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MAINE
Gc 974.102 C26h 1540185
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
the Library
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Black Fax Longe - Manfair Ranch on the Meat River South of Black Mountain Brattleboro, Vermont
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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THE STORY and
HISTORY of
CASCO MAINE
Written by
WILLIAM C. HOLDEN
assisted by The Centennial Committee on History DR. AND MRS. J. P. BODGE EUGENE HARMON REV. JAMES ALBERT NICHOLS
CASCO, MAINE - AUGUST, 1941
Friends' Meeting House Quaker Ridge
Casco's first town meeting was held here
1540185
IN writing history it is sometimes difficult to decide where to begin. In this case, after due consideration, I have decided to begin-at the beginning.
To quote an old rhyme of my childhood, "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." And it is recorded that at that time he discovered America, which is probably true. Most of us have been taught to believe or suppose that he was the first to dis- cover our America, and that is probably not true, for we have what seems to be perfectly established and reliable records of Northmen sailing by way of Iceland and skirting the shores of Labrador, down the New England coast as far as Narragansett Bay, and perhaps even as far as the Hudson River.
The first of these expeditions by Northmen of which I find record was that of Lief Ericson, probably a Dane, and the date 996 A.D. Other expeditions followed in 1000, 1002, 1005, 1008, IOII and in 1I21.
Ericson himself made two or three of these early voyages, and his brother Thorwald skirted
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the entire New England coast and spent four winters in Narragansett Bay. Thorwald is buried in America, probably on the Massachu- setts coast.
It is recorded that Thorwald, cruising along the New England coast, probably in Massachu- setts Bay, discovered a headland whose beauty so greatly attracted him that he exclaimed "Here it is beautiful! Here I would like to spend my days." Strangely enough, before they lifted their anchor, a scouting party from the ship got into an altercation with Indians, and Thor- wald was fatally shot by an Indian arrow. He directed that his body be buried on the adjacent shore. The historian Abbott thinks it was some- where in or about Boston Harbor, but the exact spot is not known.
Thorwald in his exploration along the Massa- chusetts shore discovered wild grapes in con- siderable abundance. In some of his letters or reports he refers to the Massachusetts shore as Vineland. In Scandinavian parlance in the eleventh century the New England coast is often referred to as Vineland.
Other Norsemen whose names appear as Maritime adventurers are Eric the Red, Thor- stein and Thorfinn.
And all of this was centuries before Columbus. Columbus, it will be recalled, first sighted the
island of San Salvador, and all of his subsequent discoveries were in and about the Carribean Sea. It is believed that he did land in Venezuela which is on the north coast of South America, but Columbus never saw the mainland of North America.
These discoveries by the Spaniards soon made England and France uneasy and envious. In 1498 John Cabot fitted out an expedition in behalf of Great Britain. He touched the North American coast, probably at Newfoundland, followed the coast down to around Cape Hat- teras, and, finding no good harbors south of Virginia, he struck back across the Atlantic for home. With Cabot on this trip were his three sons who each continued their father's search for territory and for fame. Sebastian Cabot's name stands out among the early English ex- plorers, but the Cabots really contributed little in the way of actual discovery. They did, however, plant the British Flag at several points along our coast, and so gave Britain a proprietory claim on a large portion of the American continent.
Meanwhile, the French had entered the Saint Lawrence basin, claiming its valley and all be- yond for the King of France. On subsequent voyages they navigated the Great Lakes and the Mississippi to the Gulf. As their stops here and
there were merely spots in a vast wilderness, neither the British nor the French knew any boundaries to their claims of territory. Both nations claimed Maine, as indeed they did a large portion of North America. This very naturally led to what the English called the French and Indian Wars, the Indians being gen- erally the allies of the French.
It will be remembered that Maine was not one of the thirteen original states. When our American independence was declared, Maine was a province of Massachusetts, separated by something like twenty miles of New Hampshire sea coast. Massachusetts itself was not yet thickly settled. The distance, the difficulties of transportation, the somewhat hostile climate, the prevalence of Indians and of wild beasts (for bears were really quite plentiful) retarded the settlement of Maine until the latter half of the eighteenth century, when it became a some- what popular custom for the State of Massachu- setts to pay off its individual or community debts, for military and perhaps other services, by grants of this wild land in the wilderness of Maine.
Hence it was that somewhere in the middle of the eighteenth century, Capt. William Ray- mond and sixty others, presumably members of his military company, and largely from
Beverly in Massachusetts, were granted a sec- tion of land in this Maine wilderness. From Capt. Raymond it received the recorded name of Raymondtown. Capt. Raymond and the sixty others who were named with him as recipients of lots in Raymond were known as proprietors.
Life in Massachusetts had come to be easier, the wilderness there had been somewhat sub- dued, and the inhabitants were contented in their respective homes, so relatively few of the proprietors of Raymondtown ever came down to occupy their Maine properties. Those that did not naturally sold their holdings for what they could get, and as an example of what they could get, the first transfer of land to be recorded in Raymondtown was on March 28, 1784 in which George Williams, Esq .; John Gardner, gentle- man; George Dodge, merchant; and Stephen Abbott, Esq. of Salem, Massachusetts, sold to Lewis Gay 100 acres of land, and the price was five shillings in lawful money. It was the old Gay homestead near South Casco now owned by Willis Rolfe. Mr. Gay came from Buxton, Massachusetts in 1786. He became a deputy sheriff and was one of the leading citizens of the town.
George Pierce (it was pronounced Perce notwithstanding the spelling) had built a dam
and established himself at Perse's Falls, more recently known as Edes' Falls, and was employed to survey and map the township. His instruc- tions were to lay it out with fourteen ranges, commencing at the south corner and running northwest, each range to contain twenty-four lots, the lots to contain one hundred acres each, more or less. This was about 1770.
It was a large order, and. Mr. Pierce was a busy man. After some years with very little accomplished, Nathaniel Winslow was employed to take over, complete the survey, and map the township. Mr. Winslow's report, together with the map, was presented to the proprietors at a meeting held in a tavern called "The Sign of the Sun" in Salem, Massachusetts, March 17, 1798.
The writer has an authentic copy of this map of Raymondtown, and on it Richard Manning's name appears as the owner of more than twenty 100 acre lots. One student of our early history, claims that the Mannings at one time owned or controlled twelve thousand acres in this vicinity.
In 1801 Richard Manning, Jr. came to Ray- mond, now Casco, and built for himself what in those days was a very beautiful and elaborate house in Dingley's Mills which is now South Casco. This is now the home of Mrs. Frank Welch. Richard Manning, Jr. was made the authorized agent of the proprietors.
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The Richard Manning House as it looks today
It is believed that Joseph Dingley was the first real settler of Raymondtown, although John Davis, Jr., and perhaps others, trapped and hunted through this region, and established temporary homes. Davis complained that In- dians took game from his traps and was greatly annoyed. In exasperation he left home one morning with the statement that he was about done submitting. Half an hour later the crack of a rifle was heard on the mountainside. Davis presently returned to his cabin in great haste and remarked, "We must leave this ground mighty quick," and it is believed that another Indian had gone to the happy hunting grounds.
But Davis was not regarded as a permanent settler, although his sons, John and Gideon, retained lots east of where Raymond village now is, and a few years later they returned to possess them.
An interesting and somewhat dramatic story is connected with the first settlement of Ray- mondtown. In order to promote the occupation and settlement of this new town, the proprietors offered an additional hundred acre lot to the proprietor who should first arrive, build for him- self a house, and clear four acres of land.
Capt. Joseph Dingley of Duxbury, Massachu- setts and Dominicus Jordan of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, each started to avail himself of the offer.
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Just how or where they came together we do not know-nor is it important-but together at nightfall they arrived at a camping ground at the outlet of Sebago Lake, which is now White's Bridge, and decided to camp.
During the night, while Jordan slept, Dingley arose, procured for himself a boat, and paddling across the bay and skirting the west shore of Raymond Cape, came to the outlet of the stream that now bears his name at South Casco, Ding- ley Brook. Here he proceeded to establish him- self.
Mr. Jordan, in the meantime, awoke in the morning to find his companion gone. He resumed his journey on foot with such impedi- menta as the nature of his mission demanded, and trudged along the shore of the lake to the river which now bears his name at Raymond, Jordan River.
It is recorded that Capt. Dingley received the award of an extra hundred acre plot. That was in 1770, but not much actual settlement took place until after the Revolution.
Massachusetts, as has been said, had found it a great convenience to pay off her indebtedness, particularly for military service, by concessions of wild land in Maine. Incidentally a consider- able portion of southern Maine was so distri- buted. A group of citizens from a certain
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locality, often a military company, were assigned lots and designated as proprietors of the town. Thus Raymond was settled largely out of Bever- ly, Massachusetts; Windham out of Marblehead; New Gloucester out of Gloucester; Otisfield out of Groton; Waterford out of Bolton; and Gray was New Boston.
Eli Longley, a Revolutionary soldier, came from Bolton, Mass. to Waterford about 1788, cleared his land and built his house in Water- ford Flat, where the hotel now stands. For some years he farmed, kept a store and a tavern.
In 1816 and 17 the summer seasons were very cold. Charles A. Stevens in some of his books refers to this period as "eighteen hundred and froze to death." It is believed that 1816 was the most severe, and a killing frost was recorded on the seventh of July. Both field crops and garden produce were almost a total failure which caused near famine locally, and great unrest, and an almost epidemic migration to the west, particularly to western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Eli Longley's farm in Waterford was among those stricken by the frost of that terrible year of "eighteen hundred and froze to death." In the spring of the second season Eli Longley joined a group of "Westward Ho" emigrants, and journeyed on horseback to western Pennsyl- vania where he found a piece of land to his
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liking and within his reach financially. Eli tarried there to look it over in detail and perhaps to negotiate for its purchase.
It should be explained that before starting West, Eli had sold his farm in Waterford and fully intended to move West. The new lot which had attracted his attention was in the Northwestern corner of the state near Erie. While he was yet lingering and studying the possibilities of the place, he awoke one morning in June to find that frost had killed the crops and blackened the foliage of the roadside.
Eli was a forceful character of quick decision and precipitate action. He was disgusted, and immediately after breakfast he called off the negotiations, saddled his horse and started back to Maine. As his farm in Waterford had already been sold, he was in the market for another. He finally settled upon and purchased the old tavern site at Raymond where he built a tavern home (the Old Sawyer's Tavern or Central House-now burned). There he farmed, kept store and tavern, and there he raised sons and daughters. Eli built, out of the jungle, a con- siderable section of the Meadow Road. He is buried in Raymond.
Mitchell & Davis record in their history of Raymond that the first town meeting was held in the Inn of Capt. Samuel Dingley, but that
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subsequent meetings until 1834 were held in Eli Longley's stable. Eli was for many years postmaster of Raymond, the second I think, and was succeeded in that office by his son-in- law, John Sawyer.
Raymond Cape until 1871 was not a part of Raymond. The fourteen ranges prescribed for the survey threw the Cape over to the adjoining town of Standish, but because of location it has always seemed to be a part of both Raymond and Casco. It now belongs to Raymond.
About 1820 Daniel Mason and Samuel Tarbox made homes for themselves on the Cape. They were brothers-in-law and their homes were near the Images, which are not far from the southern end of the Cape.
One cold morning in mid-winter Mr. Tarbox, recognizing an impending storm and being short of provisions, decided that he must go to Dingley's Mills for supplies before the storm shut them in. It was late when he got started for home and he was heavily laden, but he started out resolutely. As darkness came on, he lost his bearings and wandered aimlessly. Finally he sank down from exhaustion and died of exposure.
Mrs. Tarbox, after passing through all of the increasing stages of anxiety, wrapped herself up as best she could and started in search of her
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husband. The snow was deep and progress difficult. Mrs. Tarbox wandered through the forest calling her husband's name. But she, too, finally fell in the snow exhausted and was frozen to death. The Tarbox children were farmed out among neighbors. Elizabeth Tarbox was raised in Richard Manning's family.
Another incident on the cape may be of in- terest. A man by the name of Frye was pursued by Indians. In desperation he ran to the rocky headland which we call the Images and, leaping into the water ninety feet below, he swam to the island across the channel and escaped. The spot on the ledge from which he plunged is still called Frye's Leap, and the great island in the lake where he found shelter and also made his home for some years is still known as Frye's Island.
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INDIANS
THE Indians of New England roamed far afield during the summer, but after the hunting season was over they generally segre- gated themselves in villages where more per- manent and substantial shelters were erected. These villages were where councils were held to determine the policies of the tribe and to afford an outlet for their social inclinations.
The largest and most influential Indian vil- lage, or assembly, in the East, was on the St. Francis River in Canada, near the St. Lawrence River, and seventy or eighty miles north of the Vermont northern boundary. As the New England states became more thickly settled and the Indians were driven back, St. Francis grew to have great influence. It was from St. Francis that many of the massacre raids into Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts were di- rected.
More locally there were important villages on Swan Island in the Kennebec, one on the Saco River (probably near Hollis), and one in Frye-
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burg, also on the Saco. From all sections of the coast there were trails running northward into Canada and to St. Francis. There was the Pe- quokett Trail through Fryeburg and the White mountains; the Pondicherry and Sokokis Trails, up Sebago and Long Lake, thence through Waterford to Bethel where it joined the Scoggin Trail. The Scoggin Trail started at Swan Island, came up the Androscoggin River to Bethel, thence through the Grafton and Dix- ville Notches into Canada and on to St. Francis.
Casco was situated between the Pondicherry Trail and the Scoggin Trail, and was not much frequented by Indians. A few episodes, how- ever, are of record.
Sometime prior to the Revolution, a family by the name of Wyer that lived near Brunswick was massacred by the Indians with the excep- tion of a young son, Joseph, who happened to be absent from home at the time. Young Wyer was dazed when he found his home destroyed and his family dead at the hands of the Red Men. It was some time before he could adjust himself and accept the conditions which had been imposed upon him. But when he finally was obliged to look the world in the face, he practically devoted his life to the extermination of the Red Men. He was a tall, powerful man,
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who, as a hunter and trapper, spent much of his time in the forest, and developed in a high degree the instincts and habits of the woodsman and hunter.
It seems that the Indians had determined to burn Brunswick and massacre its inhabitants. Wyer became aware that something of the kind was afoot and that a large party from the north was expected. He bought a jug of rum and went with all haste to the Lewiston Falls of the Androscoggin River where he laid in wait for the war party. In due time he detected a signal light on some rocks quite a distance above the falls. Jug in hand, he cautiously crept to the spot, and, after a few grunts in Indian conversa- tion he persuaded the Indian to have a drink. It is a safe guess that the Indian was easily persuaded. In a little time Wyer took him through the various stages of drunkenness until he babbled off into unconsciousness-dead drunk. Wyer lost no time in extinguishing the signal fire, and then proceeded to build signal fires below the falls.
The Lewiston Falls is a wicked plunge when the water is high. It was the plan of the Indians, of course, to land above the falls and carry to a landing below them, but Wyer had changed their signals and, although the Indians
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could hear the roar of the cataract in the dark- ness, they had depended on the signals so im- plicitly that they were in the swift water above the falls before they realized it. The entire party of several canoes went over the falls and perished. It is a gruesome tale, but it has its silver lining. This young scout, Wyer, had saved the town of Brunswick from the terrible fate that so many of our New England towns did not escape.
On another occasion Wyer is reported to have been splitting rails for a fence when he looked up to see six Indians with faces painted and car- rying weapons of the war path. They gave him to understand that he was a prisoner, that they could easily have killed him before he knew of their presence, but that because he had killed many of their people they were holding him for torture ceremonies.
Wyer must have had very unusual composure and self-control. He professed to be ready to go with them when he had finished splitting up the tree on which he was working, and if they would assist him, he would the sooner be ready. He started a blunt wedge and opened up a seam an inch or two wide, and asked the Indians to help pull it open while he drove the wedge.
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Then, with one deft stroke, he knocked the wedge out free and clear, and the Indians were locked by their fingers in the crack, and help- less. And thus held, they were promptly dis- patched with the ax.
These incidents, as such, of course are not a part of Casco's history except that it was these Androscoggin tribes, as well as the Pondicher- ries, Sokokis, and Pequakets, that occasionally wandered through Casco on hunting and fishing trips. It was this same scout Wyer who as- sisted in a rescue which did take place here.
Two wandering braves captured a white girl somewhere in Cumberland or Falmouth and fled with her toward Canada. The young man to whom she was engaged, hearing what had hap- pened, sought out Wyer in desperation, and together they started in pursuit of the fugitives and came upon them in the night "on the top of a hill near Casco." The maiden and one of the braves were sleeping, while the other brave kept watch, leaning against the butt of a large tree. The sentinel was shot where he stood, and the other brave was easily overcome and captured.
From another source comes what is probably the same story, and it places the incident on a hill immediately to the north and two hundred rods or so above the outlet of Pleasant Pond.
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I
Elizabeth Hawthorne's House, South Casco, as it is today
Here the young novelist lived through his boyhood
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
AS has been said, Richard Manning, Jr. came to Casco, then Raymond, from Salem, Massachusetts, in 1801. A sister of Manning's had married in Salem a seafaring man named Hathorne, the master of a vessel. They had a small son, Nathaniel.
When young Nathaniel was four or five years old his father, Capt. Hathorne, died of yellow fever in a foreign port and Richard Manning, Jr. persuaded his sister to come to Maine to live. He and his brother, Robert, built for her a house just across the Dingley Brook from his own home and there young Hathorne grew to manhood.
In those early days the name was spelled and pronounced HATHORNE but when Nathaniel was in Bowdoin College he insisted on HAW- THORNE. At least a part of his early educa- tion was under the tutelage of his Uncle Richard. But he finished his college preparation in Salem.
Hawthorne was passionately fond of the great out of doors and spent much of his spare time fishing and hunting. There was not a nook nor
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a corner in the forests and lakes within walking distance of his home with which he was not familiar. The rocky promontory on Raymond Cape was a favorite spot and the chasm-like opening at the foot of the ledge was a childhood discovery that delighted him much. A flat rock near the outlet of Thomas Pond was a favorite fishing spot, still spoken of locally as "Nat's Rock."
It is true that the Hawthorne house is just over the Casco line in Raymond, but he spent much time in Casco and it is a legitimate claim that our rocks and rills, our vales and hills, and the rugged and sometimes quaint characters of some of our people, had an influence on the appreciation and the imagination of the great novelist. Hawthorne loved Casco.
Nathaniel Winslow's map of Raymond calls for a seven-and-a-half mile square, including the lakes. In 1827 a portion of the Thompson Pond Plantation was set off to Raymond, and two years later that corner on Winslow's map lying west of Crooked River was transferred to Naples. These transfers had not much affected the area of the township, but the form was changed.
As early as 1825 some uneasiness had been expressed about the difficulty of getting together
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for the transaction of town business. It must not be forgotten that these were the old horse and buggy days, and that the town meetings were held in March. For several years this question of dividing the town came up in town meeting with seemingly good reasons and cer- tainly plenty of argument on both sides, until finally in 1841 it was decided to divide the town. Edward Mayberry, Samuel Jordan and John Cook were appointed as a committee to draw the dividing line.
In the very early fishing village stage of Portland, that town was called Machigon, an Indian name meaning a knee or bend, doubtless applied to Portland because of the shape of the peninsula on which it is built-a relatively high peninsula-which winds itself around Back Cove.
Casco, also an Indian name, meaning a place of cranes and waterfowl was a name that first settled upon Casco Bay. Later the name was applied to the village which was the largest settlement bordering on the Bay, and for many years what is now Portland was called Casco. But when it was organized into a township, a group of influential citizens who had come from Falmouth in England succeeded in having
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the township named for their home across the sea, and Falmouth was recorded as the name of this growing village on Casco Bay. Later Falmouth found herself too large for convenient administration and was divided, the eastern end remaining Falmouth, and the western end adopting the name of Portland.
And so when in 1841 Raymond voluntarily divided, the Western half picked up the beauti- ful name out of which Portland had been cheated. Thus we are Casco.
Organized as Casco was, under the original grant as a part of Raymond, it is natural and logical that the earliest settlements should be in the southern part of the town.
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