USA > Maine > Oxford County > Bethel > History of Bethel : formerly Sudbury, Canada, Oxford County, Maine, 1768-1890, with a brief sketch of Hanover and family statistics > Part 2
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It was from quite a different quarter of our globe that discoveries in the western hemisphere were made that resulted in peopling it with intelligent and civilized human beings. It was left for a famous Italian under the patronage of the King and Queen of Spain, to solve the great problem of a western hemisphere, and Christopher Columbus discovered the new world, for whose existence against violent opposition and even persecution, in the year of grace, one thousand, four hundred and ninety-two. Five years later the elder Cabot sailed along our coast and described it to the entrance to Chesapeake bay. He was followed by various other voyagers who came in the interest of different nations. This gave rise to a san- guinary contest for the possession of the country, more especially between England and France, which continued with varying suc- cesses for more than a century and a half. The Indians took an important part in the contest and with them it was in part, a struggle for their very existence. The French early established missions among the Indians, and the Jesuits were untiring in their efforts to convert them. This was no difficult task, for the simple
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natives were charmed and awed by the imposing forms and cere- monies of Catholic worship, and a large number of the eastern tribes became converts, and allies of the French. England and France claimed the country by priority of discovery, and no doubt both countries felt that they had just cause for their claims. The French claim was founded first on the discovery of the coast of Maine, by Verrazzano, in fifteen hundred and twenty-four, who named the country New France ; second, on the discovery and occupancy of Canada in fifteen hundred and thirty-five, by Cartier ; third, the grant of Henry IV to DeMonts in sixteen hundred and three ; fourth, the voyage and occupation of the country under DeMonts and Champlain, and others who claimed under the same. charter. The English defended their title on the following grounds : first the discovery of Cabot in fourteen hundred and ninety- seven ; second, the possession of Newfoundland by Gilbert in fifteen hun- dred and fifty-three ; third, the voyages and landings of Gosnold, Pring, Waymouth and others, and fourth the charter of sixteen hundred and six, and the occupation of the country by the Popham Colony in sixteen hundred and seven and subsequently, and by Gorges and others claiming under it. The great question between the two powers, as to the right of possession, turned on the occu- pancy of the country under the charter. And as the French based their claim largely on the settlement under the charter of DeMonts in sixteen hundred and three, so the English claim was based upon the settlement in sixteen hundred and seven, under the Virginia charter of sixteen hundred and six. But as the charter of DeMonts had been revoked in sixteen hundred and seven, and its rights con- veyed by a new charter to Madame DeGuercheville, a strong advantage in the French claim was lost; for the English claimed with great force that the English settlement under the English charter now gave them absolute priority and indisputable right. But the French did not so readily abandon their title. On the con- trary, they pushed their settlements and arms and their missions to the western verge of their claims.
A brief account of some of the early abortive efforts to make settlements along the Maine coast is of interest in this connection. In sixteen hundred and three, King Henry of France granted to one of his noblemen, Sieur de Monts, a territory in the New World known as "Cadie" or "Acadia," described as embraced between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of north latitude. The purpose of
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DeMonts was to found a colony here, and he immediately set about it. He equipped two vessels, and accompanied by several French gentlemen, among whom was Samuel Champlain, a distinguished navigator, sailed from France, April seven, sixteen hundred and four. He made his first headquarters upon a small island which he named St. Croix. It is situated in the St. Croix river, near the present boundary line between Maine and New Brunswick. His colony was finally established at Port Royal, near Annapolis, Nova Scotia. While coasting along through the Gulf of Maine, Cham- plain discovered and named Mount Desert Island and Isle au Haut, giving them the names they still bear. Continuing, he entered the Penobscot which he described, and returning entered Sheepscot Bay, which he ascended as far as the northern extremity of Westport ; he descended the river on the west side of the island, passed close to Hockamock .point, pulled the vessel through the upper Hellgate, and entering the Kennebec river passed on to Merrymeeting Bay. The return was by the true channel of the Sagadahoc, and the fact that his was probably the first vessel that ever plowed the waters of this river, gives importance to the event in this connection. It was a small vessel called a pattache, and had on board some seventeen ·or eighteen men.
The colonization scheme of DeMonts proved a failure, and prior to sixteen hundred and six, his charter had been revoked. It was at this time that Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Sir John Popham, Capt. Raleigh Gilbert and other distinguished Englishmen, began to take active measures for the settlement of the New Worl .. , and two com- panies were chartered, the one called the London Company, to plant colonies in Southern Virginia, and the other organized in Plymouth, England, was called the Plymouth Company and was to colonize North Virginia. This was the second attempt to establish a colony within the present limits of the State of Maine, the first being by DeMonts at St. Croix, as already stated.
In the spring of sixteen hundred and seven, a plan was matured for establishing a colony on the Sagadahoc river. A hundred emigrants besides mariners were engaged for the enterprise, and all necessary supplies, including ordnance stores, were speedily secured. Two vessels were chartered, one commanded by George Popham and the other by Raleigh Gilbert. They sailed from Ply- mouth, England, on the thirty-first of May, sixteen hundred and seven, and steered directly for the coast of Maine, then called
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North Virginia. They first touched at Monhegan Island, July thirty-first, and after exploring the coast and islands, they, on Sun- day, August ninth, landed on an island which they called St. George, where they heard a sermon delivered by Mr. Seymour, their Chaplain. Stage Island, situated on the east side of the mouth of Kennebec river, is supposed to be the ancient St. George. It is related that they intended to make Stage Island the seat of their colony, and that they sunk wells and begun houses, but becoming satisfied that they could not have pure water from their wells, and for other reasons, they decided to make a change. Their vessels were anchored under Seguin Island on the fifteenth. This island was variously spelled "Sutguin," "Sequin" and "Seguin" by the early voyagers. On the same day, one of the ships, "The Gift of God," got safely into the river, and on the following day, the "Mary and John" came in, and both vessels came to anchor. On the seventeenth, in two boats, they sailed up the river-Capt. Popham in his pinnace with thirty persons, and Capt. Gilbert in his long boat with eighteen more. "They found it a gallant river ; many good islands therein, and many branches of other small rivers falling into it." They returned, and on the eighteenth "they all went ashore, and there made choice of a place for a plantation, at the mouth or entry of the river, on the west side, being almost an island, of good bigness, in a province called by the Indians "Sabino," so called of a Sagamore, or chief commander, under the grand bashaba."
There has been some disagreement among historians as to the precise spot where the colony was finally established, but it is described as on the west side of the river, at the mouth or entry, on a peninsula, and what better description of the territory, extending from the bluff, near the sea, to Atkins' Bay, could be given than is given here? There can be no reasonable doubt that the peninsula, upon the easterly side of which stands the United States Fort, is the ancient Sabino, and the seat of the Popham Colony, subse- quently known as the Sagadahoc Colony. Here they erected a commodious house and barn, a church, and quite a number of cheap cabins or huts, some say fifty in all. They also built a defensive work which they called Fort St. George. Here also they constructed a vessel, the first one built in New England, of about thirty tons, which they called the "Virginia." Little if any evidence remains at the mouth of the Kennebec of the existence of Popham's short-
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lived settlement, after the lapse of nearly three centuries, the shift- ing sands having long since buried them from human sight, but the "gallant river" so described, still flows on to the sea, and the ocean waves continue to beat and break upon the sandy beach, as they did on the day when the emigrants landed and planted their colony. in the ancient and picturesque province of Sabino.
When the Popham Colony broke up in sixteen hundred and eight, it has been said the French at once began to settle within their limits, though this is doubtful. The struggle, as already stated, was long and bitter, for both parties were impelled by self interest and pride, and by an assumed consciousness of right.
The Great Charter of New England was granted in sixteen hun- dred and twenty, while the pilgrims were on their passage to this country, and through the influence of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his associates. The corporation was called the "Council of Ply- mouth" in the county of Devon, England, and the charter granted the territory from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of north latitude. The southern limit was in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and the northern the Bay of Chaleur, and the grant extended through the mainland from ocean to ocean. In sixteen hundred and twenty-one, the Council of Plymouth granted to the pilgrims the lands which they occupied, and upon this charter as enlarged in sixteen hundred and thirty, all the legal land titles of the Old Colony are based. In sixteen hundred and twenty-nine, the same Council granted to Wm. Bradford and his associates the territory on Kennebec river long known as the Plymouth Patent and subse- quently as the Kennebec Purchase. Its bounds were somewhat indefinite on account of a lack of knowledge of the country by those who drafted the instrument, but as finally settled in the courts, it embraced the lands on both sides of the river, fifteen miles in width, and extending from Merrymeeting bay to the falls below Norridge- wock. August tenth, sixteen hundred and twenty-two, a patent was granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason, con- veying to them the territory between the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers, to their farthest head and sixty-five miles inland, with all the islands within five leagues of the shore, which the indenture states, "they intend to call the Province of Maine." In March, sixteen hundred and twenty-eight, a patent was granted to John Winthrop and his associates of the Massachusetts Bay, which was confirmed by royal charter the following year. In sixteen hundred
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and twenty-nine, Gorges and Mason divided their territory, Mason taking that portion situated between the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, which he named New Hampshire, and Gorges from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec. The French at this time claimed the Kennebec as the western boundary of Acadia. In their eagerness to settle the country and build up towns and cities in this wilder- ness, the Council of Plymouth was careless and even reckless in making grants of land, often overlaying patents and ignoring boundaries of previous grants, thereby sowing the seeds of contro- versies which yielded an abundant harvest, and were not settled for very many years.
The Great Council of Plymouth having encountered many vexa- tions, in sixteen hundred and thirty-five, agreed to surrender their charter, and determined to divide their territory into eight provinces, two of which were within the present limits of Maine. The region between the, Kennebec and the St. Croix was to be given to Sir William Alexander, Earl of Sterling, and was to be called the county of Canada. The coast from the Kennebec to the Piscataqua and extending sixty miles into the interior, was assigned to Gorges and called New Somersetshire. Efforts were made by Gorges to establish a government in which he partially succeeded, but political dissensions in the old world unsettled everything there and in the new, and the troubles which arose from the grants previously made within this patent, induced him, in sixteen hundred and thirty-nine, to apply for a new charter which was granted by Charles I. It confirmed all the territory within his old boundaries on the coast and extended twice as far into the interior. He called this the Province of Maine.
The terms of the Massachusetts charter established their northern boundary three miles north of the Merrimac river, "and each and every part of it." To this line all had agreed. But when Massa- chusetts found it necessary to justify the seizure of Maine, her citizens conceived a new interpretation of the language describing the bounds. The river makes a right angle about thirty miles from its mouth, and from that point stretches almost due north ; so instead of a line three miles north of the river at its mouth, they took a point three miles north of its head waters, and from that run a line easterly to the sea, which would give them all of New Hamp- shire, and a large part of Maine. In her aggressive movement for the capture of Maine, the government of the Massachusetts Bay
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proceeded cautiously, but with a manifest determination to win. In sixteen hundred and fifty-two, she was at York and Saco. Four years after she had reached Falmouth. The next year an action was brought against Thomas Purchas at Brunswick, but he resisted and won his case in the courts. Then a new line was run to White Head Island in Penobscot bay. There was then an English settle- ment at Pemaquid, which many claim was older than Massachusetts or Plymouth, and the new boundary was made to embrace it. It seemed to have made no difference that the territory east of the Kennebec belonged to the Duke of York. The Duke had purchased it from the Earl of Sterling in sixteen hundred and sixty-three, including all his American possessions, and the next year received a royal charter from his brother Charles II. Massachusetts pre- pared to contest his title by occupation, and in sixteen hundred and seventy-four, set up a court and organized a local government at Pemaquid, naming the territory the county of Devonshire. The Duke contested until he ascended the throne as James II, when the territory was annexed to the Massachusetts Bay government. The eastern limit of Maine was first fixed at the Sagadahoc river, the name by which the Kennebec below Merrymeeting Bay was once called, then at the Penobscot, and finally at the St. Croix, as at the present time. The contest for Acadia as this Eastern territory was once called, as being the door to Canada by way of the St. Law- rence, was long and bloody. Its importance as a vantage ground may be understood in the frequency with which it changed hands. It was in sixteen hundred and thirty-two ceded to the French by the treaty of St. Germains ; in sixteen hundred and fifty-five, it was repossessed by the English by conquest ; in sixteen hundred and sixty-seven, it was again ceded to the French by the treaty of Breda ; in sixteen hundred and ninety, it was reconquered by the English under Sir William Phips, a Maine man ; in sixteen hun- dred and ninety-one, it was united to the Province of the Massachu- setts Bay by the charter of William and Mary ; in sixteen hundred and ninety-six, it was virtually repossessed by the French, and Massachusetts surrendered it back to the Crown of England ; in sixteen hundred and ninety-seven, it reverted to France by the treaty of Ryswick ; in seventeen hundred and thirteen, it was ceded to England by the treaty of Utrecht ; in seventeen hundred and fifty-five, the Acadians, who still maintained allegiance to France, were expelled ; in seventeen hundred and fifty-nine, it was confirmed to England at the capitulation of Louisburg and Quebec.
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But the contest between Massachusetts and the Gorges interest. grew so bitter, and attracted so much attention in England, that commissioners were sent over by the crown to investigate the mat- ter. Arms had already been resorted to, and the courts established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony were protected by troops. The question before the High Court of Chancery, the King in Council in sixteen hundred and seventy-seven, rendered the just and common sense decision that the north line of the Massachusetts Colony was three miles from the north bank of the Merrimac river at its mouth, and the Province of Maine both as to soil and government, was the rightful property of the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. When this decision reached Boston, Massachusetts instructed her agent to. make purchase of the title, and the heir of Gorges sold his interest in the Province of Maine for the paltry sum of twelve hundred and fifty pounds. But Massachusetts did not long enjoy her triumph, for in June, sixteen hundred and eighty-four, the charter of the Massachusetts Bay was declared forfeited by the King, and a copy of the judgment was served a month after. King Charles died, and James succeeded him, and then were renewed those commotions and oppressions, which in this country were connected with the name of Sir Edmund Andros, and the attempt to consolidate and really sub- jugate all the northern colonies ; and which in England resulted in the revolution of sixteen hundred and eighty-eight, the flight of King James and the accession of William and Mary of the House of Orange. At the accession of William and Mary, Massachusetts had every reason to expect to be restored to her ancient rights, but there were now numerous interests to be harmonized ; the sover- eigns, though sympathizing with the Puritans, were unwilling to restore so liberal a charter, and one which had been so freely inter- preted. There had come to be strong shades of difference in religious and political opinions among the colonists, but the late disturbances and common sufferings had the sentiment of a common cause and the need of unity. And so it happened, that in sixteen hundred and ninety-one, these elements, whether harmonious or dis- cordant, Pilgrim, Puritan or Episcopalian, were bound together by a royal charter which consolidated the colonies of Plymouth, the Massachusetts Bay, the District of Maine, Sagadahoc and all of Acadia into one Province and under one title, the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. A few years later the Maritime Provinces were receded to the Crown. Maine was now in fact a part of
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Massachusetts, and the first Governor of the consolidated Provinces was Sir William Phips, a distinguished son of Maine. This rela- tion existed for a hundred and thirty years, till eighteen hundred and twenty, when a separation was made by mutual consent, and Maine became an independent State.
The colony at Saint Saveur was planted by the Jesuits, and destroyed by the English during the season of sixteen hundred and thirteen. Its site is still pointed out at Fernald's Point near the entrance to Somes' sound, and on Mount Desert Island, and the two springs described by Father Biard, one of the founders of the colony, still supply the purest and coldest of water, though they are situated below high water mark, and cannot be seen at flood tide. A French Catholic mission was established on the Kennebec river in the present city of Augusta, in the autumn of sixteen hundred and forty-six. Father Gabriel Druillettes, who established this mission, was a Jesuit. He called it the "Mission of the Assump- tion," and was in charge of it for several years. Like all of his associate Jesuits, he was an ardent worker and wholly sacrificed self to the good of the cause. He came here from Quebec by canoe and carry, a long and perilous journey through a broad and inhospitable wilderness. The black-robed Fathers continued their visits and ministrations at this point for more than a century. Neither danger nor hardship ever appeared to cool the ardor or lessen the zeal of the apostles of the Jesuit school. The puritans from Plymouth had in sixteen hundred and twenty-eight, established a trading house at the same point then known as Cushnoc, with John Winslow in charge, and here in this wilderness Jesuit and Puritan met face to face. Their relations appear to have been very pleasant, for Father Druillettes speaks of being warmly welcomed at the English head- quarters on several occasions. But how different their mission ! The self-sacrificing Jesuit is here to convert the heathen Indians, and lead them along the way to paradise ; the puritan comes to pro- tect the material interests of Plymouth colony, and to trade and traffic with the Indians ; the one is ready to sacrifice everything, even his own life to promote the spiritual welfare of his charge ; the other is here for worldly gain, for the accumulation of perishable riches.
When King Philip's Indian war broke out in sixteen hundred and seventy-five, the coast of Maine was settled from the mouth of the Piscataqua to Penobscot Bay, but during this war the settlements were laid waste and the inhabitants either killed, captured or driven
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away. Desolation reigned everywhere supreme. When the death of Philip brought this war to a close, many of the colonists returned and hoped to retain peaceable possession of their property, but in this they were disappointed. The contest for empire was continued with unabated zeal between France and England. The French held possession of the territory bordering upon the Saint Lawrence, and it was at Quebec, the headquarters of the Jesuits, that the raids upon the settlers of Maine were planned ; planned by the French and executed jointly by the French and Indians. Among the tribes that took part in these destructive raids were the Pequakets, whose headquarters were at Fryeburg, the Anasigunticooks or Androscog- gins, who lived on the great Androscoggin river and the tribe whose headquarters were at Norridgewock. But the power of the Pequakets was broken by Lovewell and his brave compan- ions in seventeen hundred and twenty-five, a few years later the Norridgewocks were completely routed by Captains Har- mon, Moulton and Bane, when the Jesuit Priest, Father Rasle, who had incited the Indians to slaughter the English settlers, was killed, and the Androscoggins fearing a like fate, deserted their ancient hunting grounds and removing to Canada, placed themselves under the protection of the French. Louisburg, the French stronghold in Nova Scotia, was captured by the army under Sir William Pepperell, in seventeen hundred and forty-five, and in seventeen hundred and fifty-nine, the army under the brave General Wolfe, on the Plains of Abraham, near Quebec, totally defeated the French under Mont- calm, captured the stronghold and put an end to French rule in Canada. This desirable achievement was the beginning of a new and prosperous era in the history of Maine. New settlements were commenced in the interior along the banks of the principal rivers, deserted towns were repeopled, and the hum of industry was heard all along the line.
Fryeburg, the first town granted and settled in what is now Oxford county, was settled in seventeen hundred and sixty-two, and Bethel granted in seventeen hundred and sixty-eight, was settled six years later. But in the midst of this general prosperity, the war of the revolution broke out which paralyzed all enterprises and put a stop to all progress for the space of nearly eight years. Many who had just settled in Maine hastened to headquarters and joined the ranks of the patriot army, and many others who were just on the point of coming, postponed it until the close of the contest or
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even more indefinitely. At the close of the struggle, which resulted so gloriously for the colonists, the tide of emigration turned toward the eastward with greater force than ever before. The soldiers had been paid in a depreciating and subsequently worthless currency, and were very poor. Massachusetts offered liberal terms if they would settle upon eastern lands, and they accepted and turned their faces toward the promised land, the new Canaan, in multitudes. Then it was that Gray, New Gloucester, North Yarmouth, Freeport. and Fryeburg, became the rallying points for settlers who were on their way to the interior of Oxford County. Towns rapidly filled up and Bethel was peopled, largely by patriots of the war for inde- pendence. The census of seventeen hundred and ninety showed that the District of Maine had a population of ninety-six thousand, five hundred and forty. A decade later, it had increased to one hundred fifty-one thousand seven hundred and nineteen, and in eighteen hundred and ten, it was two hundred twenty-eight thou- sand six hundred and ninety-four. Then came up the question of separation from Massachusetts, and the subject was agitated from time to time and voted upon, until eighteen hundred and twenty, when it became an accomplished fact. Massachusetts placed no. obstacle in the way, and was rather pleased at the separation than otherwise. The convention to frame a constitution for the new state, convened in Portland, October eleven, eighteen hundred and nine- teen. Dr. John Grover was the member from Bethel. It completed its work and adjourned October twenty-nine to reassemble January fifth following, to ascertain the result. It was found that the whole number of votes thrown in favor of the constitution, was nine thou- sand and fifty, and against its adoption, seven hundred and eighty- six. William King was president of the convention, and was subsequently elected the first Governor of Maine.
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