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 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
It was, also, in the early part of this year, we believe, that the town lost another of its earliest settlers. Mr. Archibald Gamble, in hauling hay across the river on the ice, broke through, and was drowned, near what has since been called Gamble's rock.t
At the annual meeting of the town, this year, the former officers were in general re-elected ; except that Alexander Lermond was chosen clerk, and Patrick Pebbles, William Boggs, and Alexander Lermond, Jr., assessors, distinct from the selectmen ; Capt. John McIntyre, constable ; John Crawford, Jr., David Creighton, and John Spear, committee of safety ; Alexander Kelloch, John Watts, and Samuel Boggs, fish com- mittee ; and John Nelson, Samuel Counce, and David Kelloch, road surveyors.
This Mr. Nelson, a native of Scotland, came to this place as a pedler, carrying his goods in panniers, with two horses. He also kept goods for sale at Lermond's mills for a time, had now purchased the farm at present occupied by Francis Spear and others, and was living in the house he built the preceding year, which was afterwards long occupied by Rev. Thurston Whiting, on the spot where the widow S. McIntyre's now stands. Nelson's deed from S. Howard, and that of the adjoining lot to John Crawford, Jr. were dated July 19, 1776.
In May, it was voted " that the four rod road between the land of J. McIntyre and P. Pebbles be laid open." This re- lates to one of those roads which Mr. Waldo agreed to give, one at least for every five lots, and for which a space four rods wide was left in the original survey. This vote is the first evidence the records afford of any thing like laying out
* J. Payson. + Mrs. S. Fuller. Mrs. P. Williams.
180
ANNALS OF WARREN.
a road in the town. At the same meeting, it was " voted that no alewives be caught at the falls for sale ;" which vote seems to prove that these fish were now in great demand, and that more people came for them than could find room for fishing. The intention of the vote was, to prevent the first comers from monopolizing the stands, and making a profit by the sale of fish, to which all were equally entitled.
On the 28th of May, the town made choice of Moses Cope- land as their Representative in the General Court, it being the first time the town was represented. This gentleman had, the preceding year, opened a shop of goods, and was now do- ing a small business near his mill in the lower part of the town. At the same time, J. Melntyre, T. Starrett, and Wm. Lermond, were chosen a committee " to instruct the represen- tative and draw up a petition." They voted, also, " that the town does not choose to do any thing about the form of govern- ment at this time." The former of these votes was in con- formity with the fashion of the time, the instructions of Bos- ton and other towns to their representatives being among the ablest documents of the revolution. What instructions were given by this committee, or what the petition alluded to, we have no means of knowing. The last of these votes referred to the State constitution, the formation of which was then in agitation. Delegates met to take this subject into consider . ation, in September, at Cambridge, and, after referring the subject to a large committee, adjourned to October 28th, and subsequently to the 5th of January following.
1780. After a protracted session, a Constitution, com- pleted, accepted, and printed, was distributed for adoption among all the towns and plantations throughout the State. A majority of two-thirds of the voters present, was required for its ratification, which being subsequently obtained, the Con- stitution went into operation on the last Wednesday of Octo- ber, and continued unaltered until after the separation of Maine from Massachusetts. On the question of its adoption, the town of Warren, in accordance with the vote of the pre- ceding year, seems not to have acted at all. At the first election, Sept. 4th, John Hancock was chosen Governor, and Thomas Rice of Pownalboro', Senator for the county of Lin- coln. It does not appear from the records that Warren took any part in this election.
The winter of 1779 - 80 was remarkable for its severity. On Christmas day, there was a violent snow storm of about two feet in depth, and on New Year's day, another still deep- er ; in both of which the wind was north-westerly. These
181
ANNALS OF WARREN.
were the principal snows; but the fences were all covered during the winter, and there was no traveling except upon snow-shoes. For forty-eight days, the sun had no power to melt the snow even on the roofs of houses. Mr. Copeland, who attended the winter session of the Legislature, set out on his return home in February, and came as far as North Yarmouth on snow-shoes. Lieut. Benjamin Burton, then stationed at Camden with a body of troops, went in the same month with a flag of truce to obtain the release of Eliakim Libbey, a young man of this town, who had been taken, the fall before, in a schooner that was cut out of the Westkeag river, loaded with lumber for the W. Indies. He passed directly from Camden harbor to Biguyduce, across the mouth of Penobscot Bay on the ice ; and succeeding in his mission, returned with Libbey in the same manner .*
CHAPTER X.
FROM 1780 to 1782; CLOSING EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION, ECCLE- SIASTICAL DIFFICULTIES, &c.
THE disastrous attempt against Biguyduce, had the effect to encourage the adherents of the British, and give rise to considerable illicit traffic. Those who had been plundered or otherwise molested as tories, now sought satisfaction by retaliation ; and some, who had nothing to complain of, were tempted by the prospect of gain to furnish provisions to the enemy. The inhabitants of this town, in general, had neither the means nor inclination to engage much in either. Com- plaints and accusations were, indeed, made on both sides. Many reports, to the disadvantage of particular persons, were put in circulation, resting, generally, upon no very conclusive evidence. Waldo Dicke and John Nelson were the only ones who actually joined the British. The latter had lost his em- ployment as pedler in consequence of the interruption of trade ; and the former was led by inclination, resentment, and the prospect of success, to take sides with the enemy. Many from other places had done the same; and their knowledge
* Copeland's MS. D. Dicke. -
16
182
ANNALS OF WARREN.
of the country, harbors, and inlets, enabled them, with facility, to commit depredations on sea and land. To put a stop to this state of things, a detachment of 600 militia was ordered out for eight months' service ; 200 of which were stationed, under George Ulmer, at Camden. To that place, the friends of freedom on the Penobscot, deeming their situation there no longer safe, now repaired as an asylum from the enemy. A number, also, particularly Treat, Pierce, West, the two Cochranes, and perhaps some others, of Frankfort, brought their families to friends and relatives in Warren, and remain- ed for some time at the houses of Col. Starrett, Alexander Lermond, Mrs. James, and perhaps elsewhere. Some hostile attempts were made upon Camden ; in one of which, the saw- mill on Megunticook stream was burned ; but the grist-mill, which was also set on fire, was saved by a party under Leonard Metcalf, who bravely repelled the enemy, and ex- tinguished the flames. On this, or some similar expedition, undertaken in retaliation for the taking of a vessel from Cas- tine harbor, the Scottish commander, Col. Campbell, had orders to burn the place ; but finding nothing but scattered log-huts, and being likely to meet resistance, he excused the omission of this part of his orders to his father, the General, by saying he " would'nt risk the life of a man for all the soo hoosest in Camden." A kind of tavern, in a log-house, was kept at Clam Cove by Wm. Gregory, a jolly, light-minded man, much fonder of a merry story than a political discussion, and more eager to amass a fortune than maintain the rights of either country. He was reckoned a tory, and his house frequented by illicit traders ; though he was often plundered by both parties. On one occasion, about this time, a knocking was heard at night at his door. He, answering, was request- ed to open his door to a friend ; when, as he did so, in rushed a file of men, all, except the commander, speaking a foreign tongue, probably the Scotch highland. They inquired if two deserters, whom they described, were in his house ; and, being satisfied that they were not, compelled Gregory to go with them, as a guide, to the ferry at Thomaston. On their arrival, the boats were all on the other side ; but, after a little talk not understood, one stripped off his clothes in an instant, notwithstanding the coldness of the season, and, plunging in, soon returned with a boat. Leaving him to dress and warm himself as he could, the rest went over to Watson's house,
* Anglice, pig-sties.
183
ANNALS OF WARREN.
found the deserters, returned to Clam Cove, and embarked before the dawn.
The coast was infested with privateers, both British and American. A sloop belonging to Capt. Henderson, M. Cope- land, and others, was this year taken by the enemy ; but, being afterwards retaken, was restored to the owners on payment of $80 salvage. After the capture of this sloop, and the loss of the Dolphin, cast away the preceding year, but a single vessel, belonging to Col. Wheaton, remained in this river. This also was cut out in the night time, by a party said to be headed by Waldo Dicke, and conducted without molestation to Biguyduce.
Among the many who were drawn to this quarter from other places for the sake of carrying on intercourse with the British, was one Capt. John Long, who frequently passed to and fro, plotting schemes of mischief. Being found at War- ren, on one occasion, the people undertook to arrest him. Seeing himself surrounded, with no chance of escape, he brandished his knife, and threatened the life of any one who should approach. This caused a little hesitation ; but the circle gradually contracted around him, till he was seized by John Spear, from whose grasp, once fixed, there was no disengagement, and was disarmed, pinioned, and taken to Waldoboro' on horseback. A party there, undertook to conduct him on to the County jail ; but, somehow or other, he found means to effect his escape this time ; though in 1781 he was again apprehended in Camden, and sent all the way to Boston under the care of Philip Robbins of Stirlington.
The command of the whole eastern department, between Piscataqua and St. Croix, was given to General Peleg Wads- worth. He was empowered to raise a company of volun- teers in Lincoln County, whenever he should think the public safety required it; and to execute martial law, ten miles in width upon the coast eastward of the Kennebec and upon the islands, conformably to the standing rules and regulations of the American army. He arrived at Falmouth, April 6th, and took immediate measures for raising the troops required for that and the more eastern posts. With a portion of these, he came to St. George's the following week, and fixed his head-quarters at Thomaston. To draw a line of demarka- tion between friends and foes, he issued a proclamation strictly prohibiting all intercourse with the enemy.
Soon after this, a number of British partizans took a young man from one of the Islands by the name of Stephen Pendleton, who went as a pilot, and conducted them to the
184
ANNALS OF WARREN.
dwelling of Mr. Soule, a wealthy man and staunch friend of liberty, in Waldoboro'. They entered his house, seized and bound him, and told Pendleton he might have his choice either to help plunder the house, or guard Soule. He, accord- ing to his own account, not liking the idea of plunder, chose the latter. They proceeded to ransack the house, and were about to break open the desk; when Soule, unwilling to lose his treasure, made such exertions to free himself, in defiance of Pendleton's threats to shoot him, that he was on the point of succeeding. Pendleton, trembling for the safety . of himself and whole party, fired, and shot him dead, se- verely wounding his wife, also, at the same time. This raised an alarm, and the marauders were glad to escape to the woods, conceal themselves as they could by day, and travel by night, subsisting on the bark of trees, till, by a circuitous route back of the mountains, they reached Penob- scot, and returned to Biguyduce. Pendleton was afraid to return, and after the war lived in Nova Scotia, making one or two clandestine visits to his family on the Island .*
Immediately after this high-handed outrage, Gen. Wads- worth issued a proclamation denouncing death upon any one convicted of aiding or secreting the enemy. Subsequent to this proclamation, a man by the name of Jeremiah Braun, residing back of Damariscotta, was taken up, charged with piloting a party of the British through the back country for the purpose of pillaging. He was tried on the 23d or 24th of August by a court-martial at Wadsworth's head-quarters, condemned, and sentenced to be hung. Being rather a sim- ple sort of a man, and, as many thought, unconscious of any offence in what he did ; the sentence was generally consid- ered as a feint to frighten him, and prevent a repetition of the crime. Many went to the General, and among them Mrs. James and other women, to intercede for his pardon. But the crisis demanded decision ; an example was thought ne- cessary ; and Wadsworth remained inflexible. On the day after the sentence, a gallows was erected on Limestone hill, and the miserable man conducted to it in a cart, fainting at the sight, and rendered insensible from fear. In this situation, Mr. Coombs, who was standing near, was asked to lend his handkerchief to tie over the prisoner's eyes. Supposing it a farce, he complied ; and the prisoner, to appearance already dead, was swung off, to the astonishment of the spectators, The General was greatly moved, and was observed walking
* HI. Prince, Esq., &c,
185
ANNALS OF WARREN.
his room in apparent agitation the most of the following day. Many friends of the revolution regretted that such an exam- ple of severity, however necessary, should fall on such a victim.
Another offender, by the name of Nathaniel Palmer, was also condemned, but made his escape from Wheaton's barn, the place of his confinement. Several courts-martial were held the same season, and were composed of such officers, whether in the militia or the public service, as were nearest at hand. In a book kept by Lieut. Burton, then on duty under Wadsworth, we find the following entry. "June 1, 1780. Capt. Thomas Starrett, 5 days on Court-martial ; Lieut. Kelloch, Lieut. Nutt, Lieut. Bucklin, 5 days each, Lieut. Killse, 3 days." Subsequently, without date, " Capt. Starrett, Lieuts. Libbey, Killse, Kelloch, and Nutt, one day each."*
This town voted, in March, that the sum of ££500 be raised for the purpose of hiring soldiers. In a resolve of the Gen- eral Court passed May 4th of this year, for each town to pro- cure one-tenth as many shirts, pairs of shoes, and stockings, as there were male inhabitants in said town above sixteen years old, and half as many blankets as shirts ; Warren had asses- sed nine shirts, as many pairs of shoes and stockings, and four blankets. By another resolve passed September 25th, to supply the army with beef, Warren's assessment was 1,780 lbs. out of 66,090lbs. on the county. Upon this, the town voted " that there be a sum of money raised to purchase 1,780lbs. of beef at $5 per pound." By another resolve of December 4th, Warren was to provide 3,422lbs. of beef, out of 129,152lbs. for the county.t In town meeting, it was voted " to accept the report of the committee respecting the frost-fishery ;" and another was chosen to take care of the glass in the old meeting-house ; which had probably remained unused ever since the lead sashes were pillaged by the Indians.
An attempt was, this year, made to reconcile the people with their minister. On the 19th of November, it was voted " to choose a committee to endeavor to settle the subsisting differ- ences with Mr. Urquhart." On the 30th of the same month, they voted " that the paper offered by Mr. Urquhart is satis- factory for the present ;" that the town hire him the ensuing
* Tradition. P. Butler's Jour. per Rev. J. L. Sibley.
+ Mass. Records.
16*
186
ANNALS OF WARREN.
year, and give him £30, old currency, payable in corn at 4s. per bushel, barley at 2s. 8d., beef at 23d. per lb., butter at 8d., and work at 2s. 8d. a day in summer and 2s. in winter, or in paper currency at $90 for one in silver. They also voted to pay him $100, equal to silver money, per year, for the time past.
The town, this year, voted to build a bridge over Oyster River ; the frame to be provided by the inhabitants on the eastern side of the main river, and the covering by those on the western side. This was the first attempt at bridging in the town ; and was performed some rods below the present Oyster River bridge, being wholly in Warren. Before this time, there was no other passage across that stream, but that through Lermond's saw and grist-mills, which were on opposite sides of the river, and connected by a footway of plank. Across this, old Mr. Lermond used to pass to accommodate his cus- tomers by night or day, in snow, ice, or rain, though it would make some people giddy to walk it in the day-time. The distant customers at this mill, it is said, were generally furnish- ed with a meal of victuals, and the boys and girls (for girls went to mill in those days) treated on hasty-pudding and molasses .*
In December, the troops which had been called out in the spring, having returned home, Gen. Wadsworth was left with a small guard only ; soldiers from the neighboring militia being occasionally called for, to act as sentinels.
1781. On the 18th of Feb. 1781, Gen. Campbell at Biguyduce, having received intelligence of Wadsworth's situ- ation, sent Lieut. Stockton, with a party of twenty-five men, in a schooner used as a privateer, to attempt his capture. They arrived at dead of night, and anchored in Westkeag river, whence, with Waldo Dicke for their guide, they pro- ceeded on by land to the General's head-quarters. These were in the house of Col. Wheaton, on the eastern side of the road leading from the Prison corner to the lower toll-bridge in Thomaston ; Wheaton having removed, for a time, to his lands in Stirlington. This house then consisted of one story only, though a second story was afterwards added. It is still standing, nearly opposite the dwellinghouse of the late Capt. Wm. Robinson, and frequently designated as the "Seavy house." Here the General had his family, consisting of his wife, her two children, and her friend, Miss Fenno, with a guard of six soldiers. The General occupied the west front
* O. Boggs. T. Kirkpatrick, &c.
187
ANNALS OF WARREN.
room. John Montgomery, who acted as the General's waiter, was, that night, absent at his father's in Warren. William Boggs, Philip Sechrist, and Nathaniel Copeland, all from the last named town, were among the soldiers drafted from the militia to act as guards for the night. The first of these was standing sentinel at the door when the party arrived. Hear- ing a crackling of the crusted snow, he hailed " who comes there ?" but they rushed on before the words were out of his mouth, disarmed him, and assaulted the house in various quarters. As the door of the kitchen, then used as a guard- room, was opened, a part of the assailants discharged their pieces, and entered. At the same moment, others fired into the sleeping apartment of the General and his wife, and blew in a part of the window ; and a third party forced their way to Miss Fenno's room. Thus possession was taken of the whole house, except the general's room, which was strongly barred. Finding no person with Miss Fenno except Mrs. Wadsworth, who had fled thither to dress herself, a British officer ordered the firing there to cease. Armed with a brace of pistols, a fusee, and a blunderbuss, the General fought the assailants away entirely from his windows, and the kitchen door. Twice he ineffectually snapped his blunderbuss at others whom he heard in the front entry ; when they retreat- ed. He next seized his fusee, and fired upon those who were breaking through one of his windows ; and they also withdrew. The attack was then renewed through the entry, and was bravely resisted with his bayonet. But the appear- ance of his under linen betraying him to the soldiers in the kitchen, they instantly fired at him, and one of their bullets went through his left arm. Forced to surrender, they helped him to dress with all expedition, except his coat, which could not be drawn over his fractured arm. His wife and Miss Fenno, in spite of the condition the house was in, doors and windows demolished, one room on fire, and the floors covered with blood, hastily tied a handkerchief on his arm, and threw a blanket over his shoulders ; when he was precipitately hur- ried away. Two wounded British soldiers were placed on the General's horse, taken from the barn ; and he himself, and a wounded soldier of his, marched on foot, assisted by their captors. Having gone about a mile, one of the soldiers, faint and apparently dying, was left at a small house, and the General mounted in his stead. The party arrived at West- keag, snatched a hasty breakfast at Mr. Snow's, and, hurrying to their vessel, embarked before day, and returned triumphant to Biguyduce. One of the general's body-guard, Hickey by
188
ANNALS OF WARREN.
name, was left badly wounded in the thigh, who, as soon as his condition would admit, was taken to Waldoboro', and put under the care of Dr. Schaeffer. The children were in the bed-room, and the General's son, five years old, slept undis- turbed through the whole transaction. Having now no in- ducement to remain here, Mrs. Wadsworth and her family returned to their friends at Falmouth .*
Wadsworth, on arriving at Biguyduce, was complimented by the British commander for his gallant defence, received surgical aid for his wound, and was confined in a grated room of the officers' barracks within the fortress. In April, Major Benjamin Burton, who had served under him the preceding summer, was taken prisoner on his passage from Boston to St. George's, and confined in the same room. Having been refused their parole, and learning that they were about to be sent to England, the two began to task their ingenuity to find the means of escape. Besides the ditch, the walls of the fort were 20 feet high, with frazing at the top and chevaux-de-frize at the bottom. Within and upon the walls, and near the exterior doors of the building, there were sen- tinels posted ; and also two in the entry about the prisoners' door. The upper part of this door was a window-sash - opened by the guards at pleasure, not unfrequently in times of profound darkness and silence. Outside the ditch, another set of guards patroled through the night; the gate was shut at sunset ; and a picket-guard was placed on or near the isthmus north-westward, to prevent any escape from the fort to the main land. Yet, in spite of all these obstacles, they adopted a plan, and set about its execution. Procuring a gimlet, as if to assist in the making of toys for their amuse- ment, they commenced boring holes through one of the pine boards which covered their room, filling the holes with bread as fast as they were made. Wadsworth, not being tall enough for this operation, assigned it to his companion, whilst he kept his eye upon the door and the sentinels. From observa- tion he soon became so acquainted with their pace and the time of their return, as to appear disengaged with his com- panion as usual, though the work made great progress in the intervals. At last the two rows of perforations across the board were completed, the interstices cut with a pen-knife, except a single one for support at each corner ; and nothing
Dwight's Travels. J. Montgomery. S. Crane. M. Robinson. J. Rokes, and 2 Will. His. p. 489, where Wheaton's house is errone- ously placed at Westkeag.
189
ANNALS OF WARREN.
but a favorable opportunity was wanting to put their scheme in execution.
At length, on the night of the 18th of June, in the midst of a tempest, when the flashes of lightning ceased and the rain was pouring in torrents, they retired to bed about 11 o'clock, and, when the guard was looking through the door, extin- guished their light. In an hour afterwards, they had removed the piece overhead and ascended through the aperture, the tall Burton assisting his shorter and invalid companion to mount ; when, they crept over the officers' rooms, descended into the entry, and, imitating the appearance of officers in- toxicated, passed the guards at the door unquestioned. Here they separated as by agreement, felt their way along under the eaves of the building, gained the parapet, let themselves down by means of blankets fastened to the pickets with skewers which they had prepared beforehand, and, from the lower corner, dropped without harm into the ditch below. Creeping softly out between the sentry boxes, they descended the declivity, and in the midst of the rain and darkness, groped their way among rocks, stumps, and brush, towards the shore of the back cove, where they had agreed to wait for each other, at an old guard-house. Wadsworth waited here half an hour, when, concluding his friend was lost, he forded the cove, one mile in extent with water in some places three feet deep, pursued his way over windfalls to a road cut by his order the year before, and at sun- rise found himself on the east bank of the Penobscot, the rain abating and the weather clearing up. Resting here, seven or eight miles from the fort, he was overtaken by Burton to the unspeakable joy of both ; each having believed the other lost. Finding a boat, they crossed over the bay to the western shore, pursued, but evidently not discovered, by a barge of the enemy ; steered south-westerly, by a pocket compass, through the woods to the upper branches of the St. George's, subsisting on some pieces of bread and meat which they had dried and secreted in their confinement, eked out, as it is said, by frogs taken on the way ; and on the third day, June 21st, arrived in the neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant, in this town. Wadsworth was so exhausted with fatigue and hunger, that Burton was forced to leave him some miles behind, and, procuring assistance and refreshment,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.