USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > Celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Gorham, Maine : May 26, 1886 > Part 5
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ground made sacred by historic memories. We recall heroic deeds that inspire our very nature and excite our pride that we are the descendants of a race of men, who by sacrifice laid the foundation of the homes and institutions we now enjoy. On yonder hill the rude log cabin was built, the first little clearing was opened, the fort and block house erected, within which the entire population of the town was sheltered for four long years. In the fort was the garrison, the only defence of the family home, and there the parish pastor and the school teacher found employ- ment and security. The early history of our town tells us of many a sad story of savage cruelty, and within half a mile from here are the stone and earthen floors of Bryant's cabin which were once wet with the blood of four dear children, but the dark clouds that then lowered so near had their silver lining. The power of endurance, loyalty, true religion, and every other manly and womanly virtue of the Phinneys, McLellans, Moshers, Watsons, Hardings, Cresseys, Files, Irish, Hamblens and other representa- tive pioneer families were sufficient for every sacrifice and danger, and the solid material to establish the institutions of justice, free- dom and safety which we now enjoy. In our oldest cemeteries lie buried in unknown graves many of the brave men of those early days, but we find a very few sleeping beneath leaning and crumbling stones of slate, whose honored names have been nearly effaced by the ruthless touch of time. Today we lay the choicest flowers of spring upon their graves, and recounting their heroic deeds pay a just tribute to their noble dust.
"Gone are the living, but the dead remain,
And not neglected ; for a hand unseen, Scattering its bounty like a summer rain,
Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green."
The relationship which the present inhabitants of Gorham hold with the past can be divided into three exact periods ; for three separate links of fifty years each connect us with that historic and memorable day when our town had its birth, a day ever worthy to be commemorated as the most important in our local history. I personally well remember (and this is the case with but very few others of my fellow citizens) the stirring events of the centennial celebration of our town which occurred fifty years ago. I recall the
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occasion and the venerable and distinguished men of that period. Among the number in the procession were Col. Nathaniel Frost, the oldest man in town, and other revolutionary heroes. On an historic eminence, around a centennial banner, which received the cheers of all the people, stood venerable men whose shoulders then touched those of younger men, but whose hands had clasped the hands of some of the noble men and women who first settled in this town. The old men of today are the living connecting links with our first centennial, and likewise are moving on in advance of a generation who in turn are soon to fill their places. Thus looking back we bring near ourselves by continuity of the same extended chain the personal presence of those who lived and acted one hundred and fifty years ago, and although long, long years separate us, we are still united by such connections that the early history and traditions of our town and its glorious people seem to be a near part of ourselves. Future generations by similar divisions of periods of time, will be the near represen- tatives of this great ancestry. The experiences and acts of the first fifty years of the progress of our town are the most eventful pages of its history. In the year 1786 on its semi-centennial anni- versary it was said, " there are those living among us who felled the first trees, planted the first kernel of corn, helped build the first house, and aided in driving the savages into distant forests." Even then block houses and rude cabins had been partially aban- doned, and in their place cultivated clearings and comfortable homes had made their appearance. The constitutional liberty of a great nation had then been secured by the aid of the brave men and women who first founded this town. Glorious cycle of time ! we bend over its wonderful revelations and pay a just tribute of lofty cheers to the memory of our early ancestors. The second link of fifty years brings us down to the year 1836, and within that period we find a continual progress in the population, wealth and material resources of our town, and among the conspicuous land marks, which more than anything else, marks the character of its people, is our venerable academy, which was built in 1806. Education and educated men and women were among the choicest offerings of the period. The war of 1812, in which many of our soldiers participated, with its rights and its wrongs, was vindicated by the triumph of the stars and stripes, and a free ocean for Ameri.
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can commerce was secured. We now leave this important link, and in 1886 look back upon another period of fifty years, which today we complete, and add the third link to the lengthened chain con- necting us with the fixed and written register of the past. The last fifty years are better known to us than the record of any previous period. Religion, education and loyalty have been recognized by special landmarks which will forever distinguish this generation, but which, like others, are passing away for others to succeed. The faith which our forefathers had in God, which led them in the midnight of poverty and dependence, among their first acts to consecrate a place for public worship, has inspired the present generation in the sunlight of prosperity, to erect commod- ious and beautiful churches in keeping with their enlarged means, and meeting-houses of this character everywhere "nestle in our valleys and crown our swelling hills." The Gorham Female Seminary was dedicated in 1837, and has acomplished much for the town and state. The Normal School building was erected in 1878, much to our credit, but much more to our educational advantage. We point with pride to the willing enlistments of three hundred and eighty-six of our sons in the war for the Union and feel the highest emotions of pride and gratitude when we read the names of fifty-seven of our sons who lost their lives as a costly sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Their names are inscribed upon marble on yonder monument to be thoughtfully read by ourselves, and to be honored by a distant posterity. This monument may crumble and fall, but the heroism and sacrifices of our volunteer soldiers for a righteous cause are imperishable. When we recount the achievements of the sons of Gorham, and their bravery on so many glorified battle-fields for the Union, we hand down to other generations the proudest page of our history, and while we honor the living who, with their lost comrades, under all the vicissitudes of war were equally true to their town, state and nation, we cherish in our heart of hearts today the memory of those noble men of Gorham who died to save their country. I joyfully welcome here today a large company of the veteran soldiers of Gorham, Buxton and Standish who be- longed to the Union Army. Many of them wear the badge of the Grand Army of the Republic. I gladly welcome the presence of many of the representative farmers of our own town, and their
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families, and the faithful Patrons of Husbandry of Gorham and Buxton. The giant force of the strong right arm of labor is the prime producing power of our national greatness. In our town it has subdued the forest and established cultivated fields and independent rural homes, and today Gorham occupies the front rank of agricultural towns in our state. Our farms illustrate the fruit of industry, frugality and intelligence, and farming hereafter must be the chief employment of our people. It is the most honorable and useful of all pursuits, and may future developments by the application of art, science and co-operation, in the hands of a progressive people, open the way for still greater triumphs in our agricultural history.
I welcome here today the distinguished members of Harmony Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, the oldest and one of the most respected of our secret societies, also the worthy fraternity of Knights of Pythias, a more recently formed organization, and the invited guests of each. You are the exponents of high moral and social culture and true humanity.
I welcome the Cadets, one of the military companies of the state from the city of Portland. We are justly proud of the metropolis of our State, and her progressive growth in everything that con- stitutes a great city. We respect the power and influence of her educated, business and working men, and honor the strong and loyal arm of her citizen soldiers which have and are ever ready to protect the lives and property of all our people.
My task would be incomplete if I failed to welcome here today, by special recognition, the faithful and generous women who were born in our dear old town. In the forest, on the farm, in polite society, in the great moral and political contests of the past our noble women have always been heroic and true, and thus " their uncounted vote has always been counted for the right." Our daughters have seemed to illustrate and perpetuate the Christian virtues of Mary Gorham Phinney Irish, the first white child born in our town, as the true type of excellence, and thus as mothers they have molded the correct habits of our boys and pure character of our girls, which has so much determined our past history. It is the same influence and similar teachings which will secure greatness to our future history. We extend our warmest congratulations to Martha Coleman Phinney Wentworth, who
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honors this occasion with her distinguished presence. She is the daughter of James Phinney, who was born in 1741 and died in 1834, having finished an eventful and faithful life of 94 years. She is the granddaughter of Capt. John Phinney, our earliest ancestor; the niece of Mary Gorham Phinney and of Col. Edmand Phinney of Revolutionary renown, and the widow of the late Capt. Thomas E. Wentworth of Gorham, a distinguished officer in the recent war for the Union. I extend to the teachers and pupils of our public schools the congratulations and hearty wel- come of all our citizens. You are the pride of our town and worthy of a high rank of honor.
The past one hundred and fifty years are over and gone. The conditions and experiences of the past will not be the recorded revelations of the future. We are in the full enjoyment of liberty, power, wealth, and peace, the fruit of the toil and sacri- fices of those who made our early history. There are great perils which threaten our future. It is the eternal law of existence that we shall move forward or backward, and the preservation of our great birth-right by personal example of private worth, public virtue, and the illustration of that righteousness which exalteth a nation, should enlist our united endeavor. To-morrow's sun will rise upon the commencement of a new period of time, which, in fifty years from now, will either excite the admiration or sor- row of another generation.
Today we look back with stately pride upon the past. We are proud of our temples of worship, our homes, our schools, our farms, and workshops, and the morality, intelligence, and industry of our people. Let us remember that no period or generation is distinctly separate from another. The youth of today are "the trustees of the American future." The lives of every generation should exemplify all that was true and noble in the past. There should be an earnest striving among our youth to build up char- acter in the interests of frugality and sobriety, and to illustrate a loyal performance of every known duty. Thus, in fifty years from now shall the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of our town find an assemblage of its sons and daughters, in their firm manhood and true womanhood, worthy to receive the wel- come of Gorham by the words of the Roman mother, "These are my jewels."
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At the close of the address, which was listened to with earnest attention, and was heartily applauded, the fol- lowing original Ode, composed for the occasion by Mrs. Jennie Bodge Johnson, of Gorham, was sung by the chorus, the vast audience joining, and giving it a most inspiriting effect.
ODE.
Tune - Auld Lang Syne. Wake every heart, awake and sing In chorus full and free ! While notes responsive backward ring From memory's shoreless sea. Above the echoes of regret, In songs of joy entwine Fresh garlands from the laurels yet, For Days of Auld Lang Syne.
Seen thro' the centuries' misty light Their colors fair unfold, Foundation stones of Peace and Right In adamant and gold. Thro' clouds of battle smoke how clear Their fadeless glories shine, Awake a royal tribute here For Days of Auld Lang Syne.
The joys that make the whole world kin To festal days belong, From Freedom's treasury all may win The fellowship of song. We bring a hearty welcome here, Good will to thine and mine, And from our chaplet of good cheer One song for Auld Lang Syne.
Unfurl the banner that we love And give it three times three,
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Wake loyal hearts, awake and prove The rapture of The Free! Beneath the sheltering Stripes and Stars We hail the Northern Pine, And mingle with our proud huzzas Three cheers for Auld Lang Syne.
The exercises closed with the benediction, pronounced, in the absence of the gentleman to whom this service had been assigned on the programme, by Rev. L. Z. Ferris, of Rock- land, Mass., former pastor of the First Parish Congrega- tional Church at Gorham.
During the intermission at noon, large numbers of visit- ors were entertained by members of the general commit- tee, and numerous other citizens, whose houses were hospit- ably opened to them, while a great multitude found abund- ant and agreeable refreshments at the excellent restaurants of Goudy, Alexander, and others, who had made ample ar- rangements for the occasion.
AFTERNOON EXERCISES.
The spacious tent was again filled to overflowing long before the time appointed for the exercises to commence, and the number unable to gain admittance was greater even than in the forenoon. Seats were largely disregarded, and the vast audience stood jammed together as in an immense political mass meeting.
At two o'clock the great assembly was called to order by Governor Robie. Chandler's Band then played an appro- priate selection, " Ye Olden Tunes," at the close of which Rev. George L. Prentiss, D.D., of New York, offered an earnest and impressive prayer, remarkable for the sweetness of its spirit, the tender personal and local allusions it con- tained, as well as for the fervor and depth of feeling with which it was uttered.
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After the prayer the chorus sang Rossini's beautiful
GREEN BE YOUR FAME.
Green be your fame forever
Sires who our nation planted,
By storm and death undaunted, Firmly on Freedom's rock ; When danger rose around you,
Loudly glad hymns ye chanted, While every bosom panted Wildly with freedom's glow.
Dark grew the clouds above you, Loud howled the midnight tempest, While through the pathless forest, Rang out the savage yell ; Still rose your song triumphant,
Danger and death despising ;
Still to Jehovah rising Proudly your anthems swell.
Rev. Elijah Kellogg was then introduced as the orator of the day by Governor Robie, who said : " I have the high honor to introduce to this audience a true representative of ' Old Times in Gorham,' which he himself has made good old times by his personal power of ready description and a correct knowledge of the men and women who made its early history. Rev. Elijah Kellogg needs no words of com- mendation or even an introduction to a Gorham audience. Respected, honored, and beloved, he has written his own biography in the memory and on the hearts of all our people. Listen to our distinguished friend who will now address you."
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REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG'S ADDRESS.
The occasion, my friends, that has brought us together requires that we should speak of the principles which actuated those who on this soil first broke the ground, endured hardship and met perils of all descriptions, obtained their daily bread, and laid the found- ations of the fabric other hands have reared ; and that on this spot, where so large a portion of my childhood, youth, and early man- hood were spent, we should endeavor, by the light of the past, to make such use of the characters of the brave and virtuous as to incite to a worthy emulation - that religion, patriotism, and manly vigor may not die with us, and in our households, but be- come the heritage of those who shall succeed us. The conditions of our existence are predicated often before we are born in virtue of transmitted instincts and the influences that meet and, to a greater or less extent, shape the first reaches of thought and ripen impulses into habits. Early impressions exert a vast in- fluence and are with difficulty eradicated. A coloring mixture poured upon ice may be removed by a removal of the surface, but mingle it with the water when freezing, and where is the force that shall separate them ?
What but the power of early impressions and stirring memo- ries of the days when the grass was greener and the sun brighter and life sweeter than it will ever be again, has assembled here today so many old schoolmates, relatives, and tried and loving friends who have drank together out of the moss-covered bucket at the Thatcher well, picked strawberries in Chadbourne's pasture, caught trout in Week's brook, and endured tribulation under the castigations of Reuben Nason. Thus do the sentiments of those who, though they have long ceased to live, have not ceased to exert influence, grow into and grow up with those whose minds are now crystalizing to maturity. They will assuredly become such persons, to a great extent, as those who have preceded, and the influences they encounter and the instructions they receive upon the threshold of life make them. Therefore all inquiries respecting the characters and doings of these persons, who, one hundred and fifty years ago today, set up the institutions of religion and education on this soil, are of great interest and value to us. They were Puritans by descent, though American
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born and bred, with the exception of one family of Scotch Presbyterians.
Permit me to place before you a Puritan who flourished during the reign of Elizabeth, and to all allow him to speak for himself. It seems that certain motions had been made in the English House of Commons looking to reformation in the church, a com- mittee appointed to report the reforms and petition the Queen. No sooner had business commenced than the Puritan Peter Wentworth Esq., member from Tregony, thus delivered himself in favor of free speech, and against the encroachments of the crown, - well aware of the peril he encountered.
"Mr. Speaker : I find written in a little book, 'Sweet is the name of liberty.' But the thing itself has a value beyond all inesti- mable treasure. So much the more it behooves us to take care lest contenting ourselves with the sweetness of the name we lose the thing itself. I conclude that in this house which is termed a place of free speech, nothing else is so necessary for the preserva- tion of the Prince and State. Two things, Mr. Speaker, do great hurt in this place. The one is a rumor that runneth about this house, and this it is, - Take heed what you do. The Queen's Majesty liketh not such a matter. Whosoever perferreth it, she will be offended with him, or the contrary. Her Majesty liketh of such a matter whosever speaketh against it, she will be offended with him. In every cause we ought to proceed accord- ing to the matter and not according to the Prince's mind. Many times it falleth out that a Prince may favor a cause perilous to himself and the whole state. In such a case where are we, if we follow the Prince's mind. How could any Prince more unkindly treat, abuse and oppose herself against her nobility and people than her Majesty did the last Parliament ? Is this a just recompense in a christian Queen for our faithful dealing? The heathen do requite good for good. How much more is to be expected from a christian Queen. And will not this her Maj- esty's handling, think you, make cold dealing in many of her Majesty's faithful subjects in the future ? I fear it will. We are incorporated into this place to serve God and mankind, not to be time servers, or as humor feeders, or cancers that pierce to the bone." The members listened with mingled astonishment and terror depicted on their faces. But when they heard him arraign
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the Queen, and that Queen Elizabeth, (who once said to the bishop of Ely, " Proud Prelate, you know what you were before I made you what you now are, and if you do not immediately comply with my request, by God I will unfrock you," ) the House interrupted him, ordered him under arrest, and to be examined before a committee consisting of all the members of the Privy Council, who were of the House, and fourteen other members, that he might have an opportunity of excusing his fault; but in- stead of that, he defended himself, and silenced the committee. Powerless to reply to this champion of civil liberty, the commit- tee said : " Mr. Wentworth, you might have uttered what you had to say in better language. Why did you not ?" " Would you have me, a member of the House of Commons, the place for free speech, to have done as you of her Majesty's Privy Council do,- utter a weighty matter in such terms that she should not have understood herself to have made a fault? Then would it have done her no good : whereas my intent was to do her good." " You have answered us." "Then I praise God for it."
The men who cut the first trees, and planted the first hills of corn on the shores of Massachusetts and Casco Bays, were men of this stamp, and their blood flows in your veins. Are not the principles advocated by this staunch yeoman, at the peril of life, the same that you have drawn in with your mother's milk, and been taught at your father's knee; and is not that noble senti- ment of his, " We are incorporated into this place to serve God and mankind," the same which actuated those who here incor- porated themselves for a like purpose ?
Eight hundred and forty Massachusetts men bore arms in Phillip's war. This was the most severe conflict with the sav- ages the colony of Massachusetts Bay was ever engaged in, and the expenses of this war bore very heavily upon them. Being destitute of money, they granted to the soldiers who had served in that war, and to their heirs, seven townships of lands in Maine, then a part of Massachusetts, and in New Hampshire. Narragansett, No. 7, fell to the lot of Capt. John Gorham and associates. These men were the direct descendants of the Pur- itans. Nearly every town on Cape Cod was represented, and furnished its quota for the settlement of Narragansett No. 7, to which they gave the name of Gorham, as a mark of respect
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for their leader, Capt. John Gorham. Forty of them were from Barnstable, thirty-nine from Yarmouth, twenty-two from East- ham, seven from Sandwich, three from Plymouth, six from Dux- bury, and one from each of the towns of Abington and Scituate.
The most common causes that have led to the colonization of other countries have been the lack of food, the overcrowded population. Most emigrate or starve. The desire of conquest, as the Danes and Normans came into England, - or the greed of gold that colonized South America with Spaniards.
But those from whom the settlers of this town descended, when they came to these shores, intended to found, and did found, a commonwealth on the basis of religion and education and law. All the grants of their general court were upon the following conditions, - among others, in seven years to settle sixty fami- lies, to settle a learned orthodox minister, to build a meeting- house, to clear a certain number of acres of land, to reserve a certain portion of the township for the support of schools, the ministry, and the first settled minister. They thus at the outset provided for an educated ministry, and for the education of the people, and for a house of worship. It was not left to choice or chance. It is to be hoped and expected, say they, that no mem- ber of this commonwealth will suffer so great a degree of bar- barism in his household, that his children shall not be able to read the Word of God. The persons meditating settlement on this soil might have occupied their land and remained as a plan- tation, without fulfilling the requirements above stated, but they carried out the decrees of the Executive in the spirit with which they were enacted. As their first act, they prayed to God, and voted that a meeting-house be built in said town, of logs, and that fifty shillings be assessed on a right to build it. When, be- fore they could clear sufficient land to raise crops, they were so hard pressed with hunger that they were often without meat or bread, and were forced to boil and eat the grain reserved for seed, and even to boil and eat green beech leaves and ground nuts, they employed and paid Rev. Benjamin Crocker, a Harvard graduate, to preach to them as they sat in their log meeting-house, on pine saplings hewn on one side, supported by legs with the bark on them, and with their muskets between their knees, listened to a service to which they were called by
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