History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 8

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 8

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About noon we reached the Mattawamkeag, 56 miles from Bangor by the way we had come, and put up at a frequented house still on the Houlton road, where the Houlton stage stops. Here was a substantial covered bridge over the Mattawamkeag, built, I think they said, some 17 years before. We had dinner-where, by the way, and even at breakfast, as well as supper, at the public houses on this road, the front rank is composed of various kinds of "sweet-cakes," in a contin- uous line from one end of the table to the other. I think I may safely say that there was a row of 10 or 12 plates of this kind set before us two here. To account for which, they say that, when the lumberers come out of the woods, they have a craving for cakes and pies and such sweet things, which there are almost unknown, and this is the supply to satisfy that demand. The supply is always equal to the de- mand, and these hungry men think a good deal of getting their mon- ey's worth. No doubt the balance of victuals is restored by the time

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

they reach Bangor-Mattawamkeag takes off the raw edge. Well, over this front rank, I say, you, coming from the "sweet-cake " side, with a cheap, philosophic indifference though it may be, have to as- sault what there is behind, which I do not by any means mean to insinuate is insufficient in quantity or quality to supply that other de- mand, of men, not from the woods, but from the towns, for venison and strong country fare. After dinner we strolled down to the Point, formed by the junction of the two rivers, which is said to be the scene of an ancient battle between the Eastern Indians and the Mohawks, and searched there carefully for relics, though the men at the bar-room had never heard of such things; but we found only some flakes of arrow-head stone, some points of arrow-heads, one small leaden bul- let, and some colored beads, the last to be referred, perhaps, to early fur-trader days. The Mattawamkeag, though wide, was a mere river's bed, full of rocks and shallows at this time, so that you could cross it almost dry-shod in boots; and I could hardly believe my companion, when he told me that he had been fifty or sixty miles up it in a bat- teau, through distant and still uncut forests. A batteau conld hardly find a harbor now at its mouth. Deer and caribou, or reindeer, are taken here in the winter, in sight of the house.

Early the next morning we had mounted our packs, and prepared for a tramp up the West Branch, my companion having turned his horse out to pasture for a week or ten days, thinking that a bite of fresh grass and a taste of running water would do him as much good as backwoods fare and new country influences would his master. Leap- ing over a fence, we began to follow an obscure trail up the north bank of the Penobscot. There was now no road further, the river being the only highway, and but half a dozen log-huts, confined to its banks, to be met with for 30 miles. On either hand, and beyond, was a wholly uninhabited wilderness, stretching to Canada. Neither horse nor cow, nor vehicle of any kind, had ever passed over this ground; the cattle and the few bulky articles which the loggers use being got up in the winter on the ice, and down again before it breaks up. The evergreen woods had a decidedly sweet and bracing fragrance; the air was a sort of diet-drink; and we walked on buoyantly in Indian file, stretching our legs. Occasionally there was a small opening on the bank, made for the purpose of log-rolling, where we got a sight of the river -- always a rocky and rippling stream. The roar of the rapids, the note of a whistler-duck on the river, of the jay and chickadee around us, and of the pigeon-woodpecker in the openings, were the sounds that we heard. This was what you might call a brand-new country; the only roads were of Nature's making, and the few houses were camps. Here, then, one could no longer accuse institutions and society, but must front the true source of evil.

There are three classes of inhabitants who either frequent or inhabit the country which we had now entered-first, the loggers, who, for a part of the year, the winter and spring, are far the most numerous, but in the summer explorers for timber completely desert it; second, the few settlers I have named, the only permanent inhabitants, who live on the verge of it and help raise supplies for the former; third, the hunters, mostly Indians, who range over it in their season.

At the end of three miles we came to the Mattaseunk stream and mill, where there was even a rude wooden railroad running down to the Pe- nobscot, the last railroad we were to see. We crossed one tract on the bank of the river, of more than a hundred acres of heavy timber, which had just been felled and burnt over, and was still smoking. Our trail lay through the midst of it, and was well-nigh blotted out. The trees lay at full length, four or five feet deep, and crossing each other in all directions, all black as charcoal, but perfectly sound within, still good for fuel or for timber; soon they would be cut into lengths and burnt again. Here were thousands of cords, enough to keep the poor of Boston and New York amply warm for a winter, which only cumbered the ground and were in the settler's way. And the whole of that solid and inter- minable forest is doomed to be gradually devoured thus by fire, like shavings, and no man be warmed by it.

I walked through Salmon River with my shoes on, it being low water, but not without wetting my feet. A few miles farther we came to "Marm Howard's," at the end of an extensive clearing, where there were two or three log huts in sight at once, one on the opposite side of the river, and a few graves, even surrounded by a wooden paling, where already the rude forefathers of a hamlet lie, and a thousand years hence, perchance, some poet will write his "Elegy in a Country Courchyard."

The next house was Fisk's, ten miles from the Point, at the East Branch opposite to the island Nickatou, or the Forks, the last of the In- dian islands. I am particular to give the names of the settlers and the distances, since every log hut in these woods is a public house, and such

information is of no little consequence to those who may have occasion to travel this way. Our course here crossed the Penobscot, and fol- lowed the southern bank. One of the party, who entered the house in search of some one to set us over, reported a very neat dwelling, with plenty of books and a new wife, just imported from Boston, wholly new to the woods. We found the East Branch a large and rapid stream at its mouth, and much deeper than it appeared. Having with some difficulty found the trail again, we kept up the south side of the West Branch, or main river, passing by some rapids called Rock Ebeeme, the roar of which we heard through the woods, and, shortly after, in the thickest of the wood, some empty loggers' camps, still new, which were occupied the previous winter. White's farm, thirteen miles from the Point, is an extensive and elevated clearing, from which we got a fine view of the river, rippling and gleaming far beneath us. We reached Shad Pond, or Nolisumack, an expansion of the river. Hodge, the assistant State Geologist, who passed thro' this on the 25th of June, 1837, says: "We pushed our boat through an acre or more of buck-beans which had taken root at the bottom and bloomed above the surface in the greatest profusion and beauty." .

We took here a poor and leaky batteau, and began to pole up the Millinocket two miles to the Elder Fowler's, in order to avoid the Grand Falls of the Penobscot, intending to exchange our batteau there for a better. The Millinocket is a small, shallow, and sandy stream, full of what I took to be lamprey-eels' or suckers' nests, . lined with musquash cabins, but free from rapids, excepting at its outlet from the lake.

Old Fowler's, on the Millinocket, six miles from McCauslin's, and 24 from the Point, is the last house. Gibson's, on the Sowadnehunk, is the only clearing above; but that had proved a failure, and was long since deserted. Fowler is the oldest inhabitant of these woods. He formerly lived a few miles from here, on the South side of the West Branch, where he built his house sixteen years ago, the first house built above the Five islands. Here our new batteau was to be carried over the first portage of two miles, round the Grand Falls of the Penobscot, on a horse-sled made of saplings, to jump the numerous rocks in the way. This portage probably followed the trail of an ancient Indi- an carry round these falls. By two o'clock we, who had walked on be- fore, reached the river'above the falls, not far from the outlet of Quak- ish Lake, and waited for the batteau to come up.

We were soon in the smooth water of the Quakish Lake, and took our turns at rowing and paddling across it. It is a small, irregular, but handsome lake, shut in on all sides by the forest, and showing no traces of man, but some low boom in a distant cove, reserved for spring use. The spruce and cedar on its shores, hung with gray lichens, looked at a distance like the ghosts of trees. Ducks were sailing here and there on its surface, and a solitary loon, like a mere living wave,-a vital spot on the lake's surface,-laughed and frolicked, and showed its straight leg, for our amusement. Joe Merry Mountain appeared in the northwest, as if it were looking down on this lake especially; and we had our first but partial view of Ktaadn, its summit veiled in clouds, like a dark isthmus in that quarter, connecting the heavens with the earth. After two miles of smooth rowing across this lake, we found our- selves in the river again, which was a continuous rapid for one mile to the dam, requiring all the strength and skill of our boatman to pole it up.

This camp, exactly 29 miles from Mattawamkeag Point, by the way we had come, and about 100 from Bangor by the river, was the last hu- man habitation of any kind in this direction. Beyond, there was no trail; and the river and lakes, by batteaux and canoes, were considered the only practicable route. We were about 30 miles by the river from the summit of Ktaadn, which was in sight, though not more than 20, perhaps, in a straight line.

It being about the full of the moon, and a warm and pleasant even- ing, we decided to row five miles by moonlight to the head of the North Twin Lake, lest the wind should rise on the morrow. After oue mile of river, or what the boatmen call "thoroughfare,"-for the river becomes at length only the connecting link between the lakes, -and some slight rapid which had been mostly made smooth water by the dam, we en- tered the North Twin Lake just after sundown, and steered across for the river "thoroughfare," four miles distant. This is a noble sheet of water, where one may get the impression which a new country and a "lake of the woods" are fitted to create.

We could distinguish the outlet to the South Twin, which is said to be the larger, where the shore was misty and blue, and it was worth the while to look thus through a narrow opening across the entire ex- panse of a concealed lake to its own yet more dim and distant shore. The shores rose gently to ranges of low hills covered with forests; and

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

though, in fact, the most valuable white-pine timber, even about this lake, had been culled out, this would never have been suspected by the voyager. The impression which, indeed, with the fact was, as if we were upon a high table-land between the States and Canada, the nor- thern side of which is drained by the St. John and Chaudiere, the southern by the Penobscot and Kennebec. There was no bold, moun- tainous shore, as we might have expected, but only isolated hills and mountains rising here and there from the plateau. The country is an archipelago of lakes,-the lake country of New England. The levels vary but a few feet, and the boatmen, by short portages, or by none at all, pass easily from one to another. They say that at very high water the Penobscot and the Kennebec flow into each other, or, at any rate, that you may lie with your face in one and your toes in the other. Even the Penobscot and St. John have been connected by a canal, so that the lumber of the Alleguash, instead of going down the St. John, comes down the Penobscot; and the Indian's tradition that the Penobscot once ran both ways for his convenience, is, in one sense, partially real- ized to-day.

AUDUBON.

In August, 1831, the yet more celebrated naturalist, John James Audubon, made a journey overland through Eastern Maine, with his wife and two sons, to inquire as to the birds of the wilderness. We are able, from his narrative, to determine pretty nearly how much of his journey lay in Penobscot county, and copy that portion of the diary from his Life, edited by his widow and published in 1873. The party was now on its return from New Brunswick :

Hiring a cart, two horses, and a driver, we proceeded in the direction of Bangor. Houlton is a neat village, consisting of some fifty houses. The fort is well situated, and commands a fine view of Mars' Hill, which is about 13 miles distant. A custom-house has been erected here, the place being on the boundary line of the United States and the British provinces. The road which was cnt by the soldiers of this garrison, from Bangor to Houlton, through the forests, is at this moment a fine turnpike of great breadth, almost straight in its whole length, and per- haps the best now in the Uuion. It was incomplete, however, for some miles, so that our travelling over that portion was slow and disagree- able. The rain, which fell in torrents, reduced the newly raised earth to a complete bed of mud; and at one time our horses became so com- pletely mired that, had we not been extricated by two oxen, we must have spent the night near the spot. Jogging along at a very slow pace, we were overtaken by a gay wagoner, who had excellent horses, two of which a little "siller" induced him to join to ours, and we were taken to a tavern at the "cross-roads," where we spent the night in comfort.

While supper was preparing, I made inquiry respecting birds, quad- rupeds, and fishes, and was pleased to hear that all of these animals abounded in the neighborhood. Deer, bear, trouts, and grouse, were quite plentiful, as was the great gray owl. When we resumed our journey next morning Nature displayed all her loveliness, and autumn with her mellow tints, her glowing fruits, and her rich fields of corn, smiled in placid beauty. Many of the fields had not yet been reaped; the fruits of the forests and orchards hung clustering around us; and, as we came in view of the Penobscot river, our hearts thrilled with jay. Its broad, transparent waters here spread out their unruffled sur- face, there danced along the rapids, while canoes filled with Indians swiftly glided in every direction, raising before them the timorous waterfowl that had already flocked in from the north mountains, which you well know are indispensable in a beautiful landscape, reared their majestic crests in the distance. The Canada jay leaped gayly from branch to twig; the king-fisher, as if vexed at being suddenly surprised, rattled loudly as it swiftly flew off ; and the fish-hawk and eagle spread their broad wings over the waters. All around was beautiful, and we gazed on the scene with delight as, seated on a verdant bank, we re- freshed our frames from our replenished stores.

A few rare birds were procured here, and, the rest of the road being level and firm, we trotted on at a good pace for several hours, the Pe- nobscot keeping company with us. Now we came to a deep creek, of which the bridge was undergoing repairs, and the people saw our vehicle approach with much surprise. They, however, assisted us with pleasure, by placing a few logs across, along which our horses, one after the other, were carefully led, and the cart afterwards carried. These good fellows were so averse to our recompensing them for their

labor that, after some altercation, we were obliged absolutely to force what we deemed a suitable reward upon them.

Next day we continued our journey along the Penobscot, the coun- try changing its aspect at every mile ; and when we first discovered Oldtown, that village of saw-mills looked like an island covered with manufactories. The people are noted for their industry and persever- ance; any one possessing a mill, and attending to his saws and the floating of the timber into his dams, is sure to obtain a competency in . a few years.

Speculations in land covered with pine, lying to the north of this place, are carried on to a great extent; and to discover a good tract of such ground many a miller of Oldtown undertakes long journeys. Reader, with your leave, I will here introduce one of them.

Good luck brought us into acquaintance with Mr. Gillies, whom we happened to meet in the course of our travels, as he was returning from an exploring tour. About the first of August he formed a party of sixteen persons, each carrying a knapsack and an axe. Their provis- ions consisted of 250 lbs. of pilot bread, 150 lbs. of salted pork, 4 lbs. of tea, two large loaves of sugar, and some salt. They embarked in light canoes, 12 miles north of Bangor, and followed the Penobscot as far as Wassataquoik river, a branch leading to the northwest, until they reached the Seboois Lakes, the principal of which lie in a line, with short portages between them. Still proceeding northwest, they navigated these lakes, and then turning west carried their canoes to the great lake, thence north, then along a small stream to the upper "Umsaskis Pond," when they reached the Alleguash river, which leads into the St. John's, in about latitude 47° 3'. Many portions of that country had not been visited before, even by the Indians, who assured Mr. Gillies of this fact. They continued their travels down the St. Johns to the Grand Falls, where they met with a portage of half a mile, and, having reached Meduxmekeag creek, a little above Wood- stock, the party walked to Houlton, having travelled 1,200 miles, and described almost an oval over the country by the time they returned to Oldtown on the Penobscot.

While anxiously looking for "lumber lands," they ascended the emi- nences around, then climbed the tallest trees, and, by means of a great telescope, inspected the pine-woods in the distance. And, such excel- lent judges are these persons of the value of the timber which they thus observe, when it is situated at a convenient distance from water, that they never afterwards forgot the different spots at all worthy of their attention. They had observed only a few birds and quadrupeds, the latter principally porcupines. The borders of the lakes and rivers afforded them fruits of various sorts and abundance of cranberries, while the uplands yield plenty of wild white onions and a species of black plum.

Some of the party continued their journey in canoes down the St. John's, ascended Eel river and the lake of the same name to Matta- wamkeag river, due southwest of the St. John's, and, after a few por- tages, fell into the Penobscot. I had made arrangements to accom- pany Mr. Gillies on a journey of this kind, when I judged it would be more interesting, as well as useful to me, to visit the distant country of Labrador.

The road which we followed from Oldtown to Bangor was literally covered with Penobscot Indians returning from market. On reaching the latter beautiful town, we found very comfortable lodgings in an ex- cellent hotel, and next day proceeded by the mail to Boston.

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

CHAPTER II. THE PENOBSCOT INDIANS.

The Eastern Tribes-The Race-stock-The Abenakis-The Etche- mins-The Tarratines-Early History of the Tarratines-Wars and Incidents-More of the Wars-The Three-years' War-An Interest- ing Narrative-Gyles's Captivity Among the Penobscots-A Modern Affair-The Tarratine Chiefs : The Bashaba-Later Tarratine Chiefs and Governors-Orono-John Atteon-The Penobscot "in Politics" -The Indian Lands and Treaties-The Indian Trust Fund-The Old Indian Villages-The Indian Census-The Penobscot Reserva- tion-The Community of Sisters of Mercy.

THE EASTERN TRIBES.

The Indians of Maine have received comparatively little attention from the writers upon the aborigines, whose regards have been principally given to the red men of the Middle States, the South, and the Far West. Gookin, in his enumeration of the New England tribes, does not mention the Eastern Indians at all, but speaks only of five "nations," the Pequots, the Narragansetts, the Pawkunawkutts, the Massachusetts, and the Paw- tuckets, the last-named of whom "had under them sev- eral smaller sagamores, as the Pentacooks, the Agawams, the Naumkeeks, Piscataways, Accomentas, and others." It may be that the uncommonly peaceful and friendly disposition of the savages upon the Maine, making them less the subjects of history than their brethren of Massa- chusetts and New York, has contributed to keep them in the background of the aboriginal picture. Neverthe- less their ethnological place, their numbers and charac- teristics, and the wars in which they finally engaged, possess sufficient interest to demand place in this work.

THE RACE-STOCK.

In the great divisions of the North American tribes, the Eastern Indians belonged to the Algonquins. The Lenni-Lenape -- or "original people," as their name implies -more commonly known as the Delawares, early ex- tended their hunting-grounds along the Susquehanna, the Potomac, Delaware, and Hudson. When an exodus was made by a portion of this great tribe across the Hud- son, it took from them the name Mahicannituck ; and this, shortened and corrupted in the English mouth, was transferred to them as the Mahicans or Mohicans, and in New England the Mohegans. Here they scattered themselves, as they increased, over all the present States east of the Hudson, and in time became divided into several leading tribes, with many subdivisions or tribal bands. Their affinity with the Indians further to the southward is conclusively proved by the resemblance of language. So long ago as when Charlevoix wrote, this fact was observed. After mentioning the wide dissem- ination of the Algonquin speech (over a circuit of one thousand two hundred leagues), he says: "It is pretended that the natives of New England spoke dialects of the same language." This is confirmed by the statement of Heckewelder, a later and better authority upon Indian topics. He affirms that when the Europeans came, the Mohegans held the entire Atlantic coast, from Roanoke to the northernmost parts of Nova Scotia, and that their language and the tongue of the Algonquins were but but dialects of the same original speech. La Hontan, a

writer of the time of Charlevoix, making his remarks more specific to the Indians of Eastern Maine, says that the dialect of the Etchemins differed but little from that spoken by the Algonquins. The friendship between the Algonquins, so called, and the Eastern Indians, was so warm and cordial as to imply at least the tradition of relationship. Champlain makes record of a great feast prepared by the former in 1603, to which the "Moun- taineers" and the Etchemins were invited. Charlevoix also says in effect that many of the Algonquins joined their brethren of Maine, when the latter were induced by the French to emigrate to St. Francois and Becan- cour, in Canada. Dr. Dwight says in his Travels:

The Indians of Penobscot, as I have been since informed by the Hon. Timothy Edwards, were proved to be Mohekaneews by the following incident : Several men of this tribe, during the Revolutionary war, came to Boston to solicit of the Government a stipend, which had been formerly granted to the tribe by the Legislature of Massachusetts Bay. The business was referred by the council of safety to Mr. Edwards, then a member of their body, as being versed in the affairs and ac- quainted with the character of Indians. Mr. Edwards employed Hen- drick Awpaumut, a Stockbridge Indian accidentally in Boston at that time, to confer with the petitioners and learn the nature of their expecta- tions. Hendrick found himself able to converse with them, so far as to understand their wishes satisfactorily ; and observed to Mr. Edwards that their language was radically Mohekaneew, and differed only as a dialect. This fact I have from Mr. Edwards. I have mentioned it here, because the contrary seems to have been universally adopted.

It may be added here that the plural form of the word Muhhekaneew, according to Dr. Edwards, is Muhheka- neok, whence Mohican and Mohegan. Besides the generic application of the term, it is also a specific name for a tribe that dwelt in the present Windham county, Connecticut, and thence north to the State line. It was a powerful organization, putting in the field three thou- sand warriors, and having at one time the celebrated Uncas for chief.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 8

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