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 32
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CHAPTER XLV.
MILITARY HISTORY. (Continued.)
Two Companies of Infantry. - Election of Officers at Amos Walker's. - March to the Common.
SUBSEQUENTLY to the disbanding and incorporating of the rifle with the infantry-company, the latter was divided into two companies, the river being the dividing line. According to one report, several persons, deeming a military organization important, presented to the go- vernor and council a petition for this division; and it was favored by many of the residents on the east side of the river, who afterwards fell back, in consequence of a resuscitation of the hostility to the Waldonians. An- other statement is, that the division into two companies was in answer to the petition of a few individuals of the old company.
The lieutenant-colonel, it is said, went to one in whom, it was supposed, he could confide, and prevailed on him to summon such men, on the east side of the river, as were favorable to the measure, to meet for the election of officers at the residence of Amos Walker, who lived in a retired place, near the first brook east of Seven Brook. Information of the movement was speed- ily circulated throughout the town. May 10, 1834, Amos Walker's barn was thronged. Almost every man in town, whether old or young, sick or well, on both sides of the river, turned out. Several persons came from neighboring towns. The lieutenant-colonel began to read the order for election. The boys blew wooden
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MILITARY HISTORY.
whistles. They annoyed him with paper-pellets. The object apparently was to irritate and disturb him. But a good degree of quiet was obtained, and he continued to read the order with the coolness and composure of an old soldier, till he finished it. Votes for a captain were called for. George Robbins was elected. He was immediately furnished by Dr. Harding and others with words for a speech. With an old wing stuck in the top of a hat which had no rim, he stepped forward, and remarked that he felt greatly flattered by the honor which had been conferred on him, and that, though he was conscious he had hitherto been somewhat neglected and overlooked, he should accept the appoint- ment. The speech was followed by an outbreak of applause.
When the presiding officer found that every thing was intended to be farcical, he declined proceeding with the election. Then it was argued, with much gravity, that there was great unanimity in the election thus far, that every thing promised a harmonious re-organiza- tion of the military system in town, and that it was certainly advisable to proceed. " You ought to go on " was the remark of some of the persons present. " You must proceed with the election" was the remark of others. "You shall go on, or we will have you court- martialled, if it be possible to do it. You were detailed to preside at the election of officers, not of one officer of the company." Alexander Skinner was then elected lieutenant; and Life W. Boggs, ensign.
At Mr. Walker's were small wheels used in making ropes, and a log used in shortening them. The men placed the log on the wheels and began to march, styling themselves the Independent Artillery Company. A few turned in the sides of their hats, so as to make them somewhat pointed before and behind. Part were in single file, some in platoons three, and others four deep, and some were on horseback. For muskets they car- ried hoop-poles, staves, sticks of wood, clubs, sunflower stalks, - fastening to their hips sunflower-heads for cartouch-boxes ; in short, taking, for equipments, any
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MARCH TO THE COMMON.
thing upon which they could lay their hands, provided it would tend to make the whole affair as ridiculous and unmilitary as possible. The new lieutenant brought up the rear of the company, carrying a feather in his hat and a rum-bottle in each hand. On each side of him was some one, acting in the capacity of an aid. In this manner they proceeded toward the Common. It could hardly have been possible to make a company appear more ridiculous. The new officers, according to uni- versal custom at military elections, gave a treat. The other officers good-naturedly partook, though they are said afterwards to have expressed some doubt, judging from the appearance of the new officers, whether they paid for the rum themselves.
This was the last attempt ever made in town to elect military officers. It was the last training, if we except the voluntary movements in the time of the Aroostock war. The Unionites became completely triumphant. The presiding officer seems not to have been altogether satisfied with the result; for, in his return to the adju- tant-general, he stated that neither of the officers " had any property ; " that they were " the refuse of society ; that the lieutenant " had "frequently been a town- charge ;" that the "inhabitants of Union " had "not done military duty for nearly ten years ; and that there seemed a disposition to evade the law, if possible." The three commissions were issued Aug. 9, 1834, bear- ing date May 10, 1834. The officers never called out the company, and, it is said, did not get qualified after receiving their commissions. They were discharged by limitation, Jan. 3, 1842.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
CHAPTER XLVI.
MILITARY HISTORY.
( Concluded. )
Qualifying Remarks. - Extension of the Unmilitary Spirit. - Change of Public Sentiment. - Military Musters.
THE preceding military narrative may not be satisfac- tory to all readers. Considering the gleanings to be made, the conflicting statements to be reconciled, the chasms to be filled, the scattered incidents to be arranged in their proper places, and woven into a narra- tive, and that most of these unrecorded events occurred more than twenty-five years ago, it is obvious that the account must necessarily be somewhat incomplete and inaccurate, though great care has been taken to make it as correct as the nature of the case would admit.
It is to be observed, too, that the narrative has not been confined to what the companies did. Some of the conduct could not have received the sanction either of the town or of the military companies them- selves. The same is undoubtedly true of Waldo- borough. The Waldonians were naturally glad to have the annual military musters near their own doors. But it is not to be supposed that the citizens at large wished to have them there, unless they were fairly entitled to them; or that, as a body, they would sus- tain oppression or injustice in their officers. Let the blame fall where it belongs. In as great and general excitement as prevailed, there are always some eccen- tric men ready to shoot off from the orbits in which the body of the people move, and do acts which are disreputable. Such are some of the transactions which have been mentioned. Individuals have been guilty of them; the better part of the inhabitants have been ashamed of them; the good sense of the towns has been against them. And yet the reproach, instead of
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QUALIFYING REMARKS.
being cast where it ought, upon the eccentric or reck- less few who were guilty, has been unjustly brought upon the towns.
It is not expedient to occupy the room that might be given to a justification or reprehension of the seve- ral acts which resulted in the overthrow of the military system. It may be remarked, however, that the people of Union considered they were oppressed. They were repeatedly irritated ; they were threatened ; they could get no redress. The power of the Legislature was brought to bear on them in stringent laws to meet their special case. The officers said that they were ready to do military duty, but that it must be done fairly and honorably; and, feeling that such was not the case, the men took the matter into their own hands. And when they acted, it was not with violence and bloodshed, but with ridicule. If still it be said that all this was in opposition to the law of the land, they argue - parvis componere magna -" So were the proceedings of the whigs in the revolutionary war And if you justify them," say they, "for rebelling and fighting eight years, when they had petitioned and remonstrated, and could not even be heard, surely there is but little to be said against the Unionites for taking redress into their own hands, when they used no weapons but neglect and ridicule to effect relief from what they considered oppression and insult."
One thing is certain: the consequences of this movement were important; it was the beginning of a change of the military laws and feelings of the State. People in the neighboring towns continued for a few years to do military duty, as an evil to which they · were doomed by the law; while the inhabitants of Union evaded or disregarded all laws of the State and all commands of all military officers in Maine, and pursued their avocations, undisturbed through the year. It was not long before men declined going from Mc Lean's Mills, through Union and Warren, to muster at Thomaston, twenty miles distant, when they saw the inhabitants of Union neglecting with impunity
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MILITARY HISTORY.
a journey to Waldoborough for the same purpose. How far the spirit has since extended is not known; but the movements in this town have probably, in their remote consequences, done more than any thing else to turn into ridicule and abolish, so far as it is abolished, the military pageantry, which belongs to the Dark Ages, when brute-force triumphed over right, ra- ther than to civilized society, which professes to be governed by reason and principle. The law said, TRAIN : the Unionites said, No. There is something novel in the fact, that an institution which has existed from the infancy of the human race, which all nations have considered indispensable, - an institution to which mankind has always yielded as implicitly as to fate, should be entirely disregarded, and in fact overthrown, here. So quiet and orderly is every thing now, that, but for past recollections, it would not be known that there had ever been a training or military movement of any kind in the place.
MILITARY MUSTERS.
Although much has already been said respecting military musters, it may be well to add a few particu- lars, as they were occasions of great interest, and the time is coming when they will be entirely unknown, except in history. The days on which they took place were among the few holidays of New England. They were anticipated with satisfaction by adults and with de- light by boys. As the time approached, the interven- ing days were carefully counted by the young. There were two or three military trainings within a week or two before the appointed day, for the purpose of drill. The men who were not required to do duty, and the boys, were busy in getting choice apples, plums, and other fruit, to retail. Four-pences and cents were in great demand, as every boy wanted something to spend on the occasion. Eagerness was manifested in securing modes of conveyance to the muster-field. Persons who had relatives or intimate acquaintances in the vicinity went the day before. Others travelled
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MILITARY MUSTERS.
in the night. Sometimes several members of a com- pany made an arrangement to meet at the captain's, or at some central place, at one or two o'clock in the morning, to go together; and the first sound at the captain's door, to wake him, might be the jarring occasioned by a heavy discharge of a field-piece under his bedroom window. From break of day, vehicles of various kinds were moving towards the place. In some were merchandise. In others rode men wearing their military uniforms, and carrying guns and equip- ments,-with their wives, daughters, or young children, dressed in their gayest holiday attire, by their sides. Along the roads were men and women and boys, on foot, hastening forward with as much ardor as if the existence of the nation depended on their being there at the earliest practicable moment. Upon their com- ing together from various places, the pulse was quick- ened, and more energy aroused by the rapid driving, the loud talking, the trooping of the boys, the beating of drums, and the marching and countermarching of companies, before going upon the field. Then there were the officers' loud tones of command, the crowding of people, the occasional crying of children and bark- ing and yelping of dogs, the glittering of guns and bay- onets, the nodding of plumes, and the indescribable feeling experienced on seeing the machine-like move- ments of a large mass of living beings when marching and drilling. From towns far and near was poured in a great tide of life. Temporary tents, wheelbarrows, stands, handcarts, and horsewagons, with produce, lined the muster-field and places of congregating. Rum and brandy and gin; gingerbread, cake, and molasses; honey, new cider, and apples; ham and bread and sausages ; cheese and oysters and crackers; dough- nuts and pies and peppermints; clothes, hats, and tin-ware ;- in short, almost all things which could be bought or be sold were brought together and ex- posed in great profusion. " Walk up," " walk up, gentlemen," - and sometimes " Walk up, ladies,"- greeted the ears from various quarters. Fiddlers
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
played, the lads and lasses danced; and, on planks and slabs temporarily laid down, clowns exercised themselves with the double shuffle. Old topers got drunk and swore, and others became tipplers. The irritable would become angry, and strip off their coats ; and then a cry would be raised, " A fight, a fight;" and a crowd, unless the constables interfered, would run and gather round in a ring, to give the combatants room and see that they had fair play. Everybody seemed to be trying to be happy in his own way; and, amid the vast variety of character, habits, and tastes which were brought together, there were, of course, many queer manifestations of enjoyment. So great has been the change within thirty years, particu- larly where the temperance-movement has had control, that the young have no adequate idea of the old musters of New England, which were substantially the same on Boston Common and in the town of Waldoborough.
CHAPTER XLVII.
ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
Early Hunting and Hunters. - Boggs. - Anderson. - Davis and the Tortoise. - Dické. - The dogs Tuner and Lion. - Laws about Deer and Moose and Deer-reeves. - Deers. - Moose. - Their Haunts .- Time and Manner of hunting them. - Their Yards. - Transportation of Moose Beef. - Dressing and cooking it. - Moose in Summer. - One killed in Seven-tree Pond.
EARLY HUNTING AND HUNTERS.
BEFORE there were any permanent settlements, this place was probably much resorted to by hunters. Samuel Boggs, of Warren, at a later period, ranged along the rivers and ponds. Each week or fortnight, a boat with provisions was despatched from his home to Seven-tree Pond; places having been previously
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EARLY HUNTING AND HUNTERS.
designated, where he left signs to enable the boatman to find him. Archibald Anderson, of Warren, and a man named Davis, hunted here in the fall and spring for many years .. After an unsuccessful search during four days, Davis, almost famishing, once returned to his old camp, near Crawford's River, and kindled a fire. With great astonishment he soon saw the sand and ashes, on which it was built, begin to move. He was not disturbed by their surging and sinking; but knelt down, and dealt heavy random-blows among them with his hatchet. In a short time, he was luxuriating on a roasted tortoise, which had unceremoniously im- bedded himself in the ashes.
David Dické, of Warren, says that in his boyhood the great hunting-ground was the meadows at the head of Round Pond. When he was in pursuit of moose, he commonly passed the night on the little island at the outlet of the pond. The early settlers were naturally interested in hunting and trapping. Furs were valuable. The flesh of some of the game was at times almost indispensable to their existence. Beef was scarce. When grain failed, fish, fowl, and wild game were their only substantial food. So that all the early settlers were hunters, and had traps, guns, and hunting-dogs.
David Robbins had a very large dog, named Tuner. Tuner accompanied his master in his excursions for game. When night came, Robbins trod a hole into the snow, threw hemlock-boughs into it, and called Tuner to share his comfort. If his feet were cold, Tuner was required to lie on them to keep them warm. As soon as these were made comfortable, Tuner was ordered to abandon his warm nest and take lodgings at his master's back. Thus Tuner was imposed upon ; being obliged, during the whole night, to move from place to place at his master's bidding.
Once Tuner was missing. Men hallooed and guns were fired to entice him home. He came in a state of great excitement, and used all his canine eloquence of crying and whining to prevail on some of his mas-
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
ter's family to follow him. After they had run about a mile, the dog, far in advance, began to bark. He had returned to the carcass of a yearling moose, which had been pursued and killed by. him.
Richard Cummings had a dog named Lion. Lion and Tuner were great friends. Lion's favorite em- ployment was bear-hunting. The two dogs followed a moose to Warren, where Lion probably found a bear's den, and was seriously injured. They returned on the east side of the pond, as far as the Hills Point. Lion could go no further. Tuner swam to the David Robbins Point, and set up a mournful howling. He could not be prevailed on to enter the house, but con- tinued to look across the pond and whine. Accord- ingly, to the great joy of Tuner, a float was sent across the pond, and Lion brought over, so wounded, proba- bly by the " bear's hug," that he never entirely recov- ered.
LAWS ABOUT DEER AND MOOSE AND DEER-REEVES.
The office of deer-reeve included the duties of moose-reeve. An Act of the Legislature of Massachu- setts was published, Feb. 4, 1764, for the preservation and increase of moose and deer. The penalty for kill- ing any moose or deer between Dec. 21 and Aug. 11 in any year, or for having in one's possession the flesh or raw skin of any moose or deer killed within that time, was £6 and the cost for prosecution for each and every offence. Suspected persons were to be ex- amined before justices of the peace, sheriffs to search for flesh and skins, and justices to require security of suspected persons and to bind over persons to give evidence. Towns which neglected to choose deer- reeves annually, at the March meeting, incurred a penalty of £30. Every person chosen deer-reeve was required " forthwith to declare his acceptance or refu- sal thereof." If he refused to accept the trust, or to be sworn to the faithful discharge of it, he was fined £5. If he refused to pay the fine, he was to "be con- vened before the court of sessions;" and, if he could
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DEERS AND MOOSE.
show no just cause for his refusal, the court was empowered to commit him to jail, "there to remain till he had paid the said fine and the costs of prosecu- tion." The "more especial business " of deer-reeves was "to inquire into and inform of all offences against this Act, and to prosecute the offenders." It was further enacted that the grand juries should from time to time "diligently inquire after and prosecute all breaches of this Act." It was probably in consequence of this Act that the town chose Bela Robbins deer- reeve in the years 1787, 1788, and 1789. There is no record of any other action of the town in relation to the subject.
DEERS.
There were never so many deers in the New England as in the other States. In the fall, a few years after the incorporation of Union, five or six made many tracks on a point of land, perhaps one mile south of the out- let of Crawford's Pond. The ground was muddy and soft, and they were evidently trying to get across to the east side. In the following winter, they were found by hunters from Warren, and every one was killed. About twenty years ago, two fawn were seen drinking at a fountain by the side of the road, in the Cedar Swamp in Appleton. One of them was shot near Quantabacook Pond. Stragglers, probably from the wilderness, are occasionally seen in Union at the present day. In December, 1845, a deer was discov- ered between Hills' Mills and Sunnybec Pond, pursued and finally killed near John Payson's, in the easterly part of the town. Another, probably the mate, was seen a few days afterward. It is supposed they had strayed from the Penobscot country.
MOOSE.
The early settlers of New England had singular ideas respecting moose. In a manuscript of President Dunster, of Harvard University, now in possession of John Belknap, Esq., of Boston, is this notice : " Moose,
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
a beast as big as an oxe; it is thought they will be brought to be very useful for labour, when their yonge are brought up tame."
Probably, there was no part of the United States in which moose were so numerous as in Maine. It is said, that, as recently as 1849, more than fourteen hundred were killed in one year by the Indians, chiefly for the value of their skins. In Union, a favorite place for them was the meadows north of Seven-tree Pond. Before the town was settled, there were many paths running in various directions from the clear, unfailing, and never-freezing spring near the head of it. They were probably made by moose, who in summer com- monly go to one place for drink. Another and bet- ter ground was the meadows at Round Pond. It was here that, on a Thanksgiving-day, Jessa Robbins killed his first moose. It weighed 840 pounds. The horns had thirteen prongs; and not one of the three men who came to look at him could, with outstretched arms, touch the extremities of both the horns at once. Here, too, it was that Archibald Anderson and Samuel Boggs often climbed into the crotch of a large sloping maple, which stood on the east side of the river near the pond, to watch. When either of them espied one, if he could not kill him from the tree, -and it was too far to fire across the river into the meadow on the north-west, - he came down cautiously, and ap- proached him in the best way he could. He common- ly took a float, as thus he could get comparatively near without alarming him.
After the settlers came, the favorite place of resort for moose was the vicinity of the Medomac River. There were found most of those which were killed. Generally they were shy. Their hearing and smelling were so acute that it was very difficult to come within gun-shot, except from the windward of them. Hunters took advantage of the circumstance that they always fed with their heads to the wind, and thus they some- times came upon them unawares. They were killed at all seasons of the year; but the best time to hunt
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HUNTING MOOSE.
them was in March. Then these heavy animals were impeded and their legs lacerated by breaking through the crust, which was strong enough to sustain their pursuers; or they were worried down by the deep snow, over which hunters on snow-shoes successfully followed them. This month was generally the time for an onslaught. A party procured high, narrow, and light hand-sleds, which had runners four or six inches wide to prevent their sinking into the snow. They took gim- lets, shaves, hatchets, an axe to mend their sleds, and a little salt to make their moose-meat palatable. With guns, ammunition, and dogs, they started off for their favorite ranges and hunting-grounds, dragging their sleds on ponds and rivers and over carrying-places.1 On arriving at the proposed hunting-ground, they " struck up a camp," kindled a fire by means of their gun-flints and powder, and then were ready for action.
One old hunter says the moose were generally found in the vicinity of springs or places where they could drink, and between the highland and what is called the " black land," or the ground where spruces and hemlocks grow. When the snow was deep, their
ranges became limited. They browsed upon the hemlocks, maples, white birches, moose-wood, and the saplings and bushes within their reach, and thus trod down the snow about them and made yards. These yards, which in winter were commonly on "black land," varied in size with the number of animals in the herd, the time of their being there, and the depth of the snow. Sometimes, though seldom, they extended over forty or fifty acres. They were enlarged as the animals, impelled by hunger, stepped into the snow to reach more browse. When undisturbed, a few moose would remain a month on an acre or two.
When attacked by dogs, moose would turn and
1 One of these carrying-places, from the head of Seven-tree Pond, across the Robbins Neck, nearly in the direction of the canal, struck St. George's River, a few rods below Bachelor's Mills. Another began at the Pettengill Brook, crossed Appleton Ridge, and terminated at the St. George's, about half a mile above the head of Sunnybec Pond. It was travelled by nearly all the hunters on the Medomac River.
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