History of York County, Maine, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 730

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The Indians were not without a form of government, which had great similarity among all the eastern tribes. The chief aboriginal monarch of the east was entitled the Bashaba. His residence was with the Wawanock tribe. This ruler is frequently spoken of by the earliest navigators, but the line seems to have been terminated by his overthrow as early as 1616 .*

At the head of every tribe was a sagamoret or chief magistrate, whose councilors, or wise men, were denowi- nated sachems, in modern time captains. In council they directed war and peace. The government was patriarchal. The sagamore possessing superiority of rank and power always presided when present, and next to him was a sachem of secondary grade and influence. On great occa- sions all the principal men of the tribe were assembled and consulted, much as the people in a democratic form of gov- ernment among white men are called upon to vote on questions intimately affecting the interest of the whole community. Their assemblies, from which females were usually excluded, were conducted with the utmost order and decorum ; the old men spoke first, and were especially venerated by the younger members for their wisdom and experience.

The office of sagamore continued during life. When a sagamore died the tribe preferred to have his son or some near relative succeed him ; but the choice was always by a popular election. and party spirit and rancor often ran high in these contests, as in the political campaigns of more civilized communities.

There being such a similarity between the political sys- tems of the Etechemins and their English neighbors, it has been easy for them to borrow the very names of the latter for their officers of state, such as governor, lieuten- ant-governor, captain, etc., names which, in modern times, they have generally adopted. The three Etechemin tribes had, from time immemorial, chosen their sagamores and sachems by a general election, and those of each tribe were inducted into office by delegations chosen from the other tribes. The ceremonies of inductiont were often very inter-

esting. Of course, their laws were few and simple, con- sisting of those unwritten maxims handed down from one generation to another. But simple as they were, they were often of greater binding force and more generally observed than the complicated enactments of civilized nations, which cumber volumes of statute-books.

The character of many of the Indians was noble, es- pecially when uncontaminated by contact with civilized men, and their orators have left us examples of eloquence unsurpassed for native force, strength, and sublimity. When the passions engendered by strife with them shall have died away, the American people will look upon them with a more just appreciation of their character, and study their history with greater interest.

CHAPTER X.

THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.

Cause of Hostilities-Attack on the House of Thomas Purchase- Murder of the Wakely Family -- Massacre at Dunstan-Attack on Maj. Phillips' Garrison-Bloody Tragedy at Salmon Falls-Murder of Roger Plaisted and his Son-Attack on Falmouth-Capture of the Fort at Black Point-Daring assault on Wells-Death of Mugg.

AT the breaking out of King Philip's war the Gen- eral Court, apprehensive of Indian troubles in the eastern settlements, appointed Capts. Patteshall, Lake, and Wiswell a committee to superintend military affairs at Sagadahock. They were instructed to furnish themselves with all neces- sary munitions of war for the common defense, and to sell neither gun, knife, powder, nor lead to any Indian except those well known to be friendly to the English. The In- dians were the most numerous in this portion of Maine and were supposed to be the most dangerous. Although at this time England and France were in close alliance, the Indians had obtained of the French traders in Canada and on the Penobscot a supply of arms and ammunition, and had gener- ally become well acquainted with their use. Of all the gifts of the European to the savage, this instrument, the gun, which enabled him so surely and readily to take the game upon which his subsistence depended, was the most highly prized.

This fact is alluded to because in its light will be more readily seen the ill-advised attempt of the committee to dis- arm the Indians in order to prevent them from destroying the white settlements. It is said that when the news of Philip's war reached York, on the 11th of July, 1675, Henry Sayward, of that place, dispatched a messenger to Sagadahock, with a letter to the committee, in which he mentioned the expedient of taking from the Indians along the coast their firearms and ammunition. The committee, at all events, acted upon the plan, and through a Mr. Walker, a trader at Sheepscot, many of the Indians in that vicinity were induced to give up their guns and knives. A band of some twelve others was soon brought in from the Ken- nebec, who did likewise. On this latter occasion a serious quarrel occurred between an Indian and a white man named Mallet, the Indian only being prevented from taking Mal-

"The Saco is the westernmost river of the Bashebez."-Purchas' Pilgrims, book 10, chap. 6.

. + Sounded by the Indians " Sunk-a-muh."

¿ See Williamson, vol. i. p. 496, for an account of the induction of Aitteon, Neptune, and others, of the Penobscots.

THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.

let's life by being arrested and confined in a cellar. He, however, made confession, gave hostages for his good be- havior, and offered a ransom of forty beaver-skins, upon which he was released and set at liberty.

Although Capt. Lake made every effort to conciliate the Indians, and Robinhood made a great feast to celebrate the " peace" with song and dance, yet the Indians were dissat- isfied, and complained that their arms were taken from them to prevent their hunting game, in consequence of which they suffered greatly, and many had been reduced nearly to star- vation. They also, at a later stage, charged the English with the systematic attempt to disarm them, so that they might destroy them and take their lands. This charge was not well founded, but the measures adopted afforded a pre- text to the Indians generally to engage in the destruction of the white settlements.

There were other causes. Squando, the far-famed saga- more of Saco, had long cherished a bitter antipathy towards the English, and his resentment had recently been provoked by an affront which he could not overlook. As his squaw was passing along the Saco River in a canoe, with her infant child, she was accosted by several rude sailors, who, having heard that the Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of the lower animals, approached her, and, in a fit of inconsiderate humor, overset the canoe to try the cx- periment. The child sank, and though the mother, diving, brought it up alive, it soon after died ; and the parents im- puted its death to the ill treatment received. So highly did this exasperate Squando that he resolved to use all his arts and influence to arouse and inflame the Indians against the settlers.

Many of the early traders also overreached and deceived the Indians, and thus brought upon themselves their merited vengeance. Such was Walter Baguall, whom the Indians killed on Richmond's Island in 1631; and such was Thomas Purchase, who had lived near Brunswick Falls for thirty or forty years, and had acquired a large fortune by the spoils of Indian trade.

Though he had courted their friendship, and in 1639 had put himself and his possessions under the protection of Massachusetts, he was the earliest eastern sufferer in the war. What would have been his fate personally had he not been absent when the Indians visited and devastated his plantation, on the 5th of September, 1675, is unknown ; but probably his life would not have been spared. As it was, the savages spared his wife ; contented themselves with securing what plunder they could ; killing a calf and some sheep near the door; rifling his store of liquors, and making themselves merry with the booty. In the midst of this scene a son of Purchase, suddenly returning home, on horse- back, was an eye-witness of the mischief. But he was powerless to prevent it, and his own life being in danger, he fled, pursued by a sturdy and swift-footed Indian, with a gun concealed under his blanket. Being on horseback, however, he made good his escape.

On the 12th of September an Indian party made a descent on the Wakely family, living remote from neigh- bors at the Presumpscot River, in Falmouth. The family consisted of nine persons, at the head of whom was Thomas Wakely, an old man. Thomas Wakely himself was killed, 6

his wife, his son John and wife, and three of their chil- dren ; two were taken captives, and the house reduced to ashes. " The flames and smoke brought to the place Lieut. George Ingersoll, and a military party from Falmouth Neck, too late, however, to do more than see the ruins and relics of this ill-fated family. The body of the aged man the fire had half consumed. The only remains of his wife and son were their bones burnt to a cinder. His daughter-in- law, near confinement, was pierced and mangled in a man- ner too horrid to be described; and three of her children, whose brains had been beaten out, were partly hidden under some oaken planks. The other, if surviving and made a captive, probably soon sank into the arms of death through fatigue and want, nothing afterwards being heard of the little sufferer." Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Mr. Wakely, about eleven years old, was carried into captivity, where she remained nine months, when she was restored to Maj. Waldron, at Dover, through the agency, it is said, of Squando.

After this a son of Lieut. Ingersoll was killed, and his house and those of his neighbors burnt.

The marauding bands of savages at this time seemed to be seeking the more remote and exposed settlements. On the 20th of September a company entered Scarborough, and killed several at Blue Point, a woman and six children being among the sufferers. They next visited Dunstan, at a considerable distance from the sea-coast, where the Algers had settled in 1650, having purchased one thousand acres of land from the Indians. On the 12th of October, An- drew Alger was killed, and his brother Arthur mortally wounded. A deposition in the old York records says, ---

"Their families and their children and their families were driven off, their houses and barns burnt, their cattle killed, and the chief of all they had was destroyed."

The main settlement at Saco was at this time at Winter Harbor. But mills had been erected at the Lower Falls, surrounded by a few dwellings and tenant-houses. On the eastern side of the river, half a mile below the falls, stood the house of John Bonython, which in anticipation of In- dian troubles had been fortified. A stronger garrison house, that of Maj. William Phillips, stood on the opposite side, near where the present bridge crosses the river. Bonython had been informed by a friendly Indian that a party from the hostile tribes had been at his wigwam trying to excite the Sokokis to lift the hatchet against the white settlers, and that they had passed on to the eastward, whence they expected soon to return with a larger force. This warning induced the settlers, to the number of about fifty persons, to take refuge in the garrison-house of Maj. Phillips. They had not been long within its walls, when they saw Bouython's house in flames. Maj. Phillips, on looking out of his chamber window, was wounded in the shoulder by a shot from an Indian concealed near the building. He stepped back from the window, to avoid being the mark for a second shot, when the Indians, supposing he had fallen dead, rallied with a shout from their ambush to attack the fort. At that instant they were fired upon from the house and flankers of the garrison in such a manner as to wound several of them, and deal a shot to their leader of which he died soon after. The Indians, however, rallied, and besieged the

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, MAINE.

house till near morning, when, discouraged in their attempts ta take it by assault, they construeted an engine of combus- tible material on a cart, which they thought to push near enough to the garrison to set fire to it. But in this scheme they were thwarted by an accident ; one wheel of the vehicle being obstructed by a gutter, over which they were attempt- ing to push it, caused the engine to swing round towards the right flanker, exposing the whole party to a fatal fire, which was quickly improved. Six Indians fell and expired, fifteen were wounded, and the remainder, discouraged and mortified at their repulse, withdrew from the scene of action.

Maj. Phillips, finding his ammunition and supplies ex- hausted, and being unable to obtain snecor, removed with the other settlers to Winter Harbor. His house was left unoccupied, and was soon after burnt by the Indians. They destroyed all the houses about Winter Harbor, and carried captive Mrs. Hitchcock, who never returned. It was re- ported that she died from eating some poisonous roots which she took to be ground-nuts.

About this time the Indians killed five travelers, whom they overtook on the banks of the Saco River.

About the same time Ambrose Boaden was killed, and Robert Jordan's house with its contents was consumed, at Spurwink.

Hearing of the defenseless condition of Saco, Capt. Win- coln, of Newichawannoek,* and sixteen volunteers, pro- ceeded to their assistance by water. On landing at Winter Harbor they were fired upon by several prowling savages, and two or three of their number killed ; the savages gave the alarm to their confederates, who were still in the vicinity in large numbers, and Wincoln, on landing with his little band of brave defenders, was met by one hundred and fifty Indians, well armed and equipped. Wincoln, overpowered by superior numbers, retired behind a pile of shingle-bolts, from which breastwork he contested the ground so vigor- ously with his adversaries that they were forced to retire with considerable loss. They, however, retired only to form an ambush near the place where Wincoln's boats had lauded, into which his brave little band, joined by nine others from the town, unconsciously fell, and were shot down and nearly all killed.

The enemy now marked the settlements above the Pis- cataqua for destruction, and in marching thither killed several people in Wells.

About one hundred and fifty rods above the garrison and mills at Salmon Falls dwelt Johu Tozier, whose habitation was on the extreme frontier. He and the men of his neighborhood were absent with Captain Wincoln. His family consisted of fifteen persons, all women and children. Against this defenseless family, Audrew of Saco, and Hope- hood of Kennebec, two of the boldest warriors of their tribes, led on the attack. Their approach was first discov- ered by a young girl of eighteen, who shut the door and held it fast till it was cut in pieces by their hatchets, and the family had escaped the hack way. Mad and disap- pointed at finding the house empty, some of the savages inflicted repeated blows upon the heroie girl, till she was ap- parently expiring, and the rest, in pursuit of the family,

overlooked two of the children ; one, three years old, being too young to travel, they at onee dispatched, and the other they took and kept with them six months. The young heroine revived after their departure, and repairing to the garrison, was healed of her wounds and lived many years.

The incendiary savages the day following set fire to the house and buildings of Capt. Wincoln, which stood near the upper mills, and reduced them and their contents to ashes. One of the barns contained more than a hundred bushels of corn. The men from the garrison pursued them till night, firing at them occasional shots, but the darkness put an end to their pursuit. In the morning the savages appeared on the western shore, and fired several shots across the river at the workmen in the mill. At twilight they appeared more conspicuously, and flung their taunting speeches across the river, calling the people " English dogs" and " cowards."

Many of the eastern Indians had remained thus far peaceable. At Sagadahock the Canibus had retired with their families to the trading-house under charge of Capt. Silvanus Davis, and were receiving a regular distribution of supplies. Abraham Shurte, chief magistrate of the plan- tation, had drawn them into a treaty to live in peace with the English, and to prevent, if possible, the Anasagunti- cooks from committing any more depredations upon the settlers or the traders. But in the excitement of the times many acted with great indiscretion, especially the islanders of Monhegan, who offered a bounty of £5 for every Indian scalp that should be brought to them.

In October, 1675, the General Court, in order to secure as far as practicable the co-operation of such Indians as were disposed to be friendly, ordered moneys to be dis- tributed out of the public treasury for the relief of those who would become the subjects and allics of the colony, and appointed Maj. Richard Waldron, of Dover, and Capt. Nicholas Shapleigh, of Kittery, to negotiate a treaty with the friendly tribes upon terms congenial to their wishes. The court also directed the eastern trading-house to be discontinued, and made provisions for an expedition into Maine under Maj. Clarke. A vessel was laden with military stores and provisions, and sent from Boston with a force of fifty soldiers, commanded by Lieut. Joshua Scottow. We learn from Seottow's journal that he arrived with his soldiers at Black Point about the last of October, and had command of the garrison there, which was the headquarters of the " Maine Guard." October 31st, Capt. John Wineoln was sent up to Dunstan with sixty men to save corn and fight the Indians. November 2d, in the afternoon, twenty-nine of the inhabitants, while threshing grain, were nearly surrounded by seventy or eighty Indians. They were relieved by a force under Sergt. Tappen.

On fast day, 7th of October, a mau in Newichawannock (South Berwiek ) was shot from his horse and soon died. Two boys, about a mile off, suffered the same fate, and were stripped of their clothing and guns. These acts were but the precursors of a savage onslaught, which indicated that the whole settlement had been doomed for destruction. October 16th, a hundred Indians assailed the house of Richard Tozier, killed him, and carried his son captive. Lieut. Roger Plaisted, the commander of the garrison, an officer of true courage and a man of public spirit, having a

# South Berwick.

THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.

partial view of the massacre about one hundred and fifty rods distant, dispatched nine of his best men to reconnoitre the enemy, who falling into an ambush, three were shot down, and the others with difficulty effected their escape. Plaisted on that day dispatched a letter to Major Waldron and Lieutenant Coffin, at Dover, saying,-

" The Indians are just now engaging us with at least one hundred men, and have slain four of our men already-Richard Tozier, James Barry, Isaac Botts, and Tozier's son-and burnt Benoni Hodson's house. Sirs, if ever you have any love for us and the country, now show yourselves with men to help us, or else we are all in great danger to be slain, unless our God wonderfully appears for our deliverance. They that cannot fight, let them pray."

While Plaisted was attempting to bring in the bodies of his slain companions, one hundred and fifty savages, rising behind a stone wall, poured upon his soldiers a well-directed volley, and leaping over the wall pursued the assault. The oxen took fright and ran to the garrison. The engagement instantly became fierce though unequal. Plaisted and his men withdrew to a more eligible spot of ground, and being greatly overmatched by numbers, the most of them with- drew ; but he, disdaining either to fly or to yield, though urged again and again to surrender, fought with desperate courage till literally hewed to pieces by the enemy's hatch- ets. A fellow-soldier, and Plaisted's eldest son, unwil- ling to leave the intrepid man, sought their retreat too late and were slain. Another son, a few weeks after, died of his wounds. The father had represented Kittery four years in the General Court, and was highly respected for his un- common valor, worth, and piety. He and bis sons were buried on his own land near the battle-ground, in full view from the highway leading through Berwick, whose lettered tombstone tells succeeding ages-

" Near this place liex buried the body of Roger Plaisted, who was killed by the Indians, Oct. 16, 1675, aged 48 years : also, the body af his son, Roger Plaisted, who was killed at the same time."#

The murder in Wells of Mr. Cross, Mr. Isaac Cousins, and a hired man of William Symonds, whose house they laid in ashes, completed the bloody work of the savages for the year. They had fought for revenge and plunder, and they were gratified, if not satiated. It was intended to lead a winter campaign against them in their fastnesses at Pequawket, Ossipee, and Pejepscot; but the unusual depth of snow caused the enterprise to be abandoned, and brought the destitute and suffering Indians to sue for peace. Messrs. Waldron and Shapleigh entered into a treaty with them ; and it has been thought that " the dying embers of war, kept smothered through seven succeeding months," might never have been rekindled had the white people been governed by maximus of justice and prudence. But during the winter influences were brought to bear upon Maj. Waldron which induced him to issue general warrants for the seizure of every Indian known to be a manslayer, traitor, or con- spirator. Armed with this authority, the unscrupulous traders along the coast, for purposes of their own private gain, went to seizing Indians, irrespective of their character or complicity with the war, and carrying them off to foreign countries to sell as slaves. A trader of this sort was warned away from the shores of Pemaquid by Mr. Shurte, who

# 1 Williamson, p. 528 ; Sullivan, p. 250.

entreated him to depart, as the English and the natives in that vicinity were in a state of profound peace. Yet he treacherously canght several, and carried them into foreign countries and sold them into slavery .; Another, by the name of Laughlin, with one of Maj. Waldron's warrants, seized several Michmacks at Cape Sable for the same das- tardly purpose. Thus were the Indians, who might have been friends, made enemies, and the area of their hostility vastly extended, so that all the eastern tribes to Nova Scotia and the St. John were ready to raise the hatchet against the English. Mr. Shurte did everything in his power to conciliate them, assuring them that, if their friends were transported, they should be returned to their homes, and the trangressors arrested and punished.

Through the influence of Capt. Silvanus Davis and others, he induced the Anasagunticooks and Canibas to agree to a council with a view of forming with them a treaty of peace. They met the sagamores in council at Teconnet, and were kindly and courteously received. The point which the Indians insisted upon was that they should be supplied with ammunition, so that they might be able to pursue their hunting and furnish themselves with sub- sistence. The English doubted the propriety of this step, lest they might use the ammunition against the settlers or furnish it to the western Indians, and a long parley ensued. Finally, Madockawando said, " Do we not meet here on equal ground ? Where shall we buy powder and shot for our winter's hunting when we have eaten up all our corn ? Shall we leave Englishmen and apply to the French ? or let our Indians die? We have waited long to hear you tell us, and now we want yes or no."

" You may," said the agents, " have ammunition for necessary use; but you say yourselves there are many western Indians who do not choose peace. Should you let them have the powder we sell you, what do we better than cut our own throats? This is the best answer we are allowed to return you, though you wait ten years." This answer displeased the chiefs, and they declined any further talk. The agents returned home, apprehending a speedy renewal of hostilities.

About this time the eastern Indians had been reinforced by some of the most cunning and desperate adherents of King Philip, who, upon the fall of their leader, Ang. 12, 1676, had dispersed themselves among the Penacooks and Abenaques, inflaming them with their own maddened pas- sions, peculiarly in harmony with the spirit of Squando, who burned with impatience to see the work of destruction renewed. Three of the most noted fugitives had taken or acquired the English names of Simon, Andrew, and Peter. They had escaped to the Merrimac River a short time before the downfall of their prince, and had killed Thomas Kimball, and taken captive his wife and five children. They then endeavored to conceal themselves among the Penacooks, who had been neutrals in the war; but they were seized on one of Maj. Waldron's warrants, and closely confined at Dover, whence, in July, they effected their es- cape, and went to Casco Bay, where they murdered and cap- tured the Brackett family, killed Michael Mitten, Robert Corbin, Humphrey Durham, and Benjamin Atwell. The

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History of York County, Maine, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 730

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 730