History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 42

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

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MISCELLANEOUS.

Under the head of " Quarters," the adjutant-general, in his report for 1861, remarks,-

# For list of vessels taken by him see Adjutant-General's Report, 1863, pages 21, 22.

MISCELLANEOUS.

"The municipal authorities of Portland, from the commencement of military operations, promptly offered the State the use of so much of their new and splendid city building as was necessary to initiate and carry forward to completion all such organizations as it was deemed advisable to rendezvous at or near that locality. The 1st, 5th, 6th, 10th, and 12th Regiments were thus accommodated with head- quarters for the various staff duties. The Ist Regiment, upon its return to Portland, was there mustered out of service, and the 2d Regiment, Col. Jameson, was quartered there one night on its way to Washing- too. This occupation was unavoidably more injurious to the prem- ises than that of almost any other character ; hence the greater obli- gation of the State to that city for its prompt appreciation of the necessities of the service and its liberal provision for the emergency."

BOUNTIES.

Returns of bounties paid for enlistment of soldiers by the several towns of the county of Cumberland under calls for troops by the President from the outbreak of the Rebellion to Feb. 1, 1864, are as follows :

Baldwin

$10,000.00

Bridgton .

19,880.00

Brunswick

31,400.00

Cape Elizabeth.

31,700.00

Cusco

7,500.00

Cumberland ...

I8,686.83

Falmouth ..

18,232.49

Freeport

22,070.00

Gorbam ..

32,515.00

Gray.

20,095.00

Harpswell

7,750.00

Harrison.

7,977.00

Naples

9,069.00

New Gloucester.

12,500.00

North Yarmouth.

12,380.00

Otisfield.

12,100.00

Portland

184,136.00

Pownal

9,410.00 9,800.00

Scarborough.

17,030.00

Sebago

8,250.00

Staodish

20,690.37

Westbrook (including Decring).

42,000.50

Windham.

28,645.00

Yarmouth

16,905.00

Total for county

$610,912.19

AID TO SOLDIERS' FAMILIES.

The following statement shows the amount furnished by the several towns of Cumberland County for soldiers' fami- lies under the Acts of March 19, 1862, and March 25, 1863, as per records of the exccutive council.

Baldwin

$856.24

Bridgton

2,007.51

Brunswick ..

6,451.42

Cape Elizabeth

2,774.11

Caseo

932.32 920.57

Falmouth

1,028.63

Freeport.

2,080.69

Gorham

3,858.71

Gray

585.96

Harpswell

1,305.89

Harrison

179.65

Naples

1,010.40

New Gloucester

1,620.70

North Yarmouth.

107.47 176.16

Portland

30,339.73

Pownal

439.44

Raymond ..

1,550.77

Scarborough

1,834.55

Sebago ...

217.17

Standish

1,463.16

Westbrook (including Deering)

5,902.75

Windham

2.387.16

Yarmouth

1,930.85

Total for county

$72,294.0I

DRAFT FROM JULY, 1863, TO JANUARY 1, 1864.

This county was included during the draft in the first Congressional district, with headquarters at Portland. The district was divided into sub-distriets corresponding with the towns, and numbered alphabetically.

Raymond ...

Board of Enrollment .- Charles H. Doughty, Provost- Marshal ; Edward S. Morris, Commissioner ; Theodore Jewett, M.D., Surgeon.

There were drafted iu this county 1883 men ; 357 fur- nished substitutes, 83 paid commutation, and 24 entered the service. The balance, 1415, were exempted for disa- bility and other legal causes.

159

Cumberland

Otisfield

CITY OF PORTLAND.

PORTLAND is the chief commercial city of the State of Maine, and the seat of justice of Cumberland County. It is situated upon a neck of land about three miles long and three-fourths of a mile in average width, nearly surrounded by water, having in front of it, in Fore River, the finest harbor on the coast, and in its rear, Back Cove, a body of water also accessible to shipping at high tide. The islands attached to the city comprise an aggregate area of nearly 3000 acres, viz .: Peaks, 750 aeres; Long, 912; Bangs, 266 ; House, 20; Great Diamond (otherwise Hog Island), 468 ; Little Diamond, 80; Crotch, the part appertaining to the city, 114; Hope, the city's portion, 2; Little Chebeague, 80 (the remainder of the island, about 20 aeres, being at- tached to Cumberland) ; Jewels, 221 ; Cow, 28; Ram, 18; Marsh, 14; Crow, Overset, Pumpkin, Knob, and Green Islands might add 20 acres more. The geographical posi- tion of the custom-house in the city, as determined by the United States coast survey in 1874, is latitude 43º 39' 28" north, and longitude 70° 15' 18" west from Greenwich.

Portland was incorporated as a city in 1832, after having passed through two hundred years of eventful experience from the date of its first settlement, having been twice de- stroyed by the Indians and onee burned by the British. It owes its original settlement in 1632 to a contest in regard to the title to land at the mouth of the Spurwink River, between Winter, as the agent of Trelawny, on the one part, and George Cleaves and Richard Tucker on the other. Winter succeeded in the Provincial Court in sustaining the title of Trelawny, and the ejected parties sought refuge upou the Neek, now Portland. This Neck, Cleaves declared, " was known first by the name of Machigonne, being a neck of land which was no man's possession or occupation, and therefore he seized upon it as his own inheritance by virtue of a royal proclamation of our late sovereign lord King James, of blessed memory, by which he freely gave unto every subject of his which should transport himself over into this country, upon his own charge, for himself and for every person he should transport, 150 acres of land." He further declared that he continued the occupation from year to year, under this possession, without interruption or de- mand from any, at the end of which time, being " desirons to enlarge his limits in a lawful way, addressed himself to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the proprietor of this province, and obtained, for a sum of money and other considerations, a warrantable lease of enlargement, bounded as by relation thereunto had, doth, and may appear."

This statement is made in an action which Winter brought against Cleaves in 1640, to recover possession of this traet too, claiming the whole under a grant to Tre- lawny ; in this he failed, and Cleaves was left in full posses- sion. This is the origin of Portland, which was first called

Cleaves' Neck, then Munjoy's Neck, and sometimes Casco and Old Casco, from its position on Casco River and Bay.

The lease referred to bears date January 27th in the twelfth year of the reign of Charles I., whose reign began March 29, 1625, which would make the date Jan. 24, 1637. It is an indenture " between Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of Ashton Phillipes, in the county of Somerset, Knight, of the one party, and George Cleaves, of Caseo, in the province of New Somerset, in New England, in America, Esquire, and Richard Tucker, of Casco, aforesaid, Gent., of the other party." It recites the consideration of £100. The fol- lowing is the description of the premises :

" All that part, purpart, and portion of land in America, parcel of New England in America, hereafter in these presents described, . . . that is to say, that part, etc., of lands beginning at the furthermost point of a neck of land called by the Indians Machigonne, and now and forever henceforth to be called and known by the name of Sto- gummor, and so along the same westerly as it tendeth to the first fall of a little river issuing out of a very small pond, and from thence over land to the falls of Presumsca, being the first falls on the river upon a straight line, containiog, by estimation, from fall to fall, near about an English mile, which, together with the said neck of land that the said George Cleaves and the said Richard Tucker have plant for divers years now expired, is estimated in the whole to be 1500 acres or thoreabouts, as also one island adjacent to the said premises, and now in tho tenor and occupation of the said George Cleaves and Richard Tucker, commonly called and known by the name of Hogg Island."

The term of the lease was two thousand years, by paying the yearly rent of two shillings the hundred for every hun- dred acres. Possession was given June 8, 1637, by Arthur Mack worth, who lived on the point at the mouth of Pre- sumpscot River, which, with the island opposite, are called Mackey's, a corruption of his name.

This lease is the origin of the titles to a large portion of this domain, containing, it is apparent, much more than 1500 aeres, as held at this day. Cleaves, on his return with his lease, brought over his son-in-law, Michael Mitton, with his family, and leased to him 60 acres under authority from Gorges,-Peaks (then ealled Pond) Island, at the mouth of the harbor ; and afterwards, Jan. 1, 1651, con- veyed to him 100 aeres of land at Clark's Point on the Neck, " adjoining his dwelling-house, which he had pos- sessed for ten years." And in 1658 he conveyed to him a further traet, beginning at the point of rocks where Sawyer's wharf' was built, and extending west to his other purchase and across to Back Cove.

Cleaves and Tucker parcelled out their lands to various persons on the Neck, at Back Cove, and on the Presump- scot, under whom it is now, in many cases, held, particu- larly and most prominently the Bramhall title, embracing the hill at the western end of the Neck, which bears his name ; the Brackett title, extending from Bramhall's down

160

EVERTS & PECK. PURIS

THE CITY OF PORTLAND AND HARBOR, MAINE.

SEP FGOIST DEL.

161

CITY OF PORTLAND.

below High Street, and stretching across the town; and the Munjoy title, covering the promontory at the eastern end of the Neck nearly up to India Street. The first of the original deeds is from Cleaves to Hope Allen, dated May 23, 1660, from whom the property came to George Bramhall, who lived and carried on a tannery under the hill, and who was killed there by the Indians in the second Indian war. The original deed from Cleaves of Munjoy Hill is dated September, 1659, and was made to John Phillips, of Boston, whose only daughter, Mary, George Munjoy married about 1652. Munjoy, who came from Boston, was an accomplished man, and for many years an most active and useful citizen, and a magistrate of the town. His family held the property until the resettlement of the town in 1718, when they sold it to some speculators who were then purchasing old titles. The Brackett title de- scended from Cleaves, whose only daughter, Elizabeth, married Michael Mitton. Mitton's daughter, Anne, married Anthony Brackett, and his daughter, Mary, Thomas Brack- ett, Anthony's brother, whose descendants retained a large portion of the property until after the Revolution, parting with it gradually as the wants of the town pressed upon it. Thomas Brackett was killed near his dwelling-house, in the neighborhood of Clark's Point, in 1676, by the Indians, and Anthony by the same enemy, on his farm at Back Cove (since the Deering farm ) in 1689. Thaddeus Clark, from whom Clark's Point derives its name, came from Ireland, married Elizabeth, another daughter of Michael Mitton, and lived near the Point. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married Capt. Edward Tyng, distinguished in the history of Massachusetts, and his youngest, John Graves. Mitton had but one son, Nathaniel, who was killed by the Indians, unmarried, aud thus the name became ex- tinct. But the blood of the first settlers flows through in- numerable and honored channels scattered far and wide through the country.

George Cleaves erected his house fronting the Bay just east of India Street, and his cornfield stretched westerly to near Clay Cove. In his deed to Phillips we have the fol- lowing description :

" All that tract, parcel, or Neck, in Casco Bay, and now in pos- session of me, the said George ('leaves, on which my dwelling-house standeth, by the metes and bounds herein expressed ; that is to say, to begin at the point of land commonly called Machigunne, and be- ing northeasterly from my said hoose, and so along by the water side from the house southwesterly to the southwest end of my corufield."

George Munjoy lived a little east .* Phillips did not

# The following deposition given by John Alliset in Boston, May 6, 1736, states some interesting facts ou this subject : " John Alliset, aged about eighty years, testifyeth and saith, that he formerly lived in Falmouth, in Caseo Bay, and that he well knew Mr. George Cleaves and Mr. George Munjoy, and Mary his wife, with whom he lived eight years, and that there is a certain ron of water about twenty rods distant from the Fort Point, lying about north from the said Fort Point. That be well remembers that George Cleaves bad a house and lived therein, which was upon the northerly side of said run of water; that he also well remembers that there was a meeting-house built on a point of Mr. Moujoy's land, bearing about northeast or easterly from Mr. Munjoy's house."

The magician's wand has touched all those ohl spots. The "run of water" referred to was carried down to the beach in an aquelluet for the supply of vessels. The Portland Company's Works took the place of the old "meeting-house," which stood on Jordan's Point. 21

come here to reside : he, in connection with Munjoy. car- ried on a large business in lumber, and the latter purchased an extensive tract at Sarcarappa, including the falls there, which was afterwards called the Cooper Claim. Phillips was a merchant in Boston, and deacon of the Old North Church ; he died there in 1683.

The name of Falmouth was given to the town by the commissioners of Massachusetts, in July, 1658, when that province extended her jurisdiction over the western part of Maine. They say " Those places formerly called Spurwink and Casco Bay, from the east side of Spurwink River to the Clapboard Islands, in Casco Bay, shall run back eight miles into the country, and henceforth shall be called by the name of Falmouth." This conventional name could not and did not supersede the familiar Indian names by which particular spots are designated, such as Spurwink, Purpoo- due, Capisie, Saccarappa, and Casco.

Previous to the first Indian war, in 1675. the settlements increased with considerable rapidity ; by 1660 they had extended from Martin's Point on the Presumpscot, which took its name from Richard Martin, its earliest occupant, round Back Cove to Fore River. At Purpuodue were the Phippens, Whites, Stannafords, Penleys, and Wallises; at Spurwink, the Jordans, with their ancestor, Rev. Robert, at their head. who married Winter's only child. On the Neck, which had not so many advantages for agriculture, and which was occupied by large proprietors, these were fewer in numbers. Cleaves occupied the eastern extremity, Milton's family the western, and Tucker the central part.

At the commencement of that war there were over forty families in the whole town, five or six of whom were upon the Neck, viz., Thomas Brackett, Thaddeus Clark, George Munjoy, John Muujoy (his son), George Burroughs (the minister ), Elizabeth Harvey (the daughter of Cleaves), who had married a second husband after the death of Mit- ton, who was also dead, and who died herself in 1682. The Munjoys occupied the eastern end of the Neck, and Brackett and Mrs. Harvey the western end ; a portion of the central part was swampy and covered with bushes and trees, and furrowed with gullies ; on another portion George Burroughs lived. Cleaves at this time was dead; his last appearance was in November, 1666, and he probably died soon after at a very advanced age. In 1662 he states his wife's age to have been eighty-seven. Tucker had moved to Portsmouth, N. II., where his widow, Margaret, was liv- ing in 1681, in which year she made a conveyance to her grandson, Nicholas Hodge, by which it is inferred that her daughter married a Hodge, and that Ann Hodge, of New- bury, the wife first of Phineas Jones and afterwards of Jabez Fox, was a descendant from Richard Tucker; so that his blood is mingled with that of the Foxes, Waites, etc., here, who still cecupy a portion of the land which their ancestor first opened to civilization. Michael Hedge, of Salisbury, mariner, in 1742 conveyed to Phineas Jones a tract of land on the Neck, and therein recited that he was the " only representative said Richard Tucker hath." The descendants of Ann Hodge, through her daughters, Hannah

The " Fort Point" referred to was the point at the foot of India Street. where stool Fort Loyal.

162

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

married to John Waite, Ann married to Richard Codman, and the children of Jabez Fox, are particularly mentioned in another part of this work.

In 1675 the town was flourishing. In the fisheries, in lumber and agriculture its resources were ample and rapidly improving. The.sites most favorable to these pursuits were occupied, and there was every token given of a rising and populous settlement. But in the midst of these bright prospects the Indian war let loose upon the peaceful inhabi- tants the untamed ferocity of the native savages, who over- run and destroyed every vestige of improvement, sacrificing the lives of all who stood in their way, and prostrating by the fire-brand and tomahawk the whole settlement in in- discriminate ruin. In this attack 34 persons were killed and taken captives. Among the killed were Thomas Brackett, John Munjoy, and Isaac Wakeley, upon the Neck. Thomas Brackett's family was carried into captivity, with several others in other parts of the town.

The place remained desolate during the remainder of the war. On the conclusion of peace by a treaty made at Casco, April 12, 1678, the inhabitants began to return to their ruined sites. In November of that year George Bramhall, of Portsmouth, purchased of Edward Allen the hill which bears his name, embracing 400 acres, formed a settlement upon it, and carried on tanning as an occupation. Anthony Brackett returned to his farm in 1679, and others flocked in to occupy the old lots or to receive grants for new ones. In the mean time Massachusetts had secured her title, not only to the jurisdiction, but to the soil, by the purchase of the territory from the heirs of Sir F. Gorges, lying between the Piscataqua and the mouth of the Ken- nebec. The deed bears date March 15, 1678. They es- tablished a goverment over it, at the head of which Thomas Danforth, of Boston, was appointed. Fort Loyal was erected in 1680 at the foot of India Street, and in September of that year Governor Danforth held a court in it, for the regulation of the new settlement and for the arrange- ment of the inhabitants in a compact manner, with a view to their protection from future attacks by the Indians. " The fort was erected and the house-lots ordered on a con- siderable portion of Cleaves' cornfield."* On the west side of Clay Cove eight lots were granted, among which were John, George, and Samuel Ingersoll's, the latter being at the foot of what is now Exchange Street, the former where Willow enters Fore Street, and George's between them, though not occupying the whole distance. These lots are held under those titles at this day. Lots were granted on India, then called Broad, Street, and on the bay east of it. The old titles were respected where claims were interposed and proved. In 1681 a special agreement was entered into between the government and Mrs. Munjoy, whereby her title to Munjoy Hill was forever secured to her and her heirs and assigns. Her husband, Munjoy, died in 1680, and the same year she married Capt. Robert Lawrence, who was killed in the second Indian war. Her third husband was Stephen Cross, of Boston, where she died in 1705, without issue by either of her husbands but Munjoy.t

Blackman's report to Governor Andros, March 27, 16SS.

+ George Munjoy was a son of John Munjoy, of Abbotsham, in the county of Devon, England, born in 1626; was admitted a freeman in

Capt. Lawrence built a stone house on Munjoy Ilill, and houses were erected in the neighborhood of the fort, and upon other parts of the Neck, some of which, as those of Tyng, Clark, and Bramhall, were on the banks of the river above where State Street now is; Bowdoin's was below. The character of the inhabitants in this middle period of Port- land's history was of a superior order. There were among them Peter Bowdoin, or, more properly, Pierre Baudouin, and his son-in-law, Stephen Boutineau, two Freuch IIu- guenots, who fled from France on the repeal of the edict of Nantes. Mr. Bowdoin was a physician of Rochelle, who subsequently established himself in Boston, and was the ancestor of the respectable family there of that name. Philip Barger, Philip Le Bretton, Augustine Jean were probably others of the same persecuted sect who sought refuge in this land. Besides these were George Burroughs (the min- ister), Thaddeus Clark, the Bracketts, Silvanus Davis, John Graves, Henry Harwood, the Ingersolls, Robert Lawrence, and Edward Tyng. Davis was a man of great enterprise and intelligence ; he had a thorough knowledge of this coast, and, under the charter of 1691, was a counselor in Massa- chusetts for Sagadahock. Ile was captured in the second Indian attack on Falmouth in 1690, and being exchanged after the peace, established his residence in Boston, where he died in 1703.

Edward Tyng came here in 1680, and soon after married the daughter of Thaddeus Clark, and granddaughter of George Cleaves, by whom he had four children, viz., Ed- ward, born in 1683; Jonathan, who died young; Mary, who married Rev. John Fox, of Waburn; and Elizabeth, who married a brother of Dr. Franklin. The Foxes now resident here are lineal descendants through their ancestors, Rev. John and Jabez Fox, the first comers here, of George Cleaves, and, as we have before seen, of Richard Tucker, through Anu Hodge ; so that the blood of Cleaves and Tucker is united in the family. Edward Tyng commanded Fort Loyal in 1680-81, and was a counselor in Massachu- setts in 1686. lle had three houses on the Neck, one of which was a very respectable mansion in which he resided, situated on the bank just above State Street. Ile was ap- pointed commodore of the squadron from Massachusetts in the attack on Louisbourg in 1745, and in the " Province" brig, of 24 guns, captured the French 64-gun ship, " Vigi- lante." He died, in Boston, Sept. 8, 1755. Thaddeus Clark was killed by the Indians in an ambuscade, with 13 of his company, in 1690; his widow died in Boston in 1736, aged ninety-two years.

During the ten years interval between the first and second Indian wars, the growth of Falmouth was rapid ; the popu- lation of the town had attained to about 700, of which number about 25 families lived on the Neck ; about 40 families resided at Spurwink and Stroudwater, and the remainder at Back Cove, Capisie, and Presumpseot. These were zealously pursuing their various occupations, sub- duing the forest, bringing the lands under cultivation, and

Massachusetts in 1647. His children were John, Mary, George, Jo- sinh, Peletiah, and Hepzibah. John, the eldest son, born in Boston, April 17, 1653, was killed, as before stated, in 1676, leaving a widow and one daughter, Huldah. George was born in Boston, April 4, 165S.

163

CITY OF PORTLAND.

scouring the bay in pursuit of fish, when they were sud- denly aroused by distant rumors of renewed Indian aggres- sions. In August, 1688, the enemy began to commit depredations upon the cattle on the eastern plantations, and threatened the lives of the planters. The first blood of the war was spilt at North Yarmouth in September, by a party of 78 Indians making an attack upon the company of Capt. Gendall, while engaged in the construction of stockades at that place. Government made vigorous pre- parations for defense, and the immediate destruction of Falmouth was averted by the timely arrival of Major Ben- jamin Church, of Plymouth Colony, almost simultaneously with the appearance of a large body of French and Indians. After an engagement which lasted about six hours, on the point west of where Deering's bridge now stands, the enemy retreated, and did not again renew active hostilities till early the next spring. In May a large force of French and Indians, who had previously destroyed several settlements to the westward, made their appearance in Casco Bay, and Robert Grearson, one of the inhabitants, was taken prisoner by them. Capt. Silvanus Davis was in command at Fort Loyal, and gave strict orders that the inhabitants should keep close within their garrisons, and that constant watch should be kept to prevent surprise.

A neglect of this wise precaution precipitated the destruc- tion of the town. Lieut. Clark and 30 men, being desir- ous to make some discoveries in regard to the enemy, proceeded to the top of Munjoy Hill, which was then cov- ered with woods, and a lane, with a fence on each side of it, ran to Lawrence's block-house. Behind this fence the enemy lay concealed, and the suspicion of their presence was first aroused by the conduct of the cattle, which stood staring towards the fence as if alarmed. Lieut. Clark and his men decided that the best way to get rid of the diffi- culty was to face it, and so they advanced to discover the enemy and put them to rout. They soon fell victims to their temerity, for the enemy, who had been eovertly watch- ing their movements, poured upon the assaulting party a deadly fire, which killed Lieut. Clark and 13 of his men, and caused the remainder to beat a hasty retreat towards the garrison. This was besieged and bravely defended till night, under cover of which the besieged party abandoned it and took refuge in Fort Loyal. The next morning, May 16th, the enemy burnt the houses and laid siege to the fort with all their force. The fort was situated on a rocky bluff, under which the enemy worked out of reach of the guns, carrying on the siege with unremitting activity for five days and four nights, when at last the garrison and inhabitants, worn out and exhausted by continued watching and de- fense, were obliged to surrender, and capitulated on the 20th of May. Capt. Silvauus Davis, who was taken pris- oner and carried to Quebce, gave the government an account of the attack and surrender, from which we take the fol- lowing particulars :

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 42

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780