History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 12

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100

USA > Maine > Penobscot County > History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 12

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We are not aware that anything further is known of these minor heroes of history. Of Joseph Orono, how- ever, one of the later chiefs, much more is known. From a sketch contributed by the historian Williamson to the Massachusetts Historical Collections, many years ago, we extract the following :

Joseph Orono, the subject of this sketch, was for a long time the well-known chief of the Tarratine Indians, on the river Penobscot. But, though he was only an Indian sagamore, his name, for the merits of his character, is worthy of remembrance and respect. His ances- try, as well as the exact number of his years, is involved in some doubt. For there are no family names among the natives, by which the lineage of any individual can be traced, as a son inherits no name of his father.

There has been a story that he was a native of York, in this State, born about the year 1688; that his paternal name was Donmel, and that he was one of the captive children taken in the winter of 1692,

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

when that place was ravaged by the Indians. But this account is im- probable; as the Northern Indians and those of the Merrimac and Androscoggin made the attack, and soon afterwards sent back to the garrison-houses the elderly women and the children between the ages of three and seven years, in recompense to the English for previously sparing the lives of several Indian females and children at Pejepscot. At that time, moreover, the Donmel family was one of the most dis- tinguished in the province, Samuel being the same year one of the council, and his brother a man of considerable note. So that, if a son of either of them had been taken captive, it is probable he was returned or recovered; or, at least, there would have been some traditional ac- count of his being carried away. But no such report, even in York, has come down to this generation; and Capt. Joseph Munsell, of Ban- gor, now in his 88th year, says the story has no foundation in fact, and has been treated by the intelligent Indians with derision.

Another account, equally amusing, and more evident, is that Orono was the descendant of Bason de Castine, a French nobleman who, soon after the treaty of Breda, in 1667, located himself on the penin- sula of the town which now bears his name, and married a daughter of the celebrated Madockawando, a Tarratine chief of the age. It is true that Castine resided many years at that place, and carried on a very lucrative trade with the natives; that he had three or four Tarratine wives, one being that sagamore's daughter; and that of his several children, one was "Castine the younger," a very worthy man, and another, a very beautiful daughter, who married a Frenchman, and was with her children, in 1704, taken captive. One of these, it has been supposed, was Orono; yet this rests too much on mere probabil- ity and conjecture to deserve entire belief.

But, whatever may have been the lineage or extraction of Orono, it is certain he was white in part, a half-breed or more-such being ap- parent in his stature, features, and complexion. He himself told Cap- tain Munsell his father was a Frenchman and his mother was half French and half Indian; but who they were by name he did not state. Orono had not the copper colored countenance, the sparkling eyes, the high cheek-bones, tawny features of a pristine native. On the contrary, his eyes were of a bright blue shade, penetrating and full of intelligence and benignity. His hair, when young, was brown, perhaps approach- ing to an auburn cast ; his face was large, broad, and well-formed, of a sickly whiteness, susceptible of ready blushes, and remarkably sedate. In his person he was tall, straight, and perfectly proportioned ; and in his gait there was a gracefulness which of itself evinced his superiority. He did not incline his head forward, nor his feet inward, so much as Indians usually do. But what principally gave him distinction was his mind, his manners, and his disposition. For Orono was a man of good sense and great discernment ;- in mood thoughtful, in conversation re- served, in feelings benign. Hence he never allowed himself to speak till he had considered what to say, always expressing his thoughts in short sentences, directly to the point. He had not much learning, be- ing only able to read a little and write his name. But he could con- verse freely in three languages- the Indian, French, and English ; per- haps, also, understood some Latin phrases in the Romish litany. To the Catholic religion he was strongly attached, and also to its forms of worship. Hence the Rev. Daniel Little, of Kennebeck, a Protestant missionary to the tribe after the Revolution, unable to shake his faith, asked three times, before he could get an answer from the sedate chief, thus : "In what language do you pray?" With a gravity much more becoming than that of the missionary, he very reverently, raising his eyes a little, replied, "No matter what,-Great Spirit knows all lan- guages."

Orono's manners were both conciliating and commanding, and his habits worthy of all imitation. For he was not only honest, chaste, temperate, and industrious ; his word was sacred, and his friendship unchanging. He was remarkable for his forethought and wisdom, for his mild and equal disposition. Though he was not deficient in cour- age or any of the martial virtues, he was so fully aware how much wars had wasted his tribe and entailed misery on the survivors, as to become, from principle, a uniform and persevering advocate of peace. He knew, and always labored to convince his people, that they flourished best and enjoyed most under its refreshing shade.

At the commencement of the French and sixth Indian war, in 1754, Tomasus (or Tamor) was at the head of the tribe, when he, Osson, O- rono, and other chief men, so warmly espoused the policy of perpet- uating peace, as to prevent the commisson of any mischief by their people, till after the Casgill affair and the declaration of war against them by the provincial government. The fact was that Captain James Casgill, of Newcastle, commissioned to raise a company of volunteers, enlisted and led them on an excursion into the woods towards Owl's

Head, in the vicinity of Penobscot Bay. Discovering a party of In- dian hunters, Casgill and his company instantly fired upon them, shot down twelve on the spot, and took their scalps, the rest fleeing for their lives to the tribe, carried to it the tidings of the bloody and wicked transaction. Casgill was generally and highly censured by the white people, it being believed he must have known the unhappy hun- ters belonged to the tribe of the friendly Tarratines.

Never were the feelings of the tribe put to severer trial. For the provincial governor, perplexed at the nefarious affair, sent a message to the sagamores, stating that it was impossible to distinguish between their Indians and others, and that they must, within eight days, accord- ing to the last treaty, send twenty men to join in the war against the common enemy, or their tribe would be treated as belligerent foes.

"What ! take arms in aid of men who had themselves broken the treaty, --- base men, whose hands are reeking with the blood of unoffend- ing Indians? Aunt-ah, aunt-ah [no ! no!]," cried the chief speaker in a council met on the occasion. "Send the war-whoop! Strike through the false-hearted white men! Burn to ashes their wives, -their wig- wams, too! Take blood for blood ! The spirits of our murdered broth- ers call to us for revenge. The winds howl to us fiom the wilderness. Sister widows cry,-orphans too. Do not Indians feel? Cut their veins ; do they not bleed? The moose bellows over wasted blood. The bear licks the bleeding wounds of its cub. O Metunk-senah ! Metunk- senah! [Our Father, our Heavenly Father], pity our mourners. Avenge ill-treated Indians. Our fathers told us, Englishmen came here, a great many, many moons ago. They had no lands, no wig- wams, -- nothing. Then our good fathers say, "come, hunt in our woods ; come, fish in our rivers ; come, warm by our fires." So they" catch very great many salmon,-other fishes too. They stay among us always. They call Indians good brothers. They smile in our faces. They make wick-hegin [writings], to live here with us, -all one, the same people. They signed them, as they call it,-our fathers, too. Then Englishmen call the lands their own. Our fathers meant no such thing. Certain, they never leave their children to starve. Eng- lishman always smiles when he gets advantage. Then he loves us all greatly. When he wants nothing of Indians, he don't love 'em so much. Frenchmen never get away our lands. They sell us guns,- powder too,-and great many things. They give us down weight, full measure. They open our eyes to religion. They speak to us, in dark days, good words of advice. Englishmen rob us. They kill our brothers, when their hearts were warm with friendship,-when sweet peace was melting on their lips. We give them homes. They put the flaming cup to our mouths. They shed our blood. Did ever English- men come to Indian's wigwam faint, and go away hungry ? Never. Where shall Indians go? Here we were born. Here our fathers died. Here their bodies rest. Here, too, we live. Arise. Join Frenchmen. Fight Englishmen, They shall die. They shall give place to Indi- ans. This land, this river, is ours. Hunt Englishmen all off the ground. Then shall Indians be free; then the ghosts of our fathers bless their sons."

The voice of Orono, himself then more than sixty years of age, was still for peace. "To kill the living will not bring the dead to life. The crimes of few never sprinkle blood on all. Strike the murderers. Let the rest be quiet. Peace is a voice of the Great Spirit. Every one is blessed under its wings. Everything withers in war. Indians are killed. Squaws starve. Nothing is gained, not plunder, not glory. Englishmen are now too many. Let the hatchet lay buried. Smoke the calumet once more. Strive for peace. Exact a recompense by treaty for wrongs done us. None ! ay, then fight 'em."

But the young Indians panted for war, revenge and glory; and as the Government soon proclaimed that hostilities actually existed against the Tarratines, all hopes of any immediate pacification were dissipated. At first the Indians made some violent attacks, killed several people and burned a few houses. But they were neglected by the French; time, war, and disease, they found, had greatly thinned their ranks; in the course of three years they became discouraged,- such a period being always long enough to satisfy Indian warriors; and in 1759 the tribe was literally overawed by the establishment of Fort Pownall, on the westerly banks of Penobscot Bay. Therefore, in April of the next year, they entered into a treaty with the provincial govern- ment, and made war upon the colonists no more.

He, Osson, died about the beginning of the American Revolution. During the preceding interval of peace, Orono, next to Osson in pol- itical power, had, by his ability and prudence, acquired the confidence of his people so entirely that they united and made him chief soon after the other's death. Orono was a high liberty man, and from the first a thoroughgoing Whig. He could not imagine how the mother

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

ountry could possibly wish to enslave or plunder the colonies, which were, as he thought, her distant children. Such were his views of riches, religions, sovereignty, and even glory, that he could not see how all of them combined could be any motive to so unnatural a warfare. Liberty, next to peace, was the sweetest sound that could salute Or- ono's ear. It was, to his experience, the gift and feeling of nature. In conference with his people, he declared it to be an inborn disposition of the heart and natural habit of life to strive against force and control, as against death. He felt it. He knew it. The wild creatures that rove through the woods he had seen happy, though hungry, because they were under no ties that bound them. The brave little beaver fights a duel with a hunter-boy for the chance of escape. What being does not sigh and sicken in confinement? Does not even the spring- bird then forget its song,-the ermine its sports? All nature flourishes when free. The Great Spirit gives us freely all things. Our white brothers tell us they came to Indian's country to enjoy liberty and life. Their great Sagamore is coming to bind them in chains, to kill them. We must fight him. We will stand on the same ground with them. For should he bind them in bonds, next he will treat us as bears. In- dians' liberties and lands his proud spirit will tear away from them. Help his ill-treated sons; they will return good for good, and the law of love runs through the hearts of their children and ours when we are dead. Look down the stream of time. Look up to the Great Spirit. Be kind, be valiant, be free :- then are Indians the sons of glory.

Aroused and captivated by Orono's sentiments, his people generally became decided Whigs. He had also great influence with the sachem at Passamaquoddy, and even at the river St. John, though in each of the tribes there were Indian Tories, and party spirit ran high; human nature, whether cultivated or wild, exhibiting the same traits of char- acter. At length Orono and three of his colleagues started to go and tender their friendship and services to the government of Massachusetts, attended by Andrew Gilman, who could speak their language as well as his own. On their arrival at Portsmouth, money was liberally con- tributed to bear their expenses, and a carriage procured to help them on their journey. They met the Provincial Congress at Watertown, June 21, 1775, and entered into a treaty of amity with that body and of engagements to afford assistance, afterwards proving themselves to be among the most faithful allies of the American people. In return for their pledges of good faith and immediate aid, Massachusetts for- bade, under severe penalties, all trespasses on their lands, six miles in width on each side of the Penobscot river from the head of the tide up- wards. On the nineteenth of July, 1776, the three tribes mentioned all acknowledged the independence of the United States, and engaged to withhold all succor from the British enemy. In fact, there were sta- tioned near the head of the tide, on the Penobscot, a company of thirty (twenty white men and ten Indians), under the command of Andrew Gilman, a lieutenant, and Joseph Munsell, an orderly sergeant, both previously mentioned ; and at Machias, where Munsell was afterwards himself a lieutenant, there was a large company of one hundred In- dians or more, commanded by Captain John Preble, all of whom had rations, and most of them were under pay.

No man was more faithful to his engagements than Orono. From 1779, when the British took possession 'of the peninsula Biguyduce (now Castine), and exercised an arbitrary command over all the settle- ments on each side of the river, that active, vigilant chief communicated with great dispatch to our officers and Government important and re- peated intelligence, for which he once, if not more, received a tribute of special thanks, and also a pecuniary reward. He was wise in coun- sel, and his zeal to the last was inspiring to his tribe.

Orono was holden in equally high estimation after the war; and in 1785 and 1796 he entered into favorable treaties with Massachusetts, by which he and his tribe, for valuable considerations, assigned to her large tracts of land, and also agreed with her upon the limits and ex- tent of the territory retained. This celebrated chief, after a very long life of usefulness and destruction, died at Oldtown, February 5, 1802, reputed to have been one hundred and thirteen years old. But Captain Munsell, who conversed with him in his last sickness, and asked him his age, thinks, according to his best recollection, Orono told him he was about one hundred and ten years of age at that time. He was ex- ceedingly endeared to his tri e, and highly respected by all his English acquaintance. To a remarkable degree, he retained his mental faculties and erect attitude till the last years of his life. As he was always abstemious, and as his hair in his last years was of a milky whiteness, he resembled in appearance a cloistered saint. His wife, who was a full-blooded native, died several years after him, at an age supposed to be greater than his own. Of his posterity it is only known that he had two children, one a son, who was accidentally shot, about 1774, in

a hunting party, aged probably twenty-five; the other a daughter, who married old Captain Nicholar. So desirous were his English friends and neighbors to perpetuate his name and character that, when the territory in the immediate vicinity of Oldtown was incorporated into a town, March 12, 1806, it was called "Orono," in compliment to the worthy chief.

His wife, commonly called "Madame Orono," died at the very advanced age of one hundred and fifteen years, in 1809.

At the centennial celebration in Orono, March 3, 1874, the following poem on "The Old Chiefs," bringing "the blue-eyed" prominently into notice, was sung by the as- sembled company. It is from the pen of Rev. Henry C. Leonard, long pastor of the Universalist church in the village :

We sing the chiefs of auld lang syne : Madockawando grave- The Tarratine in Philip's time; Megone, the friend and knave; Wenamuet with kingly face ;- All braves who bent the bow

In autumn's hunt or winter's chase; But most, great Orono.

Madockawando's royal hand, In nature's temple green, His squaw-child gave in marriage bond To lone and proud Castine. But from the mountains to the sea, Where gleams Penobscot's flow,

Best praised the white-born chief shall be, The blue-eyed Orono.

In modern days of Atteon, Or Neptune's later reign, No tales are told of brave deeds done Or sung in noble strain. Our thoughts are turned to other days, The days of strife and woe.

Relieved by calm, pacific ways Of pale-faced Orono.

We sing the chief, the grand old chief, The chief of auld lang syne, Whose years of rule on mem'ry's leaf Are years of bloodless line. We sing the chief, the grand old chief, The chief of long ago,- The corn still sound in memory's sheaf,- The high-browed Orono.

Nearly a century and a half from the disappearance of Madockawando from history, we come to the chieftain- ship of John Atteon over the Penobscot Indians. He was reported to be a descendant of the Baron de Cas- tine and an Indian mother, but could not speak English with facility, while Francis, one of the captains inducted into office at the same time, and also supposed to be of French blood in part, was a good English speaker, intel- ligent and communicative. The sagamore or governor had been chosen by general election of the tribe.

Mr. Williamson, the historian, was an eye-witness of the ceremonies of induction or inauguration, and thus describes them :

The parties in the Tarratine tribe were so sanguine and violent after they lost their chief, that they could not for many months agree upon a successor. Perplexed with the long controversy and deeply concerned in effecting a union, the Catholic priest interposed his influence; when they were induced to leave the rival candidates and select John Aitteon, a reputed descendant of Baron de Castine, by an Indian wife.

On the 19th of September, 1816, at Oldtown village, Sagamore Ait- teon, John Neptune, next in grade and command, and two captains

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

were inducted into office, with the customary ceremonies. - To assist in these, the chiefs and 15 or 20 other principal men from each of the tribes at St. John's river and at Passamaquoddy had previously arrived, appearing in neat and becoming dresses, all in the Indian fashion.

Early in the forenoon, the men of the Tarratine tribe, convening in the great wigwam, called the camp, seated on the side platform accord- ing to seniority, Aitteon, Neptune, and the select captains at the head, next the door; the former two being clad in coats of scarlet broad- cloth and decorated with silver brooches, collars, armclasps, jewels, and other ornaments. Upon a spread before them, of blue cloth, an ell square, were exhibited four silver medals, three of which were circu- lar and twice the size of a dollar; the other was larger, in the form of a crescent. All these were emblematically inscribed with curious de_ vices, and suspended by parti-colored ribbons, a yard in length with ends tied. Aware of gentlemen's wishes to be spectators of the cere- monials, they directed the Indian acting the part of marshal to invite them into the camp. The admission of the female visitants was also requested; but he replied, as directed by the chiefs, "Never our squaws, nor yours, sit with us in council."

The spectators being seated below the tribe, upon the platform or benches, covered with blankets, the Marechite delegation, preceded by their chief, entered the camp in true Indian file and sat down, ac- cording to individual rank, directly before the Tarratines. These now uncovered their heads and laid aside their hats and caps till the cere- monies were closed.

Four belts of wampum, brought into the camp by a stately Mare- chite, were unfolded and placed in the area upon a piece of broadcloth which enclosed them; when his Sagamore, presently rising, took and held one of them in his hands, and addressed Aitteon from five to ten minutes in a courtly speech of pure vernacular, laying the belt at his feet. Three others in rotation, and next in rank, of the same tribe, addressed, in a similar manner, the Tarratine candidates of compara- tive grade ;- all which were tokens of unchanging friendship and sanc" tions of perpetual union. The Sagamore then, taking the meda' nearest Aitteon, addressed him and his tribe in another speech of the same length as the former, in the course of which he came three o four times to momentary pauses, when the Tarratines, collectively, ut_ tered deep guttural sounds like "aye." These were evident expres- sions of their assent to have Aitteon, Neptune, Francis, and the other their first and second Sagamores, and two senior captains. The speaker, closing his remarks, advanced and placed the suspended medal, as the badge of investiture, about Aitteon's neck, the act by which he was formally inducted into office and constituted Sagamore for life. Neptune and the two captains, in their turns, after being shortly addressed by the other Marechite actors, were invested by them with the ensigns of office in the same way.

During these ceremonies, the 'Quoddy Indians without stood around a standard twenty feet in height, to and from the top of which they alternately hoisted and lowered a flag, as each Tarratine was inducted into office, at the same time and afterwards firing salutes from a well- loaded swivel, near the same place.

Mr. Rom aigne, the Catholic priest, attired in a white robe and long scarf, having seated himself among the Tarratines before the ceremonies were commenced, now, rising, read appropriate passages from the Scriptures in Latin, and expounded them in the Indian dialect; and next a psalm, which he and the Marechites chanted with considerable harmony. In the midst of the sacred song, the whole of them moved slowly out of the camp, preceded by the priest, leaving the Tarratines seated, and, forming a circle in union with the 'Quoddy Indians, stood and sang devoutly several minutes, and closed with a "Te Deum."

The priest then departed to his house, and the Indians, entering the camp, took their seats -- the 'Quoddy Indians in a lower place, abreast the sitting spectators, when they commenced their tangible salutations. In this form of civility, each of the two delegations, rising in turn, liter- ally embraced, cheek and lip, the four new-made officers, and shook heartily by the hand all the others of the tribe.

The gentlemen, at the marshal's request, now withdrew, to be spec- tators only about the doors and apertures; when the Tarratine females, clad in their best dresses and fancifully ornamented, joined for the first time the Indian assemblage, and the whole formed an elliptical circle for dances. In close Indian file they moved forward in successive order, with a kind of double shuffle, to their former places, animated by the music of a light beat upon a drum, in the midst of the circus, with the accompaniment of a, vocal tune. (Formerly their chief instru- ments were rattles, made of small gourds and pumpkin shells.) The female dancers then retired; the Indians took their seats; and the spec- tators were re-admitted.

To close the ceremonies, four chief men of the Marechites severally rose in succession and sang short songs, somewhat entertaining, which were duly responded by others from the new-made officers; throughout which the whole assemblage uttered, at almost every breath, a low- toned, emphatic guttural sound, not unlike a hiccough,-the singular way by which they expressed their plaudits and pleasures.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 12

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co. Number of Pages: 1100

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100