USA > Maine > York County > Saco > History of Saco and Biddeford, with notices of other early settlements, and of proprietary governments, in Maine, including the provinces of New Somersetshire and Lygonia > Part 21
USA > Maine > York County > Biddeford > History of Saco and Biddeford, with notices of other early settlements, and of proprietary governments, in Maine, including the provinces of New Somersetshire and Lygonia > Part 21
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- Pendleton Fletcher, "being nearly past labor," convey- ed his property to his sons, 1746; their names were, John, Joseph, Brian, Pendleton, Seth, and Samuel. His son Pendleton died on the Neck, 17 April, 1807, in the one hundredth year of his age. Mr. Fletcher sold } of
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the Neck, of Wood island, &c. for £1400, lawful, to Batchelor Hussey of Sherburne, Nantucket, 1737. Mr. Hussey was of the society of Friends ; he was a descen- dant of Christopher Hussey, who came to New England from the town of Dorking, near London, 1634, and set- tled at Lynn, Mass. Christopher married Theodata, daughter of Rev. Stephen Batchelor, and left two sons, Stephen and John, the former of whom lived at Nan- tucket, where he died 1718, aged eighty eight. Batche- lor Hussey, the year after his purchase, 1738, built the house on Fletcher's Neck, now occupied by his grandson, friend Christopher.
Capt. Daniel Smith was among the earliest settlers in the town the last century. He came from Exeter, and married after his removal, 1719, Rebecca Emery, by whom he had ten children. He died about 1750. His widow married Mr. Nathaniel Ladd 1755, an officer of the English army, who settled in town after his marriage, and continued the public house kept by Capt. Smith. Lieut. Ladd is said to have been a native of Exeter, N. H. ; he died 1776. Madam Ladd (as she was styled) survived her second husband ten years, and died at the age of eighty eight, having had 144 descendants, inclu- ding four great great grand children. Her daughter Re- becca married Dominicus Scamman, second son of Capt. Humphry, the partner of Pepperell and Weare, 1741. Lydia, another daughter, married Benjamin Hooper, Esq. 1744; Mary, third daughter, married J. Hill, as already stated.
Samuel Scamman while living at Kittery, about 1712, married Margery Deering ; their children were three sons, Samuel, John, and Ebenezer. Mr. Scamman lived on the eastern side of the river, half a mile above the lower ferry, (opposite Ephraim Ridlon;) but after the death of his wife, (1740, at the age of 51,) he resided with his son Samuel, who built a house with a garrison a- bout that time where Mr. Stephen Sawyer now lives. There was no house above for many years. The other sons occupied the old homestead. Mr. Scamman died 1752, aged fifty eight ; his son Samuel six years after, aged forty five. The latter married Mehitable Hinkley
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of New Meadows (Brunswick) 1736 ;* their children were, Samuel, (late deacon,) Isaac, Freeman, Mary, Elizabeth, Mehitable, Sarah, and Rachel. The widow of Mr. John Scamman married a second husband, and removed with her children, one son, Daniel, and two daughters, to Mount Desert, where their descendants are now found.
On the declaration of war by the English government against France, 31 March, 1744, the news of which reached our inhabitants May 19, defensive preparations began instantly to be made throughout the eastern towns, the savages being still regarded as under the influence of the French. Sunday, May 20, the people of Falmouth and North Yarmouth, as it appears from the Journal of Mr. Smith, were at work upon their garrisons, and many even feared to attend meeting. "All the talk and thoughts," he writes a few days after, "are about war. People are every where garrisoning." A slight shock of an earthquake was felt June 3, which added to the ter- ror and alarm already excited. A public fast was obser- ved on Thursday, 28 June, "on account of the war and the earthquake." The military peace establishment of Mass. consisted at that time of 114 men, of whom forty eight were stationed in the county of York, viz. at Rich- mond Fort, on the Kennebec, 10; at Brunswick Fort 6 ; at Pemaquid Fort 6 ; at St. Georges (near Penob- scot bay) 13; and at the truckhouse on Saco river 13. Five hundred men were immediately impressed into the service, three hundred of whom were sent to the east- ward. The truckhouse was reinforced by twenty of the number, and the remainder were distributed into other parts of the county. The 'fencible men,' or militia, of Maine, consisted of two regiments, containing 3105 men, one of which, commanded by Col. Pepperell, afterwards Sir William, was formed by the western towns in the fol- lowing proportion : Kittery 450, York 350, Arundel 95,
*The Hinkleys were from the old Colony of Plymouth, (tradition) where Thomas Hinkley was an Assistant or Counsellor, 1658, and af- ter. Two brothers of Mrs. Scamman were slain by the Indians at New Meadows, one of them 1747. Smith's Journal. 46. N. E. Me- morial.
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Biddeford 120, Berwick 150, Phillipston (Sandford) 150. The other, under the command of Col. Samuel Waldo of Falmouth, was formed as follows : Scarboro' 160, Falmouth 500, North Yarmouth 150, Brunswick 50, Sagadehock, (G orgetown, &c.) 370, New Marblehead (Windham,) 40, Narraganset, No. 1. (Buxton) 20 .*
In July, Commissioners were sent to treat with the Penobscot Indians, who obtained from them a solemn promise that they would remain at peace. So great con- fidence was reposed in their sincerity, that before winter all the forces sent into the county, were dismissed, ex- cepting one travelling company, in which were enlisted three Saco Indians, whose families, says Mr. Smith, were settled at Stroudwater, and provided for by government. The year closed without realizing the fears of the inhabi- tants.
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Besides repairing the old garrisons in town, the inhabi- tants erected several new ones at this time. In August, the town voted "to build a frame garrison about the par- sonage house with what was granted by the Province, to be sixty feet square, and to plank it up with two ineh plank, and to build two flankers, the one of fifteen, the other ten feet square." At Winter Harbor, near the sea- shore, four houses, situated on a square, were strongly garrisoned, and occupied by a number of families. P. Fortune now lives at the place. An old lady, a daughter of deacon Stackpole, has informed us that her father re- moved to this garrison at the period in question. The public house of Capt. D. Smith, was secured by a brick wall on the inside, with flankers at each end. On the eastern side, there was the garrison on Fort hill (where Mr. King's store is,) which was large enough to accommodate. several families ; Mr. Gray's house was also garrisoned, at the house of Magnus Ridlon on Rendezvous point, where Capt. Sharp had lived.t
*The Government of Mass. Bay rewarded the forces engaged in the destruction of the Narraganset Indians 1675-6, by a donation of seven townships, which were allotted among the survivors and the heirs of the deceased soldiers, nearly fifty years after the war. Two of the townships were in Maine, Nos. 1 and 7, now Buxton and Gor- ham The others were located in Mass. and N. Hampshire.
tThe name Rendezvous was early applied to the Point, from the
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Early in 1745, the celebrated expedition against Cape Breton, under the command of Pepperell, with the com- mission of Lieut. General, took place. The following persons are all of our inhabitants engaged in it, whose names are remembered : Dea. Benj. Haley, Benj. Svam- man, Nath. Scamman, Andrew Stackpole, Roger Smith, Jonathan Smith, Haven Tarbox, Benj. Mason.
The same year, July 19, Capt. Thomas Bradbury, who cammanded the truckhouse, or blockhouse, as it was now termed, sent an express to Falmouth "advising," says Mr. Smith, "of the Indians breaking out and killing a man and forty cattle, and burning a garrison and sawmill." The next month the government declared war against the Indians. Before the close of the year, several lives were lost, and other ravages committed in the new settlements below Falmouth. Many volunteer parties went in pur- suit of the enemy, receiving from government a bounty of £400 for the scalp of an Indian.
In the summer of 1746, a scout of the enemy prowl- ed around the settlements in the neighborhood of Fal- mouth and of this town. On the morning of Sept. 6, two young men, sons of Mr. Joseph Gordon, named Pike and Joseph, were surprised by them while on the way from their father's house, (near where Benjamin Gordon now lives,) to the Falls. They were employed in the Cole mill, and left home between daylight and sunrise to go to their work ; as they were passing a blacksmith's shop, which stood a few rods below the house of Capt. James Murch, the Indians rushed from behind it into the road ; the young men turned and ran. Joseph, who was very swift of foot, was likely to escape, and called out to his brother to quicken his pace, when the savages fearing they should lose him, fired and killed him on the spot. Pike was taken by a part of the scout who lay conceal- ed further down the road, and was carried to Canada. The Indians retreated at first into a swamp not far from
circumstance that it was a favorite resort of the Indians at particular seasons of the year. There was a garrison on it 1600, as it appears by the following extract from an account of the soldiers stationed in the towns at that time ; "Saco, alias Randivous garrison, Philip For- well captain, six soldiers." Mass, Files. Communicated by J. Coffin.
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the road, taking with them the body of Joseph, where, it is said, they secreted themselves all the day, notwith- standing the inhabitants turned out, and made a diligent search for the young men. Capt. Bradbury received the alarm, and came down from the blockhouse with part of his men. Seven weeks after, the remains of the young man were found, and conveyed the first certain information of his melancholy fate to the afflicted family. A letter was afterwards received from Pike at Quebec, giving an ac- count of his capture ; he died in that city the same win- ter, Dec. 6. It is related that young Gordon enforced the respect of the savages, on the route to Canada, by his fearless deportment. There were other prisoners in the party, all of whom the Indians treated with great in- dignity as well as cruelty. Their food was generally in- ferior to that of their masters, as they were not allowed to eat with them. It was on an occasion of this sort tha; Gordon discovered a resolution which surprised them ; having killed a wild animal, they reserved for their own use the parts suitable for food, and threw the remainder to the prisoners. Pike, not relishing this treatment, made his way unbidden into their circle, and with his knife carved off a piece of the meat, which he ate. The sava- ges were amazed, and cast on the rash intruder fierce and threatening looks ; but he, wholly unmoved, contin- ued to help himself with great coolness and determina- tion. Resentment was soon changed to admiration of a courage so unusual among their captives, and Pike thence- forth was admitted to their mess .*
*A sort of monody on the death of these youths was composed, it is said, by a young woman to whom Joseph was engaged to be married. The verses are somewhat in the simple, unpolished style of the Bay Psalm Book, which was, perhaps, the model of the fair writer. We give a part, not having room for the whole.
"The sixth day of September, a mighty blast there fell, Upon the town of Biddeford, as is known very well. There was two promising likely youths most quickly snatched away.
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The next year, the savages were quiet until April 13, when they appeared in Scarboro', and Nathaniel Dres- ser, a young man, was killed. While at work in a field at some distance from the garrison on Scottow's hill, young Dresser discovered an Indian approaching, and fled for the garrison. It is doubted whether the Indian at first intended to kill him, but finding that he outstrip-
As they were walking in the street ; how soon they're took away ! One of them presently was slain, the other to the woods
Was by those heathen led away, but where none understood. A poor desolate captive soul, he's led in the wilderness With leanness sent into his soul, by hunger and thirstiness. It is the hand of God ! and we acknowledge it had need, Lest any murmuring thought out of our hearts proceed. Altko your hopeful son is dead yet he's but laid to sleep,
I trust he'll rise at the great day most holy and most sweet.
Though seven weeks upon the ground his body it did lie,
He's nothing worse at all for that if he's in heaven on high.
There's few young men were like to him, who shunn'd all sinfulness,
For he in time did serve the Lord, with fear and reverence.
No songs nor dances nor no plays, that ever he did mind,
His heart was set on things above to which he was inclin'd. The sabbath day he did not break as many others do, But in the fear of God did walk, and in his law did go. Oh blest is every youthful one, that doth his footsteps take !" &c.
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ped himself in running, he rested his gun against the cor- ner of a barn, and shot him within a few yards of the garrison. The leaps of this young man in his flight are said to have measured twelve feet.#
A few days after, 17 April, Mr. Nathaniel Eliot and his son who lived at the Falls, on the western side of the river, were attacked in a field a short distance below the present lower meetinghouse in Biddeford. Mr. William Murch dwelt at that time nearly where his grandson, Capt. Wm. Murch's house now stands, on the road leading to Kennebunk-port, which was not then laid out ; there was, however, a private way from the Pool road to Murch's house. The Eliots were returning on this path with a load of hay, which they had obtained of Murch, when the In- dians fired upon them and instantly killed the old man. The son, it is said, might have escaped, but exasperated by the fall of his father, he levelled and discharged his gun at the enemy, and then took to flight ; he had not run far when another fire brought him to the ground. The bodies of the unfortunate persons were afterwards found on the spot where they fell, and decently buried. The savages proceeded to Murch's, and took him prisoner, near his barn, when they decamped without committing any further injury. They carried Mr. Murch to Canada by the route of the White Hills, whence he returned the following season. So bent on mischief were these In- dians, that they cut out the tongues of Murch's cattle. A daughter of the late deacon Wingate relates, that Mr. Morrill, and his brother in law, Rev. S. Hill, were riding that day towards the lower part of the town, when they heard the guns and soon after discovered the Indians at a distance. Putting spurs to their horses, they barely es- caped to the parsonage house, which was well secured against an assault. Our informant (who was then five or six years of age) recollects that her father came hastily into the house, exclaiming, There must be mischief done, for Parson Morrill is running his horse ! The same day the deacon removed his family to the garrison of deacon Hill, which was protected by a high stockade with
tRev. Mr. Tilton, MS. notes.
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flankers. A watch was kept in the flankers to prevent a surprise. The inhabitants placed much reliance in the sagacity of dogs for discovering the enemy ; and were often put on their guard by this faithful animal.
- Capt. John Davis was ordered by government to re- cruit forces in the town for its defence, and enlisted a number of the inhabitants; whereupon a petition was forwarded to the Gen. Court, praying "that the inhabitants might be dismissed from the service, and the like num- ber of impressed soldiers be sent in their room." Da- vis resented the interference of the petitioners, accusing them of forming a 'plot or conspiracy' against himself, as the petition was sent without his knowledge ; but they contended that the enlistment of inhabitants was injurious to the town, and that the object of the petition was sim- ply to remove the evil.
Peace took place in Europe in 1748, and the year fol- lowing a treaty was made with the Indians at Falmouth, when they engaged "to cease and forbear all acts of hos- tility towards all the subjects of the crown of Great Bri- tain." The commissioners on the part of the govern- ment, (appointed by Lieut. Gov. Spencer Phips, in the absence of Gov. Shirley, who had gone to England,) were, Thomas Hutchinson, John Choate, Israel Williams, and James Otis. On the part of the Indians, the treaty was signed and sealed by six representatives of the An- asaguntacooks and Wewenocks, eight of the Norridge- wocks, and five of the Penobscots. The former tribes inhabited about the waters of the Androscoggin and Sheepscot.
The town never afterwards suffered from the depreda- tions of the Indians, altho' hardly one year elapsed before the more eastern settlements were again invaded by the treacherous enemy. In the subsequent war with France, from 1756 to 1763, which resulted in the overthrow of French power and influence in America, the Penobscots alone refused to join their ancient allies ; the other tribes, leagued with the Canadian Indians, continued to harrass the frontier towns. The island of Cape Breton, which was restored to France 1749, again yielded to the Eng- lish arms 1758. Great rejoicings throughout the Pro-
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vince followed the news of this triumph. Some of our inhabitants illuminated their houses on the occasion. The next year Quebec was taken, and in 1760 the English were masters of all Canada. Indian hostilities finally ceased in New England with the reduction of the French ' provinces ; and the settlements in Maine, whose advance in wealth and population had been so materially impeded by the long series, of desolating wars, began from this date to enjoy a good degree of prosperity. In 1750 they contained only 10,000 inhabitants ; and ten years later the number was probably rather diminished than increa- sed ; in 1790, the population was 96,540.
Capt. Bradbury, the commander of the blockhouse during the war, removed to Biddeford after its termina- tion, having purchased a tract of land above the Falls, of which the estate of Mr. Dominicus Cutts now forms a part. He built a house, with a garrison, at that place, and a sawmill on the brook, but removed a few years after to Buxton. Mr. Jacob Bradbury, his brother, settled in Biddeford about the same time ; they came from Salis- bury, Mass. Mr. Chrisp Bradbury, who was of a differ- ent branch of the same family, settled in York, removed to this town as early as 1740. Capt. Jonathan Bean of York, (a son of Capt. Lewis Bean, before noticed,) suc- ceeded Bradbury in the command of the blockhouse ; his son likewise was lieutenant of the company stationed there. The establishment continued to be kept up until 1759, when the soldiers were disbanded, and the can- non, of which there were several small pieces, were transferred to Castle William in Boston harbor. The blockhouse was not designed for the defence of the in- habitants, but as a storehouse for supplying the Indians with goods, at a fair price, in time of peace ; it was, how- ever used for the former purpose. The principal build- ing was enclosed by a strong picket wall with flankers, leaving sufficient space within the premises for a house to contain the stores, and for a parade ground. No re- mains of the buildings, except the foundation, are now visible .*
. A son of Lieutenant Bean still lives at a short distance from the spot, where he was born before the removal of the forces. It is sta
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AND BIDDEFORD.
In 1750, the settlement on the western side of the Falls appears to have become the most considerable in town. The three sawmills (the Gooch, Cole, and Low- er) gave employment to many individuals, who were set- tled in that vicinity. A ferry had been established several years before just below the present lower bridges. It was kept on the western side by Elisha Allen, who traded, and entertained travellers in a small one story house ; he afterwards built, at the same place, the house now occupied by Capt. Samuel White, where he lived until about the close of the revolutionary war .* A few
ted by Sullivan, p. 265, that Rev. Ammi R. Cutter, who had been a minister at N. Yarmouth, was subsequently commander of the truck- house on Saco river. He held the situation but a short time, having succeeded Capt. Smith. There is in our records a copy of a note from him to the townclerk, informing of an estray, dated "Biddeford, Dec. 3, 1743," written, probably, from the truckhouse.
*Mr. Allen purchased, in 1750, the following described tract of land, of which the upper bounds were near his house : "A tract or parcel of land being and lying on Saco river where the tide ebbs and floweth, the breadth of it being 137 poles upon a southeast and north- west line, taking in all the coves upon the tide river and so to low water mark, with all the privileges of fishing and fowling, hawking and hunting, appertaining to the patent : and to begin at a little fall [the ripples, ] being on the outside thereof on the side of it, a little a- bove the old dwellinghouse, and so from thence to go down unto the river by a little brook, which is about twelve poles from the rock nn- to the river, and from that rock to begin upon a southwest line and to run four miles in length southwest, which is the breadth of the patent, and continues its breadth of 137 poles the whole four miles in all places, the southeast marked tree bounding or adjoining the land of Zachary Gillam and Ephraim Turner," &c.
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This land was conveyed by Maj. Phillips to William Hutchinson, 1673; whose heir, Eliakim Hutchinson Esq. of Boston, sold it to Al- len for £1200. The latter immediately after conveyed a breadth of 45 rods on the southeast side to Thos. Gillpatrick, jr., and the same extent next above to Benj. Nason. It thus appears that the land sold by Phillips to Hobbs 1673, which was bounded on the northwest by Daris's brook, was situated in some other part of the patent, and that the brook so called by the Phillips heirs 1718, (see p. 207) was not the same mentioned in the deed to Hobbs. The latter seems to have been the brook now called Dungeon creek, near which Deacon Wingate lived, who bought out one of the Hobbs heirs, Elizabeth Vinning, of Salem.
Allen conveyed the remainder of his purchase several years later to Col. John Tyng, merchant, of Boston, afterwards of Tyngsboro', Mass., who retained the property until his death 1757. The tract purchased by the Jordans and Poak 1742, lay next below the land of
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HISTORY OF SACO
rods above Allen, lived Joshua Warren, and above him, Benj. Hooper, Esq., who subsequently built the house now Capt. Samuel Emery's. William Dyer and Obed Emery were situated on the opposite side of the road, where the late Jeremiah Hill, Esq. (a son in law of Mr. -Emery,) resided. Hooper and Emery were from Ber- wick, and settled in town about 1740. In the vicinity of the mill brow were William Cole, son of Samuel Cole, the original proprietor of the mill that still bears his name ; John Gray, a son of Robert, and 'Theophilus Smith, son of Capt. Daniel, who were the principal millmen. Mr. William Cole died 1754, at the age of thirty six, leaving four sons and one daughter, viz. William, Jeremiah, Olive, Benjamin, and Nathaniel. The daughter was mar- ried to Mr. Lemuel Foss, 1761. Mr. John Gray posses- sed a valuable estate in the vicinity of the Falls. He married a daughter of Matthew Patten 1743. The house "in which he last lived still remains, near the mill brow. He built another for his son in law, Mr. David King, (a brother of the late Rich. King, Esq. of Scarboro',) at the place called 'King's Corner,' a short distance above the upper meetinghouse. Mr. Rob. Gray had two other
sons, James and Robert. The latter purchased the in- 'terest of James Clark, in the vicinity of the lower mee- tinghouse in Biddeford, where he afterwards lived.
A respectable number of families settled in the neigh- borhood of Clarke's, formerly Smith's, brook, early this century. The land of John Smith, which he conveyed to Nicholas Bully 1652, as already stated in the former part of our inquiries, after passing through the hands of various proprietors, was divided, in 1737, among the fol- lowing persons : Thos. Emery, James Clarke, Edw. Proc- tor, Wyatt Moore, and John Murch, all of whoin were then settled on or near the premises. This right, how- ever, was but a small part of what was taken up in that vicinity, and is only referred to as an ancient and interes-
William Hutchinson, and consisted of two lots, one containing 500, the other 400 acres. The reader is desired to make the necessary correction, p. 209.
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ting title. The "neck of land called CHURCH POINT," a boundary of Smith's land in the deed of 1642, on the north side of the brook, is still known under that name, though more commonly called Gray's point, from the late proprietor. Tradition says that the first house of wor- ship stood there ; and as the name savours of episcopacy, the church was probably erected by the earliest colonists. A collection of graves, evidently of great antiquity, is seen on the Point; and, altho' at some distance from the principal settlement of the colonists, the beauty of the spot, (a circumstance more regarded in early than later times,) and the name which it bore several years prior to the erection of the meetinghouse of 1666,* lead us to the conclusion that Church Point was selected by Vines and his associates for the public purposes of religious service and burial.
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