USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Wales > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 3
USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Monmouth > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 3
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*That portion of the Kennebec below Merrymeeting Bay was formerly known as Sagadahoc.
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
our state, to become possessed of a sentiment that will in a measure, palliate the crimes and cruelties of the savage. Read, for instance, of a Weymouth planting the emblem of God's love and mercy upon the shores of a newly discovered territory, only to turn upon the wondering and childlike natives, and seizing some of their number, drag them shrieking to the hold of his ship, there to be placed in irons and carried far from friends who loved as we love, and who lamented as we lament, to be exhibited as curiosities, or sold for money in a foreign slave mart; read of a party of officers and soldiers, supposed to represent not only the economy but the sentiment of the English government, loading a cannon with a double charge, and then inducing a crowd of unsuspecting natives to drag it over the green with ropes for their entertainment and amusement, and as a climax to their merriment, touching a flame to the powder and strewing their innocent victims, mangled, dead, and dying, from the end of the rope to the cannon's mouth ; then wonder that the savages, as we choose to term them, should rise in anger and sup- posed self-protection to mangle and torture the whole nation of "pale-faces."
The long series of Indian wars that marked the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, checked all progress in industrial pursuits, and came near blot- ting from existence the few settlements that had been commenced.
The first of these was inaugurated in the year 1675. and was known as King Philip's War, so called from its great instigator, Pometacom, a noted chieftain of Massachusetts, to whom the General Court gave, in
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
gratification of his request, the English title, King Philip. This war was opened by the Massachusetts Indians against the Plymouth colonists. It soon ex- tended, however, all over New England. Of all the tribes that were engaged in this campaign, the one on which our interest centres, the Anasagunticooks, was the most active. Indeed it was at one time thought that if this particular tribe could be conciliated a treaty of peace could easily be effected with the others. The ravages, of the Anasagunticooks were chiefly directed against the settlers in the vicinity of Brunswick. These settlers, among them, notably, one Thomas Purchase, who kept a trading post, had gained a no- toriety among the savages for the wrongs and abuses they had perpetrated. An early writer speaking of the dealings of these men with the natives, and particular- ly of Purchase, says, "It was their custom first to make them (the Indians), or suffer them to make themselves, drunk with liquors, and then to trade with them, when they may easily be cheated, both in what they bring to trade, and in the liquor itself, being one-half or more nothing but spring water, which made one of the Androscoggin Indians once complain that he had given a hundred pound for water drawn out of Mr. P. his well."* This war lasted three years, and, in that time it was all but impossible for the in- habitants of Maine to raise enough corn (that being their principal product) to sustain life. Indians lurked around every cabin, and, apparently, behind every tree in the forest. No man could step from his door to
*A hundred pounds of Beaver skins is the evident meaning of the ambiguous phrase.
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
draw a pailful of water with any assurance of a safe return, nor could he lie down to sleep at night with anything more than an uncertain hope of having his head covered by a roof or even a scalp, in the morning. These days of terror were followed by a period of peace which lasted just ten years. Then came another war, more terrible than the first, which lasted eleven years. This was known as King William's War, in which the Androscoggin, Kennebec, Saco, and Penobscot Indians were the assailants and the settlers between the Piscataqua and Kennebec rivers the principal suf- ferers. During this outbreak, forts and garrisons were established at several points on the Kennebec, Androscoggin, and Piscataqua rivers, manned by troops from the Massachusetts militia. A treaty of peace was ratified at Mere Point, in Brunswick, Janu- ary 7, 1699, between commissioners from Massachusetts and Sagamores from the several tribes in this vicinity.
Peace lasted about four years, and was followed by Queen Anne's War which continued from 1703 to 1713, and Lovewell's War which commenced in 1722 and terminated in 1726. Quite a period of peace then en- sued, in which the settlements flourished and broadened rapidly. The hopes of permanent peace which the settlers now commenced to entertain were dissipated by troubles that arose between England, Spain, and France in 1739. It was anticipated that the Indians would join in the contest if it should cross to our shores, and all possible means were used to conciliate them; but to no purpose. In 1745, the wave broke over this region, bringing devastation and ruin to all within its sweep. This was known as the Fifth
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
Indian, or Spanish, war. Brunswick, the home of many of the forefathers of Monmouth families, suffered much in these years of bloodshed, partly on account of the ease with which it could be reached from many points, and partly on account of its being the former headquarters of the Anasagunticooks, who were ready to retaliate upon those who had driven them from their homes. Peace was not declared until 1749, and then to continue a period of only five years. Then came the French, or Sixth Indian, war, which was less ter- rible than the preceeding outbreak only because the savages had become so reduced in number that they could do little more than lie in ambush and capture, or shoot, individuals whose daring had carried them too far from the outposts of the garrison-houses, or, at best, antagonize small parties of four or five at a time.
When this war closed, as it did in 1760, the settlers had little to fear from the red men. Their numbers had become so thinned by pestilence, starvation, and the bullet, that to declare war against the English, would have been the suicide of the race. For the first time in many years a sense of security was experienced by the colonists, and industrial pursuits received a grand impulse.
Thus far the settlers had huddled together in little groups in the vicinity of the garrison, never daring to push out beyond the reach of a voice call. But little was harvested or even planted. To exist was the ruling ambiton, to really live and enjoy life was hardly thought of, much less expected. When the dark could broke, disclosing the glorious radiations of peace and security, it was as if a new world had been opened
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
before them. In prospect were hope and expectation, their brightness augmented by contrast with the pall- like cloud that was just disappearing.
Soon the little clearings around the block-houses became broad openings, filled with luxuriant, waving corn, and, ere long, the influx of population made it necessary to push back into the interior and found new settlements.
Thomas Gray, an old hunter and trapper, living in that part of Brunswick known as New Meadows, had, while on a hunting expedition, discovered the chain of lakes that encircles Monmonth. He returned to his neighbors with glowing accounts of the wonderful section, abounding in fine meadow grass, a product of considerable importance in those days, and so excited them that they determined to join him in founding a settlement on a newly discovered territory. In the
summer, or fall, of 1774, Gray, accompanied by Reuben Ham, Joseph Allen, Philip Jenkins, and Jonathan Thompson, all from New Meadows came in to cut and stack a quantity of blue-joint and fell some trees. The following winter, as soon as the streams were frozen, Gray and his son James, a lad of fourteen or fifteen years, drove in the cattle belonging to these men, a herd of about fifteen head. The difficulty of guiding such a herd through the forest can be appreciated by those only who know something of a drover's vexations. It took but a short time to prepare a home. A few trees were felled, cut into proper lengths and rolled up for walls, the top covered with poles and shingled with evergreen boughs, and the first house ever built within the limits of Monmouth was ready for occupants.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
The exact location of this rude shelter is a matter of speculation, but it stood somewhere on the meadow south of D. H. Dearborn's. All their provisions as well as cooking utensils and other necessary articles, were brought on their backs. It was not long before their stock of edibles failed, and Gray was obliged to return to New Meadows for a fresh supply, leaving James to care for the stock. No enviable position was that which this brave lad was now compelled to assume. Fierce wild animals inhabited the woods all around him, bear tracks could be seen almost any time within a few rods of the cabin door, and the shrill yawl of the loupcervier was his nightly lullaby. And never having read a yellow-covered novel, his experience was shorn of all the charm of romance.
It was the intention of the father to return immedi- ately; but day after day passed, and he did not come. Inside of a week, the provisions utterly failed, and James was compelled to resort to his gun as a means of sustaining life. Partridges and the milk from one or two farrow cows comprised his diet. A fortnight
passed, and still his father did not appear. By this time, the dismal hooting of owls and howling of wild animals had become torture, which was by no means alleviated by his anxiety for his father. Shouldering his gun, James started to return to New Meadows, leaving the cattle to look out for their own interests. He had made his way along the line of spotted trees nearly ten miles when, to his great joy, he met his father. The old gentleman had contracted a severe cold on his homeward journey, which ended in a prolonged attack of sickness. The twain returned
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
to their log hut, where they remained the rest of the winter. The following year, Gray, Ham, Allen, Jenkins and Thompson moved in with their families. Gray settled on land now owned by D. H. Dearborn, and Allen, Jenkins, Ham and Thompson on adjacent lots farther south.
Two years passed before their families came to join them. In this short period those hardy pioneers per- formed as much hard labor as the ordinary farmer of today does in a life time. The latter groans over the labor of planting time. What would be his lamenta- tions if he were compelled to cut down an acre or more of old growth timber-some of the trees measuring three and four feet in diameter-cut the logs into suitable lengths for piling, and roll them up and burn them before putting his corn and potatoes into the ground? To be sure, there were compensations. The soil was so rich that the use of fertilizers was unnecessary. And in addition to this the labor of ploughing was dispensed with. A stake, cut to a point at one end, was plunged into the mellow earth, the seed dropped into the hole, a little earth scraped over the top with the toe of the planter's boot, and his ploughing, harrowing, and covering were all completed. The first few years, a large portion of the provisions had to be procured at Brunswick, Topsham, and Bath. Whether the crops failed on account of dry weather, or from what cause, cannot be stated, but it is certain that these men were often obliged to make their way through the tangled forest a distance of twenty-five miles to purchase corn, and then return with it on their backs. It was no uncommon thing for one of
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
them to carry a bushel the whole distance in a day. Wild meat was abundant. Partridges could be shot from the door-way, and bears, moose and deer, cap- tured without difficulty.
When Thomas Gray took up his lot, there was a family of beavers living in the meadow south-east of D. H. Dearborn's. They had a large dam, the remains of which may still be seen. He set a trap for them, but when, after a few days, he returned to carry away his beaver, he found neither game nor trap. After a long and unavailing search, he cut away the dam, letting the water run out, and found his trap on the bottom of the brook, with a stout beaver between its fixed jaws. On the great bog, between Monmouth and Leeds, beaver-dams were then abundant.
The first two or three years after the Brunswick colony was established, bears and moose were killed in large numbers. The last moose killed in this vicinity was discovered by James Gray, the brave boy of whom mention has already been made, over in Sabattis swamp. Gray was out with his dogs after raccoons. The dogs came across the moose's track and gave the signal. The hunter followed with his axe-his only weapon. The deep, soft snow impeded the animal's progress, and he was soon overtaken. The dogs flew at his head, and held his attention while their master came up behind on snow shoes, and with two swift, well dealt blows severed the animal's hamstrings. Thus disabled, he was easily dispatched.
The intrepidity of these pioneers was remarkable. Thomas Gray and Reuben Ham were together one day in the forest near their cabins. Gray was armed with
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
an old flint-lock gun, and Ham, with an axe. They had not proceeded far when they encountered a large bear. Gray immediately brought his flint-lock into position and pulled the trigger, but the gun was having one of its frequent spells of indisposition, and didn't respond to the call. The bear at once turned on the hunter, who, not a whit alarmed, continued to advance, still snapping the old flint-lock vigorously. Bruin rushed on with open jaws and menacing snarl, until he came near enough to strike Gray a sweeping blow with his paw. In this emergency, the old man thrust one of his hands into the animal's mouth, and, notwithstanding the severe mangling it received, crowded it far down into the cavernous throat, and held it there until Ham, coming up behind, plunged his axe into the bear's back, severidg its spinal column and killing it almost instantly. Disengaging his lac- erated hand, and looking at the deep gash in the animal's back, Gray angrily exclaimed, "There now, sir! I say you've spoilt that hide." He thought nothing of his own wounds, although the end of his thumb was bitten off and the whole hand was so badly crushed and wounded that he was obliged to go to New Meadows for surgical aid; and, ever after, the fingers were crooked and stiff, and the hand and wrist partially withered.
At the end of two years, six other families came from New Meadows. They were those of John Welch, Ichabod Baker, Alexander Thompson, Hugh Mulloy, John Austin, and Benjaoni Austin. Welch built his cabin a few rods west of M. L. Getchell's, and took up nearly two hundred acres of wild land having for its
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
northern boundary the rangeway on which Maple Street was subsequently laid out, and extending as far south as the northern limit of the land appropri- ated by Ichabod Baker, who settled on the place lately owned by Ambrose Beale, Esq. Thompson settled on the lot now known as the "Widow Ann Blake place," a few rods north of the Academy; Mulloy, on the farm now owned and occupied by Mr. Bickford, south of Monmouth Centre; John Austin, on the Blossom place, and Benjaoni Austin, on the great bog, between Monmouth and Leeds. Benjaoni Austin was a man nearly sixty years of age. He asserted, with evident pride, that his grandfather was a brother to King Philip, the celebrated chief who figured so conspicu- ously in the Indian Wars of the seventeenth century. King Philip's father was the celebrated Massasoit, King of the Wampanoags or Pockanokets. He was chief of this tribe when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and his name is never to be severed from their history. He had two sons, Wamsutta, afterward named Alexander, who succeeded his father as head of the tribe, and Pometacom, alias King Philip, to whoni fell the honor at the death of Alexander, in 1657.
Granting that Austin's statement was true, the celebrated Wamsutta must have been his grandfather. "But," says one who had seen his swarthy skin and straight coal-black hair, "If Wamsutta was not his grandfather some other Indian certainly was."
Two years later, or about 1781, Peter Hopkins and Capt. James Blossom came in. Hopkins was an Englishman. He came from Boston, but probably stopped in Hallowell, or Augusta, several years before
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
coming to this town. In North's History of Augusta mention is made of one Peter Hopkins, who held no lands or real estate, but who was elected to the offices of selectman, highway surveyor and tythingman in the year 1771. As his name does not appear on the tax lists after 1780, it is probable that he settled here not far from that time. £ He made a clearing on the farm now known as the Johnson place, at North Monmouth, at the head of the road leading from the brick mill to the county road leading from Monmouth to Winthrop. Capt. Blossom came from Barnstable, Cape Cod. He bought out John Austin's claim, and Austin went over to the great bog and made a clearing on the farm now owned by John Plummer. The remains of the stone chimney he built may still be seen, or, at all events, could be seen not many years ago. The deed which Blossom took from Austin was about as large as a man's hand; in which the "aforesaid Austin" bargained, sold and conveyed "unto said Blossom" all right, title and interest "in the estate formerly held by him, excepting the boards on the roof of his house," the walls of which were built of logs. This house did not stand on the site occupied by the present Blossom house; but beyond the upper dam, on the north side of Cochnewagan Pond. The Blossom farm, it will be remembered, embraced all the land held by the heirs of the late Jacob Shorey.
In the course of a few months, several other families moved from New Meadows and joined their old neigh- bors at the settlement. They were the families of James Weeks, Nathan Stanley, Zadoc Bishop, Chris- topher Stevens, Samuel Simmons, William Welch,
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
Samuel Welch, Edward Welch, Oliver Hall, Timothy Wight, and John Fish.
Weeks settled on the J. W. Goding farm, about half way between High street and the residence of Miss Charlotte Harvey. He subsequently sold his claim and moved into the edge of Winthrop. From Winthrop he moved to Lewiston, and afterward exchanged places with Josiah Straw and moved back to Monmouth.
Stanley settled on the place where Melville M. Richardson now lives. He sold out to Joel Chandler, and removed to Winthrop, where many of his descend- ants now reside.
Zadoc Bishop built his cabin near the Moody stream, in North Monmouth, about twenty rods south-east of the south wing of the mill dam. When Gen. Dearborn built his mill at East Monmouth he backed the water up until it covered Bishop's farm, almost to his door- stone. "Hey," said the old man, "they've flowed me out as they would a musquash," and gathering his house-hold effects, he made a bee line for the highest elevation in the town of Leeds, where, like the wise man of old, he built his house on a rock. Whether the statement that the old gentleman made a practice of filing the noses of his sheep, that they might reach the scanty verdure that grew in the close crevices of that rock bound hill had any foundation in fact, the historian of the town must determine. One thing, however, is certain,- he was not driven from his strong-hold by the backing up of a mill stream.
Christopher Stevens settled on the corner lot at the junction of the main road from North Monmouth to the Centre and High Street, a few rods north of the
-
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
residence of B. S. Ellis. It is probable that he re- moved to Wayne, as the name of Christopher Stevens appears on the records of that town a few years later. The exact location of Hall's clearing is not known. The Welch brothers did not remain here long. One of them made a clearing at the head of Cochnewagan pond, near the smelt brook. He had bad luck in getting "a burn" in the spring, and it was as late as the twentieth of June before he got his ground ready for planting. He then procured five or six men and got his corn in as expeditiously as possible. His niece, Nellie Welch, afterward the wife of Benjamin Leuzader, assisted. She dropped and covered eight quarts in one day, surpassing every man in the crew, and receiving four shillings and sixpence for her day's work.
Timothy Wight settled on the Bishop place, opposite Mr. Jesse P. Richardson's, in North Monmouth. A few years later, he exchanged farms with Caleb Fogg, who, in the meantime, had settled at the head of Cochnewagan pond.
Fish settled on the place where Benj. S. Ellis now lives. He was the first tavern-keeper in the settlement, and was not, if the reports that have been handed down the stages of a century may be accredited, a strictly exemplary citizen. His house was a rendez- vous for all the tipplers of the place. He purchased his liquors at Hallowell, and, as his pocket-book never carried the equivalent of more than two or three quarts of the ardent at one time, he must have been a valuable assistant in levelling the highway between the settlement and Kennebec river. To men accustomed to a "wee tip o' the finger," his return from the river
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
was an event of considerable import. Sometimes they would gather at his cabin and await his appearance with jest and legend. But at the first sound of foot- steps on the underbrush outside, song and story would find a terminus without call for cadence or period, and before the weary tapster could poise him- self for a struggle to retain the prize, his dearly-gotten "West India" would be gurgling down the throats of his greedy neighbors-and his own palate not lubricated with the rare potation.
· In selecting lots, these pioneers almost invariably made choice of land in the vicinity of the meadows. When Gray and his companions were cutting grass on the intervales, the summer before they commenced the settlement, each man chose the land on which he afterward built his cabin. Gray, Allen, Ham, Jenkins and Thompson selected the meadow east of Hobart Dearborn's. Austin, Welch, Mulloy, Blossom and Baker afterward settled near the meadow east of the Centre, and Bishop and Hopkins near the lowlands irrigated by the Wilson Stream.
The Austins and James Labree, John Austin's son-in-law, who came through the woods from New Meadows soon after his wife's relatives settled on the great bog, following the line of marks that those who had preceded him had made on the forest trees, and drawing on a hand sled all his worldly possessions, pitched their tents on the low lands near the Leeds line.
History affords but catching glimpses of the life of these hardy settlers. Now we see them hailing their good neighbor Jenkins with congratulations over the
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
birth of a son -the first child born in the settlement; and again bearing similar greetings when, to the wife of Jonathan Thompson, the first female child is born. We see them, too, gathering at one of the little cabins, with bowed heads and silent expressions of sympathy. Death, that unavoidable spoiler of earthly happiness, has found his way through the mazes of the forest and secured his victim. Such an occasion, bearing to each its freightage of tender memories, could not fail to bring together the whole settlement. And we look back through the gloom of a century, and watch them with peculiar interest as they gather on the little plot then sanctified as the home of the dead, but now, alas ! desecrated and put to a common use, to place in its narrow ten- -ement the first form the dark fiend has torn from among them - the child of Thomas Gray. The place where this child was buried was set apart for, and used many years as, a burying ground. In it rest the remains of Thomas Gray and wife, and many cthers of the pioneers ; in number between twenty and thirty. In later years, as settlers began to take up lots farther north, it became necessary to have a cemetery more centrally located; and by consent of the owner, a plot of land belonging to Gen. Dearborn was used for this purpose. This burying ground was in the field on the east side of the road, nearly opposite the farm buildings of Mr. George L. King, below Monmouth Center. Not far from one hundred bodies were buried there. After the cemetery was established at the Center, in 1799, many of these were taken 111 and re-interred in the new ground, but a large number
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
still lie in their first resting place. At Monmouth Neck, on the south side of the road, opposite the school house, several persons were buried. These graves, like those in the other lots, have been ploughed over time and again, and the bodies lying there - fathers and mothers of honored families - are fertilizing the soil and giving vigor to the crops that are marketed in our village. Who among us can say that he has not eaten the flesh of man? The negligence on the part of our citizens that has permitted this desecration is a burning shame - a disgrace that reflects on every generation, from the time of our forefathers to this day.
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