USA > Maine > Knox County > South Thomaston > History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, from their first exploration, A. D. 1605; with family genealogies, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Maine > Knox County > Rockland > History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, from their first exploration, A. D. 1605; with family genealogies, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Maine > Knox County > South Thomaston > History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, from their first exploration, A. D. 1605; with family genealogies, Vol. I > Part 10
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
" Mrs. Leeds, a niece of the young men killed. Also a paper contain- ing testimony of the daughter of B Cooper, of Wm. Lermond, and others, lost when preparing the Annals of Warren, but since found.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
there were on board, and with the aid of Mrs. Gamble, who reloaded as fast as they were discharged, kept the Indians at, bay till they became discouraged and withdrew. Among the occurrences also of this war, probably, (though it might have boon the preceding one, for tradition is silent as to the time,) was the death of a young man by the name of McNeal, the only son of his widowed mother. At a time when no Indians were supposed to be about, he had been sent out to look for the cows, and not knowing how far the search might lead him, took a piece of bread and butter in his hand, and set off. Having proceeded some distance toward Mill River, he was probably waylaid, shot, and scalped by some lurking party of the enemy, as his lifeless body was found beyond Byron's brook," with some of the bread still remaining in his mouth.t
The Indians, notwithstanding the vigorous warfare they were thus waging, were greatly afflicted with the small-pox the present year, and began to be weary of the conflict; but the power and influence of France remaining hostile, their overtures for peace through Capt. Bradbury, could not be trusted, and resulted in nothing. Besides the companies of scouts or rangers constantly traversing the woods, vessels were often fitted out by private persons for the sake of the bounty for prisoners and scalps, and such booty as they might be able to obtain. One such expedition sent from Falmouth, accomplished a part of its design within the limits of this town, as will appear from the following extracts. Capt. Remilly, commander of the Broad Bay scouts, writes in his journal: "June 7th. It hath rained, so could not march, but had guards on board the coasters; about one o'clock the George's Company returned and brought an account of 30 canoes being landed at the Olds [Owl's ] Head, and 2 Indians . being killed and scalped by Capt. Cox." Rev. Thos. Smith of Falmouth wrote in his journal: " April 20th. Joseph Cox, Bailey, and others, sailed upon a cruise for six weeks after the Penobscot Indians." . .. "June 2d. Cox and Bayley returned from their cruise after the Indians, bringing with them the scalps of 2 men whom they killed." . "June 18th. I received £165, and 33 of Cox, my part of scalp money."# Such were the times and the feeling, that it ap-
* A small affiuent of Mill River, passing by at no great distance N. E from the Fort, to which the women in garrison often resorted to do their washing.
+ Mrs. Hyler. Capt. S. M. Shibles, &c.
+ Smith's Journal, pp. 170-1-3.
-
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
pears even so worthy a man and pious minister could without much scruple receive a share in the price of blood.
In the latter part of the summer of this year, Capt. Jabez Bradbury resigned his command of the Fort here, and re- tired to Newburyport, where he died in January, 1781, aged eighty-eight years, and leaving an estate of £15,000." Lieut. Fletcher also resigned and was succeeded by John McKechnie, a physician and practical surveyor, who had been some time in the fort as clerk, and married a daughter of Capt. North. Bradbury was succeeded as captain and commander by John North, one of the first settlers here, who had before been commanding the fort at Pemaquid. While there, he was, it is said, applied to for a supply of provisions by one Wm. Loud, who had formerly commanded a vessel at Portsmouth, but, leaving a worthy wife and her respectable connections, was then living with a disreputable woman on the island which now bears his name. North, who was firm but mild in his disposition, refused, on account of his conduct; and Loud in retaliation attempted to get him removed, saying to the Governor and Council, " Oswego is gone, Ticonderoga is · gone, and two old squaws can take Pemaquid." While the failure of this attempt still rankled in Loud's breast and in- tensified his hostility, North went to survey the island with Drowne, a Pemaquid proprietor who claimed it. Loud stood on the shore, and, holding a pistol in his hand, declared with many oaths that he would shoot the first man that set foot on the island. But North, as soon as the boat struck the shore, stepped out regardless of the menace and was very coolly approaching him, when Loud finding threats vain, gave up, and very pleasantly said, " Ah! Johnny, is it you ?" - and the survey was made without interruption. After his return here, he commanded the garrison till the end of the war; and, like his predecessor, he was not able with all his popu- . larity to escape the suspicions of the more jealous of the people that he was sometimes guilty of trading with the Indians. He continued after the peace to reside in the fort, held a justice's commission, and in June, 1760, on the estab- lishment of the County of Lincoln, was appointed one of the four Judges of the Court of Common Pleas.
1758. Notwithstanding a second capture of Louisburg which drew off many soldiers from these eastern parts, 35 men were continued at the fort here, and the usual number at the block-houses. Thomas Pownal, who had arrived in
* Communication of John M. Bradbury, Esq., of Boston.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
Massachusetts as Governor, the preceding year, having now, in August, 1758, received information from Nova Scotia that a body of French, in conjunction with the St. John, Penob- scot, and Passamaquoddy Indians, were meditating an attempt upon the fort here and the destruction of all the settlements, immediately embarked with such forces as were at hand, on board the ship King George and sloop Massachusetts. Ar- riving here, he threw these auxiliaries with some additional warlike stores into the fort at a most fortunate juncture; for within 36 hours after his departure, the fort was actually as- sailed by a body of 400 French and Indians. But so well pre- pared was the garrison to receive them, that they were unable to make the least impression. Nor did any representations of their numbers, nor any threats, communicated to the fort by a captive woman whom they purposely permitted to escape thither, occasion any serious alarm. Despairing of anything further, the besiegers gave vent to their rage by killing the neighboring cattle, about 60 of which they shot or butchered. Before this, not so many had been destroyed as might have been expected from their exposure in the woods and distant meadows, since they seem to have caught the fear of their owners and always fled at the sight of an Indian. Though out of command, Bradbury was still in the fort at the time of this engagement. Among the incidents of this attack, it is related that on one occasion, while the enemy were about the fort and the garrison afraid to go out, the sound of their tomahawks, employed in digging potatoes behind the barn, was heard by the inmates of the fort; who thought they were intrenching, and began to apprehend a protracted siege and perhaps capture with all its terrors. This, to many, was a fearful and anxious night. But the next morning a few bombs were sent over, and the besiegers were compelled to disperse, to the great relief of the timid and inexperienced.
1759. Among the many enterprises against the enemy this year, that of Gov. Pownal, in going up the Penobscot with 395 men and building the fort which took his name on that river, was peculiarly fortunate for the settlements here. rendering this no longer the frontier post. The governor was accompanied in this expedition by the proprietor, Brigadier Samuel Waldo, at that time a member of the Council or up- per branch of the Provincial Legislature. Their arrival, with the troops and transports, in this place, from which, as the most eastern post of the province. the expedition was to take its departure, formed an epoch in the comparatively monoton- ous life of the settlers and garrison here, and became still
7
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
more memorable as it proved to be the last visit they were ever to receive from their patron, the active and patriotic Waldo. Having first rendezvouscd at Falmouth, they em- barked the 8th May, and, according to the Governor's journal, on the " 9th, at S, A. M. arrived at the mouth of George's River. At 10, set out for the Fort in the Barge, Yawl, and six Whaleboats, for the Fort St. George's. At 3 P. M., ar- rived, Visiting the Garrison'd houses as we pass'd." His welcome reception and the hearty greeting of Henderson, Burton, North, and Kilpatrick, with whom he had already made acquaintance and accorded much good fellowship, may be more easily imagined than described. A portion of the troops, 100 men, were left down the river under command of the redoubtable Capt. Cargill, while others came up in a large sloop and were joined the next day by the companies from Broad Bay, Pemaquid, and Kennebec. One of the first measures adopted by the Governor was to call in as many Indians as could be found, and strongly impress upon their minds the nature and importance of the design he was re- solved to execute. Five of these, found at the garrison, were sent out to gather in those of the tribes supposed to be lurk- ing in the woods, with assurances that they could be safe no- where but under the guns of the Fort. Cargill was ordered to land on the Eastern side of the river, proceed to the lower Carrying place, and, leaving an Officer's Guard there, go on to the Middle and Upper Carrying places, stationing similar guards with orders to let all Indians coming to the Fort pass unmolested, but to stop all going from it and bring them in, by fair means if possible ; if not, by force of arms. In ex- ecuting these orders Cargill, in the morning of May 11th, fell upon some fresh tracks, traced them by himself alone to a camp of ten Indians, " came back, took with him Lt. Preble and 10 men, ordering four on the Right Flank, Four on the Left, and proceeded directly himself with the other, with or- ders not to Fire. When he came near the Camp, he discov- ered himself, call'd to the Indians to come in, as he expressed it, Good Quarters. The Indians started up, cryed out no Quarters, no Quarters, and fired upon him. He then Fired, and ordered his men to Fire away. The Indians Ran, -two fell, one rose again, and got off into the Swamp, -the other rose no more, and proved to be an Old Squaw."
After this exhibition of Cargill's aptitude for killing Indian women, and an examination of such other Indians as could be collected, and a talk with them, in which Gov. Pownal mingled threats and promises in his own energetic manner,
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
the four companies started, May 12th, on their march through the wilderness, guided by "one Robinson, a hunter," proba- bly one of the six sons of Dr. Moses Robinson. The Gor- ernor himself proceeded with the 20-gun ship King George, Capr. Benj. Hallowell, and the transports loaded with mate- rials, including "40 hogsheads of Lime which I laded at George's." Their further proceedings and the laying out of Fort Pownal on an eligible point in the present town of Stockton, we pass over, except what relates to Brigadier Waldo, whose death occurred on the East side " of the Pe- nobscot in the present town of Brewer, and is thus noted in the Boston News Letter of May 31st, 1759. "On Wednes- day, the 23d instant, the Hon. Brig. Gen. Waldo, who went with His Excellency in his late expedition to Penobscot, drop'd down with an Apoplexy, on the march just above the . first Falls; and notwithstanding all the assistance that could be given, expired in a few moments. His Excellency had the corpse brought down with him to the Fort Point, where it was interred in a Vault built for the purpose, on Friday, with all the Honours due to so faithful a servant of the pub- lic, and so good a Commonwealth's man as the Brigadier had ever shown himself to be."f It is not known that his re- mains were ever removed or any monument erected. Thus this enterprising and successful merchant, the military hero of Louisburg, the founder of the settlements on this river, by whose influence and exertion they had thus far been fostered, protected, and sustained, ended his busy career, leaving his large estate, much of which was vested in this patent and other lands in Maine, to his sons Samuel and Francis of Fal-
* Not west side, as stated in the Annals of Warren on authority of the historian of Maine and other writers. What is said there, also. of the Brigadier's exclaiming, " here are my bounds !" rests on a widely current tradition among the settlers here, and is said to have been confirmed by an eye-witness, R. Stimson, an early settler of Belfast : see Locke's Hist. of Camden ; but is not mentioned, that I am aware of, in any cotemporary writer nor especially in the above quoted Journal of Gov. Thos. Pownal, furnished for the 5th Vol. of the Me. Hist. Soc .. by Hon. Jos. Williamson of Belfast, to whose researches the public is greatly indebted. This gen- tleman remarks in a note, that " the Waldo patent did not extend across the river " Penobscot : but the Proprietors always contended that it did, until by compromise it was otherwise determined by the Legislature. A misapprehension also was adopted in my former work from high authori- ties, respecting the leaden plate buried in the ground. which was to com- memorate, not the death of Waldo, but the formal possession of the country taken by the English. See Pownal's Certificate furnished 6th Vol. Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., by Hon. Jos. Williamson.
+ Extract from the News Letter communicated by Rev. J. L Sibley, librarian of H. U. to the N. E .. Hist. and Gen. Register of April, 1859, p. 167.
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
mouth, and his two daughters, Hannah, wife of Thomas Fluker, or Flucker as sometimes written, of Boston, and Lucy, wife of Isaac Winslow of Roxbury."
1760. In 1760, the Indians, disheartened by the erec- tion of the fort before mentioned, and by the taking of Quehier; began to make proposals for peace; and, though the treaty was not signed by the Sagamores at Boston till April 13th, so little was there to fear from them that the people, from the towns above and below, mostly left the garrison and went on to their farms; still leaving their most valuable furniture here, and occasionally returning on any alarm of danger. One Sunday during divine service by some transient clergyman or missionary, an Indian came into the fort with intelligence that his countrymen were coming to attack the settlement; an alarm gun was fired and people came flocking in on all sides with their cattle and property, leaving little for the Indians to plunder. This ill-used people had yet many private wrongs to be avenged; and several of their most active enemies, as Killpatrick here, who from his success in their destruction had been nick-named Tom-kill-the-devil by Gov. Pownal, to- gether with Boggs of the Upper town, and Burton of the Lower, were supposed to be marked for vengeance. A single Indian had been observed lurking about Killpatrick's block- house, and, one day, was discovered in the top of a lofty pine about fifteen rods distant, as if endeavoring to overlook and spy out the condition of things within. Means were imme-
* The following is all we have been able to collect of the family history : WALDO, Jonathan, of German descent, resided and traded in Boston, " a fair dealer and a liberal benefactor to the poor, died May 26, 1731. in his 63d year, leaving large donations to pious uses." Of his children, 1, Brig. Gen. Samuel, born in England, 1696, married Lucy -, who died Aug. 7, 1741,-aged 37 years, was a merchant on King now State street, Boston, Proprietor, Councillor, &c., died May 23, 1759. His children,. 1, Col. Samuel (2d) grad. H. U. 1743 ; married Olive Grizzle, 2d, Sarah Erving, Feb. 26, 1762; resided in Middle street. Portland, was Judge of Probate, and died Ap 16, 1770, aged 47 ;- " buried. the 20th, with great parade under the Episcopal Church," says Rev. T. Smith. 2, Francis. collector of His Majesty's Customis at Falmouth, several times member of Gen. Assembly of Mass. Bay, died at Tunbridge, Eng, J. 9. 1784. 3, Ralph, died aged about 20 years. 4, Hannah, married Hon. Thos. Flucker of Boston. 5. Lucy, married Isaac Winslow of Roxbury. Col. Samuel's children, 1, Sarah, born Nov. 30, 1762, married Judge Wm. Wetmore of Boston. 2, Samuel (3d,) born Mar. 4, 1764, married, Feb. 1789, Mrs Sarah F. Chase, daughter of Isaac Winslow. 3, John E., born Aug. 28, 1765, died Ap 17, 1787. 4, Lucy, born Aug. 13, 1766, married Alexander Wolcott of Mid- dletown, Cr. 5, Franci- (21,) all born in Portland. 6, Ralph (2d, ) born in Boston, Sept. 1770. Samuel Waldo (36, )'s children. 1, Samuel ( th). 2, Hon. Francis Wainwright. a lawyer and judge in one of the Western States, who spent some of his last years in Thomaston, where he died about 1837. 3, William T. a mercantile gentleman of property, still re- siding, it is believed, in Boston. 4, Sarah E.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
diately taken to dislodge him; and the cohorn, already mounted and loaded, was aimed so exactly or guided so prov- identially, that on its discharge the Indian fell to the ground, dead; and that was the last act which passed between the Indians and this their unflinching antagonist. On another occasion a party of about thirty Indians, who had kindled a large fire upon a great rock in the present field of Mrs. Mary Hyler, were observed dancing, whooping, and carousing around, in a manner which seemed likely to end in mischief; but they were frightened away by the discharge of a 4 or 6- pound ball from the fort, crashing through the branches of the scattered trees near them. A cleft in the rock, supposed to have been made by the heat of the fire, still remains as a memorial of the incident.
.
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
CHAPTER VI.
NEW SETTLERS, AND INCIDENTS PRECEDING THE REVOLU- TION.
1761. Or the year succeeding the war, 1761, little has been transmitted except traditions of a remarkable and early drought, continuing from June till the 20th of August.
1762. Col. Samuel Waldo of Falmouth, after the death of his father, occasionally visited the place to look after the estate, sell or rent lands to applicants, and fulfil any subsist- ing contracts; but in 1765 he sold the two shares which fell to him by right of primogeniture to his brother-in-law Thos. Flucker, Esq., who thus became the principal owner of the lands hereabouts, except the Middle Neck, three-fourths of which had been previously sold by Francis Waldo in England. This Middle Neck, so called, was a narrow tract of land, or isthmus, lying partly in the present South Thomaston and partly in St. George; extending from the Wessaweskeag stream and the ocean on the cast to St. George's River on the west, and from near the mouth of Mill River on the north as far down as Cutler's cove, or a little beyond, on the south. This tract, being more exposed to Indian incursions from the two or three trails which crossed it, and its owners residing in England with no agents here to give titles, was not early entered upon. Its first settlers were without title-deeds till after the death of Gen. Knox, when the one-fourth not previ- ously sold was bid off at auction by Messrs. Snow, Coombs, Bridges, and Keating, in behalf of the occupants. The other three-fourths ultimately passed into the hands of Mr. Vaughan of Hallowell, from whom deeds were obtained on satisfactory terms after the separation of Maine from Massachusetts.
The first tax ever assessed upon the people here, was that of this year on the new county of Lincoln formed in 1760; of which £4, 5s. &d. were apportioned to the Upper St. George's plantation, which included the present Warren and Thomaston as far as Mill River. Capt. Killpatrick and Hugh McLean were chosen assessors, - the first officers of the kind in the place, and who are said to have despatched the business in a summary manner by assigning a pistareen or 20 cts. to cach of the ablest settlers and exempting most of the others, Killpatrick, as the reader may have seen, was the leading cit- izen of what is now Thomaston, still living at his block-house at the head of the Narrows, and having in possession 700
----
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
acres of land; the lots of his brothers, for which he originally subscribed, having now mostly passed into his hands. McLean had by inheritance one of the best and most privileged farms, now that of Mr. S. Andrews in Warren; followed coasting be- tween here and Boston; and this year, 1762, was engaged at this place in re-building the saw-mill at Mill River. The conditions on which this mill was re-built, as agreed upon by the Waldo heirs and McLean, were that he should re-build the mill and a sufficient dam across the river, and have the use of the same for seven years, as also the privilege of cut- ting lumber upon any of the Proprietors' lands and " the use of ten acres of Salt marsh at Wessaweskeag, formerly im- proved by Capt. Gyles," with five acres of the large fresh Meadow above, for the same seven years; accounting to the said Waldo heirs for one-third part of all the lumber sawed, if cut on their lands, or one-fourth part if cut on the lands of other owners, retaining the same however till his expense of building the mill and dam was fully reimbursed. A proviso was added that if " the French or Indian Enemys" should prevent the working of the mill, the agreement should then terminate." As yet, we have found no evidence that any bridge had been built over the Mill River, as requested by the Indians in 1752. But something of the kind was proba- bly now put up, - though perhaps not for some years yet ; as Thomaston was still dreary, wild, and uninviting, and no. mention of any bridge is found on record till the laying out of the road in 1779.
The garrison was this year, 1762, discontinued; and the . cooking utensils and other property sold off at auction, -the guns, ammunition, and works, being left under the care of its late commander, Capt. North, still residing within the bar- racks, and this year licensed to sell spirituous liquors. But, encouraged by the cessation of war, emigrants began to come to the place; and for them, also, these barracks at the fort were found very convenient as temporary residences until others better suited to their purposes could be put up.
Among the earliest of these was Oliver Robbins, with his wife and seven children, from Attleboro', Mass., who this year built the first framed dwellinghouse in the present limits of old Thomaston, including Rockland city and South Thom- aston. It was raised at Christmas, Dec. 25, 1762, on one of the three lots just below Mill River, which he took up and occupied during his life and which, through his sous Otis and
* Original agreement, in possession of Judge B. Fales.
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
Shepard, have come down to the present owners, Messrs. Viram and W. Robbins. This house was situated in the field of the latter, near the banks of the George's. Here, May 11, 1764, was born his daughter, Milea or Melia, supposed to be the first white child horn to the eastward of Mill River. Jonathan Crockett, born at Falmouth, who, together with his father, (of the Scottish stock from the north of Ireland,) and. brother Nathaniel, had resided awhile in the garrison here, having been driven by the Indians from their residence, then we believe on one of the Fox Islands, was now at the close of the war a resident in this place; and the following year, 1763, married the oldest daughter of Mr. Robbins, but per- haps returned to the island. Seven years later, however, he became one of the first settlers of what is now Rockland; and his brother Nathaniel was an early, perhaps the earliest settler at Ash Point; the descendants of both having been numerous and including no inconsiderable portion of the business talent of the community. The same year, 1762, Wm. Gregory, brother-in-law of O. Robbins, came from Walpole to the Fort, where he had before been employed a few years, with the intention now of becoming a permanent settler. He carried on the Fort farm, as it was called, about seven years ; - living part of the time in the Fort, and part of the time in a log house which stood near the present Thomaston burying-ground and was afterwards occupied awhile by Jonathan Lampson. But when the town of Cam- den was surveyed in 1768, Gregory took up 400 acres of land adjoining the sea at Clam Cove; and, having constructed a log house roofed with bark, removed thither in January, 1770. . There, May 5, 1771, was born his son Josiah, the first male child of European extraction born in Camden, as Bridget Richards, whose birth preceded his, was the first female .* Gregory kept a house of entertainment during the Revolu- tion, and, although nominally belonging to the society of Friends, was subsequently captain of the Camden militia company.
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