History of Gorham, Me., Part 1

Author: McLellan, Hugh D. (Hugh Davis), 1805-1878; Lewis, Katherine B
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portland : Smith & Sale, printers
Number of Pages: 1015

USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > History of Gorham, Me. > Part 1

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.

CORNELL

ARY CORNEL

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBR

CORNELL

RNELL LIBRARY

CORNELL CORNELL

RARY

913

UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY AIND SITY ALISTSAI UNIVERSITY

CORNELL

ARY CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

CORNELL LIFRA

LIBRARY

CORNELL

URA

LIBRARY

CORNELL

AING

UNIVERSITY

SITY

LIBRARY

U UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

CORNELL

LIBRARY

UNIV

ALISHJAINA

ERSITY

ARY

LIBRAR

UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY

UND

תאי

Cornell University Library

F 29G66 M11

History of Gorham, Me., by Hugh D. McLet

olin 3 1924 028 810 146

CORNELL

ORNELL

OLIN LIBRARY-CIRCULATION DATE DUE

- JAN 2 6 2002

RNELL

AINN

NCF 8/4/01 MLC

CORNELL

GAYLORD

PRINTEDINU.S.A.

UNI

T Y

OUN

Cornell University Library

The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028810146

1865

HISTORY

GORHAM, ME.,

HUGH D. MCLELLAN.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

HIS DAUGHTER,

KATHARINE B. LEWIS.

PORTLAND : SMITH & SALE, PRINTERS, 1903. KO

F 29 G66 mil

A743974 X

1,1 0100 YILAN : 1,1 .

A. H. W. L. E. C. 462

1 Deliber final- 1903

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

PREFACE,

I. INTRODUCTION,

II. NARRAGANSETT WAR AND GRANTS, .

IV. MILITARY MATTERS, . . 43 . SOLDIERS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS -THE MILITIA.

V. THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS, 74

VI. FROM 1745 TO, AND INCLUDING, THE INCORPORA- TION OF THE TOWN, . 93

VII. THE REVOLUTION, ·

106

VIII. POLITICS - THE WAR OF 1812 -THE SEPARA- TION OF MAINE AND MASSACHUSETTS, 150

IX. MEETING HOUSES AND MINISTERS OF THE STAND- ING ORDER, . .

169

X. OTHER RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, .

. 200

COME-OUTERS, OR NEW LIGHTS - FREE-BAPTISTS CALVANIST BAPTISTS - METHODISTS - SHAKERS - QUAKERS.

XI. EDUCATION, ·

. 222

TOWN SCHOOLS - GORHAM ACADEMY AND SEMINARY - NORMAL SCHOOL.

. XII. AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS - FIRST MILLS - BURY- ING GROUNDS, · 245

XIII. DIFFERENT VILLAGES IN THE TOWN, .

262 BUSINESS CENTRES - NORTHEAST PART OF THE TOWN - WHITE ROCK - WEST GORHAM - GAMBO - MALLI- SON'S FALLS, AND LITTLE FALLS.

. W. . 462

. . .

III. THE INDIANS IN AND ABOUT GORHAM, .

PAGE

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

XIV. PHYSICIANS AND LAWYERS,

PAGE 28I

XV. CONDITION OF THE ROADS IN AND ABOUT GORHAM IN EARLY TIMES, . · .

288

· . BRANDYBROOK HILL - HORSE MEADOW ROAD - MAILS - RAILROADS.

XVI. SLAVES-THE TOWN'S POOR -CHANGES OF BOUND- ARY LINE - OLD BELLS - TOWN CLOCK - THE RED STONE MONUMENT - TOMATOES - THE POUND - FIRE ENGINES, .

296

XVII. FIRES IN GORHAM, . .

306

XVIII. TAVERNS - TEMPERANCE - LIBRARIES, 317

XIX. EARLY SOCIETY IN GORHAM, AND SOME FACTS ABOUT GORHAM FOR THE YEAR 1780, . 323

XX. CIVIL WAR OF 1861-65, AND THE SOLDIERS' MON- UMENT, 340

XXI. NAILS - CLOCKS - VELOCIPEDE - ORGANS - BUTTON-HOLE MACHINE - MECHANICAL INVEN- TIONS - CARPET WEAVING - TANNERIES - OTHER MANUFACTURES, 356

XXII. FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES - SECRET SOCIETIES, 362

XXIII. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS, 368

XXIV. LISTS OF TOWN OFFICERS, ETC., .

· 373

GENEALOGY, - . · . . 383

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

HUGH D. MCLELLAN, . FORT BUILT ON FORT HILL, 1745,

Frontispiece

PLAN SHOWING LOCATION OF FIRST SETTLERS' HOUSES, · 56

MARY GORHAM PHINNEY, 78 ·

PLAN OF THE THIRTY ACRE LOTS,

FIRST PARISH MEETING HOUSE, 1798, .

. 173

VIEW FROM NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDING,

. I74

REV. ASA RAND,

193

REV. THADDEUS POMEROY, -

194

REV. JOHN R. ADAMS, D. D.,

196

METHODIST CHURCH, GORHAM VILLAGE, . 216

226

GORHAM ACADEMY, ERECTED 1805,

230

FEMALE SEMINARY,

241

LUCIAN HUNT, 243

NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDING, AND FREDERICK ROBIE HALL, 244

SITE OF FIRST MILLS,

252

GREAT FALLS VILLAGE,

266

MAINS HOUSE, .

269

WEST GORHAM CHAPEL, . . 272 .

274

LITTLE FALLS VILLAGE,

. 277

ELIHU BAXTER, M. D.,

282

DR. ALDEN T. KEEN, ·

283

JOHN A. WATERMAN, .

287 308

RESIDENCE OF MRS. J. G. TOLFORD,

OLD HAY SCALES,

. 314

HARDING'S STORE, BUILT 1779,

. 317

DANA ESTES, .

. 322

-HOUSE BUILT BY PRINCE DAVIS, .

· 325

VIEW AT GAMBO, · .

32 I

J. MCGREGOR ADAMS, .

LEVI HALL SCHOOLHOUSE,

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

HOUSE BUILT BY ELDER HUGH MCLELLAN IN 1773,

337

LIEUT. COL. HENRY R. MILLETT, 341

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE L. DAY,

. 365

JOSIAH PIERCE, .

368

CELEBRATION OF 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF SETTLEMENT, 3.7 0

SELECTMEN'S OFFICE, 373 .

RESIDENCE OF DR. ELIHU BAXTER, .

- 398

JAMES PHINNEY BAXTER, . . 399

SOLOMON BROWN,

416

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE W. CROCKETT, . . .

454

SIMON ELDER,

482

DANIEL C. EMERY, . ·

488

GEORGE B. EMERY,

488

MOSES FOGG,

499

EDWARD GOULD,

524 556

MRS. ANGELINA (TUKESBURY) HARDING, . 557

- CAPT. DAVID HARDING, JR., .

560

. . MRS. TEMPERANCE (DAVIS) HARDING, 560 STEPHEN HINKLEY, JR., . · . .

574

DR. HENRY H. HUNT, .

582

GEN. JAMES IRISH AND FAMILY, .

586

PARSON JEWETT HOUSE, .

592

INDIAN CAMP BROOK, .

640

GEORGE W. LOWELL, .

644

CAPT. JOSEPH MCLELLAN,

. 663

MRS. MARY MCLELLAN, . 664 .

RESIDENCE OF LEWIS MCLELLAN,

669

JOSIAH T. MCLELLAN, .

671

LEWIS MCLELLAN, .

672

MARSHALL M. PHINNEY,

720

WILLIAM PRENTISS,

. 730

REV. GEORGE L. PRENTISS, D. D., .

. 731

. .

RANDALL J. ELDER, . .

. 482

ROSCOE G. HARDING, .

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

JOSEPH RIDLON,

. 739

TOPPAN ROBIE,

. 743

FREDERICK ROBIE,

. 745 .

RESIDENCE OF HON. FREDERICK ROBIE,

746

ELIZABETH (Ross) TYNG,

748 749

WILLIAM APPLETON RUST, .

. 753

NATHANIEL J. RUST,

. 753

CORNELIUS WATERS, .

. 806

MRS. ABIGAIL (IRISH) WATERS, . . .

806

MERRILL WHITNEY,

836

ROBIE WHITNEY,

836

JOHN WINGATE, .

. 839

OLIVER WINSHIP,

840

MRS. CLEMENTINE (MORTON) WINSHIP,

. 840

COL. WILLIAM TYNG,

PLAN OF THE TOWN OF GORHAM.

PREFACE.

T is with no apologies that we offer the following chapters to the reader. The author, Hon. Hugh D. Mclellan, a member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, during his entire lifetime took a deep interest in all things relating to the history of his native town, and when but twenty years of age com- menced to gather its historical material that it might not be lost. People in the town, knowing his fondness for such things, often pre- sented him with old books, records and papers then considered of but little more value than to make a nest for the mice, or to swell the sacks of some travelling tin peddler, but of inestimable worth to the future historian. Stories, anecdotes and traditions were also written down from the lips of those now long since passed beyond recall. Col. Mclellan's father-in-law, Hon. Lothrop Lewis, beside being chairman of the board of selectmen for twenty-four years and taking a very prominent part in town affairs, was the last clerk of the old Proprietary, and left a mass of papers, documents and records pertaining to the early town and parish doings, to be found nowhere else.

Since Col. Mclellan's death in 1878 the manuscript has been carefully edited and brought down to date. Owing to the necessary limits of such a work the genealogical section has been confined to those families coming into town prior to 1850, and of these even, it has not been possible to insert all. There is no such thing in this world as perfection, as no one knows better than he who would undertake to compile genealogical records. For instance, the town book gives a certain date for a man's death, the family Bible's record gives another, and very likely his gravestone furnishes a third date, all for the same event, - members of the same family differ as to certain dates, and who shall say which is right? The inscription on a gravestone is said to be good legal evidence, and

PREFACE.

yet in this very town there is a stone erected to the memory of a man, whose inscription proclaims to the reader that this man departed this life on the thirtieth day of February. No pains, time or money has been spared to insure correctness in this volume, and it is hoped and believed that but few errors will be found. In connection with editing the genealogical section of this work the subscriber, during the last five years, has visited nearly every house in town, and has written innumerable letters, -which latter have as a rule been answered promptly and fully, -the object having been, so far as possible, to have some member of each family look over the records of its own particular branch. Many fires in Gorham and dates of fires will be found missing in the chapter on "Fires in Gorham," as owing to lack of sufficient data it has been found to be impossible to complete the list.

The work of editing and completing this history was undertaken at the request of Ex-Gov. Frederick Robie and the late Stephen Hinkley, representing a committee chosen by the town to see if arrangements might be made for the acquiring by the town of the manuscript.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank all those who have so kindly aided us with the fruit of their own research, and with the loan of valuable family documents and papers.

KATHARINE B. MCLELLAN LEWIS.

GORHAM, ME., June 1, 1902.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

It is a good sign that in these days, throughout New England a quite general interest is taken in town histories. It shows that we are appreciating the importance and value of such records. The great river that floats the ship is nothing but the collected water of rills and brooks, which of themselves are only large enough to float small chips. Enough chip floaters added together make a ship floater. So a great State is only a collection of towns and munici- palities, each one having a life and history peculiar to itself. These stories of the towns constitute the material, out of which state and national histories are made. We can never understand the full history, save as we learn it from an acquaintance with the parts. A no less authority than John Fiske says, "Town histories, though seldom written in a philosophical spirit and apt to be quite amorphous in structure, are a mine of wealth to the philosophical student of history."

The town was the first political creation of our New England fathers. Whether they knew it or not, the Republic was born when our Puritan ancestry met together at convenient points and discussed their affairs familiarly in town meetings, and decided questions of public concern by voting. Every town, begun in colonial days, has done something to help make the modern State; as every single letter of the alphabet plays its part in the oration of the statesman. The more we know of these early beginnings of the country, the better do we understand our own times, and appreciate the life and institutions of to-day.

It is as one of the creative agents of the State of Maine, as this State appears at the dawn of the twentieth century, that we present the History of the Town of Gorham. While this was not one of the first settled towns of the State, and had also the disadvantage of being somewhat inland, rather than on the seaboard, yet Gorham has played no inconsiderable part in the fortunes of Maine. She has had force and weight in the State because of the character of her citizens. In the Senate of the United States it matters little whether a member comes from the East or the West, from a large State or from a small one. A man's influence in that body depends upon himself,-has he the personal qualities of greatness? If he has-

HISTORY OF GORHAM.

then he becomes a power in the councils of the nation. So we may say of Gorham ; while it was later than some others in the date. of its settlement, and was an inland town, cut off from shipping and commerce, which things one hundred and fifty years ago were large factors in town building, yet the men and women who came here and took up the land and cleared the forests and plowed the fields, were such men and women as gave high character to the town, and at once made it influential beyond its own narrow limits. They were hardy, heroic, intelligent and pushing people who believed in God first, and in themselves second ; people who plowed and sowed their lands, and built their houses, and established schools and churches, and fought the savages, in the interest of a high and pure civilization. While their immediate object was their daily bread, yet in religion and in education they were working for a future. The present history would emphasize the moral fiber of the men who came to Gorham, when Gorham was a wilderness, and caused it to blossom as the rose. Gorham did not attain its wide influence in the Province of Maine by reason of its extent,-it was only six miles square. Neither did it gain influence by reason of its vast and over- powering wealth,-there was comparatively little of this. There were neither mines nor quarries here to attract adventurers and make them suddenly rich. There was indeed a good body of timber growing on the hills and along the vales and some of this was fairly valuable. When pine trees were large enough to have the broad arrow of the king cut in their bark, which signified that they were destined for masts in the royal navy, they gave to the settlers some bright visions of gold and silver. There were on this tract quite a goodly number of such trees. Then there was much timber here of a smaller size, which became quite valuable in course of time. But timber at the best is a crop which yields its harvest only at long intervals, and therefore, while it brings into a region laborers and teams and builds camps there, the occupancy is temporary. Lum- ber does not bring permanent settlers ; it does not bring civilization. Gorham was settled because after the trees were cut away the land was left, and the land of that place was good. It was, perhaps, not altogether of the variety of an Iowa prairie, of which it has been said that " when tickled with a hoe it laughs with a harvest," but it was good, honest, hearty soil, that paid back many fold in produce for any work that was done upon it. This certainly was good basis for a town, and the town came.

This section of territory was one of the townships granted by the

INTRODUCTION.

General Court of Massachusetts, as payment for service rendered in the old King Philip's War. In the seventeenth century Massachu- setts was poor, and the colonies had little or nothing to pay their soldiers with, except land. In no very long time after the long con- test with the Narragansetts was ended in 1677, by the almost total extinction of the tribe, they who remained alive of those who had participated in the war, and the heirs of those who were dead began to petition the General Court for some remuneration for military ser- vices. The claim was acknowledged and finally some unsettled townships of land were, by vote of the Assembly, set apart for this purpose. One township was given to the soldiers who dwelt in one section of the country and another one assigned to those who dwelt in another section. What is now Gorham, then known as Narragan- sett No. 7, was granted to the parties who were dwelling at Barnstable on Cape Cod and the region adjacent, to the number of one hundred and twenty. These people were all of Pilgrim and Puritan stock and when they came here, they brought with them their Puritan faith, traditions and practices. They were sturdy religionists from Massa- chusetts, and this meant a good deal. When they came to the Province of Maine they did not come to a region that was altogether, or even to any large extent, under the dominion of puritanic ideas. The early settlements along the coast of Maine were not made under Puritan patronage. Gorges, who not far from 1640 was made Lord Proprietary of Maine, was a Church-of-England man and was in full sympathy with Charles and Laud. Our State, therefore, was never any refuge for persecuted Puritans. The earliest settlements here were for the sake of trade and agriculture. Men came to Maine, not so much to find a freer atmosphere for their religious faith, as an opportunity to better their worldly fortunes. It was quite otherwise in Massachusetts. That was colonized by Pilgrims and Puritans, who came there on purpose that they might be free from any over- lordship of Episcopacy. In several instances indeed whole church organizations were transferred from one side of the Atlantic to the other. The history of Massachusetts Colony is church history, for the entire colony was a church, or rather according to the Puritan idea, a collection of churches. There was no settlement there, prior to the church - the settlers were the church.

In Maine, however, a good many years elapsed between the settle- ments along the shore and the organization of churches. When migrations began to take place from the Massachusetts Colony to the District of Maine, they were Puritans who came and they brought

HISTORY OF GORHAM.

with them the church and the minister. The owners of the Gorham township were Puritans, and in this respect differed from the large majority of those then living in the District. The early history of this town, like that of a great many others, shows a good deal of ecclesiastical disturbance and unrest; but it was a friction pro- duced inevitably by certain religious principles and ideals coming into and establishing themselves in a region of country where the prevailing sentiment was not sympathetic. It would be very strange if a Puritan church sentiment had not found more or less trouble with such an environment as Maine furnished a hundred and fifty years ago. Differences of sentiment among neighbors and troubles in the immediate church were no doubt largely incident to this broader and more general state of affairs. However, it is no sign either of mental weakness or of moral infirmity that there should be sharp differences of opinion touching. church doctrines or church policy. The best of men cannot always agree. Cranmer as Arch- bishop of Canterbury might dispute with Sir Thomas More and help forward his execution. But to-day we recognize both of those men as being intellectually great and morally good. So it is nothing against the intellectual and moral qualities of Gorham that her his- tory shows some ecclesiastical storms and some calling of hard names. It argues rather a pronounced individuality among her citi- zens, an independence of thought, and a disposition to rely on one's own judgment, that are always elements of personal strength. And this may be said concerning the average of Gorham citizens, that they have been men of strong character, men of great independence of thought and of self reliance, men who felt that they had some errand, some business in the world, and who gave themselves to the performing of that errand. The early settlers of the town were not time servers or timid folk, but were people of strong fiber and with resolution of an heroic cast. That first generation left its image and superscription behind it, and succeeding generations have not worn out the stamp. Gorham has always been a strong and weighty town throughout the State. The solid character of her men has given to her an influence in the commonwealth to which the mere number of her inhabitants would never have entitled her. Gorham has been a town of large influence. This influence has been the result produced by a high average of personal character on the part of her citizens, and we present here a book whose aim is to perpetuate the memory of those men, and to keep alive the knowledge of institutions that have sprung from manly brains and Christian hands.

CHAPTER II.

NARRAGANSETT WAR AND GRANTS.

To the Narragansett war the town of Gorham owes its origin and settlement. It is one of the seven townships granted by the General Court of Massachusetts to eight hundred and forty persons, who were either "personally present at the fort and fight at Narragansett, or descendants from those who were, or in the strictest alliance with them." Since our existence as a town'is due to this war, and to the consequent grants, it may not be unprofitable or uninteresting to touch lightly upon the history connected with these matters.

The war with the Narragansetts, commonly called King Philip's war, began in the Plymouth Colony, and spread in extent about three hundred miles through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and the Province of Maine. Within the space of one year the tribes of savages in New England were, with few exceptions, drawn into it against the settlers. Philip, the second son of Massasoit the firm friend of the whites, had on the death of his brother Alexander, succeeded to the chieftainship of the Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, and like him was the determined enemy of the white man. Many reasons combined to produce this hatred, one of which was the not infrequent summoning of Philip and other chiefs to Boston and Taunton to make explanations of their conduct, which proceedings they naturally resented, as insulting to their dignity and independ- ence. They also began to find their hunting grounds invaded ; their ancient domains narrowing and slipping from them. In a letter dated May 1, 1676, Gov. Winslow says, " I think I can clearly say that before these troubles broke out the English did not possess one foot of land in this Colony, but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian proprietors. And lest yet they should be straightened, we ordered that Mount Hope, Pocasset, and several other necks of the best land in the Colony, because most suitable and convenient for them, should never be bought out of their hands," etc. While this is undoubtedly true, the Indians did not at first comprehend to what their frequent sales of land were tending. Probably, they did not fully realize the binding nature of the deeds and grants which they made to the whites, and as they

HISTORY OF GORHAM.

found themselves more and more circumscribed, their suspicions and hatred of their white neighbors grew apace.

In 1671 Philip pretended that injuries had been done to him by the English, but when he appeared at Boston to lay his claims before the authorities, he could prove nothing, and he again signed articles of peace, and covenanted "to pay one hundred pds of such things as he had, and five wolves' heads yearly to the governor of Plymouth, and not to make war without the Governor's approbation." But shrewd, crafty and ever hostile to the whites even while professing friendship and signing treaties of peace with them, he was nourishing a deep laid plan for revenge, and sent messages to all the Indians to engage in war, telling them that the English were preparing to invade the Indian country; and soon under his wise and skillful leadership the Indians were plotting the entire destruction of the colonies. The murder, by order of Philip, of Sausamon, a friend to the English, who had disclosed to the authorities a plot of the savages to blot out the whites; and the subsequent punishment of the murderers by the authorities in 1675, undoubtedly caused Philip to fear for his own safety, and hurried him on to take vengeance, and by this very thing defeated, in great measure, his own plans for the extermination of his hated foes.

Cotton Mather tells us, "Things by this time began to have an ominous aspect. Yea, and now we speak of things ominous, we may add, some time before this, in a clear, still, sunshiny morning, there were divers persons in Maldon who heard in the air, on the south- east of them, a great gun go off, and presently thereupon the report of small guns like musket shot, very thick discharging, as if there had been a battel. This was at a time when there was nothing visible done in any part of the colony to occasion such noises; but that which of all astonished them was the flying of bullets, which came singing over their heads, and seemed very near to them, after which the sound of drums passing along westward was very audible ; and on the same day, in Plymouth colony in several places, invisible troops of horses were heard riding to and fro. Now, reader, pre- pare for the event of these prodigies, but count me not struck with a Livian superstition in reporting prodigies, for which I have such incontestable assurance."

The Indians began their bloody work in June, 1675, falling upon the town of Swanzey in Plymouth Colony (now Bristol, R. I.,) burning the town, and killing, it is said, nine English. Deso- lation and devastation reigned throughout the country. The

NARRAGANSETT WAR AND GRANTS.

Indians, from their knowledge of the country, and their acquaint- ance, in time of peace, with the settlers, and their mode of life, were well prepared to fall upon them in their unguarded moments, after the fashion of Indian warfare. It is well nigh impossible for us at the present day to realize the state of affairs, the terror and suffer- ing that prevailed. From official records it is estimated that in the space of one year several towns were nearly or wholly destroyed, six hundred buildings, mostly dwelling houses, were burned, and at least six hundred inhabitants were slain, either in battle, or mur- dered by the Indians. An early and reliable historian of the times, Trumbull, says after careful consideration, that one out of every eleven men capable of bearing arms was slain, and one-eleventh of all the dwellings in the united colonies burned in the war with the savages. There was mourning throughout all New England, for few were the homes where death had not entered during the strife.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Gorham, Me., Part 1

Author: McLellan, Hugh D. (Hugh Davis), 1805-1878; Lewis, Katherine B Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portland : Smith & Sale, printers Number of Pages: 1015

Author: McLellan, Hugh D. (Hugh Davis), 1805-1878; Lewis, Katherine B
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portland : Smith & Sale, printers
Number of Pages: 1015