When Europeans settled the watershed in the 18th century they brought a different sensibility to life on the river

Gallery • • watershed narratives

“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 had 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 issue of fish passage vs. dams started as early as 1809 on 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.”

Fisher, Carleton Edward. 1970. History of Clinton, Maine. Kennebec Journal Press. Augusta, Maine.