece to his son Freeman[xiv] who died from a cannon misfire during a militia muster in 1804. Subsequent to Freeman’s death the heirs of Beriah Luce came to own Freeman’s land (since he had no wife or children).[xv] Prince Luce was Freeman’s brother and administered the estate.[xvi] He sold an additional 8 acres from lot#135 to John Lane at the same time.[xvii] In 1810 John Lane purchased another 60 acres - 1/3 of lot #135 – from Joseph Johnson.[xviii] By 1817 Lane’s oil mill was in full swing when he bought another 3 acres from Robert Page – part of lot #134. This deed mentions specifically Lane’s oil mill and the brook. It also mentions a stone in the wall marked with the letter “B” as a border marker.[xix] Perhaps John Lane needed additional land in order to grow flax for his oil mill?

In 1822 John Lane sold land on the north side of the highway to Robert and Jere Page. The deed defined the boundaries (in part) as “5 rods east of my oil mill to the north end of my mill pond easterly on the pond to the most easterly point thereof.” He also granted them “…the privilege of building any other dam that they should choose on my land, not within the bounds described that shall be necessary to raise the water as high as they shall choose. Also the privilege of flowing all my land that their said dam, when built, shall flow. Leaving to myself the privilege of hoisting their gate at any time I shall have a majority of water for the use of my oil mill when there is water in their pond if they do not use it...” [xx]

In 1825 he sold another 1 ½ acres to Jere Page for $50. There is no mention of buildings in either deed.[xxi]

Kingsbury’s History of Kennebec County, written in 1892, relates the industry on Beaver Brook as such: “On the brook now running through the farm of Lewis B. Hunton a sawmill was built by Jere Page [xxii] before 1820. On the same brook John Lane built a mill for grinding flax seed and making linseed oil before 1810. It was abandoned before 1840 and moved away for a stable.” [xxiii]  

John Lane’s wife died in January 16, 1839. This surely caused him to reflect on what to do about his own future and how to arrange for the fate of his homestead. All of his sons had left Maine – except the oldest one, Joshua. He had married in 1825 to Elizabeth - a neighbor girl whose father was the Baptist preacher Isaac Case.[xxiv]  Joshua and Elizabeth lived on the Lane homestead with his parents. By August of 1839 John Lane had made a big decision – as had Joshua. At that time John Lane, yeoman sold to his son Joshua Lane, gentleman “…for $1,000 and in consideration also of natural love and affection which said John Lane hath unto the said Joshua Lane all land and real estate (he)  possessed…” There was no mention of an oil mill in this deed – just a general “all real estate”.[xxv]  The deed was recorded September 28, 1846 – exactly two months before John Lane died on November 28, 1846.[xxvi] An interesting side note – Elizabeth’s brother Elisha Case partnered with the Sanborn brothers when they established an oil cloth factory in East Readfield village in the 1840s.[xxvii]

John and Ruth Lane are buried in East Readfield Cemetery as is their daughter-in-law Elizabeth (Case) Lane.[xxviii]

Joshua carried on his father’s homestead for several years. On the 1850 agricultural census he reported that he was managing 70 acres of improved / cleared land and had 30 acres of woods. The value of his farm was $2,500; implements and livestock were worth $280. He had 1 horse, 2 milk cows, 4 cattle, 20 sheep and 2 swine. From his sheep he sheered 27 lbs. of wool and from the milk cows he produced 100 lbs. of cheese. Joshua raised 50 bushels of corn; 60 of oats; 6 of peas and beans; 40 of potatoes; and 9 of clover seed.[xxix]  He valued homemade manufactured products at $10 and slaughtered animals at $18. Joshua was probably one of the many farmers in Readfield who sent wool and cheese to the mills at Factory Square.

By 1850 Joshua and Elizabeth were living alone except for an 11 year old named Ellin Auclair. Perhaps she was living with them to help with the household chores and an ailing wife?[xxx] Joshua must have worked very hard. He had two children who by that time had both married and left Maine, as had all of his brothers. Joshua’s daughter, Elizabeth Ann, had moved to Massachusetts, and his son George Washington Lane had moved to Morris in Grundy County, Illinois. One year after this agricultural census was taken Joshua’s wife died and he was left living alone without any family nearby.[xxxi] He was now 63 years old and it was his turn to think about the future. 

On June 26, 1857 Joshua sold the Lane family homestead to David Brown for $1,500. Soon after he moved to Morris, Grundy, Illinois to live with his son and died there December 8, 1859. Joshua Lane is buried out there in Evergreen Cemetery but his beloved Elizabeth is buried here in East Readfield Cemetery with her parents-in-law. After a prominent presence in East Readfield for sixty years this Lane family no longer existed here.

Children of John and Elizabeth Lane:

1.      Joshua b. 1/21/1788 in Pittsfield, MA. In 1825 he married Elizabeth Case, daughter of Rev. Isaac and Joanna (Snow) Case of East Readfield.[xxxii] Two children George W. b.1817 and Elizabeth b.1819

2.      John, Jr. b. 9/26/1790 in Gilmanton, NH d. 1819 in Philadelphia, PA

3.      Isaiah b. 5/`4/1793 in Gilmanton, NH d. 7/8/1823 in St. Louis, MI

4.      Josiah b. 7/3/1796 in Gilmanton, NH d. 5/3/ 1872 in New York

5.      David b. 5/25/1801 in Readfield d. 1/27/1855 in New York

6.      George Washington b. 7/19/ 1804 in Readfield d. 5/19/1833 in Boston, MA

7.      Ruth Gardiner (adopted) b. 9/1/1805 in Readfield (nothing more is known about her at this time)

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[i] John Lane painting that has been passed down through his line of Lane family generations. On the back there is a very old handwritten note and the contributor could make out the following: John Lane Born in Hampton   _?_  died in 1846____ Picture was left to his son?? J. Lane, Geo W. Lane, Maynard died 188? David W. Lane of  Weston. www.ancestry.com accessed 10/29/2-13

[ii] New Hampshire, Births and Christenings Index, 1714-1904 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com. Accessed 10/28/2013

[iii] Kennebec County Registry of Deeds Book 28 Page 122 August 5, 1797

[iv] Route 17 now called Main Street in Readfield, ME. Does not specify the number of acres in this deed.

[v] This could be the Luce Road though another road was laid out further east that ended up being just the driveway into the Blanchard then the E.H. Morrill place. Both names can be seen on the 1856 and 1879 maps respectively. Hutchins Road is mentioned in the deed dated 1857 Book 176 Page 376 Kennebec County Registry of Deeds

[vi] 581 Main Street, Readfield

[vii] Reflections of Readfield by Readfield Bicentennial Commission; pub 1975; page 23

[viii] To my knowledge this name is coincidental. Also spelled slightly different which would not be a reason to discount a distant relationship to the Hutchins / Hutchinson family who once lived in this neighborhood. As you can see the spelling of the name was changed twice within a short time.

[ix] Kennebec County Registry of Deeds Book 238 Page 173 dated 2/11/1863 gives full description of his property when he sold to his son Joshua

[x] Cutler, Charlene Perkins; Exploring the Last Green Valley: Flaxseed oil was once produced in Norwich;  Norwich Bulletin September 15, 2013; http://www.norwichbulletin.com/article/20130915/NEWS/309159947 accessed 10/29/2013

[xi] Kingsbury and Deyo, History of Kennebec County (New York, H.W. Blake & Co., 1892), page 897

[xii] Clark, Dale Potter; The Sanborns of Readfield, Maine: Life in Frog Valley and Beyond; pub. 2013; www.readfieldmaine.blogspot.com

[xiii] Kennebec County Registry of Deeds; various

[xiv] Ibid book 21 Page 202 June 19, 1808

[xv] See Dale Potter Clark’s write-up for the Luce Memorial Forest Readfield History Walk #14 10/25/2013

[xvi] Prince lived on the (now called) Luce Road near the home of Rex and Audrey Luce. His house burned in 1931. Refer to History Walk #14 on Luce Memorial Forest FMI.

[xvii] Kennebec County Registry of Deeds Book 31 Page 408 May 3, 1810

[xviii] Kennebec County Registry of Deeds Book 17 Page 604 June 9, 1810

[xix] Ibid Book 71 Page 235 June 28, 1817

[xx] Ibid Book 62 Page 287 October 23, 1822

[xxi] Generally old deeds mention buildings thereon or dwelling where I now live, or my homestead if there was a house included with the purchase. Cost of sale is also a consideration and surely $50 would not have been enough to buy land and buildings anyways.

[xxii] Page built the Ellis home an Lewis B. Hunton lived there after Page.

[xxiii] Kingsbury and Deyo, History of Kennebec County (New York, H.W. Blake & Co., 1892), page 897.

[xxiv] Clark, Dale Potter; Rev. Isaac Case 1761-1851; pub. 2013 www.readfieldmaine.blogspot.com

[xxv] Kennebec County Registry of Deeds Book 151 Page 596 August 23, 1839

[xxvi] ibid

[xxvii] Clark, Dale Potter; Rev. Isaac Case 1761-1851; pub. 2013 www.readfieldmaine.blogspot.com

[xxviii] Clark, Dale Potter; To Those Who Rest in Peace in Readfield, ME; pub. Pending www.readfieldmaine.blogspot.com

[xxix] Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Readfield, Kennebec, Maine

[xxx] 1850 US Census Readfield, ME page 10 www.ancestry.com accessed 10/30/2013. Relationship of the girl unknown at this time.

[xxxi] Clark, Dale Potter; Potter-Clark-Boatman family tree on www.ancestry.com  accessed 10/29/2013

[xxxii] Clark, Dale Potter; Rev. Isaac Case 1761-1851; pub. 2013 www.readfieldmaine.blogspot.com