USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > History of Gorham, Me. > Part 7
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For the invasion of Canada, Massachusetts raised a force of sixty- eight hundred men, of whom Maine furnished about six hundred. The expedition against Crown Point and Ticonderoga was under the command of Gen. Abercrombie, and comprised some fifteen thousand men.
From the journal of a captain (Capt. Cobb) in Col. Jedediah Preble's regiment, we take the following :
Falmouth, May 21, 1758. Sailed with three transports and three hundred soldiers, including officers, for the intended expedition against Canada, and got into Winter Harbor about 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
May 23, 1758. Arrived to Kittery at 9 o'clock and went ashore, and waited on Sr Wm Pepperill, and at the Point meeting house the Rev Mr Rogers preached a sermon to officers and soldiers from the first book of Samuel, 17 c., 45, 46, 47 verses, and after sermon we received our commissions and was sworn by Sr Wm Pepperill and Col Wendal.
May 27, 1758. I paid my company off their billeting money and prepared for sailing, and sailed II o'clock at night in company with
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MILITARY MATTERS.
seven transports and received order from our commanding officer, Col Jedediah Preble, if parted by hard weather to rendezvous at Albany.
June 8, 1758. Major-General James Abercrombie left orders that 300 of the Bay forces go to Schonectady, in compliance whereof Col. Preble drafted Capt. Libby, Capt. Cobb, Capt. Bowen with their com- panies to march to the said Schonectady, and gave us orders to furnish our companies with arms as soon as possible, which arms we received the date above.
June 24, 1758. We arrived at Fort Edward 8 o'clock in the morn- ing. Dined with Col Preble. Capt. Libbee's company and mine joined the Regiment.
June 25, 1758. Sunday. In the forenoon we were alarmed by the firing of several small arms in the woods which was the English Light Infantry, whereby our Provincial troops mustered immediately and went out in order to engage the enemy. This afternoon Col Preble marched for Lake George with 500 men, and Col Hoar is to march tomorrow with the remainder of the Regiment.
June 26, 1758. This day Lieut. Col. Hoar marched from Edward to Lake George with my Company and Capt. Libbee's and arrived there at 7 o'clock in the afternoon. Rained considerable. It is 16 miles from Fort Edward to Lake George.
Lake George, Sunday, July 2d, 1758. General for the day to-mor- row, Brig. Gen. Gage. Col. for the day to-morrow, Haldiman ; for the Provincials, Col. Lyman. Field officers for the night, Maj. Browning. For the Provincials, Lieut. Col. Hoar, Brigade Maj. Spittle. The Provincial Regiments to be brigaded as follows, viz :
Right Wing - Col. Williams.
2 6 Col. Ruggles,
B & Col. Bagley.
3 5 Col. Glazer, B &Col. Wolsey.
Col. Lyman,
Left Wing Col. Fitch.
The eldest Colonel commanding each brigade is to make all reports concerning the brigade to the Colonel commanding the Wing.
The Provincial Colonels are to rank as follows :
Ist Col. Lyman.
8th Col. Fitch.
2d Preble.
9th
Johnson.
3d Delancey.
Ioth
Glazer.
4th Ruggles.
11th
Babcock.
5th Bagley,
12th
Williams.
6th Whiting.
13th
Douty.
7th Wooster.
14th
Wolsey.
July 3d, 1758. Took allowance for 5 days for the Regiment and were reviewed by our Major General and Lord Howe. Received powder and balls to complete each man to 36 rounds per man.
July 3d, 1758. Order from Maj. General Abercrombie to set out to-morrow morning to the French Fort called Ticontoroque as soon as day appears.
( Col. Preble,
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
July 4th, 1758. Embarked on board our batteaux and whale-boats 1500 men and pressed down the Lake towards Ticontoroque. Rowed that day about 30 miles and landed.
July 6th, 1758. At I o'clock in the morning embarked, and came at 8 o'clock and landed within 3 miles of the Fort. The French guard ran at our appearance. Major Rogers's Rangers came up with part of the French guard killed 7 of them and lost 2 of our men. In the afternoon engaged the French, took 180 of them prisoners, and killed IIO more. Lord Howe was killed in the battle and about 60 of our men amissing.
July 7th, 1758. We marched from where we camped to the end of the Lake, where it empties into Lake Champlain which is about one mile from the Fort. Brought up three of our brass cannon and hove up a breast-work for our fortification.
July 8th, 1758. Marched on the Army, and about I o'clock in the afternoon the battle began at the French lines and continued a con- stant firing on both sides till sunset, at which time we retreated and retired into our breast-work. Our loss, killed, wounded and missing is. two thousand men. Their number to ours is unknown to us. had two of my company killed on the spot and four wounded.
The journal furthermore states that in this battle the regular troops lost fifteen hundred and twenty-two, and the Provincials, four hundred and twenty-two men.
Disheartened by the loss of Lord Howe, and discouraged by the failure to capture the fort, this expedition ended in this most disas- trous defeat. The effect of the failure was, however, somewhat offset by the success of Gen. Amherst, who on the 26th of July cap- tured Louisburg.
During the year 1759, Ticonderoga and Crown Point were captured by Gen. Amherst, and Niagara also surrendered to our arms. The death blow to the French cause was dealt by Gen. James Wolfe, who on the night of the 12th of September, scaled the heights of Quebec, and defeated the enemy upon the Plains of Abraham. The city itself capitulated on the 17th, and with this victory the power of France on this continent was broken. There was the greatest joy, when, on the 14th of October, the news arrived at Falmouth. For the first time in years people felt that they could leave their garrisons and till their fields without fear of the insinuous and murderous approach of the cruel and blood-thirsty savage. The relief and thanksgiving experienced by our ancestors on this glad occasion can hardly be imagined by us at the present time.
In March, 1763, a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, by the terms of which France surrendered her Canadian possessions to England, and to Spain the territory of Louisiana, and by thus removing herself
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MILITARY MATTERS.
from this continent, banished all fears from our people of any further alarm and depredation from the dreaded French and Indians of Canada.
For some years after the first settlers came into town, the only living things they had to contend with were the wild beasts of the forest, and against these each man could protect himself and family ; but with the uprising of the savages, things assumed a different com- plexion, and the settlers were compelled to band together for mutual protection against the common foe. Massachusetts, about the year 1745, provided ten soldiers and an officer for the safety and protec- tion of the settlers of Gorhamtown. These men were placed under the command of Capt. John Phinney, who was a man of experience and sagacity in matters relating to Indian fighting. How early Gor- hamtown possessed an armed and organized force of its own we have now no means of knowing; but it seems probable that it had its beginning at this time, since it was extremely doubtful how long Massachusetts could allow her soldiers to remain here, and men must be in readiness to take their places.
When the new fort in Pearsonstown (Standish) was built, which was about the year 1755, eight men were assigned to keep it. These men were John Meserve, Clement Meserve, Jr., Wentworth Stuart, Timothy Crocker, Israel Thorn, Joseph Meserve, John Burnell and Elijah Dunham, nearly, if not all, of whom were of Gorham. It is said that these men were under the command of Edmund Phinney. At one time when men were at work on this fort, a guard of six men was employed to protect them. This guard was composed of Daniel Mosher, James Gilkey, Jonathan Ilsley, Thomas Morton, Benjamin Titcomb and Daniel Ilsley.
During this Indian war, Capt. John Phinney had command of the Gorhamtown company. I have in my possession the following order, signed by John Phinney as captain of the company :
"Gorham town Jun the 8: 1757
Mr. John Hardan Sir be Ples to Send me one Bottle of Rhum by Sargent Irish and to Let the Sargent with the Rest of the Company have the Remandar of the treet accordan to your promas and you will oblige yours
John Phinney."
On the back is :
" John Irish Shar Gent Hart William Ser Barnabus Bangs Ser James Gilkey Clark."
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
A few years later Gorhamtown had a company of soldiers belong- ing to Col. Samuel Waldo, Jr.'s, regiment. Of this company John Phinney was captain.
There was a large company of militia in town before the Revolu- tionary war, of which Edmund Phinney, as early as 1772, was captain. On the breaking out of hostilities in 1775 Capt. Hart Williams's Gorham company of militia, and the militia company of Capt. Went- worth Stuart, belonging to Gorham, Standish and Windham, were already organized and equipped, and when the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord reached Falmouth on the morning of April 2 Ist they immediately marched for the scene of action. After reach- ing Wells, however, they were ordered back to protect the seacoast towns. These companies afterwards enlisted in Col. Phinney's 31st Mass.
During the Revolution there were two companies of militia in town, belonging to the 3d Cumberland County regiment, commanded by Col. Reuben Fogg of Scarborough. The officers of these two com- panies were commissioned May 10, 1776, and were as follows :
3d Company.
5th Company.
Samuel Whitmore, Capt.
Alexander McLellan, Capt.
Ebenezer Murch, Ist Lieut. Joshua Crockett, 2d
Joseph Knight, Ist Lieut.
Nathaniel Frost, 2d
The 3d Cumberland County regiment was afterwards commanded by Col. Edmund Phinney, and among the Gorham officers commis- sioned under him July 1, 1781, were Samuel Whitmore, captain, and Joshua Crockett, second lieutenant.
While hostilities were in progress the militia formed a reserve force, composed of more or less well-trained men, from which recruits for the army were drawn as desired.
After the Revolution, public sentiment demanded that "in time of peace we should prepare for war." In accordance, therefore, with this feeling, the law required that all able bodied males, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, should be enrolled in the trainbands, and that they should meet for drill and improvement at least four times a year, in the fall of each year a general muster being held. Regimental musters took place in Gorham, and sometimes a whole Brigade was gathered at the village to spend two or three days in military evolutions. During one of these, a silken standard was presented to the soldiers from the steps of Col. Lothrop Lewis's house by Miss Mary McLellan, who shortly afterwards became the wife of
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MILITARY MATTERS.
Royal Twombly. The colors were received with an appropriate speech by Lieut. Greenlief C. Watson.
These General-muster days were rich old times, for both old and young. Like some other things they have passed by and gone out of fashion. The grounds were staked off, guards posted to protect the military, and keep out the loafers; one side of the field lined with shanties, where the sweetened grog went round and round. Ginger- bread and new cider were plenty. A good dinner might be had of the best of roast or boiled,- coffee, pies, and cakes thrown in,- and all for twenty-five cents ; with people by the acre, where you could find everybody's neighbor, both male and female. You could play the black joke at a cent a throw, win a copper or lose, according to your expertness or luck. And the famous old Wheel of Fortune, ยท which always came out on muster days, must not be forgotten, on which you could stake a cent and win three, if the needle happened to stop on the right number; but the luck usually was to lose the one, and not win the three. It is true there would be occasionally a knock-down or two amongst the boys, to settle some little difference of opinion ; but these things somehow were considered as a part of the programme, and did not spoil the fun, only showed the pluck of the boys. Drunkenness was not common, though you would some- times see a friend lifting his toes to step over his own shadow. This was a peculiarity. Some say the rum of those days was better than that of the present ; perhaps it was. The musters were usually held on what was known as " Broad's Field," and it was there that the last one took place, about 1841. Broad's field was what had been Parson Caleb Jewett's pasture, and a part of it has since been covered with houses.
Oct. 2 Ist, 1789, the town voted that the selectmen should assist in fixing the dividing line between the two militia companies in Gorham. Not many years afterwards the town was again divided, and a third company formed. One of these companies was commanded by Capt. Oliver Hunt, and its roll was as follows :
Muster roll of the " South Company," May 5, 1795.
Oliver Hunt, Captain.
Benjamin Adams, Lieutenant.
Prince Hamblen, Ensign.
Daniel Whitmore,
Sergeant.
Edmund Phinney,
Daniel Watson, 66
Stephen (Whitney?), 66
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
Rank and File.
William Armstrong. Nathaniel Bacon.
Jonathan Gammon.
John Morton.
Edmund Brown.
John Gammon.
William Paine, Jr.
Joseph Brown.
Elisha Gallison.
Benjamin Patrick.
Abiel Briggs.
Nathaniel Gould. William Gammon. Josiah Green.
Nathan Phinney.
Benj. Chamberlain.
Jacob Hamblen.
Thomas Paine, Jr.
Ebenezer Cobb.
Nicholas Harding.
Caleb Prentiss.
Elisha Cobb.
Barnabas Harding.
Samuel Paine.
Eben Cobb, Jr.
John Harding, Jr.
David Patrick.
Samuel Clark.
Jacob Haskell.
Joseph Parker.
Peter Crockett.
Joseph Hanscome.
Amos Rich.
Edmund Cloutman.
Francis Hunt.
Benjamin Roberts.
Nathan Cloutman.
Daniel Hunt.
John Roberts.
Jesse Cloutman.
James Irish.
Abiel Rounds.
John Crocket.
Ephraim Jones.
William Tyng Riggs.
Isaac Chadbourn.
Joseph Jones.
Walter Rose.
Daniel Cresy.
James Lewis.
John Richardson.
Reuben Cobb.
Stephen Lary.
John Butler Ryan.
Prince Davis, Jr.
John Lombard, Jr.
Hezekiah Smith.
William Davis.
Solomon Lombard, Jr. James Sturges.
James Davis.
James Lombard.
Mark Smith.
Jesse Davis.
George Lewis, Jr. James Lamb.'
Josiah Shaw.
Joseph Davis.
Ephraim Lombard.
Jeremiah Tole.
Christopher Dunn.
John McQuillan.
Peter Thacher.
John Dyer, Jr.
John Marriner.
Nathaniel Warren.
William Dyer.
John Merrill.
Edmund Watson.
John Darling.
Simon D. McDonald.
Joseph Weston.
Jonah Dunn.
David McDugle.
Jotham Whitney.
Richard Dresser.
James McIntosh.
Coleman Watson.
Thomas Decker.
William McLellan, Jr. Samuel Warren, Jr.
Samuel Edwards.
Benjamin Mosher.
Joseph Watson.
James Emory.
Ebenezer Murch, Jr.
Samuel Watson.
Enoch Edwards.
Zebulon Murch. John Murch, Jr.
Nathaniel Wescott, Jr.
Ebenezer File.
George Murch.
Joseph Waterhouse.
Jonathan Freeman, Jr. William McLellan, 3d. Joseph Young, 3d.
Benjamin Frost. Reuben Morton.
Solomon Young.
Daniel Fogg.
Moses Murch.
Joseph Phinney.
James Chadbourn.
Nathan Cook Penfield.
William Cobb, Jr.
These soldiers furnished their own guns, but the town provided ammunition. For instance, in June, 1798, the town chose Thomas McLellan, as its committee, to provide one hundred and fifty pounds of powder, two gross of flints, and camp kettles and balls, for the use of the militia in Gorham, and voted to raise one hundred and thirty dollars to pay for the same. The town's stock of ammunition was
Moses Whitney, Jr.
Samuel Frost.
Nathaniel Sturges.
Samuel Davis.
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MILITARY MATTERS.
kept in the little brick powder-house, which stood on the eastern side of the Fort Hill road, nearly opposite the mouth of Pendleton's lane, so called. This building, which will be remembered by many, was placed for the sake of safety some rods back from the road, and on the bare ledge of rock, which there forms the surface of the ground.
During the War of 1812 the militia of Gorham, comprising four companies of Infantry, commanded by Captains Toppan Robie, Barnabas Higgins, Jacob P. Bettis and Robert Mclellan, and a company of Cavalry, commanded by Lieut. Leighton, served in Port- land, under Gen. Irish, for a short time, but saw no fighting.
A volunteer company, called the "Gorham Light Guards," and furnished with arms by the State, was organized about 1856; but interest in it soon abated, and after a short time it gave back its arms to the State, and ceased its existence.
Gorham has furnished to the State, among other militia officers, the following : Gen. James Irish, Col. Lothrop Lewis, Col. Tyng Smith, Major George Lewis, Col. Hugh D. Mclellan, Gen. Edward T. Smith, Col. William B. Harding, Col. Nathaniel Frost, Col. Samuel Whit- more, Col. Colman Harding, Col. Edward Files, Major Eben Files, Jr., Major William Thomes, Major Nathaniel Thomes, and Major William Warren.
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
In the spring of the year 1736, the first tree was cut, and gave way to the woodman's axe, for the purpose of clearing the land for the habitation of the white man in what was called Narragansett No. 7, or Gorhamtown, which town was then covered by a dense and heavy growth of wood and timber, and it is said that its superior could not be found in the State.
Capt. John Phinney moved from Barnstable, Mass., and settled at that part of Falmouth then called Presumpscot. In May, 1736, he, with his son Edmund, paddled his bateau up the Presumpscot into Little River, hauling it around the falls at Ammoncongin and Sacca- rappa, landing at or near Blenham Falls, some fifty rods below the bridge, where Mr. Parkhurst's mill now stands. Here they secreted the boat as best they could, and with their axes and pack of provisions on their backs, made their way through the woods to what is now called Fort Hill, where they arrived late in the afternoon. Their track (so said Mr. James Phinney) was nearly where the road is now made, till they arrived on the southerly slope. Here the lay of the land pleased them, and after looking around and reconnoiter- ing they concluded where to build their camp, which was on the spot then occupied by an old member of the forest, a large basswood tree, which was somewhat decayed and rotten-hearted from age. This tree stood near where the well now is, in the thirty acre lot No. 1, and not many feet from the northerly side of the house owned and occupied by the late Mr. Moses Fogg, on Fort Hill.
The spot having been selected for the camp, Capt. Phinney said to his son Edmund, "We will build our camp here, and you may cut that basswood, and you can say you cut the first tree in town for the purpose of settlement." This was at night; the two camped on the ground till morning, when as had been arranged, Edmund felled the first tree, which was in the month of May, 1736. It is not now known on what day of the month or week this was done, but the two worked, felling the trees on the land lying to the north of Mr. Fogg's house, on the easterly side of the road in the swale up to the rise of
75
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
the hill, on what is now the northwesterly corner of the thirty acre lot No. 1, till Saturday afternoon, when they again took their boat and returned home, there being at that time no road or path through the woods above what is now Congin Falls, on the Presumpscot River.
Thus the father and son progressed till a sufficient piece of the forest was laid low for their purpose, when fire was put to the prostrate trees, and they had the fortune to get, in the language of the time, a good burn, but before all the labor of cutting, burning and clearing was accomplished, it had become late in the season, into the month of June, and the weather was unusually cold for the season. Notwithstanding the prospect, they were not disheartened, the corn was put in, and having no pumpkin seeds, a lot of water- melon seeds, which they found by accident in their baggage, they planted with their corn instead. Seed potatoes were not to be had, and were at that time quite a curiosity and a great rarity. They also planted a part of the clearing with peas. I say planted, for the seed was literally dug in with the hoe, it not being possible to use the plow or harrow among the stumps and logs.
After the crop was put in, and a log house prepared, Capt. Phinney moved his family into Gorhamtown. Here he usually left them during the week days with his son Edmund to look after the family interests while he went to Presumpscot and Stroudwater to get employment in the shipyards, and otherwise, as best he could. When Saturday afternoon came he would take the proceeds of his week's labor on his back, walk to his boat, go up the river to the landing place, then through the woods to his family and home. Many times during that first season, the thought came over him that he should be obliged to abandon his plantation, that no crops could be raised, that it was a cold, barren and inhospitable region, but in July a change came over things, the sun came out warm and vegeta- tion took a rapid stride, and as the prospects brightened, the faces of the hard working and honest men shortened.
The result of their labor proved in autumn equal to their most sanguine expectation and desire. They had a good crop of corn, amply sufficient for bread for the family, and gathered a quantity, about equal to ten cartloads, of watermelons, some of them of extra- ordinary size; few of which they could dispose of conveniently; most of them they fed to their hogs, and with a little corn, they found them to make good pork.
When the time came to harvest the peas, Capt. Phinney told his son he would give him a week's time in which to harvest, thresh and
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HISTORY OF GORHAM.
clean them up, which was agreed to, and Edmund was to have the time he might gain, in which to hunt, for his amusement. But when Saturday night came, and the father returned, the son having worked hard all the week, the peas were not finished, and Edmund had to take the next week to complete his job; and when all was done it was found they had raised ninety bushels of handsome peas, which, with a few vegetables and garden stuff raised about the house, made up the first year's crop ever raised by a white man in the present town of Gorham.
The manner of harvesting in those days was far more laborious than at this time. There was not a cart in town with which to gather the crop ; nor a threshing (modern) machine, or even a barn floor, in which Edmund could thresh his peas. The corn was gathered in baskets and carried to the house on the shoulders. The peas were carried together on poles, when a spot was cleared between the stumps and logs and made smooth and hard, then the peas were beaten out with a pole in the most primitive manner. And they were cleaned by having the dust blown from them by the winds of heaven.
Capt. Phinney and his family lived here alone for about two years and a half, but in the winter of 1738-39 their hearts were glad- dened, and the lonesomeness of their wilderness home somewhat relieved by the arrival of two families, who moved in within a short time of each other, the McLellans and the Moshers.
Of late years, it has been a somewhat disputed point as to whether Hugh Mclellan or Daniel Mosher was the second settler in the town, but after a careful investigation of the subject, the weight of the evidence that we have been able to collect, seems to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the claim that the Mclellan family makes that Hugh Mclellan was the second actual settler in the township is correct. The late Gen. James Irish said that he always understood from the old people that the Mclellans came in, next to John Phinney.
Mrs. Elizabeth Mclellan, the wife of Hugh, often conversed with the Rev. Elijah Kellogg, who married her granddaughter, the daugh- ter of Joseph Mclellan and Mary McLellan. Mr. Kellogg wrote down at the time, one statement she made, which the author saw some years since ; Mr. Kellogg showing it to him, and telling him the fact of his writing it down at the time. This statement was, that when she moved into Gorham, there was but one white family in town, and that was John Phinney's. They moved in the latter part of the winter. Her husband came up and cleared out and repaired
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AND FIRST SURVEYS.
a logger's or hunter's camp, which stood on the opposite side of the road from where the brick house now stands. This was in the win- ter of 1738 and '39.
Hugh Mclellan's deed from Shubael Gorham was given Aug. 10, 1739, and says "Mclellan of a place called Gorhamtown," so that they must have been here before that date, or he would not have said so. It has always been a received fact, in the family, that Hugh bought his right of some one in Falmouth (Portland), who was an agent of Gorham, but did not get his deed for some time after he moved on to his land. It is probable that the trade was made with John Gorham, or Mr. Jones, both of whom acted as agents of Shu- bael Gorham in getting in settlers, and that the deed was given when Shubael Gorham came down from Barnstable, as several of his deeds bear the same date.
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