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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01091 8263
PORTLAND by the SEA
AN HISTORICAL TREATISE by AUGUSTUS F. MOULTON
AUGUSTA, MAINE KATAHDIN PUBLISHING CO. 1926
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PORTLAND by the SEA
1779137
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By AUGUSTUS F. MOULTON
Trial by Ordeal
Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Palatinate of Maine
Settlement of Scarborough
Anne Hutchinson
Church and State in New England
Moulton Family Genealogy Old Prouts Neck
Grandfather Tales of Scarborough
"And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair, And with joy that is almost pain My heart goes back to wunder there, And among the dreams of the days that were, I find my lost youth again."
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Moulton, Augustus Freedom, 1818- Portland by the sea: an historical treatise, by Augustus F. Moulton. ¿ Augusta, Me., Katahdin publishing co., 1926.
S p. 1., ,13, 21), O. p. front., plates, ports, double map. 200 1
1. Portland, Me .- - Ilst.
Library of Congress
F20.POMS .
27-1475
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Copyright A 95$758
Copyright 1926, Katahdin Publishing Company
F 84175 . 59
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LEWISTON JOURNAL PRINT SHOP
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Often I think of the beautiful town That is seated by the sea; Often in thought go up and down The pleasant streets of that dear old town, And my youth comes back to me.
Thus sang the poet in reflecting upon the charms of his native city by the sea. Much has been written both in song and story concerning the wealth of natural loveliness in which Portland and its adjacent territory abounds. But it has remained for a leading member of the Portland Bar, Honorable Augustus F. Moulton, to relate in a most fascinating manner the story of Portland's history in concise, accurate and readable form, from the earliest days down to the present time.
Not but what Portland has been fortunate in having excellent historians. The History of Port- land by William Willis was for its time a remark- able work. Yet this was first published in 1833, and sixty years have elapsed since the second edition with additional material was brought out in 1865. It evidences patient historical research and exacting thoroughness as to detail, but little at that time had been accomplished in the way of independent investigation of early Maine history.
Francis Parkman had not at that time brought forth his monumental work embracing a careful and scholarly examination of the early French records relative to the designs of France upon Maine, and consequently this work was not avail- able for a writer of that period. William Gould's Portland in the Past, although of much historical value was not in any manner intended to be a connected narrative. John T. Hull later brought out his quite thorough work relating to Portland which was an excellent encyclopedia of statistical facts. None of these, however, save for the Willis history, valuable as they undoubtedly were, related the story of Portland in logical and consecutive outline. In Mr. Moulton's Portland by the Sea may be found a compendium of the history of the locality from the earliest time to the present. In logical and compact outline it traces the development of its settlement and growth not only from an internal point of view, but it also clearly shows how largely the development of this com- mercial city upon the coast was from the very beginning affected by outside influences. .
The early history of Maine is fascinating in the extreme and is replete with romance and adventure. Its history goes back to the earliest. days of European colonization and settlement. Although Portland was outside that vast territory lying between the St. Croix on the east and the
Kennebec or Sagadahoc on the west, the mystery of which was contended for by the English and French for a full century and a half, yet it was sufficiently near the scene of that struggle to be subjected in a large measure to its devastating influences.
Mr. Moulton traces in clear and accurate detail the effect of these contending forces upon the development of Portland and its locality. He possesses to a remarkable degree the rare faculty of writing history in such a manner that it is interesting even to a non-lover of history; at the same time he sacrifices nothing of the accuracy and detail which is essential that history may be reliable and of value for reference.
Mr. Moulton has made in this work a distinct contribution to the field of Maine history and research. It merits and richly deserves the approbation of the reading public. It is to be hoped that much more work of a similar character may come from his pen.
Augusta, Maine BERTRAM E. PACKARD
1926
Table of Contents
Chapter Page
I
THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENTS
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II
THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH
19
III
SETTLEMENT PLANTING
26
IV
THE TURMOIL OF TITLES
33
V THE CONTEST FOR CASCO NECK 41
VI
MASSACHUSETTS OCCUPANCY AND ITS RESULTS
49
VII THE FIRST INDIAN WAR 59
VIII
GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE DEVELOPS
69
IX
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR AND ABANDONMENT
78
X THE SECOND SETTLEMENT 88
XI THE BUILDING OF A TOWNSHIP 97
XII
LOUISBURG AND THE END OF THE FRENCH MENACE 106
XIII
FALMOUTH IMPROVES ITS OPPORTUNITIES.
116
XIV BRITISH COLONIAL POLICIES CREATE HOSTILITY
125
XV THE BURNING OF FALMOUTH BY MOWATT
134
XVI FALMOUTH IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
143
XVII FALMOUTH REVIVES AND PORTLAND BECOMES A TOWN 152
XVIII
RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF PORTLAND
161
XIX
THE EMBARGO AND WAR OF 1812.
170
XX MAINE A STATE AND PORTLAND ITS CAPITAL. 179
XXI PORTLAND EXPANDS AND BECOMES A CITY 188
XXII STEAM POWER, RAILROADS AND NEW ACTIVITIES. 197
XXIII
PORTLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR.
206
XXIV THE GREAT FIRE OF 1866
216
XXV PORTLAND EXTENDS ITS BOUNDARIES AND MAIN- TAINS PROGRESS. 226
XXVI SOME FACTS PERTAINING TO PRESENT PORTLAND.
235
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Illustrations
Opposite Page
AUGUSTUS F. MOULTON 1
PORTLAND
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OLD WHITE HEAD
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CAPT. CHRISTOPHER LEVETT STEERING HIS SHALLOP INTO
DIAMOND ISLAND, 1623
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GEORGE CLEEVE MONUMENT
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MACHEGONNE AT COMING OF GEORGE CLEEVE
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SETTLER'S CABIN, 1676
64
FIRST TAVERN IN PORTLAND
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THE OBSERVATORY, CONGRESS STREET
78
REVEREND THOMAS SMITH
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OLD FIRST PARISH CHURCH
122
ALICE GREELE TAVERN, 1775
130
PLAN OF FALMOUTH, NOW PORTLAND
142-143
PORTLAND HEAD LIGHT
154
OLD VAUGHAN BRIDGE
164
WHARF IN PORTLAND, TIME OF EMBARGO
170
GRAVES OF CAPTS. BURROWS AND BLYTH
172
ENTERPRISE AND BOXER
176
STATE HOUSE, 1820
186
OLD CITY HALL
192
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PORTLAND IN 1850 200
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW 204
NEAL DOW 204
WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN
204
THOMAS B. REED
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THE WAR MEMORIAL MONUMENT
214
MIDDLE STREET AND WOOD'S HOTEL 216
PORTLAND AFTER FIRE OF 1866
220
LONGFELLOW MONUMENT
228
PORTLAND BRIDGE.
234
AIR-PLANE VIEW, MAINE STATE PIER
237
OLD FIRST PARISH CHURCH. 239
PORTLAND
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PORTLAND BY THE SEA
I
THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENTS.
W HEN Longfellow in his poem "My Lost Youth" referred to "the beautiful town that is seated by the sea" he expressed more than appears at first thought. Portland owed its early prominence to the intimate near- ness which it has to the ocean; and even now it is that fact, together with its location upon the sheltered Casco Bay, bordered with a far-reaching exhibit of delightful shore frontage and many islands, making unexcelled harbor facilities and water communications, that largely promote the importance of the place.
For a long time after the discovery of America the new world was regarded merely as an area where Europeans, coming from their homes across the water might seize upon localities for exploit- ation and profit; and this is a reminder that we should first of all consider that the earlier begin- nings were very closely connected with affairs upon the other side of the broad Atlantic. What we call history relates mostly to peoples and coun- tries around the Mediterranean Sea. When writ- ing developed they were calling that region the middle of the world, and places beyond were known only as the resorts of unknown barbarians. All this is interesting, but the narrative of Port- land is concerned with antiquities only so far
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as we learn from them the causes which led to discovery and settlement here.
Since the opening up of America had its pri- mary suggestion by reason of happenings in the old world, and as the development here was largely affected by and connected with the prog- ress of affairs there, a few more important events may be referred to as pertaining especially to our own history. The illimitable Far East was known as a place from which rare and attractive merchandise was exported. The earliest com- munication of Western Europe with that dim and uncertain somewhere was had mostly by sailing vessels on the great sea, which made con- nections with the caravans that regularly came from the rich and romantic Orient, and there had grown up extensive and valuable trade with those distant parts.
The Ottoman Turks in 1453 captured Con- stantinople and soon controlled the Mediterranean and shut off commerce with distant India. The mariner's compass had then been in use for more than a century, so that ships could venture with confidence out of sight of land. The desire to renew intercourse with India, therefore, was the chief inducement for promoting the voyage of Columbus by Spain which was then the leading commercial nation of the world.
It was not long before other voyagers found that it was not a route to India that the advent- urous navigator had opened but that the existence of a new continent and lands of indefinite extent had been made known. Pope Alexander VI issued
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THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENTS
a bull bestowing the unknown regions upon the sovereigns, not the people, of Portugal and Spain, by a dividing line which was afterwards found to give nearly all of the main land to the Spanish grantee. Spain soon discovered wealth in the gold and silver mines in the neighborhood of Mexico and, being mistress of the seas, kept people of other nationalities for a long time away from all the virgin lands, asserting aggressively that they belonged to her alone. The defeat of the Great Armada in 1588 broke the Spanish supremacy upon the ocean and opened the way for others. Thus, as the analytic historian John Fiske declares, it was the capture of Constanti- nople that primarily induced the discovery of the western world, and it was also the defeat of the Armada that promoted its settlement.
After about a century of exclusion by dom- inant Spanish power the two rival nations, France and England, awoke to a realization of the fact that in the West there was a great continent which offered rich opportunities for acquiring new territory of extensive though little known capabil- ities and value. It is certain that fishermen had found their way to the Banks of Newfoundland and the adjacent parts soon after the return of Columbus, and their reports gave an idea of the great resources existing there, and especially those along the indented coast of Maine. In 1602 De Monts and Champlain, under auspices of the gallant and tolerant Henry IV, him of Navarre and the white plume, explored the locality for France without observing particularly the natural
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advantages of Casco Bay. A little later Gosnold, Pring and Waymouth in English vessels visited the region of Maine and returned with glowing accounts of its islands, its fisheries, its rivers and its forests. It will be noted that their voyages were in the summer. They had not learned how to enjoy the rigor of an American winter.
The French made haste to seize upon and set up claims to large possessions on the eastern coast, and, continuing up the river St. Lawrence and southward from the Great Lakes which they discovered, asserted the sovereign right of France in those localities. King Henry IV also in 1602 made definite the claim by giving to Sieur de Monts a charter of the American territory from about the latitude of Newfoundland to that of Philadelphia. De Monts in 1604 promptly brought over colonists and made a settlement on the Isle of St. Croix at the mouth of the river of the same name. This was the first European colony in Maine. The situation being unfavor- able, it was the next year abandoned and a new location occupied in the beautiful Annapolis Val- ley in Nova Scotia. Thereafter for a long time the French gave their principal attention to opening up the St. Lawrence and the West for profitable trade and missionary work with the natives.
The English, upon their part, were aroused and April 10, 1606 King James issued a charter to sundry gentlemen incorporating two companies, one of which, the North Virginia or Plymouth
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THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENTS
Company, so-called, was authorized to take pos- session of and apportion to others the same territory which had already been claimed and granted by the French and much more besides. Thus there were at the same time two conveyances of Maine. One claim was as good as the other, since neither had any basis except bare assertion. The Indian occupants, being heathen, were not reckoned as having any rights and were left out of consideration. The Spanish also still insisted upon their ownership. In 1607 two English expeditions for settlement were sent out and each established itself, one at Jamestown, Virginia, and the other at Sagadahoc, now Popham Beach, at the mouth of the Kennebec River. This Maine settlement was the next year abandoned, and for a considerable period there was no permanent occupation made by the English, though there were numbers of irregular fishing and trading stations along the coast. Establishments made by the French at Mount Desert were broken up by the English.
Colonial matters went on with much talk and little accomplishment until 1620, the year of the accidental landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth and their establishment of a settlement there. Things were then going badly in England. There was extreme intolerance in religious matters; it was thought that the country was over-populated, and many were anxious to find occupation or residences elsewhere. In this year 1620 a new and additional royal charter was issued to the afore- said assembly of loyal gentlemen called the Ply-
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PORTLAND BY THE SEA
mouth Company, and renewed effort was dis- played by its members, among whom was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the promoter of the unsuc- cessful Sagadahoc settlement, and who was called the father of American colonization. This royal patent of 1020 is reckoned as the civil basis of all the subsequent English patents or grants by which the country was divided. It will be noted that the assertion of the English King James, like that of his royal French brother, was of his own personal ownership by divine right of these undefined heathen lands, and that this persistent claim upon his part was later the source of much controversy as being in derogation of the popular rights conferred upon the English people by Magna Charta, the great concession extorted from King John at Runnymede.
II
THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH.
I N order to have an understanding of the causes which induced the establishment of settle- ments in this vicinity it is necessary for us to consider the far-off America of the period as it appeared to the people of the Old World. "In 1603," says Prince in his New England Chronicles, "there was not one European family on the whole coast of America from Florida to Greenland." It had become evident that an extensive con- tinent existed, but of it practically nothing was known except by report coming from random voyagers along the water frontage. It was not even suggested until after the abandonment of the Popham settlement that the climate presented variations of temperature quite different from that abroad. In the countries of western Europe the waters of the Gulf Stream temper both the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Here the icy Labrador current forces the warmer vol- ume of water away from the shore, giving frigid character to a part of the year while it does not restrain the prevailing winds which bring addi- tional heat during the hot months. The common people abroad, though they had reasons for dis- content, had little thought of seeking new and distant homes, but the governmental authorities, for ambitious as well as political reasons, were
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PORTLAND BY THE SEA
anxious to establish fixed places of permanent occupation. Those who first came were in general companies of men only, much like the outpost establishments of the East India Company and later the Hudson Bay Company.
Captain John Smith having terminated his relations with the Jamestown, Virginia, colony made in 1614 a so-called "Adventure" along the coast of New England. His mission was "to take whales and make tryalls of a mine of gold and copper." Instead he brought back a profit- able cargo of fish and furs, and gave report of valuable commercial products to be obtained there. He made a written report with a map giving names of places, some of which like Cape Elizabeth are still retained. Soon there was great competition to establish trading stations and business, especially in this vicinity. The shores of Maine evidently became the most sought for portion of the Atlantic frontage. There were good reasons for this, though it must be admitted that they are not readily apparent to modern con- ceptions. An explanation may be found by con- sidering the advantages existing here as applicable to the commerce, markets and conditions of those days, and which made appeal especially to Eng- land. With the fall of Calais, half a century before, she had finally turned her back upon continental conquests and entanglements. The war with Spain, which had drifted along after the defeat of the Armada, came to an end with the peace of 1604. Having territory too small to satisfy their needs and their ambitions, the
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THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH
English people were entering definitely upon the career upon the seas which they have since maintained.
Perhaps first mention should be made of the conformation of the coast. With its continuous line of safe harbors, numerous islands and easy access to the mainland, the whole extended front- age was available for ships. To a commercial country this was an aspect of no small account. It was common report also that the opportunities for profitable business were likewise attractive. The fisheries, the fur trade and the timber products loomed up prominently.
The early reports of the abundance of the fish are phenomenal but are well authenticated. The migratory fish then came in shoals and schools of unlimited extent. The alewives and the shad, to say nothing of salmon and other varieties, came in the early spring-time in numbers such that they choked the streams. The native Indians used these fish by wholesale as fertilizer for their extensive fields of maize and pumpkins. One or two good-sized fish to a hill of corn would produce a bountiful crop. A vessel could quickly be loaded with the larger varieties of so-called ground fish of best quality. There was good reason later for making the cod-fish a symbol of Massachusetts wealth and aristocracy. The mackerel came in schools literally miles in extent. The menhaden or porgies, of little value for human food, were called bait fish. These in the summer arrived in multitudes and their coming attracted other vari- eties. The herring in their season swarmed over
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PORTLAND BY THE SEA
the surface. John Jocelyn tells of long windrows of them piled knee-deep along the shore after a storm. These sea products could be readily dried or cured in the flake yards or stages upon the convenient islands or shores. The world markets for fish as cheap and substantial food could not be over-supplied. If one asks what has become of this harvest of the sea the answer may be found in the interruption of the streams with mill dams and debris, but most of all in the later wanton and destructive use of wholesale methods of fishing. The seines, a third of a mile in extent, would capture mackerel by the ton with a single sweep. The menhaden bait fish were taken whole- sale and carried to factories to be pressed for oil. Trawls were extended along the bottom almost by the mile, and machines were invented to sweep the ocean floor. Fish have instinct of self-pres- ervation and have been frightened away as well as destroyed.
The vast forests and numerous rivers of the region offered a rich field for the exploitation of the fur trade. Among the better classes in Europe and elsewhere furs had become fashionable, but they were expensive and difficult to obtain. Beaver hats were a part of the distinguishing apparel of gentlemen. This trade, therefore, was exceedingly profitable and from the native hunters great supplies could be obtained. The Indians before the coming of the white men had only implements laboriously wrought from rock and flint. The weapons of the warrior and all their appliances were rude and primitive. They were
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THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH
exceedingly fond of ornaments which they made with toilsome difficulty from shells and bright minerals. Thus they were eager to acquire fire- arms and utensils of iron. Advantage was taken of their desires to obtain from the inexperienced aborigines quantities of the finest furs and skin's in exchange for showy trinkets and cheap tools and also for "strong water," for which they had an insatiable appetite. To the Indian, whose ideal had been the rude wampum made from the hard covering of oysters and pieces of quartz, glass beads were regarded as we look upon diamonds. Beaver peltry, so abundant that it was packed in hogsheads, was a large article of commerce. The fur trade, therefore, was a source of vast gain to the companies of foreign adventurers.
As time went on the timber business became second to nothing else. The lordly pines which covered Maine furnished lumber in unlimited sup- ply that was pre-eminent for all common purposes. The forests of Europe are mostly of hardwood, short and branching. From the tall, straight trees here were obtained masts that gave to the com- merce and navy of England a great part of their superiority. The raising of sugar cane in the West Indies made a call for pipe staves and lumber for boxes and barrels and opened up new trade and commerce there.
Spain, France and England were all claimants of the lands along the Atlantic coast, while the native occupants were out of the reckoning. The Spanish were giving almost their entire attention to the gold and silver mines of the South, whence
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their galleons came with freights of the precious metals. The French, with their military and aristocratic government, were principally mindful of the richer fur trade of the North, the over- lordship of the St. Lawrence River basin and the development of the vast region of the Great Lakes, the home of native tribes. Henry of Navarre had died by the hand of an assassin in 1610, leaving the government in the weak hands of Louis XIII with his dissipated courtiers and his feminine managers. Thus it had come to pass that the new world of North America was tacitly, though not in terms, divided into three parts, the Spanish section of the South, the French section of the North, leaving to England with little of interruption the great central part. The des- olating, religious thirty years war began in 1618 and crippled the strength of the rest of Europe. England, therefore, was in a position to exploit with almost negligible resistance her northern central area of opportunity.
With the seas safe for traffic the real expansion of the English nation began. The success of the Pilgrim settlement of Plymouth in 1620 and the prosperity of the French occupation in the latitude of Quebec had banished the myth of an impossible winter climate. That was seen to have been only the excuse of men who were longing to meet again their friends in the homeland. Richard Vines, Factor Vines, had wintered in comfort in 1616 at the mouth of the Saco. The Council for New England, the Plymouth Company, under the energetic influence of Sir Ferdinando Gorges
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THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH
and his patriotic compeers, issued new grants with an impulsive and almost careless hand. King James himself issued a proclamation offering one hundred and fifty acres of land to any of his subjects who would go to America to establish a home there. The need of orderly and systematic methods, if anything was to be accomplished, had become apparent, for although there were in 1630 few homes or families outside of Plymouth it was reported that more than forty temporary and unauthorized establishments of irresponsible ad- venturers were then existing along the coast.
III
SETTLEMENT PLANTING.
T HE name Falmouth or Old Falmouth was applied to the territory included within the bounds of the township established by Mas- sachusetts authority in 1658. This tract, of which our Portland was a part, extended from the Cam- mock, Black Point, grant at its Spurwink River border eastwardly along the shore to the present line of the town of Cumberland, reaching back due northwesterly eight miles. It embraced what is now Portland, including the Deering district and Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, Westbrook and Falmouth, together with the islands adjacent.
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