USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Wales > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 5
USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Monmouth > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 5
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
honorable body then passed an act to enable and em- power the inhabitants of new plantations within the province, "enjoined and subjected by law," or that might thereafter be enjoined and subjected by law, to pay province and other taxes, to assess, levy and collect the same. The act was introduced by a preamble which read: "Whereas there are sundry new planta- tions in this province, by law enjoined to pay province and county taxes, that are not empowered to choose the proper officers to assess, levy and collect the said taxes.
"Sec. I. Be it enacted, that the freeholders of every such new plantation be and are hereby required and empowered to assemble together on the first Monday of August, at the usual place for holding their public meetings, Ist., to choose a Moderator and Clerk for said meeting, 2d, to choose three Assessors to make a valuation of estates and faculties of persons in such plantations agreeable to law, and to assess such taxes as are, or shall be, set on the inhabitants of such new plantation, as also a Collector, to levy and collect the same; the clerk, assessor and collector to be sworn to the faithtul discharge of their duties.
"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that the inhabi- tants of the above plantations, qualified as by law is required of voters in town affairs, are hereby empowered and enjoined, sometime in the month of March, an- nually, to assemble together, upon due notice given by the collector, or collectors then in office, pursuant to a warrant under the hands of the assessors, or the major part of them, who shall have been last chosen, and shall, then and there choose a clerk, three assessors,
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and one or more collectors to assess and levy such province, county and plantation taxes on said inhabi- tants as they, from time to time, shall be enjoined by law to pay. Said assessors and collector, or collectors, being liable to all such penalties for refusing to be sworn and to serve in said offices, or in case of any default therein, as the assessors of province and county taxes for towns are by law liable, or may be subjected to."
In 1761, the Great and General Court passed anoth- er act in relation to the levy and collection of taxes in plantations not incorporated. Section first provided for the choice of a moderator, clerk, assessors, and collectors. Section second provided that the assessors so chosen and sworn should, thereupon, take a list of all the ratable polls, and a valuation of the estates and "faculties of the inhabitants of the plantation, for a rule by which to make assessments, and by which to judge of the qualification of voters in meetings of the said inhabitants thereafter to be held until other valu- ation should be made."
To be a freeholder, and qualified to vote in town or plantation meetings, every person was obliged by the law of 1742, which was continued in force, to have a ratable estate in the town, plantation, or district, in addition to the poll, amounting to the value of twenty pounds by the following method of estimation, viz: real estate to be placed at as much only as the rents or income thereof would amount to for the space of six ycars, were it rented at a reasonable rate; and personal estate and "faculty" to be estimated according to the rule of valuation prescribed in the acts from time to
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
time framed for apportioning and assessing public taxes.
Provision was made, in the law of 1761, for the first plantation meetings to be held at such time and place as the warrant for calling such meetings specified. Under this law the first meeting of the inhabitants of Bloomingboro' and the following meeting of the voters of Wales Plantation were both legal, and all business transacted at these convocations was conformable to provincial law.
As has been stated, it was supposed that Vassal's decampment abrogated his claims to the lands in Wales Plantation; but, fearing that they might be held ameneable to the other proprietors, the settlers, in attempted self protection, drafted and signed a com- pact, of which the following is a copy:
"Know all men by these Preafants, that we, whose names are hereunto affixt, are jointly and severaly Bound to each other by our words, our Honors, and the Penal Sum of One Hundred Pounds Lawful Money to be paid unto a Committee that shall be chofen by us for that purpose, or to either of them when Demanded, all of us Belonging to the State of Mafsachufetts Bay, in the County of Lincoln and inhabitants of the Deftrict of Wales, to which payment we bind ourselves firmly by these preafants, the same to be convert- ed to the ufe of thofe of us who abide by this Covenant signed with our names. The condition of this Obligation is such, Firstly, that no one of us will offer to give, or give any encouragement of giving. more than three shillings Lawful money pr. acre for the land which we possess. 2dly, that if said Proprietors do refufe the offer, we will refer the Cafe to indifferent men, the said men to be chofe equely by the proprietors, and the body of us. 3dly, that if any one of us the subfcribers should be taken in law the said subfcribers shall stand a suit, and the whole of the said subfcribers shall bear an equell proportionable part of the Coft, according to what land they pofsefs. 4thly, that no one of us will make a purchafe of any
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
land that is in pofsefsion of any other without his or their Confent. 5thly, for their better Securing this agreement made by ns there shall be a Committee Chofen and impowered to profecute the with- in Bond if occafion shall require, and one of said Committee shall be appointed to keep said Bond and Agreement, and he shall give Receipt for the Same to the others of said Committee. (Signed.")
Unfortunately, the date and signatures are missing. They may have been torn off intentionally. This in- timidating document produced little effect upon the land agent for whose perusal it was evidently intended. Instead of three shillings, the maximum price stipu- lated in the bond, two and three dollars were paid for every acre retained by the unfortunate and misinformed settlers. Had they purchased their lots when they first settled on them, three shillings per acre would have been gladly accepted by the proprietors, as it was not supposed that many could be induced to go as far into the eastern wilds to found homes, and the lands were considered all but worthless.
In the very heat of the excitement caused by the prospect of losing their dearly-gotten farms, the settlers were aggravated by events that brought them to the verge of starvation. The Revolutionary War had now closed, and companies of American soldiers were constantly pouring through the settlements on their way from Castine (then known as Biggaduce) and other eastern points, to their homes in New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts. In all, about two thousand passed through the settlement. They straggled along in companies of from fifty to sixty men, ragged, filthy, hungry, and insolent. Many of them stopped at Zadoc Bishop's for refreshments, his being the
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
first house on the line of their march. If they hap- pened along in the afternoon, they usually forced themselves upon his hospitality until the next morn- ing. They were almost famished and cared but little for shelter if their appetites could only be appeased.
Bishop made the best provision he possibly could for them. He cooked large kettles full of hasty pudding and gave them such other food as his scanty larder afforded. Dissatisfied with their fare, the soldiers grumbled and swore. They had money to pay for their meals and nothing was too good for them. It was not long before Bishop's store of provisions became decidedly inadequate to the demands upon it. In this emergency he began to allowance them. His wife had made a few cheeses, and to save them from the omnivorous horde concealed them in a haystack. But the hungry wretches were not long in smelling them out, and less time in overthrowing them. Before the last of the two thousand had disappeared the in- habitants of Wales Plantation were suffering the tor- ments of a famine; and added to this the more excru- tiating torture inflicted by an army of vermin which the filthy stragglers had left as sourenirs. We may rest assured that the statement of one of the afflicted hosts to the effect that "the ground fairly moved." was no exaggeration.
After leaving Bishop's clearing, the soldiers passed by Welch's and Baker's. Baker had a yoke of steers at which some of the soldiers fired, frightening them so thoroughly that the mere pointing of a handspike at them afterward would cause them to plunge into the bushes as though driven by dogs.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
The proclamation of peace was an epoch in the his- tory of Wales Plantation. A new and brighter era was about to open; an era of toil and hardship, it is true, but one bearing the marks of progress and richly freighted with honor to the community.
CHAPTER III.
GEN. HENRY DEARBORN.
NOTWITHSTANDING the moth eaten condition of the adage, "Familiarity breeds contempt," the truth with which it was filled when it was constructed has not wholly sifted out.
To the farmers, who, in later years, have tilled the soil once swept by the battles of Gettysburg and An- tietam, those historic acres have seemed like plots of common earth, except that their cultivation has been less agreeable than that of other fields on account of the bones and skulls that have occasionally risen be- fore the plowshare.
By the commonalty of Boston, the Old South Church is recognized only as "the church that didn't burn in the big fire."
The greatness of men whom the world honors may be unrecognized by those who are familiar with their daily lives, and a name ever living in the memory of the perceptive few may find its oblivion in the minds of those to whom its natural appeals are strongest.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
An ardent admirer of Emerson, visiting Concord for the first time, inquired of the first person she happened to meet. the way to the great philosopher's home. The man whom she had accosted, knew nothing of the object of her search-had never heard of him. "What!" exclaimed the lady, in great surprise, "never heard of Ralph Waldo Emerson? But surely you can direct me to Walden Pond?" "Waldin Pand? Och! fath! an ef its auld Emmysin ve mane, he lives beyant the hill, yander."
So the writer, on pointing at an ancient house that. fort-like, guards the junction of two well-traveled country roads about one mile south of Monmouth Centre, with the remark, "General Henry Dearborn once lived in that house," was not greatly surprised to receive from the native he had addressed the replica- tion, "Who was General Dearborn?"
In the rooms of the Chicago Historical Society, hangs a well-executed copy of one of Gilbert Stuart's masterpieces. It represents a man a little past the prime of life, of noble carriage, firm and dignified in expression, dressed in the full regalia of an American Major-General. Accompanying this portrait is a tab- let, on which is inscribed :
TO THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The undersigned herewith present to your Society a copy of Gilbert Stuart's portrait of
MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY DEARBORN,
Captain of a New Hampshire Regiment in the Bat- tle of Bunker Hill;
MAJ. GEN. HENRY DEARBORN.
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GEN. HENRY DEARBORN.
A Soldier through the Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783;
United States Marshal for the District of Maine under President Washington ;
Secretary of War under President Jefferson ;
Collector of the Port of Boston under President Madison ;
General-in-Chief of the United States Army under President Munroe ;
Born in New Hampshire, 1751;
Died in Boston Highlands, 1829.
Dated at Chicago, Dec. 3, 1883, upon the Eightieth Anniversary of the first occupation of Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, by Captain John Whistler and a Company of the First Regiment United States Infantry.
WIRT DEXTER.
MARSHA SHALL FIELD,
DANIEL GOODWIN, JR ..
JOHN CRERAN,
WV. K. FAIRBANKS,
E. W. BLATCHFORD, MARK SKINNER.
On the occasion of the formal presentation of this gift to the society, the orator, Daniel Goodwin, Jr .. prefaced his discourse as follows:
"From the earliest days of recorded history, it has been a natural impulse of mankind to honor the names of its heroes and its loved ones, those who had taken a strong hold upon the popular heart, by giving those names to the highways of public travel. In this latest of the great aggregations of human beings, are found the names of the grand founders and champions of the United States of America marking and defining the
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
highways thronged day and night by hosts numbered by hundreds of thousands.
' "As you pass from this building, dedicated to his- tory, where faithful hands are garnering up the records of the past and present, you will find yourselves on an avenue bearing the name of one loved by Washington, trusted by Jefferson and honored by Madison and Monroe; who not only fought with, but was the hearty friend of Lafayette and Rochambeau, of Green and Sullivan.
"I have walked along this great thoroughfare, which bears his name, for a quarter of a century, and have often asked myself what were the peculiar merits of this man, whose name keeps pace with my daily steps? When did he live, what was his work, who were his friends, what was his social life, who and what were his children, how did he die, and where now rest his honored bones? These questions traveled with me unanswered until I resolved to look up the history of that first name which marked this spot when it was known only to the government as "Fort Dearborn,"- a name antedating the birth and infancy of our great city; a name identified with the Indian massacre of 1812; a name which has kept pace with the growth of a frontier post and Indian Station from a village to a city, and now, though but a half-century old, the grand metropolis of the northwest. A name given to one of its social clubs, as well as that scientific observatory overlooking our great harbor, and which once in our own day looked down upon 12,000 rebellious sons whose forefathers fought by the side of Henry Dear- born, in the bloody field, or under his banner in the
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GEN. HENRY DEARBORN.
war of 1812,-sons who, thank God, have again learned to keep step to the music of the Union."
Henry Dearborn was born at Hampton, N. H., on the 23d day of Feb., 1751. His father, Simon Dear- born, a lineal descendant of Godfrey Dearborn, who came from Exeter, England, in 1638, was born, it is supposed, in a garrison at North Hampton, N. H. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Simon Marston, of Hampton.
Henry was the youngest of twelve children. He received as thorough an education as the best schools of New England afforded. After completing a classi- cal course, he entered upon the study of medicine under the instruction of Dr. Hall Jackson, of Portsmouth, who was subsequently a surgeon in the American army during the Revolutionary War, and who became one of the most distinguished physicians of New England. In 1771, on the 22d day of Sept., he was married to Mary Bartlett, by whom he had two chil- dren; Sophia, afterwards the wife of Dudley Hobart, Esq., of Monmouth, and Pamelia Augusta, who mar- ried Allen Gilman, an attorney of Hallowell.
Three years prior to the opening of the Revolution. Dr. Dearborn established himself in medical practice at Nottingham Square, N. H. The days of darkness which soon followed had already begun to throw out their gloomy shadows. Dearborn and several other gentlemen of the village who saw in the wrongs that were being hurled upon the colonies the omen of a critical conflict, utilized all their leisure hours in the study of military tactics. Nor were the hours thus employed spent in vain. On the morning of the twen-
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tieth of April, 1775, intelligence was received of the spilling of blood at Lexington. No useless words were spoken, no moments spent in unnecessary prepar- ation. Fifty-five miles lay between the bleeding pa- triots and their determined sympathizers. Before twen- ty-four hours had elapsed, young Dearborn and sixty companions stood before their excited brothers in the city. of Cambridge, ready to sacrifice their lives in the pro- tection of national rights.
Several days were spent in Cambridge, but as there seemed to be no necessity for remaining when there were no signs of immediate action, they returned to their homes.
The work of preparing drilled regiments for service was at once commenced, and Dr. Dearborn, then twen- ty-four years of age, was appointed captain of one of ยท the companies in the first New Hampshire regiment. under Col. John Stark.
Within ten days from the date of his commission, he joined his regiment at Medford, having in that brief space of time enlisted a full company.
His company was engaged in two skirmishes for possession of the stock on Noddle's Island before the battle of Bunker Hill, as well as in action against an armed vessel near Winnisimet ferry.
On the morning of that memorable 17th of June, Stark's regiment, which was stationed at Medford, re- ceived orders to march. They immediately paraded in front of the arsenal, where each man received a gill cup full of powder, fifteen balls, and a flint. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the regiment reached Charles- town. The night before, a redoubt had been thrown
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GEN. HENRY DEARBORN.
up by the Americans on Breed's Hill, and the British troops were now advancing to take it. Floating bat- teries on the Charles and Mystic Rivers were throwing a heavy fire of chain and bar shot across Charlestown Neck when they arrived, holding at bay two regiments. Major McClary advanced and requested the command- ers to move forward, or to open their lines and permit Stark's regiment to do so. The lines were promptly swung right and left, and Dearborn, whose company led the regiment, advanced close to the side of Col. Stark, into a galling cross-fire from the enemy. Dear- born suggested to the imperturbed Stark, the propriety of moving more rapidly, to sooner escape the range of their guns. The brave old officer fixed his eyes on the young captain and replied, with apparent indifference to the danger of the whizzing shot, "Dearborn, one fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued ones," and continued with the same moderate, measured tread. The enemy were landing on the shore opposite Copp's Hill, when Stark and his brave followers arrived at Bunker Hill. The eccentric commander, calm and unmoved but a moment ago, was now wrought up to a frenzy of enthusiasm. Turning to his men with flash- ing eye, he shouted, "There is the enemy. We must beat them or Molly Starks lies a widow to-night." Giving three cheers, the regiment made a rapid move- ment towards the rail fence which ran from the left and to the rear of the redoubt toward Mystic river. In the action that followed, Capt. Dearborn and his men, all of whom were practiced shots, did terrible execu- tion. He stood on the right of the regiment, in plain view of the whole action. He was armed with a fusee
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and "fired with precision and regularity."
Every school boy has real with quickened blood the description of this battle. With the scene pictured be- fore him, he has watched, with bated breath, the steady march of the trained Britons. bearing upwards, an overwhelming multitude, against the handful of patri- ots that rest motionless behind the earthworks. He hears the whispered order, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." And how his blood leaps as the first volley breaks upon his ear, and he sees the ranks of the British curl, waver, and finally retreat with precip- itation from the deadly fire of the patriots! And, alas !! how his heart sinks within him when he sees the brave Warren fall at his post, and the minute men, with nothing left for defence but the butts of their muskets -- their fifteen rounds of ammunition represented by as many hundreds of dying Britons-driven from their earthworks, conquered, and yet conquerors. A more thrilling and fascinating description of the battle than the one found in the old school readers, was never written. But one which was pronounced by leading scholars, and by military men who participat- ed in the engagement, the best account of the battle ever published, was written by Henry Dearborn. It is to be regretted that its great length excludes it from this volume, since the reader is taken into the field at the side of fathers of Monmouth families, and sees the part that they played in that memorable struggle. Any one of historic turn of mind will find himself amply repaid for his trouble, if, when in Boston, he will step into the rooms of the New England IIistori- cal and Genealogical Society, and call for the volume
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GEN. HENRY DEARBORN.
containing this narration.
The following September, it was determined to send a force through the wilderness to attempt the conquest of Quebec. Dearborn, still a captain, accompanied this expedition, which was placed in command of Gen- eral Benedict Arnold. On the 19th of September, 1775, the troops, numbering eleven hundred, embarked at Newburyport Mass., and a few hours later entered the mouth of the Kennebec river. At Pittston, the ancient Gardinerstown, they stopped-that being the head of navigation for large vessels-and constructed a number of large bateaux. With these they slowly ascended the Kennebec, landing at Fort Halifax in Winslow. and at other points for rest. Their course lay up the Kennebec, to the head of Dead river, and thence over a carrying place into the Chaudiere. The hardship endured by this party can hardly be imagined, much less described. They were often obliged to cut a way through almost impenetrable thickets, laboring days to cover as many miles, without adequate covering for their bodies, or even food to satisfy the cravings of hunger; for, in forcing the bateaux through the danger- ous rapids with which the Kennebec abounds, a large portion of the supplies was washed away.
Before reaching the open country beyond the Chau- diere, cold winter came upon them. But encased in armor of ice, with frozen hands and feet, and tortured by the pangs of hunger, those brave patriots pressed foward, incited by a single thought-the glory of lib- erty. We shudder as we read of the sufferings of the members of the unfortunate Greeley party, but their miseries were hardly more extreme than those of Dear-
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
born and his companions of this fruitless expedition. Certainly the hunger that first craved Dearborn's pet dog, and afterward attempted to satiate itself with shaving soap, pomatum, lip salve, and even broth made from the leather of their boots and cartridge boxes,could hardly be exceeded by that which called for the sacri- fice of a human victim.
When they reached the Chaudiere, from cold, ex- treme hardship, and want of sustenance, Dearborn's strength failed him, and he was able to walk but a short distance without wading into the water to invig- orate and strengthen his limbs. With great difficulty he reached a poor hut on the Chaudiere, where he told his men he could accompany them no farther, and urged them forward to a glorious discharge of their duty. His company left him with tears in their eyes, expecting to see him no more. Dearborn was here seized with a violent tever, and, for many days, not the slightest hope for his recovery was entertained. All this time, he was without medicine, and scarcely had the bare necessities of life. His fine constitution at last surmounted the disease, and, as soon as he was able to travel, he proceeded to Fort Levi in a sleigh, crossed over to Wolf's Cove, and made his unexpected appearance at the head of his company a few days be- fore the assault on Quebec.
Those who had not starved, or perished in the ex- treme cold, arrived before the Heights of Abraham on the last day of December, 1775 .* The unsuccessful result of the expedition is familiar to all. All who es- caped death by the bullet were made prisoners of war.
*Among the number was the paternal grandfather of Dr. C. M. Custom.
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GEN. HENRY DEARBORN.
The days that followed were among the darkest of Dearborn's life. He was daily tantalized with the re- port that he and other officers were to be sent to Eng- land in the spring to be tried and hanged as rebel :. Added to this was the vexation of being in irons, and the terrible agony of small-pox, with which nearly all the prisonsers were afflicted.
However, the following spring, Dearborn and Major Meigs, one of his superior officers, were released on parole and forwarded on a war ship to Penobscot bay, whence they journeyed by land to Portland. Dear- born was soon exchanged, and appointed major in the third New Hampshire regiment; and, soon after, in consideration of his valor at the battle of Bennington IIeights, where he led the advance corps of infantry, was appointed lieutenant-colonel.
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