USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > A history of Peaks Island and its people : also a short history of House Island, Portland, Maine > Part 1
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Gc 974.1 G64h
Gc 974.1 G64h 1235093
ML
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01083 6663
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014
https://archive.org/details/historyofpeaksis00gool_0
A HISTORY
OF
PEAKS ISLAND Marine
AND ITS PEOPLE.
ALSO
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
HE POBL
HOUSE ISLAND,
PORTLAND, MAINE.
BY NATHAN GOOLD.
PORTLAND, ME. THE LAKESIDE PRESS. 1897.
1235093
NOTE.
IN presenting this history of two of the best known islands in Portland Harbor, it has been the intention of the author to give only the story of the early days of those islands, and of the families who have contributed to their history.
It has been truly said that it is human to err, and if the reader finds that errors have crept into the narrative, it must be expected, as a perfect history has yet to be written.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER.
PAGE.
I. INTRODUCTION .- NAMES OF THE ISLAND .- AREA OF ISLANDS .- EARLY HOUSES, 7
II. TITLES TO PEAKS ISLAND .- CAPTAIN JOHN WAITE AND FAMILY .- BRACKETT AND TROTT LANDS,
12
III. THE STONE HOUSE .- ITS LOCATION AND HISTORY. - "THE REFUGE." - GEORGE FELT, JR., AND HIS MASSACRE .- INDIAN HISTORY, 21
IV. REVOLUTIONARY ALARM .- SHIPWRECK .- HARBOR FROZEN .-- A HERMIT .- SOLDIERS OF THE REBELLION .- REGIMENTAL BUILD- INGS .- RELIGIOUS MEETINGS .- HOME OF THE ANCESTORS OF TWO FAMOUS AMERI- CANS, .
31
V. STEAMBOAT LINES .- STEAMERS KENNEBEC, 40 ANTELOPE, CASCO, GAZELLE, AND OTHERS, VI. FAMILY HISTORIES .- BRACKETT, TROTT, WOODBURY, PARSONS, JONES, SKILLINGS, STERLING, TREFETHEN, SCOTT, . 46
VII. HOUSE ISLAND .- THE OWNERS AND SOME OF THEIR HISTORY, . 77
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PEAKS ISLAND, . FRONTISPIECE
MAP OF THE HARBOR,
OPPOSITE PAGE 40
HOUSE ISLAND,
OPPOSITE PAGE 77
1
PEAKS ISLAND:
ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION .- NAMES OF ISLAND .- AREA OF ISLANDS. EARLY HOUSES.
"There are no times like the old times -they shall never be forgot! There is no place like the old place - keep green the dear old spot!"
PEAKS ISLAND is not famed in history or song. The poet has not sung of its beauties and the historian has passed it by, but it has its history and its beauties are acknowledged by all.
The earliest voyagers found Casco Bay adapted for a playground and a summer resort. Christopher Levitt, in 1623, said that there was good fishing and much fowl. He found plenty of salmon and other good fish in Fore River. Michael Mitton told Josselyn of seeing a merman who came and laid his hands on the side of his canoe and that he chopped off one of his hands and that he then sank, dyeing the water with his purple blood. Josselyn said, "Trouts there be a good store
8
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
in every brook two and twenty inches long." These tales were told almost two centuries and a half ago to induce people to make our bay their future home. This was before the days of the summer resort advertiser.
The names that Peaks Island has borne at different times are of much interest in its history. The first known name of the island was Pond, but that name was changed by George Cleeve to Michael's Island in 1637. Probably about 1661 it was called Munjoy's Island, for George Munjoy, and then about 1670 it became known as Palmer's Island, for John Palmer, which name it seems to have borne up to the re-settlement of the town in 1716, although it was then sometimes called Munjoy's Island. Perhaps soon after the town was re-settled the island became to be known as Peaks Island, although there is no known reason why that name was taken. Joseph Peake was a soldier in Capt. Domini- cus Jordan's Company in 1744; he may be the man for whom it was named, as he must have lived at Cape Elizabeth or perhaps on the island. There appears no record of any person of that name ever owning the island before 1741, when it was called Peaks Island.
The name has no special significance to
9
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
us, but it is well to keep the old familiar names of our islands and localities. They have long ago become historic and are known landmarks. Let the coming generations know them by the same names that they are known to us. It will make their history much more interesting to those who will come to enjoy their beauties.
Peaks Island is the most popular island in the bay; partly because of its accessibility, but more from the fact that the visitors feel a freedom that they experience on no other island. You are allowed to wander unmo- lested through the fields, along the shores and through their woods, and leave with a kindly feeling toward the island and its peo- ple. Portland is fortunate to have such a playground almost at its very door.
The city proper has an area of 1,666 acres, and the islands within the city limits have an area of 2,963 acres. The areas of these islands are:
Peaks Island, 720 acres.
Long Island,
·
912 66
Cushing's Island,
266 66
House Island,
20
Little Diamond Island, .
80
66
Great Diamond Island, . . 468 66
IO
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
Crotch (Cliff) Island,
II4 acres.
Hope Island, 18
Little Chebeague Island,
72
66
Jewells Island,
221
66
Cow Island, .
28
Ram Island, .
18
Marsh Island,
.
I4
Other small islands,
I2
Total,
2,963 acres.
66
Peaks Island is next to the largest of them all, and in its widest part is one and one-half miles long, and one and one-quarter broad. It had, in 1896, a resident population of 343. In the early times it was probably covered with a growth of hard wood, of small size, and bushes. For two centuries there was not a regular road or a horse upon the island. The farm work was done by oxen. The inhabitants were formerly engaged in a little farming and a good deal of fishing, but of late years the entertainment of summer visitors has engaged most of their attention.
At the time of the Revolution there were probably but three houses on the island: Thomas Brackett's, Benjamin Trott's, and the house near Trefethen's Landing, where Capt. John Waite had lived. In 1830 there were on Peaks Island thirteen families and
II
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
seventy inhabitants. In 1833 there were the following houses there: Joseph Reed's, occu- pied by his sons-in-law, Nathaniel S. Millett and Walter S. Hatch; Benjamin Welch's, John T. Brackett's, now the Peaks Island House, Joshua Trott's (the old Trott house), Luther Sterling's (the Mansfield house), Benjamin · Trott, Jr.'s, with Francis and Charles Wood- bury's, near Trefethen's Landing. They were all one-story except John T. Brackett's and Joshua Trott's, which were two.
Many families have lived on the island in different generations who have had no titles to the land, who have been long, long for- gotten. It is one of the most beautiful islands in Casco Bay, and must increase in popularity as the years come and go. It is now a community of itself, and the appear- ance of the island is the best evidence of its prosperity. The outlook from almost any point is fine. The view toward White Head, and also that from the bluff toward the setting sun, is as beautiful as can be found on our coast.
"This is the place. Stand still, my steed, Let me review the scene, And summon from the shadowy Past The forms that once have been."
CHAPTER II.
THE TITLES TO PEAKS ISLAND .- CAPT. JOHN WAITE AND FAMILY .- BRACKETT AND TROTT LANDS.
"The Past and Present here unite Beneath Time's flowing tide, Like footprints hidden by a brook But seen on either side."
THE history of Peaks Island commences almost with the settlement of Portland, and perhaps before. When Capt. Christopher Levitt was here in 1623 and the next year, he and his men were, no doubt, frequent visitors to this island. They were probably the first white men to land much there. George Cleeve and Richard Tucker settled Portland in 1633 and built themselves a log house near the spot where the poet Longfellow was born in 1807. By that settlement they acquired one hundred and fifty acres of land each, on Falmouth Neck, as Portland was afterwards called.
In 1637, by a commission from Sir Fer- nando Gorges, for letting and settling of lands and the islands, Cleeve leased Pond (Peaks) Island to Michael Mitton for sixty years, and stated that the name should be Michael's Island for Mitton, who had married his
I3
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
daughter, Elizabeth Cleeve. The island was at first called Pond because of a pond upon the eastern side, which still exists except in the dryest times. The title was confirmed to Mitton by Gorges in 1642, and again by Cleeve, as Alexander Rigby's agent, in 1650. Michael Mitton lived at Cape Elizabeth, near the end of Portland Bridge, on a lot deeded to him by Cleeve, in Rigby's name, in 1650. Mitton died in 1660, and Cleeve probably about ten years later-a very old man.
Elizabeth (Cleeve) Mitton, then a widow, conveyed Michael's Island to John Phillips, a merchant of Boston, in 1661, and George Munjoy married his only daughter, Mary Phillips. Their daughter, Mary Munjoy, married John Palmer. Munjoy improved the island and built a stone house upon it before the year 1670, and probably fish stages and flakes. There is no evidence that he ever occupied that house. No other island has been called Munjoy's Island in the records. George Munjoy's place of business and dwell- ing-house were on the lot on the west corner of what is now Fore and Mountfort Streets, but of course must have extended along Fore Street. The house was fortified and known as "Munjoy's Garrison." The seashore then
14
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
was almost to the street and there was an un- obstructed view of the harbor.
John Palmer, Munjoy's son-in-law, and his family lived on Peaks Island several years before 1675, in the stone house. Then it be- came known as Palmer's Island, as it had been given to Palmer's wife by her grand- father, John Phillips. Mary Jordan, widow of Samuel Jordan, ancestors of the writer, stated in her deposition, made in 1741, when she was an old lady, that Palmer and family lived in the stone house on Palmer's Island several years, until the Indians drove them off, which was no doubt in 1675, at the be- ginning of the King Philip's War. In 1680 George Munjoy died, aged 54 years. In 1681 the selectmen of the town "confirmed to Mary, daughter of George Munjoy, senior, deceased, all that island given her by her grandfather, Mr. J. Phillips, by the name of Pond Island or Mr. Munjoy's Island." This was John Palmer's wife. She and, probably, he were carried away or killed by the In- dians some years later, and were never heard from.
Peaks Island was claimed by the posterity of Cleeve and Mitton, and the owners of the Phillips' title from the heirs of Mary (Mun-
15
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
joy) Palmer, who were then Parson Thomas Smith and Capt. John Waite. Anthony and Joshua Brackett were the Mitton heirs, and in 1741, at York, there was a lawsuit relating to the title of four thousand acres of land, in which Peaks Island was included. Parson Smith says in his journal, under date of June 23, 1741: "Our great case came on this morning, and was not finished till between nine and ten at night." The next day he
says: "The jury brought in against us"; but in 1742 he claimed to own one-third part of Peaks and the same of House Island. The case of the title to Peaks Island was again tried in the Inferior Court in 1762; this time by Capt. John Waite, probably alone, and again in the Superior Court in 1763, when it was decided that the Phillips' title, repre- sented by Capt. Waite, was entitled to two- ninths of the island, which was called 134 acres and 54 square rods. Parson Smith seemed not to have shared with Waite in that award. He left the following memorandum in his own handwriting: "Capt. Waite recov- ered against the Bracketts two-ninths, i. e. one-ninth he purchased of Pullen and wife (Palmer heirs), which some years before I had purchased of them and the deed recorded;
16
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
whether that may not be considered my pos- session." Pullen sold his share twice, and Capt. John Waite got the title of the whole two-ninths, which was set off on the north side of the island. The line then established is now from the centre of "Spar Cove," on the back side of the island, looking to the second chimney from the north end of the Maine General Hospital, and the remains of a stone wall can be seen which divided the land. This includes all the land about Trefethen's and Evergreen Landings.
Capt. John Waite was a singular and eccentric man. He was born in 1700, and was the son of Jonadab Waite, of Newbury, Mass .; was the captain of a coaster that ran between Falmouth and Boston as early as 1737, and first lived about where the Portland Company shops now are. His wife was Sarah Kent, a daughter of John Kent, Jr., of Newbury, whom he married in 1724. She died Jan. 22, 1773, aged 69 years. Captain Waite was selectman of the town four years. He enjoyed the soli- tude of the island and built himself a house near Trefethen's Landing. It is said that he built two fire-places in one room, one for him- self and wife and the other for the servant.
I7
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
In moving to that house he was, as Parson Deane wrote,
"Seeking quiet, sought in vain In courts and crowds of busy men."
He had ten children and a distinguished posterity. His children were Benjamin, born in 1725, who was major in Col. Samuel Waldo, Jr.'s regiment in 1762; Hannah, born in 1727; Sarah, born in 1730; Col. John, Jr., born in 1732; Stephen, born in 1734; Abigail, born in 1739; Mary, Isaac, Rebecca, and Emma.
Col. John Waite, Jr., married, in 1758, Hannah Jones, daughter of Phineas Jones, and she died Dec. 14, 1807, aged 69 years. They had thirteen children. Colonel Waite did not reside on the island, but was a large land owner there for over fifty years.
Colonel Waite was the captain of the schooner Jolly Philip, and his vessel was in the expedition to the Bay of Fundy, in 1755, to remove the Acadians from the Basin of Minas, and carried a cargo of them to Georgia. That is a sad story. The transporting of those poor French people is described as where "might took the place of right and the weak were oppressed and the mighty ruled with a rod of iron." It was when "wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, too late,
18
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
saw their children left on the land, extending their arms in the wildest entreaties."
They were the neutral French mentioned in the histories of those times. Many tears have been shed for those unfortunate people by the readers of Longfellow's Evangeline, and no excuses for that act have been fully satisfactory, and never will be as long as man has an atom of human sympathy.
Col. John Waite, Jr., commanded the sloop Swallow, that was impressed into the Louis- burg expedition, of 1757, under the Earl of Loudon, which ended so unsuccessfully and unsatisfactorily. In 1759 the same vessel was impressed into the expedition to Quebec, which was composed of about a hundred sail, under the command of Commodore Sir Charles Saunders. Colonel Waite was an eye-witness to the operations of the siege and saw the fall of that city when the gallant General Wolfe was killed.
Colonel Waite was captain of the battery in Col. Samuel Waldo, Jr.'s regiment in 1762, sheriff of the county for over thirty years, colonel of a regiment of militia at the time of the Revolutionary War, and a conspicuous patriot of Falmouth Neck during those trying times. He died Jan. 20, 1820, aged 88 years,
19
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
having been an active and prominent citizen of Portland.
Capt. John Waite, the father, was living on Peaks Island in 1765, and Dr. Deane visited him and in his journal calls it "Capt. Waite's Island." The two-ninths of the island came into the possession of Col. John Waite, Jr., in 1805, and then the other seven-ninths were owned by Benjamin Trott and Thomas Brack- ett with his son John. Capt. John Waite died Nov. 3, 1769, aged 69 years, and was buried in the Eastern Cemetery.
The balance of the island, or seven-ninths, which the Court decided belonged to the Mitton heirs, was the southern part. This land came into the possession of the Brackett family, because Thomas and Anthony Brack- ett married the daughters of Michael Mitton. On the re-settlement of the town, Thomas Brackett's grandsons, Anthony and Joshua, sons of Joshua, returned and claimed their land, among which was Peaks Island. Joshua Brackett sold his part of the island to Ben- jamin Trott, who had married his daughter Thankful in 1761. The deed was dated Feb. 5, 1762, andsays together with "my dwelling- house and barn with appurtenances." The consideration was £26 13s. 4d. The house
20
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
was a large, two-story wooden one and stood about opposite the Bay View House, on the other side of the Avenue.
Benjamin Trott sold his land with his stock of cattle to his sons, Joshua and Benja- min, Jr., for £40, Oct. 10, 1784. The division line between the Bracketts' and the Trotts' land was in the ravine south of the Bay View House, where a piece of the wall can still be
seen. This line ran across the island. The sons, Joshua and Benjamin Trott, Jr., divided their land in 1812, the division line running across the island east to west. Joshua Trott had the southerly half and Benjamin Trott, Jr., the northerly half.
Thomas Brackett sold his daughter Mary, who had married Joseph Reed, two acres with one-half of the wharf, in 1807. This land was in front of the present Mineral Spring House, and that is their house remodeled. This house may have been built by Thomas Brackett. The first wharf on the island was built opposite that land before 1807.
"The heaving tide In widen'd circles beat on either side."
CHAPTER III.
THE STONE HOUSE. - ITS LOCATION AND HISTORY. - "THE REFUGE." - GEORGE FELT, JR., AND HIS MASSACRE .- INDIAN HISTORY.
""Tis pleasant, through the loop-holes of retreat, To peep at such a world."
MUNJOY'S stone house must have been located on the southern point of the island, about four rods northeast of the Brackett family cemetery fence, on land now owned by Mrs. Torrington. Its location is an unsettled point in history, but there can be plainly seen where sometime a house must have stood, which is now unknown in tradition or history. When the late Henry M. Brackett plowed the land, many years ago, the location of a house was distinctly marked by the color of the earth. An iron pot was turned out, with other articles usually found among the ruins of an old house. The ashes and charcoal found plainly indicated the location of the fire-place. There are clam-shell heaps, near the bank, which must have been made in the earliest times. Mrs. Torrington, who came to the island in 1833, recollects many stones
22
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
about this locality, that have since been hauled away, that were so arranged as to indicate that they had been placed about a dwelling-house.
The stone house was built there probably because then there were two houses on House Island; it was in sight of the settlers at Cape Elizabeth and the fortified house on Cushing's Island, which is claimed was then built. It was a sightly location and could alarm its builder, George Munjoy, at his garrison house on Fore Street, west corner of Mountfort, by guns or fire. It was almost in range of the fortified house on Jewells Island. These houses may not all have been built until after this one, but it shows that there was a plan in their location. An examination of the island shows no other foundation of a house where a family would have been likely to have lived several years in those times.
"The Refuge," so-called, off from Central Avenue, a few rods southeast of Robert M. Gould's cottage, has nothing about it to indi- cate a dwelling-house. It was probably a place of refuge in the time of the Revolution to which the soldiers and the owners drove their sheep and cattle to hide them from the British cruisers who were prowling about our
23
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
coast. The traditions indicate that. The stones were said, by the older people, to have been piled into the form of a house, but they were probably put there for protection against the weather or for a place to defend themselves in case they were attacked.
In September, 1814, when the British fleet was hovering off our harbor and was expected to attack Portland, the inhabitants of the island thought that they might be obliged to leave their homes for safety, and preparations were made to go to "The Refuge," on the other side of the island, as their fathers had done, but the fleet never came.
The stone house was occupied several years by John Palmer and his family, until they were driven off by the Indians in the King Philip War, in 1675. Then the house was probably abandoned. The next year the tragedy in which George Felt, Jr., and six others lost their lives occurred on this point. Felt lived at Mussel Cove, now in the town of Falmouth. He was the son of George Felt, of Broad Bay, and in 1662 married Philippa Andrews, daughter of Samuel and Jane An- drews. Jane Andrews married for her second husband Arthur Mackworth, for whom the island of his name was called.
24
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
George Felt, Jr., fled from his home in the summer of 1676, because he saw the smoke of the burning buildings of the other settlers, that had been fired by the Indians. He carried his family to Cushing's Island, then called James Andrews' Island, where they, no doubt, found others who had also left their homes. Here they were soon reduced almost to starvation, as they had been unable to bring much food with them. The men were forced to go to Peaks Island for sheep for food, understanding the danger. They went on a Saturday and the scene that followed is best described by Hubbard, who wrote of it the very next year. George Felt, Jr., went “soon after to Mount Joyes Island (Peaks) to fetch sheep, where they landed seven men; but the Indians presently set upon them, they pres- ently betook themselves to the ruins of a Stone House, where they defended themselves as long as they could, but at last they were all destroyed either with stones cast upon them or else with the enemies shot, except one, who though at first it was hoped that his wounds were not mortal yet soon after died thereof. Among them was George Felt much lamented, who had been more active than any other man in those parts against the Indians,
25
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
but at last lost his life amongst them in this too desperate adventure."
Richard Martin, in his letter at the time, said that some of the party were burned in the house. The house was set on fire by the Indians and destroyed. Little do we realize now the terror that this event caused among the remaining women and children then left on Cushing's Island, who had lost their hus- bands and protectors. Felt's wife removed to Salem, Mass., married twice there, and died in 1709. He was about thirty-seven years of age and left four children. The story of his father's life is a pitiful one in connection with the history of North Yarmouth.
In writing of the times my father quoted the following passage of scripture: "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 of the country."
In 1688 another Indian war broke out, one cause of which was Governor Andross, in the frigate Rose, robbing Baron Castin's residence at Bagaduce, now Castine, Me. In September, 1689, Joseph Prout wrote that there were two hundred Indians then on Palmer's (Peaks) Island. Major Benjamin Church, the hero of the Swamp Fight in Rhode Island in 1675
26
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
(the descendants of some of the soldiers in that battle were granted the townships of Gorham and Buxton), was sent here with a force to defend Falmouth from an attack. The Indians had massacred the inmates of the garrison at Cocheco, now Dover, N. H., June 27th, and murdered Major Richard Wal- dron with many others. They accused him of cheating them by not crossing off their accounts at settlement and for using his fist in the scales when he was weighing and call- ing it a pound. He defended himself with his sword from room to room until he was overpowered by the savages. They took off his clothes, placed him in an arm-chair on a table and proceeded to torture him in the most cruel manner. The Indians obliged the family to get them a supper while they were dealing with Major Waldron. He was then seventy-four years of age. They gashed his breast with their knives saying, as they did so, "I cross off my accounts," and then cut- ting off his finger joints said to him, "Now will your fist weigh a pound?" They cut off his nose and ears and forced them into his mouth until he became faint from loss of blood. Then they killed him with his own sword. The Indians killed twenty-three and carried away captive twenty-nine.
27
HISTORY OF PEAKS ISLAND.
Major Waldron's daughter Esther, then twenty-five years of age, the Indians probably took at that time. She had married first Henry Elkins, who died soon after their mar- riage, and in 1686 she married Abraham Lee, whom the Indians killed at the same time they did her father. Mrs. Lee was found at Peaks Island with the Indians by a Dutch privateer in September. What that young woman underwent in that three months will probably never be known, but her sufferings in mind and body must have been terrible. She was ransomed from the Indians by the captain of the privateer, who took her on board his vessel, where she was found by Colonel Church, who of course proceeded to interview her as to the number and intentions of the Indians. She said that the party of In- dians that she came with to Palmer's Island had eighty canoes and that she did not see all. The Indians told her that when they all got together they would have seven hundred men. This may be an overestimate of the
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