USA > Maine > Knox County > Warren > Annals of the town of Warren; with the Early History of St. George's, Broad Bay and the Neighboring Settlements on the Waldo patent > Part 13
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* Jos. Ludwig. Capt. Sproul. Mrs. J. Winchenbach, afterwards Shepherd.
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portion of the settlers were generally in debt to him, and little was said about profits, and few reckonings made, whilst the traffic went on ; but when interrupted by death or otherwise, a large bill was usually presented. In this way and by pur- chasing the rights of those who had removed from the place, many of the farms passed into his possession. When coast- ing business was good, he drove it with the greatest vigor. Keeping a barrel of New England rum on tap, he usually found men enough for the sake of a frolic to load and tow his vessel down the river in one day, coming on board for another drink as often as they broke the tow line, which they were not slack in doing .*
As there was then no other mode of conveyance, and many of the settlers had connexions at the westward, his vessel was sometimes crowded with passengers. His atten- tion and politeness made him popular, especially with the female portion of his customers ; but the want of accommoda- tions rendering sleep out of the question, the time on board was generally spent in mirth and jocularity. On one of these occasions, a smart, active, young Irishman complained of the hardness of the times and the gloomy prospect before him. McLean offered to obligate himself to maintain him, if he would bind himself to serve him faithfully during his life. The ladies seconded the proposal, and the young man assent- ed with so much apparent earnestness, that McLean, always ready to clench a good bargain, wrote the indentures and offered them for signature. The honest Hibernian not know- ing how to retreat, pretended to be too sleepy to do it then, but said he would think of it. Being asked next morning, if he had thought any thing more about the matter, he replied, he had thought so much of it that he could'nt sleep, and whilst lying awake thinking of one thing after another, he at last thought of the advice of his poor old father in Ireland, never to put his name to any thing in black and white. " Now I mean to stick by the bargain, but I can't disobey my father ; just make the writings all black or all white, and I'm ready to sign them." On another occasion the passengers got up a curiosity to know the Captain's age, and after some delibera- tion Mrs. Kelloch ventured to ask him. "Madam," said he, " I am just the age of David Kelloch." Not willing to acknowledge her ignorance of her husband's age, she dropped the subject for the time ; but a woman's curiosity is not easily
* W. Lermond. A. Kelloch. I. Spear. J. Montgomery.
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allayed, and she resolved to gratify it in another direction. So taking an opportunity when her husband's spirits were a little excited, on which occasions he was always remarkably pleasant and polite, she made the inquiry, in her most winning manner, how old he was. " Madam," said he, "I am just the age of Captain McLean." Whether any nearer approx- imation was ever made to the true age of either, the tradition does not state.
When coasting was suspended by the approach of winter, McLean usually made a voyage with lumber to the West Indies, and sometimes to Europe. On one occasion he freighted his vessel with ground hemlock bark, took it to England, and remained long enough to retail it out by the bushel. On his arrival, the queston was asked, to whom are you consigned ? " To nobody," was the answer. " Who are your owners ?" "I am my own owner- vessel and cargo." Several of the Boices were occasionally here, and seem to have been concerned with him in the saw-mill, lime- burning, and other business. After amassing a handsome fortune, he and his father-in-law had some falling out, and, owning the land on one side of the paper-mill, he cut a new passage for the water across a point of land and erected a new mill of his own. This gave rise to a lawsuit, which produced a coldness between him and his wife's family. After this he used to say the Boices should never have a cent of his property ; and, he sometimes added, his son John having no children, it was of no use to give much to him, and the Spears would fall heir to the whole of it. Indeed he was on the point of making a trip hither, not long before his death, with a chest, as was said, heavily loaded with some- thing. But laming himself by a misstep on going aboard, he was compelled to return ; and his property went to enable his only son and heir, John McLean, with the addition his own industrious and frugal life made to it, to found a profes- sorship in Harvard University and the Asylum for the Insane at Charlestown, which bears his name .* Those who delight to trace the hand of Providence in human affairs may remark first, the disposition and capacity of the father for acquir- ing property ; secondly, the disagreement between him and
John McLean, Esq., of Boston, died in 1823, leaving $25,000 to Harvard College, $25,000 to the Massachusetts General Hospital, and more than $100,000 to the same Hospital for an Insane Asylum. Boston Weekly Messenger.
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his father-in-law, which indisposed him to divide it among his wife's relations ; thirdly, the extinction of many branches of his father's family, and the accident which prevented his visiting those that remained ; fourthly, the habits and disposi- tion of the son which still continued the accumulation ; and fifthly the want of children to inherit the fortune which is now employed in meliorating the condition of an unfortunate class of people, whose wants, at least in this country, had, up to that time, been almost wholly unprovided for.
Although the old settlers, as before related, had, on the cessation of Indian hostilities in 1760, returned to their farms ; yet, as the war with France continued, and the fear of savage aggression was not wholly removed, most of the Scottish set- tlers had remained under pay in the garrison. That garrison was in 1762 discontinued, and the cooking utensils and other public property sold off at auction, leaving the guns, ammuni- tion, and works, under the care of its late commander, Captain North. The Scottish emigrants were now at liberty to take up their farms, which, thus far, had never been assigned them. Their patron was dead; the country was all before them ; they had become acquainted with its local advantages, and each was free to select for himself the most eligible situation. Dicke, and A. Anderson, took up their lots in the former settlement of Stirling. Anderson's is now owned and occupied by his grandson Gilbert Anderson ; and Dicke's by his son David Dicke, now in the 88th year of his age, and grandson William Dicke. The other emigrant, by the name of Anderson, went to Falmouth in Waldo's service and little farther is known of him .* Brison settled in the lower town, now Cushing, but left no male children. Malcolm settled in the same town, but spent a few of his last years and ended his days with his son in Warren. He was a pious and worthy man, and being a seventh son was often resorted to for the cure of scrofula. His oldest son, born in Scotland, lived on the old farm, acted as magistrate and land surveyor to an advanced age, once represented his town in the legislature of Massachusetts, and delighted to do justice to Burns, Ramsey, and other authors who wrote in his own vernacular. The other son was a respectable shipmaster in Warren. Crawford and Kirkpatrick took possession of the two lots on the eastern side of the river above the head of the tide. Crawford's lot still remains in possession of his posterity, as does that of
* After some inquiries at Portland and elsewhere, I have not been able to discover any trace of this man's posterity,
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Kirkpatrick also, in part. As an additional encouragement to the Scottish emigrants, Col. Samuel Waldo gave them per- mission to cut grass on any of the meadows not already as- signed to the other settlers, until he should need them for his own use ; and, in 1764, when Mr. Crawford informed him at the fort that he had cleared a road to a meadow some miles to the north-east of his lot, and obtained his approbation for cutting the same, Waldo, at his invitation, drank a glass of punch to the fortune of "Crawford's Meadow," a name which not only the meadow, but the adjacent mountain, pond, and stream issuing from it, have ever since borne. Miller settled on a vacant lot on the western side of the river, which on his death went into the hands of MeCallum, who married one of his daughters, and was afterwards transferred to Capt. Andrew Malcolm, who married another of the daughters, and whose family resided there until 1850. Some went to other places ; among whom were Grenlaw, Hodgins and Auchmuty, who all settled in Boston. Grenlaw engaged in merchandise, but afterwards settled on a new farm at Penob- scot, where he was living near the close of the last century. Hodgins followed his occupation of bookbinder ; and Auch- muty, by his trade of slaie making, or otherwise, acquired wealth, and, it is said, gave name to Auchmuty's lane, where he owned valuable property, which at the commencement of the revolutionary war he sacrificed to his loyalty and returned to his native land .* Thomas Johnston, who left Scotland at the age of 18 years, was one of those who went with Waldo to Falmouth, and worked four years in payment
of his passage over. He enlisted, served at St. George's, and in 1759 at Pemaquid, where he remained and settled in the present town of Bremen. His hundred acres of land were assigned him at Stirling to the southward of Dieke's and Anderson's, to whose sons, James Anderson and Wm. Dicke, he subsequently transferred it, and in whose families it still remains. Johnston was one of the selectmen of Bristol for about forty years, was a commissary at St. George's about
* D. Dicke. - It was always believed by the Scottish settlers here, as a well known fact, that one of his sons entered the British army, and was the identical Samuel Auchmuty who rose by his merits from one military grade to another, till in 1811, as Lieutenant General, he acquired the highest distinction, by the capture of Java, in the East Indies, for which service he was made a Knight of the Bath. See Gentlemen's Magazine, April No. 1810, and Feb. No. 1812. - There is no improbability in this story, though I have been unable to verify it from any documentary evidence.
11
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six months in the war of the revolution, and died in 1811, leaving a numerous posterity .* Bird settled at Maplejuice Cove, Cushing, where he was subsequently killed by the fall of a tree, leaving a large family, many of whom came to Warren. Kye was killed by the Indians at Mill River. Brown, whose sons as before related were killed by the Indians, went up the river for alewives, and was supposed to have been drowned by accident. A skeleton, thought to be his, was afterwards found in the river near Montgomery's shore, and buried there by his friend and countryman Kirk- patrick. The widowed mother, now bereft of all, returned to her native Scotland. Carswell's name frequently occurs in the muster rolls at St. Georges ; but what became of him afterwards, is not ascertained.
These Scottish emigrants were, as far as is known, all pious and exemplary people. Mr. A. Anderson and wife were members of the church in Glasgow, and brought with them testimonials of their Christian character. Dicke was a member of the Presbyterian church first formed here in 1774 or '75, and also of the Congregational church which succeeded it in 1795. Kirkpatrick was a member of the former of these churches ; and Miller and Crawford were deacons of the same. Miller was a harmless and excellent man, but strongly tinctured with the superstition of his coun- try. On clear autumnal mornings he could sometimes plainly smell the fairies frying their meat on the frosty ground. In an account of groceries sold him by Moses Copeland, there is not a single charge for any kind of spirit- uous liquor - a rare occurrence. His wife, who survived him many years, was an amiable and godly woman ; plain in her attire, which was always scrupulously clean and neat ; regular in her attendance at church, whither she repaired barefoot after the fashion of her country, putting on her shoes as she arrived, and usually without a bonnet, which, when she wore one, she always took off during the services. In her younger years, during the revivals which took place under the preaching of the Rev. Mr. Murray at Boothbay and the neighboring towns, Mrs. Miller, with others of her coun- trywomen, whenever that clergyman preached at Damaris- cotta, used to repair thither on foot through the almost pathless woods in order to enjoy the stirring discourses of that powerful preacher. Crawford, through life, continued
* Prof. John Johnston, Middleton, Conn. D. Dicke.
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his humble and gratuitous services, attended funerals, visited the sick, and imparted Christian consolation to all who sought it. His meekness and goodness of heart rendered him universally beloved and always a welcome guest .*
1763. On the 10th of Feb. 1763, a definitive treaty of peace was signed at Paris between England and France, by which the latter ceded to the former, Canada and all her northern colonies in America.
On the 20th of March of this year, Capt. Benjamin Bur- ton, who ten years before erected the stone blockhouse and commanded the garrison there, died in his float on the river. He had been up at the fort, but having some dispute with Capt. North, refused to stay there, and set off for home in a very cold night. The recently formed ice prevented his landing ; he was seen next morning opposite McCarter's ; and people went to his assistance but found him frozen to death.t
Up to this time the settlements in this region, with the exception of Medumcook, were made up almost exclusively of recent European emigrants. But the inviting prospects held out by the return of peace, now began to attract people from other parts of New England. Even before the close of the war, John Spear returned from Woburn and now was settled on the lot which his father had occupied, and which is still in the possession of his descendants. Thomas Starrett, also, about this time returned with his wife from Dedham, and settled on his father's farm on the western side of the river. These men had become acquainted with agriculture as practised in Massachusetts, and soon became the most skilful and thriving farmers in the place. Starrett afterwards sold ; and about 1772 purchased the McCraken farm on the eastern side, where his son and grandson still reside. These were soon followed by a number of the natives of Massachusetts and the adjoining colonies. Mason Wheaton came from Providence or its vicinity, in 1763, and for many years, carried on an extensive business near the present toll-bridge in Thomaston. He was a popular man, successively held the offices of Captain, Major, and Colonel during the war of the revolution, and was the first representative of Thom-
* Church certificate in possession of G. Anderson. Rev. J. Huse. T. Kirkpatrick, &c.
+ A. Lermond. Col. B. Burton. R. B. Copeland, Esq.
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aston, in 1781. He became interested in the mills at Mill River, where he died leaving an only son and daughter.
The same year, Moses and Joseph Copeland, two young men, brothers, came to this place from Milton, Mass. being introduced by Capt. McLean, who furnished them with some West India goods for retailing. Joseph lived and sold goods awhile on the James lot, near the site of the old gun house in the lower part of Warren, and afterwards purchased the back part of the upper McLean lot, built a house and lived near the residence of the late Capt. Burton. Moses, when 17 years of age, had entered the army, under Capt. Boice, the partner of McLean, was at Ticonderoga in 1758, and at the taking of Quebec in 1759. Having the preceding year spent a few months in retailing goods at St George's fort, he now established himself on the western side of the river, near the present line of Cushing, on the lot origin- ally drawn and relinquished by Mr. Boggs. In this and the following year he built a saw-mill near the tide waters on the creek, and a grist-mill a short distance above, which, considering the quantity of water, had a good run of custom for twenty years. Active, shrewd, and calculating, he became a man of business, wealth, and distinction, and had great influence in the affairs of the plantation and town for nearly half a century. In September, 1763, he received the appointment of deputy sheriff, the first officer of the kind on the river, and continued in the office for about eleven years. McLean and Alex. Kelloch were his bondsmen. In 1774, he was appointed Crier of the Court, an office which he held for three years. In these offices he obtained con- siderable knowledge of law, and, in the general ignorance which prevailed upon that subject, was frequently consulted in cases of difficulty. When unable to decide a difficult point, it was easier for him than his client to procure profes- sional aid from abroad, and he became the principal lawyer of the place. His education was limited, but he possessed a good knowledge of human nature and sometimes succeeded in a way which one of more liberal attainments would hardly have thought of. For instance, on one occasion, a client having sold a yoke of oxen and taken a note payable on or before the first of October, and finding a few days after that the man was worth nothing, consulted Copeland to know if there was any way to annul the bargain, and get back the
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oxen. He thought it doubtful, but said he would see what he could do. He called on the debtor accordingly, and told him Mr. N. had left a note against him for collection, and if he didn't want it sued, he had better make out the money. Upon his replying that he didn't agree to pay till the 1st of October ; "I don't know," said Copeland, " anything about the agreement, but here's the note, and it speaks for itself. That says " I promise to pay on or before the 1st of Octo- ber," and he wants it before that time." But the debtor professing his inability to pay, he consented to arrange the matter by taking back the oxen and giving up the note. As he and his son Rufus B. Copeland, Esq., who still lives on the farm, will frequently be mentioned again, it is sufficient to remark here that from these two brothers, Moses and Joseph, are descended the Copelands of Warren and Thom- aston .*
Seth Vose, from the same town, married a sister of the Copelands, settled in what is now Cushing, and brought up a numerous family of children, several of whom settled in Warren. His brother, Thomas Vose, came at a later period, and went into business with Knox at Thomaston. Spencer Vose, nephew of the preceding, established the tan-works afterwards owned and extensively carried on, by Josiah Keath.
Samuel Counce, also from Milton, settled on part of M. Copeland's lot. He first arrived in the river April 17, 1763, built a log house in the autumn of that year, and, sending for his wife and goods, entered on his new habitation Nov. 29th. This stood where that of Andrew Copeland has since been built. He was an industrious man, skilful in the use of the broad axe, and, though no regular mechanic, was much employed in the construction of mills and other buildings.
Not far from the same time, Ebenezer Sumner, also from Milton, who for a second wife married the widowed mother of the Copelands, moved on to the farm above that of Cope- land and Counce. Being a tanner by trade, he did some- thing at that business, and carried on the farm several years. He afterwards relinquished it to his son Hopestill, and ro- turned to Milton. His descendants still occupy the farm. Several other people from Milton, as Samuel and John Keyes, Ebenezer and Henry Crane, Wm. Bryant and others,
* J. Copeland, 1st. MS. of M. Copeland, Esq. 11*
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were here for a time with a design of settling, but changed their minds and returned.
Robert Montgomery, who had been in the public service at the taking of Quebec by Gen. Wolfe, came from Middle- borough, Mass. married one of the daughters of Boice Cooper, and settled on the Lushe farm, which his father, a man of wealth, had previously purchased for him, and which is still occupied in part by his posterity.
Hitherto the place had been destitute of a regular physi- cian. In early times Mrs. Young, afterwards Mrs. Kelloch, and at a later period Mrs. Peabody and Mrs. James acted as midwives for the upper town, turning out in all kinds of weather, and occasionally swimming their horses across the river. Moses Robinson, on the western side of the river, made some pretensions to skill in medicine, as before men- tioned. Dr. Daniel Locke came this year from Acton, Mass. with a family of two children, and, marrying the widow of Hugh Scot, established himself on the farm long owned by T. Starrett, Jr., and more recently by Dea. Singer. He was skilful in the treatment of sores, letting blood, extracting teeth, and in relieving such complaints as readily yielded to roots and herbs. It is said also that he laid claim to some knowledge in astrology ; but whether his proficiency in this science was equal to his skill in surgery, we are unable to say. He lived on this farm till his death in 1774.
But the first regularly educated physician was David Fales, who in the present year came from Dedham to the fort, where he taught school, and, when necessary, practised in his profession. He was also employed by Fluker as his agent and land surveyor. He wrote a remarkably fair hand, was correct in all his business, but slow in its performance, and tardy in coming to the relief of a patient. In 1767, he re- ceived a justice's commission, the duties of which he dis- charged with more than ordinary legal discrimination to a very advanced age.
1764. About the same time other settlers came hither from Bridgewater. Among these were Micah and Benjamin Packard, who were, at least one of them, carpenters by trade, and were employed by Copeland in erecting his mills. They settled on the upper lots in the present town of Cushing. Another of these was Reuben Hall, a smart, active, young man, about 22 years of age, who had been a soldier in the late war under Gen. Amherst, had gained considerable infor- mation during the service, and having been initiated into the
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mysteries of Freemasonry valued himself somewhat on what for its novelty was then considered a distinction. Marrying the daughter of Mr. Patterson, he took his farm, and till her death lived very happily in the house with her parents. He was a mason by trade, did something at the tanning business, and sometimes, in connexion with his brother-in-law, David Patterson, 2d, followed coasting to Boston. His name will occur again. He came in 1761 .*
The same year, John Watts removed hither from the same town, where he had been employed in the iron works. Hav- ing the preceding year come to the river on a visit to his mother, then married to Samuel Gilchrist and living on McLean's place, he contracted to carry on the farm of Capt. McCordy, who was about removing hence to Fort Pownal, where he was employed in the government service and never returned. Watts managed his farm on shares for seven years, then removed across the river to his own lot in the rear of McLean's, where he subsequently built the house now occupied by Robert Montgomery.t
* Rec. Co. of Sessions. Thom. Reg. R. Hall, 1st., &c.
+ Mrs Watts's brother, Hector McNeal, though never a resident here, was so intimately connected with and deservedly esteemed by many, as to require a passing notice. Being an experienced navigator, he was, towards the close of the war, in command of a sloop employ- ed in carrying supplies from Boston, the place of his residence, to Quebec. In one of these voyages, encountering thick weather and head winds, he put into a place called Havre-le-Temps, N. S. and, the watch having fallen asleep, was beset by French and Indians in 20 canoes who captured the vessel and crew before they were well awake. After a time, being sent to France, and whilst in prison therc, having, for want of other amusement, constructed a map of the coast from Boston to Quebec with the courses and distances, he presented it, when released at the close of the war, to the French admiral; who was so well pleased with the work, that he made him a present of a small brig in return. In this vessel, employed mostly abroad, he con- tinued till 1775, when taking freight for Quebec he found on his arrival the city besieged by the American troops under Arnold and Montgomery. He was offered his choice either to take the oath of allegiance and remain a British subject, or give up his vessel as a prize and return to the States. Concluding to stand by his country and trust to Providence, he removed his family, (who had rejoined him from Boston,) to the American camp, and identified his own with the fortune of the revolution. In 1785, he and others petitioned the General Court for aid in publishing a set of maps of this country. After his death, it is said that a sum of money, which he had loaned for the use of the army at Quebec, was through the influence of Gen. Knox refunded to his widow by order of Congress. - H. M. Watts. Journal of the House, Mass.
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