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Gc 974.102 EL5d 1128730
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01088 2683
1280
JAMES F. DAVIS
CALVIN G. PECK
MONROE YOUNG
JOS. T. GRANT
ROSCOE HOLMES
JOHN B. REDMAN
II. B. MASON
ALBERT H. NORRIS
N. H. HIGGINS
GEO. P. DUTTON
ROBERT GERRY
HENRY E. DAVIS
JOS. M. HIGGINS
DR. LEWIS HODGKINS
CHARLES H. LELAND
J. A. CUNNINGHAM
FRANK L. HEATH
GEO. S. FOSTER
A. C. HAGERTHY
DR. F. F. SIMONTON
ARTHUR GREELEY
THE CITY FATHERS
F. B. AIKEN
475,1250
Copyright 1927, by Albert H. Davis
HISTORY
ELLSWORTH, MAINE of
BY
ALBERT H. DAVIS
1
LEWISTON JOURNAL PRINTSHOP LEWISTON, MAINE 1927
ALBERT H. DAVIS
1128730
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO MY MOTHER MARY DONOVAN DAVIS
Come, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, Have you your pistols ? Have you your sharp-edge axes ? Pioneers ! O Pioneers !
Have the elder races halted ? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over There beyond the seas ? We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !
All the past we leave behind, We debouch upon an ever mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and of march, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !
We detachments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !
WALT WHITMAN.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
Indian and French History . 11
CHAPTER .II
Settlers
16
CHAPTER III
The Beginning of a Settlement and a Town
43
CHAPTER IV
Ellsworth, the Town and City ...........
65
CHAPTER V
Of Historical Interest
113
CHAPTER VI
Main Street, Yesterday. 158
CHAPTER VII
Main Street, Today
204
PREFACE
In preparing this work I have tried to give the public a com- plete and interesting account of Ellsworth's history. As far as possible I have verified all dates and incidents, that this history may be looked upon as an authentic record.
Although I am unaware of any errors, I cannot guarantee this work to be positively error proof. I can only give it to the public as a deed well meant, and I trust it will so be received. The one thought that has encouraged me all through this en- deavor, and so ably expressed by Cardinal Newman is, "If noth- ing was ever attempted until it could be done to perfection, there would be nothing done."
I take this opportunity to thank the people of Ellsworth for -
their cordial encouragement and valuable assistance, for their courtesy and good-will, and I hope they will find the History as I have tried to make it-something of interest and of value.
ALBERT H. DAVIS.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
INDIAN AND FRENCH HISTORY
HE Indians of Eastern Maine were related by tribal connections and by language to the Algonquin nation which occupied most of the northern and eastern parts of the continent. East of the Saco River these tribes were called the Abenaki, though the English colonists often re- ferred to them as the Tarratines. According to Ventromile, the Jesuit missionary, the proper form of Abenaki is Wabanaki, meaning "the people of the place where the sky begins to look white in the morning," or "the people of the east."
The people of the Abenaki nation were divided into several tribes, each of which had its own villages and lands. The Sokoki lived about the Saco River and Casco Bay, the Norridge- wocks on the upper Kennebec, the Penobscots on the Penobscot River, and two tribes known to the early French in this section as the Etchemins and the Malecites, farther to the East. Park- man's description of the life of these tribes is as follows :- "In habits they were all much alike. Their villages were on the waters of the Androscoggin, the Saco, the Kennebec, the Pe- nobscot, the St. Croix and the St. John; here in spring they planted their corn, beans and pumpkins, and then, leaving them to grow, went down to the sea in their birch canoes. They returned towards the end of the summer, gathered their crops, and went again to the sea, where they lived in abundance on ducks, geese, and other water-fowl. During winter, most of the women, children and old men remained in the villages, while the hunters ranged the forests in chase of moose, deer, caribou, beavers and bears."*
Indians from the villages, referred to in the above para- graph, spent the summer months fishing in Union River and the bay. Returning towards the end of the summer to gather their harvest, and come again to the forest, surrounding Ells- worth and vicinity, to hunt during the winter.
(*Lawton, Loring and Jordan's Register of Ellsworth, Surry and Bluehill.)
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HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
The Indians named Union River "Taucewaunicty" (mean- ing much flow, white and silvery) ; Card's Brook, "Cowarche;" Branch Pond Stream, "Passadunkeag ;" Branch Pond, "Nicolin" (meaning wolves in a pack, or wolves) ; Reed's Pond or Green Lake, "Mar-las-sic" (meaning good place for moose and deer), from Molasses, an old Indian woman who claimed to have been born in a birch canoe while crossing the lake.
Indian arrow-heads, stone axes, and corn mortars have been found in the ledges and along the banks and shores of the river and bay. Mounds and cleared places have been found in the burial grounds near the landing places, showing where the camps once stood. One place, west of Card's Brook, called "Indian Point," was an old camping ground, and others were at the mouth of the river and the landing above the Falls.
Many of the Old Town and Passamaquoddy Indians who hunted and fished here after the arrival of the first settlers, were well and familiarly known to them. Lejjock was an Indian of the Passamaquoddy tribe who came here during the Revolu- tion. He was later killed (accidentally) on one of the branches of the river, which was afterwards called "Lejjock Branch." Another of these Indians was called Sabbattes, who was one of the guides of Benedict Arnold in his march through the path- less northern forest in 1775 to capture Quebec with one thou- sand men. During the war of 1812, Sabbattes was a runner or mail carrier from Canada to the Passamaquoddy tribe, who, like the Penobscots, were the mortal enemies of the Mohawks. Others were Sosabasin, Glashire and his squaw, she living to great age, Poinso, and Dr. Coxlin.
*Though all one nation and language, the Abenakis were constantly engaged in civil war. Father Biard's (Jesuit mis- sionary) interpreters, who accompanied him on the voyage of 1611 at Mount Desert Island, Indians of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes, refused to accompany him beyond Monhegan, because their foes dwelt to the westward.
In the eighty-five years between 1675 and 1760 there were thirty-six years of open warfare between the French and In- dians on the one hand and the English settlers on the other. When peace intervened it was scarcely more than a temporary armed truce.
(*Lawton, Loring and Jordan.)
13
HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
The conflict between the English and French aided by their Indian allies was but the echo of the greater wars which shook the continent of Europe. In this country it was not so much a succession of military campaigns as a series of massacres and pillages finding cause not only in the European wars that engaged the mother countries, but also in the local rivalries, hostilities and racial hate.
The bitterness of the Abenaki tribes toward the English is explained by the fact that the latter usurped their land, and treated them with cruelty. They became the allies of the French and the implacable foes of the English because the former treated them as good friends and equals, "opened their eyes to religion, gave them good weight in trade," were honest and fair; whereas, on the other hand, the English frequently robbed and killed them.
Foray after foray, massacre after massacre, pillage and flame ravaged the little settlements in Maine for more than a hundred years. When the final peace came the Penobscots had dwindled into insignificance and their united bands could mus- ter only seventy-three warriors. It is significant that the first English settlers in this section in 1762 and later made little mention of the Indians in this vicinity.
Nearly two centuries have passed since the Indians de- parted, leaving the white man in undisputed possession.
All that now remains in this vicinity as relics of the departed race are fragments of pottery, a bit of flint, and weapons, which we sometimes unearth. The wigwams and crude villages of the Indians and the little clearings of our fathers who succeeded them when they went away have been replaced by well-tilled farms, broad meadow-lands and villages; industry and com- merce rule where once war and bloodshed occupied men's thoughts and stirred them, and everywhere is manifest the onward march of progress.
The red man is gone, and, as he passed away, so we too shall go after we have played our part and said our lines in the great Theatre of Life, but always until the end of time, beauti- ful hills and lakes will remain for our descendants and the waters of the rivers will rush over the falls, and through the valley eager to meet the sea, and to tell their mother there of
14
HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
the men and women who were and are, and how well they have performed their mission.
For the most part we inherit a purely English tradition of American history. We forget that the earliest settlements in America were not English but French and Spanish, and there is somehow more poetry and romance about the dashing courtiers of Philip II and Henry of Navarre, about the black- robed Jesuits and their adventurous companions, than about our grim Puritan forefathers or about the sturdy traders of New Netherlands. The oldest permanent settlement on our Atlantic coast, St. Augustine, is Spanish in its origin, and the two most interesting of the temporary settlements were made, the one by French Jesuits in Maine, and the other by French Huguenots in Florida.
New England was called Vinland (from the presence of grapes found there) by Leif Ericson four hundred and ninety- two years before the rediscovery of America by Columbus. The exact spot of Ericson's landing is not known, but it is be- lieved to have been on an island at the mouth of the Kennebec River. The next voyage to New England, the Norsemen's Vin- land, according to the Sagas, occurred in the year 1002 A.D. This expedition was headed by Thorvald, brother of Leif Eric- son, who landed at the camp of Leif, but his stay was of short duration, for unfortunately he was killed in battle with the In- dians, whom the Norsemen called "Skrellings." This is the way the Saga tells the story of the brave and Christian death of Thorvald, the first Viking and the first European Christian to be buried in the soil of the New World. Christianity, at this time, was spreading fast.
New England was called New France for fifty years before Captain John Smith gave it its present name. Fifteen years before the Mayflower came to anchor in Plymouth Harbor its waters had been sounded and its outlines drawn by Frenchmen seeking a permanent home. The Pilgrims, had they known it, might have bought, before they sailed, at the little shop of Jean Bergon in the Rue St. Jean de Beauvais, at the sign of the Winged Horse, in Paris, a chart of Plymouth Harbor, re- markable for its accuracy and skill. Twenty-five years before John Winthrop and his company landed on the Peninsula where
15
HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
they planted Boston, Frenchmen had mapped the bay, described its features with surprising fidelity, and named its points and rivers.
As early as 1611 the French were colonizing along the rivers of Maine. In 1613 an attack was made on the French colonist at Mount Desert (Saint Sauveur) by Captain Argall, an Eng- lishman from Virginia. The French resistance of the attack was made by Brother Gilbert du Thet, "who took a match and made the cannon speak as loud as the enemies.'" The next volley from the enemy, however, killed the brave priest. At this time Mount Desert was among the possessions of Madame de Guercheville. It later passed, one-half of the island to Sir John Bernard, and one-half to Monsieur and Madame De Gregoire from the will of Madame De Gregoire's grandfather Cadillac.
According to the "New England Magazine" of March, 1903, there is on record at Quebec a deed or "concession" dated July 23, 1688, granting Mount Desert, the neighboring island, and a considerable tract on the main land about "la riviere Dona- quet," to the Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac, said to be living in "La Cadie." This grant was confirmed by King Louis XIV on May 25, 1689 .*
In the Admiralty charts of 1747, Union River is laid down as "R-des monts desarts," Mount Desert River, that being the name under which it was changed to Union River. The next river east of Mount Desert is laid down in the chart as "R Donaquet;" this was either Jordan's River or Hog Bay, I am in doubt which.
Not much can be learned about the French in Ellsworth and vicinity, except that Cadillac's men occasionally tramped through the woods here looking for trespassers. The main land grant included a great part of Ellsworth, running well into township No. 8. The next visit by a Frenchman was in 1793, when Talleyrand, the French minister, came to the Dis- trict of Maine to visit General Knox, who was at that time probably located at or near Thomaston. As there was no bridge across Union River, he and his party were obliged to ford it, when they visited the French settlers at Mount Desert.
(*Note: The above four paragraphs are taken from the Makers of Maine a history by Herbert Edgar Holmes.)
CHAPTER II SETTLERS
OCAL history is the basis of national history. Our national history has indeed its own marvelous and ex- pansive models and designs which can be seen and ap- preciated only when set before us upon a diffusive scale; but the details of the model and the individual threads of the fabric are to be found in local, family and village history. There, wrapped up in daily doings of the people, in the love and courtships and married devotion we can read between the lines of every family genealogy; in the diligence that cleared the forest and dug wells and laid out roads and erected dwellings, in the eager desire to found schools and churches, are found the dyes that give color to the story.
The first settlers of Ellsworth were a plain and provident folk following debase callings and pulling in homespun harness. The home life was bleak and hard, the children had no toys and story-books, and all went to work very young. It was, however, an out-of-door life, in the fresh air, close to nature, telling the time of day by the sun, acquainted with the domestic and wild animals, the birds and fish. There was very little of grace and refinement, but the life was a good school of char- acter. The boys learned to use their abilities, to bear burdens, to take responsibilities on young shoulders. It was a life free from the artificiality and strife of the city. The struggle for a livelihood was a struggle with nature and not with one's fellow- men.
The first comers built their cabins along the shores where a stream furnished water and power, and upon the hillsides that were suitable for farm lands, when cleared.
There is no account of settlements on Union River by white men, nearer than Mount Desert in 1613-1720, until 1763.1
Ellsworth was first settled in 1763 on one of the ten town- ships laid out in Hancock County and known as the "Liver- more Survey," five on the west side and five on the east side of Union River.
(*Mount Desert, a history, by George Edward Street.)
(¡Some writers claim 1765, but I think it incorrect.)
17
HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
In 1762 a small party of young men from New Hampshire and Saco, exploring the coast of Maine in a small vessel, came into Union River Bay and anchored off Weymouth Point; they then explored the bay and river and concluded to make a settle- ment. Applications were made to the general court of Massa- chusetts for a grant to settlers.
Early in the spring of 1763 they returned, and again anchored off Weymouth Point. The party then divided, some of them going up the river, and others towards Surry, landing at Contention Cove. Some misunderstanding in regard to the place of settlement gave rise to considerable discussion and a meeting was held at Contention Cove to decide whether the settlement would be made there or up the river. After a long consideration of the matter, it was decided to make the settle- ment up river. This incident gave the name of Contention Cove to the cove, and Union to the river.
Of the first settlers thirteen had families :- Benjamin Milliken, Benjamin Joy, Jonathan Fly, John Turner, Daniel Treworgy, Asa Waite, Simon Tarbox, William Weymouth, Mark Treworthy, Isaac Smith, Joseph Fernald, James Milliken and Benjamin Davis.
Of these, Benjamin Milliken was the most prominent. He is referred to as "The first permanent settler." He was born in Boston, Mass., in 1720, and came when about ten or twelve years of age with the other members of the Milliken family to Scarborough in Maine. He married Sara Smith in that place, Nov. 26, 1747, and Aug. 26, 1754 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Moses Bank, of York.
On the 20th of Nov. 1766 Mr. Milliken married Phebe, daughter of Dominicus Jordan of Biddeford. He went to St. Andrews, N. B. in 1779, and later died at that place. His widow, Phebe, was at Cape Elizabeth in 1792. Abagail, his daughter, married Isaac Lord, one of the first settlers, and died at Surry, May 10, 1838, at the age of 88 years. Polly, another daughter, married John Smith, one of the early residents in the Union River settlement.
Benjamin Joy was born in Saco, Jan. 25, 1741. He was one of the first settlers in Ellsworth in 1763, and one of its principal citizens. He died Aug. 4, 1830. He married Rebecca Smith of
18.
HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
Saco, 1765; she was born Jan. 25, 1749 and died Oct. 5, 1830. They have many descendants scattered all over the United States. Their children, all born in Ellsworth, were:
I. John, b. July 20, 1765. The family claimed that he was the first white child born within the limits of what is now Ellsworth. He lived in Hancock, where he died. He married Miss Elizabeth Clark of Hancock; they reared a family of eight children; many descendants are now living.
II. Benjamin, Jr., b. Dec. 24, 1768; lived in Ellsworth. He married Abigail Greene; she was a daughter of Col. John Greene of Ellsworth, a Revolutionary soldier, who had been in the battles of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, and others. Many descendants of Benj. Joy, Jr., and Col. Greene now re- side in Ellsworth and vicinity. They had four boys and three girls.
I. Mellen P. Joy married Mary S. Joy. They had three girls and one boy.
A. Annie, b. 1866, married Pearl A. Joy, 1891. No children.
B. Grace, b. 1871, married Allen P. Royal, 1895. They have two girls and two boys living.
III. Susan, b. Sept. 2, 1773, married Joseph Murch, a farmer; they reared a large family, and descendants are numerous.
IV. Samuel, b. Aug. 21, 1776; lived in Surry; married Nancy Austin. They had five sons and five daughters, who have descendants; their sons :
I. Joseph A. was a successful shipmate. He was mas- ter of Ship Ariel, of Belfast, which sailed from St. Thomas for Boston, and was never heard from.
II. Nathaniel A., was a master mariner for many years; lived in Ellsworth, Inspector of Customs under President Pierce; Assessor of Internal Revenue under President Grant and Executive Councillor, 1857.
III. Charles, lived in Surry; Representative for several years.
V. Jenny, b. Aug. 3, 1777; m. John Moore, who came from New Hampshire to Ellsworth, in 1794. He was of the Londonderry stock. They reared a family of five sons and five
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HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
daughters. Their second son, John Louder Moor, always resided in Ellsworth; for many years a Town officer, and Repre- sentative to the Legislature for six years.
VI. Nathaniel, b. July 21, 1779; second mate of brig. He d. at Demerara of yellow fever.
VII. Rebecca, b. July 20, 1781; m. Jonathan Robinson, who came from Vermont to Ellsworth, then to the Province of New Brunswick, then to Sebec, Me., where he died. He left descendants.
VIII. Polly, b. Nov. 10, 1783; m. Capt. John Louder, a native of Bangor. He was master of a Liverpool packet ship. He d. in Bangor, and his wife d. 1820.
IX. Nathan, b. Mar. 16, 1786; went to New Brunswick; m. Peggy Young and lived there about thirty years, and returned to Ellsworth where he died.
X. Ivory Hovey, b. July 26, 1792; lived on the home- stead of his father in Ellsworth; m. Betsey, daughter of George Brimmer, of Ellsworth. They had seven sons and three daughters; one of them was Hamilton Joy, of Ellsworth, Town Officer, Postmaster, Representative, who d. 1886.
Jonathan Flye built the first frame house in Ellsworth in 1770 on the lot later known as the Dutton Farm, which was situated about a quarter of a mile northward from the resi- dence of C. P. Joy, and eastward to the river, where Flye and most of his family are buried. Their graves are surrounded and overspread by forest trees. The Flye house was built about where the ice house on Grant Street now stands.
John Turner built a small log cabin on a hill, located on the west side of the river. The hill was named "Turner's Hill." He later built a house on the old George Herbert's place, which was torn down in 1827, and a new one built, in which Dr. Calvin Peck resided.
Daniel Treworgy built on the Surry road, and was living there in 1790. It was later occupied by Rev. Peter Nourse. Mr. Treworgy died shortly after the close of the Revolutionary War. One of his sons, James, lived until his death in West Ellsworth.
20
HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
In 1790 Wm. Weymouth cleared land and built a house on the point called "Weymouth Point."
Benjamin Davis built a house on the west side of the Surry road, not far from the old Bonsey wharf. His family came to Ellsworth in 1770. The old house was torn down in 1823 or 1824, and a new one was built by his son James. Mr. Davis died several years before the new house was built, but his widow, who was one of the best educated women in the settle- ment, and a lady of superior intelligence, lived to a very old age.
*Others were young unmarried men, some of them under age-Sibley Dexter, Emerson Tuttle, William Smith, Kenneth Miller, Joel Mace, Thomas Wilberton, and Moses Fernald. There were others, whose names I have not learned, but who are supposed to have removed.
Isaac and Asa Smith were brothers to the wife of Benjamin Joy. Sibley Dexter was a nephew of Joy. He was in the army with Knox, and is supposed to have been killed at the battle of Yorktown. Tuttle was drowned while shooting ducks on the river. The first settlers were largely mariners.
Other settlers in 1767 and later were: Joseph Moor; Joshua Moor; Levi Foster; Edward Moor; Benjamin Bates, Sr .; Thomas Milliken, cousin of Benjamin, with Robert, his brother ; Samuel Milliken, brother of Benjamin; Allen Milliken; Abner Milliken, a Revolutionary soldier. It was in this year that the Smiths, John (who married Polly Milliken), Nathaniel, Samuel and Asa came here to live.
About 1770 other settlers came-Edward Beal, Samuel Joy, Israel Davis, Hopkinson Flood, Hammond, Billings Maddocks, Seth Milliken, Amos Milliken, John Hilt, Joshua Maddocks and sons, Joseph Murch, Samuel Jordan, Sen., Meltiah Jordan, Joseph Card, Elias Milliken, John Wentworth, Peter Page, James Treworgy, George Brimmer, Samuel Jordan, Jr., Richard Jordan, Dominicus Beal, Thomas Hapworth, Theodore Jones, Joseph Garland, Joseph Patten and others.
Robert Milliken, brother of Thomas, born Oct. 2, 1743; came here about 1767 ; lived at Ellsworth Falls and had a son Robert.
Allen Milliken moved to Dedham and died there Apr., 1827, aged fifty.
(*For the material in the following four paragraphs I am indebted to Volume II. No. VII of the Maine Historical Magazine.)
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HISTORY OF ELLSWORTH
Samuel Milliken, brother of Benjamin, born Feb. 24, 1746; came here about 1767; sold out in 1783 and moved to Pretty Marsh, Mount Desert, where he died July 26, 1841.
Abner Milliken came here early; Revolutionary pensioner.
Patten families on Union River : Actor Patten died in Surry before the Revolutionary war. Matthew Patten was there prior to 1772, and died prior to 1794. Robert Patten here prior to 1772.
James Payson, the first regularly educated physician in Union River settlement, probably lived in that part of No. 6, now Ellsworth. Col. Jordan named his youngest son, born about 1800, for him.
Nathaniel Smith was here in 1767 and had a son Nathaniel. Samuel Smith came here in 1767.
Asa Smith came here early. His sister Rebecca married Benjamin Joy, Sen.
William Smith died in Demerara, 1798.
Eli Wormwood, from Biddeford, prior to the Revolutionary War, married there Elizabeth Moore, Nov. 14, 1765. Son, Joseph.
The two Millikens, Seth and Amos, remained but a short time, and then settled in Hancock, where their descendants reside. The Flood and Maddocks families had sons under age. The Flood and Hammond families removed to No. 6, now Surry. The Hilt family resided here about eight years, and then returned to Massachusetts, leaving two daughters behind-Mrs. John Maddocks and Mrs. Kenneth Miller. Mrs. Miller died about five years after marriage. Soon after her death the husband disappeared and was never heard from. There were two children left.
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