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Gc 974.102 ₣89t 1128796
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
M. L
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01088 2816
490-600
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/threecenturiesof00thur
Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
THREE CENTURIES OF
FREEPORT, MAINE BY
FLORENCE G. THURSTON AND HARMON S. CROSS
FREEPORT, MAINE
1940
The entire contents of this book are copyrighted, 1940, by Harmon S. Cross and Florence G. Thurston
No extracts or illustrations to be used without written permission
1128798
"'Mayne' .... Butt in this province there is a bay, called Casco Bay, in which there are many islands, two outlets to the . sea, many good harbours and great store of ffish and oysters, crabs and lobsters. In this province, as in all the rest, there are great store of wild ducks, geese and deer in their seasons, straw- beryes, rasberyes, goosberyes, barberyes, and severall sort of bill- beryes, severall sorts of oakes and pines, chestnut trees, wallnut trees and sometimes four or five miles together : the (more) north- erly the country, the better the timber is accounted."
- Report of the Royal Commissioners About New England in 1665.
FOREWORD
I HE purpose of this book is to preserve as many as possible of vanishing traditions, that present and future genera- tions may know something of how their ancestors lived and achieved. Since it is impossible to record all that has hap- pened during the three centuries which have elapsed, even though the facts were available, we know that much has been omitted. Nevertheless, we believe that enough has been in- cluded to cause pride in the hearts of native Freeporters and to assure other residents that they live in no mean town.
So many have assisted by suggesting sources of information and furnishing us with material that we are unable to name them all here. However, it would be doing an injustice if we did not mention the invaluable aid which the B. H. Bartol Li- brary has rendered through its librarian, Miss Grace M. Rogers and her assistant Miss Mildred P. Stowell, by their unfailing cooperation.
We acknowledge the generosity of those citizens and friends of the town who helped to finance the necessary research: Paul L. Powers, Alpheus G. Dyer, L. C. Maybury, George V. Hunter, L. T. Patterson, L. L. Bean, L. Porter Soule, L. E. Curtis, Doc- tors Gould and Howard, Ernest L. Varney, Mary A. Woodside, Elwyn L. Davis, William W. Fish, Edward H. Davis, Linwood E. Porter, Perez S. Burr, John R. Lavers, Mark Polakewich, D. R. Arnold, Frank M. Barnard, Samuel L. Porter, Ellen O. Tal- bot, Grace M. Rogers and William G. Mitchell.
CONTENTS
I. EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORERS
3
II. INDIANS
5
III. EARLY GOVERNMENT AND ORIGIN OF TITLES 8
IV. FIRST SETTLERS
11
V. THE SECOND SETTLEMENT
20
VI. THE FINAL RESETTLEMENT
28
VII. MEANS MASSACRE
34
VIII. SETTLERS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
36
IX. FREEPORT IN THE REVOLUTION
39
X. INCORPORATION OF FREEPORT
43
XI. DEATH AND TAXES
49
XII. FREEPORT 1789-1812 52
XIII. THE DASH 55
XIV. MAINE BALLADS 65
XV. FREEPORT IN 1816 70
XVI. FREEPORT AND MAINE INDEPENDENCE
72
XVII. MILITIA OF THE NEW STATE 77
XVIII. THE SCHOONER ZELF AND BARK GLEN 81
XIX. THE CIVIL WAR 86
XX. CAPT. JOSIAH A. MITCHELL 93
X
Contents
XXI. SHIPBUILDING IN FREEPORT 124
XXII. HOW A WOODEN SHIP WAS BUILT 130
XXIII. TALES OF THE SEA 139
XXIV. FREEPORT SQUARE 146
XXV. B. H. BARTOL LIBRARY 157
XXVI. SCHOOLS 160
XXVII. OLD NEIGHBORHOODS 168
XXVIII. EARLY TRANSPORTATION 189
XXIX. EDMUND B. MALLET 196
XXX. SOME SHORT BIOGRAPHIES 199
XXXI. ORGANIZATIONS 204
XXXII. RELIGION 211
XXXIII. CIVIC AND MILITARY DATA 223
INDEX 239
ILLUSTRATIONS
Yacht Clubhouse, South Freeport, about 1900 facing 3
From a Sketch by Leon Banks
Freeport Square and Holbrook Tavern in the Sixties
f. 44
Mast Landing, 1902
f. 44
Working model of the Dash, 1812
f. 56
Trophies captured by the Dash
f. 56
Dash in Pursuit of ship Five Sisters
60
Otis L. Coffin on Veteran's Furlough in the Sixties
f. 88
A group of Civil War Veterans f. 88
Capt. Josiah A. Mitchell f. 94
Capt. Mitchell's Home as it Appears Today
f. 94
The Tam O'Shanter in the Soule Yard f. 126
West Side of Main Street, 1889 f. 148
East Side of Main Street, 1889 f. 148
The B. H. Bartol Library f. 158
The Universalist Church f. 158
The Frank Pettengill House
f. 170
The former Capt. Greenfield Pote House
f. 170
Bridge at Porter's Landing
179
Casco Castle
f. 194
Edmund B. Mallet
f. 196
3. Arthur Stowell, for whom Legion Post is named
f. 206
Congregational Church
213
The First Baptist Church Built in Freeport
217
Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
Yacht Clubhouse, South Freeport, about 1900. From a sketch by Leon Banks
THREE CENTURIES OF FREEPORT, MAINE
I
EARLY DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORERS
F OLLOWING the announcement of Columbus's discovery of a new world the English government sent John and Sebas- tian Cabot to sail along the northeastern coast of the pres- ent United States. This was in 1498-1499, but no attempt was made to explore until more than a century later when in 1602 Gosnold sailed along the coast of Maine. The following year Martin Pring discovered Casco Bay.
In 1604 the French explorer Champlain, who described the Maine coast and made charts of the principal harbors, was not able to find any native who could give exact information re- garding Europeans, a possible proof that none had heretofore closely examined her shores. The next year, however, George Weymouth, an English captain, lured five Indians on board his vessel, the Archangel, and took them to England. The memory of this treachery must have been one of the obstacles which the early settlers met when trying to establish friendship with the Indians. It is true that one of the five, Squantum by name, was returned and in 1621 visited the Pilgrims at Plymouth and proved that he bore no grudge against the race to which his kidnappers belonged, but, nevertheless, distrust was implanted which was one of the factors contributing to cause the bloody wars which later ravaged early Maine settlements.
The idea of capturing the Indians was not new for in 1500 Casper Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, in a similar manner but on a larger scale carried away fifty-seven men and boys and sold them as slaves in Spain. Perhaps this earlier outrage had been forgotten in the more than a century which had elapsed before the coming of Champlain but it was unfortunate that Weymouth should have chosen a time to repeat it there two years before the attempt by Popham to establish a permanent settlement on the Kennebec, practically in the same region as the scene of the later kidnapping.
It is very likely that the many islands which shut out the fore- side of Freeport from the open sea and the shoal water along
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
the shore at low tide prevented a close examination of that township by early voyagers. Their time for exploration was limited to a few months of summer and their attention was pri- marily given to a search for shoals where fish abounded and to the necessity of procuring a cargo valuable enough to defray the expense of the voyage.
The famous John Smith came to the New England coast in 1614, having whales, mines, fish and furs as immediate objec- tives. It developed that the whales were not of the right kind to yield oil or bone and mines were not to be found, so the Cap- tain with eight men left the ship and in a small boat explored from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. All that he says which relates to Freeport and which must be shared by all towns on Casco Bay is: "Westward of Kennebeke is the country of Aucocisco in the bottom of a large deep bay, full of many great isles, which divide it into many great harbors."
The real exploration of our shores was probably made by nameless adventurers, seeking fish, lumber and furs, who made no records if they were successful in their quest lest these should fall into the hands of some rival and on the other hand could see no reason to waste time writing of their failures.
We learn that the Council of Plymouth sent a vessel under Sir Richard Hawkins in 1615 to explore the coast of the pres- ent New England, but finding the natives at war sailed along to Virginia. In 1616 Sir Ferdinando Gorges despatched a ship under Richard Vines and another in 1618 under Captain Ed- ward Rocroft for the same purpose. Also in 1616 four ships from Plymouth and two from London were able to catch full cargoes of fish, which they took to England and Spain.
Monhegan to the east and Saco to the west were frequented by fishermen and may have been more or less permanently oc- cupied before the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620, but the lands at the "bottom of the large deep bay" were prob- ably less often visited. Later there came a market for the lum- ber which was so good and plentiful within the boundaries of the future Freeport, thus attracting a more stable class of set- tlers than that of wandering fishermen.
II
INDIANS
C HAMPLAIN, in his explorations, found no fixed settle- ments of the Indians. He was told that the savages lived at the head waters of the rivers and the carrying places from stream to stream. There were some living along the coast, perhaps in the summertime, when shellfish could be obtained. The great shell heaps found at various places along the coast prove that enormous quantities of oysters, clams and quahaugs were consumed by people living here before the whites ap- peared. If these were Indians there must have been large num- bers of them and the feasts must have been renewed year after year for many years to produce the deep and extended deposits along the Damariscotta River and in other localities. In smaller sizes these heaps exist along Freeport shores. They are mostly made up of clam and quahaug shells, although oysters were not entirely extinct here when the whites arrived. In some cases bones, stone implements and Indian pottery only are found in these heaps, proving that they were made previous to settlement by the English. Shell heaps after their arrival may be identified as to the time of their origin by the presence of broken glass or other products of civilization.
Along the shore of Maquoit Bay a large number of hearths or places where Indian fires were built, have been uncovered. These are perhaps two feet below the present surface and from one foot to eighteen inches in diameter. Below each hearth the leaching of centuries of rain has made an inverted cone of dis- coloration extending downward a foot or two into the soil. These are more numerous on prominent heights but have not yielded implements or bones.
Lane's Island was a favorite camping site and shell heaps bear testimony to its use as a feasting ground. One end was used for burials and now and then a skeleton is uncovered by the action of the weather. Throughout the town stone imple- ments of various kinds are picked up from time to time. These include arrowheads, knives, chisels and other Indian relics.
There seems to have been a thinning of the Indian popula- tion due to wars and a pestilence just before the Europeans ap- peared in New England, thus making settlement by the latter
6
Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
much easier. Since few, if any, of the newcomers were suffi- ciently interested in the Indians as a race to study their origin and traditions, we have little information of value regarding them, for by the time a desire to know such facts came the tribes were so decimated and scattered that the greater part of their native wisdom was lost. Cruelties and ruthlessness had aroused such hatred that neither side cared to know much about the other. As will be shown by a study of Indian wars, nearly every early family in Maine has traditions of killing, enslavement and property loss which was due to encouragement and leader- ship from French Canada.
The part of Maine in which Freeport is located was swept by glaciers thousands of years ago. If there were preglacial inhabi- tants all traces were destroyed by ice which planed off the soil and rocks to a great depth. It follows that all traces of inhabi- tants must be of a recent race or races with scant time for many predecessors to those found here by Europeans. Red Paint In- dians, so called because of the red ochre used in their burials, may have existed as a previous race but none of them have left permanent construction or records. Therefore, all that can be done is to piece together what is known of the Indians when discovered. This is made more difficult by the fact that those who thought that they had the interests of the Indians at heart tried to make them over to their own pattern, as did Eliot on the English side and Rasle on the French, instead of seeking to emphasize their good points and minimize their bad customs. Perhaps as a race they were doomed by either course, but it seems that that end could have been attained with greater hap- piness for both parties concerned by some other method. It ap- pears that certain of the whites, both English and French, as well as the Indians, should be blamed for what happened when the wars came but wherever the blame is placed in the end the innocent suffered more than the guilty.
Williamson says that Captain Francis, an old chief, claimed that the Indians from the Saco to the Saint John River were brothers, for he could understand them when they spoke but that he could not understand the others. The chief affirmed that the Sacos were the oldest and that the others toward the east were younger, the youngest at the Passamaquoddy. The group of tribes as a whole was named Abenaques or "Men of
7
Indians
the East," and was divided into four subgroups, viz: the Sacos, the Anasagunticooks on the Androscoggin, the Canibas on the Kennebec and the Wawenocks, who were eastward from the Kennebec. These were the tribes with which the settlers of the future Freeport had to deal, although the subtribe, Pejepscot, of the Anasagunticooks had residence at Brunswick Falls, Maquoit and Mare Point and from remains unearthed may have had a village at the latter place when the plague so greatly reduced their numbers about the year 1615. If the shell heaps and hearths of Freeport are of fairly recent origin they must have been made by this tribe or by Indians friendly to it, for the Pejepscots were warlike and not inclined to tolerate in- truders who were hostile.
According to Williamson the number of Indian warriors in the Abenaque tribes in 1615 is as follows:
Sacos
900
Anasagunticooks
1500
Canibas
1500
Wawenocks
1100
5000
At that time the total Indian population of Maine was esti- mated at 37,000, including the Tarratines or Penobscots, the Openagos or Quoddies and the Marechites.
III
EARLY GOVERNMENT AND ORIGIN OF TITLES
N 1620 King James First of England granted land in the western hemisphere between forty and forty-eight degrees of north latitude to a Council of Forty in the town of Plym- outh. This grant is the basis of ownership in the territory now included in the present town of Freeport. In 1622 the Council granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, two members of this Council, all lands between the rivers Mer- rimac and Sagadahoc, extending back to the Great Lakes and the river of Canada. In 1634 a division was made in which Mason took the land on the western side of the Piscataqua (now New Hampshire) and Gorges the eastern territory on the side of the same river, all of the present Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Gorges' sympathies were with the Stuarts, the reigning family of England, and although over seventy years of age when civil war broke out he took an active part in hostili- ties. Made a prisoner at the siege of Bristol in 1645 he died per- haps shortly after, at any rate before 1647.
During civil war in England, Massachusetts extended her influence until in 1658 she obtained control of the Province of Maine. Some years later, the Stuarts having been restored to the throne, Massachusetts' jurisdiction was annulled and Maine was restored to the heirs of Gorges. But an offer of twelve hundred and fifty pounds sterling was accepted by the heirs in 1677, in return for a conveyance of the whole Province to Massachusetts from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, thus ending the claim of the original proprietors. The English government was offended by this transaction and questioned the right of Massachusetts to acquire the government of this territory along with the ownership of the soil. However, after a delay of fourteen years with the friendly William of Orange on the throne, the Charter of 1691 gave Massachusetts not only Maine but that territory extending to the western limits of Nova Scotia.
There had been opposition to the jurisdiction of Massa- chusetts in the area of which Freeport is now a part, because the early settlers were members of the Church of England while Massachusetts was under the sway of the Puritans or
9
Early Government and Origin of Titles
Congregationalists. The early Indian wars destroyed the in- fluence of the Church of England by killing or scattering its communicants, but it is a fact that even the later subdivisions of old North Yarmouth, the mother town of the area in which we are interested, were influenced by considerations of religion or churchgoing. Harpswell became a separate and independent town because of the great distance between its inhabitants and the Meeting House Under the Ledge, while Mare Point joined Brunswick because of the conveniently located meetinghouse of that town. Freeport also desired to conduct her own affairs when the union of church and town was such a reality that taxes were assessed upon all to maintain the church and minis- ter, and for that reason sought and obtained a separate town government. Pownal, too, was irked by dependence upon Freeport's minister and became independent in order that she could have her own religious establishment.
In 1673 Robin Hood and other Indian chiefs, Derumquen, Abomhammon, Weromby and Robein, sold to Thomas Stev- ens of Kennebec a tract of land two miles wide on both sides of the present Royal River, from the first falls to the head and in- cluding "every branch and creek belonging," the whole com- prising perhaps one hundred thousand acres, some of which were in Freeport. When the town of North Yarmouth was re- settled in 1722 this claim was disregarded in the division of lands and became subject to litigation, which in 1748 finally set aside the Indian deed. The basis of the decision was that the Indians had no right to the soil in fee simple which they could legally convey.
What the Indians received was an unnamed "valuable con- sideration" and what they conveyed were doubtless their rights to camp, hunt or reside in territory which they owned in com- mon with others of the tribe. Ownership, as the English inter- preted it with full and sole rights to the land, was probably not understood by the red men and only the fact that their num- bers were greatly diminished by disease restrained them from resenting the presence of the settlers earlier and more vigor- ously. No doubt this lack of understanding caused much of the hostility generated on both sides, for Indians have been known to sell the same land more than once and the whites have often obtained large grants in exchange for a few trinkets. Land thus
10
Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
cheaply obtained was frequently resold to third parties who were ignorant of conditions and upon whom in this way a loss was imposed. In the Stevens case just mentioned claimants came from Boston and London, England, as well as from other parts of this country.
The resettlement plan of North Yarmouth in 1722, as voted and carried out by Massachusetts, together with grants made or approved at that time, give the immediate basis for titles of real estate now held in Freeport.
IV FIRST SETTLERS
I N its earliest days, when this section was known as a part of old Wescustogo and later of North Yarmouth, there is lit- tle doubt but that there were dwellers here of whom we know nothing today. Whether through Indian tragedy or some more everyday circumstance they have passed, leaving no trace that can be followed. It is, therefore, only those who have left us tangible evidence of their life here, by means of old records and petitions, who can be truly described as the town's first settlers.
The earliest such seems to have been one William Royall (his name spelled variously Rial, Riall and Ryall), who had been sent by the Governor and Company to "Captain Endecot as a cleaver of timber." He was living in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629, with a grant of land in what is now Beverly, Massa- chusetts, which is still known as Ryall's Side or Royall's Neck. He married Phoebe Green and had four sons, William, Isaac, John and Samuel. His mother-in-law later married Samuel Cole, the keeper of Cole's Tavern, the earliest one of record in Boston.
He is mentioned as being settled on Casco Bay as early as 1636 and a few years later moved to Wescustogo or North Yarmouth. The deed confirming this property (which included land now in Freeport) is the first recorded conveyance of land hereabout. And because this is a history of Freeport, we give below only that part of the deed which pertains to the latter town:
"Know all men by these presents, that I, Thomas Gorges, Deputy Governour of the Province of Main, according un- to the power unto me given from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Knight, Lord Proprietor of the said Province, have, for divers good causes & considerations me thereunto moving, given, granted, bargained, sold, enfeoffed & Confirmed unto William Ryall of Casco, his Heirs & Assignes forever . . . viz: The land whereon his house standeth: being
bounded on the East where the lot of Arnold Allen be- gins; on the South with the Sea; on the West bounded
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
· with a Creek's mouth running on the back side of his house; also an Island before his house, being by estima- tion Twenty Acres, be it more or less.
In Witness whereof I have unto this present Deed of Sale set my Hand and Seal this 27th of March 1643.
THOMAS GORGES, Deputy Governour."
The description of this lot of land places it beyond a doubt as being at what is known as Fogg's Point, and was evidently the site of Royall's first home in North Yarmouth, as the deed sets forth that he had a house standing there at the time this paper was drawn. He lived here for only a few years before going to live at his well-known farm on Royall's River and in this way passed from our records of the beginnings of Freeport.
In 1674 his son-in-law, Amos Stevens, is supposed to have joined him, settling on Wolf Point, now the southwest part of the town.
James Lane arrived in 1658, coming from Malden, Massa- chusetts, where he had settled in 1656. He had been a citizen and tradesman in London, England, in 1654 and probably was a member of the Worshipful Company of Turners in that city. The family came from Rickmansworth, Herts, England. Prior to his coming to North Yarmouth he is mentioned as having been a landholder in Falmouth. He seems to have been ex- perienced in military matters, having been made a sergeant in the trainband of North Yarmouth, a part of the more im- portant company of Casco (Portland) in 1665-1666. There is a record of his having served on a jury in 1666 at Casco and at that time was known to be of North Yarmouth. Also a petition to Massachusetts to take over the government of North Yar- mouth, dated April 26, 1673, bears his name. He settled on the neck of land on the east side of Cousins River, now Fogg's Point and although this is a part of the Royall grant and prob- ably Lane bought it from Royall, no deed seems to exist to make certain this point. His holdings also included Lane's Is- land, sixty acres at Little River, sixty acres at Sandy Point and two islands, Reding's and Mosier's. He received the deed to his land in 1673. A small and old house near the shore was his first home, his subsequent one being new and more pretentious, in which he was living at the time of the outbreak of the first In-
13
First Settlers
dian war and which he and his family were forced to abandon.
He was married twice, Ann being the name of his first wife. His daughter also bore the name of her mother. He had six children, Ann, Henry, James, John, Job and Samuel. John, who was born in 1653 married Dorcas, daughter of John Wallis of Falmouth. They lived near her father at Purpooduck Point, moving to Gloucester, Massachusetts, at the time of King Wil- liam's War in 1687 and had five children. John died January 24, 1738. Samuel and Henry were living in North Yarmouth in 1688. The pioneer, James Lane, was killed during the Indian war of 1676, in the attack on Jewell's Island.
An amusing tale of those early times has come down to us, dealing with this family. In 1666 John Mosier was indicted for traveling on the Sabbath and fined "5 shillings and officers' fees 5s this ios, to be forthwith paid; and if afterwards by 2 evidences he can make it out that upon the sabbath he traveled purposely, as he pretends, to look after Mr. Lane, who that day, as the said Mossier pretended, was in danger of being drowned, then the said Mossier is to have his 10s returned to him again." There is no record of the ten shillings having been returned, so perhaps the court's suspicions that Mosier was traveling for pleasure instead of succour were rather well grounded.
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