USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 14
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VIII THE FIRST YEAR AT BROAD BAY
O sprecht! Warum zogt ihr von dannen? Das Neckarthal hat Wein und Korn; Der Schwarzwald steht voll finstrer Tannen; Im Spessart klingt des Alpers Horn.
ANON
THE L HE Lydia IN ALL PROBABILITY made her way up into Broad Bay no farther than Schenck's or Trowbridge's Points, for here the channel makes in reasonably close to the shore, and here she could logically anchor and put her cargo of freight and humans ashore in small boats. Since the whole river was uncharted and perhaps unmarked, it seems hardly reasonable that the upper reaches of shallower water would have been essayed by a ship of her size. Furthermore it should be remembered that there was no concen- tration of population on the river at so early a date, and Trow- bridge's Point was central to all the cabins scattered along the banks, and even at this time was used as a landing place for all sailing vessels coming to Broad Bay. Indeed, it became and remained the "town landing" until the development of the village at the head of tide in the early decades of the nineteenth century.
The scene that unrolled before the eyes of the Germans as the Lydia slowly sounded her way through "the Narrows" and up the bay, could hardly have been in line with their expectations. It was late October. Before them, along the bay and river, crude little log cabins hugged close to the banks; behind these were a few acres of cleared land, in some places still studded with stumps and formidable boulders. Beyond was an unending wilderness of evergreen broken by the fading colors of the deciduous trees. There was no sign of a "city" or village and no trace of the two large "long houses" for their winter shelter, or of the church as called for in the articles of agreement. In short, the prospect must have been not only disappointing but disquieting; and in the hearts of some there must have been a consciousness of cruel deception, as well as a vague sense of betrayal, as they gazed for the first time in their lives on the vast, untenanted wilderness.
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This first impression of their new home raises the old, un- critically accepted view of General Waldo's perfidy - a view which an unbiased examination of the facts must to a very con- siderable degree reject; for in a large measure he, as well as his settlers, was the victim of circumstances which rather sadly messed up his plans for the successful planting of this colony. Unquestion- ably Waldo was somewhat unscrupulous in his business dealings, a hard bargainer, and self seeking, but so were most of the promi- nent business leaders of his period. It was in no sense his practice, however, to act counter to his own self-interest. At this time the major object of his life was to develop these lands in eastern parts, and it would hardly have been in keeping with his purpose to incur the very considerable expense of recruiting and transporting these settlers from Europe and then leave them to starve and die on the lands he so dearly wished to populate. Such a policy would not have been consonant with the quality of self-interest so clearly characteristic of him, and certainly Colonel Waldo was not a man given to committing absurdities.
The actual conditions faced by the Germans at Broad Bay in the winter of 1742-1743 were not as harsh as has long been depicted by popular tradition. To be sure, there was much discom- fort, some suffering, and a few deaths - none of which can be cate- gorically charged to Colonel Waldo's indifference or neglect. Rather should we give the Colonel his just, historical due by view- ing conditions in the light of motives and circumstances operating at that time in this specific situation. Waldo had only recently ended a long sojourn in England, where he had successfully finished a fight to oust from the governorship of Massachusetts Bay his enemy, Jonathan Belcher. During this costly political battle and his long absence from business affairs, his fortune had been substan- tially reduced. In consequence he had been compelled to borrow money from his cousin, Cornelius, and to mortgage his Boston home. He was in reality close to bankruptcy, but was not a man to end his career in so abject a fashion. With his accustomed vigor he recouped his failing finances in a ruthless fashion characteristic of the business practices of the period, by bringing about in 1743 a foreclosure action against his former partner, Colonel Thomas Westbrook, and thereby acquiring all of Westbrook's properties.1 This was an event which led the chronicle-minded Parson Thomas Smith of Falmouth to make the following entry in his famous Jour- nal under date of June 14, 1743: "Mr. Waldo came to town with an execution against Col. Westbrook for £10,500 and charges."2
1Dict. of Am. Biog., XIX, 333.
"Extracts from the Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith, 1720-1778 (Portland, Me .: Thomas Todd & Co., 1821).
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
A still more important congeries of facts throwing light on the colony at Broad Bay and its condition that first winter must be traced back to their inception in the European scene. The Ger- mans had left their homes in the Palatinate and Würtemberg in March 1742, consequently Waldo had good reason to believe that they would reach Broad Bay by early July at the latest, but here, as we have seen, fate again intervened, for war broke out in Europe. The Spanish privateers made English merchant shipping a pre- carious affair. Apart from the usual discrimination against shipping Germans to New England on the part of the Rotterdam shipping houses, the war made it more difficult to secure vessels. Despite this fact Waldo apparently continued to wait with the thought that if the colonists arrived by midsummer he could provide the lumber and have the houses and church built by the Germans them- selves. This was shrewd and reasonable, since it would save him the cost of importing labor as well as that of wages and food. As the summer advanced he continued to delay and take chances, largely because of his lack of cash or credit. This proved to be a gross mis- judgment, and for the colonists a tragic error - an error of judg- ment, however, rather than deliberate intent on the part of Mr. Waldo.
These facts and conditions make it reasonably clear why, when the Germans arrived at Broad Bay late in October 1742, so few arrangements had been made for their accommodation. The Lydia undoubtedly had taken aboard at Marblehead a substantial store of food, as well as the axes, hoes, spades, handsaws, and other tools specified in the original contract; for without these, of course, few settlers could have survived the winter. It has always been generally assumed that such tools and equipment were brought by the colonists from Germany, but such was not the case. The long journeys overland and by small river boats precluded this, and besides it was not allowed by the Rotterdam shipping firms which made their profits in this trade by packing in a maximum of human cargo and a minimum of personal belongings. Whether in the Penn- sylvania or New England traffic, each adult was allowed a single wooden chest which contained his clothing, a little bedding, small personal articles, in some cases a few pieces of gold or silver, a copy of family marriages, births, and deaths copied from the Church Register in the Old Country, a Bible, a Prayer or Hymn Book, a copy of Arndt's Das Wahre Christentum, the Augsburger Confes- sion of Faith, and Luther's Catechism if they were Lutherans, and the Heidelberger Catechism if they were of the Reformed Church. The chest of the immigrant, Feyler, who came in this colony is still in the possession of the Feyler family at Broad Bay,3 and it
3In possession of Mrs. Carrie Feyler Hart, Waldoboro, Me. Deceased 1952.
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may be regarded as typical. It is four feet and nine inches in length; two feet in depth and twenty-three inches in width. It is made of semi-hard boards, mortised at the four corners - boards seven- eighths to one inch in thickness. The cover is secured on the back by two handmade hinges which are each a part of a handmade iron strap running around the chest and ending on the front side, a couple of inches below the cover, in an eye. Directly above this in the cover is a rough eye bolt. The chest was made fast by a lashing passed between these two eyes and secured. This or chests similar in size and construction were standard equipment for all the Ger- man migrants to the New World.
Once ashore along the waterfront Mr. Zuberbühler and the engineer assumed the roles of guidance and leadership. It was a chore of no small order to organize and direct the energy and activity of upwards of two hundred people toward the detailed and complicated task of establishing themselves in a wilderness with so little time separating them from cold weather. The first act of settlement must have been to set up shelters for their stores, and to erect crude, open-air fireplaces for the preparation of food. It is possible that during the night the newcomers were sheltered in the sheds, lean-tos, and in some cases the cabins of those who were already mercifully settled in their own homes. Then there were doubtless those who spent the first nights around campfires in the open, until rough, temporary structures were built for sleep- ing and protection against the weather. What these were we can only conjecture - possibly shelters of interwoven brush, or conical huts of branches laid up with turf, such as the charcoal burners used in England, or holes dug in the river banks with timbered- over ceilings. All such structures had been used as their first homes by the earliest settlers in Massachusetts, and certainly it was an architectural pattern well known to the English-speaking settlers already located at Broad Bay. The weather during these fall days was mercifully mild. Parson Smith was a faithful weather recorder, and the entries in his useful Journal indicate an unusually late autumn. Under October 18, 1742, we learn of "some unusually hot days about this time," and another most revealing comment on December 23: "Wonderful weather for about ten days past; there has been no cold weather yet."4 These entries provide the assurance that after their landing the colonists had a full eight weeks of toler- able weather before winter set in in earnest around them. There is also good reason to believe that in this period Mr. Waldo was busy in their interests; for there is a letter written to him by a Joseph Plaisted, dated York, October 19, 1742,5 in which a report is given
4Italics mine.
5Documentary History of the State of Maine, XI, 258.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
on certain problems connected with the raising of money, on the prices of certain food supplies, and on the strong possibility of Plaisted being able "to git five or six yoke of oxen." It is somewhat difficult to avoid the conclusion that coming just at this time, these activities were in the interests of the new Broad Bay settlers.
Amid the uncertainties faced, Providence was at least benefi- cent in vouchsafing to these strangers a chance to construct log cabins before the advent of harsh weather. Mr. Zuberbühler, the engineer, and possibly Mr. Waldo took the lead in assigning lots to each family. These were in the main on the east bank of the river, in an area stretching roughly from the present farm of Foster Jameson up along the river to the district above the first falls. These lots were contiguous save here and there where a lot was pre- empted by an older settler. It is probable that the lots were already surveyed and staked out, but if such were not the case it is reason- ably certain that at this time the engineer would have done little more than survey the shore frontage, mark the bounds with num- bered stakes and then from these stakes run the lines back into the woods for a short distance, in order to give each settler in the briefest time an area on which he could cut his logs and build his cabin. Most of the lots were laid out with a frontage on the river of twenty-five rods from which the lines were run back into the country on a due east course for a sufficient distance to embrace one hundred acres. This method of apportioning land was the one almost universally employed in locating settlers on all Maine rivers; but it was not in line with the plan of the original contract, under which the settlers would have been concentrated on quarter-acre lots in a compact village settlement with their farm lands set aside in lots scattered through the surrounding country, as was and is the case today in the more thickly populated areas of Germany.
Taken as a whole, the evidence is reasonably conclusive that the abodes of the Broad Bay Germans this first winter were log cabins. Contrary to general belief log cabins were not an original American type of dwelling. They were introduced into the New World by the Swedes and Finns on the Delaware and did not appear on the New England frontier until the eighteenth century.6 They were, however, a well-established architectural type by the time the first Germans arrived at Broad Bay. The settlements on the Georges, along the sound, and the few scattered dwellings on the Medomak were of this type, so the Germans had models ready at hand. Their first cabins, however, were crude, constructed as they were in a race with winter. The material was ready at hand, and as they felled the trees for their dwellings they were preparing their land for crops the next spring. About a month is required for
"Samuel Eliot Morison, Builders of the Bay Colony (1930).
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The First Year
the construction of a log cabin, but the Germans, being new at such a task, required somewhat more time despite the goodly num- ber of carpenters in this migration.
These cabins of the first winter were one- or two-room struc- tures with a floor of clay or flat field stones, and with the chinks between the logs filled in with clay in which dried grass was used for a binder. There was no time to build chimneys, nor was the material available. In lieu of these a rough stone fireplace was erected near the end or corner of the room and the smoke escaped through a hole in the roof. There was no dearth of firewood, but the character of the log structures was not such that a maximum of warmth could be utilized. The long and providential Indian summer was a period of strenuous effort which enabled the colonists to make a fair provision against the advent of winter and Colonel Waldo to get supplies to the settlement before the river was closed by ice. We catch a glimpse of the awkward activity of these Ger- mans, operating under conditions frighteningly strange to them, from a letter of complaint written by one of their English neigh- bors to Colonel Waldo, of which a relevant portion is here cited:
Broad Bay, December 9, 1742
. . This is to lett know my Missfortunes since you wass with us last. Ye Ingeneares man Hass Kilt a Steere of mine and Settled with ye Ingenear about Itt. He fell a tree on him and Brooke his back. They Killed and Kept him for nine Days, and sent ye 4 Quarters and hide to my house with a Gard of men, thru them in and went thire way, nobody a tome but my wife. I would Doo nothing to him until I sent you --. If there is not Method taken with them they may kill All Ye Creaters wee have.7
(Signed) James Littell
From this letter a number of interesting inferences may be derived: the Germans were clearly organized and operating under the leadership of the engineer; a considerable friction and ill-will already existed between them and the older English, Scotch-Irish settlers of 1736; and Colonel Waldo was on the scene in person during these strenuous days of preparation, which was entirely to his credit and indicative of his concern and interest. Furthermore it is clear evidentially8 that he lived up to contract in the matter of food supplies before the ice closed the river for the winter. Mr. Zuberbühler remained with the colony until well into December,9 and doubtless left on one of the last supply or cordwood coasters before the closing of the river.
Such preparations, under conditions faced, were good insur- ance against the advent of cold weather, but could not have been
7Colls. Me. Hist. Society, Doc. Ser. XI, 258.
9Letter, Mrs. Zuberbühler to Col. Waldo, Dec. 6, 1742, Mass. Records, XV A, 30. 8Mass. Records, XV A, 35ff.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
adequate against exposure sickness. A serious drawback was to be found in the fact that few of the Germans at this time possessed firearms, which made it impossible to draw fully on wild life for a supply of fresh meat, but there was fish and shellfish a plenty, which could be drawn upon richly to supplement the food. Despite all this there was suffering, disease, and death. Among the victims, probably of exposure, was the unnamed engineer or surveyor who left a widow and some small children. His death was unquestion- ably a grave loss to the little community, which in its extreme isolation could ill afford the loss of a trained leader, and especially so in the midst of winter when the problem of survival was most acute.
At the turn of the year winter must have set in in earnest. Parson Smith's Journal for 1743 makes no mention of weather until March 1, when he gives us a summary of the two preceding months in the following words. "This has been a close[d] winter: the snow being constantly so deep in the woods that the teams could not stir, though there was not so much near us, and in Boston there was hardly aney." If there was not much snow at Falmouth or south of Falmouth in the Boston area, and yet much snow, the reference can only be to the region farther north and east along the coast. This region would clearly embrace Broad Bay. The darkness of the traditional picture of conditions is belied by the fact that in a group of over one hundred and fifty souls there were so few deaths throughout the winter. Had there been many Dr. Kast would undoubtedly have played up that fact in his letter of May 25, 1743, of grievance to the General Court in which he states that "some have found their graves there." The engineer, however, is the only specific case mentioned. The Reverend Doctor was clearly the kind of man who would have made more of this phase of the first Broad Bay winter had the facts warranted it.
With the advent of the first spring, cold, raw days continued. The ice was slow in leaving the river. Provisions in consequence may have run short. Unquestionably there was discomfort and want. It bore most heavily on those who were accustomed by com- parison to a far greater degree of comfort and security - more particularly on the two professional gentlemen of the colony, habituated to an easy living derived without physical pain or labor from an ordered and organized society. Doctors Kast and Kurtz had apparently had enough; and in the name of the whole settle- ment, the former drew up his bill of grievances and his petition for relief and release under date of May 25 and forwarded it to the Governor and General Court in Boston. Its form and diction are strongly suggestive of a correct legal touch foreign to the Doctor's training and brief experience with the English language. The sup-
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The First Year
position cannot be far from wrong that he made a trip to Boston in the spring and there with the aid of some of Waldo's enemies in the legal profession had the document drawn up. This hypothesis receives added confirmation from the fact that there are no other signatures attached save his own and that of the arrant scoundrel, Doctor Kurtz. There were plenty of those at Broad Bay who could write their names and the weight of unanimity could have made this document a convincing declaration of wrongs. It is here offered in full with such light as it casts on conditions in the colony in the spring of 1743:
Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England To His Excellency William Shirley Esqr., Captain General & Governor in chief and the Honourable His Majestys Council & the Honourable House of Representatives in General Court Assembled at Boston, May 25th, 1743.
The Subscribers for themselves and their Palatine Brothers shew. - That your Petitioners are Natives of Germany, where most of them en- joyed houses and lands which they sold in order to settle in New Eng- land upon the following conditions enumerated in a certain paper signed by Samuel Waldo Esqr. and Sebastian Zuberbühler printed in High Dutch and dispersed in Germany, which conditions were, That Samuel Waldo Esqr. should provide a Vessel or Vessels at Rotterdam for the Transportation of a number of Palatines to New England, and in case said Vessel or Vessels should not be ready to sail in Eight days from the time of the Palatines coming to Rotterdam then said Waldo was to pay them thirty pounds Sterling pr. day Demurage after the Expiration of said Eight days and in case the Vessel or Vessels were retarded by the Palatines, then they were to pay said Waldo fifteen pounds Sterling per day demurage.
That Mr. Waldo should against their arrival at Broad Bay in New England build and finish at his own Expense for their Reception two houses of thirty five feet square two Stories high and also a Church, on each of which houses he was to lay out one hundred pounds Sterling, and on the Church two hundred pounds Sterling.
That Mr. Waldo should pay at his own Cost, an Engineer one hun- dred pounds Sterling per annum for the term of three years, a Doctor one hundred pounds Sterling per annum for the term five years, a Min- ister seventy pounds Sterling pr annum, a Schoolmaster thirty pounds Sterling per annum, each for the term of ten years.
That Mr. Waldo should have a convenient Spot of Land plotted out for a Town in which each Family should have Lotted out one quar- ter of an acre for a house Lott. That Sixty Thousand Acres of Land contiguous to said Town should be laid out and appropriated for settling Palatines.
That Mr. Waldo should provide the following stock for their sup- port, viz: One hundred and twenty thousand pounds of Beef, Twenty thousand pounds of Pork, Sixty thousand pounds of Flower, Sixty thou- sand pounds of coarse Flower, Four thousand Bushels of Indian Corn, Four thousand Bushels of Salt, one half to be delivered on their arrival the other half in six Months after, which was to be delivered in the fol- lowing manner, viz't: To each person above the age of ten years one hundred and fifty pounds of Beef, fifty pounds of Pork, one hundred
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
and fifty pounds of Flower, one-hundred and fifty pounds of coarse Flower, Ten Bushels of Indian Corn, one Bushel of Salt. To each per- son under the age of ten years half the above Quantity.
That Mr. Waldo should supply each Family with a Cow and Calf, a Sow, three Axes, four Hoes, one Hand Saw, and have laid out to each person fifty Acres of land. These are the articles stipulated by Mr. Waldo. Those on the part of Sebastian Zuberbühler were, that the Pal- atines should pay Mr. Waldo a quit rent of Two pence half penny Ster- ling per Acre forever. Invited and encouraged by these Advantages your Petitioners and their Countrymen left their native Land, and after having encountered many Difficulties with an unreasonable delay of Eight weeks and three days to their great Impoverishment in the Elector of Cologne's Territories by means of Sebastian Zuberbühler who either could not or would not get Security for your Petitioners not being left in the State of Holland, they Embarked for New England, where they arrived at Marblehead in October, from whence they Sailed to the Eastward an Inhospitable Shore and a waste Wilderness, where there were a few Necessarys and not one Accommodation of Life. Notwithstanding what was boasted to be done in the Contract between Waldo and Zuberbühler there not being so much as anything done towards building either of the houses to Shelter your Unhappy Petitioners from the Injuries of the weather at the most inclement Season of the year, the Winter; by which means some have found their Graves there, amongst whom is our Engi- neer who has left a Disconsolate Widow with a Family of helpless Children.
Wherefore your Petitioners beg leave to lay their deplorable case before Your Excellency and Honours, which they are Encouraged to do, when they consider that the Fathers of this Land were Protestant Strangers as are your Petitioners. And as your Petitioners have suffered Uncommon hardships loss and damages as aforesaid and have been In- humanly treated by the said Mr. Waldo, who has failed in every part of his Contract with us by which means we have lost our Substance and are reduced to the utmost penury and want, Therefore your Complain- ants Strangers in this land destitute of all Friends, most humbly pray your Excellency and Honours, to whom they address themselves, as you are their Fathers in the State, that you'l be pleased to take their most deplorable and distressed Circumstances into your Just and wise Con- sideration and of your great Goodness Charity and Compassion Extend Relief to them by sending a Vessel at the Province[s] Charge to bring them from the Eastern parts, not being able to defray the Charges them- selves, that so they may be Employed in such Business as they are cap- able of for the support of themselves their wifes and children. And that your Excellency and honours would be pleased to condescend that a Committee of this honourable Court may be appointed to Enquire into the premisses and make Report thereon.10
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