Some of the friends of the late Isaac Wheeler, Esq., have claimed for him the distinction of making the first opening of the township. This claim does not seem to be well founded. It is certain that his beginning was not made earlier than 1802. His friends do not claim for it an earlier date. The late Obed Bartlett of Boston, Mass., said that he had often heard his father, Josiah Bartlett, affirm that his was the first opening in the township.

Deacon John S. Haskell felled ten acres of trees in the township in 1802. He says that the sixteen or eighteen men who had beginnings in that year worked in companies of five or six men each upon one lot after another, or, in the parlance of the times, they changed work --that at the end of each week they repaired to the residence of a Mr. Sanborn in Charleston to spend the Sabbath, and that on their way to that point they passed an opening on the old Bartlett place which they supposed was made a year earlier. There was a tradition among the old settlers of a good natured rivalry between Josiah Bartlett and Joseph Garland relating to the name that should be given to the township when incorporated. Mr. Bartlett claimed the honor of giving it his name for the reason that his opening was the first therein. Mr. Garland claimed the honor upon the ground that he had established the first family in the township. The parties to the dispute finally agreed that the one who presented the first son to the township, born within its limits, should be allowed to give his name to the future town. An event soon after occured in the family of Mr. Garland that decided the question in his favor, and when it was incorporated in 1811, it took the name of Garland by unanimous consent.