History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 133

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 133

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Brother :- God put us here. It was not the King of France nor King George. We mean to stay on this island. The Great God put us here, and we have been on this island five hundred years. And we have been of the French King's religion, and mean to be so always. From this land we make our living. This is the general speech of 'all our young men. We don't know anything about writing. All that we know, we mean to have a right heart and a right tongue.

Brother :- We don't incline to do anything about the treaty made at Condeskeag, or that writing.

The speaker then turned to the interpreter, Mr. Treat, and said :

" Is not Mr. Little a minister ?"

The reply being in the affirmative, he turned to Mr. Little and said :

" Brother, minister ought not to have anything to do with public business about lands."

Mr. Little replied that they must remember what General Lincoln told them, that they now held the lands from the Massachusetts Government; that in a former war, in Governor Pownall's day, they lost all their lands here, but that the Government in 1775 gave them six miles on each side of the river; that their claim rested on this, and that they assented to it; that the chiefs who were present were at Conduskeag, and that the 'chiefs always spoke for the whole tribe, and that in regard to his being a priest he was not present as such, but as a Com- missioner. He then asked again whether they would not abide by the agreement made at Conduskeag, and pre- sented the deed for their signatures. They said in an- swer :

" We have put our names to many papers at Albany, New York, and elsewhere, but will not put our hands to that paper now nor any other paper forever hereafter."

Mr. Little then told them that, notwithstanding their refusal, the Government would abide by the treaty and expect them to; and that if they did not they must not expect prosperity from Heaven or favors from Govern- ment. . He referred to Peol's death, and assured them justice would be done; that a court would he held in about two weeks by four or five great and good men, and

they could send their chief and witnesses at the charge of the Government; but that they would want proof of what was done in Peol's camp. They expressed them- selves gratified at the care that Government had given the matter, and thought that the court . at Kennebec would do justice in the case.

The conference continued about four hours, during which not a smile was seen upon any of their counte- nances, or a word was spoken, except by their orator and an occasional prompting. In the midst of the confer- ence, at 12 o'clock, the bell rang, and they "made a com- posed mental prayer for about ten minutes, when they appealed to Heaven as having given them a secure right to the soil, all the sachems rose from the ground on which they sat, and stood in a posture for a minute ex- pressive of an appeal to the Great God for the truth of their declarations.". No strong drinks were used by either party during the visit.

Neither women nor children were seen or heard during the conference. A request to see the tribe paraded and numbered was declined. No complaint was made of in- juries received; the death of Peol was not even alluded to until Mr. Little introduced it, and no favor was asked of the Government. The chiefs waited on Mr. Little's party to the water, and the parting was most friendly. The young men took them over the river again in their canoes, a cannon was fired, and other marks of friendship manifested.

The next day being Sunday, there were religious ser- vices at Mr. Treat's. Mr. Noble preached in the fore- noon and Mr. Little in the afternoon. After the services Orono came in from Oldtown and told Mr. Little that, in council the evening before, the tribe concluded to send neither sachem nor witnesses to Kennebec-that the young men were going on a new hunt-that Peol's widow and sons were at Passamaquoddy, and they should leave the matter of-his death with the court and be satis- fied with the result. Orono added that Peol's wife had two sons and one daughter, no father, mother, or brother living, and her last infant was dead.

Before parting with Orono, Mr. Little hinted that if the tribe wished to renew their conference with him, he should be on the river about a week or ten days longer.

He saw him afterwards at Mr. Brewer's, but no propo- sition for the renewal of negotiations was again made by Orono or any of the tribe.

535

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

CHAPTER IV.

Jonathan Eddy-Grant of Land to Him and Others-Some Account of Him-His Settlement upon the Penobscot and Death-Popula- tion of New Worcester in 1785-Incorporation of Orrington-Story of its Name-Two Meeting-houses-Settlement of Hampden -- Benjamin Wheeler-His Grist-mill - Wheelerborough-Frankfort from Belfast to the Sowadabscook-Assessment on the Inhabitants on the Westerly Side of the River in 1784-Meeting-house in Hamp- den-"Condeskge"-"Sunbury"-Action of the Inhabitants for Sev- eral Years-Captain James Budge, James Turner, General Boyd, Na- thaniel Harlow-Incorporation of Bangor-Settlers-Farms on the Kenduskeag-Fish-Hammond & Smart Erect a Saw-mill on the Kenduskeag-$66.66 Raised for the Gospel-Agents Appointed to get Title to Land for Settlers-Rev. Thomas Hall-Mode of Crossing the River.

1785 to 1800. Jonathan Eddy, with nineteen others, received a grant of 9,360 acres of land north of and adjoining the Brewer tract from the Commonwealth June 29, 1785. By the terms of the grant each settler was to erect a dwelling house upon his lot within two years. These persons had been residents of Nova Scotia. Colonel Eddy was a native of Norton, now Mansfield, Massachusetts, and had resided in Nova Scotia ten years. He had been a member of the Assembly, was Provost Marshal in 1769, and was Sheriff of the county of Cum- berland, and in 1776 was at the head of an attempt to take Fort Cumberland on Chignecto Bay. The attempt was unsuccessful, and he, with his party, was obliged to flee .* Colonel Allan had endeavored to dissuade him from this attempt because of the insufficiency of his force, but in vain. f The consequence was that the in- habitants were involved in great distress. A reward of £200 was offered by the Council of Nova Scotia for the apprehension of Eddy. He was brave, active, and patriotic, and led another expedition to Nova Scotia, by direction of Massachusetts, but nothing was accom- plished.

There had been settlers upon the township prior to 1784, and in 1778, by an act of the Legislature, the wild lands were exempted from taxation for ten years from the date of the State's deed; and every permanent set- tler previous to 1784 was to have a title to a lot so laid out as best to include his improvements on the payment of five dollars.

Colonel Eddy settled in his township, and when it was incorporated as a town, in 1811, it was named Edding- ton in compliment to him. His death occurred in Au- gust, 1804, at the age of seventy-eight.

The population of "New Worcester" in 1785 was 188; 39 men, 34 women, and 115 children.

There was a village or plantation organized, probably pretty early after the first settlement. The following records are evidence of this :

31 March, 1786. James Ginns marke of his stoke [stock ] is a crop and slit in the Rite yeare and Crop and a hole in the left.

31 March, 1786, Mr. Eben Whealdon's Marke for his stoke is a Crop in the write yeare and a happaney [half-penny] on the under side.

James Dunning and Anna Tomb [ Thoms | Both of Penobscot River in County Lincoln was Published the 21 October, 1786 Jas. Ginn, T. Clerk.

Mr. Jacob Buzell was Published to the Widow Sarah Mansel the 27th August, 1786. Jas. Ginn, T. Clerk.

"Murdock Nova Scotia, II., 578-8.

+Kidders' Eastern Maine, 12.

Number of Acres. .

When Settled ..

By Whom Settled.

Town Lot.

100

Elihu Hewes.

100

Elihu Hewes.

Ebenezer Wheelden

200

1772

Moses Wentworth.

Thomas Smith ..

100

1772

Moses Wentworth.

100

1770

Major Edward More.

Ephraim Downs.

200

1773

Ephraim Downs.

Asa Downs ..

100

I773

Asa Downs.

Nathaniel Clarke

100

1773

Noah Downs.

Edward Snow.

100

1777

Jesse Cole, Jr.

Henry Cole.

100

1777

Henry Cole.

Eliphalet Nickerson

100

1776 Eliphal.t Nickerson.

Warren Nickerson.

100

1774

Warren Nickerson.

Daniel Nickerson

100

1774

Joseph Carey.

Joseph Harding.

100

1774

Edward Smith.

Set off Lot

100

1773

Voted by Town.

Oliver Doane

100

1774

James McCurdy.

Jesse Atwood.

150

1774

James McCurdy.

George Brooks

100

1774

Simeon Gorton.

Simeon Fowler

100

1773

Samuel Low.

Peter Sangster*

100

1772

Jeremiah Coburn.

Jesse Rogers

100

1774

Samuel Rogers.

Nathaniel Pierce.

100

1774

John Carle.

Samuel Freeman.

1774

James Deane.

Widow Hannah Carey.

100

1777

Joseph Carey.

Solomon Sweat.

100

1777

Solomon Sweat.

Benjamin Snow

100

1772

James Rice.

Edward Smith.

100

1772

Abraham Preble.

Samuel Wiswell.

100

I772

Benjamin Wheeler.

Joseph Baker.

200

1773

Jonathan Pendleton.

James Shirley ..

150

1771

James Shirley.

Robert McCurdy

150

1771

Robert McCurdy.

James McCurdy

100

1771

Josiah Brewer.

Edward Smith ..

100

1772

Jonathan Pearce.

David Wiswell.

100

1772

Phineas Rice.

James Ginn.

125

1771

Peter Sangster.

John Brewer.

100

1770 |John Brewer.

*Peter Sangster, a foreigner, died without heirs here, and his lot escheated to the State.

Measures were taken to procure the incorporation of the town after the arrangement with Knapp and asso- ciates. A meeting was held, and after the preliminaries for application to the Legislature were settled, the ques- tion of a name came up, and Captain John Brewer or Captain James Ginn, who was Clerk, and remarkable for both his chirography and orthography, suggested that it be Orangetown-the name of a town of which he was a native or had knowledge. It being approved, Ginn in- serted it in the petition "Orrington." Parson Noble, who was employed to procure the act of incorporation, being an orator, poet, and musician, was pleased with the eu- phony of the word, and, although he was aware of Cap- tain Ginn's intention, yet he concluded he had no author- ity to interfere with his mode of expressing it, and to the captain's surprise, no doubt, when the name came into common use there was a little want of harmony in regard to it betwixt his ear and his eye.

Knapp and associates demonstrated against the incor- poration of the town, and thereby procured exemption from taxation for seven years. The whole tract which embraces the three towns of Orrington, Brewer, and Holden, was incorporated as Orrington on March 21,

Joshua Severans and Elizabeth Snow, Both of New Worcester, was Published 14 April, 1787. Jas. Ginn, T. Clerk.

Joseph Plympton and the Widow Jeune Borton, Both of this Town was published the 4 Jan. 1788.

The following table contains the names of the settlers on March 7, 1785, with the quantity of acres in his lot and when and by whom it was settled :

Occupant March 7, 1785.

Paul Nickerson .

100

1775 Paul Nickerson.

536

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY MAINE.

1788, and was the fifty-second town incorporated in Maine.

Many of the people in Orrington had a regard for religious observances, and voted to build two meeting- houses forty by forty-two feet on front lots. They were built seven miles apart-one near the ferry between Or- rington and Hampden; the other a mile above the ferry between Brewer and Bangor. After they were boarded and shingled, the pew ground in both houses was sold for a sum sufficient to finish them in a "decent manner and paint one of them." It was then voted to paint the other. These houses were without steeple or tower- very unpretending, but very conspicuous. They were used for the purposes for which they were built during, perhaps, half a century, after which the northerly one was used for a stable for a while, and then demolished, and the southerly one was used as a town house until 1871.

The people were divided in religious sentiment; those of the southerly half being generally Methodists, and those of the northerly half generally Congregationalists. There were periods when there was much intolerant feeling between the two sections, but happily, in the march of Christian principle, the feeling has to a great degree, if not altogether, subsided.

It is a matter of some question when Hampden was first settled. It is agreed that Benjamin Wheeler, who was originally from Durham, New Hampshire, was the first settler. By referring to the table of the first settlers in Orrington, it will be seen that Benjamin Wheeler set- tled there in 1772, on a farm which, in 1785, belonged to Samuel Wiswell. Did he not first take up a lot in Or- rington, and afterwards relinquish it for the purpose of occupying the mill privilege on the Sowadabscook?

He erected a log cabin on the left bank of the stream, which then flowed down on the northerly side of the Island, as it is called, and built the first grist-mill ever erected above Fort Point, in 1776-77, where no one now would suppose any man in his senses would build a mill, over the ledge on the northerly side of the island; and there the corn and grain of the neighbors, from those next door to those a dozen miles distant, were ground, until one morning the mill was found high and dry; the water having on one night taken advantage of a slight passage in the gravel on the southerly side of the island, which had been made for the purpose of erecting mills upon that side, to work out for itself a channel through which large vessels were to sail for many years.

But, notwithstanding the river had taken a freak to change its course, it still ran, and presented to the enter- prising miller a better mil-site than that which it had abandoned - one which he did not fail to appropriate. About the mills of Wheeler the people settled apace, and, in compliment to the first settler, called the hamlet Wheelerborough. But this was at length found too inconvenient a name for a numerous population to use. The territory beginning at Belfast and terminating at Sowadabscook Stream in 1789 was embraced in the Plantation of Frankfort, which at one time had its prin- cipal settlement at Sandy Point. In 1784, ten years be-

fore Hampden was incorporated, it is probable that the name "Wheelerborough" was applied to the river terri- tory of Hampden for some distance below Wheeler's Mills and that Condeskeag Plantation to that above Wheeler- borough was organized for village purposes probably pret- ty early after its first settlement, and appears to have assessed taxes on the west side of the river, all the way from Marsh Bay to the most northerly settlement, for the purpose of paying for Jeremiah Colburn's lot.

Mr. Elihu Hewes, who was in Orrington in 1772 (and before that settled on an island at the mouth of the river, then owned by Isaac Winslow, Esq., containing six or seven thousand acres, probably Orphan Island), was in 1784 in Wheelerborough, and made the following list of persons upon whom the taxes were assessed. He says:

These are sums due from the inhabitants to them that bought Jere- miah Colburn's lot for the town, May. 1784, and to be paid in the hands of the Committee of Safety by the first day of July next; by a vote of and order of the town at their meeting ye 27 May, 1784.

ELIHU HEWS, town clerk.

(This was a tax of 3s. 6d. on each toll H.

- Clark, Ephriam Grant, James Grant, Adam Grant, William Grant, Thomas Linen, Hatevil Colson, James Colson, Stephen Little- field, Thomas Down, Noah Downs, Paul Downs, William Sullivan, John Aldersham, Joshua Harding, Daniel Tibbetts, Benjamin Higgins, Simon Smith, James Mayo, Nathaniel Mayo, Nathaniel Myrick, Dan- iel Whiting, Thomas Harding, Isaac Hopkins, Freeman Knowles, Jona Philbrook, Jesse Harding, James Philbrook, Moses. Baker, Reu- ben Newcomb, Andrew Grant, Elisha Grant, Gooden Grant, Andrew Patterson, Samuel Patterson, Bangs Ballard, Jona Pease, John Miller, Gustavus Swan, Nahum Emery, Benjamin Wheeler, Joseph Pomroy, John Crosby, Ebenezer Crosby, Elihu Hewes, Simeon Groton, Abner Crosby, John Emery, Samuel Cary, Benjamin Smith, Simon Crosby, Ebenezer Mayo, Thomas Low, James Emery, Jacob Dennett, James Dunning, Joseph Potter, John Smart, Jacob Bussell, Thomas Howard, William Tibbetts, Abner Tibbetts, George Tibbetts, Isaac Bussell, An- drew Mayhew, Andrew Webster, Abram Allen, Ashbel Harthorn, Robert Treat, Joseph Page, Joseph Page, Jr., Isaac Page, Abraham Tourtelott, Archibald McPhetres, Abraham Frees, Silas Harthorn Reuben Simpson,

At this time Benjamin Wheeler occupied the Stream lot. Elihu Hewes was his nearest neighbor. Nahum Emery occupied the lot on the right hand of the road near the top of the hill between the two villages, before reaching the Town House lot, upon which latter a meet- ing-house was built, nearly resembling those upon the opposite side of the river. This house had its sounding- board, high pulpit, galleries, square pews, and-no ap- pointment for heating in the winter, as some now living can testify. It was built, probably, at a later day than the others, but like them, in its old age it fell from its high estate. It had no steeple. . It was not in fashion. It was used for town purposes, for caucuses, for levees, for jollifications, and finally was demolished to make way for the present fine Town House. Andrew Grant lived on the southern declivity of the hill on the same side of the road, Reuben Newcomb on the other side of the road, in the field below Pitcher's Brook. Moses Baker was a tanner at Bald Hill Cove. Gooden Grant kept a tavern a little north of Hampden Upper Corner, and Simeon Gorton and Ebenezer Crosby lived on the back road, about half way between the Sowadabscook and Condes- keag Streams. John Crosby lived on the southerly and westerly side of the Sowadabscook, on the hill overlook- ing the water, and easterly of the intersection of the

537

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

county road with the street leading to the long wharf. He settled in Hampden in 1775, three years after his father settled in Bangor.

When Captain Budge removed to Bangor he occupied a log house near the intersection of Oak and Washington streets, overlooking the Penobscot. He afterwards built a one-story frame house on the northerly side of York street, a few rods northerly of Oak street-now Stetson Square. The Plantation and town meetings were held at his house for ten or twelve years afterward.

On March 27, 1787, the people of Condeskge assem- bled there and chose him Moderator, Andrew Webster Town Clerk, Jacob Dennet, Isaac Frees, and Simon Crosby Committee, John Budge Treasurer, and the pio- neer, Jacob Bussell, "Tithenman," and "voted Andrew Webster, Philip Lovejoy, and William Holt is hog Reafts, and that "hogs shall Run at Large Being well yoked," and that "every hog the hog Reaft yoaks shall have 4 shillings; and voted to Buld a Meating house forty and thirty-six feet large," and "that the meating house Shall be Bult at Condeskge;" and "Mr. Budge and Mr. Smart agreed to gave an acor of Land to the town to Set the meating house on;" and "voted that the timber for the meating house is to be 12 shillings Per hundred or tun Delivered at the spot where the house is to be Bult."

It was in "Sunbury" that the inhabitants met on March 3, 1788, and elected a part of their officers. Of course Andrew Webster was again elected Clerk. Mr. Robert Treat was Moderator at this meeting, and Thomas Howard was elected culler of hoops and staves, and Jeremiah Colburn and others surveyors of roads. The meeting was adjourned to April 10, when Captain James Budge, Silas Harthorn, and Archibald McPhetres were chosen Selectmen, Levi Bradley Collector, and Daniel Campbell Fish Committee and Church Warden, and it was "voted that hogs is to run at large being well yoaked."

The inhabitants of "Penobscot River on the west side" met again on October 6, 1788, and chose Simeon Gorton (who lived nearer the Sowadabscook than the Condeskeag), Thomas Howard, Abraham Tourtelott, and Archibald McPhetres, Assessors, and John Crosby (who lived near the Sowadabscook) and Robert Treat (who lived near the head of the tide), Collectors.

At the annual meeting, on March 2, 1789, the inhab- itants, besides their action in regard to "Mr. Noble's Sallary," elected. Captain James Budge Surveyor of Highways, and "voted four days to be worked on the hiway this year for every man," and that "every man that Dont work on the hiway is to Pay 6s. Per Day."

On June 30 it was voted to raise £10 to defray "Plantation Charges," and to raise "tax No. 7" this year.

Mr. Budge was a prominent man at this time in the Plantation, as may be supposed from the positions he occupied. He was the owner of the lot where he lived, - the City Point lot,- containing one hundred acres, with the point which, during that generation, was famil- iarly known as Budge's Point. As has been said, he was a man of much business ability; and he was a ready and fluent speaker. He succeeded Captain Edward Wilkins as captain of the militia company organized after

the Revolutionary War below the Penjejawock Stream, Mansell being captain of that above. Physically he was rather stout. Ten or twelve years after the war he be- came involved in debt, and as the facilities for drowning trouble were everywhere at hand, he resorted to them until he became a pitiable wanderer. He finally became deranged, and so continued until a few weeks before his death, when "his reason was fully restored, and he ex- pressed a willingness to resign a life which, he said, had been as troublesome to himself as to his friends." He died at Garland, May 13, 1827, at the age of seventy-six.

While living his unfortunate street life in Bangor, he was famous for rhyming, and for another habit which was sometimes inconvenient to people having trifling articles of property lying carelessly exposed. But he was not without wit, and his delinquencies were good-naturedly borne with. Mr. Thomas Bartlett, a worthy and witty dealer, once made an effort to protect his goods by pre- senting him with a goodly quantity of fine fish, on con- dition that he should steal none. The captain took them and went away, apparently delighted. But he soon returned and surprised and amused his compromising friend by throwing down the fish and saying :-

"Here, Bartlett, take your fish. I can do better!"

A building, the lower story of which was occupied by a trader who was a Federal politician, and by the family of a lame citizen, and the upper story by the fashionable tailor, John Reynolds, Esq., he made the subject of a piece of his doggerel, which may be taken as a specimen of all his rhymes :-

Down by the shore There is a store Occupied by a Fed. Prouty, the lame, Lives in the same, And Reynolds overhead.

Prouty was the same individual who afterwards resided in Hampden, just below the Bangor line, and remon- strated against a proposition .to set off that part of Hampden to Bangor because of the unhealthiness of the latter place.

Rev. Lemuel Norton, in his autobiography, published in 1861, says that he was an apprentice in 1800, with David Jones Waters, editor of the Castine Gazette, and that Mr. Waters was appointed a deputy Sheriff and took charge of the jail, and that he (Norton) had to con- vey to the prisoners their food ; that among the prison- ers was "James Budge, a man forty-five years of age, who was brought down the river from Bangor, who owned a large part of the land on which the city now stands. This Major Budge, as he was called, was a notorious drunk- ard and dangerous man, so much so that his wife swore her life against him and had him put into prison." The Rev. Mr. Norton states that he detected the prisoner in an enterprise which indicated that he was possessed of in- genuity and industry enough when himself. This was an attempt to release himself from jail. When discovered his work was so far advanced that he would have probably been out that night. With a knife and a file he had removed the sheet iron from the door and made a hole almost through, large enough for the pas-

538

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

sage of his body. He had been at work upon it for weeks, and removed the wood in small pieces, which he found means to convey to the exterior of the building. Accidentally Norton got sight of two or three pieces on the floor which awakened his suspicions, and he then went outside of the jail and came upon a pile of "hacks or small chips, as large as a winrow of hay, as much as ten or twelve feet long." This led to Budge's being placed in more secure quarters. After some weeks "he having greatly improved and become humble and peni- tent, his friends came and took him out of prison and carried him home to Bangor." Mr. Norton closes his notice thus: "He was a man of strong intellectual powers, rather a good scholar, and something of a poet ; wrote a great deal, made some excellent poetry-but rum, that demon rum, which destroys its thousands every year, destroyed him, got the mastery over him, and probably ruined him for this world and for that which is to come."

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 133

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