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 9
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 9
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 9
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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
1754. Human resolutions, however, are less enduring than the heavenly bodies. Waldo continuing to enlarge his settlements by the Germans at Broad Bay and the Scottish colony now settled at their forest city named Stirling in the present town of Warren,* gave great offence to the ever watchful Tarratines, who regarded them as being above the tide waters so tenaciously insisted on as the limits of the land purchased of Madockawando. This and other causes of com- plaint were made use of by French agents and missionaries to alienate their minds and encourage new aggressions against their English neighbors. These symptoms of disaffection caused new measures to be adopted for the defence of the frontier. On the 4th of January, 1754, a committee of the House of Representatives reported "that the walls of the truck-house at St. George's River be forthwith repaired, and shingled or clapboarded on the out and inside, as shall be thought best, -that there be two good Cohorns with a suffi- cient number of shott and shells; and that a sufficient num- ber of wheels of Cast iron be procured for the cannon;" adding that for this purpose they " found a considerable num- ber of old guns at St. George's, Richmond, and Castle Wil- liam." These cohorns were small mortars for throwing shells, and, besides these, a dozen or more of iron cannon were mounted on the fort or on an outwork at the water's edge connected with it by a covered way and completely commanding the river. The body of the fort was about 100 feet square, constructed of the largest sized trees, hewn about twenty inches square, and laid solid about sixteen feet high; with flankers or projections at the angles, and loop-holes for guarding the sides and annoying assailants in flank. This is
* Not Bristol, whither Mr. Sewall has miraculously transferred it, in his " Ancient Dominions of Maine," page 284.
6*
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
described to have been about 200 feet from the water; and occupied nearly the same situation as the present Knox man- sion, but nearer the river. Within, around the sides of this main body of the fort, were the barracks for the soldiers and dwellings for the settlers who now again looked thither for refuge. These were also built of solid timber let into the walls of the fort, twenty feet square, and, some of them at least, two stories high, -each accommodating one or more families. In the centre of the fort was a good well, which afforded an ample supply of water for all within. The out- work at the water's edge and the covered way leading to it, were also of solid timber, with a small wharf in front.
The Block-house before described, at the foot of what is now Wadsworth Street, was also amplified, and consisted of two parallel rows of these dwellings or barracks, -the whole surrounded by a strong palisade, made by driving posts ten feet high into the ground as thick as they could stand to- gether. Besides this, Capt. Thomas Kilpatrick constructed at his own shore, near the head of the Narrows, a similar Block-house, of ample dimensions to accommodate the fami- lies of those who chose to put themselves under his com- mand, or were obliged to do so by the militia regulations then in force under which he was now captain. The remains of this stronghold are still to be seen on the land of Capt. Simon M. Shibles about eighty rods from the river. All these were in the present limits of Thomaston, and so situated as to be within sight and to exchange signals with each other. Several others were built; one toward the close of the war on MeDowell's hill upon the present farm of Geo. Lermond, now used as a private burying-ground ; one at Pleasant Point by Henderson; and one of stone in the present town of Cushing by Capt. Burton, who at the close of the Spanish war had settled there about 1750-1. Being a man of fore- cast, and not believing the peace would be very lasting, he, in 1753, judiciously and strongly built and fortified his dwelling- house; which, serving as it did for a place of refuge to the neighbors, and a small garrison being for a while under pay there, acquired the name of the Stone Garrison House or Burton's Fort ; - the remains of which, degraded into a hog- pen, are still to be seen in or near the spot.
The sixth and last Indian war, which, from the part that the French at first secretly and afterwards openly took in it, is usually denominated the French, or French and Indian, war, having been commenced by an Indian attack on the new fort at Kennebec, the alarm was general; and most of the
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
settlers took refuge in the garrisons, passing the winter in fearful anxiety.
All there was of Thomaston, at this time, consisted of the fort and block-houses along the river; a cleared space in their roar widening during the war and extending before its close from the present burying-ground to the Prison quarry, backed by an unbroken forest of heavy growth interrupted only by the narrow glades at the fresh Meadows of Mill River and salt Marsh of the Wessaweskeag; a large barn standing at some little distance north-easterly from the fort near where the Congregational meeting-house now stands; a log school- house on the bank between the fort and block-house; and a few deserted log-houses farther up, toward Oyster River and on Watson's Point. Lime burning had been continued, up to the present time, by the proprietor Brigadier Waldo; the rock being dug at the before mentioned and only quarry then opened, and burnt at four small kilns near the block-house, where was also a small wharf and lime-store, from which two . sloops were kept constantly running to Boston. Those of the settlers who were able to bear arms were organized into companies, and for a great portion of the time during the war drew pay and rations, which formed the principal means of support for their families.
1755. As the spring opened, each family cultivated, either here or on their more distant farms, a patch of pota- toes, which was manured with rock-weed carried up the bank on hand-barrows by men and their wives assisted by all their children who could labor. The potato was the principal veg- etable, was easily raised and least likely to be destroyed ; and, with game from the woods, fish from the river, and clams on the shore, when any could venture out to take them, formed a tolerable subsistence. Such as went to labor at a distance were well armed ; and, when the signal of a general aların was given at the fort by the discharge of a heavy gun, all who were abroad made a speedy retreat to the garrison. There were a few yokes of oxen; some of the settlers had horses, many had cows," and all had pigs and poultry. The
* For convenience sake, in their narrow quarters, the owners sometimes clubbed together and each took the care and produce of the milk for one week in rotation. When Mrs. Crawford's, the canny Scotchwoman's. turn came, some complained that, from her skill with the skimmer, there was too great blueness and want of cream in their daily allowance of milk. Out of respect to her amiable and pious husband, however, they brought no railing accusation against her ; but some of the more sly and roguish, ascertaining well the geographical position of her churn, went below it, as the churning day drew near, and with an auger bored up through the
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
stock was wintered on hay cut on the meadows and marshes, the men going in strong parties for that purpose, and part mounting guard while the rest labored. One expedient, often practiced to great advantage, was the training of dogs, espe- cially those of the Newfoundland breed, to accompany par- ties going out from the garrisons as a kind of flank guard at a gun-shot's distance on each side. These were seldom fired upon by lurking Indians, lest their place of concealment should be betrayed; whilst the dogs were pretty sure to scent out the savages and give timely warning to the whites. In hunting for game too, these faithful, tractable animals were of essential service.
The troubles continuing, and attacks having been made at Newcastle and settlements farther west, the General Court, June 10th, 1755, declared war against all the eastern tribes except those on the Penobscot. The settlers, however, un- accustomed to discriminate between the different tribes, con- sidered a single Indian aggression as chargeable to the whole race ; and allowed their sympathy for the sufferers to kindle into indiscriminate resentment. This manifested itself in jealousy and murmuring against Capt. Bradbury, whom they charged with trading with the savages from motives of interest, and even supplying the arms and ammunition used in the destruction of his countrymen. This jealousy occasioned the commander great difficulty in the discharge of his duty. Indians, caressed by the officers and well treated at the fort, were insulted and sometimes attacked by the settlers; of whom those who lived in the fort generally took part with Bradbury, whilst the discontented rallied under Kilpatrick at his block-house above, and under Burton in the stone garrison below. This state of things was greatly aggravated by an occurrence on the morning of June 5th, 1755, when, about nine o'clock, all were startled by a discharge of musketry up the river, whither several persons in two parties had gone that morning unsuspicious of danger. Immediately after, a gun at the fort, echoing through the woods, sent the alarm to all. One of the parties consisting of Mr. Lermond, Archibald Gamble and son, of the Upper town, soon came in unhurt; but not so with the other, composed of two young men, sons of John Brown, one of the Stirling emigrants in Warren but now residing at the fort. They had been sent up the river for some staves which they had previously got out near the
floor and into the churn, well supplying themselves and punishing the supposed unfairness of the thrifty housewife.
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
Ripplings. When as far up as Cooper's shore, (now Dun- bar's in Warren,) they were seen by some Indians on the eastern shore who would have taken them prisoners, but, seeing them attempting to escape to the other side, fired upon them. One was killed, and his body subsequently found on Cooper's marsh. The other got across the river, but was wounded and never afterwards heard of; though the Penob- scots, who attributed the mischief to the Canada Indians, as- sisted in looking for him. The father of these lads, who served in the company of rangers until November 20th of this year, subsequently went up the river for alewives, and, not returning, is supposed to have been drowned near Montgom- ery's shore in Warren, where, long after, his supposed skeleton was found in the water and buried by his friend and country- man Kirkpatrick. The widowed and childless mother then returned, like Naomi, to her native land."
An account of this fatal attack was immediately trans- mitted by Burton to his friend Capt. Proctor in Boston, and to Gov. Shirley by Killpatrick, the latter of whom adds that "within two days after, a man and a boy were carried cap- tive from Pleasant Point," and that "our woods round our garrisons are crawling with lurking Enemies." The letters of both appear to have been laid before the Council and are still among the public archives at Boston, that of Killpatrick being correctly written and well spelled for those times. This dissatisfaction and excitement went on increasing, till, three weeks later, Bradbury found it beyond his power to control ; when most of the settlers and garrison, with the company of scouts that Capt. Thomas Fletcher had enlisted here, rose in arms and peremptorily declared that nine Indians, then in the fort, should never depart till they had given satisfaction for the late outrages, or joined in war against the Canada tribes according to the treaty so repeatedly ratified. The com- mander was obliged to make the best of this riotous proceed- ing, and compromised the matter by detaining some of the Indians as hostages until three others could go, as they pro- posed, and treat with the Governor at Boston. Then follow- ed, on the 1st of July, the brutal murder of the friendly Indian woman, Margaret Moxa, with her infant child and in- toxicated husband, on or not far from the Stackpole lot in South Thomaston, by Capt. Cargill and his company from Newcastle, as particularly detailed in the Annals of Warren. This company of rangers, who, to avoid any interference on
* Testimony of Mrs. E. Montgomery, daughter of Boice Cooper.
1
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
the part of Bradbury, had crossed the river four or five miles below at Burton's fort, after a further march and the perpe- tration of this inhuman deed, left nine men to guard that im- portant Indian trail, and proceeded on, four miles, to the Head of Owl's Head Bay. There they discovered a party of Indians, fired, and killed nine of them. The bodies, robbed of their scalps for the £200 bounty then offered for them, being afterwards found, were buried where they lay on the lot since owned by Capt. Josiah Ingraham, by the side of a gully or declivity near the sea-shore in what is now Rockland.
Sleep soundly, children of the forest, sleep There in the grassy glen ! Hear the soft dirges of the restless deep, Apart from other men !
In safety sleep ; no white man's dust is near you, . Grasping in death your land ; No wretched mother with her babes to fear you, Nor prowler's bloody hand.
Strangely the times have changed, since ye in life Roamed through the dusky wold, -
From the dark thicket rushed, a bloody strife With white men fierce to hold ;
Or mustered subject tribes from the far east By daring sachems led,
And fired our hamlets, slaughtering man and beast, While wives and children bled ;
Or, when your rage was glutted, bade war cease, And, round the council fire,
Buried the hatchet, smoked the pipe of peace, And drowned in feasts your ire.
Sleep soundly, now ; no foe is at your back, No danger at your door ;
No pale-faced murderer, wolf-like, dogs your track, Or haunts your slumber more.
A different work is now your foe engaging Than that which laid you low ;
A fiercer strife throughout the land is raging, And millions feel its woe.
If from the red man's heaven, the happy West, Your souls our havoc see,
Thank the Great Spirit that your bones here rest From such dire conflicts free !
Though the fate of Margaret was sincerely mourned by many at the Fort who knew the value of her services and the sincerity of her attachment to our people, and though Gov- ernment invited her tribe to be present under a safe-conduct at the trial of Cargill for the murder, yet, as he was not con-
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
victed, the Penobscots now felt themselves aggrieved by fresh injuries that must not pass unrevenged. Accordingly, on the 24th September, a large body of them made a furious onset here, firing upon two men who were out a little distance from the garrison, only one of whom escaped, and then commenced shooting the cattle, which they continued to do from near noon till almost night. Capt. Fletcher, who at times acted as Brad- bury's lieutenant in the garrison, seems to have been in com- mand on this attack, while 30 of his company of rangers, under Lieut. Alex. Lermond, were out on a march in the woods and did not return till evening.
Induced by such occurrences as these, the Government at length, November 5th, declared war against the Penobscot tribe, also; yet its forbearance up to that time had increased the dissatisfaction of many; and 59 of the inhabitants on this river and adjacent places signed, the following year, a memorial against the conduct of Fletcher in not allowing them to go out against the Indians. Whether they were most in- · fluenced by patriotic desire for the public good, the love of excitement, hatred of Indians, or by the bounty offered for scalps and captives, -is not for us to know or to judge. Soon after this declaration of war against them, the Indians manifested their resentment by killing and scalping two men near the fort on the 24th of November .*
1756. The tribes, now united, opened their spring cam- paign by a spirited attack, March 24th, on the stone block- house of their hated enemy, Lieut. Burton; in which they succeeded in killing two of his men, scalping and leaving another half dead. This, after the declaration of war against France in June, was followed, among other depredations upon the coast, by the burning of a schooner off Monhegan early in July, in which were one Chapels .of Cape Newagin, two other men, and a boy, fishing, who were all slain; and Sep- tember 26th, as three schooners lay at anchor in George's River about eight miles below the fort, five of the men being on shore were fired upon and killed by a dozen Indians. These then assailed one of the schooners that had got aground, which they set fire to, after killing the two men that remained on board. Upon this, the other two vessels were abandoned ; the men, 14 in number, taking to a boat and getting safely up to the Fort. Here, alarm guns were fired and answered at Pemaquid and Arrowsic." To these exciting scenes, was added an irreparable loss to the garrison and people here, in
" Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 35, pp. 389, 433 and 461.
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. HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
the death of their beloved chaplain, Rev. R. Rutherford, as previously noted. He died October 18th, leaving a wife who survived him twenty-three years, and seven daughters whose posterity is numerous in this vicinity. Judging from a ser- mon of his in possession of the author, he setins to have been a man of respectable literary attainments, and he bore the character of a pious orthodox minister.
It was ordered that 150 able bodied men be raised to range the Indian hunting grounds between the eastern frontiers and Canada, the commanders to return a journal of their proceed- ings. A company under Capt. Joshua Freeman of Falmouth did duty on this river until November 20th, when the Indians usually withdrew for hunting in the interior.
1757. A similar company rendezvoused here in 1757, under the same commander; who, after receiving his com- mission in Boston, April 22d, arrived here with five men and enlisted the remainder. After various marches to the forts down the river, to Broad Bay, and back through the woods to the block-house here, early on Monday morning, May 16th, . all were excited by the appearance of a company of eleven Indians with a flag of truce on a hill forty or fifty rods north of the fort, (probably that back of the present Unitarian church,) and a further discovery of nine more, beyond Lime- Stone hill, -the eminence on which the State Prison has since been erected. Capt. Bradbury immediately responded with a similar white flag, and held a discourse with eight of the Indians near the fort, till about three o'clock in the after- noon; when the flag was struck, and the Indians left, with theirs. Capt. Freeman's men were very eager to follow them up, but were forbidden on account of the truce; nevertheless, about half-past five o'clock, some of those on guard further back did so, for near a mile, and found an Indian asleep, whom they brought to the block-house and insisted on send- ing to Boston as a prisoner. This being objected to, and the Indian being afraid to go off because as he said " the rest of his company was got as far as the Owl's Head," he remained, till, shortly after, another flag of truce appeared, brought in by Neptune; who informed Capt. Killpatrick that the number of the Indians was 26, and that he expected 39 in the morn- ing. but said there was no likelihood of any trade, and after a few minutes departed with the prisoner. Upon this, Free- man, fearing so large a body of disappointed savages would attempt some mischief, allowed about eighteen of his men to go out, near ten at evening, with orders to send for him and the rest of the company if Indians were discovered. These
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ROCKLAND AND SOUTH THOMASTON.
were led by David and Alexander Kelloch, or Kalloch, as their desceudants in Rockland and South Thomaston, for the most part, spell the name. Marching silently in close single file through the darkness about one mile along their trail. toward the eastern shore, the file-leader came upon a park; and, supposing it a decoy to entrap them into an ambuscade, gave a pinch as a signal to the man behind him, which pass- ing from man to man, the whole came to a silent halt. Lis- tening a moment, they heard the snoring of an Indian proba- bly left on guard but betrayed into sleep by the occapee ob- tained at the fort, when a musket was aimed at the sound, and at the first fire a stalwart savage leaped into the air, fell, and never moved again. A skirmish ensued in the dark- ness ; the now excited and yelling combatants aiming at the flashes of opposing muskets, and with such exactness on the part of the Indians that David Kalloch had his gun, at the moment of its discharge, shot from his hand, the stock broken. with a bullet, and a piece of flesh carried off between his thumb and fingers. Finding the savages on both sides of them, the party, able to effect little in the dark, returned about 11 o'clock, bringing the scalp of the Indian they had slain, which, with the beaver and other booty found in the pack, yielded them each about $15. As these Indians made no hostile demonstrations, and came. by the way of Lime- Stone hill, it is probable they had been, in this the usual sca- son of salmon, shad, and alewives, on a fishing excursion to the Falls of George's River, and stopped at the fort in hope of a temporary renewal of their former trade.
Freeman's company continued to range the woods in the vicinity and guard the people, especially during the haying season in July. Had this been done earlier, some lives might have been saved; as, in the Spring, three men, venturing out from the fort for smelts, had been ambushed and slain near the saw-mill; one of them, probably Robert Kye, a Scottish emigrant of 1753, who, at this or some other timc, was cer- tainly killed at that place. At another, probably a later pe- riod, Henry and Joseph Handley, or Hendley as the name stands on the muster roll, one about 22, and the other 17 years of age, went out to the Mill River for frost-fish, or smelts, as some authorities have it. While there, they were suddenly fired upon by Indians lurking in ambush; and both were shot, scalped, and left for dead. Joseph, however, so far recovered as to be able to crawl back to the fort with his bowels protruding through the wound. There, after telling them to look for his silver sleeve-buttons which he had hid- VOL. I. 7
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HISTORY OF THOMASTON,
den on his way in a certain stump, to prevent their falling a prey to the enemy in case he should not reach home, he asked for a draught of water as he lay upon the bed, and. immedi- ately after drinking it, expired. Both of them had been en- rolled and done duty as soldiers, as well as their father. John Handley, who had probably come to the place in that capa- city." At another time Mrs. Thompson and Agnes Lamb of the Lower town, with Margaret Lermond and some others of the Upper town, were milking up the lane a little way from the fort, when the savages fell upon them and took Mrs. Thompson prisoner; the others escaping to the garrison. So great was the fright that Miss Lamb, though she had some distance to flee and bars to surmount, kept the pail in her grasp, without spilling a drop of its contents or being aware of its possession till safe within the fort. Miss Lermond, also, had just finished milking a cow and, taking up two pails of milk, looked round and saw Indians rushing directly upon them; she ran in such terror that she even kept the milk in her hands till she came to the bars in the lane, which being up, she dashed the pails against them in attempting to get over, and came into the fort well covered with milk. Mrs. Thompson was redeemed by her husband, for $40. Capt. John Watson, about 26 years of age, then commanding the family sloop, sent two of his men on shore near Pleasant Point for water, where they were seized by the Indians, and carried to Canada .. The Captain going in his wherry to look for them was hailed by a Frenchman and ordered to come on shore. Not complying, he was immediately killed by a mus- ket shot; and, it is said, that his body when found had been disemboweled and hung to a tree by the savages. The men captured, were Wm. Watson, younger brother to John, who subsequently returned to reside and die on the Point here, and one Larrabee of Scarboro', who afterwards represented his town in the Legislature, and was a captain in the Biguy- duce expedition. It was probably also on board this sloop of Watson's that Mrs. Gamble of the Upper town had started as a passenger to spend the winter in New Hampshire, but now after the encounter on shore found herself left with only an aged man for company or defence, night coming ou, and the stealthy foe already approaching to attack the vessel. The old man took his station on deck with what muskets
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