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THE BATH RIOT.When Old South Was Burned 1:An Eye Witness Tells of the V Exciting Incidents as TheyOccurred.itA. P. Ridley of Lewiston tells an interesting story of the old “Bath f Riot’* and of the burning of the Old South church. yThis riot happened during the Fremont and Dayton campaign in 1856 ® and which came so near having tragic consequences. It also well illus-* ••trates the intense racial and religious bigotry of those days, bdt which hapily has now so well nigh passed away. Mr. Ridley tells this story: “In 1856 I was working as a carpenter in Bath and happened to be present at one of the most exciting events'^ that ever happened in that place.i -“Let me say to you that Bath wasfar more prosperous as a city at that time than it is today. Why, in 1854 there were 56 ships built in that cityiand that number has never since been equalled. The tonnage of those vessels amounted to almost 60,000 tons and there were thousands of workmen in the place.“In 1856 came the Fremont and Dayton campaign and political excitement ran very high .The Republican party was then young but Bath was one of its strongholds. Right at the time when the excitement was at its highest point Ned Buntline was sentthere to deliver a campaign speech for the Republicans. Buntline even then was famous but later became even-a national figure as an adventurer and writer.“When Buntline reached Brunswick he mised the regular connection and so hired a team to drive through. ,The carriage was an old-fashioned two wheel gig and he hadibeen due to speak at two o’clock in the afternoon but as a matter of factit was that hour when he left Bruns-. •wick.ittasIcs\ylrcc1f*cVIfcI1\II1]lt;■tlt;1He drove through as fast as possible and just as he reached the1 end/*of the Bay bridge in Niggertown, as it was roughly called, someone shot at him three times in rai)id succession. One of the bulets went wild* * . » •but the other two hit the seat of the gig and plowed through it within -an inch of his body. There must have been more than onevwho fired as repeating rifles were not known at•that time and the three shots were all fired within a few seconds of each other.Buntline put the whip to his horse and came into' the city as! quickly as possible. A .crowd of not j less than 3,000 men were in the: square near the old Sagadahoc Housei and in front of the Gov. King place/! when he came in, and he. told tlurfn • what had just happened. I saw fthe gig, as did hundreds of others, and 1 the bullet holes plainly showed.“The news ran through the crowd like lightning and produced the wildest, excitement. It was generally be- , lieved that the shots had been fired by the Irish, of whom there was a \ small settlement in Bath. At that 1 time the prejudice against the Irish 1 was very Strong, and although there 3 was not the slightest reason to con- f nect them with the crime, it was at I once assumed that they were the c guilty parties. I“In less time than it takes to tellthe story it could plainly be seen that the crowd was determined on somekind of vengeance. Old Dr. Stall- I bridge, who at that time was one of the big guns of the city, got into a hack and ordered the driver to drive him right through the crowd. He f shouted and by all other means tried $ to stop the riot, but it was too late, t The crowd seemed to be perfectly in- -£ furiated. The doctor managed to get i through the crowd and drove down 1 to Candy Row, as it was called. In- £ stead of letting well enough alone, 1t'lie turned and came back. Then the I mob broke loose on him. They threw £ him out and tipped the hack upside c down. Then they cut the harness v from the horse and stove things to tpieces generally. f% • •»“The mob then started for the * South church. That was the church 1 of the. Catholics, and there was great * prejudice against them, due to the ^ old Puritan feeling of those times. The building was near the court house, and was one that they 1 had purchased and made over for their religious services.“In those days there was no gas or electric lights, and oil and a fluid(Continued on Page.Five.) • i« *’ * .... . • .1 • • •88y(j
Newspaper Details
Bath Independent and Enterprise
Bath, Maine, US
Sat, Dec 01, 1906
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 31 Dec 2018
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