CHAPTER V.
p.205 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - CONTINUED.
MAJOR CHURCH.
1690.
The renewal of savage barbarities in the East roused Massa-
chusetts to arms. Chastisement and the recovery of the captives
were the great purposes of the contemplated military operations.
Major Church, the hero of King Philip's war - the terror as he
had been the scourge of savage men - was designated to command
the expedition.
MILES STANDISH OF PLYMOUTH.
BENJAMIN CHURCH.
Next to Miles Standish of Plymouth, the name of Benjamin Church
as an early successful military leader, stands out in bold re-
lief on the annals of New England. The arena of his glory and
success was the field of frontier service. A native of Plymouth,
too, endowed with great benevolence of heart, fortified with
natural sagacity and fortitude, of reputed piety and a high sense
of honor as a frontier man - a volunteer - or backwoodsman - he
entered the ranks at the commencement of King Philip's war.
His fortitude, perseverance, and tact, together with great
personal prowess, gave him eminence. Indeed, he put to shame
the movements of the regular army, and, in fact, subdued the
hords of the Indian, King Philip, breaking down in regular
succession all his great captains, and scattering all the com-
binations of savage power.
p.206 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
ANNAWON'S FALL.
To-to-son, Tis-pa-quin and the great An-na-won, Philip's
confederates and friends, all were out-generalled by Church.
An-na-won, the last of the trio of savage heroes of King
Philip's reign of terror, was at length made prisoner by
Church. On the night of the capture, by the light of the
moon beams, rising from his dewy couch under the open
canopy of heaven, An-na-won approached his conqueror with
a fearless and statley mien. Falling on his knees before
him, - "Great Captain," he cried, "you have killed Philip
and conquered his country! I and my company are the last!
Therefore, these," (holding out to him King Philip's in-
insignia of royalty) "belong unto you." The shoulders of
the hero of Philip's fall were at once invested by the
hands of An-na-won with robes of wampum curiously wrought
in figures and flowers of the forms of birds and beasts,
with black and white, edged with human hair dyed in scar=
let colors. The whole was girded with a belt ornamented
with a pendant star, from the shoulders reaching to the
ankles. But the magnanimous and fearless Annawawon, in
defiance of the entreaties and remonstrances of his
brave captor, was slain by the Plymotheans after his
surrender.
p.206 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE
continued
Having successfully encountered the enemy at Casco, who retired
from the field, Church next appeared on the on the plains of
Brunswick, and in the heart of the enemy's country on the Andro-
scoggin, forcing the very doors of his strong-hold.
Foremost in the fight, stripped to his shirt and jacket, Church
plunged into the water, crossed the river and rushed into the
south gate, while the Indians fled out at the north. Some took
to the water; others ran under the falls; and most perished,
either under the deadly aim of the ferocious frontiers' men, or
while struggling for life against the current, were swept under
the waters of the rushing Androscoggin!
p.207 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED.
To the fugitives, Church sent a message, telling the Indians who
he was and whence he came. The captives who had been taken were
summarily "knocked on the head" as an example.
Fresh from the blood-stained swamps of Philip's conquest, Church
came like the Angel of Death across the war-path of the red-man
of the East, his portentous name filling all with dismay, from
the papoose in the wigwam to the tawny brave on the scout.
The presence and movements of Church disconcerted the savages,
dissipated their combinations, scattered their confederacies, and
broke up their projected enterprises.
Passing the Kennebec with Governor Phips, Church landed at Pema-
quid, and from thence ranged the Penobscot. Returning, he entered
the Kennebec, and ascended that river. In the ascent of this ex-
pedition, his boats encountered the enemy in their canoes. After a
sharp but successful engagement, he routed the savages, and pur-
sued them so fiercely up the river that they abandoned their canoes,
and took to the woods.
Church pursued them on shore, and gave them no rest in their
forest shelter. The chase continued to "Ticonnet," the site of
their homes. Their lodges, their fort, all were consigned to the
flames by the panic-stricken braves, who, leaving their stores of
corn for plunder, continued their flight into the dense and impene-
trable swamps of the unexplored interior. From Pemaquid as a center,
he scoured the country in all directions, carrying devastation and
dismay, fire and sword, to the homes of the savages.
CONDITION OF COUNTRY.
1692.
Many panic-stricken surviving settlers, crouching amid the ruins
of this war-wasted section, were met by Major Church in the course
of these expeditions, who besought him to procure their removal
from the scene
p.208 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of their sorrows and peril, whose prayers he could not heed.
Left thus to their own resources, the remaining inhabitants
adopted a system of defense, founded in the structure of
"Garrison Houses."
The garrison house was a structure of timber, rectangular in
shape - bullet-proof - pierced with port-holes from angular
projections, coverts and sentry posts surmounting the corner
elevations, which commanded every approach. The garrison house,
often stockaded, usually crowned some height, or crested some
land-swell in the center of a considerable clearing, so that
the environing thickets and copses of wood could not be made a
covert to the prowling savage within musket range.
Here the families of a hamlet gathered on hearing the report
of the alarm guns, under the guard of their fathers, brothers,
and neighbors: - the women often acting the part of guardsmen,
day and night - while the men in detachments went to their
clearings to sow and reap, one of whom stood sentinel, while
the others wrought by turns, every man armed.
Thus the surviving inhabitants endeavored to maintain their
foothold in these wilds, amid savage alarms, determined to
fight rather than to fly.
The adoption of this mode of life at length made the front-
ier-man of the East more than a match for his wily foe. This
adjustment of the homes of the frontier inhabitants to the
emergencies of their condition finally worried out the savage;
and the mode of defense being aptly suited to meet the peculiari-
ties of savage warfare, the pioneer became as wary and resolute,
more fearless and successful than the Indian, which made it very
difficult, if not impossible, for him to attack and destroy the
settler in his usual covert way, by surprise.
p.209 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - Continued.
THE BUILDING OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY AT PEMAQUID.
SIR WILLIAM PHIPS.
Sir William Phips, a native of the Sheepscot, and early
schooled in the discipline and perils of a frontier life,
had become a British nobleman, and had been appointed to the
head of gubernatorial authority in the Province of Massachu-
setts Bay. He took special interest in the welfare of his
native section.
Major Church having in charge, the military operations with-
in the eastern frontier, in August, with an army of near five
hundred men, made his rendezvous among the ruins of the dis-
mantled fortress of Pemaquid, with orders to rebuild it with
stone and lime, according to the most approved arts of war.
But Church was no engineer, and looked on such defense as
worse than useless - as "only nests for destructions."
But Governor Phips, detaching Church to beat up the haunts
of the enemy in their forest strong-holds, with two companies,
rebuilt the defenses of Pemaquid. Twenty rods from high-water
mark, on the easter shore a league above the point of Pemaquid,
on the margin of the inner harbor - a land-locked basin made by
the river's mouth at its deboucher into the bay - a site was
chosen. A guadrangular wall was reared, whose perimeter measur-
ed seven hundred and forty-seven feet, and one hundred and eight
feet between the exterior walls across. These walls founded in
lime and mortar, were built of stone, under the direction of
Captains, Wing and Bancroft, engineers. The wall facing sea-
ward was twenty-two feet high on the south front; on the harbor
side to the west, eighteen feet high; on the north, facing the
river and village, ten feet; and on the east, fronting the main
land at the point of its junction with the peninsula, where once
was a causeway, twelve feet; the whole surmounted with a round
tower, rising from the angle in the south-western bastion, near
thirty feet.
p.210 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THEY NAMED IT FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
Eight feet from the ground, the walls were six feet thick,
pierced with ports for a tier of twenty-eight guns, and some
eighteen were mounted. Thus defended, the work was named Fort
William Henry. This work was a formidable barrier against the
incursions of the eastern savages, and a center of safety to a
considerable circle of surrounding territory. The indefatigable
Church continued his terrifying pursuit of the savages, through-
out the fastnesses of their forest wilds, who fled before him,
leaving their corn, "beaver and moose skins," to become a prey.
1696.
Up to this period, great vicissitudes had checkered the historic
scene at Pemaquid and Sagadahoc; which also deeply marked the con-
dition of the exasperated and forlorn natives, who began to real-
ize terrible visions of want and death in the bloody footprints of
war all over their wilderness home, and to find there were blows
to take as well as to give.
CONVERSE.
Converse, the friend and subordinate of Church, a brave and faith-
ful officer, became an object of dread as a scourge of the maraud-
ing red-men. His brave and successful defense of the garrison at
Wells was a memorable act of intrepidity. To the overtures to him
for capitulation, he replied - "I want nothing of you but men to
fight." As commander-in-chief of the eatern forces, he was at
Sheepscot and Pemaquid pursuing the wild savage with so much per-
sistence and success, that, feeling themselves "hunted to the
mountains by the terrifying Converse," thirteen sagamores repair-
ed to Pemaquid, suing for peace; in the negotiations therefor, John
Wing, Nicholas Manning and Benjamin
p.211 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued.
Jackson, were commissioners.1 The conditions of a perpetual
peace were arranged and hostages given as pleges of good faith.
FRENCH INFLUENCES.
But the interests of the French government, which had espoused
the cause of James, in sympathy with Romish church purposes of
hostility to the reign of William and Mary in England, demanded
the violation of this treaty. The Church of Rome, in the great
civil contest between the partisans of James and the government
of William and Mary, had an eye to her own supremacy in England.
Jesuit priests, therefore, exerted their influence over the
savage mind to re-open the sluices of war. Of the ecclesiastical
emissaries, Sebastian Ralle of the Norridgewock Mission on the
Kennebec, Thuray and Bigot on the Penobscot, were the most in-
fluential and conspicuous. It was the theme of their Sabbath
service to persuade their native hearers "that it was no sin to
break faith with heretics"! and that Jesus Christ, the blessed,
was murdered by Englishmen"! Religion was thus made a torch of
war.
Modockawando, the sachem of Penobscot and Bomaseen, the sachem
of the Kennebecks, "whose residence was at the ancient seat of
their sagamores, Norridgewock,"2 summoned their braves to gather
fresh "trophies of blood" in revenging on the perfidious white
man the death of Jesus, as well as the wrongs of their country.
To ascertain the effects of recent violence to neighboring
settlements, Bomaseen and two other natives, presuming that at
Pemaquid no suspicion of their agency in the bloody transactions
at Dover, York, and Piscataqua had reached, visited the fort,
then under the command of March, disguised as "travelers from
Canada."
Footnotes. 1. Williamson, Vol. i. p. 640. 2. Drake's Book of
Indians, p. 110.
p.212 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
But being known, the party was seized and the chieftain, Boma-
seen, was sent a captive to Boston, where, with Sheepscot John,
one of the hostages of the late treaty, all were held in confine-
ment.
MISSION OF SHEEPSCOT JOHN.
To negotiate an exchange of prisoners and effect a reconcilia-
tion, John was sent east. At Rutherford's Island, in the mouth
of Damariscotta river, a league from Fort William Henry, by his
influence, a body of natives was gathered. They came in a flot-
illa of fifty canoes; and a cessation of hostilities for thirty
days was arranged.
The armistice was understood to be a prelude to a treaty of
peace; but in arranging the preliminaries, differences arose,
and the captious savages departed in disgust. From the con-
ference of peace, they rushed with unsheathed scalping knife
and gleaming tomahawk - into war.
A detachment of ten men from the fort at Pemaquid, who were
rowing a flat boat around a high rocky point above the Barbi-
can, opposite, were shot, four being killed and six wounded.
It was the act of the disaffected savages, who had left the con-
ference at Rutherford's Island in disgust, and had thus defeated
the pacific mission of Sheepscot John.
RETRIBUTION.
1696.
February 16th.
Some of the eastern sagamores visited the fort. Fort William
Henry was now in command of Captain Chubb. The avowed object of
the visit was to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. But the
anguish of his soldiers, whose wounds, yet unhealed, rendered
them unfit for duty, together with the recollection of their
fallen comrades, fired Chubb's resentment and the vengeance of
his command to such a degree that an assault was made on the un-
suspecting and unarmed Indians. Two chieftains were slain. The
others were captured, excepting
p.213 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued.
RETRIBUTION - TO PASCO CHUBB & WIFE.
Toxus and some of his more athletic friends, who broke through
their restraint, and escaped "to scatter fire-brands, arrows and
death," until the wilds of the whole coast were enkindled in the
flames of war. Pasco Chubb, the author of the perfidy, was never
forgotten, nor was he forgiven until blood washed out his guilt,
and from savage hands was meted out the vengeance by them kept in
store for him against a day of retribution that overtook him at
Andover, as he and his wife returned homeward from public worship.
IBERVILLE'S EXPEDITION.
THE REDUCTION OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
THE FRENCH - IBERVILLE.
The reduction of Fort William Henry at Pemaquid had become a
matter of settled policy with the French. At Quebec an expedi-
tion had been projected, and place under the conduct of Iber-
ville as chief in command. Two ships of war and two companies
of soldiers, to be re-inforced by Castine from Penobscot and
Indians of the St. John's river, were selected for the expedi-
tion. As Iberville approached the scene of his operations, the
English ship, Newport, Captain Paxon, with the Province Cutter,
on their passage to the Bay of Fundy to intercept French stores,
together with the ship, Sorlings, Captain Eams, encountered him.
A battle ensued. The Newport struck her colors and became a
prize, the other vessel escaping under a fog-bank. Thus en-
couraged and re-inforced, Iberville pressed all sail for Pema-
quid. Off Penobscot, Castine joined the expedition with a flot-
illa of canoes, bearing two hundred warriors, among whom presents
were distributed to stimulate their valor.
The harbor of Pemaquid was soon swarming with men-of-war, while
fleets of native craft, whose shuttle forms everywhere cut and
curved the peaceful waters of the bay, discharged hordes of
savage and war-clad men to invest the place. On the first assault,
four men of the invading force were slain.
p.214 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The place was summoned to surrender. Mounted with fifteen guns,
the fortress was held by about one hundred men, with ammunition
and food in abundance. The summons was rejected. The firts day
was consumed by the investure of the town. One the night en-
suing, fortified redoubts were constructed on the adjoining and
commanding heights, where a mortar battery was planted.
AUGUST 15th.
This battery opened its fire on the town and fortress with shell
and round shot. The effects of the shell were such to fill the
soldiery with dismay. At the same time the overtures for a
surrender were renewed, and a missive under the hand of Castine
intimated that if taken by storm, the captives and the place
would be given up to plunder and the mercy of the savages. This
menace had the desired effect. The fear of the defenders triumph-
ed over their valor. The "Chamade" was beaten, and the gates of
the fortress were opened, and to save the garrison and captives
from savage violence, they were hurried to a neighboring island,
and guarded by a strong detachment of marines.
August 18th.
Thus, a second time, fell Pemaquid to the combined forces of the
French and Indians, by the cowardice of its defenders. Motives of
humanity may have had their influence. The town was plundered,
and the fort dismantled.
Colonel Gedney of Salem, immediately marched with five hundred men
through the eastern country to the scene of the desolation of Pema-
quid, in quest of the enemy, who had long departed. Chubb was arrest-
ed for cowardice and cashiered.1 A shallop with prisoners from the
eastward reached Boston, and brought the first intelligence of the
fall of Pemaquid, together with the capture of the English man-of-
war, off Mt. Desert. Major Church was in
Footnote. 1. Annals of Salem, vol. iv. p.325.
p.215 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED.
Boston at the time, and was commissioned to visit again the wilds
of the frontiers of Maine. An expedition was projected to pursue
the French naval force, and engage the enemy on land, if possible.
Church touched at York, eastward bound, and sent his scouts through
the neighboring forests to beat up the savage haunts. But no succ-
ess attending the movement, no enemy appearing, he sailed for Mon-
hegan Island. Colonel Gedney, from York as a center, with detach-
ments of friendly Indians and volunteers, penetrated the country
by a system of operations called scouting, and thus filled the
enemy with alarm, and subjected the eneny to perpetual surprise.
The combined movements of the enemy were all thus defeated; and
breaking up into small bands, they only prowled in the neighbor-
hood of the garrisons to surprise and cut off the unwary.
Mooring his transport ships in the island harbor of Monhegan,
Church embarked his forces under cover of darkness in whaleboats
for the main. Hard rowing brought him to the beach of Owls-head at
daybreak. The boats were concealed, and the scouts sent out, who
only traced a trail a week old. At night all re-embarked, prosecu-
ting their voyage up the bay and among the islands, until at Camden,
the base of the Mathebestuck mountains, day again dawned on them,
when all landed and concealed their boats. Thus night was turned
into day, for labor, till entering the river and ascending to a
fall, some of the savages, as they paddled their boats down to the
sea, were surprised, and were shot from the river banks, while
those who escaped alarmed the whole region, and the enemy fled to
the wild interior, beyond reach.
FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR THE FRENCH FLEET.
The Arundel, the Orford and Sorlings, with a fire-ship and a
tender, also scoured the ocean off Pemaquid, but the French fleet
had escaped, and the expedition was abortive.
p.216 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Church continued to ravage the coasts, destroying and desolating
the native settlements, without reaching the enemy or bringing him
to action, till superseded in the command; and had he been well sus-
tained by his government in the execution of his purposes and plans,
he no doubt would have made the fate of King Philip the experience
of the eastern braves. From a negro captive, it was ascertained
that the savages, learning of Church's contemplated movement, by a
prisoner who had escaped from his confinement at Boston, had all re-
tired from the sea-board an hundred miles into the interior, and
therefore no chastisement could be meted out to them for the de-
struction of Pemaquid and its precincts.
MAJOR MARCH.
1697.
Major March, being entrusted with the eastern defenses after the
unsuccessful operations of Colonel Hawthorn, who had superseded
Church, with five hundred men, entered on his arduous duties with
commendable energy.
A "prudent and popular officer," he adopted the plan of scouring
the country from post to post, (a cordon of which enclosed the
frontiers,) by ranging parties, which had been the favorite move-
ments of Major Church.
THE BATTLE OF THE DAMARISCOTTA.
September 9th.
In the prosecution of this system, early in the autumnal month of
the first year of his command, heading a small detachment of his
troops, March entered the waters of the Damariscotta, which happen-
ed to fall in the line of his coast range.
Ever on the alert, the Indians descried the fleet of whale-boats
from the heights of Walpole; and the fleet-footed runners had
correctly detailed the progress of March up the river, and learn-
ed the point of his debarkation, near which
p.217 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued.
an ambuscade was arranged. On touching the shore, springing
suddenly from their covert, the tall-grown forests far and near
echoing the fatal death-cry, the Indians poured on March and his
men a shower of leaden hail, whose fire flashed the white man's
death welcom on every side.
But the undaunted March immediately rallied his wavering troops,
and led them to the charge in the face of the murderous fire. With
fixed bayonets his men plunged into the thickets, routing the
savages at every point, who retreated to the woods and to their
canoes, leaving their dead behind them!
It was a bloody and desperate encounter. Twenty-five men lay dead
or wounded in their track at the place of debarkation, showing the
unerring certainty with which each warrior marked his man, while
the gory body of the fallen brave, torn by the white man's steel,
was left to the gaze of his foe, in attestation of the terrific
death-struggle by which the intrepid March and his devoted band
had won the day.
The battle of the Damariscotta closed the scenes of King William's
war, during which want and famine had multiplied the horrors of
the desolation. "Many,1 both Indians and English prisoners, were
starved to death:" - "and some eating their dogs and cats, died
horribly famished2."
SEPTEMBER 11TH.
The peace of Ryswick hushed the voice of war, and gave promise
of tranquility to the contending nations. As the songs of peace
began to be heard amid the wilds of the "Ancient Dominions of
Maine," projected treaty engagements were renewed to quiet the
remnants of the savage race. Public measures for assuring safety
to the frontiers were not abated. Garrisons, stockade
Footnotes. 1. Williamson's Hist. vol i., p. 646, note. 2. Mather's
Magnalia, p. 556.
p.218 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
forts, fortified houses constructed of massive timber, bullet-
proof with flankers jutting from opposite angles, now rose in
all the settled sections of the East, affording a tolerable
asylum to the distressed inhabitants of the eastern frontier.
These fortified strong-holds, usually points of concentration,
had served to draw the attention of war parties away from the
more common abodes, so that more of the farm houses than usual
remained unconsumed. Many planters abandoned their possessions
to the Indian destroyer, and departed, no more to return. Desola-
tion, decay and solitude reigned over the half-opened clearings,
which everywhere met the eye and saddened the prospect. Such were
the vestiges of a conflict originating mainly in the revolutionary
issues of a struggle between power and prelacy on the one hand, the
sovereignty of the people and the rights of conscience on the other.
The partisans of the fugitive monarch were papists; while those
who supported the authority of William and Mary were Protestants.
Hence the zeal and cruelty of bigoted priests, and the frenzy and
fanaticism that marked the progress of the war.
PIRACIES.
June 7, 1699.
The Treaty of Brunswick1 gave new promise of repose to Maine.
Apprehensions of savage alarms gradually subsided and gave fresh
impulse to those engaged in promoting the re-settlement of Maine.2
1700.
Kidd and Bradish
Kid and Bradish, whose buccaneering had greatly disturbed the
coast settlements, were now captured. Summoned before the Legis-
lature in Boston to give an account of his conduct, Kidd was re-
manded to England
Footnotes. 1. Annals of Warren, pp. 28-33. 2. Williamson, Vol.
ii. p. 31.
p.219 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued.
for trial, where he was condemned and executed.
See also, Captain Kidd, Univ. Massachsuetts -
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/kidd.html
Summary proceedings relieved the eastern waters of these
scourges of the sea.
The deep bays, bold headlands and numerous harbors of the
ancient dominions of Maine afforded peculiar facilities for
freebooters, and a favorite resort, whose early visits yet
linger in the traditions of our day, and have left impress-
ions in the public mind, so deep that they are traced in the
generations past, whose successive explorations of the bowels
of the earth in search of hidden treasure mar our soil and
afford a clue to that mysterious movement in the popular mind
which brings men from distant places to expend their time and
toil in "money digging."
The bed of the Sheepscot, below the site of the ancient New
Dartmouth, for a whole summer was dragged and drawn, in the hope
of raising one of Captain Kidd's chests of treasure, by men who
went down in submarine armor, a year or two since.
QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
1702.
William, the head of the House of Orange, by his decease, pre-
pared the way for the ascension of Anne, the daughter of James
and the sister of Queen Mary. King James II, the fugitive heif
of the House of Stuart, was also dead.
But a reputed son of the deceased ex-monarch, known in English
history as "the Pretender," aspired to the vacant seat of author-
ity. The Crown of France supported the pretension; and to make good
these pretensions, the dogs of war were again loosed on the de-
fenseless frontiers of New England. Government had justly become
alarmed at the malign influence of the clergy of the Romish Church,
almost entirely represented among the natives by French Catholic
priests. A prominent object with Government was, the breaking
down of this ghostly
p.220 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
power by separating the savage heart from the hold of his
religious teachers.
These undisguised efforts to sunder the ties binding the shep-
herd to his flock became a fruitful source of envyings, jealous-
ies and irritation. Says Penhallow, "I asked one of their chief
sachems wherefore it was that his people were so much bigoted
to the French, considering their traffic with them was not so
advantageous as with the English." The savage gravely answered:
"that the Friars taught them to pray but the English never did"!
There was too much truth in this reply. The Indian had met the
Englishman only to know him, and to suffer at his hands from his
insatiable desire of gain and skill in the subtilities of trade.
The Frenchman came to the Indian's pagan soul with the knowledge
of his faith and of his God, and showed more zeal to gain his con-
fidence and affection than to secure his furs. The exuberance of a
virgin soil, the value of the fisheries, the vast resources of mast
and spar timber, still strongly attracted the returning tide of
population.
DUDLEY'S ADMINISTRATION.
A commission from Queen Anne sent Dudley into Boston harbor, as
head of the Government of Massachusetts Bay. The foundations of
Fort William Henry remained unbroken. The walls were also entire.
The entrenchments were perfect. Governor Dudley proposed the re-
building of the Pemaquid fortress. War between France and England
had actually been renewed, in consequence of the movements of the
Pretender.
French priests, emmissaries of Rome, became active and zealous
fomenters of the strife and excited, if they did not plan, a
fierce border war. The colonial government was not idle. It
actively endeavored to counteract the power and defeat the
machinations of the French clergy and
p.221 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued.
Popish missions. But the deep, dark storm-cloud still gathered;
and its distant mutterings waxed louder and louder, as the hori-
zon darkened.
1703.
No measures of courtesy, no presents, nor the renewal of treaty
obligations could avert the evil. The whites were not faultless
in the agitating causes of the perils of the day. At Penobscot,
a party of lawless men visited and despoiled the residence of the
Baron de Castine, while the Indians began their mischief on the
waters of the Kennebec.
But the desolation of former wars had left the ancient dominions
of Maine quite a wilderness. The paucity of its inhabitants may
have been its best protection; for excepting a skirmish or two
on the Kennebec, no action of interest occurred. Major March,
Church and Colonel Walton scoured the country, and kept the enemy
in a state of perpetual alarm, driving the savages to seek asylum
in the deep interior forests bordering on the St. Lawrence river.
THE DEATH OF AR-RU-HAWIK-WABEMT.
1710.
COLONEL WALTON.
Colonel Walton struck a severe blow at the enemy in Sagadahoc.
He had made his bivouac, during a scout, on one of the islands
of the Sagadahoc waters.
His camp fires allured a company of savages, who had visited
the coast in search of food from the neighboring clam banks.
Mislead by appearances, the camp fires were taken for a lodge
of their tribe. The Indians, approaching the camping grounds,
fell into the power of Walton's troops ere their mistake was
discovered.
Ar-ru-hawik-wabemt, chief of the Norridgewocks.
The savages took flight, but were surrounded, and their retreat
cut off. Ar-ru-hawik-wabemt, chief of the Norridgewocks, of un-
daunted spirit, active, bold and resolute, together with his wife
and family became prisoners of Walton. The Indians had eluded all
efforts of the scouts to discover their secret places of retreat.
When questioned
p.222 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
as to the hiding places of his braves and friends, the bold chief-
tain answered not. When menaced with the death for his contumacy,
"a laugh of contempt" was his only reply. He was inflexible, and
at once was turned over into the hands of the savage allies of
Walton, for torture and death.
Perceiving the perilous extremity to which her spouse was re-
duced, the affection of the wife triumphed over her patriotism;
and to avert the impending fate of her husband, she disclosed
all she knew. It was, however, too late. The phantom of hope had
cruelly mocked her love! Ar-ru-hawik-wabemt was put to the tort-
ure, after the approved manner of the savage tastes; and the blood
and ashes of the Norridgewock brave were mingled with the soil, or
poured out into the waters of Sagadahoc.
The condition of the Indians was forlorn in the extreme. Cold,
hunger, sickness, the battle-ax and scalping-knife, had wasted
one-third1 part of the aborigines of Maine. The old men had be-
come weary of the war, and anxious for peace.
THE FALL OV NOVA SCOTIA.
The inhabitants of New England resolved to make the war offens-
ive as well as defensive. Nova Scotia, as one of the most access-
ible points of French and Indian aggression, was singled out for
conquest.
Colonel Nicholson, with an adequate naval and land force, had in-
vested Port Royal, the capital of Nova Scotia, reduced the place,
and captured the French armies; and with the fall of its capital,
Nova Scotia became an English province.
1713.
OCTOBER 5TH.
THE TREATY OF UTRECHT.
Hostilities between the Crowns of England and France now ceased,
and by the Treaty of Utrecht, Acadia became henceforward a British
possession.
Footnote. 1. Penhallow, p. 60.
p.223 RE-SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY.
JULY 13.
The success of the British arms had its effect on the savage
mind, and tended to detach it from the interests of the French
nation. This result would seem to have been consummated by the
Treaty of Portsmouth. The public mind became assured of unwonted
security, which contributed powerfully to the re-population and
revival of the desolated homes of the ancient dominions of Maine.
Sad was the picture of waste. "More than one hundred miles of
sea-coast, once interspersed and adorned with flourishing settle-
ments, improved estates and comfortable habitations,1 now lay
devastated." Title deeds, records - all were burnt or lost; and
so long a time had elapsed since the waste of many places, that
the sites of the towns, clearings, and plantations had resumed
the aspect of original solitudes.
To adjust conflicting titles and quiet claimants, Government
created "a Committee of eastern claims and settlements." It was
recommended in the revival of the wasted towns, that the plan of
concentration of population should be adopted. Hence, twenty or
thirty families were settled on three and four acre lots at the
sea-side, with outlands to suit their desires. This village
system of re-planting the desolate townships was a most fortunate
expedient. Mutual aid, combination of strength for defense and in
making provision for the public safety, by the erection of strong-
holds, "Garrison Houses," were all secured thereby. Government
dictated the number as well as mode of settlements to be resumed,
and designated the localities.
THE LOCALITIES.
The mouth of Sagadahoc, probably on the Sheepscot shore,
Footnote. 1. Williamson's Hist. vol. ii, p.81.
p.224 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1714.
JOHN WATTS OF BOSTON.
and Arrowsic Island, were the only points permitted to be
re-occupied within our domain. John Watts of Boston, by marriage
a grandson of Major Clark, in right of his wife a proprietor of
the estate on Arrowsic, removed to this island; and on the lower
part, near a cove, raised a large brick house, and added flank-
harts on which he mounted cannon.1 The material was imported
from Massachusetts; the brick, it is said, from Medford.
Land-holders and Government stimulated the return of the in-
habitants and the increase of population, by affording facili-
ties for return, and creating inducements thereto, in making
provision for a perfect organization of society.
THE BUILDING OF AUGUSTA.
SAMUEL SHUTE AND WILLIAM DUMMER.
Georgetown was now resuscitated; and the new town of Augusta,
in the south-western corner of Phipsburg, at "Small Point," laid
out. Here a great many fine buildings were erected, with several
saw-mills.2 King George the first had succeeded to the throne,
and had been proclaimed King of England; and Samuel Shute and
William Dummer were appointed to the Provincial Executive. In the
published history of our State, the site of the ancient Augusta of
Maine had been mislocated, and the thrifty and vigorous namesake
of our capital, about Small Point Harbor, has been entirely over-
looked, and its reminiscences buried under its ruins, now over-
grown and nearly lost amid the decay of a century and a half. The
ancient town of Augusta "was a project of the Pejepscot proprietors."3
Lots, seventy and one hundred feet wide, were surveyed and laid out,
at Small Point Harbor. "A cart way was cut to the Sagadahock,
opposite Arrowsic." "Dr. Noyes, one of the
Footnotes. 1. Sewall's Hist. Bath. Maine Historical Coll. p. 201.
2. Penhallow, p. 82. 3. Bath Tribune, Sept. 4th, 1856. John McKeen,
Esq., of Brunswick.
p.225 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued.
1716.
proprietors, seems to have been the principal director and patron
of the settlement;"1 and a fishery, it is said, "was established
by the ingenious Dr. Noyes, in which twenty vessels were employed
at a time."2 He built a garrison of stone at his own charge, the
East; and which was maintained at the public expense. He also er-
ected a convenient mansion house. Lots, for a church and a place
of sepulture for the dead, were set apart for public use. The in-
terest in the resuscitation of the ancient settlements augmented
daily; and the tide of immigration flowed freely into the long
abandoned wastes and wilds.
SPECULATION OF PROPRIETARY ASSOCIATIONS.
Edward Preble had now reared a home on the head of Arrowsic.
For near a generation, the Sagadahoc, Pemaquid and probably
Sheepscot had lain a waste, over whose early clearings wild
hords of savage men roamed in free and undisputed sovereignty,
but which now "opened a wide field for speculation."3 The sloop
Pejepscot regularly plied between Boston and the newly erected
town at Small Point Harbor. "Vast quantities of pipe=staves,
boards and timber were exported to foreign ports as well as to
Boston." Agriculture began to thrive, and a large stock of
cattle to be raised. The fishery,4 also, was revived, parti-
cularly in sturgeon, near Brunswick, which had been carried on
nearly a century before Thomas Purchase, and "many5 thousand
keggs were cured for export every season." Captain John Penhallow
and Dr. Noyes were residents of the town; and to Mr. Mountfort
Footnotes. 1. Bath Tribune Sept 4, 1856. John McKeen, Esq., of
Brunswick. 2. Penhallow, p. 82. 3. Williamson's Hist. vol.ii, p.
91. 4. J. McKeen, Esq. 5. Penhallow, p. 82
p.226 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
was set off and assigned within the town two hundred and fifty
acres of land "adjoining Dr. Noyes' Harbor 1 Farm."
REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID.
An order was also passed to repair the fort and re-establish
the garrison at Pemaquid; and the ancient dominions of Maine,
embracing the whole eastern territory, were annexed to the
county of which York was the capital, and the ancient Dukedom
of the county of Cornwall, the early Devonshire of Massachusetts,
all was now merged in the county of "Yorkshire." The curing and
export of fish and lumber, the erection and running of saw-mills,
gave employment for labor and capital.
EMIGRATION FROM THE WEST.
The Halls, Jeremiah Spring, Nicholas Rideout & John Owen.
Edmund Mountfort.
The aspect of society was busy and thriftful; and at this period
emigrated from Salem to the margin of the Kennebec - the Halls,
Jeremiah Springer, Nicholas Rideout, John Owen2 and others; and
on each side of the road eight rods wide, opened from "Augusta
Harbor," at Small Point, now so called, Edmund Mountfort, was
authorized by the proprietors to lay out farms of "ninety-five
acres each."3
THE ANCIENT REMAINS OF PHIPSBURG.
CASCO BAY.
The Augusta of the ancients, embraced within the domain of the
modern town of Phipsburg, adorned the margins of Casco Bay, near
the mouth of New Meadows River.
Within the same territory, in the extreme east, nestled the first
settled town in New England, the ancient "St. George" of Popham's
Colony, where was laid the first keel and launched the first ship
of New England; and although
Footnotes. 1. See Augusta Town Records, MSS. 2. MSS. letter to
Noyes from J. Clark. 3. Records of Town Meetings, Augusta.
p.227 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
under the accumulated disasters of climate and savage hostili-
ties, it sunk where it stood, yet, in a century more, the thrift-
ful Augusta arose in the west, to meet the same fate, and if
possible, to sink into deeper oblivion.
"CAMBEL'S CELLAR."
There has been much doubt as to the site of Popham's town.
The author, with an intelligent guide, explored the Penin-
sula of Hunnewell's Point to search for any remains of en-
trenched and ancient works that might be found there.
Hubbard1 had written that an ancient mariner, then living in
those parts about Kennebec, heard an old Indian tell the story
that when he was a youth, "there was a fort built about Sagada-
hoc, the ruins of which were then shown the relator, supposed
to be that called St. George, in honor of Capt. George Popham,
the President of the Company sent over in 1607." The ruins of
Popham's town were traceable then, seventy years after the fort
had been destroyed.
Popham's people begun "by entrenching and making a fort and
building a store house." On the margins of Atkins Bay, west
side of the river of Kennebec, in a swamp land surrounded by
young cedars, a mile or more from and in the line of "Horse-
ketch Point," so called from its having been a catching place
for the horses of the settlers, gone wild in the neighboring
marshes in ancient time, the author discovered and traced the
outlines of an ancient earth-work, enclosing a rectangular ex-
cavation fifty by forty feet. The outlines indicated that the
place had been entrenched according to the forms of ancient
Spanish strategic arts, being surrounded with a ditch, its en-
trance protected by a circular bastion, and having a covered way
to the water, where was a living fountain at the shore-side.
Tradition of the neigh-
Footnote 1. Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 75.
p.228 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
borhood gives no definite and settled explanation of this extra-
ordinary and ancient ruin, some calling it the remains of the
house of the "Old Indian-Killer, Hunnewell," and others calling
it "Cambel's cellar," about either of whom nothing is known.
A more intelligent aged resident1 during early boyhood had the
place shown to him by the aged people of that day as "the spot
where the Indians had been persuaded to draw a cannon by its
drag ropes, which was fired off by the English, and killed many
of them," and another,2 eighty-six years of age, who had always
been acquainted with the locality, said it was a strange place
when he first saw it, having a covered way to the water, and
surrounded with embankments, and that the old people of his child-
hood called it "George Popham's Fort;" and he had always heard
of and known it as such. A sketch of the outline remains is given;
the encircling ditch being two hundred and thirty five feet.
RESTLESSNESS OF THE NATIVES.
1717.
The rapid influx of white population to re-occupy the early
clearings in a region so long depopulated; the revivified towns,
phoenix-like, fresh and thriftful springing up on every side from
the ashes of a former generation; the forts and improvements of
civilized life - excited the fears and roused the slumbering
jealousies of the natives.
Moreover, a foreign, insidious and designing foe to Prostestant-
ism and the English race, moved by rancorous national and relig-
ious antipathies - the priesthood of Rome, became an element of
fearful activity in the hearts of the savage hordes of Maine.
Footnotes. 1. Dea. Hutchins of Phipsburg. 2. Greenlaw.
p.229 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
"French missionaries eagerly inflamed the prejudices of the
savages by telling them the English1 had invaded their rights."
Added to these exciting circumstances, piracy again disturged
our waters. Favorite and secure retreats were found by these
freebooters within the deep bays and creeks of our unfrequented
shores.
THE PIRATE SHIP WIDAH. BELLAMY.
Bellamy of the Widah, six of whose crew were taken and hung in
Boston, "excited general and anxious2 concern." Bellamy began
his career with one confederate and two sloop=rigged vessels.
From an unsuccessful search for the wrecked hulk of a Spanish
ship, he turned to piracy. The galley-built ship Widah, Capt.
Prince, homeward bound with a cargo of gold-dust, elephant's
teeth and costly merchandise from India, was made the first
prize. This ship was manned with one hundred and fifty men and
mounted with heavy guns, and at once put on the track of trade.
On their cruise in the Gulf, a terrific storm overtook and
almost submerged them. It was a Gulf tempest. The heavens
lowered and flashed, while the storm-tossed deep reflected the
vivid lightnings through a darkness that might be felt, accom-
panied by the most awfully crashing thunder.
THE BLASPHEMY OF BELLAMY.
In presumptuous defiance of Him whose voice the thunder was,
Belamy shouted - "that the gods were at their cups;" and added
that he was sorry he could not run out his guns to answer back
their thunder, by giving a salute." !
The ship survived the tempest only to be tossed on the shoals
and buried in the sands of Cape Cod.
Footnotes. 1. Williamson, vol ii. p. 92. 2. Annals of Salem,
p. 364.
p.230 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
BELLAMY AT MECHISSES.
When off this point, a vessel laden with wines was captured.
The sea-rover then put away for the coasts of Maine, touched
near Pemaquid in search of a harbor of refuge, till reaching
the "Mechisses River," up which they ascended some two and a
half miles, where the Widah and her prize were moored by the
shore. Huts were here constructed, the captives from the prize
ship were landed and fortified works erected. By excavating the
earth and roofing it over, a magazine was formed to which the
powder was removed by the prisoners, who were driven like slaves
to their task. The ship's guns were landed and mounted.
Here the "Widah" was careened, cleaned and refitted for a cruise.
After puttint to sea again, she encountered a French ship of war
of thirty-six guns, and during a running fight of two hours, the
Widah, shattered and torn, with difficulty, escaped.
THE SHIPWRECK AND DEATH OF BELLAMY.
In the flight, Bellamy espied a Boston-bound vessel, of which he
made a prize; and ordering her captain to lead the way with a
light by which the Widah should make her course, the ship's
company gave themselves up to their cups, and the Boston skipper
purposely ran his vessel among the shoals and sands of Cape Cod,
while the pirate ship, following recklessly in her track, was
decoyed among the breakers, and precipitated upon the sand reefs
where she struck, and was lost.
GEORGETOWN INCORPORATED.
LONG REACH, THE SITE OF BATH, MAINE.
But while such perils of the sea were dissipating in the
West, more terrible dangers were gathering in the East. The
ancient plantations were not yet entirely revived. At "Long
Reach," the site of Bath, A Mr. Elkins1 had erected
Footnote. 1. Sewall's Bath.
p.231 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued.
JOSEPH HEATH.
a house, and Joseph Heath was his neighbor above; and the
territory now embracing Bath, Woolwich and a section of
Phipsburg was incorporated as Georgetown. The only dwell-
ing houses on Arrowsic were those of the Watts hamlet and
that of Mr. Preble on the upper end of the island opposite
"Long Reach."
The dangers of savage hostilities increaed. Government en-
deavored to allay the excitement by winning the confidence
of the Indians, quieting their fears, and undermining their
prejudices.
A conference was held. The aid of religious instruction and
the power of the book of God was invoked.
CONFERENCE AT GEORGETOWN.
HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP, THE SQIRREL.
1717.
August 9th.
His Majesty's ship, the Squirrel, bearing his Excellency,
the Governor of Massachusetts and his suite, sailed from
Boston and anchored off the lower end of Arrowsic, in the
lower waters of Sagadahoc, within the cove at thehead of
which, Mr. Watts had erected his new brick house.
Eight sagamores and chieftains, headed by Moxus and Boma-
seen, with many of their tribes, had gathered on a neigh-
boring island, called, "Pudlestone," (Padishal's?) A vast
tent was spread near the mansion of Mr. Watts, and the
British flag was hoisted, beneath which, the conference was
to be held.
A fleet of canoes, headed by one bearing the flag of Great
Britain, at the appointed hour, crossed over to the place of
conference. Captain John Gyles and Samuel Jordan had been
designated as interpreters, and were publicly sworn by his
Honor, Samuel Sewall, Esq., one of the Supreme Judges of the
Province. Saluting the chiefs, and announcing the object of
interview, "holding up a Bible, the Governor said that the
great and only rule of life - faith - and worship is in this
book, which is the word of God.
This contains our holy religion, and we would glady have you
of the
p.232 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
same religion with us; therefore, we have agreed to be at the
charge of a Protestant Missionary among you, who will reside
here, or hereabouts."
THE RESPONSE OF WI-WUR-NA.
Wi-wur-na, a chieftain of the Kennebecks, then rose and
replied that "he was to speak in the name of his people -
but would not be ready to answer his Excellency before to-
morrow." An ox was given to the savages for dinner, and
the conference adjourned. On the morrow the conference was
resumed. Wi-wur-na appeared and said - "We have considered
what his Excellency said yesterday, and we speak first for
love and unity," which his people admired and believed to
be pleasing to God; and hoped his Excellency would endeavor
to realize it. The Governor assured it, "if they were obed-
ient to King George." Wiwurna answered, "We will be very
obedient to the King, if we like his offers - and if we are
not molested in the improvement of our lands"!
"Your people must not call it their land."
"This place was formerly settled and is now settling at our
request. We will embrace the English in our bosoms that come
to settle on our lands." "They must not call it their land,"
retorted the Governor.
Indian reply: God has given us teaching already"
Wiwurna resumed, - "We pray leave to proceed in our answer."
"We desire no further settlements to be made. We shall not be
able to hold them all in our bosom and to shelter them if bad
weather and mischief be threatened. All people love their mini-
sters; and it would be strange if we should not love them that
come from God. As to Bibles, we desire to be excused. God
has given us teaching already."
The savages then adroitly turned the conversation by adding,
"We were sick yesterday, to see the man-of-war ashore. So
faint that we could not speak out with strength. We are now
glad the ship is well- we shall be very glad when we have
concluded - that your Excellency may have good winds and
weather - get safe down the river and home."
p.233 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
LETTER FROM RALLE.
In the course of the discussion, undisguised opposition
was made to the construction of fortified works. "We should
be pleased with King George," said Wiwurna, "if there never
was a fort in the eastern parts." The natives yielded a re-
luctant consent "that the English might occupy all they had
before;" and then in an abrupt and hasty manner, without the
accustomed formalities of leave-taking, the Indians rose and
withdrew, leaving the English flag behind them. In the evening
a letter was brought from Sebastian Ralle, their priest, in
which the power of France was menaced, and the position of
Wiwurna sustained.
THE DISGUST OF THE GOVERNOR.
The movements of the natives were now explained, but the
letter was rejected with disdain by the Governor, who then
retired to the man-of-war - and ordered the foretopsail
loosed, and was about to put to sea, when a canoe with two
Indians put off from the island, hastened to the ship, apolo-
gized for the rudeness of yesterday, and sought a renewal of
the negotiations. It was granted; Wiwurna discarded, and the
Sachem of the Penobscots now led the conference, and spoke
for the Indians. Wiwurna of the Kennebecks did not appear
at all.
Satisfactory explanations having been made, a treaty of peace
and amity was concluded, presents were exchanged, the articles
signed and the conference was dissolved, the ratification of
the treaty having been sealed in a "dance of peace," in the
presence of the Governor and suite.
BEGINNING OF AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY ISSUES.
1718.
The eastern forests of spar timber and oak were objects of
interest with government and no less so to commerce. Since
the earliest discovery and settlements on the Sheepscot and
Sagadahoc waters - even
p.234 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
from the days of Witheredge, the spar-dealer of Pemaquid, the
lumber trade had been attractive. The protection of the inter-
ests ofthe Crown in these forests had now become a cause of
irritation between the representatives of the Royal authori-
ties and the people. The hardy pioneer, the rough backwoodsman,
often proved more than a match for the King's surveyor.
BRIDGER, ROYAL SURVEYOR OF THE KING.
Bridger, commissioned as the Royal surveyor of the King's
forests, had been sent out with Lord Bellamont, twenty years
before this date, accompanied with Royal naval commissioners,
to investigate the capacity of the country for the production
of naval stores. The idea of extensive and profitable culture
of hemp and flax for cordage and duck, and the running of tar
and turpentine, had widely obtained.
Bridger had these interests in charge; and the property in
the white pine trees of Maine became at once an occasion of
deep and lasting differences between the struggles of power
and privilege in Royal prerogative and popular rights.
The reservation of all pines for the use of the Crown, of
given dimensions, under severe penal prohibitions, was fre-
quently set at naught. The pine trees were often felled and
cut up into twenty-foot logs for boards, despite the officers
of the Crown and the guardian presence of the capital R.
These acts brought the Crown officers and the lumbermen into
frequent collision; and as will hereafter appear, initiated a
controversy which finally overcame the prestige of Royal
prerogative.
1719.
Desolation had possessed the whole region. At this time, be-
tween Georgetown and Annapolis in the remote east, it is
affirmed there was not a house left, except a fish house on
Damariscove Island:1 a statement we can hardley credit as
entirely correct. But the inflowing population soon spread
itself over the waste places. At
Footnote. 1. Williamson's History, vol. ii, p. 97.
p.235 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
MICHAEL THOMAS, CHRISTOPHER TAPPAN & WALTER PHILIPS.
Damariscotta Falls, Michael Thomas, tenant of Christopher
Tappan, re-occupied the planting grounds of Walter Philips,
and there was no other resident there save the Indians, who,
drawn to this spot by recollections of the past, or the
traditions of their race, loved to linger where the ashes of
their fathers reposed.
RICHARD PIERCE, WILLIAM HILTON & JOHN BROWN, JR.
Richard Pierce, William Hilton & John Brown, Jr. returned to
the ancient plantations of Broad Cove in Bristol, Muscongus
and New Harbor.1 Many natives at this period visited at
Thomas's house, which stood on the point a little below the
falls of the Damariscott, among whom was Ne-wor-met and a
very aged Squaw,2 who said she had formerly lived at this
place and that her husband was the son of him who sold the
land.
Hilton had greatly enlarged and improved his settlement;
and in the then remote eastern frontier settlement on
George's River, near the residence of the Revolutionary
hero, General Knox, parties in the Muscongus patent erected
block houses of great strength and built a covered way to
the river. The space between these structures of massive
timber was enclosed in palisadoes. A double saw mill was
put up and about thirty dwelling houses. A sloop was there
owned, with other coasting vessels, and many laboring men
were employed. Such was the aspect and condition of the
nucleus of the thriving and important town of Thomaston.
During the process of laying out the Thomaston hamlet, the
Indians daily resorted to the scene of labor in large num-
bers, and by various stratagems, with menaces of violence,
sought to deter and discourage the workmen from clearing
the lands and the rearing of dwelling houses. In conse-
quence of these demonstrations, cannon were mounted,
Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p.32 2. Lincoln Commission
Reports.
p.236 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Colonel Thomas Westbrook.
and a detachment of twenty men under Colonel Thomas Westbrook
was assigned to the defense of the place. At the elbow formed
by an abrupt curve of the St. George's River to the westward,
at the head of ship navigation, was the site of the newly out-
laid town and its fortifications, now in the command of West-
brook, a Scarboro' mast-shipper.1 Near Swan Island, on the
west bank of the Kennebec River, was made another fortified
clearing called Fort Richmond, which became the nucleus of the
thriving village of the same name, which to this day is noted
for the enterprise of its inhabitants as a ship-building commu-
nity.
SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION.
1720.
The politico-religious agitation consequent upon the access-
ion of William and Mary to the throne of Great Britain had
excited popular and civil commotion in that country, which
injected a new element into the re-peopling tide which now
flowed in from England to fill up the Ancient Dominions of
Maine.
An exodus of Scotch-Irish from the north of Ireland reached
our shores. Robert Temple was the patron of the new move-
ment. Himself from the north of Ireland, Colonel Temple,2
late an officer in the Irish army, three years before this
date, chartered a ship lying at Plymouth, commanded by
James Luzmore of Topsham, England; and with his domestic
retinue, had landed at Boston. He came seeking a new home.
Immediately on his debarkation, he expored the Connecticut
Valley, and then, at the instance of Dr. Noyes, Colonel
Winthrop and Minot, he sailed for the Kennebec. Pleased
with the result of his observations here, he an interest
in the Lawson purchase; and near "Whisgeag,"
Footnotes. 1. Hist. Scarboro, p. 227. 2. Hutchinson.
Williamson's Hist. Vol ii. p. 98. Controversy Plymouth
and Pejepscot Proprietors. p. 21.
ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
p. 237 THE SCOTCH-IRISH ON THE KENNEBEC.
he laid out an estate. It was the site of the ancient
"Whisby" plantation1 of King Philips' times. Here he
erected a new town and he called it Cork. He now chart-
ered three ships, and laded them with the children of
the Kirk of Scotland, and steering for New England,
planted several hundred colonists of the Scotch-Irish
on the Kennebec; and the Cork of Maine flourished in
rivalry with that of the Emerald Isle across the
Atlantic. Robert Temple, in the colonization of Scotch
Irish emigrants at "Merry Meeting," introduced a most
eventful and auspicious era in the final re-peopling of
this section of Maine. Temple's movements on the Kenne-
bec in the West, laid the foundations or initiated the
beginnings of the far more extensive and successful
policy of Governor Dunbar, ten years subsequently, in
the East.
TEMPLE'S PLANTATION AT WHISGEAG.
The plantation of Temple at Whisgeag, undoubtedly, in
accordance with the custom and policy of the times, in
those days of surprise and peril, had its garrison - the
castle of the town - erected and occupied by the Patron of
the colony himself; and the location of the colonial Cork
plantation, by the old residents of "Long Beach" is recog-
nized to this day by the familiar name of "Ireland;" and the
original settlers were never entirely dispersed, as promin-
ent names in the city of Bath now well attest.
EFFECTS OF THE INCREASE OF POPULATION.
The restlessness of the savages at the influx of the popu-
lation and the advance of fortified places and new settle-
ments within their domain on the Kennebec and beyond Pema-
quid - the ancient limits of eastern colonization - began
to make demonstrations of violence.
LORON'S REMONSTRANCE.
The savages claimed the land as their own, and viewed the
white settlers as intruders. "We desire," said Loron,
Footnote. 1. Narrative of James Gyles.
p.238 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
"that no houses or settlements be made to the eastward of
Pemaquid, or above Arrowsic; that the houses at St. George
should be removed to Pemaquid; and that at Richmond, to
Arrowsic; and that both be converted into trading houses."
"We dont remember of any settlements at St. George," con-
tinued he. "We remember a pretty while; and as long as we
remember, the place where the garrison stands was filled with
great long-grown trees."1
But the reasoning of Loron was of no avail. The hand of enter-
prise clutched at more, as the foot of civilization and the
tread of power advanced steadily on.
The Romish Church fostered the discontent by the influence
and suggestions of French priests. Their emmissaries fanned
the smothered fires of resentment in the savage heart.
At Norridgewock the hatchet was dug up, and the Indians sung
the song of war. The tide of re-settlement was stayed. Alarm
and despondency succeeded. Cattle were killed and property
devastated.
SATISFACTION DEMANDED.
COL. WALTON, cAPT. Moody, Capt. Harmon, Capt. Penhallow &
Capt. Wainwright.
Colonel Walton, with Captains Moody, Harmon, Penhally and
Captain Wainwright, were dispatched to the chiefs to demand
reparation for the mischief done. It was promised; and in
the latter part of July, ninety canoes gathered in the lower
waters of the Sagadahoc, at Puddlestone's (Padishall's) Island
opposite Arrowsic, and demanded an interview with Penhallow,
commandant at Arrowsic.
One hundred and fifty Indians, headed by Delachasse, Ralle,
Castine, and others, landed on Arrowsic, bearing a missive
to the Governor of Massachusetts, notifying him "that three
weeks were allowed the settlers to remove and
Footnote. 1. Maine Historical Coll. vol. iii.
p.239 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
quit their lands, or suffer the loss of their cattle, the
destruction of their dwellings, and the sacrifice of their
lives."
Castine was seized and sent to Boston, and at the bar of
the Supreme Court, interrogated and acquitted. It was re-
solved to seize also, Sebastian Ralle' and have him too,
in Boston, either "a prisoner or a corpse."
NORRIDGEWOCK EXPEDITON.
Colonel Westbrook was detached with his command to attack
Norridgewock and secure the person of Father Ralle. He
reached the settlement undiscovered, but ere his command
could surround his house, Ralle made good his escape, leav-
ing behind his books and papers, which fell into the hands
of the invaders. These gave ample proof, it is said, of the
treacherous and dangerous influence of the man, whose power
over the savage mind was little short of superhuman.
DEVASTATION OF MERRY MEETING.
1722.
Hamilton, Love, Handson, Trescot & Edgar, prisoners taken
to Canada.
In June, twenty canoes bearing sixty braves shot across the
waters of Merry Meeting Bay and lit up its margins with the
burning homes of nine families. A portion of the captured were
released, but Hamilton, Love, Handson, Trescot and Edgar were
taken prisoners to Canada.
DAMARISCOTTA LAID WASTE.
WILLIAM HILTON WAS KILLED.
Another war-party appeared on Walpole heights. The home of the
Hustons was destroyed. The mother1 and daughter were slain, and
the father dragged into captivity. On the Newcastle side, near
the seat of the Honorable E. Farley, Mrs. Gray and six children
were cut off. At Muscongus and Broad Cove in Bristol, William
Hilton was killed, while
Footnote. Penhallow's Indian Wars, p. 84. Lincoln County
Commissioners' Deposition, p. 151.
p.240 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
JOHN PEARCE.
John Pearce took a vessel and thirty men with his aged father,
and family, and thus escaped by water.
DR. KENELEM WINSLOW, CRUELLY PUT TO DEATH.
Dr. Kenelem Winslow was seized at his garrison, on the New-
castle margin of Damariscotta, taken to Loud's Island near
Round Pond and there, cruelly put to death.
The ancient Walter Philips plantation was now a second time
reduced to a state of solitude and desolation.
ST. GEORGE'S ASSAILED.
JUNE 15TH.
The Indians now appeared before the hamlet on St. George's
River, two hundred strong. The saw mills were set afire. The
newly framed houses and the proprietor's sloop were all burned
together. One man was killed and six made prisoners. The assault
on the garrison, however, was repelled. Three months after, a
yet larger force, with an attendant priest and Frenchmen, re-
newed the attack. Five men were surprises and murdered. Twelve
days and nights the place was stormed, during which a surrender
was urged and rejected. "Good quarter and transportation to
Boston" were offered the besieged. The overtures could not
induce them to surrender. Maddened with taunts of defiance,
an attempt to undermine the fort was made. Heavy rains had
softened the earthy walls of the excavation, which caved in,
and the savages, disheartened, left, leaving twenty of their
number behind, the victims of their discomfiture.
TILTON'S ADVENTURES AT DAMARISCOVE.
Lieutenant Tilton had anchored his fishing boat under Damar-
iscove, where he and his brother were taking fish. Led by a
Kennebec sagamore, Captain Samuel, the friend of Bomaseen, a
savage of great bravery and duplicity, five Indians boared
Tilton, seized, pinioned and beat both him and his brother most
barbarously. Under this savage castigation, one of the brothers
freeing himself, released the other brother and
p.241 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
together they fell on the savage band with the fury of des-
peration, killed two and tossed overboard another. The rest
were glad to escape. Captain Harmon with his company, from the
lower waters of the Kennebec, made an expedition up the river.
It was a night excursion. Descrying the light of camp-fires on
shore, Harmon turned his prow toward it. When landed he found
eleven canoes moored to the bank.
Wearied with their carousal, and satiated with the bloody
orgies of recent successes, before him lay the dark forms of
the savages about their campfires, fast locked in deep sleep.
Over the bodies of the sleepers he stumbled as he dispatched
them together to that land whose dread silence knows no waking.
A considerable party lay near, which, roused by the startling
death-cries of their comrades, rushed to arms, but firing
random shots, they fled.
A SCENE OF HORROR.
MOSES EATON OF SALISBURY, BRUTALLY MUTULATED.
Fifteen guns were taken by the victors; and on the stump
of a tree, near the place of the savage bivouac, lay a white
man's hand which had been severed from his body, barbarously
mutilated, his tongue torn out and his privates cut off, and
without his nose! These were the remains of Moses Eaton of
Salisbury.
PUBLIC EXASPERATION.
All were panic-stricken at these outrages, and the clamor
for war rang fiercely from hamlet to hamlet. War was de-
clared. A thousand men were enrolled and three hundred were
detached to break up the enemy's strong-holds on Penobscot,
and a body of four hundred were sent to range perpetually by
land and by water between Penobscot and Kennebec. Bounties
were offered by Government for Indian scalps and Indian capt-
ives. Colonels Westbrook and Walton were chief in command.
p.242 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
BATTLE OF ARROWSIC.
SEPTEMBER 10TH
Penhallow's command occupied the lower end of Arrowsic,
probably the Watts settlement at Butler's Cove. At the
dawn of morning light, a small escort was sent out to aid
and to protect the farmers in securing their crops. This
escort came by surprise on a body of four or five hundred
Indians, which had stealthily approached and lay in the
woods, prowling about the village to surprise and destroy
it. Finding the discovery to be inevitable the savages
fired on the scout as it retreated to the fort. One fell
dead and three were wounded; but the report of their fire-
arms alarmed the entire settlement. The inhabitants, not yet
scattered in their fields, hastily gathered their subsistence,
and fled into garrison. The Indians raised their usual whoop
of war and pursued. As they approached within range of vision,
their appearance, gliding among the tall surrouding forest
pines, painted and terrible in the trappings of savage array
was truly terrifically horrid.
THE GARRISON STORMED.
SAMUEL BROOKING WAS SHOT DEAD.
The whole savage host at once assailed the garrison at every
point. Through one of the port-holes, Samuel Brooking was shot
dead. The assault was unsuccessful. No impression could be
made on the garrison, which effectually shielded the defenders
from the storm of shot and balls poured upon it. Discouraged,
the Indians wreaked their vengeance on the cattle of the Island
and set fire to the village of twenty-six houses.
During the night ensuing, Colonel Walton and Captain Harmon,
in whale-boats re-enforced the garrison with thirty men. Col.
Robert Temple also joined his force to that of Penhalow.
Temple, from his service as Captain in the Irish army, had
acquired an experience which allowed him to be on this
p.243 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
occasion brave, prompt and efficient. The report of the morn-
fight, or the alarm of Penhallow's guns below, had reached his
ears, in the garrison plantation of Cork, above, and drew him
to the aid of Penhallow. Temple and Penhallow, making up a
force of seventy men, led out a night attack. They assailed
the savage hordes at their campfires. But greatly out-numbered
and out-flanked and likely to be cut off from retreat by en-
vironing hosts of savages, Temple and Penhallow retired from
the conflict; and the Indians took to their canoes in the
darkness of the night, apparently satisfied with what they had
already achieved.
As they paddled away, Captain Stratton of the Government
sloop fell into their hands, and was killed. Insulting
the garrison at Richmond in their passage up the Kennebec,
the Indians returned to their head-quarters at Norridge-
wock; and Georgetown, after six years resuscitated thrift,
was once more desolated and the region filled with dismay
and despondency.
COLONEL WESTBROOK'S EXPEDITION.
1723.
Colonel Westbrook, appointed commander-in-chief, now de-
tached a body of two hundred and thirty men, who, embark-
ing at Kennebec, ranged the coast east-ward and penetrated
the upper Penobscot by water and land until he reached the
principal settlement, a village of twenty-three houses, en-
closed with a stockade, and ornamented with a chapel, all of
which being abandoned, he committed to the flames. Colonel
Westbrook returned to the fort at St. George's with the
loss of his chapalin, Reverend Benjamin Gibson and three in
his command.
Captain Harmon led another detachment up the Kennebec
against Norridgewock, numbering one hundred and twenty
men. Encountering the fierce snow and frost of February,
in their march through the wilderness of the Great-bend
of the Androscoggin, an abandonment of the expediton was
forced.
p.244 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Many discouragements overwhelmed this devoted section,
consequent on the ill-success of the military operations.
"No settlement, no vessel at anchor, no dwelling-house"
escaped assault or destruction.
ST. GEORGE ATTACKED.
Fort Geroe again was invested. Two prisoners were secured,
and the place subjected to a siege of thirty day, without
any successful result. Kennedy commanded and repelled the
invading force until relieved by Colonel Westbrook's re-
turn.
BATTLE OF GEORGE'S RIVER.
May, 1724.
JOHN WINSLOW, HARVARD GRADUATE.
Josiah Winslow, a native of Plymouth, a graduate of Harvard
College, yet a youth, and connected with the most respectable
families of Massachusetts, had been assigned to the command
of the fort on George's River, at the site of Thomaston.
One pleasant morning, early in May, invited by the freshness
and beauty of spring-time, with a select company in two whale-
boats, Captain Winslow embarked for an excursion to the islands,
a favorite haunt with the savages for taking fowls, probably
at the mouth of the river, called "the green islands." The
party concealed themselves and their boats during the night
and the succeeding day of their arrival, in expectation of an
approach of the enemy. Shortly before the setting of the sun,
disappointed in meeting the savages, as anticipated, the party
re-embarked for a return to the fort.
It would seem that the enemy had discovered the boat party,
and had placed considerable numbers in ambush, on each shore
of the narrow river. As the boats rowed leisurely up the river,
homeward bound, unsuspicious of evil, a flock of water-fowl
drew the fire of one of the company. Contrary to the counsel
of Winslow, who was in advance,
p.245 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Sergeant Harvey, in command of the rear boat, giving no
heed to the warnings of his superior, "to keep close to
him," turned in pursuit of the wounded bird, saying -
"Go easy on your oars, and I will presently be up with
you." In pursuit of the poor bird, struggling for life
in the desperation of its flight, the party were drawn
toward the western bank of the river, when from the copse
wood and thicket, fire was opened on the boat and a body
of savages there in concealment. Three of the crew fell
dead and the savages, hastening to their canoes, attempt-
ed to surround the party and cut off all retreat.
Harvey returned the fire; but to escape overpowering
numbers, the boat made, with all expedition for the shore
on the opposite side. Harvey had fallen. Winslow, alarmed
and warned by the frequent discharge of musketry that his
forebodings had been realized, although considerably in
advance and out of peril, turned back to succor his men.
Before he had reached a position to relieve the devoted
band in his rear boat, now contending for their lives,
he was himself suddenly surrounded by a flotilla of thirty
canoes with ninety indians, who rushed in upon him from
each bank of the river, heralded by terrific yells of de-
fiance, and attempting to seize the boat and capture the
men. The savages had approached very near when a sudden
and murderous fire from the boats sent its death-flashes
on all sides to greet them. Nothing daunted, the savage
host pressed onward until from the gunwales of the whale-
boat they were so fiercely repulsed and beaten off with
clubbed muskets that they retired and dropped astern, main-
taining the fight at a distance. The first boat in the fight,
but the rear boat of the detachment, had reached the shore,
when, encountering another party of savages as the shattered
fragment of the boat's company landed, and selling their lives
as dearly as possible, every soul was slain except three
Christian Indians, who alone escaped to tell the tale!
p.246 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
CAPTAIN WINSLOW'S DEATH.
Thus the recklessness of the gallant Harvey cost the lives
of himself and comrades. Winslow, perceiving the case to
be desperate, fought with a resolution death itself could
not dampen. In admiration of his courage and bravery, the
savages offered him quarter, but rejecting all overtures,
he fought on till night drew her somber shadows over the
scene of carnage. In the duske of evening, most of his
company being slain, Winslow sought the shore, where the
survivors landed, only to be shot down in detail. Captain
Winslow fell, with his thigh broken, to the ground; on
seeing the hero thus disabled, the Indians rushed on him,
when rising from the ground and recovering himself on the
other knee, the dying Winslow brought the foremost of his
savage pursuers to the dust before they could slay him.
Thus every white man fell in this bloody encounter, a
gallant band, whose heroism deserved a better fate. The
brave Winslow was thus cut off, heroically faithful to
his trust at the head of his intrepid men, against fear-
ful odds disputing every inch of ground, and holding at
bay until dark, the ferocious savage horde. He fell,
greatly beloved, universally lamented, accomplished and
brave, in the first buddings of his opening manhood, and
it has never been known whether the bodies of that gallant
band were given sepulture, or left to be devoured by beasts
of prey. It is, however, more than probable that their bones
bleached in the sun where their blood was shed to mingle in
the dust of mother earth, or tinge the briny tide of the
St. George, until they were covered with autumnal leaves
or buried beneath the oozy bed of the river, there to wait
the gathering of the resurrection morning.
What alternations of hope and fear, what deeds of personal
valor, what incidents of startling interest, did the 11th
of May weave into the closing scene of the history of fifty
human beings who began that morning with bright hopes and
anticipations! The records of Eternity
p.247 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
can only reveal in full and melancholy detail, the blood-
stained colorings of the tragic end of the youthful Winslow
and his brave comrades, under the hoary oaks and pines of the
St. George River - where naught now but....
"The winds that through the vernal showers,
Or autumn's leafless branches moan,
Pass sighing o'er their place of rest,
To all surviving friends unknown."
SAVAGE FIRE-SHIPS.
Fully determined to destroy the fort, a party of savages
passed up the river, and seizing and packing small vessels
with combustible matter, they ignited the mass, converting
them into fire-ships and urged the burning pile forward so
near as to endanger the block-houses. Untiring vigilance
and exertiion prevented the catastrophe, defeated the savage
purposes, and thus discouraged from further attempts, all
withdrew.
ARROWSIC AGAIN INVESTED.
The garrison at Butler's Cove on Arrowsic, still commanded
by Penhallow, was again assailed, but with no better success.
The discomfited savages retired, securing three of the settlers,
who were taken while driving their cows to pasture. Deserting the
Island, they left the tokens of their vengeance behind them, in
the carcasses of the butchered herds, everywhere slain in their
way. Thus foiled in their movements on the land, the Indians
turned toward the sea. Gathering a fleet of fifty canoes, they
steered for Monhegan.
The fishermen who had put in for wood and water along the coast
were captured. Eight vessels and forty men, twenty of whom were
slain, fell into their hands. Fourteen vessels subsequently were
taken, and the savages became at once a scourge and terror to
all who went down to the sea to do business on the great waters.
p.248 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
To repel this new mode of warfare, so unusual in Indian tactics,
Jackson and Lakeman fitted out an expedition to meet the enemy
at sea. No considerable result followed. Jackson was wounded;
and the Indians driven into Penobscot Bay, sought shelter under
the Fort of the Baron de Castine, on the heights of Bagaduce.
But the sea was no field for the skill or policy of the Indians,
in war, who soon tired of so toilsome and perilous a scene of
warfare adventure.
BATTLE OF NORRIDGEWOCK.
It has been ascertained beyond reasonable doubt that Romish and
priestly influence was the chief exciting cause of savage hosti-
lities, and that Father Ralle, the spiritual teacher of the
Norridgewocks, had become a conspicuous and active agent in
formenting the strife.
Norridgewock was therefore marked for destruction; and Father
Ralle', the missionary, had become an object of public detest-
ation to the English, though esteemed for his zeal and learning
by the distinguished men of his own nation, and venerated and
loved by his charge, whose rights and interests he seemed to
have at heart.
The effect the destruction of Norridgewock and the capture
of Ralle', and to chastise the savages on the Kennebec,
Capt. Harmon, Capt. Moulton, Capt. Brown and Capt. Bene were
sent with two hundred men and seventeen whale-boats, up the
Kennebec.
DEATH OF BOMASEEN.
Bomaseen, the Sachem of the Kannabas, whose hands still
reeked with the warm blood of a victim to his scalping knife,
near to Brunswick, was met by this force. Taking to the water
to elude his pursuers, he was shot and sank beneath the tide,
where it was empurpled with his blood. His daughter, too,
shared the father's fate under the aim of the sharp shooting
p.249 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
white Englishmen, while the mother of and wife was made a
captive. Encouraged by her story to prosecute their design,
the detachment now debarked and marched1 for Norridgewock.
Approaching the place of their destination, the force divid-
ed within two miles of the village, the one part to range the
fields of growing corn, and the other to invest the town.
THE DEATH OF FATHER RALLE.
The several squadrons had reached within pistol shot before
it was known at the village. A sanap, yielding to the necessi-
ties of nature, had come alone out of his wigwam, and made the
first discovery of the presence of the invading force, whose
whoop, as he sprang in for his gun, gave the alarm. But the
soldiery had environed the village and were yet concealed from
view.
Surprise and consternation seized the residents of this forest
embosomed town of half-christianized men. In the panic, many
seized their weapons of war, whose random firing did no exe-
cution. Others fled only to fall on the bayonets of ambushed
Englishmen, and many plunged into the waters of the Kennebec
only to perish there; and some took to their birch boats to be
precipitated over the falls, below. The rout was terrible and
complete. The body of Ralle, covered with the bodies of his
fallen flock, was found near the cross in the center of the
town, pierced with bullets, his scalp2 torn off, his skull
broken in, his mouth and eyes filled with mud and his limbs
fractured.
The village, the church - all were consigned to the flames.
It was a stroke as terrible as it was unexpected. And it broke
the hearts of the Kannabas tribe of Indians. The pride of their
power and their spirit as a people were subdued forever.
Footnotes. 1. Penhallow, p. 105. 2. French account, Charlevoix,
p.150
p.250 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE BODY OF RALLE.
The body of Ralle1 was buried in the ashes of his church by
his converts on their return to their war-blasted homes.
EFFECTS OF LOVEWELL'S WAR.
1725.
The heroic and desperate encounter between Lovewell, Paugus
and Wahwa, at the mouth of Battle Brook, May 8, 1725, near
Pegwacket Village, on the margin of Lovewell's Pond, in Frye-
burg, completed the desolation of the tribe of the Sekokis, who
were left in much the same condition as the Kannabas, after the
death of Ralle and the sacking of Norridgewock. The natives
became anxious for peace. To palliate recent violent acts on
their part, "the encroachments of the whites upon their lands
at Cape Newagen, where two of their friends had been beaten to
death," were the causes alleged. Doubtless, allusion was had to
the affair of Captain Tilton, off Damariscove.
INSERT.
Subject: The Ballad of Lovewell's Fight. N.H. Historical Collections
Source: Gathered Sketches from the Early History of New Hampshire & Vermont
Adventures of Our Forefathers, Original & Selected by Francis Chase, M. A.,
Claremont, N.H., Tracey, Kenney & Co., 1856.
p.32
On the 18th of April, 1725, Capt. John Lovewell of Dunstable, Mass., & 50 men, fought
a famous Indian Chief named Paugus, at the head of about 80 savages near the shores of
a pond in Pequawkett, the Indian name of a considerable tract of country including
Conway, N.H., Fryeburg, Maine, and the adjacent towns. The scene of this desperate
and bloody action, which took place in the town which is now called Fryburg, is often
visited with interest to this day, and the names of those who fell and those who
survived are yet repeated with emotions of grateful exultation.
The Ballad of Lovewell's Fight
p.33
What time the noble Lovewell came,
With fifty men from Dunstable,
The cruel Pequatt tribe to tame,
With arms and bloodshed terrible.
Then did the crimson streams, that flowed,
Seem like the waters of the brook,
That brightly shine, that loudly dash
Far down the cliffs of Agiochook.
With Lovewell brave John Harwood came;
From wife and babes 'twas hard to part;
Young Harwood took her by the hand,
And bound the weeper to his heart.
"Repress that tear, my Mary dear,"
Said Harwood to his loving wife;
"It tries me hard to leave thee here,
And seek in distant woods the strife.
"When gone, my Mary, think of me,
And pray to God that I may be
Such as one ought that lives for thee,
And come at last in victory."
p.34
Thus young Harwood babe and wife;
With accent wild, she bade adieu;
It grieved those lovers much to part,
So fond and fair, so kind and true.
Seth Wyman who in Woburn lived,
A marksman he of courage true,
Shot the first Indian whom they saw;
Sheer through his heart the bullet flew.
The savage had been seeking game;
Two guns and eke a knife he bore,
And two black ducks were in his hand;
He shrieked, and fell, to rise no more.
Anon, there eighty Indians rose,
Who'd hid themselves in ambush dread;
Their knives they shook, their guns they aimed,
The famous Paugus at their head.
Good heavens! they dance the powwow dance;
What horrid yells the forest fill!
The grim bear crouches in his den,
The eagle seeks the distant hill.
p.35
"What means this dance, this powwow dance?"
Stern Wyman said. With wondrous art
He crept full near, his rifle aimed.
And shot the leader through the heart.
John Lovewell, captain of the band,
His sword he waved, that glittered bright,
For the last time he cheered his men,
And led them onward to the fight.
"Fight on, fight on," brave Lovewell said;
"Fight on, while Heaven shall give you breath!"
An Indian ball then pierced him through,
And Lovewell closed his eyes in death.
John Harwood died all bathed in blood,
When he had fought till set of day!
And many more we may not name
Fell in that bloody battle fray.
When news did come to Harwood's wife,
That he with Lovewell fought and died,
Far in the wilds had given his life,
Nor more would in their home abide -
Such grief did seize upon her mind,
Such sorrow filled her faithful breast,
On earth she ne'er found peace again,
But followed Harwood to his rest.
'Twas Paugus led the Pequa'tt tribe;
As runs the fox would Paugus run;
As howls the wild wolf would he howl;
A large bear skin had Paugus on.
But Chamberlain of Dunstable,
One whom a savage ne'er shall slay,
Met Paugus by the water side,
And shot him dead upon that day.
Good Heavens! Is this a time for prayer?
Is this a time to Worship God?
When Lovewell's men are dying fast,
And Paugus'tribe hath felt the rod?
The chaplain's name was Jonathan Frye;
In Andover his father dwelt,
And oft with Lovewell's men he'd prayed,
Before the mortal wound he felt.
p.37
A man was he of comely form,
Polished and brave, well learnt and kind;
Old Harvard's learned halls he left,
Far in the wilds a grave to find.
Ah, now his blood-red arm he lifts,
His closing lids he tries to raise,
And speak once more before he dies,
In supplication and in praise.
He prays kind Heaven to grant success,
Brave Lovewell's men to guide and bless,
And when they've shed their heart blood true,
to raise them all to happiness.
"Come hither, Farwell," said young Frye,
"You see that I'm about to die;
Now for the love I bear to you,
When cold in death my bones shall lie,
"Go thou and see my parents dear,
And tell them you stood by me here;
Console them when they cry, Alas!
And wipe away the falling tear."
Lieutenant Farwell took his hand
His arm around his neck he threw,
And said, "Brave Chaplain, I could wish
That Heaven had made me die for you.
p.38
The chaplain on kind Farwell's breast,
Bloody and languishing he fell;
Nor after this said more, but this:
"I love thee soldier, fare thee well."
Ah, many a wife shall rend her hair,
And many a child cry, "Woe is me,"
When messengers the news shall bear,
Of Lovewell's dear-bought victory.
With footsteps slow shall travellers go,
Where Lovewell's Pond shines clear and bright,
And mark the place where those are laid
Who fell in Lovewell's bloody fight.
Old men shall shake their heads and say,
"Sad was the hour and terrible
When Lovewell brave against Paugus went,
With fifty men from Dunstable."
footnote:
Of the men who belonged to Lovewell's party, but nine
returned unhurt. Eleven came back wounded, and three had to be
left behind on account of their severe wounds. Among these three
was Ensign Robbins, who desired to have his gun charged and left
by his side, that he might kill one more of them, should they
return.
The Indian that Seth Wyman killed, was no doubt placed there as
a decoy. Suspecting this, the men concealed their packs and
advanced with great caution. Meantime Paugus and Wahwa, with
two parties of Indians followed their trail till they found their
packs. About these they placed themselves in ambush, and when the
Englishmen returned, rose and commenced the attack.
The death of the celebrated Indian happened in this manner:
Paugus and John Chamberlain had been foes, and had met in
bloody fray before this battle. Towards the close of the day,
the guns of each had become foul from constant firing, and they
came at the same time to the water's edge for the purpose of
washing them. Paugus was up stream and Chamerlain below. They
immediately recognized each other."Now, Paugus, said Chamberlain,
"It is you or I." "Yes," answered the warrior, "It is you or I."
Both of them sprang to the water and commenced cleaning their
guns. Each strained every nerve, conscious that to be last would
be death. Almost with the rapidity of lightning the guns were
washed out and dried. They began loading at the same instant.
The muskets were primed, the powder rammed home, the bullets
thrown into their muzzles and who could tell the issue? But
now appeared the advantage of Chamberlain's position. Paugus
standing above Chamberlain was obliged to follow his ball with
a wad to prevent its rolling out. Chamberlain dropped the ball
down the muzzle of his gun, his eye glanced along the barrel
and with a yell the Indian chief leaped into the air and fell
headlong into the brook.
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth
ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
But these successes only increased the exasperation of the whites,
and it became so deep, that not infrequently acts of gross outrage
and wrong were perpetrated.
A small band of Indians repaired to St. George's under a flag of truce.
A scouting party fell on t hem and a sharp engagement followed, in which
one white man was killed and another was wounded.
Footnotes. "Father Ralle was regarded by the English as a most infamous
villain, and his scalp would have been esteemed worth a hundred scalps of
the Indians. The French esteemed Father Ralle as a hero and a saint.
Forty years he spent in missionary toil and deprivation among the savages
who loved and idolized him. He was a man of superior natural powers, master
of the learned languages - pure classical and elegant in his Latin. He
taught many of both sexes to write in their own tongue among his flock;
and in zeal, learning and ability, might have ranked with Cotton, Mitchel
and others. - Hutch. Hist. Mass. vol. ii. p. 239.
p.251 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
SAMUEL TRASK'S ADVENTURES.
Samuel Trask, when a boy, had been stolen from Salem by the
Indians, and an appropriation for the purchase of his freedom
was made by the vote of the town. As no traces of him could be
discovered, the money was applied to the purchase of a bell.
But Trask was a captive among the eastern Indians, and resided
near the abode of the Baron de Castine on the Penobscot. While
a captive, a season of great scarcity occurred, which drove the
Indians to the cranberry beds for subsistence. While engaged in
gathering cranberries, a flock of wild geese alighted to feed near-
by. The birds were eagerly sought for food, and Trask1 proving much
success in the capture of the birds than the natives, it commend-
ed him to his mastor's favor as a skillful huntsman. This skill and
his sea-manship brought him into the notice of Castine, who purchased
him from his captors and employed him on board his sloop. Lying at
anchor off the southeast point of Sedgewick, an English sloop ran in
and fired on Castine, who, deserting his vessel, fled with Trask
and a native lad, to the shore.
But the English commander ran up a white flag inviting and assuring
Castine a safe return. Duped by the false pretences, Castine and the
lad returned to their vessel. But Trask was seized by the Englishman,
who declared the vessel a prize and Castine a prisoner, but permitt-
ed as a special favor his return to his people. Castine landed,
leaving his property to the English freebooter. On being pursued
by an English sailor, who seized the native boy, Castine shot him
dead, rescued the lad and escaped.
The buccanier sloopl set sail, with Trask, and departed. From
this craft he was transferred to the companionship of Captain Kid,
with whom he had been accustomed to visit the
Footnote. 1. R. Sewall's Narrative.
p.252 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Sheepscot and cut1 spars from the head-land on the north shore
of Oven's Mouth, and who often careened his ships within the deep
creeks and coves of this river. On the capture of Kid, and the
dispersion of his crew, Trask retired to his haunts on the Sheep-
scot, and made his clearing within eye-shot of an alleged deposit
of Kid's treasure on the east margin of Folley Island, within the
precincts of the early "Free-town," now incorporated as Edgecomb.
His experience among the Indians gave him celebrity as one skilled
in the curative art; and hence he was recognized among the early
settlers of Free-town, as Dr. Trask. But he had acquired a relish
for strong drink; and an early settler of Free-town, Cunningham,
by name, whose tippling-shed Trask freqented, wormed out of the
old man, while in his cups, the secret of the "pot of money;" and
it is asserted on good authority, as coming from an eye-witness,
that under cover of night, lighted by the moon-beams, the "seller
of grog" visited Folley Island in a canoe and forestalled Trask,
by digging up and securing the buried gold.
DAMARISCOVE ATTACKED.
While peace was sought by most, occasional mischief was perpe-
trated by roving bands of savages. As Stephen Hunwell2 and
Alexander Soaper lay in the haven of Damariscove, a war-party
paddled to sea, and there seized their vessels and burned them,
and made prisoners of the ship's company. These unfortunate fish-
ermen were taken into the Kennebec; and at Winnegance were put to
death in cold-blooded barbarities, offered probably in sacrifice
to the manes of slaughtered clansmen, as faggots to the fires
which lighted the dance of victory, or set as marks to the flying
tomahawk and life-drinking scalping knife.
Footnotes. 1. Hon. S. Parsons. 2. Penhallow's Indian Wars.
p.253 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
DUMMER'S PEACE.
AUGUST 3, 1727.
These atrocities were preludes to the celebrate pacific over-
tures of Lieutenant Governor Dummer, which had so long been
maturing, and were completed in "Dummer's Treaty," ratified at
Falmouth. This celebrated treaty gave hope of enduring repose
to this distracted and desolate section, in whose bonds the
leading chiefs from Penobscot to Canada joined, and which was
confirmed by a solemn dance of peace, in which all the most
sacred tokens of savage faith were plighted.
EFFECTS OF THE WAR.
If the savages had been great sufferers, the damage they had
done to the reviving settlements of the "Ancient Dominions"
was enormous. Georgetown had been made deeply to drink of
affliction. Openings in the forest wilds that had begun to bud
with the promise of civilization, and become attractive as
centers of business, were blasted forever.
The town of Augusta at Small Point Harbor with its fortified
works of stone, projected, fostered and built up by Dr. Noyes,
had been utterly depopulated; the houses with the fort were all
destroyed and burnt;1 and although an attempt was subsequently
made to revive and rebuild the place by the Rideouts, Hales,
Springers, Owens and others from Falmouth - it failed.
At the military posts, according to treaty, stores with goods
supplied by Government in charge of its own agent, termed "a
Truck-master," were opened for trade, where, in exchange for
peltries and furs, the Indians could obtain the commodities of
civilized life.
TRUCK-HOUSES.
These public establishments greatly facilitated the intercourse
of Government with the savages, and fostered the
Footnote. 1. John McKeen, Esq.
p.254 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
measures of peaceful repose to the country. The action of
Government in these premises greatly interfered with the
operations of speculators, who had battened on ill-gotten
gains as "Indian traders;" and who resorted to every device
to elude responsibility and prosecute illicit traffic.
DAGGET'S CASTLE.
A precipitous steep on the western banks of the Sheepscot
still bears the name of "Dagget's Castle," marking the point
where an "Indian trader" or sea-rover was accustomed to moor
his sloop, and beat up "truck" with the savages. "Dagget's
Castle" is nearly a perpendicular wall of granite gneiss,
whose face rises more than a hundred feet above the surface
of the waters, about whose base the channel of the river winds
and curls in eddying tides. Moored in one of these deep tide
pools, to this lofty steep, the savage could only approach on
one side in his fragile birchen canoe; and out of it with un-
steadu foot-hold on the capricious bottom, swayed to and fro
by the sweeping currents, carry on trade. Thus protected in
his sloop by the towering cliff-side, "Dagget" called it his
castle; and at the top of his sloop's mast is said to 1 have
painted his hand as a sign on the face of the rock. From the
summit of this lofty steep, it is also said that spars and
mast timber have been cut; and in the fall of the mighty
trees, as they broke from the stump on the brow of these
giddy heights, they were accustomed to make a clean leap
into the watery depths below, where, till a late day, sub-
merged and fastened in the oozy bottom by their tops, the
butts have appeared swaying in the tide.
DUCK HUNTING.
Other traditional incidents, explanatory of familiar local
names and points of interest, are given on the same authority
Footnote. 1. Hon. S. Parsons.
p.255 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
An ancient planter on "Jewonke Neck," who had often been a
captive, and well understood the native dialect, both of the
Penobscot and Kennebec tribes, said the aboriginal name of the
Sheepscot signified "many duck waters," which taken with the
fact given by Penhallow1 of the immense multitude of this fowl
there hunted and slain with billets of wood and canoe paddles
according to an annual custom, renders the appellation exceed-
ingly appropriate to the ancient waters of the Sheepscot as a
haunt for the wild duck, where were favorite feeding grounds for
their young.
HOCK-OMOCK.
"Hockomock Head," which thrusts its bold steeps and rears its
rocky cliffs amid the waters of the bay, whose eastern and west-
ern outlets are through lower and upper "hurlgate," by the in-
land passage between the Sheepscot and Kennebec, took its name
from the following circumstance, as given on the authority of
the ancient men who lived and died near the spot about a century
and a half ago.
At the head of the bay formed by "Phips' Point" on the east and
Hockomock neck on the west, in the southeastern corner of the
present town of Woolwich, was early built a settlement or ham-
let of the first planters and probably the artisans in Phips'
ship-yard. Among the first indications of hostility, the visit
of a war party to this hamlet, which they subsequently plunder-
ed and burned, alarmed the residents, who, seeking the strong-
holds of this precipitous promontory among the cliffs and steeps,
in flying over the neck, were pursued by the savages. A Scotchman,
less fleet of foot than his fellows from age or corpulance, his
head protected with a wig of antique size and fashion, brought
up the lagging rear, and soon fell within grasp of the pursuing
red-man, whose outstretched hand laid hold
Footnote. 1. Penhallow, p. 84.
p.256 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
on the flowing wig for a head of hair which promised a magnifi-
cent trophy to the scalping knife. But, to the surprise and con-
sternation of the savage, the "periwig" clave to his hold, while
the apparently headless body still ran on, leaping from steep to
steep, utterly indifferent to what had been left behind. The
astonished savage, believing he had been running a race with the
devil, suddenly stopped, and dropping the wig in superstitious
horror, turned to fly in the opposite direction, crying to his
comrades,1 "Hockomock! Hockomock!" - the Devil! the Devil!
LIBERALITY OF GOVERNMENT.
The exchanges at the truck-houses were conducted on the most
liberal principles; and although they yielded no revenue to the
public treasury, they tended greatly to assure the public tran-
quility.
THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE.
1727.
On a clear, serene and cool Sabbath evening, near midnight, the
last of October, a deep, hollow sound, like the roaring of a
chimney on fire, the rattling of ten thousand coaches over rocky
pavements swelling into distant thunder echoes, roused the dwell-
ers in New England from their sleep with startling intimations of
danger.
The terrific reverberations rising in the northwest and rolling
toward the southeast, accompanied with a tremor of the earth's
surface, was preceded by a running flash of bluish flame at each
shock. The sea roared as the earth trembled; and the opening in
some parts of New Hampshire, "cast up a very fine, bluish sand,2
followed by out-gushing waters."
Footnotes. 1. Honorable Stephen Parsons, tradition of Greenleaf of
Oak Island. 2. White's Hist. New England, p. 49.
p.257 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Beasts ran howling to the fields as if in great distress. The
earth heaved. The houses rocked and creaked. Chimneys were riven.
Doors, windows, and walls were broken; the glass ware clattered and,
in some instances, with a crash, fell to the floors. All nature was
in commotion. Men, with surprise and terror, trembling with the earth
on land, and on the sea tossed with their ships, which plunged
along as if grating over shoals of ballast-stone, began to
wonder at the power of Him "who will yet once more shake both
the land and the sea," till their place shall no more be found.
Such were the effects of the second memorable earthquake in New
England, within the recollections of European history.
Peace still reigned within the borders of the ancient dominions
of Maine, now merged into a county of which York was the capital,
and Yorkshire the civil name.
But the population flowed slowly in to re-occupy the wasted
plantations. The lands between the Kennebec and St. George's
Rivers were most attractive; and more than a century had pass-
ed since the first occupancy and improvement thereof, during
which they had been planted and re-planted for three generations
and as often devastated; and now only about one hundred and fifty
families occupied the entire section.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
1729.
We have reached an epoch marked with the closing scenes of the
sanguinary conflicts with the aboriginal inhabitants, and the
opening incidents of the final re-settlement of the country on a
peaceful and permanent basis, in which the existing social de-
velopment received its cast; and in which, also, those causes
first began to move which have shaped our existing social, civil
and religious organizations.
King George II sat on the throne of England, under whose adminis-
tration was sent out a most efficient agent in the re-settlement
of the Ancient Dominions of Maine, and who laid and shaped the
foundations of our existing social and religious structure, and
who introduced a new and vigorous element in the final re-popu-
lation of this part of Maine.
ROBERT TEMPLE - DAVID DUNBAR.
We have alluded to the colonial influx of the Scotch-Irish to
this region under Robert Temple. David Dunbar, a military
officer - (it is said a Colonel in the Irish army,) armed with
a commission from the Crown of England, as "Surveyor General of
the King's Woods and Governor of Sagadahoc," now appeared.
On reaching the shores of Sagadahoc, Governor Dunbar repaired to
the fortress at Pemaquid. He rebuilt its walls, restored the
breaches and decay of Fort William Henry.
FORT WILLIAM HENRY RENAMED FORT FREDERICK.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
p.260 Thus renovated, he named this ancient strong-hold, Fort Frederick.
Here, on the site of the ancient Jamestown, he took up his abode,
planting the Presbyterian Church, whose services were administered
to the religious faith and forms of the "Kirk of Scotland," by Rev.
Robert Rutherford.
DUNBAR EMIGRATION.
The Provincial Governor, Dunbar, by Royal order was reqiored "to
settle1 as well as to superintend and govern Sagadahoc." This
order was made known by proclamation from the Throne. His first
movements were directed to the locating and laying out of cities
and towns; and on the Sheepscot and Damariscotta waters, at the
most eligible sites, he projected three; viz., Townsend, Harrington
and Walpole. Townsend embraced the aboriginal Cape Ne-wa-gen, about
the head water margins of the harbor, where had been the scene of
the explorations of George Weymouth's expedition. Harrington and
Walpole were within the Pemaquid and Damariscotta sections of
Bristol, whose earliest planters, from the city of Bristol, England,
many of them, the shipwrecked voyagers of the Angel Gabriel - had
given the name of the city of their father-land to the spot that
misfortune had compelled them to clear, plant and colonize.
Source: History of New England from 1630 to 1649 by Governor John Winthrop
Ship: The Little James - companion ship to the Angel Gabriel lost off
Pemaquid as well.
p.196
The year 1635.
A storm blew with much violence and abundance of rain that blew down many
hundreds of trees near the towns; overthrew some house and drove ships from their anchors. The ship Great Hope of Ipswich being about four hundred tons, was driven on ground at Mr. Hoffe's Point and brought back again presently by a
north-west wind and ran onshore at Charlestown.
This tempest was not so far as Cape Sable but to the south more violent and
made a double tide all that
coast.
Ship James of Bristol.
In this tempest, the ship James of Bristol having one hundred passengers -
honest people of Yorkshire,being put into the Isle of Shoals, lost there - three anchors; and setting sail, no canvas nor ropes would hold, but she was driven within a cable's length of the rocks at Pascataquack, when suddenly the wind
coming to the north-west, put them back to the Isle of shoals and being
there ready to strike upon the rocks, they let out a piece of their mainsail
and weathered the rocks. In the same tempest, a bark of Mr.Allerton's was cast away upon Cape Ann, and 21 persons were drowned; among the rest, one Mr. Avery,
a minister of Wiltshire.
footnote, p.197:
The Angel Gabriel was lost at Pemaquid. We know this ship sailed from
Bristol, but last sailed from Milford Haven June 22, preceding in company
with the ship James (Mather called the ship James, the Angel Gabriel
in his Journal) He says of her - "she was of 240 tons with 14 guns; and
mentions her lostt with "most of the cattle, and other goods, with one
seaman; and 3 or 4 passengers did also perish therein, besides two of the
passengers that died by the way."
(evidently he names the lost as the Angel Gabriel's when it was the
loss of the Little James).
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth
ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Colonel Dunbar, with zeal and energy applied his extraordinary
powers to fill up the country with emigrants from Europe. To afford
adequate defense, he procured a detachment of Royal troops, and re-
occupied Fort Frederick.
In pursuance of the great end of his mission, he employed agents,
and stimulated their activity by land grants; and to each settler
a homestead lot of ten1 to twelve acres was given, with proport-
ionate and adequate lots of a hundred acres back.
Footnote. Depositions, Commissioner's Reports, L. Co.
p.261 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1730.
McCobb and Rogers, as agents of Dunbar, were by him granted a
section of the newely laid-out Townsend, on condition that they
should fill up the township by introducing emigrants from Europe.
Dunbar also assigned portions of Walpole and Harrington to Montgom-
ery and Campbell on the same conditions.
The settlers were procured; and the descendants of these emigrants
to this day form most of the inhabitants of Boothbay.1 Ten and twelve
acre lots were assigned for homesteads in the Dunbar towns, and the
inhabitants held and supposed they were to hold their lands under the
Dunbar title,1 under which impression the men of Bristol fought the
battles of the Revolution in defense of their lands, till by land or
sea "one-quarter part of the able-bodied men of the town fell"!
THE SCOTCH IRISH.
The countrymen of these parties, agents and principal, were of
Scotch-Irish stock, as their names sufficiently indicate. The sym-
pathies of this race were therefore enlisted, and their interest
stimulated by attractive visions of a home of their own; and multi-
tudes of that vigorous people were allured to the rock-bound shores
of Sagadahoc, which were thus planted with a people radically Pres-
byterian in all their proclivities, and uncompromising enemies of
the Church of Rome in every age, since the days of Wickliff and John
Knox.
The sympathies of Dunbar were strongly and naturally allied to the
Crown, and adverse to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Represent-
ing Royal authority, his own interests and ambition coincided with
the Royal preogatives. Acting with the vigor of precise military
habits, accustomed as he had been to command, Dunbar made good
success indeed in executing his plans, but acquired a reputation
for arbi-
Footnotes. 1. McCobb's Deposition, Lincoln Co. Rep. p. 157.
2. Boyd's Depositions, Lincoln County Rep. p. 158.
p.262 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
trary conduct which aroused deep and wide-spread prejudices.
Dunbar soon removed his residence from Pemaquid to the site of his
newly projected city of Walpole and on Belvidera Point, at the head
of the lower bay, he had marked out the plan of the city, and began
it by building himself a house. Armed with a royal commission, in
midst of a sympathizing exotic population, whose duty it was for him
to govern, as well as people the land as the King's Surveyor, forest
and lands were subject to his control; and the lands were parceled
out to the emigrants introduced by himself and his agents, as part
of the policy of his administration. In the execution of this policy,
his position necessarily brought him in collision with the interests
of the original proprietors and non-resident claimants, as well as
with trespassers on the public domain - a class of rough, hardy men,
who would not shrink from a trial of rights, in "the application of
swamp law." Bridger's experience was Dunbar's.
As a matter of course, great clamor was raised against the Royal
Governor, to his prejudice.
OPPOSITION OF THE PROPRIETORS.
In this clamor, Waldo was conspicuous and persistent. The interest
and sympathies of the proprietors were with Massachusetts, where they
chiefly had residence; and by their influence the local government
was soon enlisted against Dunbar. The combination, at length, effect-
ed his removal to the Province of New Hampshire, leaving the people
planted by him and his agents entirely exposed to the rapacity of the
proprietary claimants, whose oppressive acts finally compelled Govern-
ment to interfere to prevent civil war. Dunbar's policy resulted
in the augmentation of civil war. Dunbar's policy resulted in the
augmentation of a thrifty agricultural population by creating a
personal interest in the land they might occupy. The proprietors
were interested in this increase of population, but only so
p.263 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
far as it made a market for the sale of their lands. But Dunbar
could no longer protect; and the Drown, the Brown, the Tappan, and
the Plymouth companies over-rode all local rights and interests of
the occupants of the soil, the barrier being now broken down between
them and the proprietors.
On his departure, Governor Dunbar delivered his homestead at Belvi-
dera into the custody of his religious teacher, Reverend Mr. Ruther-
ford; and the city contemplated at Walpole became an abortion. At the
falls of the Damariscotta and the site of the ancient New Dartmouth
on the Sheepscot, as at that of the embryo at Belvidera Point at Wal-
pole, a considerable population had begun to concentrate.
THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jones, the Hustons, the Hiscocks, the Kennedys, had become fixed
in their residence at these points. The garrison system still pre-
vailed; and there can be no doubt that the advent of Colonel Dunbar
to the gubernatorial seat at Sagadahoc constitutes an important era
in the history of this region; and the movements of this officer,
though viewed with suspicion and denounced as oppressive by the
Massachusetts proprietary claimants, were eminently sucessful in re-
peopling our wastes, and are still felt in the character of the popu-
lation by him introduced. A more intelligent, enterprising, fearless,
thrifty, peaceful and vigorous race cannot be found on earth than the
Dunbar towns.
The entire section received a revivifying impulse from Governor Dun-
bars well-planned, liberal and wise policy; and the chief detractors
of Dunbar's merited fame and his most successful opponents were the
proprietors of antiquated claims to large bodies of landed estate,
who in the end became the real oppressors of the people, and were the
favorites of Massachusetts, because they were men of wealth and in-
fluence.
p.264 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION.
1730.
THE SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION.
The Scotch-Irish immigration, introduced under Dunbar's policy, now
began to set freely in upon our shores, urged hither by the commotions
consequent upon the Revolution in England, which the Popish procliv-
ities of King James, the last of the Stuart Dynasty, seem to have
excited. This influx of a new race from the Emerald Isle was borne
on one of those vast surges following the throes of the religious
element in human nature, which often in the history of our race has
tossed and shaken empires and the world to its center!
On this surge came Protestantism, also driven by ghostly power,
seeking an asylum on our shores, where the blood-red tracks were
traced indeed in the frontier homes along our river margins and
through our forest wilds, but where the hand of persecution could
not reach.
This tide of life from the hills and valleys of Ulster, forced west-
ward by the treacherous breath of the bigoted Tyrconnel, the repre-
sentative of the interest of James Stuart in Ireland, rolled over the
desolate clearings and wasted hamlets of the "Ancient Dominions," re-
peopling our borders with a pious and zealous civilization.
PRESBYTERIANISM.
Fresh and fervid from the siege of Londonderry and the battlefields
of Enniskillen, came the children of the Kirk, nursed on the bosom
of Presbyterianism, full of faith, hope, and zeal, panting for free-
dom to worship God. Such were the people who planted the ancient
clearings of Bristol, Cape Newagen and the Arrowsic towns, with
seed from the best stock of Europe. Such were the sources whence
these wastes were filled in the final re-settlement of this region.
Bristol, Boothbay, Georgetown and Phipsburg were planted. The fire-
side tale, the thrilling story of a winter evening's gathering around
the hearth-stone of venerable age, perpetuating the remembrance of the
deeds and daring,
p.265 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
JOSEPH BEATH.
the hopes and faith of a chivalrous ancestry, were graphic details
of the events of the siege of Londonderry, on which the aged and
pious Joseph Beath1 of Townsend was wont to dwell, while the tears
ran down his furrowed cheeks as he rehearsed the wrongs and deliver-
ances of that memorable act in the glory and shame of England.
THE TEMPLES, BEATHS & MURRAYS.
The Temples, Beaths, Murrays, all figured in the scenes of that
siege, of which the living center was "Black William," the familiar
designation of the husband of Queen Mary, the daughter of the fugi-
tive James, now called to the English Throne by the voice of Protest-
antism. And the events, scenes, and issues of that day may well be re-
membered, for they marked the ages to come, while yet in embryo, as
well as the age in which they lay.
Over the scenes of the siege of Londonderry, Joseph Beath wept as he
rehearsed the thrilling story in the ears of the rising generations
of Townsend, the perils, fortitude, faith and zeal of their ancestry,
who had sought a home on the margins of the magnificent harbor of Towns-
end, and in the wilds of maine.
The simple faith of this emigrant race is well illustrated in the
following anecdote of Andrew Reed, the uncle of Reverend John Murray,
and a principal settler of Townsend. During the war of the last savage
conflict, the residents at the harbor withdrew to the west-ward for
safety. But Mr. Reed would not leave, and in defiance of all per-
suasion, persisted in remaining in his simple shelter of a log cabin.
Contrary to expectation, the returning fugitives found him alive and
unharmed in the spring; and to their excited inquiries, he calmly re-
plied that he had felt neither solitude nor alarm; for why should he?
"Had I not my Bible with me?" cried the old man.
Footnotes. 1. Mrs. Weymouth of Boothbay harbor. 2. Mrs. Weymouth.
p.266 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The neighboring groves of beech and oak and the ready hand-sled,
and the coaster's sloop - were the great resources of commerce at
this date; and this pious and aged frontier's man, during the long
and solitary winter, piled the cord-wood on the landing, and in the
Book of God, wore out its dreary solitudes in drawing out its Christ-
ian consolations.
VAUGHN'S ENTERPRISE.
1730.
William Vaughn, extensively engaged in the fisheries at Monhegan
Island, at the head waters of the Damariscotta, now erected large
milling establishments for grain and the manufacture of lumber. Here
a large and thrifty village started into existence, and grew in wealth
and importance so long as lumbering resources remained.
He had now removed his residence and built a mansion house near his
mills, which not long after was consumed, and the Dunbar grants and
land titles, it is supposed, were destroyed therewith; and the vill-
age which grew up, to this day, as the capital of the town of Noble-
boro, is known as "Damariscotta Mills," the vast, unappropriated
water-powers of the site of which will ere long lay the foundations
of a city which will become the Lowell of Maine.
WISCASSET.
GEORGE DAVIS.
Seventy years prior to these events, within the precincts of the
aboriginal Ped-coke-gowake,1 on an eminence half a mile north of the
point in Wiscasset Bay, on the Sheepscot, fifty rods from the water-
side, George Davis, his brother, and two others had made their planta-
tion in the heart of a forest, beneath the sheltering branches of mighty
beech trees and tall pines. This was the original European plantation,
on the west margins of Wiscasset Bay, and the first beginnings of the
shire town of Lincoln County.
Footnote. 1. Massachusetts Historical Coll., vol vii, p. 163.
p.267 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
At the close of King Philip's war, this plantation was broken up;
and the families left their clearings crowning the heights which
shade the beautiful landscape environing the bay, to desolation
and solitude. The portrait of one of the matrons of this pioneer
hamlet of the Sheepscot, the widow of one of the Davises, who died
at Newton at the age of one hundred and sixteen years - adorns the
rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, Mass.
By transfer and inheritance, the lands of George Davis of Wiscasset
passed into the title of several wealthy men of Boston, who were
associated as the "Boston Company."
ROBERT HOOPER.
"WICHCASSET," AN ABORIGINAL NAME.
Robert Hooper was the earliest re-settling resident at this con-
spicuous point. He entered half a mile south of the early and ori-
ginal Davis plantation; and reared his log house by the side of a
large rock, some three rods from the water. The site of his home was
romantic and conspicuous. The point is broken into a considerable emin-
ence, rolling back from the shore margins, bold in outline on its east-
ern front; and in its original vesture of oak and pines, presenting the
aspect of a noble headland, rising from the depths of the bay, at the
confluence of three tides, which feature "Wichcasset," an aboriginal
name, is said to describe. It must have been a conspicuous landmark
in the early navigation of these waters, on the upper margins and land-
falls of which the ancient "Sheepscot Farms" smiled in fertility and
freshness.
On the dispersion of the earliest occupants, the Davis families, for
half a century, the clearings lay waste, without an inhabitant; and
the original hamlet sank where it rose, amidst its own ruin and decay.
Its revival at the point under Hooper gave to the locality a pre-emin-
ence it has ever since maintained as a center of trade, in its earl-
ier history, in the exportation of spar timber to Europe. Hooper sub-
sequently removed from the
p.268 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1731.
point to the peninsular under "Cushman's Mountain," as a place
of greater security from savage alarms.
1734.
THE BOYNTON, TAYLOR, YOUNGS & CHAPMAN FAMILIES.
Foye and Lambert followed Hooper and Robert Hodge re-occupied the
Patishall Grant on the eastern and opposite shore. Two miles below
the point, the Boyntons, Taylors, Youngs and Chapmans took up their
homes.
THE GARRISON HOUSE.
CAPTAIN JONATHAN WILLIAMSON
HEADED THE ENGLISH EMIGRATION.
On the crown of the headland at the point, was erected the garri-
son of the hamlet, the defense from savage attack, and the asylum
of the planters. Emigrants from England swelled the re-peopling
current at the point in Wiscasset Bay. Captain Jonathan Williamson
was the leading spirit of the English emigration, and eminent among
the first settlers at the point, who established his home on the pen-
insula south of Hooper's, known as "Birch Point."
THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.
THOMAS MOORE.
Probably some of the Dunbar emigration from Scotland and Ireland
found their way to this settlement, which consisted of members of
the English Episcopal Church, some Presbyterians and largely of the
Massachusetts Puritans. The Congregational element prevailed; and
the community finally settled down in their religious organization,
under the polity of that denomination and Thomas Moore was called
to be their religious teacher.
DUNBAR.
Dunbar's influence was not controling at the Point. Those in sym-
pathy with his movements were unquestionably absorbed in the para-
mount interest of the Massachusetts proprietors; and Wiscasset Point,
from that day to this, has been the only locality where the Congre-
gationalism peculiar to Massachusetts has retained its features.
ARROWSIC.
A considerable population had returned to Arrowsic, and occupied the
southern end of the island, so that for two miles in extent, every
ten acres ofland had a dwelling
p.269 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
house,1 whose inhabitants were made up chiefly of Irish emigrants.
COLONEL DUNBAR.
ROBERT MCINTYRE.
Colonel Dunbar having been removed to New Hampshire, the re-occup-
ancy and population of the country went slowly on. Nevertheless, new
openings were made at various points, pushing into the wilderness as
the old clearings were filled up; and the natural resources of the
country began to be opened.2 Robert McIntyre discovered the prop-
erties of the lime-rock formation of St. George's River, and erect-
ed a kiln for the manufacture of quick-lime.
THE WALDO IMMIGRATION.
1740.
Waldo, now adopted Dunbar's policy, and a considerable population
was introduced by Alexander McLean, McIntyre, Howard and Spear, in
the east, from Europe. These agents visited the Kennebec and Pema-
quid, as well as the St. George's River, and were so "struck with the
advantages of that river as at once to give its section the preference."
THE FOUNDING OF WALDOBORO.
1740.
Companies were enrolled, and all the outlines of a more perfect
military organization were traced. Waldo had become a resident of
Maine. From Brunswick and Saxony, forty families were drawn into
Maine by his efforts. They left Massachusetts Bay and sailed east;
and reaching "Broad Bay," planted about its head-waters the thrifty
town of "Waldoboro."
1741.
At "Long Reach," in the west, Jonathan Philbrook, from New Hampshire,
cleared and occupied the island on which are now located the Custom
House, banks and principal business center of the city of Bath.
Footnotes. 1. MSS. Papers of the Honorable Mark L. Hill. 2. Eaton's
Annals, p. 48 to 55.
p.270 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
MRS. PORTERFIELD'S NARRATIVE.
1741.
THE SCOTCH IRISH PRESBYTERIANS.
The stimulus imparted to emigration by Dunbar and his coadjutors
in filling up the depopulated plantations of the ancient Ducal Prov-
ince, continued to draw from their homes in Ireland, ship loads of
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. In the course of these voyages, accidents
of peculiar and distressing interest have tinged the history of this
region with long-remembered sorrows.
MRS. PORTERFIELD OF GEORGETOWN.
The story of Mrs. Porterfield of Georgetown has left a record of
one of the most distressing casualties of the kind, which we will
give in detail,1 as it illustrates the character of some of the
early settlers of the region, and shows how far selfishness can to
to extinguish humanity.
AUGUST 28TH.
A large ship's company set sail from Londonderry with propituous
gales and hopeful prospects, under Commander Rowen. A majority of
the emigrants were men of piety and zeal of that bold, marked, and
decided stamp which has ever invested Presbyterianism with a charact-
ter of vigor and force.
OCTOBER 28TH.
"The ship's company daily assembled on the quarted deck for prayers,
conducted by some of the passengers." A violent storm, ten weeks out,
drove the ship from her course, and carried her masts by the board.
Provisions were exhausted. Land was made on the eastern coasts; an
island or neck inhabited only by savages.
On these desolate shores, one hundred human beings were landed, with-
out provisions or shelter. Some twenty or thirty persons of this un-
fortunate company went out in search of inhabitants, but never more
returned.
The Captain, officers and crew, in the ship's boats, in a few days
made land about New Harbor, near the Kennebec. In the meantime, the
ship, driven upon a small island, was broken up, and with two small
vessels obtained at the harbor,
Footnote. 1. White's New England, p. 203.
ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
p.271
the ship's company returned to secure the plunder. Collecting what
plunder they could, the Captain and his company returned to New
Harbor, taking with them such of the passengers as they could sell
for servants, the others being left to their fate under circumstances
the most distressing and hopeless.
Muscles from the beach, dulce from the rocks, and sea-kelp were
seethed in a pot for food, and served out to the remnant of these
ship-wrecked voyagers. For two months, life was thus sustained.
Daily, Death multiplied his victims around, and thinned out their
numbers - the savages at length discovered this ship-wrecked comp-
andy and plundered them of all they had left. The snows came and
their blankets, suspended from neighboring tree-tops to shelter
their bodies from the storm, were taken away by the ruthless free-
booters.
MRS. PORTERFIELD.
Their boiling pot having been carried off, Mrs. Porterfield,
searching among the dead, found a sauce-pan, in which they con-
tinued to cook their meager and unsavory morsels. In her care
were nine persons and the scene about her was shocking, in the
extreme. There lay an infant child and its brother, a boy, whose
parents had died on ship-board - locked in each others' embrace in
death - and heaps of dead had fallen, one on the other, from cold
and starvation - and as the crowning horror, near by sat a youth,
sitting as he had died, infatuated with the promise of his faith-
less commander to return and take him off, still gazing sea-ward
with a book in hand, and fixed in his strange attitude by the icy
stroke of death!
At length the whole company lay about, fallen in groups of ghastly
corpses over the desolate and unknown place, except Mrs. Porter-
field, her mother and a sister. In a fierce snow storm, their fire
was lost, and with nothing to cover themselves but the heavens, no
food but frozen muscles, their extremity had become one of despera-
tion. The
p.272 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
next day the mother died; and there was none to bury her. Shoeless,
homeless and famishing, exposed to the full bleak, fierce winds of
December, the sisters gave themselves up to die, when they were dis-
covered by three men who had come in search for plunder among the
dead, and who were much surprised there to meet the living, where
it was expected to find only the dead! Listening to the story of
these forlorn and wo-begone females, they proposed to take them as
servants if they preferred it to starvation. The overture was joy-
fully accepted, and these wreckers from New Harbor, taking away a
bundle of clothing, containing her Bible, received Mr. Porterfield
and her sister on board their vessels, and plundering the ship and
stripping the dead, sailed away.
To repay themselves for receiving these distressed and shipwrecked
survivors, the sisters were sold into service and the proceeds were
pocketed by the ruffians. What a commentary on human nature!
1741.
At length discovered by a fellow-countryman - "a kind and pitiful
Irishman" - the hapless women were befriended by him. His assurance
of protection against the extortionate and oppressive demands of their
heartless salvors, was made good. He proved to be a man who feared
God. By Christian counsel and kindness he soothed their sorrows and
calmed their fears, taking them to his own house, and hospitably en-
tertaining them there; and when recovered from their depression and
illnesses, he procured for each of them good places, the one in Booth-
bay and the other in Georgetown; and at this time there was a general
manifest attention to religion, "the professors of religion being
greatly animated by the good work which was going on." Destitute of
the preached word, without a minister - "the people met together
every Sabbath and frequently on other days," to worship God in public,
"by prayer, singing psalms and reading instructive books."
p.273 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Georgetown became the home of the subject of the above narrative,
where she finally settled, reared a large family, there died and
was buried.
DISTURBING EFFECTS ON THE SAVAGES.
1742.
The encroachments of European immigration upon the forests of the
East, where the touch of civilized life caused hamlets in clustering
villages to gather about the head-waters and along the river-banks
and harbors, under the shadow of Forts where the rush of pent-up
waters and the clatter of mills sent their echoes through the
dense forest trees, which fell and faded from existence, per-
petually annoyed the red-man. He complained of Waldo and his
people, "that Indian lands and their rights had been encroached
upon; and that they could no longer endure the sight of such
flagrant wrongs."
But these complaints were stifled by the hand of power, and savage
jealousies glowed in unextinguished fervor. Ten years' repose from
war had not cooled savage resentment, nor allayed his fears. Unfortun-
ate circumstances heightened these resentments. An Indian woman had
been arraigned at the capital of Yorkshire for murder; and the fre-
quent report of fire-arms through the forests, and the "bones and
hoofs of an ox purloined from the white man's herd, found in an ad-
jacent swamp among the ashes of a savage camp-fire" all foreboded
approaching hostilities.
SHIRLEY'S ADMINISTRATION.
CAPTAIN JABEZ BRADBURY.
1743.
The fort at St. George was rebuilt, reinforced and placed in the
command of Captain Jabez Bradbury. Shirley had replaced Governor
Belcher, in authority. The blood-red clouds of war still lowered.
THE SPANISH WAR - A TRIANGULAR STRUGGLE.
The able-bodied men were enrolled as minute-men. An army of four
hundred was organized and each man was required
p.274 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
SNOW SHOES.
to have in readiness, a good gun, sufficient ammunition, a good
hatchet, and an extra pair of shoes or moccasins, and a pair of
snow-shoes.1
INSERT - SNOW SHOES - WIKIPEDIA
Snowshoes were slowly adopted by Europeans in what became Canada and the United States, with the French voyageurs well in advance of British settlers. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, French Voyageurs were primarily 18th and 19th century French Canadian fur traders who explored the frontier waterways by canoe. Superior French snow shoeing skill almost turned the French and Indian War, a conflict that saw two engagements named the Battle on Snowshoes, to their favor.
But the British were quick learners. The Oxford English Dictionary reports the term being used by the English as early as 1674. Sixteen years later, after a French-Indian raiding party attacked a British settlement near what is today Schenectady, New York, the British took to their own snowshoes and pursued the attackers for almost 50 miles (90 km), ultimately recovering both people and goods taken by their attackers.
The "teardrop" snowshoes worn by lumberjacks are about 40 inches (1 m) long and broad in proportion, while the tracker's shoe is over 5 feet (1.5 m) long and very narrow. This form, the stereotypical snowshoe, resembles a tennis racquet, and indeed the French term is raquette de neige.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
p.274 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1744.
BOSTON DECLARES WAR AGAINS THE SAVAGES.
to have in readiness a good gun, sufficient ammunition, a good
hatchet, an extra pair of shoes or moccasins, and a pair of
snow shoes.1 Old wounds of honor, old sores of prejudice, were
opened afresh. France, England and Spain, were all involved to-
gether. The savages were stirred up to waste the exposed front-
iers, and war was proclaimed against them in Boston.
From Brunswick to St. George, a tier of block-houses had been
reared along the outskirts of the forests, to each of which was
appended a body of troops for scouting parties, which ranged
from post to post, forming a cordon of sentinels around the
frontiers.
BLOCK HOUSES.
VAUGHN.
Block-houses were reared at Brunswick, Topsham, Richmond, Wis-
casset, with Vaughn's block-house on Damariscotta, at Broad Bay,
and St. George's, all of massive timber. Vaughn of Damariscotta
became the most important actor in the scenes now opening.
THE FALL OF LOUISBURG.
Colonel Vaughn was a man of intrepid character, keen perception,
and great enterprise. He had become familiar with the situation
of Louisburg, the French capital of the East, believed to be the
nest where savage war parties were hatched to swarm over the ad-
jacent English frontiers.
Information gathered from his fishermen had suggested to Vaughn
the idea of the capture of this strong-hold. He conceived that a
surprisal was feasible. The Governor listened to his instructions.
VAUGHN, TYNG, PEPPERELL, WALDO AND MOULTON.
Vaughn's project was adopted, and Louisburg fell under a combined
movement of the Colonial Naval and Land forces, led by Tyng,
Pepperell, Waldo and Moulton. Vaughn accompanied the expedi-
tion, commissioned as Colonel, Pepperell being chief in command
Footnote. 1. Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 214.
p.275 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1745.
in the capital of French Acadia, gave great renown to arms
of New England, as well as relief to the perils of the eastern
frontier. (Sir William Pepperell was the only native of New Eng-
land who was created a Baronet during our connection with the
mother country - England).
THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
A FRONTIER HOME.
p.276
Each period of settlement has been marked by the style of build-
ings used for human habitations, and has had its natural devel-
opment in characteristic featurs. In the vestiges of these primi-
tive homes along our river-margins, we may trace the age of the
settlement. The rivers were the high-ways; and at the outset, not
even a line of spotted trees indicated a land-track. Roads and
streets are the product of time, wealth, civilization and popul-
ousness. On the banks and margins of water-courses, in the first
openings of a new country, will be found the vestiges of the pion-
eer homes. A simple structure of logs was reared from the butts
of the ancient trees, fallen by the pioneer axe on the spot where
they were cut down for a clearing. The walls of a rectangular
structure thus built were covered with bark or thatch. The en-
closed earth was excavated for a cellar, which was unwalled. The
excavation is then planked over with riven logs of pine; and a
trap-door in the center of the flooring let you into the bowels
of the primitive structure, consisting of a single room below
and a garret above, to which a ladder led the ascent.
In one corner of the log-walled room, a large fire place opened
its cavernous depths. The back and one side was built of stone,
while a wooden post set the opposite jamb, supporting a horiz-
ontal beam for a mantelpiece. Through the bark thatch or slab
roof, or outside and up the back wall, the building, was reared
a cob-work of cleft wood, whose interstices were filled with
mortar-clay, which in place of brick and mortar, was called "cat
and clay." On the hearth, usually a flat stone, an ample store
of wood was.....
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p.276 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
heaped, which was felled at the door, while the capacious fire-
place, glowing with light and heat from the blazing hearth-pile,
not only illumined the whole interior but afforded a snug corner
for the indiscriminate stowage of a bevy of little ones. On the
margins of the Sheepscot, now can be distinctly traced in the old
farm sites, each development of the architectural stage of its
population, from the rude primitive shelter of the pioneer plant-
er, to the walled, framed, and neat cottage structure of the pres-
ent generation.
On the water's brink remains the half-filled, earth-built cellar,
along the water way, where stood the log home of first settler.
But as the forest was opened before his axe, and the clearing ex-
tended back, we find the stone-walled cellar of a more permanent
and luxurious abode on a highter elevation, by the ancient bridle
path of spotted trees, leading to his remote next neighbor's door;
and finally, along the rounded, leveled, and well-beaten carriage
road, still further back and more elevated to the crest of the
river's valley, we meet the fine brick and wood cottage structure
adorned with architectural art, and well-to-do aspect of a higher
civilization in a more refined and luxurious age, the exponent of
more refined and cultivated taste. Such is the gradation of the
domestic development of some two centuries and a half.
GEORGETOWN.
SAMUEL DENNEY.
In the Sagadahoc precinct, by act of incorporation, Georgetown
had become the metropolis of the valley of the Kennebec, as it
had been the scene of the ancient plantation sites, from Popham
and Gilbert, to Lake and Clark. Samuel Denney, an English emi-
grant, distinguished for his remarkable decision of character,
industry and the superiority of his attainments, took up his
residence at Butler's Cove, where he built a block-house, in
accordance with the
p.277 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
custom of the age. He became a magistrate; and the stocks in
which were executed many of his own sentences - perhaps by his
own hands - till lately were remembered as a terror to evil do-
ers.
Here, also, the early manhood of Governor Sullivan was spent in
the study and practice of law; and Butler's Cove on Arrowsic Is-
land must have exhibited all the legal and executive importance
of a shire-town village.
James McCobbs and Robert Gutch.
On the banks of the Sagadahoc, opposite the site of Philsburg
Center, resided James, the ancestor of the McCobbs; and the
Donnels had succeeded to the possessions of Robert Gutch, at
"Long Reach" above. Indeed, the final re-peopling of the
Ancient Dominions had become established; and Governor Belcher
made a tour through the eastern country, visiting Pemaquid, Dam-
ariscotta, and Sheepscot; and at Pemaquid he met the Indians of
the East in conference.
SAMUEL WALDO.
Yorkshire, heretofore embracing but one, now was broken into two
regiments and Samuel Waldo, the eastern patron was assigned to the
Command.
CLOSING EVENTS OF THE PERIOD.
BLACK BEARS
On the re-settlement of the country, the denizons of the forest
had become numerous and bold, particularly the black bear of New
England; and under provocation, it became a dangerous foe. The
eastern shores of the Sheepscot are curved into a basin called the
"Eddy," occasioned by a considerable reflex action of the tides,
pressing through a gorge between the points of Squam and Folley
Islands, at the Narrows entering Wiscasset Bay. The margins of
this eddy were the site of the plantation clearings of the pion-
eers of the ancient precinct of New Dartmouth, then called Free-
town, now Edgecomb by act of incorporation. Here was the Trask
settlement, and not far back lived the Albees. The young men of
these families, in early spring, were
p.278 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The Canoe.
accustomed to go down to the sea and eke out a subsistence
by fishing and duck-hunting. The hollowed trunk of a hoary pine
moulded into graceful water-lines, called a canoe, was the great
vehicle of locomotion.
SAMUEL AND JOHN TRASK.
John,1 the son of Samuel Trask, an original settler of the place,
and two young Albees, in April embarked in a canoe, on the usual
fowling and fishing excursion to the lower waters of Sheepscot. A
bear was descried making its way from shore, as they swept with
the tide toward the sea, midway between Barter's and Squam Island.
In defiance of remonstrances, the two Albees persisted in seek-
ing a conflict with Bruin while he could be assailed to to ad-
vantage in the water. The canoe was headed for the bear, whose
head and face, water-borne, offered a tempting chance for sport
to the inexperienced huntsmen. On a near approach, the attitude
and the aspect of the bear suddenly changed. Bristling with rage,
he faced his pursuers, when a charge of small shot was fired into
it. This act neither disabled the animal nor stayed his progress,
but maddened him. With augmented ferocity he turned upon the canoe.
As the bear raised his shaggy form over the prow to enter the
canoe, Albee, clubing his musket, aimed a blow at his head to beat
him back. The next moment the gun was seen flying in one direction
and the lacerated body of Albee in another, by a stroke of the
bear's paw, when both disappeared under the water. Having cleared
his way at the the bow of the boat, the bear made another attempt
to board the boat. Then the brother of Albee seized an axe and
making a stroke at the animal's head, the blow was warded off, and
the axe sent after the gun. Albee sprang for an oar, which was
broken like a pipe-stem, and himself knocked bleeding into the
water after his brother. The bear then mounted, and sat shaking
himself on the cuddy deck, wiping his shot broken face,
Footnote. 1. Narrative of Trask, R. Sewall, Esq.
p.279 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
TRASK & THE BEAR.
and in complacent attitude, surveying the scene of the strife.
When Trask saw that the bear would enter the boat at the bow,
he leaped out at the stern, and swam for his life.
Turning to look for his companion, who, although an expert
swimmer, was seen struggling in the water, all bloody and
torn, he perceived that the bear, having cleared the canoe
and rested from the fight, had left his seat in the boat and
taken again to the water. Securing a frament of the oar, Trask
turned back to the boat, but Albee had disappeared.
Gaining the canoe, he soon paddled to the shore and seeking the
camp of some wood-men, all started in search of the enemy and
found the bear stretched out dead upon the beach.
OCCASIONAL OUTRAGES.
Lawless savages, in small parties, continued to hover about the
white man's path, lurking for prey. They were usually isolated
and irresponsible, acting independently of their chiefs, from
motives of revenge or habits of cruelty and thirst for blood, as
occasion offered and in defiance of the peace.
McNEAR'S ADVENTURE.
McNear was an early settler near the "ancient Sheepscot farms."
1Three times he had been dragged into captivity by savage hands.
On one occasion, as he threshed out his wheat, alone in the barn,
a grim savage sprang in and stood before him. Advancing upon him
with upraised tomahawk, he cried, "Quick, me walk you to Canada."
McNear, starting forward, his flail still flying over his head,
answered, "I'll bet you half a ton of thatch of that;" and at a
blow, laid the Indian dead at his feet!
Footnote. 1. Joseph Cargill, Esq.
p.280 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
CARGILL'S ESCAPE.
Cargill, whose sawmill stood on the stream near the resi-
dence of his descendant, Joseph Cargill, Esq., while sawing
one day in early spring, improving a freshnet, as he stooped
to adjust a log on its car, was surprised by the visit of a
savage, who, raising his tomahawk, and looking to see where
he could best inflict a fatal stroke, did not observe the
relaxing form of the sturdy lumberman as he suddenly rose
from his inclined position, and by a back-handed stroke of
his bar, made to revolve about his head, took the savage
under the chin and across the throat, by which, in the twink-
ling of an eye, he was hurled out of the tail of the mill into
the race below, and disappeared forever.
LONG EDMUND'S PERFIDITY.
About this time, "Long Edmund," an Indian loafer about the
settlement at Wiscasset Point, who frequented the log house
of a Mr. Albee, treacherously betrayed the whole family to
death.
Albee had gone with a grist,1 probably over to Vaughn's mill
at Damariscotta Falls. Long Edmund also departed. Soon after
his reappearance in the evening, a rush was heard at the door,
while the lone wife and mother, gathering her infant in her
arms, crouched in the corner, full of fear. In vain did Long
Edmund strive to induce her to unbar the cabin door. The sav-
age then rose to open it himself. It was summer. No light dis-
covered her movements, and as the Indians were let into the
room, hugging her infant close, from behind the opening door
the mother slipped out into the darkness; and by an unfre-
quented way, hastened to ward her husband, who, returning by
another path, unfortunately missed her.
Footnote.1 Mrs. Holbrook's tradition.
p.281 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
The wife took refuge with a neighbor; but the husband arrived
at his home, deposited his meal-bags at the door, and led his
horse to pasture. As he stooped to lock the fetters to his
horse's feet, he was shot by an unseen foe and wounded. After
a stout resistance, the disabled man was killed; and in the
account of the death-struggle, given to his friends, Long Ed-
mund, who was present, said, "He fight like one devil."
Albee's house and his sleeping children were burned together,
except the infant son who escaped in his mother's arms, and
who in maturer years vowed terrible vengeance on the treacher-
ous Long Edmund and his race, who suddenly appeared in his old
haunts at the Point, from among the living, never more to be
seen.
THE RESOLUTE PLANTER.
SEPTEMBER 25, 1750.
PARKER'S ISLAND.
JOHN AND JAMES PARKER.
Defeated in their purposes to destroy Wiscasset, the Indians
broke up into parties, with a view to ravage Georgetown. The
garrisoned village of "Parker's Island"1 was the object of
peculiar offense. On their way to the attack of this strong-
hold, within call of the garrison, they passed the dwelling-
place of a planter. The house was fiercely assailed; but the
master maintained his ground till the savages had actually cut
their way in, through the door, which they had hewn down with
their battle-axes.
In this extremity, the defender of his home leaped from a back
window and took to the water as the most feasible
Footnote.1 John Parker, whose original settlement on the south-
ern extreme of this island gave to it this name, and "who was
the first of the English nation that began to subdue the land
and undertook the fishing trade," was, with his son, James
Parker, driven from his home at Kennebec, to Casco Bay, and
both were killed at the fort which was then taken. See
Wharton's Deed to Parker. Deposition of John Phillips, 1748.
Manuscript papers, the Honorable Mark L. Hill.
p.282 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
method of escape, swimming over toward Arrowsic. Determined to
cut him off, his pursuers seized a canoe; and as they swiftly
came up with him in the shuttle-bark, leaping under the influe-
ence of their well-applied paddles, their victim turned upon them,
and seizing the birdhen vessel, in a moment, turned the vessel
upside down, precipitating the Indians headlong into the water!
In the ensuing life-struggle, the blood-thirsty sons of the for-
est were forced to let their victim escape, who gained the shore,
and eluded their pursuit. The war-party, foiled and chagrined at
their ill-success, returned by another route to the north, and
from the western sections of the State, led into captivity some
twenty or thirty persons.
CHARLES CUSHING.
CAPTAIN JOHN WILLIAMSON.
CAPTAIN NICHOLS.
Charles Cushing was the commandant of the military defenses of
this section of Maine. Captain Jonathan Williamson, who was also
a sheriff of Yorkshire,1 resident at Wiscasset, and Captain Nichols
at Sheepscot, were subordinates in command, with whom were deposit-
ed the public arms and ammunition.
JUNE 19, 1753.
NEWCASTLE.
The territory embracing the site of the "Sheepscot Farms," the
ancient capital of the ducal county of Cornwall, was now incorp-
orated by the name of Newcastle, which still bears this name.
Its corporate existence was honored by a gratuity of the laws of
Massachusetts Bay, from the treasury of the State.
PLANTATION OF DRESDEN.
1754.
The savages continued to annoy the newly-opened settlements,
whose clearings emigration and enterprise continually pushed
into their ancient hunting grounds, being particularly irri-
tated by the fires of the backwoodsmen, which often spread
from their clearings, and burned with ravaging fury the for-
ests far and near.
Footnote. 1. Original writ of service, Manuscript papers,
Honorable M. L. Hill.
p.283 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.
Their restlessness roused the fears of Government, which hast-
ed to put the frontier posts in a state of preparation for war.
INFLUX OF GERMANS TO MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
THE SETTLEMENT NAMED FRANKFORT.
An influx of Germans to the shores of Massachusetts Bay, had
suggested the project to the Plymouth proprietors of planting
that race upon their eastern lands. Won by the advances of that
company to its interests, a settlement was made on the waters
of the Kennebec, opposite Fort Richmond, near and upon Swan Is-
land, called "Frankfort."
FRENCH HUGUENOTS.
Such was the origin of Dresden. The hamlet received accessions
from French Huguenots, who, on the revocation of the Edict of
Nantz, came with the Prostestant Germans to the newly colonized
Frankfort on the Kennebec, from the banks of the Rhine.
Swan Island, the homestead of the Sachem Kennebis, delightful
for situation, at the confluence for situation, at the conflu-
ence of the Mun-doos-cotook and Kennebec, opened its rural
prospect, a mile distant from the defenses of Frankfort below.
FORT SHIRLEY.
Two hundred feet square1 were enclosed with pickets of timber,
called a stockade. This work lay on the river margins. Two
block-houses of squared hemlock and pine timber interlocked,
were raised within, bearing aloft projecting stories of 24 feet
square, and walls ten inches thick, surmounted with watch towers.
SAMUEL GOODWIN.
FORT SHIRLEY.
Barracks were also built and the work named Fort Shirley. This
was the first settlement of the town of Dresden; and Samuel
Goodwin held the military command of the place.
Transported to a region whose winters were long and rigorous,
and obliged to fell the enormous timber trees ere the earth
could bring forth her fruit, or they could gather of her in-
crease, this colony became much straitened.
Footnote. 1. Williamson, vol. ii, p.302.
p.284 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Fifty German families1 had been led to the valley of the
Kennebec by Major Goodwin, to plant this hamlet. The habita-
tions were reared along the bank of the river. No road were
opened until long after, the interior being a dense forest,
a howling wilderness, between settlement and settlement, with
nothing to guide the uncertain traveler from clearing to clear-
ing, save a line of spotted trees.
CITY OF STIRLING LAID OUT IN BRISTOL.
WALDO.
THE EMIGRATION FROM STIRLING IN SCOTLAND.
THE CITY IN MAINE IS NAMED STIRLING.
While these new establishments were going up in the west, Waldo
had induced a considerable emigration from near Stirling in
Scotland to re-people the east. A city was laid out on Broad
Bay in Bristol. And half-acre lots were set off in close conti-
guity, on a street half a mile long, on which each settler rear-
ed his log hut; and the name of Stirling was given to the embryo
city. Patrician as well as plebian blood mingled in the flow of
this re-peopling tide from Scotland. Mrs. Dickie was the daughter
of a "laird"2 But discouragement and disappointment overwhelmed
the newly settled town. "Strange sights and sounds assailed"3 the
residents of Stirling. "Fire-flies glowed in the dark woods. Frogs
croaked in every swale, and loons screamed in the evening twilight."
Contending long with hunger and cold, "witches and warlocks" -
every superstition of their father-land quickened ten-fold amid
their wild New England homes - the settlement at length yielded
to the fears of savage irruption, and the settlement was broken
up.
THE HAMLET OF THOMASTON.
At this date, Thomaston, the site of St. George's fort, was a
quadrangular structure of one hundred feet on each face, sixteen
feet high, built of hewn timber twenty inches square, and barracks
of timber, built against each wall, were
Footnotes. 1. Frontier Miss. p. 248. 2. Annals of Warren, p. 85.
p.285 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
constructed for family use. In the center of all, was a good well
of water; and a covered way of stout timber led to the block-house
at the river's brink; and twelve to fifteen cannon were mounted.
The settlers, at their own cost, in parallel lines, had reared
block houses above the fort, and surrounded all with a palisado
ten feet high. At Pleasant Point was Henderson's garrison; and
in the site of the present town of Cushing, a stone block-house,
enclosed with pickets, was Burton's fortification. On the St.
George's river, further down, were four others, each of which
accomodated sixteen families, who had their several plantations,
occupied with huts, probably of logs, and covered with bark.
CONDITION OF THE EARLY SETTLERS IN THE EAST.
The circumstances of the inhabitants, made up so largely of
foreign emigration, unused to the perils and privations of a
sparsely settled frontier, were often distressing in the ex-
treme. One family in the Broad Bay precinct of Bristol sub-
sisted a whole winter on frost-fish and four quarts of meal.
Many1 a German woman was glad to plant and hoe all day long
for a quart of meal, or eight pence in money, or for a quart
of buttermilk; and buttermilk and roasted potatoes was a common
as well as healthful repast. A patch of ground for potatoes was
manured with rockweed carried on hand-barrows by men and their
wives from the beach, aided by all the children who could labor;
and all who labored in the field still went well armed; and when
the alarm guns from the fort were heard, all fled to the neighbor-
ing garrison.
SUFFERINGS OF WALDO'S EMIGRATION AT BROAD BAY.
Some twenty or more families, under the representations of
and influence of Waldo, landed at "Pleasant Point" on St.
George's, from various parts of Germany. Here, packed in a
sloop, they were transferred to Broad Bay, and distributed
1. Eaton's Annals, p. 89.
p.286 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
among the planters there, or crowded together in a shed erected
for their shelter. It was in the month of September - the bleak
winds of autumn already had begun to sigh through the surrounding
forest tops, anticipating the rigors of approaching winter. This
shed, sixty feet long, had no chimneys. Here the destitute emi-
grants in utter neglect, were left, either to perish or to drag
out a winter of unutterable suffering. Many froze to death. Many
perhished of hunger and privation, and their graves were not long
since seen near the bridge.1
THE WIDOW BLACKLEDGE.
The story of this woman is full of interest and instruction.
The extreme northern point of Westport was early settled and forti-
fied with the garrison of a Captain Decker, the ancient site of the
Delano plantation, which had descended to Decker by heirship. It
stood on the point overlooking the gorge through which the deep
waters of the Sheepscot expand into Wiscasset Bay, between the
island of the ancient Jeramy Squam and Folley Island, which pass-
age from the flux and reflux of the tides, has ever since been
called "Decker's Narrows." Decker was a man of wealth and emin-
ence in his day, having a store there, where the ruins of his
wharf and warehouses were until recently seen on the waters of
Sheepscot shore; and where ships from England were wont to lade
their spars and masts for export.
The Widow Blackledge,2 during these perilous and pinching times,
lived on the neighboring main. During a somewhat severe and pro-
tracted winter, she and her little ones reduced to the greatest
extremity of want: and on a particular occasion, driven from her
usual resort to the clam banks by a fierce and freezing fall of
snow, on a cold wintry night, having cleaned the bones of her
last herring,
Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p. 82 2. MSS papers, Reverend S.
Sewall.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
and divided all among her children, with neither bread nor
meal in her store, while they were locked in sleep, the for-
lorn widow betook herself to the widow's God in prayer.
In utter despair of any human help, she cast herself on her
knees before HIM, "who hears the young ravens' cry," and in
defiance of the mockery of the bleak winds and snows, which
went with a rush and howl by her door, she made known her
want.
That night Captain Decker retired to his pillow for repose
in the midst of comfort and plenty. The moaning of the storm
only lulled to a deeper sleep. But at midnight a vision of want
stood by his pillow and passed into his dreams. The anguish of
a widow disturbed his repose, which this phantom of a night
vision sketched. He rose from his bed - looked out on the storm,
whose fierce and biting blasts swept the troubled waters of the
bay. He returned to his pillow again, solaced with the purpose
of paying an early morning visit to the lone widow Blackledge.
But the banished vision, gaunt and horrible, returned and drove
him once more from his bed to the window - nor would it leave
him until he filled a bag with meal and meat, and paddled his
canoe over the storm-tossed tide, and bore relief to the praying
mother and her famished babes; and his raps at her door raised
her from her knees to receive the bounty thus furnished by HIM
who delights to be known as the "widow's God and the Father of
the fatherless"!
SAGACIOUS CAT.
On the island of Jeremy Squam, a Mr. Rines had made his
plantation. The husband and father had been drafted and
sent to the wars, and was thus forced to leave his little
ones to the mercies of a lone wintry abode in the savage
wilds of Westport. It was a season of great scarcity and
distress in this war-wasted region, as we have seen. Soon
the deep snows of winter shut out all resources from the
p.288 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
store of roots and herbs in the forest, and the hoar frosts
had fast locked up the hitherto open clam banks, and wrapped
in ice-bound depths "the treasures there hid in the sand for
the poor." Gaunt famine now pressed at the door of the absent
warrior's home until his wife and little ones began to feel the
pinchings of hunger.
At this juncture,1 a favorite cat, bounding over the frozen
waters of the bay to Monseag River, watched the crevices and
the openings in the icy floor of the bay, and thence plucked
and dragged the little frost fish playing up in search of air
from their watery home, and day by day, brought them in for
food until the ice was broken up! Then the mother, seeking
food by the shore-side one Sabbath morning, descried a dark
body making for the land, which proved to be a large fat bear.
Her neighbors were called; and when Bruin had reached the land,
and emerging from the waters, began to shake his shaggy and
dripping form, with well directed blows the hungry mother fell-
him to the earth. Thus was eked out a scanty subsistence, till
the warmth of the returning sun again opened the resources of
nature for the support of life.
1755.
JUNE 10TH
Such was the physical condition of the early planters in our
frontiers, when repeated acts of savage aggression called for
the vigorous interposition of the arm of government, and war
was declared against all the Indians except the tribe of the
Penobscots.
French priests, notwithstanding the fearful example that had
been made of Ralle', persisted in pressing their way into their
ancient haunts, and savage ears were found ready still to listen
to their treacherous counsel.
Peter Androu, from the ancient seat of Norridgewock, visited th
New settlement of Frankfort, to seduce there, the French resi-
ents to the interests of the Roman Church;
Footnote. 1. Honorable S. Parsons' Narrative.
p.289 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
and M. Bunyon, accompanied the Jesuit to his home above Chushnoc.
At the distance of half a mile from the eastern shore, he found
a house environed with wigwams.1
The exemption of the Penobscots from the calamities of war by
proclamation, gave offense to the undiscriminating populace,
who, remembering the wrongs suffered by their fathers and them-
selves at savage hands, thought only of violence and revenge;
and the acts of irresponsible parties, or isolated individuals,
were charged on the entire race of red-men.
The inhabitants would not remain at peace with the Indians.
Every rumor, every alarm, went to the account of the perfidy
of the natives; and every occasion was improved with avidity
which afforded a pretext for revenge of the white man's wrongs.
Especially were these occasions sought by the volunteer chief-
tains and citizen soldiery, whose acts were often marked with
great recklessness and irresponsibility, characteristic more
of a band of lawless freebooters than freemen.
JAMES CARGILL OF NEWCASTLE*
1755.
July 1st.
James Cargill of Newcastle held a commission to raise a
scouting company as its chief. A party was organized among
his neighbors and led to the east, either to suppress a pre-
sumed trade between the Penobscots and white men, or with a
view to enrich himself with booty and scalps.2 He bivouacked
on the shores of Broad Bay. In the morning he marched through
the forest around St. George's Fort. Some rangers of Captain
Nichols' company, with three men of St. George's, joined his
scout. With thirty-one men he marched to Burton's garrison
Footnotes. 1. Frontier Miss. p. 76. 2. Eaton's Annals, p. 94.
p.290 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
below. Pressing still to the eastward, he crossed the river
there, where a lone savage with his squaw and her infant pap-
oose of sixty days, lay by their camp fires.
MARGARET MOXA MURDERED.
The various white men concentrated their fire on the defense-
less and unwarned family group, and the death tale of thirty-
one bullets reported a sanop slain, the squaw mortally wounded
and the papoose left unscathed! This done, the force rushed on
to secure the plunder of their bleeding victims, encountered
the dying mother, still holding her baby, anxious only for its
life, and in the silent but eloquent appeal of her condition to
the white man's mercy, uttering the request that "her little none
might be taken to St. George's and delivered to Captain Bradbury."
One of the crew, more the ruffian than his fellows, civilized
and Christian in name, but barbarous and brutal in fact, replied
to the dying mother, "every nit will make a louse," and at one
blow, dashed out the infant's brains before her eyes! Such was
the cruel fate of Margaret Moxa - a savage - but a woman and a
mother, as she returned from the fort, on one of her accustomed
errands of good will, to save her neighbors - the more savage
white man - from inpending perils.
Seizing the canoe to make sure his retreat, Cargill pushed on
from this scene of atrocities to "Owl's Head," where at sun-
set, discoverhing a group of Indians, he shot nine of their
number, tore off their scalps, and returning to the fort,
exhibited them as trophies of "valor and success.!" Cargill
was apprehended and tried for murder, but was acquitted by
the jury.
The cruel fate of Margaret Moxa was deeply deplored at the
garrison. "Never shall I forget the deep and unapeasable grief
of the women of the fort," said one, "when they saw the scalp
of whom they had long regarded as a delivering angel;" and the
more humane and considerate
p.291 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
loudly condemned the act of Cargill, and confidently predict-
ed that its perpetrators "would never die in their beds."
INSERT.
Source: History of Boothbay, Maine.
JAMES CARGILL.
Colonel James Cargill of Newcastle, lived near Sheepscot
bridge, and the house built by him, on the old Cargill home-
stead, is still pointed out as one of the historic landmarks
of that ancient locality. He was a good fighter, a natural
fighter, and did excellent service, but he hand an imperious
and unreasoning temper which detracted much from an otherwise
strong temper. A statement is found on file in the Massachusetts
Archives, by Colonel Andrew Reed of Boothbay, illustrates Car-
gill's weakness.
"To the Honorable, the Great and General Court at Water-
town.
"I beg leave to inform your Honors that James Cargill, whom
the Honorable Court, last year appointed a Colonel in the
County of Lincoln, on the 23d day of March, came to this town
of Boothbay and in my presence and hearing began to rail at
ye Reverend John Murray, calling said Mr. Murray a lier and
a maker of mischief. Then found fault with the Regulating
Bill, calling it a Tory Bill. Then proceeded to damn the
General Court in the next place, said Cargill, as far as his
words could, he damned all officers who had taken commissions
under said Honorable General Court, and in particular, Sir
William Jones, and myself, for reasons unknown to me, nor
were his speeches in private, but in public company, there-
fore pray your Honours, to give some directions concerning
said Cargill, as his language may lead many weak-minded out
of the path of duty.
These are, Gentlemen, from your most obedient Humble servant,
Colonel Andrew Reed.
(full book online with Google Books Online - The History of
Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
p.291 continued.
The prediction was realized in the history of those in the
company from about St. George's River.1
HUGH PAUL'S ADVENTURE.
The Pauls2 were contemporary with the Drowns at Pemaquid,
and were in Drown's service while surveying out his claim.
Hugh Paul was a burly Irishman. On his return to Bristol,
from a visit to Robert Hodge, on the Sheepscot shore,
accompanied by Hodge as a guide to the trail of spotted
trees, through the dense forests of Ped-coke-go-wake, on
the top of a hill over which their route lay, they en-
countered a black bear, whose huge proportions encouraged
a saucy demeanor. The bear, rising upon its haunches,
faced the travelers as if to dispute their progress by
that path. Hodge, taking counsel of his fears, thought
'discretion the better part of valor', but Hugh Paul,
nothing daunted, marched boldly up to the bear, saying,
"sure he never turned out of the way for any man yet, nor
faith would he for the baste." Hereupon drawing his jack-
knife, which he carried between his teeth, and grasping a
stone in each hand, advanced, admonishing the unterrified
brute of his duty to strangers, and the impudence of his
menacing attitude, saying, as he walked up, "Get out of
the way, you evil beast; get out of the way!" And faith
sure, if ye dont, you'll be sorry for it, Mister!" The
bear, heedless of the admonition, reckless of his personal
safety, only bristled up the more, when Paul let fly a rock,
which, hurled as from a cannon's mouth with force and pre-
cision, rebounded from the bear's nose, and in the recoil
brought the bear helpless, to the ground. Paul, springing
onto the back of his prostrated
Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p. 94, 95. 2. Commissioner's
Reports, p. 59.
p.292 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
enemy, grasping the long hair of his shaggy neck for a
bridle, jumped on top of the bear, which, recovering his
senses, thought it time to make good a retreat by taking
to its heels. The wild Irishman1 astride the bear, bolted
for the bottom of the hill, while the knife of the rider,
driven to the hilt in his throat, soon laid him breathless
and lifeless on the ground, no more to rise. Such were the
perils of a journey to Bristol by way of Newcastle, and the
horsemanship of a believer in St. Patrick's power to shield,
"because he had drove all the toads, snakes and frogs out of
'sweet Ireland.'"
HOSTILITIES RENEWED.
All efforts to allay savage excitement proved unavailing.
Out of the distant east, emerging from the smoke and driven
by the thunder of war from under the walls of Louisburg, the
Indians broke in upon the St. George's river towns. The fort
was attacked. Defeated in their efforts to capture it, they
succeeded in firing the garrison house, the mills and dwell-
ing houses, destroying the cattle, and securing one captive.
The expedition against Louisburg had drained the country of
its fighting men, who were wanted in defense of their homes.
Garrisoned houses were still the prevailing architectural
style of human abodes; and for more than a generation, hav-
ing proved a refuge, these structures of massive timber
trees presented insurmountable barriers to the success of
savage arts in war. All went armed. All were skilled in
the knowledge and interpretation of savage tokens. All had
acquired habits of great vigilance; and it was with the
utmost difficulty to effect a surprise.
Scouts of armed white men coursing the deep forest re-
cesses gave no chance to the wary, skulking savage in a
war-path beset with such perils.
p.293 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
No inhabitant dared to venture unarmed far from his forti-
fied home, nor into remote parts of the town, unless in
companies. While some wrought, others stood guardsmen; those
who went to the house of God bore their loaded muskets; "those
who remained at home kept guard."1 The rapid, successive
report of three muskets was the usual signal of alarm.
CASUALTIES.
JOHN HUSTON.
At Damariscotta, the Hustons, aunt and grandmother of
John Huston, earliest among the re-settling planters
there, were slain, and Mr. Huston was led into captivity.
JULY 19.
Fort Frederick at Pemaquid was then assailed by the war
party, which, approaching by stealth, descried a lone
woman, some three hundred yards distant. The opportunity
of securing her scalp overcome all prudential considera-
tions. She was shot; but the report of their fire-arms
and the shrieks of their victim gave timely notice, and
the returning crash of the shooted cannon and clouds of
burning gunpowder from the embrasure and ports of the
fort, soon enveloped all in darkness and consternation;
and amidst the confusion, the wounded woman escaped her
keepers, rushed to the gates, and was saved.
LIEUTENANT PROCTOR.
SEPTEMBER 5.
But Lieutenant Proctor met the war party with his force,
and in the attack he slew two Indian chieftains and capt-
ured another.
Scalping parties prowled in the neighborhood of the white
man's home, and hung about the by-ways and pasture-grounds
of the white man's herds. At Sheepscot three men in their
cornfields fell victims to the aim of more than a dozen
Indians. Death leaped from every thicket, and lurked in
every field. Extermination was the watchword; and espec-
ially was
Footnote. 1. Sullivan, p. 189.
p.294 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
savage fury vented on the newly-opened clearings and ad-
vanced settlements, which were regarded as wanton inva-
sions of their rights, holding that, by treaty stipu-
lations, the English could dwell only "so far as the salt
water flowed."
WALDOBORO ATTACKED.
ESCAPE TO ST. GEORGE'S FORT AND TO FORT FREDERICK.
A large party fell upon the newly-colonized hamlet of
Waldoboro; and this protege of the Brigadier General
was consigned to ruin. Unprepared for the onset, the poor
Germans were slain and/or captured, and all were dispersed,
some escaping to St. George's Fort, and others to Fort
Frederick at Pemaquid. The abandoned homes were reduced to
ashes; and the settlement lay a waste until the close of the
war.
The herds about Pemaquid were wantonly slaughtered. A party
of five persons, on their return from public worship at
Sheepscot, fell into an ambush. Leisurely wending their way
homeward, unsuspicious of evil, a murderous fire was opened
from the thickets upon them. One fell dead. Another was
mortally wounded, and facing the grim savage, who rushed
out to secure his scalp, the wounded planter rose before
the Indian, and by a well-directed shot, laid his tawny
savage foe dead in his tracks. Three escaped.
DEFENSES AT WISCASSET POINT.
On the rocky eminence projecting its spur into the waters
of the Sheepscot, known as Wiscasset Point, stood the fort,
a quadrangular structure of timber, surmounted with quad-
rangular corner sentry posts,1 projecting from the upper
stories, where the settlers of the Hooper plantation took
refuge in times of peril.
Covering a yet higher elevation back, overlooking the waters
of the bay from the west, a garrison of massive timber comm-
anded the approaches southward, and afforded the Williamson
plantation an asylum.
p.295 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
CAPTAIN WILLIAMSON.
Captain Williamson was a man of eminence at Wiscasset Point.
As a military and as a civil officer, his position made him
conspicuous and well known to the Indians.
Going with others to hunt and drive home their cattle from
their range, his two companions were suffered to pass an
ambuscade unmolested, while he was taken captive. His capt-
tors treated him with much courtesy, alleging that they had
been sent by the Governor of Canada to take some one to
Quebec who could give him information as to the movements
of the English. He was carried to Canada, but soon restored
by an exchange. May cattle of the herds about the point were
slaughtered at the time; and the settlement here, in the
journal of a Mr. How, who at the same time was held in pris-
on at Quebec, is spoken of as the "New Town on Sheepscot Riv-
er," from which Captain Jonathan Williamson had been taken
and brought to prison.1 About the same period, James Kin-
kade, James and Samuel Anderson, and a Mr. Adams were led
from Sheepscot as captives to Canada.
THE HEROIC ACTION OF A SOLDIER AT ST. GEORGE.
A detachment of thirteen men left the fort at St. George, and
entered the forests half a gun-shot distant, to pell bark to
cover the whale-boats of the garrison, and to secure them
from the weather. The party scattered, and some of them in-
cautiously laid aside their arms, and strayed apart from
their companions.
While thus dispersed, the Indians came upon them, and
sprang in between them and their fire-arms, which were
thus secured. They killed one man, wounded four, and
captured the sixth. The remnant of the party rallied and
stood their ground, and were soon supported by the entire
garrison, and a retreat to the fort was successfully ex-
ecuted.
Footnote. 1. Drake's Tragedies, p. 138.
p.296 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
During the skirmish an incident of great coolness and
bravery occurrred.
One of the soldiers, whose age retarded the progress of
his flight, was hotly pursued. In the extremity of his
case, the old man suddenly wheeled in the race, and bring-
ing his musket to his eye, sent a leaden message of death
just in time to arrest the upraised arm of his pursuer,
while in the act of burying the keen-edged tomahawk in the
brain of his victim! The fire of the garrison held the
savages at bay, and the old man seized and tore off the
scalp of his tawny foe, as he lay bleeding at his feet, and
took with him the bloody trophy of his valor, into the fort.
McFarland's Misfortunes.
JOHN MCFARLAND.
John McFarland had made his plantation remote from the
protecting guns of Fort Frederick. His fruitfull and
attractive plantation enamored his heart, and he determ-
ined to enjoy its rural delights in defiance of the perils
of his isolated position.
But the destroyer came. His herds were butchered in their
feeding grounds. His fields were wasted. His habitation
was burned down, and himself and his son, pierced with
wounds, were left half-dead.
The savages continued their depredations, and hunted the
life of the white man with the persistence and ferocity
of despair; for the "Indians killed every person that
came in their way."1
The fortified settlement at St. George's and Fort Freder-
ick at Pemaquid, often the objects of attack, the Indians
had determined to destroy. At break of day, one September
morning - the usual time of attack - sixty painted braves,
with a French commander, silently, slowly and by stealthy
approaches reached the vicinage of the fort at Pemaquid.
Footnote.1. William Burns's Deposition, L. Co. Commiss.
Report.
p.297 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Unfortunately five men were descried at a distance from
the protection of the guns. The prey was too tempting for
the prudence of savage calculations, and these unwary men
became the target for sixty bullets, which brought every
one to the ground, dead and wounded. Assault was made on
the fort, the surprisal having been defeated. For more than
two hours the place was stormed. But the massive walls of
stone were impregnable, and could neither be scaled nor
breached. Despairing of success, the assailants, repulsed
and disheartened, retired to seek a more hopeful issue
against the timber ramparts of St. George, but with no
better success
We have now reached a period in our history closing the
dark, bloody, and continuous scene of savage strife, cover-
ing nearly three generations of human beings, in which the
entire native race, under the shock of each conflict, had
been forced to recede more and more until their ancient
places had been made void. The entire race had become
permanently displaced; and nothing remained to disturb
and oppose the intrusive white man but the convulsive
reaction of its members, like the recoil of a quivering
muscle, tenacious still of life though torn from its nat-
ive trunk.
A solitary savage, burning with the resentments of his
wasted people, occasionally lurked at the white man's door,
or cowered in the thicket by his home, or prowled in the
adjoining forests to take his life. The savage did not at
once forget his wrongs, nor the white man his fears. The
people generally dwelt in their garrisons, and occasionally
murderous outbreak kept alive the public alarm.
MURDER AT WISCASSET POINT.
December 2nd.
A party of Kennebec Indians at Wiscasset1 came in collision
with some of the residents at the Point. December 2nd.
From some unexplained cause a quarrel arose, and
Footnote 1. About 1750. Smith's Journal.
p.298 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
OBADIAH ALBEE AND RICHARD HOLBROOK AND BENJAMIN
HOLBROOK.
in its issue one Indian was slain and two were wounded.
The parties, Obadiah Albee, Richard & Benjamin Holbrook,
were arrested on the charge of murder. The circumstances
excited general apprehension and public concern. While
confined at Falmouth, the criminals escaped, either by
riotous measures or collusion of their custodians. A
reward was offered for the arrest of the fugitives; and
Harnden, who made the arrest, and Wilson, the jail-keeper,
were subjected to a legal investigation. The fugitives fin-
ally surrendered for trial on the charge of murder, at
York.
OBADIAH ALBEE.
Obadiah Albee was transferred to Salem for safe keeping,
and an order was issued to the Essex justices "to have
the jail guarded by six men, three of whom to be on con-
stant watch, lest Albee should escape and thus involve the
Province in a war with the Indians."1
From Salem, Albee was sent back to York, where he was tried
and acquitted of murder, but condemned for a felonious
assault. Government was disappointed and displeased, and the
others were taken to Massachusetts for trial. The Chiefs of
the Kennebec Indians, the relatives of the deceased, were
solicited to be present at the trial. Thirteen Indians
appeared, but the trial was deferred, the prisoners re-
manded to Yorkshire, and they probably escaped unwhipt of
justice.
The aspect of affairs continued to lower and settle into
deeper and darker gloom, which the Wiscasset homicide rend-
ered more portentous and foreboding. Measures of retaliation
and revenge were meditated.
SEPTEMBER 11TH.
One hundred warriors, heralded by ten thousand terrible
rumors, emerged from the depths of the northern wildern-
ness, and fell with furty upon the Fort at Richmond.
Bleeding cattle came running for protection under the guns
of the block-house, while many lay butchered around, a prey
to the hundry savages.
Footnote. 1. Annals of Salem, Vol. v. p. 439.
p.299 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
The day was consumed in devastating the adjoining planta-
tions. But the Indians let the favorable moment for de-
cisive and successful action slip, and under cover of night,
Captain Goodwin and his command gained the fort. This cir-
cumstance disheartened the assailants, and they abandoned
the assault, and breaking up into small parties, scattered
along each bank of the Kennebec, murdering and destroying
all in their way.
SWAN ISLAND DESTROYED.
A portion of this war party fell on Swan Island, slaughter-
ed the cattle, ravaged the fields, burned the habitations of
the residents and led some thirteen residents into bondage.
JAMES WHIDDEN.
James Whidden owned and occupied a portion of this fertile
and romantic island. Its insular location at the confluence
of the two rivers rendered "Swan Island" an important and
conspicuous location as a desirable depot for trade with
the aborigines.
LAZARUS NOBLE.
At this time the daughter of Whidden, who was married to
Lazarus Noble of Portsmouth, resided with her father. A
garrisoned hamlet adorned this islet, which had from time
immemorial been a favorite resort.1 About the break of
day, two lads went out of the block-house and left open the
gates; and a number of Indians, watching the opportunity,
rushed into the fort and secured its unarmed occupants.
Whidden and his wife took to the cellar and escaped.
Noble and his workmen, at the head of the stairway, de-
fended the passage by firing upon the Indians as they
forced their way up in defiance of the murderous dis-
charge. They pushed on without waiting to return the fire,
and seized Noble and his wife and seven children, with
Timothy Whidden and Mary Holmes. The prisoners were conduct-
ed to the water-side where they were fast bound together.
This
Footnote. 1. Tragedies of the Wilderness, p. 165-167.
p.300 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
done, the Indians returned and fired the premises, burning
the storehouses and plundering the dwelling-places. Pomroy,
an aged shingle weaver, was captured in the neighboring
woods. Having secured their plunder and captives, all
marched for Canada; but the aged and burdensome Pomroy was
shot, and the other captives safely delivered and were sold
at Quebec.
FANNY NOBLE.
Fanny, a child of Noble, a year and one month old, was
taken to Montreal, Canada, where she became the property
of the lady of St. Auge Charle, a merchant of that city.
To the kitchen of this merchant the little Fanny had been
taken by her Indian master.
The servant called Mdme. St. Auge Charle's attention to
the infant captive, which in rags and dirt crept over the
tiles of the kitchen floor, in pursuit of the fallen crumbs
and cooking offal lodged in the cracsk.
The emotions of the maternal heart were at once stirred,
when on noticing the famished child, it seized the lady's
dress and burst into tears. The appeal was irresistible.
Mdme. St. Ange embraced the child. It clung to that embrace,
and repaid the kindness with fond and childlike caresses.
This lady had recently been made childless by the visitation
of death. Little Fanny was purchased, cleaned and arrayed
in the clothes of the deceased little one, and laid in her
cradle, while with infantile prattle and affection she en-
deavored to repay the debt she owed her benefactress. She
was reared as their daughter and the affection of the foster
parents was heartily returned.
In the sequel, Fanny reached womanhood under genial influences,
became attractive in person and acquirements, but public
authority, at length, severed the ties between the foster
parents and the child, and forced her return to her home,
where she became a teacher of youth, and subsequently married
a gentleman of wealth. Her brother
p.301 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Joseph, however, adopted the life and habits of the Indians,
among whom he lived and died as at member of the St. Francis
tribe.
DRESDEN ASSAULTED.
From Swan Island a band of Indians passed up the eastern
river and lurked about the outskirts of the Frankfort
plantation. At sunrise, Pomroy was waylaid on his return
from milking, and was shot dead at his door; but a Mr.
Davis, who occupied a room in the same house, roused from
his slumber by the report of the gun, sprang to the door,
when the Indian thrust in his musket barrel. Davis seized
the weapon and with the aid of his women, wrested it from
the Indian's grasp, who thereupon snatched up an infant
child in the outer kitchen and made off with it, while his
fellow, from a covert in the neighboring field, shot Mr.
McFarland, when the war party departed, carrying two men
prisoners to Canada.
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST WISCASSET.
The main force of this body of northern Indians, leaving
Fort Richmond, re-embarked and paddled down the Kennebec.
At Long Reach, it divided, one party diverging to the
eastward by Hockomock, to destroy Wiscasset, and the
Sheepscot towns, and the other menacing Georgetown below.
The dwelling-houses along the route were burned and two
prisoners were taken; and the whole region would have
been wasted, had the Sheepscot expedition succeeded in
surprising the block-house at Wiscasset. A Mr. Hilton, an
emigrant from Dover, New Hampshire, was slain, and his son
made captive.
BATTLE AT WISCASSET.
SUSAN COLBY.
The whole country had become alarmed, and the settlers
ran to their fortified places. Susan Colby was in her
girl-
p.302 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
hood, and had gone with her mother into the garrison,
whose sheltering stockade crowned a considerable emin-
ence overlooking the bay and the narrows, and command-
ing the Williamson settlement below. The slope of the
eastern front cleared for planting grounds, ran down
to the shore margins of the bay in a well cultivated
lawn, which encircled the hill-top south and west, and
then fell off into a rocky and uncleared ravine on the
north and east.
A flotilla of canoes shot with the rays of early dawn
around the head of Jeremy Squam Island, by Delano's
garrison, and sped across the bay toward Hooper's planta-
tion on the point above. The painted savages debarked near
this point, and glided through the alder-swamps, around the
Hooper's garrison toward that of Williamson on the more
distant hill-top south.
Two small iron cannon were a part of the munitions of this
defense. The party destined to surprise and sack the block
house crept from the swamp into the ravine and up the inter-
vening steep to storm the place. As they lurked for an
opportunity to begin the assault, Obadiah Albee 1 and
Andrew Florence went out to stretch their pigeon nets on
the western slope in rear of the garrison. They had hardly
accomplished their design ere the report of their fire-
arms and the shout of battle revealed the proximity of
the savages.
Florence fell dead and Albee, wounded, retreated toward
the garrison gates, facing the pursuing Indians with his
fire-lock presented, which held them at bay until he had entered and was safe.
Meanwhile the alarm had been given and the garrison roused
to arms for defense. The cannon were charged heavily with
musket balls, scraps of iron and other deadly missiles,
and trained to bear on the thickets, where were gliding,
the bodies of the savage foe. The match was
Footnote.1 Mrs. Holbrook. Mrs. Coleby's Narrative.
p.303 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
applied, and amid the roar of their discharge and the crash
of falling limbs and tree-tops, the death yells and whoops
echoing long and loud through the deep forests, told that it
was not without effect. A reception as unlooked for as it
was fatal, filled the savages with dismay.
HAUNTED GULLY.
The noise of battle borne on the wings of the still morning
drew a scouting party from its patrol between Dresden and
Sheepscot toward the scene of conflict, which, coming sudden-
ly up in the rear, cut off the retreat of the Indians to
their canoes. They then fled toward Woolwich, so hotly
pursued that a warrior was left to the white man's burial
in the ravine where he fell, on the brink of the gully to
the north of the garrison, whose headless trunk, in
ghastly and gory aspect, was wont to hold nightly vigils
near the spot, and watch over the bloody grave in mute
and terrible silence, beckoning to the terror-stricken
traveler; and in the traditions of a superstitious age,
on account of these night visions of this horrible phan-
tom savage, the passage was named the "Haunted Gully."
Delano's garrison1 commanded the point of the upper ex-
tremity of Westport, in early times a central and con-
spicuous position, and which afforded a safe retreat to
the settlers on "Jewonke Neck," below the Hooper and
Williamson plantations. On the Woolwich bank of Monseag
River, midway in the angle formed by the old and new inter-
secting Bath roads, stood the Hilton garrison.
MRS. DELANO'S ESCAPE.
Mrs. Delano and her daughter were wont to pass over by
water to their plantation on the neck below, near where
the burial place of the primitive settlers on Je-won-ke,
(now a
Footnote. 1. Mrs. Cushman.
p.304 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
dense forest of tall grown pines along the river banks)
is found.
On one occasion, the daughter became terror stricken,
with evil presentiments, while she and her mother plucked
the weeds from their homestead garden. It was the custom
with the Indians to lie in wait near the white man's
haunts for days together to secure a victim. Like wolves,
they prowled about his door, or laid in his path. Urged
by what then seemed the unreasonable fears of her child,
the mother consented to depart, and they had hardly put
off beyond bullet distance, when a savage rose under the
river's bank and fired. Mrs. Delano and her daughter es-
caped.
DEATH OF BOYNTON.
But Hilton, his son, son-in-law, and a Mr. Boynton, resi-
dents of the Monseag plantation, were less fortunate.
Leaving the garrison for the scene of their labor, they
crossed to the opposite bank of the narrow river, where
they were clearing land. A party of Indians lurked in a
barn, near their place of labor, and as soon as the men
had scattered in the prosecution of their toil, they were
fired upon. The elder Hilton fell wounded to his knees,
in which attitude he fought with the utmost desperation,
until overcome by fatigue, loss of blood, and numbers, he
at length died1 outright. His son was killed at the first
fire. Boynton, unharmed, fled and sought concealment under
a log covered with brush heaps. While thus hidden from view,
his dog, attracted to the spot by the scent of his master'
body, stood over the place of his concealment, whining. The
circumstance discovered his master's retreat to those who
sought to kill him. Boynton was tomahawked. The whole trans-
action happened in view of the garrison, where Mr. Gray,
an aged but resolute man, defended the women and children;
and
Footnote. 1. Mrs. Cushman and Boynton.
p.305 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
as the savages re-crossed the river near to the garrison,
and passed near to it with one of the Hiltons a prisoner,
he recklessly rushed out, leaving the garrison gates open,
to get a shot at the murderers. He succeeded in cutting
through the stomach of the tallest savage by a well-direct-
ed musket-ball, who, gathering his broken stomach in his
hands, ran with savage yells into the near forest - and
whose bloody trail indicated that he had received a fatal
wound.
WISCASSET PLANTERS MASSACRED AT PEMAQUID.
The abundance of alewives in Pemaquid River, was a
source of subsistence to the neighboring settlers. It was
a custom to visit this point to obtain a supply of these
fish in their season. From the Hooper settlement, a party1
of five men went to Pemaquid by way of the Sheepscot, on a
fishing excursion. The fish-place was above Fort Frederick.
On reaching it, while busied in the catch, the party were
suddenly attacked by the Indians, and all were slain but
one, who managed to escape, and eluding his pursuers, slipp-
ed under the roots of a mighty hemlock upturned, where in
close concealment he lay until the savages departed. As he
crouched in his hiding-place with breathless anxiety, he
could hear the tread of the savage panting above him, till
foiled, he withdrew from the pursuit.
The survivor crawled from his hiding-place and returned
to Wiscasset by way of Damariscotta; and a body of armed
men immediately visited the scene of slaughter, where they
found the decaying corpses of their slaughtered neighbors,
to which they gave sepulture on the spot where they died.
Captain Williamson was again captured. The men at Hooper's
garrison had left for Vaughan's mills, and Williamson re-
mained to guard the women and children. Venturing out a
short distance to an alder swamp, not far from the
Footnote. 1. R. Sewall, Esq's Narrative.
p.306 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
site of the Episcopal church at Wiscasset, a scount of
Indians seized and led him away. His cry alarmed the garri-
son, which now occupied alone by resolute women, was by
them successfully defended by stratagem. To deceive their
credulous enemies, disguised in the clothes of their hus-
bands and fathers, the women exhibited themselves to view
in military array, as men mustering for battle! Alarmed by
these movements, the savages would know of their captive
the force of the place, when Williamson1 held up all his
fingers in such countless array as to persuade them that
discretion was the better part of valor. The alarm guns re-
calling the men on their way to Sheepscot, their unexpected
appearance added speed to their flight toward Canada.
TOPSHAM.
1756.
CAPTAIN LITHGOW.
A garrison was now constructed near the site of Topsham,
one of the Merry Meeting towns which had grown up from the
early clearings at Pleasant and Fulton's Points and the
mouth of Muddy River, where some eighteen families now re-
sided; and the defense of the place was in charge of Captain
Lithgow.
The triangular conflict between France, England and Spain
involved the frontiers of New England by exciting the ancient
allies of France to active and violent measures. Burton's
garrison was attacked, two men were scalped and one wounded.
Coasting vessels were captured and burnt, and fishing vessels
on the coast with their crews were destroyed.
During these conflicts the warrior Poland was shot at
Windham, by the aim of the noted Manchester; and his body,
blackened and pierced, was buried beneath the roots of an
upturned pine bent from its place, so that the return
should make both his grave, and do the rites of sepulture
to the fearless chieftain.
Footnote. 1. Mrs. Cushman.
p.307 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE DEATH OF RUTHERFORD.
In the midst of these commotions, Reverend Robert Ruther-
ford, the religious teacher of Governor Dunbar, the father
of the policy and faith of the Kirk of Scotland, here died
at his post, sixty-eight years of age, whose pious sympathy
and counsel were now lost to the distressed and war-worn in-
habitants on the river of the St. George. - The pioneer
herald of the cross in the East, whose ashes yet repose on
its banks, and over whose now peaceful and thrifty homes of
a generation then unborn, his sanctified spirit, with those
of the ancient dead, there, may hover.
PREBLE'S MASSACRE.
Arrowsic was again menaced. Its northern extremity had be-
come a central point, on account of the garrison house of
Preble, one of the earliest re-settling inhabitants of the
Arrowsic towns. A ferocious band of savages landed at Preble's
Point and shot Mr. Preble while at work in his planting grounds.
Mrs. Preble, busied in her household duties at a table near the
wooden window, the shutter of plank ajar, caught a glimpse of
the shadow of a savage on the wall. She turned and sprang for
the firelock hanging above the manteltree, and while in the
act of grasping it with her arms outstretched toward the piece,
a ball from the unerring Indian's aim through the opened
shutter, pierced her heart,1 and she fell dead on the hearth-
stone.
The children, a son and two daughters, were spared for
captivity; and they were treated with unwonted affection
and kindness during their perilous traverse of the pathless
wilderness to Canada. But the inhumanity of their savage
captors was fully attested, although the children were often
carried in savage arms, and made the participants of every
savage luxury.
Footnote. 1. Narrative of the widow of Reverend Samuel Sewall.
p.308 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
ATTACK ON HARNDEN'S GARRISON.
LATER KNOWN AS WOOLWICH.
At a point called "The Ferry," on the Kennebec, stood the
garrison of Harnden, about which clustered the chief settle-
ment of the Nequaseag purchase by Bateman and Brown, now
known as Woolwich.
In the attack of this party of savages, Miss Motherwell,
eighteen years of age, happening beyond the gates, was
seized. She was related to the children of the Preble family
now captives of this war party. Annoyed by the cries of the
infant child of the murdered Prebles, the Indians put it to
the breasts of the captured girl, and bade her give it milk.
With a heart full of pity for the famished baby, with tears,
she replied, "I am not a mother." Snatching the little one
from her embrace, her savage master dashed its head against
a rock, and at one blow ended its complaints, and its life!
The garrison, however, was not taken; and the savages re-
tired, after having m et a like result in an attempt on the
garrison on the lower end of Arrowsic, and turned their fury
against the herds and cattle of the inhabitants, doing all the
mischief in their way.
1757.
But Commander Lithgow, of the Topsham fort, did not escape
unscathed. An ambush surprised his small command. Two were
wounded at the first fire; but in the skirmish which follow-
ed, the debt was paid by the fall of two of the Indians. Dis-
heartened at length, the savages withdrew, carrying off the
dead bodies of their fallen comrades, but meeting an opport-
unity, retaliated the injury by slaying two white men on their
passage up the river.
THE CAPTURE AT LONG REACH.
ROBERT GUTCH.
The homestead of Robert Gutch, "Long Reach," seems to have
been peculiarly exempt from the casualties of savage assault.
But Philbrook, one of the earliest re-settling occupants
p.309 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of this ancient plantation, with his Irish-man Maloon,
were surprised at their plow, and captured by a scout.
Having crossed the "Whisgeag" on their way northward, be-
fore they were suffered to rest, the Irishman suddenly
roused from his apparently lethargic state, with marked in-
difference to his state, coolly asked of his master, "And
who will take care of the oxen tonight?" "And sure, "I'll
soon do it myself," he added, in reply to the echoes of his
own voice, on perceiving the offense his apparent levity
had given his master.
Reaching the St. Lawrence, Maloon was sold to a ship, about
to set sail. At the mouth of the river, this ship was captured
and taken to Boston, where Maloon was released, and in less
than six weeks after his capture, reached his old home at
"Long Reach."
"TWENTY COW PARISH."
The plantation, now stirred with the movings of a self-
reliant independence, petitioned and was set off from the
metropolis of the Kennebec on Arrowsic, as a separate eccles-
iastical existence. The new parish was the nucleus of a new
town. The movement was viewed with suspicion and treated with
contempt by its metropolitan parent, and in derision called
the "Twenty Cow Parish" by the self-complacent residents of
Georgetown and Arrowsic.
We have now sketched the last acts of savage aggression
that have tinged the history of settlements on the Sagada-
hoc, and while horrible visions of barbarism have afflicted
our view in the repeated desolation of the Arrowsic towns,
adorning the east bank of the Sagadahoc, the ancient miss-
ionary home of Robert Gutch - "Long Reach" - then the
"Twenty Cow Parish" - now the City of Bath, appears to
have had a happy exemption from the scenes of blood and
devastation which have overwhelmed the adjoining eastern
plantations.
p.310 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE ASPECT OF THE EAST.
In the east the spirit of savage resentment lingered still
for vengeance on the encroaching white man. Government was
anxious to cultivate amicable relations with the Penobscots,
and under its commanders at George's was accustomed to hold
friendly interviews under the protection of a white flag.
KELLOCK'S ACHIEVEMENT.
A body of about forty Indians had concentrated in the neigh-
borhood of Thomaston. A scout of eighteen men persisted in
following their trail. In an hour the scout returned with a
single scalp, under the following circumstances.
The Indians had been into the fort, and when they departed,
were warned to beware of the block-house men. Their depart-
ure was known to Alexander and David Kellock, who started in
pursuit with their men, in close Indian file. The night was
dark. A mile distant, a solitary pack lay by the path-side.
Arrested by this, the pursuing party discovered the Indians
a little off the road. Interpreting the pack to be set for a
decoy, each man gave his file-leader a grip. Thus the party
were brought to a silent halt. A second elapsed, and the loud
snore of a sleeping savage betrayed his place of repose, when
the flash of a musket, and the passage of its ball, revealed
the unconscious sleeper, in a prodigious leap, falling back
into the arms of death!
They scalped him. At once, on both sides of the way, the
flash of fire-arms and the rattle of musketry unmasked an
ambuscade. The whoops of the Indians, the shouts of the
white men, and the flashes of musketry were the only marks
of the contending races, until the darkness forced a separa-
tion.
The garrison house of Elwell at Meduncook was attacked. The
father and his two sons held the door. The place was lighted
with port-holes morticed through the timber, in place of
windows. The wife and mother stationed at the port-hole
p.311 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
with the pistol of her husband, fired at the shadows darken-
ing her light, and very soon the yells of a wounded Indian
wakened the echoes of the forests, and called his comrades
to his succor, when the party withdrew.
PERILS OF FRONTIER LIFE.
The house of Mr. Piper, at Broad Bay, was, before the
morning light had fairly dawned, made the point of an
ambuscade. On opening his door, Piper, coming out for
wood, was shot dead. His wife, in the greatest constern-
ation, seized her sick infant and fled to the cellar
through a trap door, which was closed upon her. The out-
side door was securely barricaded. Returning to guard the
door, which resisted the efforts of the Indians to break
down, her infant left in its place of concealment below,
the heroic mother was shot from without through the door.
Thus securing entrance, the war party plundered the house,
but the infant was left undiscovered and unharmed in its
retreat.
While defending the laborers engaged in hauling wood to
a coasting sloop,1 Captain Kent, Remely with his scout at
Broad Bay were alarmed by the report of fire-arms a mile
north of their position. Rumor shortly after announced that
a woman had been slain on the east shore at the narrows. In
the sloop's boat a detachment was sent to the scene of the
murder, where "the body of a man was found at the edge of a
wood, and the woman at the house, shot, scalped, stabbed and
mangled. The axe was lying by the man, and the Indian hatchet
was left where it had been struck, buried in the woman's skull."
It seems the man and his wife and son had left the garrison
for their plantation. The man went to his field. The wife
and son remained at the house. Having killed the husband and
father, an Indian came into the house and set
Footnote. 1. Remely's Journal.
p.312 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
his gun at the heart of the sick child, which missed fire.
The mother then sprang on the Indian, pitched him out of
doors and fastened them against him. But through a crevice
the Indian got sight of his victim and killed the mother,
while the son crept into the cellar and escaped.
We have here an unvarnished picture of the perils of
frontier life in the new settlements of the Ancient Domin-
ions in the days which tried men's souls.
THE FINAL DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH AND INDIANS.
1758.
Governor Pownal had succeeded Shirley and the long pro-
jected expedition of a combined French and Indian movement
upon St. George's Fort, for the utter destruction of all the
eastern settlements, began its demonstrations. The activity
and energy of Pownal, however, forestalled its movements; and
by throwing into the eastern defenses a large supply of men
and subsistence, and going in person to receive the enemy, he
thwarted their plans.
Within thirty-six hours after, a force of four hundred
French and Indians appeared. An assault was made, but no
impression on the place, the defenders of which no menaces
could intimidate. Dis-heartened and foiled, the besieging
force withdrew, and venting their rage upon the inoffensive
herds - which they butchered in merciless profusion, the
body retired.
WOLFE'S VICTORY.
1759.
THE POWER OF FRANCE IN THE WESTERN WORLD EXTINGUISHED.
Such was the issue of the last attempt of the savage and
his allies to expel the English race from their homes, in
these ancient hunting grounds. The intrepid Wolfe, on the
Plains of Abraham, under the walls of Quebec, had now for-
ever settled the question of the supremacy of France on
American soil in a pitched battle, the issue of which, with
the life of the hero, extinguished the power of France in
the western world.
The ties of sympathy
p.313 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
which had hitherto swayed the savage hords bordering on
our north-eastern frontiers, by this great event were
effectually loosened. It paralyzed forever the hand that
had so long trained barbarian men to a cruel and bloody
service.
The northern hive still swarmed, but was at once emptied
of the evil spirit which had so long and so successfully
brooded over dark designs, in which fanaticism, susper-
stition, and bigotry had fostered their puposes of blood.
The effects of the fall of Quebec placed the Canadas in
the hands of the government of England. Simultaneously
with this mighty military achievement of Wolfe in the north,
Governor Pownal pushed the most formidable frontier defenses
up Penobscot Bay in the east. On a crescent-shaped eleva-
tion, overlooking the west margins of this magnificent body
of water, near its head, in the town of Prospect, a block-
house and barracks, environed with strong earth-works, were
so constructed as to command the ingress and egress to the
river above from the bay below. The newly erected works were
called Fort Pownal, and effectually restrained and overawed
the eastern Indians, now disheartened and deserted of their
ancient allies. Permanent peace began now to dawn, and the
European race was left unmolested to secure a permanent foot-
hold on the soil where it had so long contended for a new
home, at a sacrifice of generations of blood and peace. New
towns sprang up rapidly, as changes in the civil organiza-
tions of the ancient dominions of Maine, and the increase
of its population warranted.
The ancient Nequaseag, the home of Mohotiwormet, the
purchase of the early Pemaquid planters, Bateman and Brown,
the birth-place of Sir William Phips, was incorporated as
Woolwich, a name derived and suggested from the relation
of its locality to the Reach in Sagadahoc, like to that of
a town in England of the same name on the river Thames. The
rapid and mighty changes now sketched had over-
p.314 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1760.
whelmed the remnants of the aboriginal race with utter
despair, in its efforts to stay or turn back the tide of
civilization by force. The spirit of resistance was cowed
and crushed; and the aborigines, worn out and wasted, left
to their fate by the power that had so long pampered their
prejudices for selfish and sinister ends, now sought the
protection and the fruits of peace under the shadow of the
people they had so long and so ruthlessly sought to destroy.
PEACE WAS MADE.
THE PENOBSCOTS WISHED FOR THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE ENGLISH.
Peace was made. General Preble at Fort Pownal was visited
by the Penobscots, who said they wished to dwell near the
fort and enjoy the protection, neighborhood and the friend-
ship of the English.
APRIL 29TH.
Sockaiteon, Sockebasin, with two other Indian Chiefs went
to Boston and entered into a treaty with the Governor of
Massachusetts, which has remained to this day.
BREAKING UP OF GARRISON LIFE.
The necessity having ceased, garrisoned homes were deserted.
The inhabitants returned to their farms and dwelling-places
and the block-houses, grim and unsightly monuments of dangers
past, were left to solitude and decay.
CAPTIVES RETURNED.
Captives returned to homes, no more to be disturbed with
the howl of the war-whoop and the gleam of the battle-axe.
Yorkshire became bloated with life, struggling to extend its
domain for a more independent exercise of its civil functions,
and was broken in two.
JULY 19TH.
LINCOLN COUNTY ORGANIZED.
The territory within which the scene of our narrative is
laid, the eastern fragment of the sundered Yorkshire, was
at once organized into a new civil division - and called
Lincoln County; and the
Footnote. 1. Williamson's History, vol. ii, p. 344.
p.315 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
precincts of Frankfort settlement, on the "Mun-doos-co-took,"
and that of the Hooper plantation at "Wissacasick" Point,
were incorporated as "Pownalboro", and made the shire-town
or metropolis of the new county.
Thus the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot and Pemaquid planta-
tions of the colonial period - the ducal State of James II
of England - were, in the revolutions of time, merged again
into one body, which continues to the present day, an embodi-
ment of what was the ancient dominions of Maine, if we except
the recently projected fragment, hardly yet fixed in its own
orbit on the west, and still a satellite of Lincoln from which
it has been struck off, appropriately named Sagadahoc County.
ASPECT OF SOCIETY.
The circumstances of peril and the protracted scenes of
barbarian life, through which the entire generation had
struggled, of course had imparted to the population of
this region a wild and barbaric character.
Unused to any of the luxuries of civilized life, or indeed
"the comforts of home", the hope of securing the enjoyment
of simple existence, undisturbed by rude alarms - safe from
savage assault, was an acquisition in which all other inter-
ests merged and which was the great end and aim of enter-
prise and effort.
FRONTIER MISSIONARY.
The details of Mr. Bailey's experience, the missionary at
Pownalboro, ought not to excite our surprise so much as our
regret.
Few roads had been opened, and along the banks of the rivers
and sea-board, the settlements - or plantations as then called,
were accessible only by water.
"In summer, the canoe held the place of the wheeled carriage;
while in winter, the icy surface of the frozen river
p.316 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
formed the principal highway for the sleigh and even for the
ox-sled with its heavy load."1 Of course, the inhabitants
were poor and ignorant, "without the means of religious or
secular instruction."
POWNALBORO.
Pownalboro, a town perpetuating the remembrance of the
administration of Governor Pownal, now was peopled by "one
hundred and fifteen families;" and its western inhabitants
were in danger of "losing all sense of religion," or of
becoming the dupes of "Popish missionaries." They were front-
ier men. "Barred from the advantageous culture of the soil by
their exposure to the incursions of a barbarous race, - a
terrible foe - their poverty was extreme."2 The site of the
fort at Richmond embraced a chapel and its clearing, "a farm;"
and this military depot afforded Mr. Bailey a home, and was
the scene of his official duties as a center at the outset;
and this opening, though a frontier military station, is said
to have "peopled very fast."
1762.
Mr. Bailey had now congregations at Pownalboro' and at George-
town, the ancient metropolis of the valley of the Kennebec,
numbering more than "fifty communicants;"3 and the Sheepscot
and Damariscotta Plantations were reckoned among the "new
settlements;" while the valley of the Kennebec, within the
range of Mr. Bailey's parochial labors, embraced a population
of "seven thousand souls;"3 and though a resident of Richmond
Fort, and officiating in its chapel, the most of his parish-
ioners were residents on the opposite side of the river, and
in Pownalboro.
The aborigines of the land still lingered near the places
of their ancient and favorite resorts, barbarism lagging in
Footnotes. 1. F. Miss. p. 78. 2. F. Miss. p. 256, note E.
3. Miss. p. 81.
p.317 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
its retreat, retarded by the instincts and associations of
affection.
"A great number of Indians" frequented the neighborhood.
They were the remains "of the ancient and formidable Norridge-
wock tribe," still leading "a rambling life"; very savage in
dress and manners; eking out a precarious subsistence entirely
"by hunting," having a language of their own, but universally
speaking French; devoted children of the Catholic church,
their aversion to the English was implacable, whom they "would
extirpate because French missionaries had taught them to be-
lieve they were the murderers of the Savior of mankind! Such
is a graphic sketch of the fragments of a broken and fast-
receding race, who were the neighbors of the early inhabit-
ants of Wiscasset and Dresden.
The picture drawn of the population of this then frontier
section is full of interest and instruction. The people were
thinly settled along the river banks, "were in general so
poor, not to say idle, that their families almost suffered
for necessary food and clothing. They lived in miserable
huts which scarce afforded them shelter from the inclem-
ency of the weather. Their lodgings were worse than their
food, clothing or habitation. Multitudes of children were
obliged to go barefooted the whole winter, with clothes
hardly covering their nakedness; half their houses were
without Chimneys; many had no beds but heaps of straw, and
whole families subsisted, for months together, on potatoes
roasted in the ashes."1 This certainly is a sorry picture
of the primitive squalidness and misery of the inhabitants
of the metropolis of Lincoln County. They were residents,
however, still of a "wilderness country," whose physical
condition was deeply tinged with the hues, and darkly shaded
with the wildness of a wilderness home in every feature of
life and character.
Footnote. 1. F. Miss. p.88.
p.318 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The religious aspect of the people was equally dark in its
lights and shadows. "Eight different religious persuasions"
filled up the outlines of the religious view. "Multitudes
could neither read nor write - some had very gross and
imperfect notions of a future state, and fancied that they
should enjoy their wives and children in another world; and
those born and educated in these remote parts were so little
acquainted with any religious worship, and had so long en-
joyed their native ignorance, that they discovered hardly
any inclination for rational and moral improvement."1
The heathen, at that day, could not have commanded the
yearnings of humanity, or roused the sympathy of Christian
organizations as now, or the woods of Pownalboro would have
rung with the echoings from the cliff-tops of Old England
and the sand hills of Plymouth - "Ye Christian heroes, go
proclaim!"
A church missionary did at length penetrate this wild, and
such was the result of his observation. The French and
Dutch residents of Frankfort, the history of whose coloni-
zation we have given, he tells us, "he found in general a
sober, honest, and industrious set of people."
Mr. Bailey's experience here, in the varied and fatiguing
incidents of missionary service, will give us a view of the
nature of that service, and of the trials, fatigues, perils
and accompaniments of frontier life in the primitive state
of this and the adjoining towns. He writes, - "I officiate
at Georgetown every third Sunday;" to do which "he had to
travel by water eighteen miles," sometimes without anything
to eat or drink, lost in the woods, where he was all night
exposed in the open air, to a most severe storm of wind,
rain, thunder, and lightning.
THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION.
In the east, especially in the towns re-peopled by the Scotch-
Irish of the Dunbar emigraton, greater thrift, more
Footnote. 1. F. Miss. p. 89.
p.319 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
intelligence, and a better religious state seemed to obtain,
the result of greater intelligence, more religious principle,
decision of character and habits of industry.
BOGG'S ADVENTURE.
Sheep, from the older settled agriculture regions of the
Pemaquid, were now first introduced to the banks of St.
George and Penobscot rivers. A Mr. Boggs, an amateur in
this branch of husbandry, had gathered a flock from the
pastures of Pemaquid on the deck of his sloop; and while
leisurely wafted over the waters of the intervening bay,
bound for St. George's, as he sat on the windlass, be-
came drowsy, and began to nod, when the father of the flock,
a putnacious ram - mistaking the captain's nods for a
challenge, drew up, and with a well-directed blow, butted
the sleeping owner headlong from his seat. Boggs, thoroughly
roused by the concussion, sprung to his feet in a rage, and
seizing the ram, precipated him into the sea; and in an in-
tant, the flock, following the leader, were floating in the
ocean around him ! 1.
LONG REACH.
"Long Reach," the newly incorporated second parish of
Georgetown, had begun2 the erection of a house of relig-
ious worship, on the spot where, a century before, Robert
Gutch made his plantation, and preached Christ. The banks
of the Sagadahoc, at "Long Reach," were still embowered
with the primeval forests of white oak, hoary pines and
spruce, tall and large, sufficient to mast and spar "ships
of four hundred ton," which made the landscape so strongly
to resemble the "pastures of England" in the eyes of the
ship's company of the Archangel a century and a half be-
fore.
Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p. 112. 2. M.H. Coll.
vol. ii, p.208.
p.320 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
SOURCES OF THE NAVAL EMINENCE OF BATH, MAINE.
WILLIAM PHIPS.
The great abundance of material adapted to the structure of
ships laid the foundation there for the present eminence of
Bath, as a place for naval architecture. 1 Shipwrights, from
Digby of London, the builder of the "Virginia," to William
Phips, son of the gunsmith of Pemaquid, down to William
Swanton, the Louisburg soldier, all apprreciated in "Long
Reach" the peculiar facilities for the building of ships,
in the material of its forest oaks and pines. The place at
once became a center of interest to artisan shipwrights.
Swanton "was a shipbuilder by trade, industrious and skill-
ful," though Jonathan Philbrook had preceded him in the
structure of smaller vessels.
The "Earl of Bute," for a merchant of Scotland, was the
first ship built within the limits of the city of Bath -
the keel stretched - the frame set up - the structure com-
pleted, whose mammoth hull was launched by Swanton the first
year of his residence at Long Reach. The "Rising Sun" the
"Moon," the "Black Prince," followed in nearly annual
succession the "Earl of Bute," into the waters of Sagadahoc,
from the yard of this gentleman, and out of the forests on
the margin of Long Reach.
It was undoubtedly the abounding primeval bordering forests
of white oak - the remains of whose forests lied scattered
along the ancient Nequaseag and Sagadahoc rivers to this day,
that laid the foundations of the pre-eminence of Bath, as a
center of interest and success, and a conspicuous mart for
naval architecture in the United States, if not in the world,
which lately has distinguished it as the "Queen City of Ship-
yards." Some dozen dwelling-houses now clustered on the mar-
gins of "Long Reach," in the midst of which the rudimentary
structure of a village church began to lift its spire; and
Joseph Berry, Samuel Brown, Joshua Philbrook,
Footnote. 1. M. H. Coll. vol ii. p. 208.
p.321 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Benjamin Thompson, and Joseph White were the official parish
personages;1 while Lieutenant James Springer, the innholder,
Isaiah Crooker, Lieut. John Lemont, Capt. Nathaniel Donnells,
Moses Hodgkins, David Trufant, and Brient Robinson at Winne-
gance, were the principal citizens.
ABANDONMENT OF MILITARY DEFENSES.
The garrison at George's was now dismissed, and the public
property sold off at auction, except the fort, the guns, and
the ammunitiion, which were left in charge of the late comm-
ander, Justice North; and the Scottish settlers, who had un-
till now remained in the pay of garrison service2 - "a pious
and exemplary people" were dispersed through the region.
The metropolitan character of Pownalboro' as a shire town
had infused among the crude elements of society there, an
official aristocracy, by the residence of county officers
and gentlemen in the legal profession, which exercised a
controlling influence over the poor native population of
the town. The center of this aristocracy had its seat on
the eastern bank of the Kennebec, opposite Richmond, within
the western precincts of the town.
A feature growing out of this circumstance, Mr. Bailey has
disclosed, which finally became a terrible source of annoy-
ance to this gentleman. The isolation of the place, and its
great remoteness from the influence of communities of high-
er elevation in the social grade favored "great abuses of
power." "Amid the proverty which so generally prevailed,
few would dare to oppose in any way the wishes of men of
wealth and influence, to whom, perhaps, many were indebted
for supplies for their families, and who, having a part in
the administration of the law, might harass and even ruin
an obnoxious individual."
Footnotes. 1. M. H. vol. ii. pp. 211, 212. 2. Eaton's
Annals, pp. 120, 122.
p.322 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
"It was Mr. Bailey's misfortune to incur the ill will of
some of these officials," says his narrator. Two in partic-
ular gave to the self-denying, laborious missionary their
special official displeasure, and "sought to ruin him and
break up the church in that region;" and it is a great pity
the blot on their names on their official position has not
been left on the page of history to public execration, that
the children of such unworthy sires, though founders of the
county, might make some atonement to civilized society and
Christian profession, by pointing the finger of scorn to
the plague spot of their fame, as a warning to the dastardly
spirit of a self-complacent but too often mean and cowardly
official egotism.
Under the mask of a "Dissenter," one of these official
dignitaries would visit the place of prayer, "where he
would behave with great indecency," contriving, "by a
multitude of boyish tricks, to make the women smile,"
in contempt of the presence and worship of God; and when
sacred offerings were solicited, this official clown in
the sanctuary, "used often to put into the contribution
box, soap, and, on one occasion, a pack of cards."1
It is with just pride and commendation to the historian,
that the character and conduct of the "common people" the
early yeomanry of the shire-town of Lincoln County - though
poor, yet honest and true to the instincts of humanity, can
be sketched in perfect contrast, "as never disposed to foll-
ow the example of the "gentlemen" of Pownalboro'" On the
contrary, the citizens at large, "were more kind and gener-
ous" to the persecuted man of God, and more constant on his
sacred ministrations, as it became more apparent it was the
purpose of the official 'gentleman' "to drive away the miss-
ion from Pownalboro."
In the east, a precinct of the same town, a hamlet had grown
up, washed by the waters of the bay formed by a
Footnote. 1. F. Miss. p. 94.
p.323 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
point of land designated by the aboriginal name of "Wissa-
casset," whose rock-bound margins shear the tides of the
upper Sheepscot through narrows seaward.
This precinct, embracing the point in the south-east ex-
treme of Pownalboro', gave sixty-four names to the peti-
tion for an act of incorporation; and by the interest of
its wealthy Boston proprietors, it became the depot of the
commerce and export trade of the valley, and "the sea-port
of the Kennebeck;" and at this date, Wiscasset was the only
place of commercial importance1 east of Portland, from which
all foreign export, after passing down the Kennebec as far as
Bath, went into the "Cross river" to Sheepscot, and thence to
Wiscasset for shipment. Thomas Rice, Esquire, was the first
representative of Pownalboro' to the General Court; and Row-
land Cushing - "a very personable man" - practiced law as a
resident at the Wiscasset village.
NOBLEBORO.
JONAS FITCH.
Vaughn, the original occupant of the site, and the founder
of the Damariscotta Mills village, had now deceased; and
Jonas Fitch, an officer under Governor Winslow in the erect-
ion of Forts Halifax and Western, a Lieutenant under Major
Goodwin, and a commandant of the rangers between Brunswick
and St. George, had now taken up his abode there on Vaughn's
interest, beginning at Winslow's garrison and extending to
a place called "Indian Hill," on the west side, a place not
embraced within any township, having seven cottages, two
double saw-mills and one grist mill. James Noble had succeed-
ed to the rights of Vaughn, now deceased, and was the master
spirit of the Vaughn settlement. He laid the foundations of a
town which bears, to this day, the name of Nobleboro'. The site
of Nobleboro', covering an eight miles square tract of land,
was originally the property
Footnote. 1. M. H. Coll. vol. iv, p. 45. R. H. Gardiner, Esq.
p.324 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of John Brown of New Harbor. But Vaughn had entered and
acquired possession under the Dunbar titles, and his right
thereto he maintained at law, against the rights by pur-
chase of the aborigines, as decided by the Common Pleas and
Superior Court at York, in an action of ejectment brought1
by Tappan. The titles by Dunbar grants were thus sustained.
ABANDONMENT OF MILITARY DEFENSES.
1764.
The process of dismantling the public works at St. George's
and Pemaquid, as public confidence in the prospects to con-
tinued peace became confirmed, was now completed. But the
military organization of the arms-bearing public was contin-
ued under a body called the militia, of which the Regimental
Muster was a chief feature. The first military display of
citizen soldiery in a muster field was on "Limestone Hill,"
Thomaston, under command of Colonel Cargill of Newcastle,
who headed the regimental display in the simple costume of a
"pea-jacket and commarny cap."2
Thomas Goldthwait succeeded General Preble in the command of
Fort Pownal in the east and William Lithgow, Fort Halifax in
the west.
THE INCORPORATION OF TOPSHAM.
THE SCOTCH-IRISH.
1764.
The west shores of Merry Meeting Bay on its south-western
margin had become adorned with a hamlet, which had grown up
from the site of the ancient Gyle's Plantations. Distinguished
by a church, a development of the faith and zeal of the early
Scotch-Irish immigration* under the patronage of Robert Temple,
which centered here as one of the principal points, this ham-
let became the
(see end of book for the Scotch-Irish - Maine)
p.325 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
nucleus of a new town and was incorporated as Topsham.
The scene of Levett's visit, the ancient Cape Ne-wagen, the
Townsend of Governor Dunbar's administration, was also in-
corporated as Boothbay; and the ancient Jamestown of the
Ducal State, New Harbor of Pemaquid, Walpole and Harrington,
of the Dunbar Settlements, were consolidated and incorporated
into one town, by the name of Bristol, in commemoration of
the English home of its earliest settlers, the ship-wrecked
voyagers of the Angel Gabriel, which was stranded in the
waters of Pemaquid Bay, a century and more than a generation
before.
INSERT. Passengers of the Angel Gabriel
Passenger List for
the Angel Gabriel
1635
On the last Wednesday in May, 1635 (May 27th), the ship "Angel Gabriel" a strong ship of 240 tons, and carrying a heavy armament of 16 guns swung at her moorings in the King's Road, four or five miles distant from the city. Her destination was Pemaquid. On her deck was "a company of many Godly Christians", some from other ships, bound for New England. The wreck of the bark, Angel Gabriel, a major disaster in the middle of the "Great Migration". It was wrecked in a great storm, probably a hurricaine, in August 1635 off Pemaquid Pt. Maine.
According to the "Lighthouses in Maine" site one of the passengers was a man who left his wife behind planning to send for her after he became established. Although he survived the wreck, his wife was afraid to follow him after what had happened to the Angel Gabriel. He was unable to face the journey back to England, so they never saw each other again. A visitor to this site has sent me information that the man who was seperated from his wife was John Bailey who also left behind his son, Robert, and one or more daughters.
What follows is a partial list of some of the ships passengers that I have compiled from the internet and other sources. There is, I understand, a complete list on a plaque at Pemaquid Maine. I intend to complete this when I obtain the full list. If you have any additions or corrections to this list please drop me a note.
Follow this link for some notes concerning Capt. Andrews and his three Burnham nephews
Capt. ROBERT ANDREWS Ship's Master Ipswich, Mass
JOHN BAILEY , Sr.
contact a weaver from Chippenham, Eng. Newbury
John Bailey, Jr. b.1613
Johanna Bailey (poss. came on a later ship soon after)
HENRY BECK
(Dea.) John Burnham
Thomas Burnham
Robert Burnham
RALPH BLAIDSDELL of Lancashire York, Maine
Mrs. Elizabeth Blaidsdell
Henry Blaidsdell
WILLIAM FURBER
JOHN COGSWELL 43 Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire Ipswich, Mass.
Mrs. Elizabeth (Thompson) Cogswell abt 41 "
Mary Cogswell abt 18 "
William Cogswell abt 16 "
John Cogswell abt 13 "
Hannah Cogswell abt 11 "
Abigail Cogswell abt 9 "
Edward Cogswell abt 6 "
Sarah Cogswell abt 3 "
Elizabeth Cogswell infant "
SAMUEL HAINES abt 24 Apprentice to J. Cogswell prob. Ipswich
Later Dover Point
WILLIAM HOOK
HENRY SIMPSON
JOHN TUTTLE Dover Ipswich
later Dover NH
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth
ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
p.326 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
1764.
We have noticed the disturbances growing out of the question
of property in the white pines of Maine, 1764, and the in-
itial differences which had consequently arisen, as to the
rights of royal prerogative and the privileges of the lumber-
men of Maine.
A question as to the salary of the Royal Governor had also
now begun to agitate the popular branch of the Legislature
of the Colonial Government of Massachusetts Bay.
To discover, punish and crush out the rising spirit of dis-
loyalty, and enforce the dependence of colonial existence
on royal authority, Parliament resolved to force these differ-
ences to an open issue. Acts of various taxation were immed-
iately passed. These coercive measures only augmented the re-
sistance, and opened more deeply the sources of irreconcilable
alienation. We cannot discuss the moral aspects of the causes,
or sketch the phases of the great controversy. Suffice it to
say it was a struggle between power and privilege. We shall,
therefore simply trace out the incidents which developed them-
selves in natural order, and followed in the train of that
struggle which finally sundered the nation, and moulded the
trans-atlantic fragment into a new State, which has become
distinguished as a great political fraternity in unity.
The most insignificant causes led to these results. The
p.328 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
great issue began in the forests of Maine, in the contests
of her lumbermen with the King's Surveyor, as to the right
to cut, and the property in white pine trees.
SWAMP LAW.
OUTRULED THE KING'S OFFICERS.
Bridger declared the prerogative of the royal sovereignty
over these forest monarchs to be paramount to all other
rights. Into these views he would coerce the reluctant
lumbermen. Power, precedent and law were with him, but
the necessities and instincts of humanity - the dictates
of common sense - the principles of equity, were against
him; and under the "application of swamp-law" in the wilds
of Maine, the lumbermen were too hard for the King's officers.
THE GENERAL COURT.
Here initiated, the controversy was transferred to the Courts
of Massachusetts. The prestige of Royalty would have more
efficiency within the metropolis and at the Bar of the
General Court, than in the lumber swamps of Maine.
BUT.
BOSTON SIDES WITH MAINE LUMBERMEN.
But Boston had already given unequivocal intimations that
that Royal Prerogative, had no place in her sympathies when
popular rights were in jeopardy.
THE ADVENTURES OF COMMODORE KNOWLES.
Commodore Knowles, with his men-of-war, rode at anchor in
Nantasket Roads. His sailors deserted to the shore. The
commodore thought it very reasonable that Boston should
make good the loss of men. Early in the morning of the
17th of November, he sent his boats to town and surprised
and seized, not only as many seamen as could be found on
board the vessels outward bound, but swept the wharves,
taking ship carpenters, apprentices and laboring lands-
men.
The whole city was moved with excitement. The lower classes
"were beyond measure - enraged" ! They rushed together, armed
with clubs and pitch-mops. An unfortunate and innocent Lieut-
enant on shore, there on other business, was seized. The
intercessions of the Speaker of the House, at length, saved
him. But the mob increased - and on learning that several
naval officers were guests of the Governor,
p.329 AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
it gathered about the Governor's house, demanding satis-
faction. They surrounded the house. The court in front was
filled with the excited and exasperated populace. The Naval
officers, with loaded carbines, took station at the head of
the stairway, resolved to secure their liberty or lose their
lives in the attempt. A deputy sheriff was sent into the
midst of the crowd to secure the peace. This officer was
seized, carried away in triumph, and set in the stocks.
The predicament of this officer of the law excited the mirth
of the rabble, diverted their rage, and resulted in their
quiet dispersion at the dinner hour.
BUT.
But at night-fall, many thousands re-assembled in King's
Stret "below the town-house," where the General Court was
in session. The Council Chamber was assailed with brick-bats
and stones, and the glass broken at all the windows.
The Governor and several gentlemen of the Council harangued
the multitude from the balcony, to no purpose, the seizure
and restraint of the Officers of the Royal Navy in town, be-
ing persistently determined upon
A boat reached the shore from a ship at anchor, which, being
mistaken for a barge from a man-of-war, was seized, and dragged
through the streets as if it were floating on water, to the
Governor's house, where preparation was made to burn it be-
fore his house! But the peril of setting fire to the town
diverted the mob, and the boat was burned, but in a more
private place, when it was ascertained that she belonged
to a Scotch ship in the harbor.
THE GOVERNOR DESERTS BOSTON.
The militia was ordered out. But the drummers were interupted
and the citizen soldiery refused to appear. The Governor re-
paired to the castle and deserted the town.
Commodore Knowles was unyielding - refused all accomodation
until the naval officers on shore were released from re-
straint, which, if not done, bombardment was threatened.
The1 assembled representatives of the Colony at length took
the
Footnote. 1. Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol ii,
pp 386 - 389.
p.330 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
matter in hand, and resolved to sustain public authority at
all hazards, and exert themselves by every means to secure
for the people, a redress of grievances, ordering Captain
Erskine, of his Majesty's ship, the Canterbury, and all other
naval officers, to be, forthwith enlarged. This action cooled
the public sentiment. A Town meeting was called, but the in-
fluence of of legislative action prevailed there.
LUMBERMAN'S CONTROVERSY.
THE LUMBERMEN OF MAINE RESIST THE CROWN.
The contest between the Royal Surveyor and the lumbermen
of Maine, now transferred to the General Court, roused Elisha
Cooke, who with zeal and fortitude espoused the cause of the
lumbermen of Maine, and resisted the assumptions of the Crown.
The popular view of the question was sustained in the popular
branch of the General Court; and in this dispute were laid
the foundations of a partisan strife between popular rights
and Royal prerogative, which ever after developed a factious
opposition to the Royal measures on all questions of popular
rights and expediency, perpetually drawing in new points of
difference from time to time, and widening the breach. Thus
the struggle was changed to meet every new phase of Royal
requirement in the exaction of money, whether in the salaries
of Royal governors, or in a revenue from the taxation of paper
and tea; and in each struggle the popular view made new
acquisitions, and the popular Will of the people gained new
advantages.
ELISHA COOKE OF BOSTON.
Foremost in the conflict with Royal prerogative stood Elisha
Cooke of Boston - the guiding spirit of the popular cause in
all its issues with monarchical power.
But the right1 of the lumbermen of Maine to property in their
white pine trees was the entering wedge to a struggle between
power and privilege, which finally sundered all national ties,
and ended in the grand and glorious issues of the American
Revolution.
1. Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., vol ii, p. 201
p.331. AMERICAN REVELOTUON
ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
The struggles of the people with power in the maintenance
of their rights had diffused wide-spread disaffection in the
minds of the masses of Maine and Massachusetts; and the popular
sympathy was turned against the rights and prerogatives of the
Crown and its supports; and in this popular dislike, the
Episcopal Church, as a creature of the State, and a support
of the Crown, was involved, and became obnoxious to the popu-
lar prejudices. Out of such differences grew the popular
commotion which for several years disturbed the entire social
and civil structure, until the principle of self-government
became fully developed and organized in a new civil constitu-
tion.
EARLY RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS.
The colonization and settlement of Maine was rather a commer-
cial and patriotic movement, than the result of a religious
exodus. The first settlers within the "Ancient Dominions"
were not refugees from religious intolerance, and of course
were neither enthusiasts nor bigots, to one of which extremes
unbridled religious excitement ever leads.
No traces of the blood-red hand of persecution have ever been
found on the early colonial records of Maine - our State.
The fact that the colonial enterprises for the settlement
of Maine were the developments of a commercial, rather than
a religious element, may account for this pleasing feature
in the earlier character of our plantations, contrasted with
those sterner, darker and more doubtful shades in the colonial
history of Massachusetts.
FREEDOM IN RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
The Baptists were left free to live and die on our soil,
following the bent of their own inclinations, in seeking
their salvation under the water or on the land, as best
suited their tastes. No Quaker, writing under the scourge
of our magistracy at the tail of the carts of Maine, either
in or out
p.332 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THERE WERE NO RELIGIOUS HALLUCINATIONS WITHIN THE
PRECINCTS OF ANCIENT SHEEPSCOT, SAGADAHOC OR PEMAQUID.
of the Dukedom, was ever there forced to honor the dictates
of his mind and the emotions of his heart as to the way they
called him to worship God. And no one burdened with any moral
mania, no dupe of a religious hallucination, no witches were
hung within the precincts of the ancient Sheepscot, Sagadahoc,
or Pemaquid.
To these early and favorite points of human aggregation in the
eastern wilds, the devil, so busy in Plymouth among the Pilgrims,
granted a happy exemption from the perils of witchcraft, priest-
craft and the ferocity of bigots.
And yet these original plantations were not destitute of re-
ligious ordinances, nor did the early settlers decpreciate the
importance and value of religious institutions.
MAINE, AN EPISCOPAL ESTABLISHMENT.
The great patron of all colonial adventures to the wilds of
Maine, the founder of our name and our state, Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, was a member of the Episcopal Church.
Moreover it had been promulated from the Throne, that it was
the "will and pleasure of his Sovereign," "that the religion
professed in the Church of England, and the ecclesiastical
government used in the same, shall ever hereafter be profess-
ed, and with as much convenient speed as may be, settled and
established in and throughout the said Privince."1
Such were the purposes of Government, as expressed in the
royal state paper authorizing the colonial acts of Gorges
in founding the State of Maine.
Under such instructions intimating the purposes of the Royal
mind, Sir Ferdinando shaped the basis of his new wester State.
In this respect, the colonial history of our State opens in
contrast with that of the Massachusetts, whose jealous eye
watched for, and whos all-grasping hand was ready to seize
every opportunity, both by a liberal construction
Footnote. 1. Ecclesiastical Sketches.
p.333 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of her Charter powers, and in sketching to the untmost bound
her Charter limits. The plea of self-preservation may have
been the solace to the conscience of the authorities of the
Bay province, in grasping and grasping beyond her right, with
a view to strangle the embryo of "Church and State" with a
stong Puritanical hand.
1607.
Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that the hallowed
rites of the Christian church were first celebrated amidst
the wilds of Maine, before Massachusetts had an English
existence, on the island of Monhegan, under the St. George's
cross there set up by George Weymouth, or at the mouth of the
river Kennebec, on almost an island in the aboriginal province
of Sabino, of the territory of Sebanoa, the Indian lord of Saga-
dahoc, and according to the services of the English Episcopal
Church; and that the Reverend Richard Seymour of the Church of
England, was the earliest regularly inducted minister of the
Gospel whose voice broke upon the solitary wilds of New England,
in echoes of holy prayer and praise; and that his church at the
mouth of the Sagadahoc, on the margins of Atkins Bay, was the
earliest temple of worship whose heaven-lit shrine glowed with
light of a life to come amid the pagan gloom of our wild New
England shores. Two centuries and a half have passed since an
English town, with its fortress and church stood at the mouth
of the Sagadahoc, where Richard Seymour, for a twelve-month,
led the voice of prayer and praise in celebrating the worship
of the living and true God.
CONGREGATIONALISM INTRODUCED.
1661.
A half century had elapsed when Robert Gutch appeared some
twelve miles above Popham's town, at a place called "Long
Reach," the site of the present city of Bath, where he
lived, preached and perished. Twenty years prior to his
appearance as a public religious teacher in the clearings
of the lower waters of the Kennebec, Robert Gutch was a
resident of Salem, in Massachusetts, and had united him-
self in membership with the first church there. But Gutch
was an original occupant of the soil at the Reach, and had
become the owner thereof by purchase of the Sheepscot saga-
more, Damarin - or, "Robin Hood."
To the new clearings, settlements of the pioneer population,
and fishers' hamlets on the islands and river banks, which
had at this period begun to open the primeval forests along
the margins of the Sagadahoc, and adorn its banks with civil-
ized life in the rude habitations of the early frontier-men,
Robert Gutch came as a man of God, a preacher of righteous-
ness.
His own plantation on the Reach probably was a central point-
the nucleus of a considerable hamlet as the center of mission-
ary labor, according to the ordinary and natural laws of human
aggregation. A man of humble life, of
Footnote. 1. Charlesvoix, p. 435. Williamson, vol. i., p. 369.
p.335 AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
deep religious cast of mind, not endowed with literary attain-
ments, a type of that class of men who subsequently have appear-
ed as pioneers and foundation builders in the establishment of
Evangelical Congregationalism in Maine - Robert Gutch, a
Congregationalist of the ancient faith and order, moved by the
wants of the newly-settled clearings upon the Sagadahoc waters,
probably circulated from point to point as a missionary.
Tradition has presumed him to have been a Presbyterian. But
every indication is against such a presumption. The forms of
faith and worship among the early Congregationalists of New
England, were, to say the least, in strong affinity with
Presbyterianism, if indeed those forms and that faith were
not taken therefrom as the parent stock - of which Congre-
gationalism, as a slip plucked from this root, has been, by
unskilled hands, set out to grow up an unpruned shrub in
another field of the same soil, whose fruit, deprived of the
natural sap, becomes bitter or sweet, according to circum-
stances. The absence of ecclesiastical forms and sanctions,
so persistently adhered to by Presbyterian judicatures, is
pretty good presumptive proof that Robert Gutch was a simple
Congregationalist - an unlettered, pious man, whose gifts
and graces commended him to the people as a religious
teacher.
SITE OF ROBERT GUTCH'S CHURCH.
Near the head of Arrowsic island, opposite the city of Bath,
a house of worship was traceable in its decaying ruins for
many years, and had been seen while standing by ancient men
who knew the place where it stood after the house itself had
been destroyed, and which was reputed to be one of Mr. Gutch's
meeting houses.
Mr. Gutch's abode on the Reach was, without doubt, the
nucleus of a town midway between the Arrowsic towns on
the south and east, and the Merry Meeting plantations on
p.336 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
the north and west. Here, with the pious zeal and fortitude,
as the first missionary herald of the Cross in Maine for some
years, Mr. Gutch preached the unsearchable riches of the love
of Jesus to the early adventurous dwellers of this region,
who, with their lives in their hands, stoutly contested with
savage wilds and tempestuous seas, the resources of the deep,
as well as the dominion of the untamed and virgin soil.
THE DEATH OF GUTCH.
As he thus circulated from hamlet to hamlet, he was cut off
by being drowned, precisely when or where is not stated, but
probably while crossing to or from some of his preaching
stations. That he was a preacher of righteousness, and was
drowned at an early period, and that the peninsula of Long
Reach, the site of the city of Bath, was his home and poss-
ession, is the principal record of his life, labors, his end,
and the history we have.
The hamlet of Robert Gutch, as Long Reach, on the Sagadahoc,
it would seem escaped in the sacking of the Arrowsic towns
in the war of King Philip. As he was no "truckmaster" - no
military chieftain - no man conspicuous except as a servant
of the most high God, and therefore in no way obnoxious to
savage resentment, he probably remained unmolested. His life
and character may have been a shield, not only to himself and
household, but to the villagers of his hamlet on the Reach;
for being known only as a man of God, he was brought with-in
a circle of well-known savage veneration, Penhallow having
asserted "that it was remarkably observable that among all
the settlements and towns of figure and distinction, not one
of them has been utterly destroyed wherever a church was
gathered."
1669.
Robert Gutch was therefore one of the earliest missionaries,
and the site of the city of Bath one of the earliest stations
in Maine.
p.337 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS EXTINGUISHED.
Subsequent to the decease of Mr. Gutch, the destruction
and depopulation as a consequence of savage warfare, broke
up all the organizations of society. The institutions of
education and religion were utterly neglected, and the ord-
inances of religion were not administered and the altars
thereof were broken down; "and in those times there was
no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in,
but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants; and for
a long time the whole land lay without a teaching priest
and without the law."
EARLY ARRANGEMENTS FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION BY
THE RETURNING SETTLERS.
1683.
On the return of the fugitive inhabitants to re-people the
wastes of Philip's war, provision for religious instruction,
and the administration of its holy ordiances entered into the
original plans and organizations of those who went in to re-
possess the land and repair its breaches.
CONGREGATIONAL PROCLIVITIES OF THE RETURNING
SHEEPSCOT PLANTERS.
Within the Dukedom, those who organized to return and
revive the Sheepscot plantation, on "Mason and Jewett's
Neck," the ancient town of New Dartmouth, at their origin-
al meeting on Fort Hill in Boston, previous to embarkation,
ordained "that there shall be special and speedy order taken
that there may bee a convenient place as a tract of land laid
out for a Ministree, with a convenient place to set a meeting
house to ye best advantage for ye towne; and also, that we may
have a minister of our own free choyce, and such a man as ye
major parte of ye towne shall life and approve of ffor that
end."
p.338 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
EPISCOPAL SERVICE AT PEMAQUID.
At Jamestown, in the Pemaquid precinct of the Dukedom,
it was ordained in council that "for the forwarding of
piety it is requisite that a person be appointed by the
commissioners to read prayers and the holy scriptures."
Thus was early provision made for religious instruction,
at both capitals of the Dukedom, Congregational forms pre-
vailing at New Dartmouth (now Newcastle) on the Sheepscot,
and Episcopal forms prevailing at Jamestown, the captial at
Pemaquid.1 The two forms were in accordance with the views
and polity of the two settlements. At New Dartmouth, Massa-
chusetts emigrants re-occupied the wastes of Sheepscot, and
the principle of the majority, the voice of freemen, gave law
to the settlement; while at Jamestown military rule overrode
all rights and voice of the people, becoming so oppressive at
length as to force complain and petitions for redress to the
Governor of New York, from the inhabitants - Pemaquid, sub-
sequently to Philip's war, having been largely re-settled from
New York,1 the residence and seat of authority of the ducal
governor.
SAVAGE HOSTILITIES DISASTROUS TO RELIGION.
But the ruthless and bloody hand of war soon extinguished
these kindlings of religious interest. The tread of war,
the image of death, the besom of destruction, soon obliter-
ated every foot-pring of religion, and swept away every
vestige. The voice of prayer and praise was heard only in
camp, surrounded with soldiery and trappings of war; and
as the incense of Mars, it went up as an official offering
from the lips of those who, as chaplains, were attached to
expeditions for the chastisement and subjection of the
savage foe.
Apart from the army arrangements for religious instruction
Footnote. 1. Pemaquid Papers, pp. 51, 70, 80.
p.339 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
the voice of the man of God had ceased and the peopler
were without a teaching minister.
THE REJECTION OF BAXTER.
1717.
Mr. Baxter, a chaplain and missionary under appointment
to the Kennebec Indians, was set apart by Governor Dummer,
and introduced to them as their religious teacher of the
Protestant faith, whose services the savages were reluct-
ant to receive, and finally rejected, saying to the Govern-
or, as he exhibited the Bible as the symbol of Protestant
faith and authority, and Mr. Baxter as its expounder, in
the treaty conference - "all people have a love for their
ministers - and it would be strange if we did not love them
that come from God. God has given us teaching already; and
if we should go from that, we should displease God. We are
not capable to make any judgment about religion."
BENJAMIN GIBSON.
1723.
Such also was Benjamin Gibson at St. George's, who perhished
in the expedition of Colonel Westbrook up Penobscot River, in
the bitter cold of a February campaign, in which was destroyed
the chief village of the Penobscot tribe, together with their
church.
PRESBYTERIANISM INTRODUCED.
1729.
REVEREND ROBERT RUTHERFORD.
Reverend Robert Rutherford, was an Irishman and a Presby-
terian, the religious teacher of the Dunbar emigration.
Under the patronage of the Royal Governor of Sagadahoc,
he was introduced to Bristol, and stationed at Fort
Frederick at Pemaquid. It is quite probable he officiated
at first as a chaplain to Dunbar and then preached as a
missionary. The relations between Dunbar and this divine
were of the most intimate and confiding character. Upon
leaving his gubernatorial seat in Maine, Governor
p.340 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1743.
Dunbar committed his property in charge and possession to
Reverend Mr. Rutherford, his spiritual guide. Rutherford
is represented to have been a man of amiable and excellent
disposition. This early herald of the Cross preached in
Bristol, Brunswick and Georgetown.1 Dunbar died, and his
widow married Captain Henderson of St. George. Rutherford
followed to St. George, where he died and was buried near
the tomb of the late General Knox of Thomaston, where his
ashes still repose.
DUNBAR'S RELIGIOUS PROCLIVITIES.
It would appear from the interest of Colonel Dunbar in
Mr. Rutherford, that his own religious sympathies were
with the Presbyterian sentiments; whose forms of faith
and church order he undoubtedly did much to introduce and
establish within the boundaries of the Ancient Dominions
of Maine, by bringing into the country emigrants of this
belief to re-people and fill up its war-wasted towns and
Hamlets.
Hence the foundations were laid for religious organi-
zations of this ancient establishment throughout the
region; the blessed fruits of whose faith and virtue
appear to this day in the general purity of doctrine,
zeal, and piety which characterized the orthodox communi-
ties of this whole region, whose churches are scions from
this ancient stock, and whose root and fatness still im-
part freshness, verdure and fruitfulness.
1730.
Thus it will be seen that on the re-settlement of the
Ancient Dominions of Maine, under that efficient officer
of the Crown, Dunbar, a new race was introduced, and new
foundations for the administration of religious ordin-
ances were laid; and from this period and from these
causes we may date the beginnings of permanency and
prosperity in religious influence here.
Footnote. 1. March 19, 1743. Voted to raise £20 for
Mr. Rutherford. MSS. records, church in Georgetown,
M. L. Hill, Esq.
p.341 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
The Scotch-Irish emigrants of Dunbar and his co-
adutors brought with them their peculiar religious
views, sympathies and proclivities; and through them
the Church of Scotland sent out her roots and Pres-
byterianism started up on every side, here and there,
in the community, upon which, as the parent stock, most
of the Evangelical Congregational churches of this re-
gion were afterward grafted; and to the devoted and in-
telligent zeal and piety of a learned and faithful min-
istry here introduced by the Church of Scotland, and
set to watch, train and rear her distant sons and
daughters in their wild New England homes, the present
generation is greatly indebted for a pure faith and
precious gospel ordinances, administered according to
the ancient covenant engagements of the church of Christ.
THE RELIGIOUS HABITS OF PRESBYTERIANS.
1741.
The religious character and proclivities of the people,
in the Dunbar settlements, soon developed a state of
deep religious interest. Destitute of the stated means
of grace, "the people1 met together every Sabbath, and
frequently on other days, for the purpose of worshipp-
ing God in a public manner, by prayer, singing of
Psalms, and reading instructive books;" and "a happy
revival of religion" followed. Such was the state of
public feeling and interest in religion when Mrs.
Porterfield, escaping from shipwreck, found asylum
among the inhabitants of Townsend, which facts happily
illustrate the character of the newly planted colonists,
for religion and piety, within the Dunbar towns.
THOMAS PIERPONT.
Thomas Pierpont preached at St. George's as Chaplain of
Footnote. 1. Mrs. Porterfield's Narrative, White's New
England, p. 209.
p.342 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1731.
August 10th
the garrison there, receiving his compensation from the
public treasury - The religious views and standing of this
gentleman are unknown; but he unquestionably was one of the
earliest ministers of Thomaston.
1737.
Reverend Robert Dunlap, a native of the county of Antrim,
Ireland, and a graduate of Edinborough University, em-
barking with a numberous emigration for America, escap-
int the perils of shipwreck in the long-boat, when ninety-
six of his companions were engulfed, took up his residence
at Nobleboro'.1 How long he remained at the then thriving
village, is not known. He repaired
1747
to Boothbay, and he finally settled at Brunswick, Maine.
Robert Dunlap was a Presbyterian of the Scotch-Irish
faith, and undoubtedly an acquistion from the Dunbar
emigration.
THE EARLY CHURCH ORGANIZATION IN GEORGETOWN.
Seven years before, the organization of a church had
been made in the revived and re-peopled Arrowsic planta-
tions, now incorporated as Georgetown. This church2 was
organized in the faith and order of the gospel as held
by Presbyterians, with a membership of no less than
thirty male members.
But a considerable portion of the early settlers were
Congregationalists, and much attached to its forms of
church organization. "Hence dissension early arose."
WILLIAM MCLANATHAN.
1734.
William McLanathan was employed to preach; and for ten
years, he there performed ministerial labor. His ecclesi-
astical relationship is not clearly defined.
1745.
The probability is that at first he was Presbyterian and
when dismissed, he acquired Episcopal provclivities
Footnotes. 1. MSS from John McKeen, Esq. 2. Greenleaf's
Ecclesiastical Sketches. pp. 73, 75.
p.343 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
He officiated at the several points on the Sagadahoc
and Kennebec waters, in the service of the Church Mission-
ary Society, as a minister of the Episcopal Church. He
seems to have been a man of popular address and attractive
talents but selfish and unscrupulous in character, as well
as in the means adopted to accomplish his designs and ad-
vance his own interests. At Georgetown there early ex-
isted the nucleus of an Episcopal church and society, which
may indeed have been only the product of the change of
ecclesiastical relationship in the officiating clergyman,
and which never appears to have had a full development in
that neighborhood.
REVIVAL OF EPISCOPACY ON THE KENNEBEC.
The Kennebec river runs in a very direct course by the
present city of Bath, which feature gave the peculiar
and appropriate name of "Long Reach" to this portion of
the Sagadahoc and its margins on the west bank.
"At some distance below the city, a sudden turn of the
river at right angles, which immediately resumes its
previous southerly course, leaves the bank a rounded
headland, of bold shores and conspicuous position. It
was at this point an Episcopal church was erected."1
THE LITHGOW FAMILY.
The Lithgow family reared near the church, a spacious
and elegant mansion. The sacred edifice stood a few rods
from the river, at a distance from any settlement. Its
position undoubtedly was suggested by the fact that the
exigencies of the times and the customs of the inhabi-
tants made the river the great highway of travel, and
the light canoe, the vehicle of locomotion.
The church is described as having been a low building,
with a double floor, without traces of pews - simple,
without ostentation in architectural finish. The building
was finally appropriated to house cattle and the church-
yard, was converted
Footnote. 1. Frontier Miss. p. 281.
p.344 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
into a barnyard - was turned up by the plowshares.
THE PARAMOUNT RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE DUNBAR TOWNS.
CAPE NEWAGEN, THEN RENAMED BOOTHBAY.
But the great center of religious interest and influence
appears to have opened in one of the communities of Colonel
Dunbar, in the newly laid-out settlement of Townsend - a
modern appelation for the ancient Cape Newagen - since then
called Boothbay.
In the piety of its inhabitants recently introduced, of
Scotch-Irish descent and Presbyterian church relationship,
the foundations were laid for a wide-spread and deeply
moving religious power, through the whole region.
THE PURITY AND POWER OF SCOTCH-PRESBYTERIAN PIETY.
The light and power of their religious zeal and holy
living, kindled on all sides, the latent sparks of piety
which lay smoldering and smothered beneath the ruins and
decay of more than a generation wasted and broken by savage
war. Imbued with the spirit of the gospel, and breathed out
in that summary of faith embodied in the Westminster Assem-
bly's Catechism, these colonists became as lights in our
newly settled wilds, whose radiance illumined the darkness
of the whole region, and quickened, in a heterogeneous and
pioneer population, a very general desire to enjoy the
gospel ordinances, which developed shortly the most grand
and precious results. These results, traced in connection
with their causes, merit a conspicuous place on the page
of history, and a detailed narration in the annals of the
past, as a guide to the future explorer into the mysteries
of religious power.
DECEMBER 22, 1763.
This is our only apology for making copious selections from
the manuscript records of the first church of Boothbay, whose
date is anterior to the incorporation of that town, the church
being the first body politic there organized according to
Presbyterian principles.
p.345 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM THERE.
Rutherford and Dunlap1 had each labored prior to this date
in Boothbay. "The inhabitants of the ancient Cape Newagen,
long harassed and distressed by the natural difficulties of
settling a new country, and particularly by the frequent wars
with the savages," - by whom the settlement was repeatedly
broken up, and the whole place laid waste - had, at this
date, hardly gathered strength enough to settle the gospel
among them. Long had the land languished under "the heavy
affliction of silent Sabbaths." Various itinerant preachers
had occasionally afforded the inhabitants the privilege of
hearing the Word there, and in other places; and from time
to time, application had, by them, and by settlers in other
places, been "made to the Rev. Presbytery of Boston for
supplies.
THE INTRODUCTION OF JOHN MURRAY.
The neglect of the Presbytery to relieve their religious
necessities left the people in a state of despondency. But
as the darkness of religious destitution gathered over these
revived plantations in defiance of their efforts to roll back
the cloud, a star of hope dawned in "the arrival of Mr. John
Murray, a probationer from Ireland, drawn hither by repeated
invitations2 from one of the principal settlers" of Townsend.
THE REVEREND JONATHAN ADAMS.
ANDREW REED.
The Reverend Jonathan Adams, a native of the place and
the present incumbant of the ancient pulpit where the Rev.
John Murray officiated, and a lineal descendant of this
distinguished servant of the most high God, has informed
the author that the name of the "principal settler," whose
invitations at this early date, drew Mr. Murray, the Irish
probationer, to Boothbay, was "Andrew Reed," also an emigrant
Footnotes. 1. MSS records, Sess. Book, p.8. 2. Sess.
records, MSS. p. 8.
p.346 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
from Ireland and a native of the same town there with Murray,
whose uncle he was by marriage.
MURRAY'S FAVOR WITH THE PEOPLE.
The ministrations of the young Irish probationer, after
preaching some time, were found generally acceptable. At
Mr. Beath's house, the people of the place gathered,
"where they unanimously voted to give Mr. Murray an invita-
tion to be the stated pastor of the town."
As an encouragement for him to remain among them, ninety
pounds per annum were subscribed at once; and in addition
thereto, the settlers engaged to give him two hundred acres
of land to build him a house, "to clear and labor his said
lot," provide, cut and haul his firewood annually. A sub-
scription was started to secure these promises; and in the
language of the record - "the Lord spirited up the inhabi-
tants, so that it was quickly filled up."
PROMISE EXTORTED.
Mr. Murray proposing to return again to Ireland, and feel-
ing disinclined to remain in the newly-settled Townsend at
Boothbay, left in February. Determined to "push his call to
a final result," the inhabitants chose and sent a committee
to Boston to secure the influence of the ministry there, in
their behalf. All was found to be unavailing. But, after meet-
ing all his objections with perseverance and an importunity
that always conquers, a promise was finally extorted from
the candidate, "that, if he returned to settle in America,
should the application be renewed, Townsend should be the
place of his settlement." Elated with this promise of succ-
ess, the commissioners returned to the eastward and Murray
pursued his journey westward.
MURRAY'S DEPARTURE.
Importuned at New York and Philadelphia, he was diverted
p.347 ANCIENT REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
from his purpose of an immediate return to Ireland by a
call to the pastoral charge of a church in the latter city,
which circumstances seemed to require him to consider. He
thereupon informed his friends at Boothbay; and though they
replied by vigorous and repeated renewals of their suite,
"it would seem their wishes never reached his ear." He was
ordained by Presbytery over the church in Philadelphia.
ACTION OF THE PEOPLE OF BOOTHBAY.
On learning this event, the inhabitants of Boothbay, cling-
ing to the promise made to their commissioners, resolved to
prosecute their cause in the judicature of the Presbyterian
Church, solicited Captain Andrew Reed to communicate with Mr.
Murray on their purposes in this particular, who closes the
correspondence in behalf of the people by saying, "We are
firmly resolved to insist upon your promise to the uttermost,
as we believe they have got you settled there in Philadelphia
by fraud and treachery - by stopping both your letters and
ours." We here have a clue to this singular position of
matters in relation to these parties.
SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION OF THEIR CLAIMS.
The appeal of the people to the Presbytery of Philadelphia
passed unheeded. Not discouraged, the prosecutors carried
up their cause before the Synod of New York and Philadelph-
ia, by petition of the town, setting forth a statement of
facts, supported by documentary evidence, not doubting their
success, "if once they came before so conscientious a court
as the Synod." Andrew Reed was at the head of the prose-
cuting commission. In conclusion, the papers were all re-
turned by the same hands by which they were sent on; and
with them the minutes of Presbytery,
Footnote. Reverend John Murray of Boothbay used to be
called "Damnation Murray," in distinction from the Universa-
list Rev. John Murray of Cape Ann, who ws known as "Salvation
Murray." - J. W. Thornton of Boston.
p.348 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
whereby Mr. Murray "was liberated in manner and form as
full as was desired."
MURRAY'S RETURN TO BOOTHBAY - PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS.
Three months nearly elapsed ere Mr. Murray reached Booth-
bay, where he arrived to the great joy of the inhabitants,
though in a state of great physical prostration. The in-
habitants were gathered by the town officers under the
frame of their newly erected meeting-house. Fully attend-
ed, the meeting was opened with prayer. Mr. Murray pro-
ceeded to narrate to the assembled town all their trans-
actions with him from first to last. The Town Clerk read
all the votes and papers, which being approved, Mr. Murray
read to the assembled town his dismission - "opened at
large the history of his education and degrees at the uni-
versity; his license to preach, and certain difficulties
which had arisen between him and some ministers in Ireland,
respecting a certificate, which he expressed great sorrow
for attempting to support, after having discovered the
error of its authors - (begging pardon of God and man) -
together with the pretended censures which had appeared
in the public prints, and were attempted to be fixed on
him." Mr. Murray also read the minutes of the Presbyteries
of New York and Philadelphia, relating to himself, the
correspondence, etc., relating to the matter; and when all
was concluded, - "he called the meeting to testify, by the
usual sign, if any were dissatisfied with anything written
or said, or if any statement of their desires for his immed-
iate settlement had been occasioned?" A unanimous answer
in the negative relieved his solicitude. He then demanded,
as a final test, if there "was anyone who did not then ex-
pressly renew the call to him to settle in the pastoral
office, or who did not promise all that subjection to his
ministrations in every pastoral duty which is due to mini-
sters of the gospel, and to every ordinance of the gospel,
it should be signified." To all which the answers were in
the negative, unanimously. Whereupon Mr. Murray declared
his cheerful acceptance of the call, gave a short exhorta-
tion and closed the scene with prayer.
The following Sabbath he entered on his duties as pastor
of this newly-organized people of his charge, in the ser-
vices of a public dedication of their newly-erected
house of worship, while it was still very likely a primi-
tive and naked condition.
ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH.
1766.
To exhibit more fully the religious views and customs
prevailing at this remote period and which the Presbyter-
ian Church, in its official administration of the duties
of the pastoral relation among a people, required of its
clergy, we shall extract a further detailed account of
forms, facts and circumstances, so fully recorded under
the direction of the body of the Session, usually con-
sisting of the pastor, elders and deacons, of which body
the pastor, ex officio, is moderator, chairman or presi-
dent.
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION.
Mr. Murray proceeded to organize a church among this newly
colonized people, on the ground "that their relation to
God as a church, for the full enjoyment of the word and
ordinances of the gospel, is the greatest beauty and glory
of a people." In the solemn transaction the whole town en-
gaged, the inhabitants thereof being obliged to acknowledge
the great goodness of God in a very wonderful series of
mercies, deliverances and gifts of bounty from their first
settlement. That God may be glorified, Christ's visible
kingdom enlarged, and their own and the souls of their
posterity be daily built up in the knowledge and love of
God, this people "adventured to set their public hand to
the Lord's work." Such were the purposes and motives of
this
p.350 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE TOWN OF BOOTHBAY.
people as set forth in the public records, by which, add
they, "we do, therefore, pursuant to a legal vote of this
town, in Town Meeting assembled, this day unite and incorp-
orate our-selves and all who shall from time to time join
with us, into an organized branch of the visible church,"
upon certain fundamental articles, viz. "that the town of
Boothbay shall be deemed to be under the ecclesiastical
constitution of the Presbyterians as to worship, ordinances,
discipline and government; that the Westminster Confession
of Faith, Longer and Shorter Catechism," be their public
confession of faith; that pastors, ruling elders and deacons
be always used in said church; that no person shall be re-
ceived to fellowship with this church in any sealing ordin-
ance, as baptism for himself and infant children, or Lord's
Supper, whose religion, faith, or practice is found not con-
formed to the received standard, i.e., who are not in judgment
of rational charity, visible Christians.
PECULIAR FORMS OF PRESBYTERIANS.
It will be a novelty at least, if it do not show a wide and
perilous departure from ancient usage in the practice of our
churches at this day - in which they are shorn of much of
their glory and power, on account of which "Zion languishes,
because few come to her solemn feasts," to narrate the form-
al rites of induction into office, as performed in this church,
of its minor officers.
The result of the election and examination of the individ-
uals to be set apart to these offices in the church, was
publicly declared, when it was unanimously agreed that ord-
ination be solemnly attended in the meeting-house in the
forenoon.
THE ORDINATION OF ELDERS.
A bench was set in the broad alley of the house, where the
officers took their seats during the preparatory services.
p.351 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
SEPTEMBER 20, 1767.
Then the pastor, calling on the congregation to look on
the persons set before them, explained the duties, author-
ity and institution of the offices of ruling elders and
deacons - exhibited the warrant and necessity for such
officers in every church of Christ. Their choice and
election by the church and "their acceptance of the call"
were recited, together with the fact that they had been
publicly propounded before the congregation three several
Sabbaths, and that they had satisfactorily sustained ex-
amination, privately by the pastor and then publicly before
the church, as to knowledge, their creed, experience, and
practice in religion. The pastor "then solemnly adjured all
those present, as before the living God, to signify, by
holding up the hand, if they knew anything against their
being set apart to these offices."
No objection being made, the church was called on to renew
their confidence in and their call to these persons by the
same token; which being unanimously and publicly given, "the
officers elect were called to stand forth," and publicly in-
terrogated as to their experimental acquaintance with the
way of salvation through free grace in Christ Jesus, their
resolutions of Christian practice and their adhesion to the
Westminster Confession of Faith, and as to the essential
articles of religion and discipline. In all these parti-
culars, "having made such professions as were fully satis-
factory," signified their acceptance of the call given them
by the church, and indicated their purposes in such accept-
ance, "they solemnly covenanted and with uplifted hands, did
publicly swear to Almighty God, the faithful and constant per-
formance of the duties of their several offices, when by
prayer with fasting, they were solemnly set apart, ordained,
and dedicated to their respective offices." "The minister,
coming down from the pulpit, gave to each of them the right
hand of fellowship, with the express form of their admission
to their respective powers and trusts." This being done,
"members appointed
p.352 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
as commissioners for the church," coming up, "did, by giving
the right hand, received them as officers of the church, and
stipulate to them as such, in the church's name, all due sub-
jection, assistance and encouragement in the Lord."
The minister then returned to the pulpit, "and publicly
recognized them by name, on his own and the church's be-
half, as duly vested with the powers of their respective
offices." A solemn charge then followed, a psalm was sung,
and the great transaction was closed.
Thus constituted and endowed as a church estate, the
people of this recently colonized and instituted town,
characterized in all their acts by the stern virtues of
their noble ancestry, animated with the spirit of Wickliff
and Knox in the decided principles of a bold and earnest
piety, publicly proclaimed their estimate of the value of
the gospel, and endeavored to forestall covenanted mercies
to the enjoyment of themselves and their posterity, in that
they would seek the Lord after "due order."
RULING ELDERS.
William Moore,
Robert Murray,1
John Beath,
Nehemiah Harrendon
DEACONS.
Israel Davis,
Samuel Adams,
Ephraim McFarland.
RELIGION A BUSINESS.
The church, thus perfected in its organization, began,
like "the leaven hid in three measures of meal," to de-
velop its power in the community where it was constituted,
and work out those results for which its Great Head had
ordained it on earth, by bringing to bear on the popular
mind and heart those restraining, reformatory and saving
influences which affect human welfare here and hereafter.
Monthly meetings of the Session for prayer, fasting, and
mutual consultation and conference were instituted, each
member of the Session making it "his care to know the
Footnote. 1. Father of Rev. John Murray. Reverend
Jonathan Adams.
p.353 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
general state of the flock - to visit them in their
families by two and two, and examine into their religious
state every quarter." In the execution of this design, the
field was divided into districts, and an Elder and a Deacon
were assigned to the charge of each district. The western,
embracing Oven's Mouth, Menikuk, Damariscove, Cape Newagen,
and the other islands, was given in charge to Harrendon
and Davis. From the pond and meeting-house to Cross River,
Murray and Adams were placed in charge, which embraced the
northern district. From the bounds of the settlement called
"Free Town," (now Edgecomb) and Pleasant Cove to Liniken's
Neck, was made the eastern district, which was assigned to
Beath and McFarland.
In this methodical manner, in accordance with the spirit
of that organization of ecclesiastical polity termed
Presbyterianism, the church by it animated sought in "due
order" to cultivate the vineyard which the Lord had given
her to order.
THE FIELD OF LABOR.
Mr. Murray's private journal will give an idea of the
nature of his field of labor, and of the religious condi-
tion of the people prior to the organization of the church;
while a further extract from the manuscript records of the
Session Book will show his abundant labors and fidelity as
a pastor.
A course of pastoral visitation was immediately instituted
in which "all the inhabitants at their houses were visited,
catachised and conversed with, every one separately, old
and young, concerning the state of their souls and the great
work of salvation it was necessary all should experience in
order to their final welfare. The remarks of each day's
visit, the names of all the persons in each family, with all
the observations made of the state in which he found them,
were entered on a book, and every visit concluded with
prayer."
p.354 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
THE STATE OF MURRAY'S MIND.
After one of these visits, Mr. Murray writes thus: -
"Alas! alas! What shall I say? I now fear the success
of my ministry more than ever. Oh, my God, enable me to
be found faithful. Make thy strength perfect in my great
weakness. Oh, pour out thy Spirit on these poor families
that they may not forget the promises this day made in
Thy sight - that thy worship shall be daily mornig and
evening maintained in their houses and they shall never
rest until they have received thy Christ into all their
hearts.1 A dismal prospect truly! All prayerless - all
ignorant of God and of themselves - all determined to
cherish their hopes, though I have found but two who can
rationally profess any experience of the power of religion-
some of the English Church, some Separatists - most them
nothing at all. Arise, O Lord, or this people shall perish.
O show they salvation to them, revive Thine own work, or we
are an undone people!"
Again he writes: "Now this week's visits are finished - what
have I done? Have I been faithful? O, if so in any measure,
praise to You, my rock, my strength!" All have promised
to be in earnest about salvation. O Lord, I commit the whole
to Thee. Breathe on my poor feeble attempts - grant the
success - 'tis all of Thee! O come among this blind, harden-
ed, perishing people. Show them thy salvation.
But the scene began gradually to assume a more hopeful aspect
in the eyes of this man of God, as he made his weekly circuit
of the field in search of sheaves.
Footnote. 1. Greenleaf's Eccles. Sketches p, 134.
p.355 APPLICATION FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.
Eleven men and twenty women, from the circumjacent settle-
ments and plantations, "members of other churches," made
application to be incorporated in the church. It is emin-
ently desireable that original forms (and the form is often
essential to the successful execution of a duty) should not
be forgotten, if permitted to pass into desuetude. There ever
has been a "due order" to be observed in the church service,
which, if not essential as a guarantee of Divine favor, yet,
when neglected, it has been the precursor of the Divine
displeasure. A spirit of innovation, begetting neglect and
depreciation of ancient rites, duties and forms of faith and
service, now prevails, foreboding the utter effacement of
"ancient landmarks" in the church, and the entire abandon-
ment of those metes and bounds whereon she was accustomed to
"lengthen her cords and strengthen here stakes."
p.357 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Is it, therefore, matter of surprise that weakness, inablity,
leanness and looseness should be marked features of the
church? This view is offered as our only apology for a de-
tailed account of the rites, ceremonies and practise of the
church at Boothbay, at this early period, while in the fresh-
ness and fervor of her zeal.
The persons seeking the enjoyment of sealing ordinances in
the bosom of this church were first "privately examined by
the Pastor as to their faith and knowledge of the principles
of religion; as to their experience of a work of grace in
their souls, and their ends in seeking, as well as their
knowledge of the nature of the ordinances they would enjoy;
and as to their practice of religion in their lives and
conversation." Being found, in the judgment of charity,
visible members of the visible church, it was decided to
receive them to the enjoyment of "sealing ordinances." But,
as these persons had not been under the watch of their own
churches, having lived remote, before a public recognition
of their newly-created relationship should be made, it was
deemed as a condition of their admission to sealing ordin-
ances, that "they should first be propounded before the
congregation."
This was done "by adjuring the assembly in the name of the
Most High God, on three Lord's days in time of public worship,
as they should answer at his awful bar, - as they would not
conspire for his dishonor, and overthrow the Church of Christ,
as they would not be found guilty of the blood of souls - if
they knew any matter of just objection against any of the
persons propounded, they should freely declare it." Such was
the solemn and impressive ceremony preliminary to a recogni-
tion of membership in the body of Christ. An appointed day was
assigned, when, at the pastor's lodgings, in the presence of
all, objections, if
p.358 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
any, would be heard. No one appeared against any one of the
candidates. Here the terms of the covenant of grace were made
known; and each, with uplifted hand, having adopted it and
promised compliance with divine ordinances, was incorporated.
PUBLIC ESPOUSALS.
A sabbath was now announced in which the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper was to be celebrated; and a free invitation
was extended to "all of such and such qualifications as
were there mentioned, to come and welcome to the sacred
feast." In prospect of this sacred festival, many came
forward to join therein, to which those only were admitted
on examination and approval, as before described in manner
and form - "for several persons applied whom it was thought
necessary to discourage and debar."
On Tuesday before the preparation Sabbath, the approved
communicants assembled for public worship according to pre-
vious appointment; when a large congregation besides gather-
ed at the place of meeting "and evident tokens of God's
gracious presence were seen and felt by many."
PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION.
The preparation Sabbath at length dawned and the entire
day was spent in considering the nature of the Lord's
Supper - the qualifications of worthy communicants - the
perils of unworthily communicating were plainly set forth
in an exposition of the inquiry, "Friend, how camest thou
in hither, not having a wedding garment?" and "the ends
proper to have in view in coming, and the business proper
at the Lord's Table." The following Wednesday was appointed
as a day of public humiliation and fasting in town.
The congregation met. All were summoned to unite in the
solemn transaction. A solemn confession was made before
Almighty God. Their iniquities, as they stood "particu-
p.359 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
larly opposed to each of the ten commandments of the law,
and to all the articles of the gospel with their peculiar
aggravations, were spread out before the Lord" - as the
narrator records, "accusing, Judging and condemning our-
selves for them - by which our hearts were rendered unfit
and ourselves unworthy to make so near an approach to Him
as we had the prospect of attempting the ensuing Sabbath."
And then the benefits of redemption were opened, "as leading
the way of the congregation over to a solemn and particular
covenant with God, in which we all were given away forever,"
and the whole concluded by charging everyone with the "great
work of self-examination, and secret personal renewing their
covenant by word or writing that day."
DISTRIBUTION OF TOKENS.
The Saturday afternoon preceding the great festival Sabbath
was occupied in a preparatory sermon on the dying love of
Christ, and on this occasion, the pastor, "before dismissing
the congregation, came down from the puplit and standing be-
fore the Communion table, declared the qualification of such
as should be welcome to approach the ordinance in view; pub-
lished a free invitation addressed to particular characters;
and then poured out on the table a great number of small
square pieces of lead, on which the initial letters of his
name were stamped in capitals." The congregation were in-
formed that it was a custom of Presbyterians to distribute
these, as tokens of admission to the privileges of Christ's
disciples, before the administration of the Lord's supper,
by which the church intends to guard against the approach
of persons not approved; no one being permitted to sit down
at that table without delivering his token into the hands of
the elder, who is to be stationed at the end of the table
for that purpose; and to give every communican a previous
opportunity of knowing all his fellow communicants at that
feast, both that they may have the more particular
p.360 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
inducement to sit together in the bonds of love, and that
time may be given them to object to any person who has
broken the law of charity, and that this token may be a
perpetual monitor to him that takes it of his great obliga-
tions - reminding him of his high privileges, and need of
preparation and self-examination.
Before the delivery of these tokens, solemn prayer was
made; and then an exhortation given, during which the
communicants were desire, one by one, to come up and
receive their tokens from the pastor's hand, and then
return to their seats. Thus was made the distribution.
SACRAMENTAL FESTIVAL.
On the morning of the sacramental Sabbath, the congra-
gation convened at nine o'clock attracted by the suspic-
ious event, so long looked forward to with deep and tender
interest by all the inhabitants of the circumjacent region.
SPREADING THE TABLES.
The tables then were set in form of a triangle, extending
to the three principal alleys of the house, "allowing room
for the communicants to sit on each side of each table,
and for the serving officers to pass at the communicants'
back. The tables met and joined in the midst, just before
the pulpit. In the center was set a small table, on which
the elements were placed, where also the minister was to
stand during the administration. All the tables were spread
with clean linen. Six platters were set in two rows par-
allel to each other; and on each platter a communion cup,
and "fronting each table a flagon full of red wine, the only
sort used by Presbyterians in this ordinance.
Between the two rows of cups, were set in the middle three
large dishes covered with a fine napkin, the central one con-
taining a large common loaf of bread, pared and scored so as
to be easily broken by the minister's hands.
p.361 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The serving officers were stationed, one at the door to
receive contribution of the assembling congretation, an
elder and a deacon were stationed at each table, the form-
er to receive the tokens as the communicants sat down, and
both to aid in sending the bread and wine along the table,
and an elder was stationed at the store or closet under the
pulpit, where the elements were kept, to supply any defic-
iency in the elements served.
FENCING THE SACRAMENTAL TABLES.
Appropriate services of worship were performed on the
Sabbath; but were concluded by an exercise peculiar to
the occasion, called "Fencing the table." This was a
formulary debarring in various particulars all those
characters supposed to be comprehended under the terms
described as "the ignorant, the unbelieving and the pro-
fane."
The act of fencing ended, the communicants were invited
to be seated, to give opportunity for which a hymn was
sung; and during the singing, the minister descended
from the pulpit and took his seat at the "Element table"
in the center. Then, as the tokens were taken up by the
elders, the minister arose and spoke; and as he began,
the officers uncovered the bread and vessels on the table
before him.
The tables were then served, and the elements distributed
to the communicants. A solemn thanksgiving was then offer-
ed to God, and a conclusion of the sacred scene was had
in the benediction; and on the Monday following, at eleven
o'clock, a thanksgiving sermon was preached, "and the
solemn work was closed."
THE FIRST GREAT REVIVAL.
1767.
It will not seem strange that the narrative should pro-
ceed to relate "that it had been very observable through
the whole of the winter that a very unusual seriousness
and solemnity appeared amongst the generality
p.362 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of the people, accompanied with an insatiable desire
after the word." Several persons were awakened to an
anxious concern for their souls, but nothing remarkable
until the sacramental season described. Then there were
such symptoms of the powerful and special presence of the
God of grace as every one might discern. It as a solemn,
sweet, and glorious season. Many of God's children were
filled with the joy of their Lord, and many poor souls
brought in to see their need of that Savior they had
shamefully neglected. The facts were evident the ensuing
week, and on the next Sabbath.
RAPID SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS ITEREST.
Immediately the pastor, as the call of several of the
neighboring towns, visited them on the gospel errand.
"Beginning with Squam (now Westport) and Freetown (now
Edgecomb) he visited Pownalborough, (Dresden and Wiscasset)
Sheepscot, the head of the tide, (Alna) Walpole, Harring-
ton, etc." During this tour, Mr. Murray preached every day
for two weeks which it consumed. The work of God was glori-
ous. Every day it appeared some were awakened. Many souls,
old and young, were pricked to the heart, many obliged to
cry out in their distress; some were clearly brought into
the light of the gospel. "It seemed in all these places
that the Almighty hand was displayed with such power as if
the Lord was resolved to make his Word bear down everything
before it."
THE REMARKABLE FEATURES OF THE REVIVAL.
On Mr. Murray's return from his extended round of labor in
the neighboring towns on this glorious occasion, he told
the wonderful works of God, both from the pulpit and at
the society and the Wednesday exercise. The news was very
joyful to all who had ever tasted anything of religion - very
alarming to the sinner - and it confirmed greatly the
p.363 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
convictions of such as had been awakened. Religiion became
the conversation of all companies. The voice of opposition
was struck dead. Upon almost every occasion of public
worship (which then was more frequent than usual), the
congregation was drowned in tears, and some new instances
of conviction or comfort appeared. The pastor's lodgings
were then crowded with poor wounded souls, that knew not
what to do, with whom he often found sweet employment day
and night, sometimes until three o'clock in the morning,
and often till midnight. The inermission seasons on the
Sabbath were taken up entirely in the works of piety.
Some would repair wherever they saw any person deemed an
experienced Christian (all of whom were found greatly
quickened at that time) to lay their cases open to; some
to the minister, some to secret prayer, and great companies
would retire to the woods to sing hymns of praise, so that
one might almost all the time hear the wilderness singing
hosannas! It seemed sometimes as if heaven was come down
to dwell on earth. The Wednesday exercises were also greatly
blessed, especially on the young people; and the children's
days, in some of which we could see the dear little babes,
by forty in company crying and weeping on account of their
state, while their tender parents, with bursting hearts and
streaming eyes, stood by, and in some - particularly once
in the west end of the town - the whole congregation seemed
to be taken hold of. After the blessing was pronounced,
their hearts were so wounded that near thirty persons, men
and women, cried out, whilst a goodly number of God's child-
ren were overcome with joy at the sight.
Thus it continued all that summer. "What fruits may appear,
what numbers were brought home, we presume not to guess,"
says the narrator; "but for the sake of following ages,
into whose hands these records may fall, we cannot help
leaving this our joint public testimony to the
p.364 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
glory of God, that there has been an evident, powerful and
glorious work of God's Spirit carried on in this and the
neighboring Towns."1
Such are the original records of the causes, fruits and
agencies of the first and most extensive and glorious re-
vival that ever occurred within the precincts of the
ancient Sheepscot, Pemaquid and Sagadahoc; for it appears
that Mr. Murray, at this time, and from the midst of these
scenes of deep and thrilling interest and importance, "was
called to visit Pemaquid, Muscongus, Broad Cove, Walpole
and Harrington, consuming two weeks, in which he preached
every day; and it appeared that the work of God was not
small in any of them, especially at Broad Cove."
At the call of the town of Bristol, on another visit, a
church was organized and elders ordained by him.1
This revival must have worked deeply among the elements
of society, insinuating its saving power into the adjoin-
ing towns, where a thin and scattered population had re-
cently planted themselves.2 The heterogeneous mass de-
veloped many interesting features under the ferment of
this grand religious impulse, made up as society of
Quakerism, formalism, and error. "Mary Allen of the
district of Freetown (Edgecomb) and certain others, her
family," Quakers by education and profession, became
awakened and converted, and soon after connected with the
Presbyterian Church, publicly renouncing their former views,
and entering into covenant with God and his church. How
pungent, then, must have been this truly great and glorious
work!
This great revival spread throughout the Dunbar towns in
the Province of Sagadahoc; and at the ancient central points
it concentrated its life-giving power, and lingered in the
hearts and the memories of that generation till it left
Footnotes. 1. Records of Session Book, Boothbay, pp. 23, 24.
2. Greenleaf's Ecclesiastical Sketches, p. 138.
p.365 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
faceable impressions on the age. Georgetown1 shared largely
in this wonderful effusion of the Spirit of God.
As an illustration of the religious enthusiasm of the day,
and the zeal of Presbyterian matrons, and the influence of
Murray as a religious teacher, a fact in the history of
Mrs. Miller, an early settler of the town of Warren, is
here given.
THE REVEREND JOHN MURRAY OF BOOTHBAY.
She is represented to have been an amiable and godly woman,
and in plain attire - always scrupulously clean and neat -
she would always attend church, walking bare-footed thither,
after the fashion of her country, but putting on her shoes
and taking off her bonnet when she reached the place of
worship. During the revivals attendant on the preaching
of the Reverend John Murray of Boothbay, whenever he held
meetings at Damariscotta, with others of her countrywomen,
Mrs. Miller would foot it thither, through the almost path-
less woods, to hear him.2
BROAD BAY PLANTATIONS.
THE GERMAN COLONISTS.
The German colonists, though destitute at first of regular
preaching, constantly sustained religious worship, led by
a Mr. Ulmer. Such was their habit till the settlements were
broken up, as we have before related. After the return of
the colonists, this personage combined in himself the office
of priest, prince and general.3
1762.
John M. Schaffer followed. A great singer and smart preacher,
he held the hearts of the people captive. His moral charact-
er was clouded; his heart was selfish and destitute of vir-
tue. A woman of great personal charms, the wife of another,
was too powerful for his virtue. He seduced and eloped with
her to this country, abandoning his own wife in the father-
land. He gained wealth and fame
Footntoes. In Georgetown about this time (1765) there was
a great revival of religion - Hon. M. L. Hill. 2. Eaton's
annals, p. 122. 3. Annals of Warren, p. 115.
p.366 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
as physician of both soul and body. Inspection of urine,
blood-letting, and nostrums made up his practice; and a
sloop's hold of wood often went to pay his poor parish-
ioner patient's bills.
Profane, intemperate and extorionate, he can be viewed in
no other light by the historian, than a wolf in sheep's
clothing, who, recognizing his own monstrous double char-
acter, was wont to excuse and explain, or apologize, by
saying, "When I have my plack coat on, then I am a
minister, and you must do as I say: but when I have my
green coat on, then I am at Doctor." 1
1768.
A Moravian from German, by the name of Cilley, visited
the Broad Bay plantations. Spiritual and devoted in his
services, many were converted to his views. His flock with
himself, two years after, emigrated to and settled in North
Carolina. Three hundred families thus departing, left a void
in the heart of the Ancient Dominions. The vacant fields
and clearings were not left to solitude and decay, but soon
were reoccupied by coloniest from Massachusetts; and were
again filled with busy life and labor.
End.
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