USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 22
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Other promises are here made but of a rather general nature, and at the time and in later years Waldo has been harshly criti- cized for his alleged failure to live up to them. Such criticism has gone unreasonably far. The extent to which some promises are fulfilled depends, and in a large measure should depend, on con- ditions existing when the hour for fulfillment is reached. A case in question is the exemption of the emigrants from the necessity "of bearing arms." Such a promise a few years later became mean- ingless. In fact, it would have been the sheerest folly when the French and Indians brought extinction to their very firesides. Un- der these circumstances the whole colony bore arms in self-defense. In such a situation Waldo can hardly be reproached for a promise unkept. In fact, he could not in any way have foreseen the devel- oping conditions which rendered the fulfillment of many of his promises futile and inexpedient.
In the meantime, Captain Samuel Waldo was taking the ini- tial steps at Frankfort leading toward the realization of his father's colonial plan. The work proved to be hard, however, and the progress slow. The recruiting was not too successful, especially in the Oberrhein country and Würtemburg, owing largely to the controversies which had grown out of Crell's activity in the pre- ceding year. Furthermore, the Elector of the Palatinate forbade all recruiting in his domain and all emigration except where per- mission was secured in the form of passports. All Rhine boats were stopped at Oppenheim and those without passes were sent back to their homes. Similar laws were enforced by the Bishop Elector of Mainz. Such restrictions tended toward the crippling of Waldo's efforts, and in consequence Luther advised the young Captain to turn his attention to the north - to the Wetterau, to
Schaefer, John W. Shepherd of Belfast, it was awkwardly translated by Dr. A. T. Wheelock of that city. Printed by H. A. Rattermann, in Der Deutsche Pionier, it later came into the possession of Washington C. Shepherd, near Hoadleyville, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin.
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Dillenburg, to the Wittgenstein and the Weilburg areas. Accord- ingly in April 1753 permission was secured from the Count of Nassau-Dietz-Idstein to recruit in his domains. A similar privilege was also secured from the counts of Nassau-Dillenburg and of Hochenburg-Westerburg. Furthermore, as a move to engender confidence, and at Waldo's solicitation, the Count of Nassau- Dietz-Idstein appointed a commissioner, Karl Christoph Gottfried Leistner, to accompany the emigrants from his domain to America to see that they received their rights in passage and in their new homes. This Leistner was a university man, trained in law. He subsequently became Waldo's representative at Broad Bay and remained as a sort of regent in the colony until his premature death in 1769.
In the Nassau district the success was somewhat more marked. In two cases, at least, government officials acted as Wal- do's agents: the magistrate Bredenbeck in Dillenburg and Schmidt in Hochenburg. Even here the young Waldo was faced by sharp competition, as may be inferred from an advertisement inserted in the Frankfort papers of May 4, 1753 - honest, sharp, and even ironic in tone:
Up to this time many people have given up their own lands in order to find in New England a new Canaan. But no manna rains down there from Heaven, and mankind born for toil must work there as well as here. Nevertheless, he may find an ample living there if he entrusts himself to responsible agents and not to such recruiters as haven't the slightest scruples against bringing their next of kin into the most wretched of circumstances.
Finally young Waldo got together a group of sixty families from the domains of the Count of Nassau-Dietz-Idstein. They were recruited for the most part by Leistner in the districts of the Taunus Mountains. In this group was the family of Joseph Ludwig of Niederroth, a hamlet high in the mountains at the sources of the Ems, between Koenigstein and Heftrich. This part of the mi- gration was headed by Leistner to the point of general assembly.
Near the beginning of May 1753 Waldo's own ship, the Elizabeth, Captain Pendock Neale, arrived at Amsterdam and dropped anchor off the suburb of Menden. She was a well-built ship of three hundred and sixty tons burden, able to accommodate comfortably from four to five hundred emigrants. She was con- signed to Luther's preferred firm, Knevel and Company, which took over the job of fitting her out. Here there was a long wait. The procession of emigrants started in the middle of June from Dietz which was the rendezvous of those from the mountainous neighborhoods of the Taunus. In small boats they went down the Lahn to the Rhine and on the latter river as far as Coblentz, where
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they transferred to larger boats and continued their journey to Duisburg, the town where the Ruhr joins the Rhine. Here they waited for the Dillenburgers and for those from the more northern areas.
The recruiting had not proceeded with entire smoothness. There had been the old competition and the old misrepresentation, in consequence of which the migration was not nearly as large as had been hoped for; and even after starting, there were those who ran away or separated themselves from the main body of recruits. In order to hold as many of them as possible to their original contract, young Waldo issued the following announce- ment in the newspapers under date of June 12, 1753:
Since Waldo's New England migration has really started, and the colonists migrating from various localities with the approval of their rulers have moved to the centers agreed upon, we have wished to in- form those of this fact to whom it is of any concern and to notify them hereby of the following: that a German business house in Amsterdam of good repute has been commissioned to handle the details of the em- barking; that the well-known ship, Elizabeth, Captain Pendock Neale is really lying at anchor there; that her course will be around the Orkney Islands which will add greatly to the comfort and pleasure of the people thus conveyed as at this season of the year there is hardly any night there. Accordingly those who still wish to overtake the convoy should all the more hasten and assemble at the Ruhr, where several who recog- nize their error, and who from letters received may have become sepa- rated by incorrect directions, will await the whole convoy in order likewise to be able to enjoy the advantages of the 120 acres of good land promised in New England.9
When all the scattered contingents had gathered at the mouth of the Ruhr, the migration moved down the Rhine and then across country either by land or canal boats to Amsterdam, where the Elizabeth was waiting. The known incidents attending the trip are few, and in some cases the reports are contradictory. The ship did not proceed by the north of England as advertised, but down the channel where she touched at Cowes. Here, according to tra- dition, was buried John Joseph Ludwig, father of Jacob and Joseph, both of whom became prominent in the later colony. From this point there are two different narratives. H. A. Ratter- mann records that the Elizabeth made her next landfall at Ports- mouth in early September and took aboard there about seventy Scotch immigrants whom General Waldo himself had recruited in England that summer,10 and then proceeded to the Georges River. Just why it would have taken the good ship over two months to sail the couple of hundred miles from Cowes to Ports-
"Ober-Post-Amts Zeitung, June 12, 1753. 10 Der Deutsche Pionier, XVI Jahrgang.
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mouth, Ratterman does not make clear. More probable and more consistent with the few known facts is it that the Elizabeth laid over for weeks at Portsmouth waiting while Waldo completed his recruiting in England and got his freights to Portsmouth and aboard the ship. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the Elizabeth reached the Georges River in mid-October, which was reported in the Boston News Letter as follows: "Oct. 18, 1753. Last week ship arrived at St. Georges at the Eastward, with about 400 Germans, who intend to settle in that part of the Province." It would also be closer to the facts to indicate that in this migra- tion the ratio of Germans to Scotch-Irish was about three to one. At Point Pleasant on the Georges about three hundred Germans with their few belongings and stores were transferred to a coast- ing vessel which they filled as close as they could stand, and were taken around to the Medomak, where they arrived, according to Joseph Ludwig's story given to Cyrus Eaton sixty years later, in mid-September.11 We hold the mid-October date of the newspaper reported at that time to be the more authentic.
Young Waldo remained in Frankfort until September 1753 in line with his father's policy of further emigration. At this time he was recalled. Results had been poor. Relations with Luther had become strained. The lack of a larger success was blamed by Waldo on the Counsellor. The two men drew apart and the Gen- eral proceeded to forget the promise to Luther of a grant of land at Broad Bay. This was Waldo's last German enterprise. The next year war with France was again imminent, and before peace was concluded, General Waldo was dead. In this period of emigration to New England, so generously and altruistically aided and sup- ported by him, Luther was the loser. He received little thanks from the Province or any of the proprietors, and he was never reimbursed for the financial aid which he accorded. As late as 1765, after the close of the French and Indian War, Luther made a vain effort to recover some of the monies expended on these projects. This attempt was made through an appeal to none other than Benjamin Franklin who had originally recommended Joseph Crell to him. Excerpts are here given from his letter to Franklin for the light they cast on Waldo and his Broad Bay enterprise:
Sir: Since Mr. Genelin, in the service of his Brittanic Majesty is leaving for London, I have begged him to inform himself of your where- abouts and to give you assurance of my respects, in that many years have elapsed since I have received any word from you. I believe the last time was in 1751. You recommended at that time in Boston Mr. Joseph Crell who wanted to take over the affairs of the colony. He betook himself hither and brought in the name of the Province letters
11Annals of Warren, Ist ed. (Hallowell, 1851), p. 82.
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of recommendation from Mr. Spencer Phips, the Vice Governor, in consequence of which I aided him in his undertaking and arranged for him in 1751 as well as in 1752 a small migration of Palatines. In the year 1753 I undertook a very extended correspondence with Brig. General Waldo, who sent his son hither. The latter for a period of six months received free table and lodging from me as well as a small migration of emigrants. ... General Waldo was nevertheless not satisfied with this number and through false letters he let himself be misguided and sent to Menden in Holland a much larger ship than the number of emigrants required. This caused him many embarrassments and furthermore very substantial additional expenses. He wished then without any grounds to unload the whole fault on us. We got angry over this matter and the significant costs, which I had borne for three years in behalf of Mr. Waldo and the Province, are still owed me.
I can firmly assure you, Sir, that of the many sums spent by me in the interest of the province not a single penny has been paid back, not even the postage on letters. Meanwhile Mr. Waldo offered me a piece of land to found a colony on; in the meantime he died. The war started and everything was in a state of crisis. .. . 12
Under these conditions Luther solicited the good offices of Benjamin Franklin to intervene with the British government in order to secure restitution for his outlays. His claim was passed unnoticed. This last appeal of the Counsellor to the one who had first commended the project to him furnished the sordid conclu- sion to Mr. Luther's connection with Broad Bay history. As is so often the case, a high-minded gentleman had been exploited by a lesser breed, and then callously discarded when his altruism no longer served their selfish aims.
The scene now shifts from London and Frankfort back to Broad Bay whither Waldo's last colony of Germans had been shipped in a coaster from Pleasant Point. This migration probably landed somewhere near the head of tide, for most of the lands along the river had by then been allotted and occupied, and the upper waters had in consequence become well known. The re- maining unassigned areas were above the falls along the fresh water. The General apparently at this time was still entertaining his illusions of titled grandeur, for deeds given out in 1753 were not outright grants but still retained the peppercorn clause based on the social concept of one large estate with its numerous ten- antry. This principle is illustrated in the following excerpt from a land title: ". . . he the said Loran Sides, yielding and paying therefor yearly and every year, his heirs and assigns, the rent of one pepper Corn, if the same shall be lawfully demanded."13
There was, however, to be no immediate assignment of lots to the newcomers. There was no time for that, for the migration had reached Broad Bay in mid-October, where it was found that
12 Mass. Records, XV A, 273-276.
13Lincoln Co. Register of Deeds (July 24, 1753), Bk. 1, p. 40.
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preparations for their reception were only partial. Here as on the Georges, Waldo had apparently issued similar instructions for both groups for the first winter. His arrangements worked out very well at Warren where the migration was small enough to be housed for the first winter largely among the settlers already estab- lished there. At Broad Bay the migration was so much larger that it rendered such an arrangement only partially possible. It was, to be sure, too late for the planting of crops, but not too late for the assignment of lands and the erection of dwellings. The delay in this matter is reasonably understandable, however, for due to the restlessness of the Indians and their vigorous objections to the extension of settled areas above tidewater, the General may have felt it inexpedient to assign lands on the Upper Medomak to men utterly unskilled in meeting Indian attacks. These immigrants had been obtained with the greatest difficulty and at great expense. At the start it would have been folly to expose them to undue hazard from Indian attack. For the first winter then, the plan ap- parently was, as at Warren, to incorporate them into the existing settlement. Accordingly some were absorbed among the earlier settlers and by their labor earned their keep, but they were a decided minority. Of the great overflow, others were housed in a building erected near the old Mill Garrison on the west side of the First Falls, where John and Joshua Head later had their store, near or on the site of the former town house. For the greater number, as at Warren, General Waldo had caused to be erected a building later to be known as "the old long house."14 This struc- ture was sixty feet long, was divided into rooms and was, it is alleged, without chimneys. It is probable that there was at least a common room with the usual opening in the roof where the cook- ing could be done. This house was located on the west side of the Augusta road nearly opposite its junction with the road leading to the Soule Bridge across the Medomak River.
The winter of 1753-1754 was not one of excessive rigor. Par- son Smith at no point mentions extreme cold, as was his wont. His few entries on weather conditions are limited to the following notes: "1753, Oct. 24. The frosts have held off wonderfully. 1754, Jan. and Feb. Generally moderate and pleasant. Mar. 6. The frost seems almost out of the ground."15
Despite the mildness of the weather this winter was no easy time for these immigrants, ill-equipped as they were to meet such rigors as it offered. The suffering from inadequate nutrition was especially acute, for food was almost always scarce in the settle- ment in the earlier years. Even the older colonists had little in
14Oral tradition, Mrs. Alice Waltz Morse.
15 Extracts from the Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith, 1720-1778 (Portland, Me. : Thomas Todd & Co., 1821).
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reserve beyond their own needs, while in the case of these newest arrivals, Waldo's supplies, for some unknown reason, proved insuf- ficient. By contract he was bound to meet the food needs of these newcomers on the Georges and the Medomak for a period of six months. At Warren this was effectively done and was probably due to the smaller amounts of foodstuffs required, while at Broad Bay there was somewhere a breakdown in the arrangements which resulted in a definite scarcity. That this was due to the indifference and neglect of the patron might be easily inferred but for the fact that when the river opened in the spring needed provisions were promptly delivered to the new colonists and continued beyond the period when the General was obligated to furnish them.
It is probable that these supplies had been purchased the pre- vious autumn and that delivery had been retarded or impeded by unforeseen circumstances. Whatever the reasons were, they do not alter the fact that among the most recent immigrants at Broad Bay the winter was one of acute suffering, in fact, the lack of food seems to have been rather general. Among the new arrivals there were those who had money, one of whom was one of the three schoolmasters in this migration, who was so wealthy and in conse- quence so arbitrary, that in any dispute when argument failed, he used to threaten to knock down his adversary with a bag of Johan- nes,16 which rather points to the fact that food was not to be had in great quantities even for gold. The newcomers worked for what they could get - a quart of buttermilk or a quart of meal for a day's labor.17 They also sought work in the neighboring English settlements of Damariscotta and Warren and had their children freely indentured in both localities to insure their existence. Clams and frostfish which were available in the river in great quantities were a pure blessing and formed a staple article of diet.18
Under such conditions it was inevitable that exposure, mal- nutrition, and disease should take their toll of life. During this first winter seventeen died and were buried on the crest of a little hillock in the field just west of the "old long house."19 Their names are unknown and their memory has remained unhonored. Indeed, peace and a final resting place have hardly been accorded to them, for it was only a few years ago that their little hillock underwent desecration at the hands of some modern road-building vandals who wanted their little mound of gravel for the construction of highways. Today their ashes form a part of Route 32 along which their thoughtless descendants and kinfolk dash so gaily and dan- gerously.
16Cyrus Eaton: Annals of Warren, Ist ed., p. 82.
17 Ibid., Joseph Ludwig cited by Eaton.
18 Tbid., p. 85.
1ºLocation identified for the author by Mr. John Lovell in the summer of 1939.
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The spring of 1754 brought a temporary surcease of sorrow and suffering; for when the river opened, supplies were at hand in the form of food and needed tools. These were distributed by Karl C. G. Leistner, the local major-domo, and under his direction the migration was assigned land on the present Benner Hill. This location was about a mile from the river on the western end of the old Ritz farm, in the woods and south of the house now occupied by the family of George Duswald. Here the log cabins were erected in a compact cluster following the old German feudal style, and to each dwelling there was allotted one-half acre of land. The cabins were erected from the trees which were felled to clear the land for planting; and as the rocks and boulders were removed from the soil, they were placed in such a position as to form a stonewall around the entire settlement, which offered some protection against savages. The cabins were roofed over with boards from the mill at the First Falls, or with bark. It is said that Peter Mühler's house was rather unusual. It was built of logs, but was larger than the others and covered with boards, and at the time reputed to be the finest house in the whole settlement. Actu- ally it was probably a store or the center from which Waldo's supplies were distributed to the group and at which desired and needed goods could be purchased by those having the money.
Inasmuch as Waldo in his circulars had promised the settlers one hundred acres each with a water frontage where wood would bring four shillings a cord, this first disposition of the migrants has been strongly criticized, and Leistner has been blamed as well as Waldo. Actually, blame in either case is somewhat superfluous, since each settler was ultimately to receive his promised acreage, and Leistner in effecting this initial arrangement was simply fol- lowing instructions. The procedure on the Georges was identical in the case of those migrants arriving there in the same year, for here, too, they were settled in a compact unit and allotted one-half acre each.20 This arrangement under existing conditions had its advantages. By common effort in the heavy tasks of quick clearing of land, a chore where a man alone is a poor crew, and in the inten- sive cultivation of the soil on a communal basis, they could in the shortest order provide themselves with a substantial portion of needed food. More important still, it would keep them together for purposes of quick defense while at work, and the more readily enable them at all times to offer a common and united resistance to Indian attack. It also provided a setup whereunder two or three of the older settlers could direct their work and give them the guidance and experience so essential to newcomers. In short, it was a kind of school where training could be given in the arts
2Eaton, opus cit., 1st ed., p. 85.
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of taming a wilderness, and it was also a kind of garrison provid- ing for a united defense against attack.
Waldo's handling of this human problem was a clear case of his acting in the interest of the immigrants as well as in his own. He could have assigned them to lots along both sides of the Upper Medomak. The land was there. It was unoccupied and it was his to give. In fact, he did assign it to them, but not them to it. Such a move would unquestionably have excited the hostility of the Indians and have enabled them to wreak their vengeance with the greatest ease against each family thus isolated. The General knew this only too well, for the savages had resolutely barred his prog- ress above salt water on the Georges. In this matter their position had never changed. At a conference held at St. Georges as recently as October 20, 1752, Colonel Louis, a Penobscot chief, spoke for all the eastern tribes in part as follows:
In order to bury the mischief that is past we must proceed upon Dummer's Treaty, by which the English were to inhabit so far as the salt water flowed, and the Indians to have the rest. If we are not disturbed in our right, it will end in peace, otherwise it would set all these lands on fire.21
Among those attending this conference were John Ulmer and others from Broad Bay; hence it may be assumed that in that settlement the whole situation was rather clearly understood.
It was a time of apprehensiveness due to the increasing rest- lessness and bitter complaints of the savages. Fires set by careless hunters destroyed and drove out their game; the new settlement by the Scotch on the Georges infringed on the line which the Indians claimed as their boundary from the tidewaters of the Georges to those of the Medomak; the young Boggses on the former river were clearing above the falls, molesting Indian traps and occupying their hunting grounds. A final conference was held at the fort on the Georges in October 1754 on the very eve of the longest, the worst, and the last of the Indian wars. Again Colonel Louis held forth in remarkable and unmistakable language:
There has of late mischief been done among us; but we are all come to bury it. In order Whereto we are proceeding upon Governor Dum- mer's Treaty, by which it was concluded that the English should in- habit the lands as far as the salt water flowed, and no farther; and that the Indians should possess the rest. Brethren, as I said before, so I now say, that the lands we own let us enjoy; and let nobody take them from us. We said the same to those of our religion, the French. Although we are a black people, yet God hath placed us here; God gave us this land, and we will keep it. God decreed all things; he decreed this land to us; therefore neither shall the French, nor English possess it, but we will.22
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