Arranged and described by Brenda Howitson Steeves
Raymond H. Fogler Library Special Collections Department
November 2003
 
Introduction and Summary Information
 
Collection Title: Gideon Mayo Papers.
Dates of the Collection: 1827-1920 (inclusive); 1846-1876 (bulk).
Provenance: The Gideon Mayo papers were purchased in 1987.
Collection Number: MS 331.
Box Numbers: 1-5 (formerly Boxes 1412-1419).
Size and Arrangement: The collection consists of 4 archival record cartons and one document box of material (5 cubic feet).
Conservation Note: The collection has been re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes.
Preferred Citation: Gideon Mayo Papers, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine.
Restrictions on Access and Use: Kept at Fogler Library's offsite storage facility. One week's notice required for retrieval.
 

Biography
 
Gideon Mayo was born in 1808 and lived in Orono, Maine. He was involved in various businesses in the Orono area and served as agent for several sawmills on the Stillwater River, including the Basin Mills, the Island Mills, and the Orono Manufacturing Company. Several of the major investors and directors in these companies were located in New York City and included Courtlandt Palmer, Charles Gould, Rutherford Moody, George H. Ford and Samuel D. Dakin. Insurance documents in the collection describe the Basin Mills as sawmills containing “four gangs, eight single saws, two circulars, four edgers, two lath machines and running gear; a one story building containing a shingle machine and a clapboard machine, and a two story workshop.” The Orono Manufacturing Company consisted of sawmills and water-power on the lower dam at Ayers Island on the Stillwater River in Orono.
 
Mayo also became involved in the 1850’s in founding and financing the Penobscot Railroad Company and served as a member of the Board of Directors and as president of the company. This railroad, approximately 15 miles long, ran from the Kenduskeag Stream in Bangor to a terminus on the north shore of the Stillwater River in Orono to its final terminus at Milford, Maine. Mayo also served as a director of the Old Town and Lincoln Railroad Company, and he and his partners had interests in wharf property, primarily the Roberts Wharf in Bangor.
 
Mayo was recommended in 1865 to become collector of the port of Bangor but instead became pension agent for the United States Bureau of Pensions at Bangor in the late 1860’s and 1870’s.
 
Gideon Mayo was married to Martha A.H. Mayo and had several children, including Charles W., Edward P., Henry, Elbridge G., and Annie. Mayo died in 1876.
 
The collection also contains a small amount of material belonging to George H. Hamlin; Mayo and Hamlin may have been relatives by marriage. George Hamlin was born in Sidney, Maine, in 1850. He graduated in 1873 from the Maine State College, now the University of Maine, in the Department of Civil Engineering. After graduating, he became a tutor in the department and in 1880 was appointed Professor of Civil Engineering. He was treasurer of the college from 1889 to 1896 and was active in the Alumni Association. He also had a general engineering business and was an advocate for the development of good roads in the state of Maine.
 
George Hamlin married Annie M. Mayo in 1877 and had four children, only two of whom, Charles Mayo and George Harold Hamlin, lived into adulthood.
 

Scope and Content Note
 
The collection is arranged in three series: papers of Gideon Mayo, papers of Charles W. Mayo, Gideon Mayo’s son, and papers of George H. Hamlin. The Gideon Mayo series is arranged in five sub-series: correspondence, legal records, financial records, company records, and personal and miscellaneous material.
 
The Gideon Mayo papers begin with incoming correspondence, 1846-1876, primarily concerning financing and running the sawmills and other properties of Mayo and his business partners, especially Courtlandt Palmer and S.D. Dakin. Other letters deal with efforts to finance and build the Penobscot Railroad; correspondents include Israel Washburn, Jr. and John A. Poor, an early advocate of building railroads in Maine.
 
The legal records include deeds, 1827-1874; leases for mills and equipment, 1849-1871; agreements to sell Mayo saws and other equipment, 1850-1853; and writs issued to Mayo and his partners, 1848-1872. The financial records sub-series contains information about accounts settled, 1837-1867; bills for business expenses and equipment, 1839-1879; receipts, 1840-1876; and notes issued and paid, 1836-1876. These two sub-series give a clear picture of the financial and physical difficulties involved in establishing and running businesses and railroads in mid-19th century Maine.
 
The company records sub-series gives more detailed information about Mayo’s various business ventures, especially his involvement in lumbering and sawmills. This series ends with various personal papers, including a folder of recommendations for Mayo as collector of the port of Bangor and a file of his records as pension agent.
 
The papers of Charles W. Mayo, Gideon Mayo’s son, deal primarily with his activities as administrator of his father’s estate, as well as personal and family matters. They include incoming correspondence, 1876-1882; probate and legal documents; an inventory of Gideon Mayo’s estate; and bills and claims against that estate, 1876-1878.
 
The papers of George H. Hamlin are a mix of personal and business records. His incoming correspondence, 1876-1912, includes information about forming the Alumni Association for the Maine State College, the promotion in 1896 of an engineering experiment station bill similar to the Hatch Act for agriculture, and letters concerning his involvement in lumbering activities. Also included in this series is a group of questionnaires Hamlin sent in 1894 to selectmen and road commissioners in Maine asking about town financing for roads, wages paid to maintain roads, difficulties in keeping roads in good repair, etc.
 
 
 

Box List
 
Series I: Papers of Gideon Mayo
 
Sub-series 1: Correspondence
 
Box 1
 
Folder
 
1 Correspondence, incoming, 1846
2 Correspondence, incoming, Feb.-Nov., 1847
3 Correspondence, incoming, Jan.-Aug., 1848
4 Correspondence, incoming, 1849
5 Correspondence, incoming, Feb.-Dec., 1850
6 Correspondence, incoming, 1851
7 Correspondence, incoming, Jan.-June, 1852
8 Correspondence, incoming, July-Dec., 1852
9 Correspondence, incoming, Jan.-June, 1853
10 Correspondence, incoming, July-Dec., 1853
11 Correspondence, incoming, 1854
12 Correspondence, incoming, 1855
13 Correspondence, incoming, 1856
14 Correspondence, incoming, Jan.-June, 1857
15 Correspondence, incoming, July-Dec., 1857
16 Correspondence, incoming, 1858
17 Correspondence, incoming, 1859
18 Correspondence, incoming, 1860
19 Correspondence, incoming, 1861
20 Correspondence, incoming, 1862
21 Correspondence, incoming, Jan.-June, 1863
22 Correspondence, incoming, July-Dec., 1863
23 Correspondence, incoming, 1864
24 Correspondence, incoming, 1865
25 Correspondence, incoming, 1866
26 Correspondence, incoming, 1867
27 Correspondence, incoming, Jan.-Oct., 1868
 
Box 2
 
1 Correspondence, incoming, 1869
2 Correspondence, incoming, 1870
3 Correspondence, incoming, Mar.-Dec., 1871
4 Correspondence, incoming, Mar.-Sept., 1872
 

Sub-series 1: Correspondence cont.
 
Box 2 cont.
 
Folder
 
5 Correspondence, incoming, Feb.-Oct., 1873
6 Correspondence, incoming, 1874
7 Correspondence, incoming, 1875
8 Correspondence, incoming, 1876
9 Correspondence, incoming, undated
 
Sub-series 2: Legal records
 
10 Deeds, 1827-1874
11 Leases, 1849-1871
12 Writs, 1848-1872
13 Miscellaneous legal documents, 1848-1859, 1872, undated
14 Agreements, 1850, 1852, 1853
15 Bond, 1850
16 Old bonds of mills bo’t by S.D. Dakin, 1851-1852
17 Roberts Wharf papers, 1853-1861
18 Leases of Roberts Wharf from 1857 to 1861
19 Documents re Courtlandt Palmer
20 Webster Treat, letters and accounts, 1856-1872
 
Sub-series 3: Financial records
 
21 Accounts settled, 1837-1849
22 Accounts settled, 1850-1851
23 Accounts settled, 1851
24 Accounts settled, 1851-1852
25 Accounts settled, 1852-1853
26 Accounts settled, 1853-1867, undated
27 Hinckley, Eagan & Mansfield accounts, [1848]
28 E.P. Mayo account, 1876-1878
 
Box 3
 
1 Bills, 1839
2 Bills, 1843
3 Bills, 1844
4 Bills, 1845
 
 
 
Sub-series 3: Financial records cont.
 
Box 3 cont.
 
Folder
 
5 Bills, 1846
6 Bills, 1847
7 Bills, 1848
8 Bills, 1848
9 Bills, 1849
10 Bills, 1850
11 Bills, 1850
12 Bills, 1851
13 Bills, 1852
14 Bills, 1853
15 Bills, 1854
16 Bills, 1855
17 Bills, 1856
18 Bills, 1857
19 Bills, 1858
20 Bills, 1859
21 Bills, 1860
22 Bills, 1861
23 Bills, 1862
24 Bills, 1863
25 Bills, 1864
26 Bills, 1865
27 Bills, 1866
28 Bills, 1867
29 Bills, 1868
30 Bills, 1869
31 Bills, 1870
32 Bills, 1871
33 Bills, 1872
34 Bills, 1873
35 Bills, 1874
36 Bills, 1875
37 Bills, 1876
38 Bills, 1877
39 Bills, 1879
40 Bills, undated
41 Orders, 1848-1870

Sub-series 3: Financial records cont.
 
Box 4
 
Folder
 
1 Receipts, 1840-1852
2 Receipts, 1853-1863
3 Receipts, 1864-1876, undated
4 Notes issued & paid, 1836-1851
5 Notes issued & paid, 1852-1853
6 Notes issued & paid, 1854-1857
7 Notes issued & paid, 1858-1876, undated
8 Remittances, 1874-1875
9 Miscellaneous financial records, 1846-1875, undated
 
Sub-series 4: Company records
 
10 Island Mills records, 1847-1853
11 Basin Mills records, 1847-1862
12 Orono Manufacturing Co. records, 1852-1857
13 Lumbering documents
14 Invoice & survey of lumber resources to the 1st of Oct. 1846
15 Certificates of time, 1848-1855, undated
16 Land below the mills, 1851 [Notes & accounts]
17 Sundry mill accounts, 1853
18 Six saw block, 1853 [Bills]
19 Penobscot Railroad Co. records, 1853-1863
20 Edward Mansfield: Bills, 1836-1885
21 Edward Mansfield: Correspondence, notes, receipts, 1838-1881
 
Sub-series 5: Personal and miscellaneous material
 
22 Memo books, 1859, 1861, 1863
23 Memoranda, undated
24 Recommendations for collector, port of Bangor, 1865
25 Pension agent records, 1866-1873
26 Miscellaneous papers, 1854
27 Miscellaneous
28 Miscellaneous
29 Miscellaneous personal papers
30 Searsport house
 
  
 
Series II: Papers of Charles W. Mayo
 
Box 4 cont.
 
Folder
 
31 Correspondence, incoming, 1876-June, 1878
32 Correspondence, incoming, July, 1878-1882, undated
33 Account with G. Mayo from 1864 to 1876
34 Memo book: Farm account from Jan. 1, 1877 to [1878]
35 Memo book, 1879
36 Receipts, 1869-1879
37 Leases, deeds, 1870’s
38 Probate & legal documents re estate of Gideon Mayo
39 Inventory of estate of G. Mayo
40 Bills against estate of Gideon Mayo, 1876-1878, undated
41 Claims against estate, 1877-1878
42 Wilson claim, 1879
 
Series III: Papers of George H. Hamlin
 
Box 5
 
1 Correspondence, incoming, 1876-1912, undated
2 Bills and receipts, 1873-1911
3 Personal papers
4 Miscellaneous notes and business papers
5 Memorandum book, undated
6 Deeds
7 Records of the Telos Canal Co.
8 Records of Winn Water & Power Co.
9 Road survey, 1894
10 Road survey, 1894
11 Harold Hamlin: Bank statements, 1919-1920
12 Harold Hamlin: Cancelled checks, 1920