USA > Maine > Knox County > Union > A history of the town of Union, in the county of Lincoln, Maine : to the middle of the nineteenth century, with a family register of the settlers before the year 1800, and of their descendants > Part 3
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SCENERY.
north-west opens a bright, sunny landscape, winning the thoughts away from the clouds and storms and melancholy of this life, and directing them to higher and holier scenes.
For a broader view, ascend the summit of the hill near the Common. About one hundred rods north of it is a snug house, almost hidden by trees ; and beyond it, for a long distance, the ground is nearly a plain, but varied with pleasing undulations. On the right, near the foot of the hill, glides Seven Brook; and on the left, twenty or thirty rods distant, is St. George's River. Beyond these, and circumscribing them from the east around to the west, the rise of land is not. unlike an elongated amphitheatre. On this extensive hillside may be seen farms above farms, covered with cattle and sheep, and dotted over with houses and barns. The rows of corn and potatoes, two or three miles distant, are so regular that with a good eye it seems as if they may be counted. Flitting clouds throw their racing shadows, and wave chases wave, over the surface of the bending fields of grain.
Immediately at the foot of the hill on the south is the green Common, surrounded with neatly painted · houses and shops, which extend to the west till they meet the mills carried by the St. George's. On the rise of land 150 or 200 rods distant in the south-south- west, the back part of the Old Burying Ground juts out from behind a hill, and exposes to view the mar- ble gravestones which have been placed there by the hands of friendship and affection. A little to the east of south lies Seven-tree Pond, so clear that in it may be seen mirrored, two or three miles distant, the trees and fields on its southern banks. And east of this pond is a moderate swell of land intersected by Craw- ford's River, which drives the spindles, the shuttles, the hammers, and the saws of the busy little village of South Union.
There are still broader views. Barrett's Hill to the north-east, and the swell of land on the west, com- mand extensive prospects of Kennebec County ; and,
20
GEOGRAPHY.
in very clear weather, a glimpse of the White Hills of New Hampshire, about one hundred miles distant. In the south-east part of the town is Mount Pleasant, the highest of the eminences, known to all seamen on the coast, for nearly three hundred years, as the Pe- nobscot or Camden Hills. From its summit, a short distance beyond the town-line, may be seen below, as on a map, a great part of Penobscot Bay with as many islands as there are days in the year; and far to the east the apparently unbounded Atlantic Ocean. How often, before a European had removed trees for the first building-spot in the vast wilderness of New England, was this summit welcomed by Smith,1 Pop-
1 In 1603, Martin Pring, according to " Purchas his Pilgrimes," iv. 1654, " fell in with a multitude of small Ilands, in the latitude of 43 degrees, the - of June, which Ilands were found very pleasant to behold. Here we found an excellent fishing for Cods .... We sayled to the South-west end of these Ilands, and there rode with our ships vnder one of the greatest. One of them we named Foxe Iland, because we found those kind of beasts thereon. So passing through the rest with our Boates to the mayne Land, which lieth for a good space North-east and South-west, we found very safe riding among them in sixe, seven, eight, ten, and twelve fathomes. At length, com- ming to the Mayne in the latitude of 43 degrees and an halfe, we ranged the same to the South-west."
In 1604, Champlain was for some time among the islands ; and, in September, went up the Penobscot River twenty-five leagues to a small stream, not far above which were falls. He speaks of Cape Bedabedec, which, according to Jeffery's Atlas, is Owl's Head. IIe was probably the first white man who explored the river. He gives minute directions for entering it. The edition of his voyages published by Jean Berjon at Paris, in 1613, of which there is a copy in the library of Harvard University, contains many passages omitted in later editions.
Rosier, in Weymouth's Voyage, already alluded to on page 2, states, that from "S. George's Iland we might discern the main land from the west-south-west to the east-north-east, and a great way (as it then seemed, and we after found it) up into the main we might discern very high mountains, though the main seemed but low land," &c. Williamson, History of Maine, i. 193, states that the place where they went ashore and amused themselves in hunting, June 12, 1605, was Penobscot, now Camden, Hills.
The Strachey MS. in the details of the voyage of the Popham party to Sagadahock, in 1707, states, "there be three high mountaynos that lie in on the Land, the Land called Segohquet, neere about the River of Penobscot," and gives drawings of their appearance from different points of view.
In 1614, Capt. John Smith, whose history, in connection with
21
LIBRAR OF THE UNIVERSITY
SCENERY.
ham, Weymouth, Champlain, Pring, and the seamen, who, for half a century or more before them, sailed along the coast to fish and to trade with the Indians ! How many thoughts crowd the mind respecting those times, and the changes which have since taken place ! Though no thrilling events, to command the attention of the general reader, have ever occurred in the town, there are around it associations with olden time, which give additional interest to scenery which it would re- quire a poet and a painter properly to describe.
Pocahontas, is familiar to every school-child, spent several months exploring the coast in an open boat with eight men. In 1616, he published his Description of New England, accompanied with a map. On page 24, he says, "North-west of Penobscot," meaning only Penobscot Bay, " is Mecaddacut, at the foot of a high mountain, a kind of fortresse against the Tarrantines, adjoining to the high mountaines of Pennobscot, against whose feet doth beat the Sea: But over all the Land, Iles, or other impediments, you may well see them sixteen or eighteen leagues from their situation. Segocket is the next : then Nuscongus, Pemmaquid," &c. Mecaddacut, on Smith's map, is called Dunbarton or Dunbarte. From its situation at the south of the range of hills and east-north-east of one or two other eminences, it is not improbable that Smith meant to locate the Indian village at Camden, on the Megunticook, or perhaps a little further south. Indian territories were not distinctly bounded. Bedabedec may have desig- nated the coast, and included the Penobscot Hills and Owl's Head. When it is considered that Indians, giving to the consonants a soft or obscure sound, do not enunciate them distinctly, that Smith gives the name as it sounded to his English ears, and Champlain as it sounded to the French, it is not improbable that Bedabedec and Medambattec and Mecaddacut are meant to represent the same Indian word.
It is somewhat remarkable that the accounts of the early explora- tions of the coast of Maine have not been more carefully examined. Many of the harbors, headlands, and islands, as laid down on Smith's map, are easily identified, by recurring to page 205 of his " Generall Historie of Virginia, New England," &c. published in 1626, where the Indian names stand side by side with the English names given by Charles the First, while Prince Charles. Smith was here in the sum- mer. He speaks with enthusiasm of the country. In 1616 he pub- lished his book and his map, for the purpose of prevailing on people in England to form a colony. If his project had been carried out successfully, some spot in this vicinity, and not Plymouth, would have been chronicled as the birthplace of New England. The set- tlers, however, would have been adventurers in quest of pelf, rather than the sturdy pilgrims who fled from persecution to enjoy religious liberty. They probably would not have given the Pilgrim-leaven to the character of New England, and more or less to that of the whole world. And it may therefore be considered fortunate, perhaps, that his plan did not succeed.
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ANTE-PLANTATION HISTORY.
CHAPTER II.
ANTE-PLANTATION HISTORY.
Muscongus or Waldo Patent. - Disputed Territory. - St. George's River proposed as a Boundary. - Indians. - Hart's and Boggs's Escape from them. - Dické and the Comet.
MUSCONGUS OR WALDO PATENT.
UNION was part of the tract of land called the Muscon- gus Patent, which was a grant made March 2, 1638, by the Plymouth Council to John Beauchamp, of Lon- don; and Thomas Leverett, then of Boston in Eng- land, and subsequently of Boston in New England. Afterwards this tract was called the Waldo Patent.
DISPUTED TERRITORY.
Union is in the territory over which, for more than a century, the French and the English alternately claimed jurisdiction ; and, if there had been any inhabitants, they would have been constantly harassed by the con- flicting parties and by the Indians. The changes of the governments, and the quarrels and hostilities con- nected therewith, do not claim special notice, as the beginning of a settlement on the soil of this town had not then been made.
ST. GEORGE'S RIVER PROPOSED AS A BOUNDARY.
In 1711 or 1712, it was proposed to make St. George's River the boundary between the English and the French.1 If this had been effected, the inhabitants
1 Mémoires des Commissaires du Roi et de Ceux de sa Majesté Britannique, sur les Possessions et les Droits respectifs des deux Cou- ronnes en Amérique, ii. 382, 4to, Paris, 1755. Memorials of the English and French Commissaries concerning the Limits of Nova Scotia or Acadia, i. 420-5, 4to, Lond. 1755. Remarks on the French Memorials concerning the Limits of Acadia, p. 58, 8vo, Lond. 1756. Histoire et Description Générale de la Nouvelle France, &c. par le
23
INDIANS.
on the west side of the river might now have been subject to the President of the United States, and part have been doing homage to the Queen of England. On the one side of the river the fugitive slave would be liable to be returned to his master, while on the other he would be as secure as in Canada.
INDIANS.
There is no evidence that this was a place much resorted to by Indians, though the Wawenocks1 inha- bited the country from Sagadahock to St. George's River. It is obvious, however, that they were here oc- casionally. It is said that during the French war several lived along Crawford's River, and between Seven-tree Pond and Round Pond, near the latter. Stone hatchets, chisels, and other Indian implements, have been found near the Upper Bridge, in the vicinity of which was a good place for fishing at the waterfall. About half-way between Nye's Corner and Sunnybec Pond, very near the spot where the school-house now stands, two Indian skeletons were ploughed up in repairing the road some twenty-five years since. Hatches, arrow-heads, &c. were found by the early settlers near the mouth of Crawford's River. A brass kettle, as large as a pail, was also found there. At the
P. De Charlevoix, ii. 236, 4to, Paris, 1744. [Jeffery's] Conduct of the French with Regard to Nova Scotia, p. 39, 8vo, Lond. 1754.
In this connection may be inserted an extract from a letter of the historian, William Gordon, to Arthur Lee, then in Congress. It is dated at Jamaica Plain, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, April 2, 1783. It is among the manuscripts of Arthur Lee, in the library of Harvard University : -
" What may have been sent you from France, I know not; but you may DEPEND upon the following information.
"The British would not allow the boundaries of Nova Scotia to terminate at St. Croix, but demanded Kennebec at first, and after- wards insisted upon Penobscot as their ultimatum, until Mr. Adams produced the records of the Massachusetts, and the authorities of Shirley, Pownal, Bernard, and Hutchinson, as well as the original grant of Nova Scotia by James the First to Sir William Alexander, and invited the British minister to state a written claim of Kennebec or Penobscot as the boundary of Nova Scotia, that it might be answered in writing, which brought him to reason."
1 Williamson's Maine, i. 468.
24
ANTE-PLANTATION HISTORY.
present day, various Indian implements are occasion- ally turned up by the plough on the farm of Joseph Gleason. There are holes on the Robbins Neck, near the outlet of Round Pond, and on the ridge near the head of Seven-tree Pond on its east side, and in other places. By some it is conjectured that Indians dug them for the purpose of burying their provisions, and by others for concealing, as far as practicable, fires which might be wanted for cooking or for comfort. Another supposition is that they are Indian cellars.
In the archives of the State of Massachusetts1 is a journal of a scouting party, which may contain an allusion to the place when a wilderness. It has been suggested that it was probably the journal of Capt. Matthias Remely .? " Oct. 13, 1757, I went out myself to a place called Sterling,3 which is about nineteen miles up the river, divided my men into small scouts ; some went up the river sundry miles, others towards the back of Broad Bay."
David Dické, of Warren, says that an Indian was
1 MS. vol. 38, A, p. 297.
" For this suggestion, and for important information, the reader is indebted to Cyrus Eaton, Esq. of Warren; who, though laboring · under the misfortune which called forth one of the most admirable apostrophes of Milton, has made a valuable collection of materials, which, by the assistance of a dutiful daughter in delicate health, have been put together so as to make an important work respecting the settlements on St. George's River, and particularly respecting the town of Warren.
In the American Quarterly Register, xiii. 162, is an account of Lutherans in Waldoborough. There are sketches of some of the towns in Maine in different "Historical Collections." There are no town histories which make separate volumes but the following : - William White's History of Belfast, 12mo; Belfast, 1827, pp. 120. George Folsom's History of Saco and Biddeford, 12mo ; Saco, 1830, pp. 331. William Willis's History of Portland, 2 vols. 8vo; Port- land, 1831 and 1833, pp. 243, 355. Jonathan D. Weston's History of Eastport and Vicinity, 8vo; Boston, 1834, pp. 61. Charles Brad- bury's History of Kennebunk Port, 12mo; Kennebunk, 1837, pp. 301. Thomas Parker's History of Farmington, 8vo; Farmington, 1846, pp. 136. William Allen's History of Norridgewock, 12mo; Nor- ridgewock, 1849, pp. 252. J. W. Hanson's History of Norridgewock and Canaan, 12mo; Boston, 1849, pp. 372.
" The Sterling here alluded to was part of Warren.
25
INDIANS.
buried on Seven-tree Island, some time before the set- tlement of the town; and because earth was scarce, or because he was an Indian of consequence, a mound or pile of stones, chiefly flat, was placed over the remains. The stones, he adds, were carried away, and used at South Union, in building a chimney or an oven, which was put up, either by the first or the second party of settlers, for the purpose of cooking. Phinehas Butler, of Thomaston, has no recollection of it, and thinks it certainly could not have been so.
Not any Indians were living here when the first set- tlers came. They often visited the town afterwards, " hunted along almost every year," and were on friendly terms with the inhabitants. "The white children and the pappooses slid down hill and played together like school children."1 The Indians sometimes solicited the whites to accompany them in hunting. Once, Philip Robbins went, in accordance with an Indian's request ; and they killed two old bears and either one or two cubs, which they found under the root of a tree that had been blown down. In the year 1777, a company of six encamped between Philip Robbins's and the river. " One of the Indians punished his child for steal- ing (or carrying off from about the house where he had found it) the broken bowl of an iron spoon."2 Samuel Boggs had been to Sunnybec to make tree-nails, and there his mare died in foaling. The Indians were ex- ceedingly straitened for food, and called the flesh very good moose-beef.3 They also brought away some of the foal, and it was all the food they had when they came.
During one winter, some Indian families were en- camped near the head of Seven-tree Pond; and during another there were several near the brook between Jessa Robbins and Moses Hawes. None, however, resided a long time in the town.
1 Mrs. Dunton. " H. True, M.D.
: Jessa Robbins.
3
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ANTE-PLANTATION HISTORY.
HART'S AND BOGGS'S ESCAPE.
There is a story that Stephen Hart, uncle of William Hart, when stationed at the fort in Thomaston, was in a float with Samuel Boggs, trapping in Crawford's Pond. They discovered Indians on Miller's Rocky Point at the north end of the Pond, and immediately directed their course homeward. The Indians, suppos- ing they would naturally go down the St. George's, ran to intercept them on their way to Seven-tree Pond. The hunters, anticipating this movement, instead of taking the route, hastened towards the south end of Crawford's Pond. As they passed the point at the extremity of the island, they saw seven Indians on the western shore. They plied their paddles with in- creased vigor. Having thrown their traps overboard, they landed on the south shore, and, with the adroit- ness of hunters, fled towards their home. The Indians, having discovered their mistake, pursued them. The parties crossed each other's tracks two or three times. Hart and his companion, however, succeeded in getting safely into the fort, though they were fired upon just before they arrived there. This adventure may have occurred in the Old French or Seven Years' War; or it may have been later, as the Indians were jealous of the white hunters, and sometimes disposed, even in peace, to wreak vengeance on them as intruders.1
DICKE' AND THE COMET.
The only other incident, known to have occurred here before the settlement by the whites, was commu- nicated in the following words : " In 1769, William Dické went up to Union alone to hunt for beaver. Night and storm coming on, he landed on Seven-tree Island, sheltered himself from the rain beneath his inverted float, and slept till the tempest abated and the clouds broke away. Then, looking out, he beheld for the first time the comet of that year, with its long, fiery, fan-shaped train, glaring in all its sublimity.
1 Fisher Hart and John F. Hart.
27
FIRST COMERS.
Being but seventeen years of age, quite illiterate, and wholly ignorant of the cause or even the existence of such phenomena, we may well imagine the surprise and terror it gave him. Being told it was a sign of war, and finding it verified by the revolutionary con- test, he became unalterably fixed in the belief; and, when a similar one appeared in 1811, he confidently and successfully predicted the war with Great Britain, which followed the next year."
CHAPTER III.
PLANTATION HISTORY, 1772-1775.
1772, 1773, First Settlers. - The Anderson Party. - 1774, Plan of Anderson's Lot. - Purchase of the Township by Dr. John Tay- lor ; his Arrival with the Butlers and others. - First Public Act of Devotion. - Frightened Moose. - Occupation of the Anderson Camp. - Clearing commenced. - High Words with the Ander- son Party. - Taylor's Return to Massachusetts. - Deed to Tay- lor. - 1775, Taylor in Congress. - Butlers again at Work. - First Rye sowed. - Butlers go West. - Taylor comes back and labors. - Butlers return : are hired out to Benjamin Packard. - Packard's Log-house. -- Timber for Taylor's Buildings. - Priva- tions. - Butler and the Bear.
1772, 1773.
THE first white people who located themselves in town, probably came in September or October, 1772. Archibald Anderson and James Anderson, from the part of Warren called Stirling;1 James Malcom, from
1 The name is derived from the Stirling in Scotland, from which the settlers originated. Although the records commonly spell Ster- ling, Sterlington, and Sterlingtown, with an e, it is evidently wrong, as the place in Scotland is spelt with an i. Lord Stirling, a general in the American army in the Revolution, who made claim to the earl- dom of Stirling (which he was believed to have legally established, but against which the House of Lords decided), spelled his name in the same way. See Sedgwick's Life of William Livingston, 214,
28
PLANTATION HISTORY.
Cushing; and John Crawford, jun. from the upper part of Warren Village, ascended St. George's River, to " take up " land. All of them were natives of Scot- land, and came to this country in childhood with the Stirling colony which settled in Warren. In their hunting and lumbering excursions, they had undoubt- edly become well acquainted with the value of the lumber and the nature of the soil. On a knoll eight or ten rods from Seven-tree Pond, about forty rods west of the ledge in Joseph Gleason's field, and thirty rods north of the outlet of Crawford's River, from which the knoll was then separated by low, wet ground, they built a camp, the cellar belonging to which has been recently filled. On the top of the camp were a few boards which they brought from Warren. Here James Malcom and Archibald Ander- son intended to reside. James Anderson and John Crawford, jun. took possession of the Robbins Neck, and ran a possession-fence from the head of Seven- tree Pond to the St. George's, a short distance below Bachelor's Mills. The four residents lived together in the camp.1
1774.
There seems to have been some understanding between these men and Thomas Flucker, who repre- sented the Waldo heirs, that they should become owners of the Mill Farm on Crawford's River. The Mill Farm was surveyed, and on the plan it is called " Mr. Archibald Anderson's Lot." The description which is written on the plan contains names supposed by some to have been of later origin. It is probably the oldest document in existence, of which it can be said there is no doubt that it has particular reference to this town.
and Sparks's Writings of Washington, iii. 235. It may be added, that the claim was confirmed to the Stirling family about the year 1833. Before Union was incorporated, it was called Taylortown as often as Stirlington.
1 David Dické, of Warren.
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TAYLOR'S PURCHASE.
"Lincoln, ss. St. George's River, May 13th, 1774. - Then surveyed this lot of land for Mr. Archibald Anderson, at a place called Seven-tree Pond, on St. George's River, without the bounds of any town ; but in the county of Lin- coln and province of the Massachusetts Bay in New Eng- land ; beginning at a white oak-tree standing on the eastern side of said Seven-tree Pond, said tree marked on four sides ; and from thence running east two hundred and twenty poles to a red oak-tree marked on four sides; and thence running south two hundred poles to a stake and heap of stones standing on the west side of Crawford's Great Pond, said stake is marked on four sides; and then running west one hundred and eighty poles to an elm-tree standing on the east side of said Seven-tree Pond, said tree is marked on four sides ; then running northerly by the side of said pond, as the shore layeth to the bounds first mentioned ; to contain two hundred and twenty-four acres and one hundred square poles, as appears by this actual survey taken by me, Nathaniel Mesarvy, sworn surveyor of lands."
The plan, which is not very exact, is on a scale of forty poles to one inch. From the appearance of Seven- tree Pond, the survey seems to have been made when the low ground on its borders was covered with water and frozen over. The south line of the mill-lot crosses Crawford's River from west to east near the falls, per- haps a very little south of them ; the north line appears to coincide nearly with the south line of John F. Hart's land. The Mill Farm, or mill-lot, included the farms now owned by Messrs. Vaughan, MªGuier, Daniels, and Alden, on the south side of Crawford's River, and on the north side all to John F. Hart's southern line.
In the spring of 1774, when this survey purports to have been made, Dr. John Taylor, of Lunenburg, Mass. entered into a negotiation with Flucker, for the entire gore of unappropriated land, of very irregular shape, which lay between the lands belonging to the " Twenty Associates, called the Lincolnshire Com- pany," and the towns of Waldoborough, Warren, and Camden. Taylor raised the objection of pre-occu- pancy by the Anderson party. Flucker is said to have replied, that they had not fulfilled their agreement ; 3*
30
PLANTATION HISTORY.
they had been cutting lumber and making staves, but had not paid any thing, nor done any thing towards clearing the land or introducing settlers. In their jus- tification, it has been said they did not then know it was practicable to get a crop of rye or Indian corn from burnt ground. Flucker agreed to protect Tay- lor from harm; and the bargain was concluded, as some of the aged inhabitants say, for about ninepence an acre. Dr. Taylor soon sailed to Sheepscot, with one Capt. Decker, in a slaver so filthy that the smell was almost intolerable, as it had just returned from a voyage for negroes. He was accompanied by John Butler and Phinehas Butler,1 two young men who were bound out to him till they should be twenty- one years of age. For their services they were to receive one every-day suit and one handsome suit of clothes, and one hundred acres of the land which Tay- lor had purchased. Besides these, were Thomas Wright, from Lunenburg, Samuel Searles, and Ste- phen Wyman. According to an agreement of Decker with the captain of a fishing-schooner, the party was carried to the St. George's, and landed at the Lower Rips, or Miller's Landing, on Saturday, July 16, 1774. John MªIntyre, who kept a ferry, sold a ferry-boat to Dr. Taylor. On Monday, the boat, baggage, provi- sions, axes, agricultural implements, &c. were carried across the neck from Boggs's Landing to the river above Starrett's Bridge. The company rowed up the St. George's. They landed near the mouth of Craw- ford's River, on the north side of it, expecting to find and occupy the Anderson camp. But, as it was sun- set, and too late to search for it in a wilderness where they were all strangers, the boat was drawn up with a view to their camping down where they were. Dr. Taylor then said to his companions, that, as they had been wonderfully preserved by a kind Providence during their voyage and journey, they ought to return
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