His father, Robert Finch, was one of the group who first started the business of "toting" from Bangor to the Aroostook county line, and was the first to drive a four-horse team into Patten. He and his companions on the road toted from Bangor, and after the first mill was built in Patten, their load was made up of shingles and clapboards on the down trip, returning with varied loads for the general stores. What would be more natural than that, as his sons grew older, they should follow the same line of business? At an age when boys of today are barely permitted to go out alone after dark. Mr. Finch started toting under his father's direction. It was a common custom among the old- timers of those days, and it was no rare sight to see beardless boys handling the reins over four and six-horse teams as expertly as the modern youth handles the wheel of his father's automobile. 

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The railroad, the European & North American Railroad,. had reached Mattawamkeag before Mr. Finch was old enough to start tot-ing, but even so it was a long, cold journey from that town to Patten, when January winds howled over the hills in Benedicta and Sherman. For that was the route then. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points; and during the period when it seemed that the United States and England would go to war (the scare now called the Aroostook War), this road was run through to Fort Kent, and re- lays of mounted videttes were ready from Old Town to Ashland at all times, to carry important messages. But that is another story.

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In 1892 the Bangor & Aroostook, on its way to northern Maine, went through Sherman Station and Crys- tal, both points only a few miles from Patten. Four years later A. A. Burleigh built the Patten & Sherman branch, which forever ended that phase of toting and began a new chapter in the history of Maine.

Possibly the term "forever" should not have been used, for during the strike of 1912-13, when the B. & A. encountered its first, and only, serious labor trouble, it became im- possible to keep the stores and woods concerns supplied with necessities, and a number of teams went through to Mattawamkeag for a carload of goods which reached there by way of the C. P. R. or Maine Central.

 

In the early 1900's there was still plenty of toting to be done, for there were many lumbering concerns whose headquarters and nearest railway point was Patten, and all the supplies for both men and horses had to be hauled to them by horses. Some of these concerns were several days' journey away, over rough woods roads. 

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No man held a job with horses very long unless he was careful of them and it was a rule that they were to be cared for before the men themselves. Ice and mud were carefully brushed from their legs; regulations as to feed and water were laid down and carefully carried out.

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Possibly it is because Mr. Finch has been taking care of horses for sixty-odd years; perhaps it is be- cause a good horse is, to him, the most wonderful animal in the world, or it may be that animals know instinctively when they meet a friend; at any rate Mr. Finch has never been injured by a horse intentionally during this long period. And now, since there is no veterinary for 40 miles in either di- rection, he is frequently called by farmers in this and surrounding towns when a horse is ill.

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The one in the picture with him is now 25 years old, and was foaled on the Finch farm. He and his mate do all of Mr. Finch's farm work and seem good for several years yet.

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The days of toting, however, are past. Indeed, they are so far gone, that the word "toter" is unknown to many well-read young folks of this generation, but they made up an important part of the history of Patten, and next year when the town celebrates the hundredth year of its incorporation, they should be given special prominence.