USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Orono > Centennial celebration, and dedication of town hall, Orono, Maine, March 3, 1874 > Part 7
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The place was the house of Reed. Opposite each other at the table were seated the lawyers and the magistrates, one upon a side, as if at whist ; Mr. Reed was partially reclining upon a bed, while Mrs. Reed, knitting-work in hand, with eyes and ears open, was sitting demurely in a corner of the room. Many of the questions asked were objected to as leading or otherwise improper, and the answers as illegal and inadmissible, and so earnest discussion of the points was carried on by the lawyers, when, upon one of the justices venturing to make a suggestion, the in- junction " No talking across the board !" from a shrill, sharp, positive voice in the neighborhood of the knitting needles, brought the contest to a sudden close, and the parties to it to excellent humor. After this the caption proceeded quietly to the end.
It was in 1834 or 1835 that a trial was progressing at Bangor, in the Court of Common Pleas, before IIon. David Perham, Judge, in which it became nec- essary to account for the disappearance of a flock of sheep, and an effort was made to identify them with a large number of carcasses that were found in a neighboring barn. An Orono man, who was on the
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stand as a witness, was closely interrogated as to the number of bodies. He said there were "a good many." "But how many ?" asked the counsel. "O, a big pile." "How big ?" " O, as big as the pen place that fellow sets in up yonder," replied Dudley, pointing to the Judge.
It was in the same Court, and before the same Judge, that Henri Van Meter, who lived for many years in the Dudley neighborhood, was terribly badgered by the counsel while he was being exam- ined as a witness. He had got so badly mixed up that the Judge thought he would help the poor Afri- can out of his trouble. " R, r, Mr. Van Buren, was it r-r"-" Don't you say a word," expostulated Van Meter, turning to the Court with an expression mildly but earnestly deprecatory, " I have as much as I can attind to with these gentlemen down here."
I remember the trial of some one whose name I am unable to recall, before a Justice of the Peace- Col. Buffum, probably-for stealing corn from the grist mill in this village, at which a witness, by the name of Smith, was examined by the counsel for the State. A light snow had fallen during the night of
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the larceny, and the tracks of a man, leading from the mill, were seen in it. Smith had carefully ex- amined the tracks to find out if they were made by the prisoner, whose shoes had also been examined, and he said they appeared to him as if they were made by a " man who had about two bushels of corn on his back."
While the Bangor Lower Stillwater Mill Co. was in the full tide of life-in the summer of 1836-a son of a Boston merchant, and large stockholder in the company, a rather wild boy, was sent down to Orono to be kept out of harm. One day he came into my office, under extreme excitement. "I want to know," said he, "if there is any law in this State ? I have been most shamefully abused, and I won't stand it. I was in a shoemaker's shop in Mill street, and they all set upon mne, and old Johnson called me a - (using an adjective of most dis- tinct blasphemy) fool, and now I want to know if I can't make him prove his words !"
A settlement was commenced between fifty and sixty years ago about a mile west of the Bangor road, of which the late James Dudley, who migrated
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from Pittston, Kennebec county, was facile princeps. It was when I first came to Orono, a hamlet more populous than tidy, and more picturesque than esthetic ; and when I last saw it, it seemed to have held its own in these regards with remarkable success. It had not, at the earlier period, wholly sunk the name of New Guinea, to which the residence of Van Meter, the African, had given color of fitness, for the ruggeder appellation which it afterwards received. Dudley was proud to boast that his character had borne successfully the strain of judicial investigation -for when his truth and veracity were called in question before Judge Perham, only a minority of the witnesses examined were willing to dispute them. It was a triumph-not merely negative, but positive -and which added something to the man's happi- ness every day of his subsequent life. That this attack upon our west-side leader was without justifi- able grounds I have never doubted.
Dudley was an important man at elections, and he knew it, and bore himself upon these occasions like the oligarch he was. He carried so many voters with him that the saying became proverbial, " As
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goes Dudley so goes Orono." Upon which side his influence would be cast was at times an anxious question by both parties for weeks, the answer to which was not uncommonly first indicated by the color, cut, or material of the second-hand coat which on occasion he would don even before election day, and which had long been familiar in the village as a part of the wardrobe of one of our ardent politicians.
In social matters, too, our hero was a sort of head- center, and at his house the weddings of the neigh- borhood were wont to take place, and which were celebrated, if not entirely after " the Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders," yet in a style in which strength and a certain robustness of manner were not wanting. It is related that once upon a time a young lawyer from the village was summoned to Dudley's to solemnize a union between Cupid and Campaspe, and that after the service had been per- formed and some eminently practical advice had been given to the young married folks by pater familias, a bottle of brandy was placed upon the table, and a pail of water from the spring-a deep tin pail-was brought in, together with a tumbler,
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the only one in the house, and probably borrowed for the occasion, which was carelessly allowed to drop into the pail, where it sunk to the bottom, and that in this dilemma the officiating magistrate was re- quested by the bridegroom to put his hand and arm into the pail and bring the goblet to the surface, which he did with a prompt and cheerful deftness that gave him unbounded credit in the company, and secured to him the neighborhood custom in the wedding line for a long time after.
But I must not trespass longer on your time with these reminiscences, and will now bring this too pro- tracted address to a close.
This record of industry, struggle, and achievement which we have been examining to-night, is one of which no son or daughter of Orono need be ashamed. Reviewing it in these days of well-earned fruition- delivered from the war and its financial burdens, from the debts incurred for the Railroad and the College, and having seen the accomplishment of your wishes in regard to all ; having repaired, beautified, and extended your churches and school-houses ; having
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as a people been in these later days peculiarly blessed in basket and store ; grateful for so many favors, and rejoicing as you ought and do that your lines have " fallen in pleasant places, and that you have a goodly heritage;" having seen your town grow from a pop- ulation of 1521 in 1840, to more than twice that number in 1874, with a village numeration of not less than 2600-you decided to celebrate the hun- dredth anniversary of its settlement by some token of grateful remembrance of the fathers and mothers who have lived and labored here before you and for you, and by some expression of your good will towards those who shall occupy these homes of your care and affection when you, yourselves, shall have left them forever.
That pious duty to the past, that benign prayer for the future, you chose to embody in no mere form of words, but, rather and better, in this substantial edi- fice, which, with its adequate and admirable accom- modations for the municipal officers of the town- for its Fire Department-and for the people at large in this spacious and elegant hall (in which I hope to see at no distant day a fit representation in the best
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style of art of the great Chief in whose memory and honor their town was named), passes from the hands of the faithful committee under whose direction it has been constructed, to those of the constit- uency for whose convenience and by whose liberality its walls have been reared, and by whom it is now formally consecrated to grateful and affectionate memories and to'confident and elevating hopes, while it is dedicated to those appropriate uses by which the municipal, political, moral, educational, and re- ligious interests of the town and of all its inhabit- ants, may be best upheld and promoted.
May it stand, the minister of good and not evil ; and when at some future day the prosperous town shall have outgrown its then too narrow limits, and shall demand ampler and grander halls, may its affairs be held in charge by those who shall honor the memory of their predecessors by replacing their work by another as well adapted to the requirements of the future time, as this is to the needs of the present !
Thus, friends, I have performed, imperfectly I am aware, but as well as, in the limited time at my com-
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mand, I have been able, the part you assigned me on this the greatest occasion, since its settlement, in the history of your town. It has been to me a labor of love and gratitude ; for-if you will excuse a word personal to myself which my feelings will not allow me to suppress-I cannot forget that for thirty years this was the place of my residence, or that from the time when I came here, just out of my minority, unknown save by a single family connection-that of the late Hon. Benjamin Brown, of Vassalboro', for whose kindly and unwearied interest and friendship I am happy at this time to make my heartfelt ao- knowledgments-to the day when my circumstances rather than my will carried me to another home-it was my good fortune to enjoy a measure of favor and consideration above any claim of deserving that I could make,-an earnestness and constancy of friend- ship that sustained, defended, and held me round, at all times and seasons-and most when most I needed -whether in the course of my professional life in your midst, or on that wider field of the public serv- ice to which, very largely through your favoring in- fluence, I was called for so many years.
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For these manifold and unfailing kindnesses- deepened by their perpetual association with the memory of a gift the most precious my life has known or can know,-and for the honor you have done me in the invitation to address you on this occasion, I make not merely the return of the poor performance of this hour, but the tender of the pro- foundest thanks of a heart which warms in all its recesses to the prosperity, the honor, and the happi- ness of this beautiful town.
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[Note to p. 30.]
From an article prepared for the Massachusetts Historical collections (published in vol. 9, 3d Series, 1846), by the late Hon. Win. D. Williamson. of Bangor, -to whose researches and investigations in reference to matters of historical interest, the people of Maine are under great and lasting obliga - tion, -and which has come under the notice of the writer since the foregoing pages were printed, it appears that there was, many years ago, a tradition on the Penobscot to the effect that Orono was born in York, in this State, about the year 1688, that he was stolen by the Indians in 1692, and that the name of his family was Dounell. Judge Williamson, however, does not give munch credit to this report, and .assigns some pretty good reasons for thinking it not well founded. A better authenticated and more probable account makes him a grandson of the Baron de Castine and of his wife. Matilde, daughter of Madokawando. A daughter of Castine and Matilde married a Frenchman, and they were, it was supposed, the parents of Orono. But, if this be true, the birth of Orono has probably been aute- dated by Williamson by several years. He was born pretty certainly prior to 1700.
The following extract is from the article above referred to:
"But whatever may have been the lineage or extraction of Orono, it is certain he was white in part, a half-breed or more, such being apparent in his stature, features, and complection. He himself toll Capt. Munsell that his father was a Frenchman, and his mother half French and half Indian: but who they were by name he did not state. Orono had not the copper- colored countenance, the sparkling eyes, the high cheek-bones, or tawny features of a pristine native. On the contrary, his eyes were of a bright blne shade, penetrating, and full of intelligence and benignity. In his person he was tall, straight, and perfectly proportioned; and in his gait there was a gracefulness which of itself evinced his superiority. . He was a man of good sense and great discernment; in mood thoughtful, in conversation reserved, in feelings benign. He was honest, chaste, temperate, and industrions, and a uniform and persevering advocate of peace. . . . To a remarkable degree he retained his mental faenlties and erect attitude to the last years of his life. As he was always abstemions, and as his hair was in his last years of a milky whiteness, he resembled in appearance a cloistered saint His wife, who was a full-blooded native, died several years after him, and of his posterity it is only known that he had two children; one, a son who was accidentally shot about 1774, in a hunting party, aged probably 25; the other, a daughter, married old Captain Nicolar
Aitteon, the successor of Orono, committed suicide in Boston in 1811. Orono's immediate predecessor was Osson, and before Osson was Tomassus or Tomer, who was chief in 1754.
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When Mr. Washburn had concluded, the band played Strauss' "ON THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE." The chairman then introduced the Rev. Henry C. Leonard, from 1847 to 1855 pastor of the Universal- ist church in Orono, who read the following original poem :--
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BIRTH-DAY CELEBRATION.
What makes the day so bright and fair? No tempest could becloud its shine: What concord now so fills the air? No music here was e'er so fine.
It is the joy of friends and kin In one dear home assembled all ;- The strain they play the house within While keeping birth-time festival.
Before was here ne'er heard such mirth !- 'Tis not for one once lost now found: But for the long since humble birth Of one through growth now safe and sound.
From childhood we our birth-days keep, . Where'er we dwell, whate'er our lot,- Or where our fathers sow and reap, Or strangers toil, who know us not. 10
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For what we are, is our estate: The gain within of added years. This, great or small,-we celebrate Our natal hours with smiles and tears.
With smiles, because of battles won; With tears, because of battles lost ;- Through both we see the Future's sun,- The joy which comes by pain and cost.
Ourselves in one, behold the town! A child one hundred years ago; But now erect from foot to crown, And growing as the oak-trees grow.
When settlers few with hardihood Here felled the pine, the forest's pride, And seined Penobscot's roaring flood, And fair Stillwater's elm-fringed tide,
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The dusky natives of the wild Oft met them in the forest path, Or where in smoke charred-logs they piled, Or shared with them the cabin's hearth.
Where spread damp shade, now roses bloom, And waving grain and grasses grow; In place of huts, fair mansions loom, O'erlooking far the river's flow.
The woodman's axe now distant rings; Instead, is near the mill-wheel's hum,- The harsher strain the edger sings,- The quick-step march the gang-saws drum.
And in like measure, stroke by stroke, The locomotive skirts the vale, Drawing beneath its plume of smoke The thundering train along the rail.
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Above the plane of farm and mill, And force and speed of noisy train, The school and college guide the will, And tone the power of heart and brain.
And highest in the town's behoof, The church, uplifting tower and spire, By truth, and love, and calm reproof, Calls doubt to faith and pure desire.
Long live the town by faithful toil; By learning's aid and Christian light! Be here no room for feud and broil! Long live the town in honor bright!
After another piece of music by the band, the following ode, written for the occasion by Mrs. B. H. Mace, of Bangor, a native of Orono, was read with fine effect by Rev. Dr. Allen :
ODE OF DEDICATION.
The sounding Indian name itself unfolds
A picture of the past: its utterance Rings with forgotten music. Savage scenes
Before the mind, in shadowy vision, glance.
Flame of the council fire-the warrior dance- Wild shout of victory, or wail of doom,
Fill with weird sights and sounds the ancient forest gloom.
Noblest among the braves was Orono,- A king by nature, just, and wise, and true; To his dark brethren faithful, yet at heart The white man's friend. With clear, prophetic view, Our larger work and destiny he knew. Worthy of honor-well do we bestow On this, his dwelling-place, the name of Orono.
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Down yonder river sped his swift canoe,- These sheltering trees beheld his thoughtful mood; Looking afar to our familiar hills,
Perhaps at eve within his door he stood, And heard the voices of the singing wood, Or watched the dying crimson of the sky,
And read his people's fate-lost stars of History!
All this is past: the red man's shadow fades Before the sunrise of a mightier dawn. These homes of plenty and these fruitful fields, Yon spires that point to the eternal morn, Proclaim a race to nobler duties born; Prove that the century's plant has given flower To a superior age of progress and of power.
New wants arise and aspirations new Enlarge the measure of our daily sphere. To higher ground we raise our longing view, New temples build and loftier structures rear For social needs, to social natures dear. And thus, to-day, within these walls we wait, The building, now complete, to bless and dedicate!
And first to Culture of the mind and heart, Here Eloquence shall build her altar fires From themes heroic. Science, History, Art, Learning, from every age shall yield their part To kindle high ambitions and desires.
Wisdom and Wit with friendly converse cheer, And Song her offerings bring from a diviner sphere.
To Pleasure, too, we yield a welcome place; Here shall fair hands prepare the festival For scenes of beauty, gallantry, and grace; These columns wreaths of living green embrace, While mirth and music fill the echoing hall. Memory, in future years, shall backward gaze On shining moments here, in youth's enchanted days.
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To Charity we open wide the door; Enter, Beloved of Heaven, and be our guest! Teach us to give, and giving, evermore A larger gift-and full libations pour, Each worthy purpose winning purer zest. Here let the feast be spread, the offering given, Whose record Charity herself shall bear to Heaven. :
And last we dedicate to Loyalty, And consecrate the vow with heart and hand.
Over our heads the banner of the Free
Shall guard the legend of our liberty, And watch the sacred honor of our land. On patriot words and patriot deeds look down, Flag of a glorious Past! A glorious Future crown!
Father of all! without whose guardian care The builders toil in vain,-the watchmen wait And count the hours in vain without the gate, ---
Let these fair walls Thy sheltering presence share, All to Thy higher will we dedicate: Building and builders shall return to dust, Our motto and our shield shall be-In God we trust.
The Hon. John E. Godfrey, of Bangor, responding to a call by the President, spoke as follows :
Mr. President and Citizens of Orono :
I am under obligation to your orator for many facts, new to me, that he has presented this evening. And here let me say, that he may be assured that by his effort to-night he will lose none of his well-
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earned reputation for industry, ability, and eloquence. HIe has requested us to take note of any mistakes he may have made in his statements. I beg leave to refer to one or two matters, in regard to which, if there are any mistakes, they are those of his authorities, not his.
In my investigations I have been led to believe that what Capt. Weymouth called "the Bashebe," was a chief on the Penobscot bearing that name. The French, who were more intimate with the savages than the English were, and had far better opportuni- ties for becoming acquainted with their chiefs, and ยท manners, and customs, invariably used it as a name, and not as a title. Champlain, Biard, L'Escarbot, all mention Bessabes, or Betsabes. Biard writes of the "Sagamo of Kadesquit, called Betsabes." L'Escarbot writes of Bessabes, who was killed by the English. That it is among our traditions that Bashaba was the style of an office does not alter the fact that it was not, but merely the name of a chief.1
I can hardly agree with Mr. Williamson that the
1 N. Y. Hist. Mag., 2d, Sec. III., 98, 249.
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island called "Lett," by Penhallow, was Oldtown.2 Nor do I think it was in this neighborhood. My opinion is that it was Orphan Island [Verona], below Bucksport. The hundred Indians, with their fifty canoes, that Livingston and Castine saw, were on their way from Winter Harbor, near Saco, to winter quarters, and had probably stopped there for rest.3 *
I presume the speaker is correct in the orthography of the Indian name of this locality, or Ayres' Island -"Arumsumhungan." I think, however, it was not pronounced as spelled.
2 Hist. Maine, II., 60. Penhallou's Indian Wars, A. D. 1710.
3 N. Y. Hist. Mag., 30 Sec., Vol. II.
* Notwithstanding this opinion of Judge Godfrey, I am inclined to believe that the island of " Lett " was Marsh Island, and that the meeting was at the village on what is now known in this town as Marsh Point. In the first place, I think the travelers would not make so much of a stop as they seem to have made at Lett, at a place so near Castine as Orphan Island. (2.) I think it probable the place of meeting was at the first break in the navigation, which was at Ayres (or Arumsumhungan) falls, for, before the corpora- tion dam was built at Veazie, boats passed easily over the rapids and came to this place. Penhallow says, p. 62, " There were two English prisoners taken a little before at Winter Harbor. Two days after, one of the prisoners made his escape from an island, where he was hunting with his master, carrying with him both his canoe and gun, and left him behind; which so exasperated his master, that when he got from thence, and came where Maj. Liv- ingston was, he took him by the throat, with his hatchet in his hand, ready to give him the fatal stroke, had not St. Casteen in-
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Rev. Daniel Little, of Wells [that part now Ken- nebunk], was upon the Penobscot as a missionary in 1770, 1774, and 1786, and as an agent for Massachu- setts to complete a treaty with the Indians, in 1788. In 1786 he was at Orono; he kept a journal. With your permission I will read an extract, from which you will learn how the name of the place was pro- nounced, and the object of his visit.
"[1786, Aug.] 30. Set off from Capt. Brewer's [at Segeundedunk, Brewer Village] to a village at Mr. Colburn's. Dined at Mr. Noble's [Rev'd, at Con- deskge]. Conversed with 4 Canadian Indians at Mr. Treat's [below Penjajawock stream, near Mt. Hope], who waited to have their guns mended. Conversed with a squaw who understood English, who was a Passamaquoddy Indian. Lodged at Mr. Bradley's [Levi, at Treat's Falls].
" 31. Had Mr. Bradley's horse to ride to Mr. Col-
terfered." The island from which the prisoner made his escape was, I suggest, Orson Island or Oldtown Island. (3) There were. within my recollection, the marks of an Indian village near Marsh point. Here were not only the first rapids above Castine at which canoe navigation was interrupted, but here was also a village. The Indians who met them were probably from their principal seat, five miles above, at Oldtown Island.
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burn's, the uppermost settlement [towards the] In- dians. Hired a pilot, Mr. Lovejoy [the first settler on the ' Plains']. The horse 1s., Pilot 2s., 10d. Set off a little after sunrise ; reach'd Mr. Colburn's at 9. On my way fell off my horse, and so bruised my right side as to be unable to stoop forward without pain. Unhappily found in the neighborhood of Mr. Colburn a young trader, Mr. Burley, who had been selling rum to the Indians as they returned from the Treaty, and rendered them unfit for conversation, which de- lays what the Indians reside here for. 7 families in this neighborhood, very poor and ignorant. I in- vited their children to attend the school to-morrow- prepare for an admission of the Indian children if they should send them." Now we have the name.
"Sept. 1. At a place called Rumfeekhungus. Formed a number of children this day into a school. Called in some Indians that passed by to see manners of the school and the mode of reading and writing, who seemed to be pleased."
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