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 2
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River, a considerable branch, which drains the eastern part of the town from the foot of Mt. Pleasant, and runs in a S. W. direction between Warren and Thomaston, several times crossing the line, working sundry mills in its course, and affording sites for others. It is navigable to the bridge, form- erly Lermond's Mills, where shipbuilding was early com- menced and is still carried on. Judas' Meadow Brook is a smaller branch which drains the N. W. part of the town. There are other branches both above and below Warren, the most considerable of which is Mill River in Thomaston.
The S. W. part of the town is drained by Back River emptying into South Pond beforementioned ; which is the largest sheet of water in town, about two miles long by five- eighths of a mile wide, situated between the two Waldoboro' roads. Its outlet unites with that from West Pond, a quad- rangular body of water, half a mile in extent, on the confines of Waldoboro'; and the united stream passes through North Pond, which is deep, but narrow and irregular, into the main river as before related. Farther to the S. W. are Little and Southwest Ponds which are smaller. Crawford's Pond, partly in Union, transmits the drainage of the N. W. declivity of Mt. Pleasant and Crawford's Mt. to the main river in Union. Seven Tree Pond, mostly in Union, and White Oak Pond, just below it, are mere expansions of the St. George's.
The soil of the town is good ; but varies in character ac- cording to the action which has taken place since the period of its deposition in the diluvium deposited above the funda- mental rocks, before described. This diluvial earth, formed by the disintegration of the rocks beneath the waves of the primeval ocean, seems to have been, when the country was elevated from the abyss, transported southward by currents, glaciers, or icebergs, in such a manner as to grind down and smooth the surface of the ledges, leaving grooves and scratch- es in that direction, which may be plainly seen whenever a ledge is first uncovered. Hence the fragmentary rocks arc always found to the southward of the ledges from which they were taken ; and muscles and other sea-shells have been dug up at great depths in situations as high as that of the late Oliver Boggs, who, in digging his well, found them in a good state of preservation. Appearances indicate that the region was subsequently covered with water at about the height of the ridge by D. Page's ; which seems to have been a sea-wall beaten by the billows for a period long enough to round and polish the boulders in a manner similar to, but less perfect than, those of the present sea-shore. Such situations afford
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the poorest soil, being composed chiefly of sand and gravel from which the finer and more argillacious particles were washed out and deposited in deeper and more tranquil waters. At a higher elevation on the declivities of the hills enriched by the washings from above, as well as at a lower elevation on ridges abounding with unworn boulders, a fertile, loamy soil sufficiently rewards the hard labor required in its cultiva- tion. But the most profitable soil, all things considered, is found in the vallies of the river and its tributaries, consisting of clays apparently deposited from the ancient lakes formed by the transverse ridges that obstructed the course of the streams. Where this clay is mixed with, or covered by, a suitable quantity of sand or gravel, its cultivation is easy, and fertility inexhaustible. A more recently made, and for certain crops more productive, species of soil, is found in the fresh and salt marshes formed, and still forming, from the annual deposit of alluvial earth. To these may be added swamps and bogs, particularly the great one between Hector M. Watts's and A. Andrews's, which consists entirely of decayed vegetable matter to the depth of 15 feet or more, in which are found, at various depths, trunks of juniper and other trees in a sound condition. It has been formed by a supply of water sufficient to nourish, but not to drown, the growth of moss, bushes and trees, with which it is still in part cover- ed ; and may throw some light on the probable formation of coal mines.
The only minerals of value found in the town are lime- stone and granite. The principal quarry of the latter, is that on the J. Storer farm. Limestone is found in inexhaustible quantities between David and Alex'r Starrett's. It is granular in structure, white in color, has been extensively quarried both for lime and marble, and is unsurpassed by any in the State. Limestone is also found in the neighborhood of Craw- ford's Pond. Connected with this mineral, or interspersed through it, are found small quantities of pot-stone, soap-stone, asbestos, lead and zinc. Sulphuret of iron abounds in several ledges ; and its crystals, as also those of quartz, mica, tourma- line and garnet, are occasionally found, of great beauty. Bog- iron ore and yellow ochre also exist in the eastern part of the town, but to what extent has not been ascertained. Coal, both in this town and Thomaston, has been sought for, and at times with strong expectations of success, but, with the exception of some fragments found in the bed of the river, the indications are not encouraging. There is an extensive 1*
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bed of porphyry near the late Paul Mink's in School District No. 16, but no attempt has been made to quarry it.
Besides the waters of the ocean, to which the inhabitants of this town have easy access, the river affords an abundant supply, in their successive seasons, of the various finny tribes. Frostfish in December and January, smelts in March and April, shad and alewives in May and June, throng its waters. Salmon formerly abounded, and bass are still taken, but not in great numbers. Eels are speared in any quantities at Andrews's Point and some places in Oyster River, where they hibernate under the ice. Manhaden, flounders, bluebacks, garfish, in the salt-waters, and pickerel, trout, lampreys, suck- ers, white and yellow perch, pouts, roach, chub, shiners, min- ows, &c. are found in the fresh-water streams and ponds. Oysters formerly abounded both in St. George's and Oyster Rivers, and there is still an abundance of clams and muscles in the river below this town. Pickerel were not caught here prior to 1832, a few years before which time they were intro- duced to the ponds in Union by Dr. Harding and others, and a special act passed for their protection.
Of the different water fowl which are seen here, the wild goose stops a few days only on his passage in spring and au- tumn; the bittern and, more rarely, the spoonbill are seen about the ponds and meadows; the gull comes up with the fish ; the woodcock, snipe, the humility and others of the tat- tler tribe, teach their young to elude the eye of man by cling- ing motionless to the ground which in color they resemble, whilst the parent performs all manner of antics, counterfeiting lameness, distress and death to avert attention from her off- spring ; the common, and the more beautiful wood, duck di- vide the winter between the salt and fresh-waters, flying land- ward before, and seaward after, a tempest ; the goosander or sheldrake, coot, whistling dipper, and other seabirds, occasion- ally pass up and down the river, especially in spring ; and the Joon, largest and most beautiful of the divers, as remarkable for agility in the water as awkwardness on shore, easily, before the use of percussion caps, eluded the sportsman's aim by diving at the flash of his gun. One of these last, while pursuing his way under water, was once caught in a net near Stirling Bridge by a person dipping for alewives ; and a pair of them for many years hatched their young on an abandoned hay-rick in O. Boggs's meadow, till, in 1838, both, swimming in North Pond with their helpless offspring on the mother's back, were shot by the ruthless rifle of the sportsman. The crane and heron are much less frequently seen now than
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30 years ago ; when they were daily observed pursuing their steady flight, with eels and other victims still alive and squirm- ing, toward their ancient breeding place near Oyster River in the borders of Thomaston. There, in countless multitude, they built their uncouth, boot-shaped nests, often three or four on a tree to the extent of more than an acre; strewing the ground with the shells of muscles and other molluscs with which they fed their young, till the axe of industry invaded their sanctuary and forced them to seek another home.
Of the 87 or 90 distinct species of land birds which have fallen under our observation, either as summer, winter or per- ennial residents, or mere passengers on their way to distant regions, (some of which far outnumber the human dwellers in the town,) the limits of this work will not allow us to speak particularly. Most of them are, in one way or other, sub- servient to the wants of man ; some to our health in removing putrescent carcasses and other nuisances ; some to our crops in destroying noxious insects, reptiles, and vermin ; some to our virtues by the examples they set of courage, industry, perseverance, affection, and a cheerful trust in Providence ; whilst others contribute to our delight by the beauty of their plumage and the sweetness of their music. They seem to vary in number and species in different years and periods of years. The red-headed woodpecker, the pride of the prime- val forest, and the meadow lark, sweet soother of the pensive soul, have wholly disappeared. The whip-poor-will is heard only in the most woody situations ; the scarlet tanager rarely flashes through the orchard ; and the cuckoo comes only when the hairy caterpillars, which other birds refuse, require exter- mination. The suspicious sagacity of the crow, acquired from the experience of a hundred years, seems to outwit itself ; since a simple string suspended from pole to pole is sufficient to protect a cornfield from his depredations. The fish-hawk though a skilful purveyor, sometimes allows his ambition to exceed his strength ; as one was seen in North Pond, by O. Boggs, to pounce upon a fish so large, that, after a doubtful struggle for some minutes, the assailant, unable to loose his hold, was dragged down and never rose again. The bald or white-headed eagle, that in times of plenty disdains to cater for himself, stimulated by winter famine has been seen to dart suddenly down and snatch the eel from beneath the fisher- man's eye. But instead of pursuing the subject farther, we invite our young readers to " behold" for themselves "the fowls of the air" and not give over the instructive amusement till they become familiar with the names, powers and habits
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of these tenants of the fields and forests; from the humming- bird, animated blossom of the garden, the redstart, moving gem of the forest, the yellow-bird, tulip of summer, and the goldfinch, vainest of dandies, to the oven-bird concealing his nest with an arch, the small woodpecker that chips out a chamber for his winter lodgings in the trunk of a rotten beech, the blue-bird, repairing his nest in autumn in hopes of a joyful return in spring, and the robin whose mellifluous notes not only cheer his mate at her tedious task, but by skilful variation telegraph to her ear every shade and degree of ap- proaching danger.
For the quadrupeds originally found here, and their gradual disappearance as the country became cleared, the reader is referred to subsequent chapters. Of the reptiles it is remark- ed that the frogs have greatly diminished since the introduction of the pickerel to our waters. Of snakes we have only a few small and harmless species, except perhaps the spotted adder, abounding at the rocky hills, and the water snake, occasionally met with in the ponds. Insects, though numerous and at times destructive, are greatly repressed by the mutability of the climate, which seldom allows the same species to continue formidable for more than two or three years at a time. The study of their different arts, contrivances and modes of living, is also an endless field of amusement and instruction. In the vegetable kingdom, the number of species met with in the limits of the town, exclusive of grasses, mosses and other cryptogamous, as well as cultivated plants, amounts to 353, divided among 193 genera. A farther examination, particu- larly of the cryptogamous plants, grasses, and sedges, would greatly add to the number. But the limits of this work will not permit us even to glance at the beauty and utility of these tribes which adorn the field and forest, rock, mountain and swamp, from the Epigeum whose fragrant flowers bloom beside the April snowdrift, to the witch-hazel whose yellow petals open amid the storms of October.
The climate of the place, situated as it is on the confines of the ocean, whose waters, mingling with those of every zone, have a great effect in equalizing temperature, is neither so hot in summer nor cold in winter as in more inland situ- ations. Yet the mercury ranges from 24º below to 980 above zero in the shade; and, in places favorable to the con- centration of heat by reflection and of its dispersion by radia- tion, a still greater range may be obtained. Influenced by the waters, which, heated by a tropical sun, rise to the sur- face and flow northwardly, forming the gulf stream, and by
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the denser current from the north, which flows in a contrary direction beneath, and is forced to the surface in passing over the shoals of our coast, the temperature vacillates with their different influences as brought by the winds more or less near to the coast. Changes accordingly sometimes occur with great suddenness, and form the most peculiar feature of the climate. The easterly winds are damp and disagreeable, the westerly dry and bracing. In summer the vapor with which the South winds become surcharged in crossing the gulf stream, is condensed by the cooler water nearer shore and hangs in dense fogs sometimes for days and weeks together. Thunder showers and snow squalls usually come from the N. W. and the lightning is probably the effect rather than the cause of the cooler wind that brings them, acting upon the warmer one which it meets. Our great tempests usually proceed from the S. W. and are about three days in reaching us from the Gulf of Mexico. They seem to be huge vortices or whirlwinds, whereof the front portion, blowing from the S. E. comes warm and moist from the ocean attended with rain or snow ; whilst the latter half, blowing cold and dry from the N. W. is usually denominated fair weather. The year con- sists of a winter of about five months, extending from Nov. to April, a muddy and tardy spring, a short and hot summer, and a frosty and delightful autumn. But all these are fre- quently reversed ; as the second great feature of the climate is the uncertainty of one year compared with another, and of a series of years compared with another series.
Diseases vary with the irregularity of the seasons, but the most common are colds, influenza, consumption, rheumatism, dysentery and fever. From the table of deaths appended to this work it will be seen that the average yearly number of deaths from 1800 to 1809 inclusively, was in proportion to the average number of inhabitants as one in 109, from thence to 1819 as one in 131, from thence to 1829 as one in 85, from thence to 1839 as one in 77, and from thence to 1849 as one in 78, making an average mortality for the last 50 years of one in 88. According to the History of Concord the annual mortality of that town is one in 66, of Salem one in 48, Boston one in 41, Philadelphia one in 45, London one in 40, Paris one in 32, Vienna one in 22.
The population of this town may be divided into four classes ; Ist. the descendants of the Scotch Irish who origin- ally settled the town in 1735, 2d. the descendants of the Scottish colony who came hither in 1753, 3d. the descend- ants of natives of this country, mostly of English extraction,
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who came hither from western places before the revolution, 4th. later immigrants and their descendants, including a few of German, English, Highland Scotch and Celtic Irish origin, with one small school district of African descent. The char- acteristics of these several classes, with the exception of that of color, have now become assimilated and combined into a tolerably homogeneous population, although certain peculiari- ties of dialect occasionally betray the origin of each. For their present numbers, occupation, taxable property, &c., at the recent and former enumerations, the reader is referred to the following chapters, and to the tables appended.
Of the former races, that for unknown ages prior to the white man's coming, roamed over, if they did not cultivate, this region, little can now be known ; as their whole history, however tragical in itself and all-engrossing to its actors, has, for the want of literary monuments been lost in oblivion ; with the exception of a small portion, which, like the rem- nants of the tribes themselves, still lingers little regarded amid the achievements of their successors. It is not known that this river was the permanent residence of any distinct tribe ; but, situated on the confines of two mighty confedera- cies whose dominions were parted by the Megunticook Moun- tains, it must, in all probability, have witnessed many an artful ambush, and many a deadly conflict. It belonged to the brave tribe of the Wawenocks, the immediate subjects of the great chief called the Bashaba, near Pemaquid, till the conquest of that tribe by the Tarratines in 1615, after which it was claimed by the latter. The Wawenocks were active, strong, very witty, and, as their name implies, fearing noth- ing ; the men beardless, the women well-favored, and all dressed in skins .* The Tarratines were a numerous, power- ful, discreet, warlike tribe, more hardy than their western neighbors, and escaped the disease which nearly exterminated the latter in 1617 and '18.+ Few monuments of either of these races are to be found in this vicinity. Stone axes, chisels, spear and arrow heads are sometimes picked up near the principal fishing stations. In digging the cellar under the house of M. H. Smith, Esq. carly in the present century, a skeleton supposed to be that of an Indian was dug up and interred elsewhere by the workmen. On the 7th of May, 1836, five entire skeletons were disinterred on removing the alluvial soil near the Smelt Creek on the east bank of the river south of the village. They were apparently deposited
* Smith, p. 19, 214. t Will. Hist. Maine, &c.
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in a careless manner in one hole, the feet towards the east, but with so little care that the leg of one was bent back parallel with the thigh. Possibly this may have resulted from the sitting posture in which Indians are accustomed to bury their dead. Some of them were of a large size, others smaller, as if females or children. The teeth were perfectly sound ; the other bones somewhat decayed, brittle and friable. Two of the skulls were entire and empty ; the other three partially decayed so as not to hold together, and filled with red earth, though that in which they lay was black. No hair, orna- ments, or utensils, nor any remains of a coffin were to be found ; and the whole bore the appearance of persons slain in a skirmish and hastily buried together. Nothing at all resembling the mounds, fortifications, and other structures found in the western country, has been observed in this re- gion, with the exception of a huge deposit of oyster shells on the western bank of the Damariscotta, which, if it be indeed the work of human hands, is well calculated to fill the mind with wonder. According to Dr. Jackson it measures 108 rods in length, from 80 to 100 rods in width, and at the high- est point is 25 feet above the sea level, containing 44,906,400 cubic feet .* Probably this measurement is altogether too large, including a considerable space but scantily supplied with shells. The main cliff, however, which slopes down within 6 feet of highwater mark and cannot be less than 40 feet in length, 30 in width, and 20 in height, is one entire mass of oyster shells, open, unmixed with soil, and in a good state of preservation. It rests upon diluvial earth, and is covered by about a foot of soil on which oaks and other trees are standing of the usual size. How and whence was this mass of shells accumulated ? Can this be the native bed where these countless molluscous generations lived and died beneath the ancient waters? Can they have been brought there by the Indians, perhaps by the subjects and tributaries of the great Bashaba, from all parts of the coast as far as the Piscataqua or Mistic in token of their allegiance, to be here piled up, after their contents were consumed in an annual high festival of the collected tribes, as a monument of royal magnificence ? If so, what an idea does it give of the ex- tent and duration of that dynasty which has passed away and left few other marks of its greatness.
Of the discovery and settlement of the country by another race, the decline and well nigh total extinction of the savage
* Rep. on Geol. of Maine.
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tribes, the planting of this and the neighboring towns, the condition at different epochs, more especially of the town of Warren, and the various steps and agencies by which that town has arrived at its present state, an account will be at- tempted in the following chapters.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY DISCOVERIES AND OTHER TRANSACTIONS PRIOR TO 1688.
WHEN in 1492 Columbus lifted the veil which had for untold centuries concealed the American continent from the civilized world, he found it inhabited only by savage tribes destitute of the mechanic arts, unacquainted with the use of iron, unprovided with domestic animals, dependent for sub- sistence on the productions of nature and some feeble attempts at agriculture. These people, from an erroneous idea that the country was but a continuation of India, were called Indians ; and, despised as heathen or regarded as enemies, their rights were little respected by the European nations, who hastened to discover and claim the country as their own. The claims of the English in North America originated with the expedi- tion of John and Sebastian Cabot, who under the authority of Henry VII. in 1497 discovered and gave name to Newfound- land, applying the name to the whole coast, which they ranged from 38° to 56° of N. latitude. This claim was strengthen- ed by few subsequent expeditions till towards the close of the 16th century ; when, under the vigorous reign of Elizabeth, formal possession was again taken of the Island of Newfound- land, the coast granted to Raleigh and others by the general name of Virginia, and two abortive colonies established in N. Carolina, where Virginia Dare, the first child of English extraction in America, was born in 1587. In the mean time the French had laid claim to a portion of the same region, founded on discoveries made in 1523 and 1531, of the coast between 30° and 50° of N. latitude, to which they gave the name of New France. They maintained a commercial inter- course with the natives, particularly in the Gulf of St. Law- rence, and introduced many traders and missionaries. Private adventurers from various nations visited the coast, and espe- cially Newfoundland, where in 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert found 36 English, French, Spanish and Portuguese vessels
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engaged in the fisheries. In the following century the rival claims of France and England began to be prosecuted with more rigor. DeMonts and Champlain, under a grant from the French king of the territory between 40° and 46º of N. latitude by the name of Acadia, made farther discoveries up the St. Lawrence and Bay of Fundy ; began a settlement at Port Royal, now Annapolis, N. S. and also on an island in the Schoodic, where in 1605 a crop of rye was sown, the first European grain raised in this State, if not in the Union. Within the limits assigned to this French province, the English were about the same time prosecuting discoveries in the northern parts of their province of Virginia. Under the Vir- ginia company, voyages were made by Bartholomew Gosnold and Martin Pring ; the latter of whom in 1603 fell in with the numerous islands in Penobscot Bay, to one of which, from some silver-grey foxes seen there, he gave the name of Fox Island.
1605. To avoid the jealousy of the French and yet maintain their own claims, the English despatched Captain George Weymouth across the Atlantic, ostensibly for the purpose of discovering a N. W. passage to China. On the 11th of May, 1605, he made Cape Cod, and, running northerly, anchored on the 17th upon the north side of a prominent island which he named St. George. This is now known by its Indian name of Monhegan, signifying Grand Island. Two days after "being Whitsunday," he sailed two or three leagues farther north among the islands and entered " a goodly haven" which he named Pentecost Harbor, now known as George's Island Harbor. Here he and his men regaled themselves for several days ; the commander with an armed party exploring the islands and shore, while the sailors engaged in the fishery, taking " plenty of salmon and other fishes of great bigness, good lobsters, rock-fish, plaice and lumps, and with two or three hooks, enough of cod and haddock to supply the ship's company for three days." Upon the land they found " various sorts of trees, besides vines, currants, spruce, yew, angelica, and divers gums, and about the shores abundance of great muscles, some of which con- tained pearls, one having fourteen in it." On the 22d they " dug a garden and sowed some peas, barley and garden seeds, which in sixteen days grew to the height of eight inches." This was the first attempt at cultivation made by
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