USA > Maine > Knox County > Camden > History of Camden and Rockport, Maine > Part 2
USA > Maine > Knox County > Rockport > History of Camden and Rockport, Maine > Part 2
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1. See Locke's Sketches of the History of Camden, p. 243.
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HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
top of Mt. Hosmer, whose height the coast surveyors placed at 1230 feet. In Rockport and extending into the towns of Warren, Union and Hope, is Mt. Pleasant. From the sides of these mountains, vast quantities of timber and wood, both hard and soft, have been taken during the past century and a quarter, but much growth still remains. The summits of these eminences command a magnificent view of the bay with its myriad islands, and Mt. Desert heights, to the east, and the beau- tiful lake and mountain region to the west, with the shadowy tops of the White Mountains of New Hampshire on the distant horizon ; while far to the south the sail dotted Atlantic shimmers and darkens by turn, until it is lost "over the edge of the world." Other mountains of the range extend back through the towns of Hope, Appleton and Searsmont and border the shore of the bay in Lin- colnville and Northport; and these great billows of earth and igneus rock, thrown up by mighty convulsions in past geologic ages and grooved, ground and polished by the drift of the glacial period, make up a greater portion of the surface of Knox County as well as of the bordering towns of Waldo County. One well- known result of the glacial drift is seen in "Balance Rock" on Fernald's Neck, a granite boulder, brought there and deposited on end by the passing glacier. Through all the ages since, it has stood there, always apparently toppling, but never falling.
The lakes and ponds within this territory are numerous and beautiful. Lying in the valleys between the hills and at the base of almost every mountain, they reflect from their limpid depths the cliffs and forests, and add much to the charm of the scenery. Lake Megunticook, (in the old days known as "Canaan Pond," as the town of Lincolnville was then called "Canaan," ) is by far the largest and most picturesque of the Camden lakes. It lies back of Mt. Megunticook in a deep valley with the "Turnpike Cliff" rising directly from its waters. Fernald's Neck divides it into two sections, one of which extends a long distance into the town of Lincolnville. Its surface covers about 500 acres, and it is the
11
LOCATION AND NATURAL FEATURES
source of the excellent water power which drives the many mills and factories of Camden village, a power that seldom fails, even in the dryest seasons. Lake Hosmer, located in Camden on the north side of Mt. Hosmer, is a beautiful sheet of water of about 65 acres, while at the southern base of the same mountain, in Rockport, is the marvelously pure Mirror Lake 1 which has an area of 150 acres and from which the water supply of Camden and Rockport, as well as the most of that of Rockland and Thomaston, is drawn. On the line of the two towns and between Camden and Rockport villages, is Lily Pond 2 covering 65 acres and noted for the thousands of pond lilies that bloom upon its surface every year. The remaining lakes in Rockport are, Grassy Pond on theHope line, a large pond of 200 acres, situated at the base of Mt. Pleasant; Rocky Pond, 20 acres ; Mace's Pond, 60 acres ; and Lake Chickawaukie, a beautiful sheet of water of 210 acres, in the southern part of Rockport, and extending into Rockland.
Megunticook River, the outlet of Lake Megunticook, is the principal river. It is some three or four miles in length, and flows into Camden harbor. In its fall of 150 feet from the lake to the bay it has, at least, ten good mill privileges, which are the source of a great part of the wealth of the town. The other streams are, Goose River, which takes its source from Lake Hosmer and flows into Rockport harbor but furnishes no water power of any conse- quence, and Oyster River, which rises in Mirror Lake and flows into the St. Georges River in Warren.
The original town had a shore frontage of some twelve miles, the general course of which is a little east of north, running from the Rockland line to the Lincolnville line. Along this shore are the inden- tations formed by three harbors, and from it extend three capes or points. The harbors are Glen Cove (formerly known as "Clam
1. The original name of Mirror Lake was Oyster River Pond.
2. In the early days Lily Pond was called "Neck Pond," being situated on " Beauchamp Neck."
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HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
Cove" ) and Rockport harbors in Rockport, and Camden harbor. Each harbor has a sheltering isle at its entrance ; Ram Island at the entrance of Glen Cove harbor, Indian Island at the entrance of Rockport Harbor, and Negro Island 1 at the entrance of Camden harbor. The three points jutting into the sea are, Jameson's Point, lying between Rockland harbor and Glen Cove, the northern portion of which, next to Glen Cove, is called Brewster's Point ; Beauchamp Point on the northern side of Rockport harbor, and Sherman's Point on the northern side of Camden harbor. Both Camden and Rockport harbors are sheltered and deep and capable of accommodating many large vessels. That the waters of the bay once extended much farther into the land is shown from the quick- sands deposited to great depths in certain portions of Camden village, notably near where the Camden Village Corporation Block or "Opera House," stands, and also in the vicinity of the new High School Building, from which are thrown out, when excavations are made, many remnants of shell fish; and when the outlet of Lake Megunticook was being deepened by blasting several years ago, the shells of prehistoric bivalves were found some distance below the surface of the rock. Along the shore the average height of the tide is about 9.8 feet.
In the early days of the town's history its hills and valleys were covered with a lofty growth of oak, maple, birch, pine, hemlock, fir, spruce, and all the other varieties of vegetable life, large and small, that usually make up a Maine forest, but the old primeval forest long ago disappeared. There are still remain- ing, however, quite extensive wood lots of a smaller . growth. These forests were once inhabited by the red deer, moose, wolf, lynx, black bear and all the smaller animals now to be found amid the wilds of northern Maine, but, with few exceptions, they have long since disappeared. The wolf, bear and moose are now
1. The government has placed a lighthouse on both Indian and Negro Islands, the one on the former being a fixed red light of the fourth order, and the one on the latter a fixed white light of the fourth order.
·
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LOCATION AND NATURAL FEATURES
never seen in this section, but deer are occasionally found here, and at one time a few years ago they became quite numerous for a short time.
Fish abound in our bay and inlets. Smelts, cunners, salmon and other fish are found near the shores, while the bay is frequently visited by large schools of mackerel. The bay and adjacent ocean also furnish large quantities of cod, hake, haddock and other varieties of large sea fish. The lakes originally abounded in white perch and pickerel, and the streams in brook trout, and many of these species are still caught, but the large lakes in this region, notably Lake Megunticook, have been stocked with black bass, lake trout, square-tail trout and land-locked salmon, which are now getting to be abundant.
Camden and Rockport cannot, strictly speaking, be denom- inated "farming" towns. On many of the mountains and lesser elevations the soil is rocky, sterile and unproductive. There are, however, many good farms, there being fine arable land on many of the hills and slopes, and rich alluvial meadows in the valleys.
The most extensive and valuable mineral to be found in the two towns is lime-stone, vast deposits of which are found cropping out here and there and extending far below the surface, in differ- ent parts of Knox county and the southern part of Waldo county. What has for many years been known as the Camden lime, is of as good quality as any in the state, and the "Jacobs lime" has always been famous in the market. This latter is taken from the quarries lying between Camden and Rockport villages, although the most of the deposit is within the limits of the town of Rock- port. There is also a large and rich deposit of this calcareous rock, and extensive quarries worked, near Simonton's Corner, in the interior of the town of Rockport.
The climate of Camden and vicinity is, of course, much the same as prevails throughout other parts of New England, which is, all things considered, the best in the world. Situated as it is on the coast, together with other conditions that obtain in this
14
HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
section, Camden's climate is more equable than is found in the interior or farther to the south. The intense heat of summer and cold of winter which prevail in the interior of the New Eng- land states, are both here tempered by the ocean. Seldom does the winter temperature in the coldest weather remain long under 10º Fahrenheit below zero, and the warmest mid-summer day is almost invariably succeeded by a cool and salubrious night. Owing to some peculiar conditions obtaining in this part of the Penobscot Bay region, much less snow falls here · than in other sections of the state, even on the coast. Often when big snow- storms have blockaded all other parts of the state, the storm has been rain and sleet along the Knox county coast, and we have had winters that have furnished less than a week of "good sledding" for the entire season. The summer fogs that prevail along the coast of Maine east of Penobscot Bay, as a rule, trouble Camden and vicinity very little. It is often the case that the people of Camden, standing in the bright sunshine on the western shore of Penobscot Bay, look day after day at the dark bank of fog, lying over by the islands, that enshrouds the whole coast to the east. The conditions here enumerated make the climate of the ordinary Camden summer as nearly perfect as can be found anywhere upon the globe.
15
THE ABORIGINALS
CHAPTER III.
THE ABORIGINALS.
The men who owned and inhabited the State of Maine prior to its settlement by the whites, belonged to the great Algonquin family of American Indians, which extended from Canada to the latitude of South Carolina and from New Brunswick to the Mississippi River, completely surrounding the numerically smaller if intellectually greater Iroquois of the Six Nations of central New York. This great family was composed of a large number of divisions, subdivisions and clans. Those who inhabited Maine were the Abnakis or Abenaques, dwelling west of the Penobscot and the Etechemins occupying the territory extending eastward of that river to New Brunswick. These two races were hostile to each other and had many bloody conflicts.
At the time Capt. Waymouth visited this section the Abnakis were predominant throughout Maine. Their chief tribe was the Wawenocks, the name signifying a "brave people." They dwelt on the west shores of the Penobscot, and throughout the territory stretching westward to the Kennebec. The sachem of the Wa- wenocks was ruler of all the tribes from the St. John's River to the Merrimac and was called "Basheba." His seat was at Pemaquid and he was practically king of the thirty thousand or more souls inhabiting that region.
These natives of Maine were taller than the average white man. The men were of fine physique and many of the women comely of form and face. They were inclined to be of a friendly
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HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
disposition towards their pale-faced visitors and had the English treated them magnanimously, they probably would have had little trouble with them. The French nearly always treated the Indians as brothers, and often intermarried with them, as in the case of Baron Castine who established a trading post on the eastern side of Penobscot Bay at the place now bearing his name, but then called Biguyduce, and shortly afterwards married a daughter of Madockawando, a chief of the Etechemins, and himself became a sagamore of the tribe. The French, therefore, in nearly all their quarrels and wars with the English settlers, could rely upon the Indians to be their friends and allies.
After Waymouth had been anchored a short time in "Pente- cost Harbor" among the St. George islands, the Wawenocks made their appearance in three canoes. They landed on an island opposite, kindled a fire and stood around it looking with wondering eyes at the ship. Rosier writes about the incident as follows: "Weffing unto them to come unto us, because we had not seen any of the people yet, they sent out one canoe with three men, one of which, when they came near us, spoke in his language very loud and very boldly." They waved towards the sea with their paddles as if demanding that the strangers sail away and not intrude upon them longer. By showing them knives, combs, glasses, etc., the sailors finally coaxed them alongside and presented to them bracelets, rings, pipes, and pea- cock feathers which they stuck in their hair. They then went away and were succeeded by another canoe containing four others. Rosier describes the people as, "well countenanced, proportion- able, with bodies painted black, their faces, some with red, some with black, and some with blue; clothed with beaver and deer skin mantles, fastened at their shoulders and hanging to their knees ; some with sleeves, and some with buskins of leather sewed ; they seemed all very civil and merry; and we found them a people of exceeding good invention, quick understanding, and ready capacity." The next day they again visited the ship and were
17
THE ABORIGINALS
enticed on board and below and were given of the ship's provis- ions to eat. Afterwards other natives visited the ship, and five of them whose names are said to have been Tahanado, Amoret, Skicowares, Maneddo and Saffacomoit 1 were seized and held as prisoners aboard the Archangel. The redmen then tried to inveigle one of the sailors ashore to spend the night, probably for the purpose of holding him as a hostage for the release of their kidnapped kinsmen, but without success. The basheba also sent an embassador, wearing a peculiar kind of coronet made of stiff hair, colored red, desiring that they would bring the ship up to his house, but Waymouth prudently declined the invitation. When, a few days later, Waymouth sailed for Europe, he took the five captured redskins with him, three of whom lived three years with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and the most of whom finally returned to Maine with different expeditions, and, from the knowledge of the English language which they had acquired, were employed as interpreters between the English and the natives.
Nine years later Capt. John Smith sailed into Penobscot Bay. In his book afterwards published, he speaks of finding an Indián settlement at Camden, called Mecaddacut. He also speaks of the Wawenocks as follows: "The most northern part I was at was the bay of Penobscot, which is east and west, north and south, more than ten leagues ; but such were my occasions I was constrained to be satisfied with them. I found in the bay that the river ran far up into the Land, and was well inhabited with many people, but they were from their habitations, either fishing among the isles, or hunting the lakes and woods for deer and beavers. On the east side of the bay are the Tarratines, their mortal enemies, where inhabit the French, as they say, that live with the people as one nation or family, and to the northwest of Pentagoet (Penobscot Bay) is Mecaddacut, at the foot of a high mountain, a kind of fortresse against the Tarratines, adjoin-
1. See Eaton's History of Thomaston, Rockland and South Thomaston, Vol. I, page 20. Other authorities spell some of these names differently.
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HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
ing to the high mountains of Penobscot, against whose feet doth beat the sea. But over all the Lands, Isles, or other impedi- ments, you may well see them sixteen or eighteen leagues from their situation. Segocket is next ; then Muscongus, Pemaquid," etc. The next year after Smith's visit (1615) the Etechemins, long weary of Wawenock rule, revolted, and a sanguinary con- flict ensued in which all the Maine Indians engaged. The mighty Wawenocks led the western tribes, while the brave Tarra- tines or Penobscots, under their sagamore, Nultonanit, headed the eastern tribes. The war was to the knife and lasted two years. Scores of braves fell on both sides and the Wawenocks were near- ly exterminated by the war, which the victorious Tarratines closed by killing the basheba and freeing themselves from Abnaki con- trol, thus ending the existence of the powerful native despotism, that was so zealous of its prerogatives that it insisted that all vis- itors to this territory should show their respect for the great basheba. This was illustrated when Capt. Popham's colony settled on the Kennebec in 1607, and began the erection of their dwellings. A deputation from the Wawenocks came down from the eastward, to visit the new plantation, stating that their king, the basheba, expected all strangers coming into his dominion to pay their respects to him at his court. The natural generosity of the natives is also illustrated on this occasion, for when. Popham, in compliance with this demand, sent a deputation to visit the basheba, which was driven back by a storm, the king, learning of this disaster, sent his son with a retinue to visit the president of the colony at Sabino.
This war between the western and eastern tribes was imme- diately followed by a fearful scourge, which swept away whole villages and devastated the country from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. During the following half century the small pox became a frequent pestilence among the Maine Indians and did much to diminish their numbers. During that time, too, they joined at intervals with the Massachusetts tribes in waging war upon those
19
THE ABORIGINALS
"Romans of the Western World," the Iroquois, by whom they were defeated, and on one occasion they were pursued through the forests by the mighty avenging Mohawks to the very eastern confines of the state. All these things proved disastrous to the Maine Indians, and in 1675 their numbers had been reduced to about twelve thousand souls. That year King Philip's war began in Massachusetts and many of the Maine Indians participated with their western brothers in their hatred of the paleface, and from that time for a period of some ninety years, the English colonists were, a greater portion of the time, in a state of actual or semi- warfare with the savages. During the "French and Indian War" when the natives espoused the cause of their friends, the French, Maine was the theatre of bloody strife and savage cruelty, but after the overthrow of the French, the power that had driven them on to prosecute these wars, the sun of the Maine Indians set forever, and the settlers were no longer harassed by fear of the tomahawk and scalping knife. The tribes originally dwelling in the vicinity of Camden and to the westward long ago disappeared from the earth. Of the Etechemins there remain two small tribes, the remnant of the famous Tarratines or "canoe men" at Oldtown and a few Openangoes or "Quoddy" Indians in the eastern part of the state.
Many relics of the Indians are found in the vicinity of Pem- aquid and elsewhere along our coast. Shell deposits, tomahawks, implements of stone and hieroglyphical inscriptions on rocks, mark where once Indian encampments or villages stood. But while occasionally stone arrowheads have been found in this vicinity, there seems to be little evidence of a permanent Indian settlement in Camden, notwithstanding Capt. Smith's account of the Indian village of Mecaddacut at the foot of the Megunticook mountains. This village was very likely a settlement of movable wigwams, occupying temporarily the place where Smith saw them while their owners were engaged for a season in "fishing among the isles or hunting the lakes and woods." But whether or not
20
HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
there were permanent Indian villages amid the pristine beauty of our hills and valleys, it is doubtless true that these hills and val- leys were the scenes of many stirring events before the white man's history here began. Our mountains, which were for the brave Wawenocks a "fortresse against the Tarratines," were doubtless often watch towers from whose summits the patient sentinel with east set face, motionless as though cast in bronze, watched for the approach of the wily enemy, and from which the signal fire flashed by night and the pillar of smoke arose by day, to warn the warriors in the far interior of the coming of the Tarra- tine canoes; and anon from our cliffs reverberated the clash of arms, the awful war-whoop and the savage yell of triumph over fallen foes. And where in days of strife, amid our glades and valleys, the powerful sons of the forest lived and hated, so in days of peace they lived and loved, engaged in their simple, primitive vocations, fishing in the streams, chasing the red deer through bush and bracken, or with mighty strokes paddling their birch canoes over the peaceful waters of our lakes,
" Free as nature first made man,
Ere the base law of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran."
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THE MUSCONGUS GRANT
CHAPTER IV.
THE MUSCONGUS GRANT.
After the voyage of Capt. Waymouth many adventurers flocked to the coast of Maine, some of whom entered . Penobscot Bay. William Strachey wrote a "Historie of Travaile into Vir- ginia," in which is an account of a "colonie sent out to settle within the river Sackadehoc," in the summer of 1607. This is the history of the voyage of the two ships, "Gift of God," com- manded by George Popham, and "Mary and John" by Raleigh Gilbert, and the early settlement made at Phippsburg, known as the "Popham colony." He describes the Camden mountains seen from the vessels, as follows: "There be three high moun- taynes that lie in on the land; the land called Segohquet, neere about the river Penobscot. They stood towards this high land untill twelve of the clock noone." They afterwards sailed to the west and landed at St. George Island where they found the cross set up by Waymouth, and thus, "having sayled to the westward, they brought the high land before spoken of to be north."
Other adventurers followed, both English and French. In 1603 King Henry IV of France granted to Du Monts the territory called by him Acadia, extending from the fortieth to the forty- sixth parallel of north latitude. This claim conflicted with the English claims and difficulties arose between the two peoples that did not fully end until the close of the French and Indian war, a few years prior to the Revolution. The French established posts at Mt. Desert and the mouth of the Penobscot, and the English
22
HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT
alarmed at their encroachments, sent Capt. Samuel Argall from Virginia in 1613 to dislodge them. On his expedition he is sup- posed to have visited the shores of Camden.
: The next year that most romantic and heroic figure of the early history of North America, Capt. John Smith, made his voy- age to our coast and gave the name New England to the territory visited. He landed at Monhegan, and after building seven boats explored the coast with eight of his men, from Penobscot Bay to Cape Cod, and made a map of the same. Two years later he wrote an account of his explorations in which he speaks of Cam- den as quoted in the preceding chapter. He submitted his map of the coast to Prince Charles - afterwards Charles I- and suggested that he give names to the various places to be adopted in place of their Indian names, which the prince graciously con- sented to do, and therefore on Smith's map, instead of the Indian name Mecaddacut, for the place where Camden now is, we find the name Dunbarton. This name does not seem to be men- tioned elsewhere, and later the place took the Indian name of Megunticook. At this time the whole Penobscot Bay region was known as Norumbega.
The next thing that invites our attention in the chronological order of events, is the Muscongus or Lincolnshire Grant, from which all the land titles in this section have. descended. Primarily all Maine land titles are derived from the Crown of England. Sir Edward Coke thus states the law relating to the feudal system of land tenures that obtained in England:
"It is known that, first, there is no land in England, in the hands of any subject, but it is holden of some lord by some kind of service ; secondly, all the lands within this realm were originally derived from the crown, and therefore the king is sovereign lord, or lord paramount, either mediate or immediate, of all and every parcel of land within the realm." 1
When the English subjects came to America to settle they 1. Commentaries upon Littleton, 65 a, published in 1628.
23
THE MUSCONGUS GRANT
brought with them this English law, and the newly discovered lands were governed by the same rule. The practice in the early days of colonization was for the king to grant to large companies or councils, immense territories lying between certain parallels of latitude. These companies would apportion various extensive tracts from the territories covered by their charters, to different adventurers who would, in turn, parcel these tracts out to others.
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