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 17
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 17
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 17
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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
HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
. other, the more anxious and disturbed were the tory captors. Finally Col. Wheaton was invited to take the glass ; and, after he had swept the horizon and gazed a few moments at the schooner, he was asked what he made her out to be. With a smile of hope upon his countenance, he replied " nothing. but a fishing smack, with two men on board, coming out of New Meadows." But yet Linnekin felt un- easy. He made another survey and could see but two men on board - one at the helm and the other walking the deck. He then turned to the prisoners and offered them their liberty if they would fight, in case the schooner proved to be an enemy. This of course they refused, and then went below. The smack, which was now very near, instantly rounded to under the sloop's quarter, and, as if by magic, her deck was immediately lined with men, who fired a volley of bullets into the sloop, killing one man instantly and severely wound- ing one or two others. With but very little resistance, they boarded the sloop and one of the party, recognizing Linne- kin, shouted " surrender, you old tory !" and began balancing former accounts with cuffs and kicks, till the captain of the trainers ended by giving the poor sinner a severe chastise- ment with the rope's end, as he held him by the long queue of hair which he wore, in accordance with the fashion of the times. But to cut our story short, the tories were confined, Col. Wheaton again put into possession of his sloop, and both vessels carried to New Meadows. There, after treating all hands to a bowl of punch, Wheaton proceeded on his way to Boston, leaving Linnekin and his party in custody of his gallant deliverers. *
This same sloop, owned in part by Col. Wheaton and em- ployed in carrying lime from this river to Boston, was, be- fore the war commenced, commanded by Waldo Dicke of Warren; but, now being under the command of Capt. Jordan, some time after the incident related above, she dropped down the river to Maple Juice Cove, and there lay, loaded with lime, waiting for an opportunity to sail for Boston. While lying there, the captain and crew being at their homes, Dicke, now become a formidable foe to our cause, assisted by some other tories or refugees, came in the night, took the vessel, and departed with it for Biguyduce. Although several per- sons of the vicinity started immediately in pursuit, Dicke, by his superior knowledge of the coast, was enabled to get the vessel into a by-place and thus escape discovery, and, when
* Communication in Thomaston Recorder of Feb. 19, 1846, &c. ·
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the pursuit was over, succeeded in reaching the British port. There, it is said, that his account of the exploit was not very graciously received by Gen. Campbell, the commander, and Wheaton was informed that he could have his vessel at a very moderate ransom; but both principle and feeling wore, with him, too strong to allow him to treat in any way with the enemy.
This patriotic citizen, having the preceding year purchased 1000 acres of wild land in Stirlingtown and employed men in clearing up a portion of it, was this year more or less oc- cupied in superintending the same and in putting up a barn there, which was raised in July, 1780. He did not however remove his family thither; but having previously buried his wife, and now, probably, leaving one or both of his two chil- dren for the time with their relatives in Thomaston, he gave up his house to Gen. Wadsworth, who, as before mentioned, established his head-quarters there. In the want of a market for lime, he had previously turned his attention to agricul- ture, having, in 1779, raised a fine crop of corn between the river and the present Prison quarry, Thomaston, -the hills and rows of which, being left undisturbed and gradually swarded over, are, or were a few years since, still distinctly visible. This was, as before mentioned, on the Waldo or Fort farm, the cleared portion of which all lay westward of the present Knox Street. Oct. 6, 1781, he received a com- mission as the first Justice of the Peace in Stirlingtown and there for the first time solemnized a marriage, that between Joel Adams and Jemima Robbins-the first wedding in that place. He did not long remain there, however, though he continued to manage and oversee his farm which he let to Elisha Partridge in 1786, and in 1789 sold 700 acres of it to Thos. Daggett;"- his own attention in the mean time having been turned to the erection of mills in Thomaston at Mill River Bridge. These he probably erected about 1783, by agreement or permission of the Proprietors; as it was not till twelve years later, Oct. 30, 1795, that the mill privilege with 110 acres of land adjoining was deeded to him by Gen. Knox and wife for the sum of $1500. For greater convenience he soon removed from his former residence, the Wadsworth „house, and established himself near his mills in a little log- house part way up the hill west of the bridge, just back of where Counce's store now stands ; built a small store, and for some time sold goods, where S. Waldo's store is now. This
* Sibley's History of Union, p. 49, 66, &c.
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house, and a later framed one into which he transformed his `store, remained under the superintendence of hired house- keepers; - the first of whom was Mrs. Sarah Eastman for several years, and the second was Mary, usually called Molly, Mathews (of the Warren family of that name) who continued her faithful service for the Colonel during his life, and, after his death, for his son down to the time of his marriage late in life.
The Colonel's new investment proving successful, and his popularity being unabated, he was now in the meridian of life and prosperity. He had lost property indeed during the war, but in some degree made up the loss by real estate which he purchased on time and paid for in depreciating pa- per currency just before it ceased to be a tender and became worthless. His property was sufficient for all the necessities of life, and he affected neither its elegancies nor luxuries. Though not destitute of a kindly fellow feeling and generous sympathy for all conditions of life, he was blunt in manner, and particularly contemptuous towards indolence, shiftless- ness, meanness, and knavery. These qualities, aided by a natural irritability of temper, which late in life was aggravated by rheumatic pangs, sometimes degenerated into real rude- ness. One still living, (who, it is said, had the reputation of being a very lazy boy, and therefore not likely to see the Colonel's brighter side,) when recently inquired of by the writer concerning Wheaton's character, said " he was a hard- faced, rough-heeled, passionate, and profane old gentleman." We give a few anecdotes as illustrative of his peculiar char- acteristics. On one occasion when a very unpromising couple presented themselves to be united in marriage, he looked up at them and exclaimed, " My G-d! are there not paupers enough on the town already ?" His housekeeper was natur- ally hard of hearing and consequently dull of understanding what was said to her. Her frequent mistakes often overcame the patience of her employer to such a degree that he was once seen to seize her by the hair of her head and pitch her down among the burdocks near his door. But these transient outbreaks were always excused by the faithful and uncom- plaining Molly, whose reverence for him was unbounded, by simply suggesting that " the Colonel was not himself;" and she used to tell that she one day received a wound from a chair upon her own head rather than dodge aside and let his looking-glass be broken by the blow. His neighbor Abiathar Smith was odd and shiftless, and therefore perhaps set down by Wheaton as somewhat equivocal in character. The latter,
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when living in his Wadsworth house, had missed the clevis and pin from his cart-tongue, then the only one in the neigh- borhood, and, though inquiring diligently, could gain no in- formation of it; till, after the burning of Smith's house, look- ing among the ruins he perceived it or one similar among the ashes and exclaimed, "there's my clevis and pin, at last !" Mrs. Smith overhearing the remark and not liking the impu- tition, said, "Mr. Wheaton, you seem to be hinting we stole your clevis and pin." "Indeed, madam, I so consider it;" was the reply. When Nathaniel Fales (3d) was a small lad, he was sent down from the Beech Woods settlement through the intervening forest to Wheaton's mill with a half bushel of corn on his back. Meeting the Colonel coming up limping along towards his log-house, with his mouth full of tobacco and stockings about his heels, Fales requested him to go back and grind his corn. Wheaton said he could not do it, then - had other business to attend to; - hadn't had any dinner," &c. "But," said the boy, "we want it very much. We have no bread and nothing to make any of." The Colonel began to fume and fret and swear, -hoped the mill would be burnt, or carried away by the freshet - wished it were " al- ready down to Caldwell's Island." "So do I," said the boy, " and you with it !" This spirited reply so pleased the old gentleman, that, with a hearty laugh, he turned back and ground his grist without further ado .*
The depreciation of paper had now so far advanced, that the assessors' pay, which last year was fixed at 30s. per diem, was this year by vote of the town set at £9, or 180s. Such a depression of the currency rendered it difficult for the Gov- ernment to find means for supplying the army with either men, provisions, or clothing ; and compelled a resort to vari- ous expedients to remedy the evil, such as a tax payable in silver money only, and apportionments of clothing, provisions, and recruits for the army. Besides the sum of £600 voted this year for town expenses, in addition to the £200 voted the two preceding years which had not been thus far assessed, the town was this year burdened with the following taxes ; viz: State tax No. 1, of this year, 1780, £4153, 6s. 8d .; " bounty to John Adams a soldier of the town, agreeable to a resolve of the General Court," £14: County tax, £5, 2s .; State silver-money tax, £53, 8s .; 1780 lbs. of beef, at $5 a pound, amounting to £2670; making an aggregate of £7695,
* Mrs. D. Vose. late of Montville : Mrs E. Morrison of Warren ; Capt. W. J. Fales ; Oliver Smith, Jr. ; Nathaniel Fales (3d,) &c.
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16s. 8d., - besides nine pairs of shoes, an equal number of stockings and shirts, and four blankets ; to which, as well as 3422 lbs. of beef added Dec. 4th, no price was affixed. Three recruits for the army were also, Dec. 2d, apportioned to this town.
Under such an accumulation of burdens, it is not wonder- ful that the town, to prevent increase of expenditure, voted, - in May, not to send a representative this year, and not to choose a delegate to attend the adjournment of the Conven- tion for forming a State Constitution. Upon the Constitution itself, also submitted to the several towns of the Common- wealth for ratification by yeas and nays on each separate article, this town declined expressing any opinion, either way. The new Constitution was, however, adopted at this time by the required majority of two-thirds of the people, and went into operation in September ; - remaining unaltered till since the separation of Maine in 1820. The people of this town, though notified to meet for the annual election under it, Sept. 4th, and again Oct. 4th for choosing a representative, ne- glected to attend, and took no part in the election.
The hardness of the times and scarcity of provisions giving importance to the matter, this town voted, May 24th, that " there be a committee chosen to take the affair of the a'ewife fishery at the Falls in the town of Warren into their consid- eration, and act what may be thought proper and necessary thereupon." . Esq. Fales and Jeremiah Tolman were the com- mittee. This fishery had heretofore been shared by all the settlers on the river, who, from the greater ease with which they were taken in dip-nets at the said Falls, annually flocked thither as the Indians had done before them. But, as the population increased and from the hardness of the times became more eager to obtain a supply, it became more and more difficult to get possession of suitable stands for taking them; and complaints were made of their being mono- polized by those who caught fish for sale. To prevent this, the town of Warren had the preceding year passed a vote that " no fish be taken at the falls for sale." It does not ap- pear what action the Thomaston committee took on the sub- ject. Nothing further is found on the records till 1784, when it was voted. Sept. 9th, "that Capt. Nathaniel Fales draw a petition to the General Court to stop the Petition of Warren against our Privilege of fishing at the Falls."
Since the taking of Wheaton's sloop, before related, not a single vessel remained, sailing from George's River. Sea- faring men were consequently driven to other means of sup-
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port, or to ship in other places. The following adventure of one connected in, though not a resident of. this town, may be of interest. In 1780, Jonathan Nutting, late of Cushing, be- ing taken by the British as one of the crew of the brig Ruby of Boston, bound to Martinique, was carried to Barbadoes and confined on board the prison-ship of about 500 tons, . which, stripped of sails and rigging, was moored in the centre of St. Lucie harbor. Here, with several hundred French and American prisoners, they were four months confined between decks, in the hottest part of the season, allowed to come on deck for air during the day only, and furnished with a scanty allowance of provisions. On deck they were strongly guarded and watched, and at night the hatches closed upon them and barred. So great were their sufferings, that Nut- ting and ten other Americans, formed and adopted a bold plan of escape. They were surrounded by armed vessels, priva- teers, merchantmen, and at a short distance a twenty-gun ship; while, as further security, a Letter of Marque of 150 tons and mounting 14 guns, lay outside the rest toward the entrance of the harbor. The plan being matured and a dark and foggy night favoring it, they began by working on the compassion of the sentries who had occasionally allowed, contrary to orders, two or three at a time of the sick and suf- fering prisoners to come on deck a few moments during the night, and who, lulled by a sense of security, were unusually indulgent on this occasion, allowing the several divisions of the eleven plotters to come up at intervals without sufficiently attending to their return. Contriving in the darkness to con- ceal themselves behind water casks, they, by means of a rope, let themselves down through a port-hole on to the main 'chains, divested themselves of clothing, except Nutting, who kept his handkerchief around his neck in which he had con- cealed two guineas and two silver dollars; and all successively swam to the Letter of Marque more than a mile distant. Waiting as agreed upon at the bows of this vessel till all but two had appeared, they climbed up her cable, disarmed and secured the forward sentinel sitting on the windlass fast asleep, and levelled the other who was crying murder and summoning all hands on deck in such a manner that one of the eleven, a Virginian, became frightened, swam back to his prison, dressed himself, and reported to the prisoners that all but he were lost. So far from it, however, they had, cre this, secured the companion-way, the entrance to the forecastle, got possession of all the arms, cut the cable, sailed out of the harbor under the guns of the fort without being hailed, and
13*
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reached the capital of Martinique in safety, with the stars and stripes waving above the British colors. Here the prize was sold for 4006 crowns, dividing 400 apiece to each of the ten captors, - one having deserted, and the two that were missing coming on board before they left the harbor."
Whilst the war continued, parties occasionally landed from privateers at various points along the coast for provisions, money, or other plunder. Besides the destruction of Mr. Heard's salt-works at Ash Point as before noted, one such party entered his house; inquired where the men were ; would not believe the answer; said they must be hidden, or had fled with the money; threatened the women; and set fire to the house. But obtaining no information or prospect of plunder, they finally put out the fire they had kindled, and departed. Similar depredations were committed on George's River, if not within the limits of this town at least sufficiently near it to keep the people in constant alarm. Capt. Samuel Watts of St. George, having been much en- gaged in the lumber and West India trade, sometimes, for want of a return cargo or convenient exchange, had been obliged to bring home the proceeds in specie, - which when in silver and brought to the house in bags could not fail by its bulk and jingling to give him an extensive reputation as a man of wealth. Thus invited by the hope of rich booty, a shaving-mill anchored one evening near his house; and thither its captain and crew proceeded after the children were in bed and nobody up but Watts and his wife. The house was then ransacked and plundered by them of everything valuable, including bedding and feather beds, except one. On this the children lay asleep; and as they began to cry when disturbed, the commander ordered the men to desist. He then demanded money ; but none being produced or ac- knowledged in possession, he took Watts's comarny cap from his head, put it on his own, and told him if he would not give up his money he must be carried a prisoner to Biguyduce. Two of the men being ordered to take him on board, one of them seized him by the shoulder and pulled him up rather roughly from his chair; when Watts gave him a blow and knocked him over upon the large blazing fire before which he was seated. Scrambling up in a rage, the man called upon the others for aid and was springing upon him, when the com-
* For a full account of this adventure, see an article furnished by Albert G. Lermond, in the Thomaston Recorder of Dec. 10, 1840, from the lips of Mr. Nutting himself.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
mander bade them desist, saying Watts was a good fellow, and told him to come on board peaceably and he should be well used. Under the circumstances he thought it best to comply; was absent some three or four weeks; and returned on parole or by exchange of prisoners."
Such predatory attempts were now become so common that most persons who were fortunate enough to have a little silver money, or a few spoons, spare linen, or other treasures, often kept them concealed in the woods, swamps, hay-mows, or other hiding places.
Among the persons who occasionally floated between the two belligerants, without much molestation from either, was Stephen Post, who came to this town, worked for Mr. Snow ditching the Marsh, and was published to a woman in Nova Scotia, whom he afterwards, Paris-like, contrived to bring off and marry. He settled in what is now South Thomaston, and left many descendants, respected citizens of that place and Rockland. James Carney, in this or the year preceding, came from Broad Cove, Cushing, and made the first attempt to settle in that part of Thomaston called the Beech Woods. He began a clearing; built a log-house, in which his first child was born; but, lacking the necessary energy to contend with the hard growth and harder soil of that locality, left it in the following year and settled near the northern boundary of St. George. He had some amu ing peculiarities of character ; one of which was a cool indifference which nothing could disconcert or put to the blush. His neighbor in his last loca- tion, Mr. Williams, having suffered repeatedly from injuries done by Carney's cow, against which he had vainly remon- strated, came to him one morning vexed and exasperated, with a fresh complaint that the cow had at last destroyed all his cabbages. "Mr. Williams," said Carney in an alarmed tone; "did you ever know cabbages to hurt a cow?" On one occasion when breadstuff was scarce, he inquired at Keegan's store if they had any meal, and on being told they had, but sold it only for cash, said " put me up half a bushel." This being done, after a time he took up the bag and walked out. Keegan perceiving he was gone, followed him into the street and told him he had not paid for it. " Well, well," said he, "I'll be up again to-morrow." Being told that would not answer - that Keegan must have the money or the meal, he exclaimed, " take your meal, Mr. Keegan !" at the same time throwing it in the muddy gutter. This trait in his
* Messrs. D. & Wm. Heard; Mrs. Charles Watts of Warren, &c.
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character, as years passed on, got to be well understood, and was sometimes met with a repulse equally cool. He once went to Mr. Jacobs's shop, and, under the pretence that none in the stores suited him, requested to have a hammer made, and gave particular directions as to its construction. A com- pliance being promised, he returned at the appointed time and found the hammer just the thing he wanted ; said he hadn't the money with him then, but would be up and pay in a day or two. " Leave it in the shop !" was the reply. He pleaded his immediate necessity -wanted the hammer to finish a little job which could not admit .of delay, &c .; but, "leave it in my shop !" was the only response. There it was left, and there it remained.
Nathaniel Fales (2d) succeeded to Carney's improvement at the Beech Woods, removing thither late in March, 1781; when the snow was three feet deep. He persevered ; ex- tended his clearings ; got a town road laid out ; and, discov- ering a quarry of limestone on his farm, occasionally manu- factured it for market; finally transmitting a valuable farm to his descendants, by whom it is still well cultivated and profitably managed. Atwood Fales also, who had refused to take the oath of allegiance to King George and was obliged to flee from Amherst, N. S. where he had settled, now with his family took refuge in this town. He had joined the ex- pedition against Biguyduce in the previous year, 1779, and there, going out one morning for a pail of water, it is said he was twice fired upon by a whole company of some sixty men at once, with no injury to himself but to the astonishment of the assailants who thenceforth considered him invulnerable. After the war was over, he went back to Nova Scotia, sold his farm there, took his pay in grindstones, and returned here. He, or at any rate his sons, John and Samuel, built a house at the Beech Woods not long after this time; and, when Samuel married, John built a second, - both of logs. In 1816, John returned with his family to Nova Scotia.
The farms west of the Meadows, some of them at least, in consequence of their grazing advantages, attracted the atten- tion of settlers at a very early period. Before the Revolu- tion, viz., in 1774, David Robbins bargained with some pre- vious occupant for what was afterwards known as the Killsa farm ; where he built a small log-house and lived about two years, - his son Joseph having been born there July 7, 1775. Not being able, however, to obtain a deed in consequence of the former possessor having joined the British as a tory, he had now sold to James Killsa before mentioned, and removed
F
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to Union ; - his being the first family and his wife the first woman, who settled in that township. Daniel Palmer from Bristol, probably about this time took up two lots (one of which afterwards became that of his son, Daniel, junior,) and built a saw-mill where J. O Brien afterwards had his first marble-mill. On the other lot he eventually built himself a framed house, still standing and occupied by Mrs. Willis, the widow of Preserved Willis, who purchased and for a long time before his decease carried on the place. Eliphaz and Welcome Healey, two brothers, came from Attleboro', Mass., in 1780, and purchased or took up the two lots on which they lived and died, and which are still known by their names. Benjamin Blackington, before mentioned, probably from the same region, took up the three lots on which his three sons settled as follows, viz. : James on the south-west- ern, Benjamin, Jr., on the middle, and Nathan on the north- eastern. Another lot was obtained by Oliver Robbins (2d), on which he settled and which is still occupied by his descen- dants. It is not improbable that some of these farms had been previously in possession of other occupants, whose names have not come down to us. If they had not, the rea- son may have been that they were reserved by the Proprietors . for their own or their tenants' use, on account of the Mead- ows .*
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