USA > Maine > Waldo County > Unity > A history of the Town of Unity, Maine > Part 2
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Few Indian names appear in this vicinity. Perhaps this is also an- other indication of the scarcity of Indian occupation. The lake has recently been officially named Lake Winnecook, probably of Indian origin. The Indian word, "winnie" writes Mrs. Eckstrom, is not common in Maine place names and does not mean beautiful, but usually "round about," "in the vicinity of," or else it is some form of "ounigan," meaning a portage.15 The final syllable derives from the Indian "teague" meaning river; thus Winnecook, if it is a genuine Indian name, would translate "in the vicinity of a river."
The Sebasticook is an Indian word which means approximately "the short route."16 In colonial days this water route was a "section of one of the most important travel routes of ancient times."17 She wrote that following its different tributaries six important objectives could be reached. From the Sebasticook to the Twenty-five Mile stream the first settlers found their way to what today is Unity.
Very little is known of any Indian activity in this town, so it is impossible to say more. In later years Indian basket makers like Molly Molasses appeared occasionally in town. She would stay over- night and trudge about the village selling her sweet smelling grass baskets.
12. George Colby Chase, Twice Told Tales, Portland, 1923, xii. the unpleasant odor came from the dye pot in which the settlers saved human urine which was used to set dyes.
13. Letter from James E. Kelley of Boston to the author, January, 1934.
14. Fannie Hardy Eckstrom, Indian Place Names of Penobscot Valley and the Maine Coast, Orono, 1941, p. 13, University of Maine Studies, Series Number 55, Vol. XLIV, November, 1941.
15. Ibid., p. 203.
16. Ibid., p. 11.
17. Ibid., p. 13.
CHAPTER II
THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS
BECAUSE HISTORY is an evolutionary process, it is often difficult to determine where a particular narrative like a town history properly begins. In other words this historical narrative does not necessarily commence with the arrival of the first settler, but starts with the origin of the land titles, or a brief account of the Indians. For the sake of a beginning let us anchor our history with the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. Freedom of religion may have been a motive of the Pilgrims for removing to the new world, but once they were established here, it was imperative for them to gain a livelihood. Their aspirations for economic gain attracted the Pilgrims to the mouth of the Kennebec River, where they traded for furs with the Indians. This trade became so important to them that they applied for and received a grant of land from the Council of Plymouth in 1628. This tract of land extended from the mouth of the Kennebec some thirty miles up-river and fifteen miles from either shore. In 1646 additional land was added to the Plymouth Patent extending from Cushnoc, now Augusta, to the Wesserunsett, a stream emptying into the Ken- nebec a short distance below the town of Norridgewock. Hence, the town of Unity was situated in the easternmost limits of the Plymouth Patent.
For almost a century the Plymouth Patent remained for the most part unsettled except around the mouth of the Kennebec. In 1661 the Pilgrims sold their right to the Patent. From this date until 1750 little was done to extend the settlement, and this vast Kennebec valley remained a wilderness. In 1753 a corporation was formed, called the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase, although they became more commonly known by the name of the Plymouth Company.1 It is not necessary here to disentangle the claims and law suits in which this company was involved. In 1758 the proprietors agreed that the Plymouth tract on the east side of the Kennebec should extend from the north line of the present town of Woolwich, which would be the southern boundary of the Plymouth Patent, to Carratunk Falls on the upper Kennebec and all the land fifteen miles distant from any part of the river .? Therefore, the Kennebec Purchase, or Patent, extended from Merrymeeting Bay to Norridgewock and was about thirty-one miles in width, with the Kennebec as the center.
Robert H. Gardiner, "The Kennebec Purchase," Collections of the Maine Historical Society, 1st 'Series, Vol. II, Portland, 1847, p. 276.
2. Ibid.
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THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS
Beginning in 1760 the Kennebec Purchase proprietors voted to lay out the vacant lands on each side of the Kennebec in three tiers; in the first tier the lots were fifty rods wide by a mile in depth; every two lots were reserved for settlers and the third lot marked P for the proprietors. The second tier was reserved to the proprietors and the third tier for the settlers.3
In May 1763 the proprietors advertised in papers stating that they would survey three townships of land on each side of the Kennebec River in lots of two hundred acres each, and would grant one lot to each family settling thereon.4 They also offered mill privileges and larger grants to those who would erect mills. At various periods the company sent land agents around to determine whether the settlers had complied with the conditions, and to collect payment or to make out titles upon receiving a small fee.
The land passed into the possession of certain proprietors, most of them wealthy non-residents. Large tracts of land were granted to individuals provided they would induce settlers to acquire it. The Bostonian, James Bowdoin, was granted some three hundred thousand acres requiring him to settle only four families on four hun- dred acre lots, leaving him nearly half the grant to hold for apprecia- tion.5 One of these grants by the Kennebec Proprietors was made to James Bowdoin on the twelfth of December 1770; this tract of land lay on the east side of the Kennebec River and extended from a line beginning about two miles above the north line of Winslow.
At the westerly end of the northerly line of lot marked M-2 from thence running on said northerly line an east south east course fifteen miles, from thence running northerly one mile and 292 poles (exclusive of a road) which meets the easterly end of the south line of lot marked K-1, from thence running on the south line on a west north-west course on the Kennebec river, from thence to run down said river to the first mentioned bounds, it being a tract of land one mile and 292 poles wide and fifteen miles long being lots marked L-1 and L-2, first range lots as delineated on proprietor's plan made by John McKechnie, sur- veyor, dated November 7, 1769 ... saving and reserving out of the before described tract of land twenty-two lots of land to be by this property disposed to settlers, each lot containing about two hundred acres, amounting whole to about 4,400 acres and each lot being colored yellow on aforesaid plan .. . 6
Both of these range lots L-1 and L-2 contained a portion of the town of Unity representing about seven thousand two hundred acres, or about one-third of the land in this town. Following James Bowdoin's death, these lots were inherited by his son, James Bowdoin, and his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Temple, the wife of Sir John Temple. From these proprietors or through their business agents, the early settlers
3. Ibid., p. 284.
4. Ibid., p. 285.
5. Clifford K. Shipton, "The New England Frontier," The New England Quarterly, Vol. X (1937), p. 34.
6. Lincoln County Grants, Vol. I, pp. 68-70, Registry of Deeds, Augusta, Maine.
12
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
purchased their farms. Other proprietors who possessed range lots were Edward Goodwin, John Harris of Charlestown and Thomas Stone of Southboro, who were given grants at the same time that Bowdoin received his.7
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War the pioneer advance into the newly opened lands was practically halted. Many of the Tory element were forced to leave their lands, while the patriots joined the army. There was also a fear of Indian attacks, and thus settlers on the frontiers returned to more thickly settled places where a fort afforded protection. Lands ceased to be surveyed or to be for sale, and many settlements or clearances on the frontier reverted to the wilds.
Previously it has been pointed out that when once the District of Maine became safe for settlement, a steady throng of people from the populated areas poured into the uncleared land. Few of them were able, or few tried as yet to gain title to the land which they took over. Titles were not always easy to obtain because of the reluctance of the proprietor to sell, or frequently of the great distance between the log cabin home and the proprietor's office. Settlers in many instances moved onto land to which they had no right or claim. They resented the land monopoly as well as speculation of the proprietors. The only redress of the farmer-pioneer was to steal the timber of the absentees.8 Thus it appears, the early settler, too, had ideas of increasing his wealth at the expense of others and had little concern about tres- passing on property. An excellent example of this is shown in the letter written by James Bowdoin on the twenty-seventh of November 1772 to his land agent, John McKechnie of Winslow. Bowdoin wrote with a sense of just irritation :
Sir, we have been informed that the mast cutters and lumberers are gone, or are going up the Sebasticook in large parties to cut masts and other timber within said Kennebec Purchase. We desire you to for- bid this cutting said Purchase and let them know that if they attempt it, they depend on being persecuted. If they proceed notwithstanding, we pray you to get of best information you can get where they cut, who they are, and of ye number and size of trees cut, also ye names of such as can be witnesses of said trespass and all in particular a man- ner that there may be no difficulty in bringing action . .. distinguish whether (they) be committed or lots reserved for settlers. . . this you will be able to do as ye have surveyed our particular tracts and have marked all those lots within them. . . 9
It is interesting to trace the general path or pattern of migration of frontier movement from colonial days. The earliest settlements in the District of Maine were concentrated along the coast at the beginning
7. Edward Goodwin was granted the large Range lots K-1, and K-2, which later were broken up. William and Benjamin Goodwin, Thomas Stone, and Abijah Weld became the proprietors of K 1. Range lot M 1 was divided between P. Nelson and William Vassal; and M-2 belonged to Jeffries and Gershom Flagg.
8. Shipton, "The New England Frontier," p. 34.
9. Letter from James Bowdoin of Boston to John McKechnie, of Winslow, November 27, 1772, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
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THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS
of the eighteenth century from Kittery to Falmouth. By the middle of the century there were small settlements at the mouth of the Ken- nebec at Pownalborough, Georgetown and Brunswick. A few set- tlers pushed inland up the Kennebec. While one spearhead of set- tlement pushed up the Kennebec, another was progressing gradually inland from Falmouth around Gorham and adjoining towns. Later, following the Revolutionary War, these two spearheads converged. Settlement from the vicinity of Gorham advanced eastward and set- tled towns like Readfield and Monmouth. Settlers from the lower Kennebec valley continued following the river and settled towns like Gardiner, and Hallowell, Vassalboro and China. The movements of the pioneers split at Winslow, the junction of the Kennebec and Se- basticook, dividing into two other spearheads; one traveled up the Kennebec and founded such places as Skowhegan, New Sharon, and Norridgewock; the other half continued up the Sebasticook, settling towns like Clinton and Pittsfield. At Burnham the settlers struck a horseback which runs parallel generally with a stream flowing from Winnecook Lake (Unity Pond) to the Sebasticook. Instead of con- tinuing up the Sebasticook, the settlers beginning with Carter and Chase followed this "horseback," or traveling by water, came upon the so-called Twenty-five Mile Pond and commenced their settlements on the shore of this body of water. "People travel through this to Penobscot very often. It is even now a thoroughfare," wrote the traveling missionary Coffin.10 Pittsfield was not settled until Unity was well along in settlement.
The majority of the settlers of Unity originated from towns in the southwestern part of the State. Gorham, Standish, Durham, and Limington furnished a large quota. It might be said that many of our towns have their parent towns. The new settlements springing up drew upon certain communities more than others. James Truslow Adams wrote that migration was one of the characteristics of New England expansion, and was "not of individuals, but of churches and towns or at least of small neighborhood groups."11 Unity was not different in this respect. The steps of settlement developed roughly in the following manner; first, the proprietor acquired the land by purchase or grant; second, the proprietor surveyed and divided his tract into land for settlement and speculation; third, the proprietor advertised his land; fourth, an agent of the proprietor circulated around a particular town and induced settlement; fifth, a group of men and their families talked the matter over among themselves; sixth, they made an agreement with the land agent and recorded a claim; seventh, the individuals set forth from their locale and estab- lished their claim by making a clearing and building a cabin; eighth,
10. Reverend Paul Coffin, "Missionary Tour of Maine, 1796" Col- lections of the Maine Historical Society. Portland, 1856, 1st Series, Vol. IV, p. 352.
11. Adams, Founding of New England, p. 9.
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A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
after the first season he returned to his home and related his opinion of the opportunities to other settlers; ninth, another settler made ar- rangements for buying a good lot; tenth, the original settler either picked out a bride, or took his family and established a home in the wilderness. These may be regarded as first stages of the development of a town such as Unity.
In 1774 two of these enterprising men traveled along the Sebasti- cook and followed one of its branches to the outlet of a picturesque lake, which was then called Twenty-five Mile Pond. These men whose names were Thaddeus Carter and David Ware were the first of a steady flow of settlers.12 Both men had previously lived in Win- slow, but dissatisfied with the prospects there sought out a place where they might reap the benefits of an uncleared land. Thaddeus Carter was in his thirtieth year of age. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, the fourteenth child in a family of sixteen. About 1767 an elder brother, Joseph Carter, settled in Winslow, and it is probable that the two brothers moved there together.13 Joseph remained in Winslow for a number of years, but moved to Unity before 1800. Very little is known about the life and family of Thaddeus Carter. Only a few references throw some light upon Carter's personality. In a letter dated January 2, 1848, written by Ichabod Jones (a Carter relative) to relatives in Unity concerning a bit of trouble between him and a brother, Isaac Watts Jones, he stated, ". .. I love my friends, but I cannot say I very much admire the Thad Carter oddi- ties (Sic) and pecularities of some of them."14 And in another letter written from Columbus, Ohio, March 19, 1854, from Amasa Jones (another Carter relative) concerning Isaac Jones mentioned above . . "pray, how is Uncle Watts getting along; is he the same fidgety, ill contented lonely creature, or has he been a different man since his return?"15 Evidently Thaddeus Carter was a man of difficult dis-
12. James R. Tabor, History of the Town of Unity, Augusta 1916, p. 13. See also, Edmund Murch, A Brief History of the Town of Unity, Belfast, 1893, p. 3. An unsigned article about Unity appeared April 24, 1879 in the Belfast Progressive Age. The author was probably Edmund Murch. Much of the information was received from Josiah Murch, then almost ninety. This article said that the first settlers were Joseph Carter and a Mr. Ware, who built a cabin near the outlet of Unity Pond about the year 1765. Carter and Ware moved to Winslow at the outbreak of war in 1775. "Mrs. Carter on her arrival at Fort Halifax looked for the first time in twelve years upon the face of any of her own sex." This writing indicates that Carter perhaps came here as early as 1765.
13. Lincoln County Grants. In June 1768 Joseph Carter of Ken- nebec was granted 250 acres of land "upon condition that said Carter build a house ... and bring to fit tillage five acres of land ... etc. It also seems possible that Thaddeus and Joseph Carter might have established residence in Winslow, but cut timber in the region about Unity from 1765 to 1775.
14. Letter from Ichabod Jones of Columbus, Ohio, to Mrs. Ruth Mussey of Unity, January 2, 1848, S. S. Berry Collection, Redlands, California.
15. Letter from Amasa Jones of Columbus, Ohio, to Ellen Mussey of Unity, March 19, 1854, Berry Collection.
15
THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS
position and unpredictable habits. In all probability he was a man of strong will and set ways. He seemed to shun society and prefer the life of a hunter and pioneer; undoubtedly moody and often times irritable.
Of David Ware, there is even less evidence. He cleared land with Carter and built a cabin near the outlet of the pond and on Sandy Stream. When the rigors of winter came, they returned to Winslow. In the following spring Carter returned with a man by the name of Philbrook, perhaps Jonathan Philbrook, a lumberman of Clinton.16 Is this also conclusive proof that Carter was a man difficult to get along with and that he and Ware did not "hitch horses"?
Upon his next return to Winslow, Carter joined the rebels and fought throughout the Revolutionary War.
During the war years the infant settlement was abandoned. There is one story which is worth telling that occurred here while every- thing reverted to its natural state. In June 1779 the British forces occupied the coastal town of Bagaduce (Castine) from which place they could prey upon American shipping. In an effort to oust them, the Americans sent a force of ships and men under General Lovell to besiege the place. The colonials were almost successful in cap- turing the poorly fortified town, but the American naval forces de- layed giving assistance in destroying two British sloops. In the mean- time four British warships appeared and attacked the larger Ameri- can forces. The Americans seized with panic, ran their ships aground, or burned them, and departed pell mell into the Maine woods. There were about one thousand eight hundred American militia men who were left to get home the best way they could. One of the officers was Paul Revere. Revere and a number of men proceeded up the Penobscot about twenty miles to Grant's Mills. On the fifteenth of August 1779, Revere with two officers and eight men made a camp in the woods. The next morning he started across country to the Kennebec.17 Revere kept a diary which goes as follows:
16th. Next morning I sett off with a party and
came thro the wood to Kennebec river.
19th. I got to Fort Western where I found most of my officers and men. . . 18
Some of these fleeing soldiers of the Penobscot Expedition trudging through heavily forested area between the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers came upon the abandoned cabin which Carter and Ware had made five years previously. Immediately the weary soldiers tore the
16. Taber, History of Unity, p. 13.
17. Joseph Williamson, "The Conduct of Paul Revere in Penob- scot Expedition," Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. III, Portland, 1892, pp. 379-392.
18. Esther Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, Bos- ton, 1945, p. 358.
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A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
dwelling down in order to construct a raft to facilitate their travel.19 How interesting it would be to know whether Paul Revere was one of the men. The famous rider must have passed through the limits of the town or very near to it, as this region lay in the direct route from the Penobscot. The fact that a group of soldiers of this ill-fated expedition did pass through the town leads one to think that many of them followed this general route. The brief history of Unity written by Edmund Murch relates an incident which happened in Clinton. Thomas Fowler, who later became one of Unity's first settlers, a boy of sixteen at the time of the Bagaduce expedition, was helping cut hay on the banks of the Sebasticook, when a few of these leaderless men came out of the woods into the meadow. Young Thomas thinking that the Indians were upon him fled on the run to the settlement and reported that the Indians were coming. They had captured his father, he cried. Within a few minutes, however, his father, Bartholomew Fowler, arrived "leading the most forlorn looking set of men he ever saw and succeeded in quieting what almost proved a panic."20
The end of the struggle for independence in 1781 was cause to rejoice for the sturdy yeomanry of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the District of Maine. The frontier was once again safe for habi- tation, and many a soldier released from fighting could now take up the struggle with the wilderness. As early as 1801 the Massachusetts General Court passed a resolve offering land to the veteran soldier for his services.21 During the remainder of the century there would be a constant wave of settlement pushing the frontier back, until it would ultimately disappear.
Before either Thaddeus Carter or Ware returned to the place of their former labors, to view the ruin wrought by the soldiers and by nature, another settler became the first permanent founder of the town. One early October day in the year 1783, when the autumn appeared resplendent in colors of crimson and gold, and lofty pines cast long shadows over the dark blue of the lake, a boat containing two teen-age lads, and a younger lad of eight years, four young girls, the oldest about thirteen, and three adults, landed on the south- west shore of the pond, where the Pond Cemetery is located today. This was the family of Stephen and Hannah Chase of Durham, Maine. Among the group was the seventy year old Mrs. Curtis who
19. Murch, Brief History of Unity, p. 4. Also see Progressive Age, April 24, 1879, Belfast, "After the defeat at Bagaduce a Mr. (Ebene- zer) Murch and a Mr. Whitney through the wilderness pulled down the log cabin of Mr. Ware in order to build a raft to cross the outlet."
20. Murch, Brief History of Unity, p. 4.
21. Public Documents, Maine 1893, Vol. I, "Names of the Soldiers of American Revolution," compiled by Charles J. House, p. 5.
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THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS
was Mrs. Chase's mother.22 Stephen Chase had previously built the year before (1782) a house of logs overlooking Unity Pond.23 This was on a part of the "horseback" located a few rods beyond the lower end of the Pond cemetery, a spot which in 1948 was completely swept away by the action of a bulldozer gouging out the gravel hill- side for the foundations for a modern road.
Stephen Chase was born in Swansea, Massachusetts in the year 1740 and moved to Maine, where he was married in 1760 to Hannah Blethen of Georgetown.24 He next appeared in Durham, Maine (then Royalsborough) where in 1770 he purchased a farm.25 At Durham, Chase was a leading citizen for he was elected to serve on a committee to choose a site for a meeting house and cemetery. He remained in Durham about ten years, then his restless spirit caused him to move elsewhere, and in the year 1783 made his final settle- ment in Twenty-five Mile Pond Plantation. Hence, he became a pioneer settler of two Maine communities. Full testimony that Chase was a first settler in Unity is provided in the journal of the Reverend Paul Coffin, an itinerant Congregational preacher of Buxton. In 1796 he made a missionary journey to the settlements east of the Kennebec and early in August of that year visited Stephen Chase. Coffin wrote in his diary, "Stephen Chase is a first and wealthy set- tler here ... a kind of Quaker teacher."26 Coffin's account of his visit is not flattering to Chase, but we must not be hasty in accepting the critical comments of this ardent Congregationalist. Coffin was often quite blunt and prejudiced against any person not of his de- nomination. He called "Father Chase" a "cidevant Quaker and now
22. Among the Chase household was Mrs. Chase's mother, a lady of four score and four (1796). This was Mrs. Hannah Curtis, the widow of John Blethen of Georgetown. Coffin wrote that she did a maid's stint, and "never employed a physician." Thus the Chases inherit their longevity also from her.
23. Chase, Twice Told Tales, p. xiv. It is not improbable that he had already selected a site for his cabin and may have built part of it before he had brought his family here. This may account for his brief stay in Vassalboro, where a Friends' Church was established and where his eldest daughter married.
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