USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > Celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Gorham, Maine : May 26, 1886 > Part 2
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They might at this day, be called intolerant in their religious views and practices ; but they were in this respect, like other sects of their age. They were undoubtedly zealous for what they con- sidered to be the truth. A stern and somewhat severe morality prevailed everywhere among the Puritans ; and it would have been wonderful, if their immediate descendants had not in this respect been somewhat like their fathers, following their advice, obeying their precepts, and living according to their example. Our Puritan fathers felt conscious that religion, virtue, and knowledge, were essential to good government, and the perma- nent welfare of the community ; hence they spared no pains to
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support the gospel, to inculcate morality in the minds of their children, and to provide means for their education. At the very first meeting of the proprietors of this town, one of their first votes was to provide for preaching and religious instruction. They never forgot the great and momentous object for which the Pilgrims settled in New-England ; religious freedom and liberty of conscience. They entered the wilderness for purity of relig- ion ; to found a religious commonwealth ; to raise up a pious race.
Unlike the Spanish adventurers in South America, they thirsted not for a career of military glory; they cherished no extravagant ambition ! They looked not on immeasurable lands with the longing eye of cupidity; they expected no brilliant suc- cess, nor anticipated finding crystal streams, whose sands sparkled with gold! They sought not the sunny plains and exuberant verdure of the South ! they sought not a clime gay with peren- nial flowers, with a balmy atmosphere, or Italian skies! They sought not a land of gold or of spices, of wine or of oil ! Other and purer wishes were theirs : they expected not a life of luxury and ease. Sanctity of conscience was their great tenet. "Their religion was their life." Rigorous was the climate and hard the soil, where they chose to dwell. Here a countless train of priva- tions and sufferings awaited them, privations and sufferings that might have made the less brave and energetic quail. Cold, and hunger, and fear of midnight slaughter, or cruel captivity by sav- age bands was their portion !
Under this load of evils, what but a firm belief in the sacred- ness of their cause, and the consolations derived from the sub- lime truths of christianity, could have sustained them? To their religious belief, their exemplary lives, their untiring zeal, and indefatigable industry, are we indebted for the blessings of freedom, plenty, and knowledge, now enjoyed by us, their pos- terity. They have left us that, which gold and silver could not buy, which. gems and diamonds could not purchase ! How great are our obligations to our brave and virtuous fathers! how great also, to our noble and heroic mothers, who dwelt here from eighty to one hundred years ago! Think of the wants, the anxieties, the perils, and the sufferings they endured !
Females of this town, contrast your abundance of food and dress, your quiet homes, and peaceful, feminine pursuits, with
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their scarcity, when long days and cheerless nights passed with barely provision enough to sustain life ! flying frequently, at an hour's warning, from their rude dwellings to garrison! Setting aside the wheel and the loom to mount guard as sentinels, to handle the cartridge, or discharge the musket! Think of the immense sacrifices they made, and consider whether your rich and numerous blessings, having been so dearly purchased, are not to be highly prized. Though we have often heard of their sufferings, we cannot fully appreciate them! "Their misery was great! For months they had neither meat nor bread, and often at night they knew not where to get food for the morning! Yet in all their wants and trials their confidence in the mercy and goodness of God was never shaken.
The first sixteen years after the settlement of Gorham were years of great anxiety and suffering; the settlers often suffered for food; at one time all the provision the family of Captain Phinney had for some days was two quarts of boiled wheat, which had been reserved for seed.
At that period all the towns in Maine were obliged to erect and maintain garrisons, or forts, for places of refuge against In- dian attacks. These forts were constructed of hewn timber, with palisades of large posts, set deep in the ground, closely together outside the timber, and ten or twelve feet high; watch-boxes were built on the top of the walls; the whole was bullet proof. The fort in Gorham was erected on the thirty-acre lot No. 2, a short distance west of the present town house, on what is yet called Fort-hill, and which is the most elevated land in the town. The fort had two six-pounder swivels, placed at diagonal corners, for the purpose of defence against the Indians, and to be fired to alarm the neighboring towns of Buxton, Scarborough and Wind- ham, when savages were discovered in the vicinity.
The first meeting of the proprietors held at Gorham was at the house of Captain John Phinney, on the twenty-fourth of November, 1741. Moses Pearson was chosen moderator, and John Gorham clerk. Two days afterward (November 26) the proprietors voted " that a meeting-house be built, for the worship of God, in said town, thirty-six feet long, twenty feet wide, with twenty feet shed," and fifty shillings on a right was voted in order to erect said meeting-house, and to clear a suitable tract of
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land to set the same upon. On the next Monday, at an adjourned meeting, it was voted, "that twenty rods square be cleared on the west side of the way, called King-street, in order for building a meeting-house thereon. So soon and so liberally did the first settlers of Gorham make provision for religious worship. At the same meeting four hundred acres of land in the town were granted to his Excellency, William Shirley, the then colonial Governor of Massachusetts ; this grant was located by Mallison's Falls, now called horse-beef falls.
At the same meeting it was also " voted that William Pote, John Phinney and Daniel Mosier, be a committee to lay out a road through the woods, from the end of Gorham street to Sac- carappa mills." This road is what is now called the old county road, leading from Gorham village by James Phinney's, Daniel and Benjamin Mosier's and the Tyng place, to Saccarappa.
In 1743, at a proprietors' meeting, it was "voted to raise six- pence on a right, to pay Daniel Mosier, provided he look out and spot a road direct to Black Point." At the same meeting " four hundred acres of land was granted to John Gorham in that cor- ner of the township, adjoining Falmouth and Presumpscot river, he, the said Gorham, to finish or cause to be finished, the saw mill and grist mill, that he hath already begun in said township on Little river." These were the first mills erected in Gorham.
In 1745, what is called the fifth Indian war broke out, and Narraganset No. 7, being a frontier town, was entirely exposed to assaults from the savages; the few inhabitants were obliged to be on watchful guard day and night; often compelled to fly to garrison - to labor with arms in their hands; their crops were frequently injured or destroyed, their fences broken down; their cows killed, their buildings burned, themselves wounded, killed, or carried captive to Canada. These aggravated and repeated distresses disheartened some of the settlers, and they abandoned their fields and houses, and removed to towns less liable to attack ! In Gorham, the people lived for years in a state of painful anx- iety; they were prevented from cultivating their lands, their mills were burned, and the distressed families shut up in the fort were in danger of starvation !
At the commencement of the war there were eighteen families in this town; nine of which moved into the garrison, where they
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were closely shut up for four years, and they remained dwelling in the fort seven years; eleven soldiers were furnished by the government of Massachusetts to protect the garrison, and assist the inhabitants in procuring the necessaries of life.
The nine families that removed into the fort were those of Captain John Phinney, Jacob Hamlen, Daniel Mosier, Hugh McLellan, Clement Harvey, John Reed, Edward Cloutman, Jere- miah Hodgdon, and Eliphalet Watson. Those who left the town were William Pote, James Irish, John Eayer, Caleb Cromwell, Ebenezer Hall, William Cotton, Benjamin Skillings, and Benja- min Stevens; eight families.
The nineteenth of April, old style (corresponding to the thir- tieth April now) was a disastrous day to the little band of set- tlers in Gorham. On that sad day, one whole family, by the name of Bryant, was cut off by Indian cruelty ! The father and the children slain in a most barbarous manner, the wife and mother carried away heart-broken into captivity ! and two of the most hardy and effective men, Reed and Cloutman, taken prison- ers and marched through the woods to Canada! On that day there were four families that had not removed to the garrison, viz. : Bryant's, Reed's, Cloutman's, and Mclellan's. Bryant con- templated moving the day preceding the massacre, but concluded to defer it one day longer to complete some family arrangement. They had an infant but two weeks old; the mother wished for a cradle for her little one, and said if the father would remain in their dwelling that day and make the cradle, she would risk her scalp one day longer! That risk was a fatal one! Early in the morning of the day before named, Bryant and his eldest son went to a field to do some work ; a party of ten Indians were in the town unknown to the inhabitants; the savages divided them- selves into five parties, designing to surprise the four families above named; one of these parties fell in with Bryant and his son, and being unable to capture them, they broke Bryant's arm, and then shot him and his son as they were endeavoring to es- cape to the fort. Bryant was killed on the low ground in the road south of Job Thomes' house. Another division of the In- dians proceeded to Bryant's house, and murdered and scalped four of his children ! They dashed out the brains of the infant against the fire-place. The agonized and frantic mother, feeble
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and powerless, had to witness the destruction of all that was dear to her heart ! To leave her husband dead in the way, and the mangled bodies of her loved and innocent children in her desolate mansion, and with feelings of bitterness, which none may describe, under the weight of her terrible bereavement, go captive with the destroyers of all her earthly happiness, through pathless woods, tangled swamps, and over rugged mountains, to a people whose language she could not understand, and who were her enemies and the enemies of her people, kindred, and friends !
Reed and Cloutman were met separately by the Indians, and after great resistance were taken and carried to Canada. Some- time afterward Bartholomew Thorn, a young man, was taken by the Indians while he was going home from public worship on the Sabbath. The savages kept him several years, and then sold him to a French gentleman in Montreal ; after seven years' absence he returned.
During this Indian war Colonel Edmund Phinney, then a young man, was one evening at a distance from the fort, in pur- suit of cows, when a party of Indians, who lay in ambush, fired upon him, and four balls struck him, breaking his arm, and oth- erwise severely wounding him ; he, however, made out to reach the fort, and keep his gun. This war of ambuscade, massacre, and conflagration, kept the people in continual terror and agita- tion, nor did they feel secure till 1759, when Quebec capitulated to the army of Wolfe, and France lost her empire, and with it her influence over the savages in North America.
During the war public worship was held in the southeast bas- tion, or flanker of the fort.
After the termination of hostilities, and the fear of Indian. assaults was removed, the town began to fill up with settlers, and improvements went forward. The last repairs done to the fort were in 1760, when one shilling and fourpence per foot was voted to Hugh Mclellan for stockading the fort with spruce, pine, or hemlock posts, thirteen feet long, and ten inches in diameter, with a lining of hewn timber six inches thick.
At a proprietors' meeting, held February 26, 1760, it was voted to raise and assess on the several rights of land sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, four pence, toward building a meeting-house. That meeting-house was completed in 1764, at an expense of one hundred and eighty pounds.
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In 1763 the first bridge over Presumpscot river, between this town and Windham, was erected.
The inhabitants increased, and in 1764 the plantation was esti- mated to contain three hundred and forty souls. The town was incorporated by the General Court of Massachusetts October 30, 1764, and was the twentieth town incorporated in Maine. The first town meeting was held in pursuance of a warrant from the Honorable Stephen Longfellow, at the meeting-house in Gorham, February 18, 1765, at which meeting Captain John Phinney was chosen moderator, Amos Whitney town clerk, Benjamin Skil- lings, Amos Whitney, and Joseph Weston selectmen, and Ed- mund Phinney treasurer. Not less than twelve town meetings were held that year, viz. : on February 18, March 12, March 21, April 29, May 16, May 30, August 1, August 10, August 20, Sep- tember 2, December 12, and December 19.
The town was now quiet and flourishing, but their prosperity was soon to be checked by new national difficulties. The trouble between Great Britain and her transatlantic colonies was assum- ing a serious aspect, and the town of Gorham entered warmly into the contest. As early as September 21, 1768, a town meet- ing was held, and an " agent chosen to go to Boston as soon as may be, to join a convention of agents from other towns in the province, to consult and resolve upon such measures as may most conduce to the safety and welfare of the inhabitants of said Province, at this alarmning and critical conjuncture." Solomon Lombard, Esquire, was chosen agent, and eight days allowed him for going and returning from Boston.
When the ambition and cupidity of the British government led them to inflict on our land successive wrongs, when they at- tempted to violate the plainest rights, and subvert the dearest privileges of the Colonies, when the ministry of George III. had become deaf to the imploring voice of mercy and justice, and the patriots of America had determined to resist the unrighteous demands of Old England, when the blood of the good and the brave had moistened the fields of Lexington and Bunker Hill, when Charlestown and Portland were but heaps of smoking ruins, where were found the freemen of Gorham, did they prove recreant to the great and sacred cause of liberty ? No! Our peaceful inland town, remote from invasion and the clang of
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arms, was awake and active in the great concern. She contribu- ted freely and largely of her citizens and her property to the general cause. Our townsmen left their quiet pursuits to mingle in the storm of war! She sent her sons north and south, and east and west, to fight and bleed and die! She constantly con- tributed more than her quota of troops for the continental army, beside raising and officering a large company under the command of Captain Alexander McLellan, who went to Castine (then called Buygaduce), under General Peleg Wadsworth. A large number of Gorham men were also in the Machias expedition. At one period, every third man in Gorham was in the army. Numbers of her soldiers were in most of the principal battles of the Rev- olution. In the engagement on Rhode Island in 1778, two men from this town, Paul Whitney, and a Mr. Wescott, were killed. The good and the brave Colonel Edmund Phinney (he who felled the first tree in this town for the purpose of settlement) early had command of a regiment under Washington, and throughout the war conducted himself with great activity, courage, and pru- dence; he did much to induce his townsmen to exert themselves to the utmost to maintain the war, and secure the independence of the country. In a letter to his father, the aged Captain John Phinney (the first settler), Colonel Phinney says, "I am very well, and in high spirits, and hope to continue so till every tory is banished this land of liberty, and our rights and privileges are restored." This letter was dated in the army, May 26, 1776, sixty years ago this day. Captain John Phinney was at this time too far advanced in life to endure the fatigues of a cam- paign, but his patriotic feelings were warm and vigorous, and his sons and his grandsons went to the war. Besides Colonel Ed- mund Phinney, his brother John Phinney, (the man who planted the first hill of corn in Gorham) and his two only sons, John Phinney 3d, and Ebenezer Phinney, were in the revolutionary army. In fact, almost every man in Gorham was out in the army. Your fathers left their homes and families, that were dearer to them than life; they endured the fatigues and dangers of every campaign ; they parted with their hard earned bread to feed their brethren in arms ; at home they maintained the families of absent soldiers. They poured out their precious blood and laid down their lives, in distant States, without murmuring or complaint !
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They died by the weapons of the enemy- they died by conta- gious disease - they died by the cold of winter - they died by the heat of summer! While those who remained at home, de- voted their time and talents to the great cause, by noble endeav- ors and patriotic resolutions. The preserved records of our town fully bear me out in these assertions.
In 1772 the town of Boston had issued circulars to the princi- pal towns in the Province, requesting the inhabitants " to express their sense of the rights of the Colonists, and the several infrac- tions of those rights." In accordance with this request, a town meeting was held at the meeting-house in Gorham on the last day of December, 1772. Solomon Lombard Esquire, who had been the first settled minister of the town, was chosen moderator ; a committee of safety and communication, and to draw up resolves expressive of the sense of the town on the subject matter of the Boston circular, was raised; the committee was composed of nine members, and were Solomon Lombard Esquire, Captain John Phinney, William Gorham Esquire, Captain Edmund Phinney, Elder Nathan Whitney, Caleb Chase, Captain Briant Morton, Josiah Davis, and Benjamin Skillings. The assembled freemen of Gorham then voted to return thanks to the town of Boston, for their vigilance of our privileges and liberties; the meeting was adjourned one week. At the adjourned meeting, January 7, 1773, the following preamble and resolves were reported by the committee and adopted by the citizens.
" We find it is esteemed an argument of terror to a set of the basest of men, who are attempting to enslave us, and who desire to wallow in luxury, upon the expense of our earnings, that this country was purchased by the blood of our renowned forefathers, who flying from the unrelenting rage of civil and religious tyranny in their native land, settled themselves in this desolate howling wilderness. But the people of this town of Gorham have an argument still nearer at hand; not only may we say that we enjoy an inheritance purchased by the blood of our forefathers, but this town was settled at the expense of our own Blood! We have those among us, whose blood, streaming from their own wounds, watered the soil from which we earn our bread ! Our ears have heard the infernal yells of the savage, native murder- ers ! Our eyes have seen our young children weltering in their
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gore, in our own houses, and our dearest friends carried into cap- tivity by men more savage than the savage beasts themselves ! Many of us have been used to earn our daily bread with our weapons in our hands! We cannot be supposed to be fully ac- quainted with the mysteries of court policy, but we look upon ourselves able to judge so far concerning our rights as men, as Christians, and as subjects of the British Government, as to de- clare that we apprehend those rights as settled by the good peo- ple of Boston, do belong to us, and that we look with horror and indignation on their violation. We only add that our old cap- tain is still living, who for many years has been our chief officer, to rally the inhabitants of this town from the plough, or the sickle to defend their wives, their children, and all that was dear to them from the savages! Many of us have been inured to the fatigue and danger of flying to garrison! Many of our watch- boxes are still in being; the timber of our fort is still to be seen ; some of our women have been used to handle the cartridge or load the musket, and the swords we sharpened and brightened for our enemies are not yet grown rusty. Therefore,
Resolved, That the people of the town of Gorham are as loyal as any of his Majesty's subjects in Great Britain or the planta- tions, and hold themselves always in readiness to assist his Majesty with their lives and fortunes in defence of the rights and privileges of his subjects.
Resolved. We apprehend that the grievances of which we justly complain, are owing to the corruptions of the late minis- try in not suffering the repeated petitions and remonstrances from this Province to reach the Royal ear.
Resolved. It is clearly the opinion of this town that the Par- liament of Great Britain have no more right to take money from us without our consent than they have to take money without consent from the inhabitants of France or Spain.
Resolved. It is the opinion of this town that it is better to risk our lives and fortunes in the defence of our rights, civil and religious, than to die by piece meals in slavery !
Resolved, That the foregoing resolves and proceedings be reg- istered in the town clerk's office as a standing memorial of the
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value that the inhabitants of this town put upon their rights and privileges.
At a meeting of the town called to consider of the exigency of public affairs January 25, 1774 (which meeting was very fully attended), the following among other spirited resolutions were passed.
Resolved, That our small possessions, dearly purchased by the hand of labor and the industry of ourselves and our dear ances- tors, with the loss of many lives by a barbarous and cruel enemy, are, by the laws of God, nature, and the British constitution, our own, exclusive of any other claim under heaven.
Resolved, That for any Legislative body of men under the British constitution to take, or grant liberty to take, any part of our property, or profits, without our consent, is state robbery, and ought to be opposed.
Resolved, That the tea act in favor of the East India Com- pany to export the same to America, is a deep laid scheme to betray the unwary into the snare, laid to catch and enslave them, and requires the joint vigilance, fortitude, and courage of the thoughtful and brave to oppose in every constitutional way.
Resolved, That we, of this town, have such a high relish for liberty, that we all with one heart stand ready sword in hand to defend and maintain our rights against all attempts to enslave us, opposing force to force, if drove to the last extremity, which God forbid.
After these high-toned resolutions were passed, the venerable John Phinney made a motion, which was carried, " that if any person of Gorham should contemn, despise or reproach the for- mer, or the present resolves, he shall be deemed, held and ad- judged an enemy to his country, unworthy the company and regard of those who are the professed sons of freedom, and shall be treated as infamous !" In the preamble to these resolves, the committee say, "we hope and trust the inhabitants of this town will not be induced to part with their privileges for a little pal- try herb drink ! The inhabitants of this town are in general bet- ter qualified to handle their old swords than the writer's pen,
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and if compelled to dispute for their privileges shall have resort to those solid and weighty arguments, by which they have often carried their point with savage men and savage beasts." Such, citizens of Gorham, was the spirit, such the energy, of your fathers. They avowed themselves ready at all times to aid the cause of freedom. They never thought of shrinking in the hour of danger. Their committees of safety and vigilance, in those trying times, were men of great wisdom, sagacity, and firmness. They were John and Edmund Phinney (father and son), William Gorham, Briant Morton, Solomon Lombard, Prince and Josiah Davis, Benjamin Skillings, Caleb Chase, Samuel Whitmore, and many others. James Phinney was chairman of the selectmen during most of the trying years of the revolution.
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