USA > Maine > Piscataquis County > Historical collections of Piscataquis County, Maine, consisting of papers read at meetings of Piscataquis County Historical Society, also The north eastern boundary controversy and the Aroostook War, V. I > Part 11
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"Here on the banks of the raging Piscataquis, where winter lingers in the lap of spring till it occasions a good deal of talk, there began a career which has been the wonder and admiration of every vigilance committee west of the turbulent Missouri.
"There on that spot, with no inheritance but a predis- position to baldness and a bitter hatred of rum; with no
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personal property but a misfit suspender and a stone- bruise, began a life history which has never ceased to be a warning to people who have sold goods on credit.
"It should teach the youth of our great broad land what glorious possibilities may lie concealed in the rough and tough bosom of the reluctant present. It shows how steady perseverance and a good appetite will always win in the end. It teaches us that wealth is not indis- pensable, and that if we live as we should, draw out of politics at the proper time, and die a few days before the public absolutely demands it, the matter of our birth- place will not be considered.
"Still, my birthplace is all right as a birthplace. It was a good quiet place in which to be born. All the old neighbors said that Shirley was a very quiet place up to the time I was born there, and when I took my parents by the hand and gently led them away in the spring of '53, saying, 'Parents, this is no place for us,' it again became quiet.
"It is the only birthplace that I have, however, and I hope that all the readers of this sketch will feel perfectly free to go there any time and visit it and carry their dinner as I did.
"Extravagant cordiality and overflowing hospitality have always kept my birthplace back."
He died near Asheville, North Carolina, February 22, 1896.
Among his published books are:
Bill Nye and Boomerang, (1881); Forty Liars, (1883); Remarks, (1886); Fun, Wit and Humor, (1889) with James Whitcomb Riley; Comic History of the United States, (1894); Comic History of Eng- land, (1896) and Baled Hay.
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I received the following letter from Honorable Frank Mellen Nye, a member of Congress from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a brother of Bill Nye, in response to a letter requesting information relative to his family history :
Washington, D. C., January 26th, 1909.
Mr. J. F. Sprague, Monson, Maine.
My dear Sir :
Several days ago Mr. Guernsey handed me your letter requesting some further facts concerning my family. I have been exceed- ingly busy, and hardly know now exactly what you want. You seem to know something of my mother and father, and brother, Edgar Wilson Nye, who died in February 1896. My parents moved to Wisconsin when I was two years old. I grew up on a farm, attained a common school education, and attended the academy at River Falls, Wis. ; studied law, and was admitted to practice in the spring of 1878. Practiced law in Wisconsin until 1886. Was prosecuting attorney in Polk County, Wis., and a member of the Wisconsin Legislature in 1884. Removed to Minneapolis in '86, where I have since resided. Have been prosecuting attorney four years in Minneapolis, and continued actively in my profession until 1906 when I was elected to Congress. Was reelected last fall to the 61st Congress. I have one brother living, nine years younger, whose name is Carrol A. Nye, and whose home is Moorehead, Minn. He is also a lawyer, hav-
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ing met with unusual success. He is now on a trip around the world. My father has been dead twenty-two years. Mother is still living, and is now in New York City with an adopted sister of mine. She is in her 82d year. As you say she was a Loring. I shall be glad to answer any further specific questions you may desire to ask.
Sincerely yours,
Frank M. Nye.
Sketches of Some Revolutionary Sol- diers of Piscataquis County
By Edgar Crosby Smith
D URING the period covered by the Revolutionary War the territory which is now Piscataquis County was but a wilderness, visited only by the Indian and an occasional trapper; hence hers could not be the honor of furnishing any of her sturdy sons to her country. However, a number of the veterans of that war were among the early settlers of the county.
In the sketches which follow, will be found chronicled some account of the lives of a number of these pioneers, but at present the writer has been unable to obtain data to any degree of completeness regarding them all.
PHINEAS AMES. SANGERVILLE.
Phineas Ames was the son of Samuel Ames and Sarah (Ball) Ames, and was born in Rutland, Mass., October 26, 1757.
His first service in the Continental Army appears to have been eleven days, commencing August 20, 1777. The battle of Bennington occurred August 16, 1777, and although the result was a complete victory for the Americans, the whole northern country was up in arms. Men poured in from New York and New England. A company was detached from Rutland to march to Ben-
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nington, and Phineas Ames was a member of this com- pany. The captain was David Bent, and he was in Col. Nathan Sparhawk's regiment. As the British were so completely routed it was not deemed necessary to keep a large force at the place, and most of the companies ordered out for this special service were discharged and sent home. Ames returned to Rutland with his company after a service of eleven days.
His second service of which we have any record is that of his enlistment of September 27, 1777. After the battle of Bemis' Heights, September 19, 1777, reserves were hurried on to Saratoga to assist Gen. Gates. Ames enlisted in Capt. John Boynton's company, Col. Sparhawk's regiment, under the command of Major Jonas Wilder, and this regiment was ordered to join the army of the Northern Department. It is probable that he arrived at the seat of war in season to participate in the battle of October 7. Burgoyne surrendered and laid down his arms October 17, 1777, and many of the militia companies were then discharged. Phineas Ames' dis- charge was dated October 18, 1777, the day after Burgoyne's surrender. Service, twenty-nine days.
This is all the recorded service that can be found on the rolls credited to Phineas Ames, but he undoubtedly saw other service as he frequently used to relate his experiences, "while with the army in 'Jarsey'."
About 1780 he removed from Rutland to Hancock, N. H., and in 1785 he married Mehitable Jewett of Hollis, N. H. During the years 1781 and 1782 he was one of the selectmen of Hancock. His two oldest chil- dren, Daniel and Samuel, were born here. In 1796 he moved to Harmony, Me., and was one of the first set- tlers there.
It was in 1801 or 1802 that he first came into Piscata- quis County. He then came across from Harmony and
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cleared an opening in Sangerville on the north side of Marr Pond, near Lane's Corner. In the fall of 1803 he moved in with his family, and became the first settler in Sangerville. His trip here, like all others of those early settlers, was attended with hardship. He came by the way of a spotted line, his wife on horseback, carrying in her arms a babe only a few months old; but they reached their destination in safety, and went to work with a will to make for themselves a comfortable home. The township was then called Amestown.
From 1803 to 1810 were busy years for Mr. Ames; besides clearing his farm and getting a number of acres under cultivation, he built a grist-mill on Black Stream, on the upper falls, and sometime before 1807 he surveyed Col. Sanger's lots in the town. On account of the crude construction of the mill it was not a success, and did not prove to be a source of profit to the owner. About 1810 Mr. Ames exchanged the mill and privilege with Col. Sanger for three lots of land. On one of these he settled, leaving his place on Marr Pond. He lived here but a short time and then exchanged with Edward Magoon and settled near Knowlton's Mills.
Mr. Ames was always prominent in the deliberations of the settlement, plantation and town. He was called King Ames, and his counsel was frequently sought, and generally accepted in affairs of moment. It was he who advised moderation when the Indian scare pervaded the settlements at the declaration of war with Great Britain in 1812. The settlers all along the Piscataquis River were much alarmed, fearing the Indians, incited by the British, would take to the tomahawk and scalping-knife. A mass-meeting was held at Foxcroft in August, 1812, to see what means should be taken for mutual defense. After listening to the remarks of various settlers express- ing their views, who had as many ideas as there were
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speakers, King Ames was called for. He told them that the Indians, if they took any part at all in the hostilities, would undoubtedly attach themselves to some portion of the enemy's army, and that in his opinion little need be feared at present from the red men. His view of the situation was generally accepted and the people retired to their homes with their fears somewhat abated.
Mr. Ames lived at Knowlton's Mills until 1824, when he, with his son Samuel, moved to West Dover and set- tled upon what is now the Dover poor farm. Here he lived for a number of years, but his last days were spent in the family of his daughter Betsey, who married James C. Doore, and lived near South Dover. He died in 1839, at the age of 82, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the South Dover cemetery.
Phineas Ames was a man of many occupations; the records of Hancock, N. H., give him as a carpenter; he was also a farmer, blacksmith, land-surveyor and mill- wright. He reared a family of eight children. The town of Sangerville was known as Amestown until its incorporation in 1815, and it is said that Col. Sanger made Mrs. Ames a present of quite a substantial sum in cash for the privilege of changing the name to Sanger- ville.
ENOCH BROWN. SEBEC.
Enoch Brown was born in the year 1751, but of what place he was a native it is impossible to obtain any information. It may have been Arrowsic, as he was a resident there in 1777, but this is mere conjecture. Of his ancestry, like that of many of our pioneers, time has obliterated the last trace. Interviews with all his living descendants fail to bring to light a thread which it is possible to take up and unravel to any solution.
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The Arrowsic settlement is one of the oldest in Maine, yet but little is preserved regarding its early families, and it has been impossible to glean any information relative to Mr. Brown's family from any early records.
He enlisted in 1777. The best record obtainable of his service in the Continental Army is that over his own signature, made in his application for state bounty in 1835. It is as follows :
"I Enoch Brown of Sebec in the county of Piscata- quis and State of Maine, aged eighty-four years, do, upon oath declare, in order to obtain the benefit of a Resolve of the Legislature of Maine, passed March 17, 1835, entitled a 'Resolve in favor of certain Officers and Soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and the Widows of the Deceased Officers and Soldiers,' that I enlisted in the year 1777 for one year into and joined a Company in Portland, Commanded by Capt. Blaisdell, went to Ticon- deroga in Capt. Johnson's Company and Col. Brewer's regiment. At the close of the year I was discharged at Albany. In the month of December following, I enlisted at Ticonderoga under Lieut. James Lunt, for during the war and joined Capt. Stetson's Company and Col. Alden's regiment, and employed William Wallace to take my place by giving him two hundred dollars, who was accepted in my place, and who fulfilled my time, for dur- ing the war and I was then discharged. I am now upon the U. States pension roll of the Maine agency.
"I do further on oath declare that at the time of my said enlistment, I was an inhabitant of Rousick Island (Arrowsic) in the then district of Maine, and was on the 17th day of March, 1835, have been ever since, and am now an inhabitant of the State of Maine, residing in Sebec aforesaid, where I have resided for several years past. That neither I, nor anyone claiming under me, has ever received a grant of Land, or money in lieu
.
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thereof, from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for my said service, or any other service during the Revo- lutionary War, and that I am justly entitled to the benefit of said resolve.
Witness
his
Joseph Lamson
George P. Logan
Enoch X Brown mark
Dated September 12, 1835."
From the Massachusetts Archives we find Enoch Brown credited to Capt. Samuel Johnson's company, and Col. Wigglesworth's regiment.
After his service in the army he returned to Arrowsic, and he probably lived there until his removal to Sebec. Here we are again at a loss for accurate information ; just when Mr. Brown came to Sebec it is impossible to determine. His son Samuel came there quite early, probably not far from 1820, and took up lot number one, range eight, being the lot just across the road from the old town farm. After the son had made a clearing and built a cabin he brought his parents from Arrowsic to his new home. Samuel at this time was unmarried; he afterwards married Mary Angove, and their first child was born in 1829. This child, Mrs. Sarah Bartlett, is now (1908), living in Dover.
The remainder of his life Mr. Brown lived with his son Samuel, on the homestead that their labors had rescued from the wilderness. The simple, rugged life of the pioneer combined with a strong constitution meted out to him a long span of life; he lived to the age of 93 years, and died December 17, 1844. His ashes rest in the little cemetery just south of his old home, but there is nothing to mark the grave, and its exact location has now been forgotten. He received a pension for his Revolutionary service January 8, 1819.
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Where or when he married, or the maiden name of his wife, are not known. Her Christian name was Phebia. She died March 10, 1843.
EZEKIEL CHASE. SEBEC.
Ezekiel Chase was born in Hallowell, July 9th, 1761, his father being one of the early settlers at "The Hook," as the locality was then known. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was very anxious to enlist, though but a boy of fourteen ; his parents, how- ever, kept him at home, but as the months passed the desire grew stronger, and the first of the year of 1778, hearing that his brothers, Jacob and Jonathan, who then were at Kittery, intended to enlist, he ran away from home and joined them there and with them went on to Roxbury where they enlisted. Ezekiel was enrolled for the town of Milton, Mass., May 18, 1778.
He was in Capt. Cox's company, Col. North's regi- ment, but a part of this regiment was turned over to Major Stephen Badlam and was conducted by Capt. Benjamin Burton of Col. Sherburne's regiment to Brig. Gen. Jonathan Warner at Fishkill, N. Y., agreeable to the order of the General Court of April 20, 1778. Here he was transferred to Gen. Varnum's brigade, and in June marched for Rhode Island, and was in the action at Newport. His regiment went into winter quarters at Bristol and remained there until the British marched on the place in the fall.
Mr. Chase was transferred a number of times to differ- ent commands. He was in Capt. Scott's company, Col. H. Ogden's regiment, also in Capt. Hastings' company, Col. Jackson's regiment. It was in the latter regiment that he served the longest. While in Capt. Scott's company he was under the command of Gen. de La
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Fayette. The winter of 1779-80 his regiment was in winter quarters at Morristown, N. J. The winter of 1780-81 his winter quarters were at West Point. It was here that he reenlisted for "during the war," Janu- ary 7, 1781, and was again attached to Capt. Hastings' company, Col. Jackson's regiment.
On his reenlistment he was granted a furlough of three months, and he visited his parents in Hallowell. At the expiration of his furlough he started to return to his regiment, and was on his way to Philadelphia by water, when he was taken prisoner by the British ship Renown, and was confined in the Jersey Prison Ship in New York harbor. Here Mr. Chase remained for nearly two years and suffered the greatest tortures. While here he had the smallpox and yellow fever. The treatment of the prisoners on board this ship is said to have been most inhuman ; over eleven thousand died from exposure, neglect and disease. As said before Mr. Chase remained here for about two years, or until the close of the war, being released at the declaration of peace. His two brothers with whom he enlisted never reached home, one being killed in battle, and the other dying from disease. After his release he was for some time unable to return home on account of his feeble condition, but finally was taken to Boston in a horse cart.
After his return to Hallowell he married Betsey Goodwin, and moved to and settled in Bingham, then called Caratunk. Here some of his children were born. In the summer of 1802 he came to Sebec and felled an opening on the intervale near the present Atkinson bridge. He returned to Bingham for the winter, but came back in the spring of 1803 and put in a crop, and in September of the latter year he moved in his family and became the first settler in Sebec, and the second in the county.
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He had raised a crop of corn, and stacked quite an amount of meadow-hay during the summer, and when he came with his family he drove in some stock, which was the first on the Piscataquis River. On July 15, 1804, a son was born, Charles Vaughan Chase, the first white child born within the limits of Piscataquis County.
Mr. Chase, during his residence on the Kennebec, had commanded a rifle company, and consequently ever after was known as Captain. He was a great hunter and trapper, and on one trip is said to have taken over four hundred dollars' worth of furs. During his service in the army, and his long confinement on the prison ship he acquired quite a knowledge of medicine, and for many years after his settlement in Sebec his services as a physi- cian were in demand in all the nearby settlements.
In September, 1814, when the British occupied Ban- gor, much anxiety was felt in the up-river districts as to what the outcome would be; fearing that the Indians might be induced to start on the war-path, also that the inhabitants of Bangor might need assistance to repel the invaders. A company was formed of citizens of Dover, Foxcroft and Sebec, and Ezekiel Chase was elected captain. They started on their march for Bangor, but before reaching there they received the humiliating news of the capitulation, and they turned about for home.
Capt. Chase lived for a number of years in his log cabin, built when he first settled in Sebec, and then he built himself a frame house on the shore of the river near the present Atkinson bridge. This house is still standing, and is now occupied by Andrew J. Chase, hav- ing been moved a few rods north from its original loca- tion and somewhat remodeled.
Ezekiel Chase received a pension in 1818 for his army service. He died September 14, 1843, and is buried in the Chase cemetery at Sebec Station. He has numerous descendants living in Piscataquis County.
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EBENEZER DEAN. BLANCHARD.
Ebenezer Dean was born December 5, 1760, or 1762. Probably 1760 is the correct date. The record of births and deaths of the town of Blanchard give the date 1762, but in the list of Revolutionary pen- sioners published in connection with the census returns of 1840, and compiled from information collected by the enumerators, his age is given then 80 years; in his per- sonal application for State bounty, dated September 14, 1836, he there states his age to be 75; and in the notice of his death in the New England Historical and Genea- logical Recorder the date of his birth is given 1760. All these seem to indicate that the date given on the Blanchard records is an error.
Mr. Dean was the fifth in descent from William Dean of Woburn, Mass. The line is as follows: William Dean by his wife Martha Bateman, had John, born 1677; John by his wife Mary Farmer, had Ebenezer, born 1709; Ebenezer by his wife Mary, had Ebenezer, born 1733; Ebenezer by his wife -, had Ebenezer the subject of this sketch, born 1760. Where Mr. Dean was born I am unable to state, but it is quite probable that it was in Woburn, Mass., as this was the home of his ancestors for a number of generations.
He was one of the very early settlers of Canaan, of that part now Skowhegan, and he enlisted into the Revo- lutionary army from that town in 1781. His Revolu- tionary service was in Col. Jackson's regiment of the Massachusetts Line. He enlisted for three years in 1781, and received an honorable discharge at the close of the war.
In an article in The Piscataquis Observer of June 22, 1876, dealing with the early settlement of Blanchard in this county, and signed "Historicus," reference is made
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to Mr. Dean as follows: "E. Dean had been in the Revo- lutionary army, but for good reasons had left hastily, not stopping for an 'honorable discharge,' and never obtaining a pension." That this is incorrect is certain, and it was possibly malicious. He was a pensioner in 1836, on the Maine agency, as is evidenced in his appli- cation for State bounty, and in this application he makes particular mention of his "honorable discharge." The census returns of 1840 list him as a living pensioner, then a resident of Madison. There is no question about his having been a pensioner of many years' standing.
The town of Abbot was settled in 1807 and Ebenezer Dean was among the first settlers, coming there about 1810, possibly before. He lived in Abbot but a few years, five or six, and then moved to Blanchard, and became the first settler of that town, coming there May 5, 1815.
The story of how he became the first settler of Blanchard, winning his choice of land, and his strategy in so doing, is told in Loring's History of Piscataquis County ; another account of it was published in The Piscataquis Observer in 1876, agreeing in the main with Mr. Loring's, from which the following is taken: "Moorstown, (now Abbot) was settled in 1807; and at the time of this event several families were residing there. Among them were A. Moore, Peter Brawn, E. Richards, Eben Dean, and others. * * Brawn had moved to Moorstown from Dover, and was now plan- ning another up-river move. So one afternoon in June, probably in 1810 or '11, he passed his neighbor Dean, and tells him : 'Tomorrow I start for the great intervale, up river, to fall a piece of trees there.' Dean said nothing, but when Brawn had passed out of sight, he and his oldest son, Eben, ground up their axes, packed up provision, shouldered their burdens and started for
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OF PISCATAQUIS COUNTY
the same intervale. Ten miles of rough, unbroken, path- less forest lay before them ; the night was dark. Rocks, ledges and fallen trees obstructed their way. Swamps, marshes and brooks must be crossed, for, as the river was their only guide they must keep near its rippling current. But they were 'stealing a march' to gain preoccupancy, and they quailed at nothing, and by daylight next morn- ing, stood upon those coveted acres. Near the middle of the intervale they unslung their packs, lunched hastily with a keen appetite, and began to level those monarchs of the vale, breaking the stillness of the forest with the echoes of their axes. Brawn, too, started that same morning, axe in hand and pack upon his back, to make an onslaught upon those sturdy maples. Towards noon, as he drew near, those echoes fell upon his ear and he began to fear that someone had stepped in before him; and so it proved, for a half acre of trees was already felled. But when he saw who had supplanted him, loud talk and bad adjectives made the air very blue. Had there not been two of the Deans there probably would have been a pitched battle, as it was words alone vented the volcano and ended the strife. Brawn gave up set- tling in that part and went elsewhere. Dean stuck to the intervale, cut out a road to the settlement below and moved in his family. *
The date of the event as given in this narrative as 1810 or '11, is incorrect; 1813 was the year. Mr. Dean, as stated previously, moved his family into Blanch- ard in 1815. He lived there on his intervale farm for twenty-one years and then sold out his possessions and in June, 1836, moved to Madison, where he resided the rest of his life.
While in Blanchard Mr. Dean was a successful farmer ; he raised the first crops the year he moved in, 1815. That year he had four or five acres of wheat and nine
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acres of corn. In 1817 he put in twenty acres of rye and raised three hundred and fifty bushels.
When the town was incorporated in 1831 he was its first fence-viewer, also was pound-keeper.
He was twice married; to his second wife, Jane, he was united in marriage at about the time he moved into Piscataquis County. The first child born in Blanchard was John Dean, born December 31, 1817, son of Ebenezer and Jane. Who his first wife was is not known, but at least two children were born to this marriage, Ebenezer, Jr., and Daniel, who lived with their father during his residence in this county, and assisted him in clearing his lands in Abbot and Blanchard. Frank Butler now (1909) lives on the farm in Blanchard, taken up by Mr. Dean.
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