USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 26
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. A contemporary newspaper account of this attack follows:
The Day after his Excellency our Governor left Eastern Settlements, the Enemy, to the number of 50 French and 355 Indians appeared at Georges and made attack upon the Fort; But Matters there being so well prepared to receive them, they could not make the least impression, not even upon the Block-House: They burnt some Houses in the woods, which had been deserted by the inhabitants, took one Woman and turned their fury against the Cattle. Four of them appeared escourting the Woman Prisoner under a Flag of Truce, whom Capt. North had re- deemed for Nine Pounds, It is from her we hear the Particulars of the Enemy and their Numbers; also that Lieutenant Saunders and the Pris- oners taken at Naskeag Point are alive and well. And last Monday Night the Account of the Attempt arrived here: His Excellency immediately sent down Capt. Hallowell in the King George: He has sent down also some French Prisoners to exchange for those which the Enemy have of our's.6
After this repulse on the Georges the savages and their French allies moved on. The whole district, however, had been aroused and was prepared for trouble. The next blow was struck at Medumcook (Friendship). Here, too, they were unsuccessful in carrying the fort, but they did succeed in killing and capturing eight men. From this point they moved on rapidly to Broad Bay, but what happened here is somewhat obscure, and the evidence requires some interpretation.
5Boston News Letter, Sept. 7, 1758, Boston Public Library.
6Boston Gazette, Sept. 4, 1758, Boston Public Library.
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Early on the morning of September 4, 1758, a coasting schooner sailed into Boston Harbor, and its master gave an account of the assault at Broad Bay to a local newspaper which promptly issued the following report:
By a Vessel this Morning from the Eastward we are informed that the French and Indians have burnt and destroyed all the Houses, Cattle and Grain of all the Inhabitants at Broad Bay; that they were heard firing at George's Fort, and that near 100 guns from the Fort was heard in about an Hour's Time; that the enemy fired very smart for a little time and then ceased, to refresh themselves in order to go at it again; that last Wednesday Capt. Hallowell was off old Casco; that Capt. Cox had sailed in an arm'd Sloop with 150 men from Casco Bay; and that General Pep- perel was marching a Regiment, not being able to get Vessels in New Hampshire Government fit to transport them. The above Vessel has bro't up 11 Women and Children for fear of the Enemy.7
This report came from a coaster that had sailed from the Georges River; it is the only known account of such an attack; there are no allusions to it in any other source and it is exaggerated. What, then, did happen? There can be no doubt that this blow was struck in force, probably against the garrisons on the east bank of the river. The attacks were of relatively short duration and were repulsed at all three forts. While the garrisons were under fire and thus immobilized, such cattle as could be found were slaughtered, some of the grain standing ripe or in sheaves in the fields was burned; some cabins were plundered and destroyed; the damage in the main was to property and not to life. These Indians could not afford to tarry too long and they knew it, for a volunteer force of one hundred and fifty men had been raised at Falmouth and were heading for the eastern frontier under com- mand of Captain Cox; Captain Hallowell, in the frigate King George, was on his way; General Pepperell was marching a regi- ment overland from York; a considerable force in the garri- son on the Georges was in their rear, and all scouting forces along the frontier were alert. The enemy was clearly outnumbered, and under such conditions had no stomach for a fight. In fact, it is doubtful if they had munitions available to combat such a show of strength; and so, as they could so easily do, they simply dis- appeared. The force under Captain Cox moved eastward as far as the Broad Bay area and learning that the savages had gone pro- ceeded no farther. This was the end of large-scale Indian ravages in Maine. Governor Pownal's speed and foresight in warding off this attack were highly applauded by the settlers as well as by the General Court, and Mr. Pitt assured him that by his act he had received the particular approbation of the King himself.
TIbid.
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This attack on Broad Bay had come at the very end of August. The remainder of the summer and autumn was a quiet one in which the Germans had ample time to repair and rebuild for the winter, harvest what was left of their crops, and store such food supplies as they could collect. Scattered Penobscots still lurked around the settlements, but they were not aggressive, and vigilance was not relaxed. Captain Joshua Freeman had the over- all command, and we are furnished a picture of local activity during the autumn from a few brief entries in his Journal:
Tues. 12, Sept. 1758. Sent out part of my company being joyned with Capt. Leissner's a march of sundry miles into the woods. Ret. the same day. Made no discovery of the Enemy. ... Mon. 25th. Heard this morning an account that Two Indians were discovered yesterday about five miles from the Falls. Immediately set out with my company being joyned with Captain Leissner's. Travelled to the place and all around there about. Made no discovery. Returned in the evening. .. . Monday, Oct. 9, Sent to St. George's Fort eight men under the care of Capt. Rome- ley. Thurs. 10, They returned, heard nothing of the Enemy.8
The Journal ended on Tuesday, October 31st, and thereafter war at Broad Bay subsided for the balance of the year.
The year 1759 was a quiet one at Broad Bay, one of long- range importance to all the settlements on the eastern frontier - important because it saw the English taking the initiative on all fronts and carrying the war to all enemy strongholds and centers of power in an effort to end the struggle, terminate the control and influence of the French on the American continent, and reduce the eastern Indians to a state of impotence forever. To this end expeditions were organized against Quebec, Niagara, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and other French key positions.
Three of these enterprises held a special significance to Broad Bay. The first of these was the expedition against Quebec, a center of French power where plots had been hatched and Indian activity directed against the Maine coastal settlements for decades. A force of English and Colonials was led by the heroic General Wolfe. The impossible happened. The attacking force by stratagem and under cover of night reached the Plains of Abraham without loss of life, and the next day the issue was decided by battle. Both Montcalm and Wolfe died in the action which eventuated favor- ably to the English arms, and on September 13th Quebec, the major French stronghold in the New World, surrendered. This was a meaningful battle to Broad Bay. Her men took part and some died in this memorable struggle, although only scattered ref- erences to this fact have been preserved, and only one case will be touched on here. The Memoir of Sophia Schumacher, maiden
8Joshua Freeman, A Journal of My Proceedings at Madomack, Mass. Archives, XXXVIII A, 303,
GOVERNOR THOMAS POWNAL
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name Vogt, "the widow Wohlfahrt," wife of Georg Adam Schu- macher, contains a brief reference to her first husband, Johann Jacob Wohlfahrt, "a vintner ... in the service of the colony, passed out of time in the year 1759."9
The second enterprise, of which Broad Bay was a direct and grateful beneficiary, was no less memorable and dramatic. It pro- vides, in fact, one of the most epic themes in American history. On the day Quebec surrendered, Major Robert Rogers left Crown Point at the head of one hundred and fifty of his famous rangers. He proceeded by boat to Missisquoi Bay at the northern end of Lake Champlain. Here he concealed his boats and struck across the wilderness on a northeasterly course until he reached the south- ern fork of the Yamaska River. Following from there a more northerly course, he crossed the northern fork of the same river and went on to the St. Francis River which he struck and forded about twenty miles south of the village of the redoubtable St. Francis Indians. He proceeded down the river in a night march and reached the vicinity of the village about an hour before dawn. Scouts who had been observing at close range reported that the Indians were dancing and had been dancing all night in celebration of the wedding of one of their young warriors.
For Rogers and his men the time could not have been more propitious. There were no sentries posted, and before the first break of dawn the whole village was wrapped in the sleep of ex- haustion. The attack started at 5:17 A.M. The whole force was in the village and each ranger was at his post when Major Rogers' whistle gave the prearranged signal. Each house was covered and as fast as the Indians appeared they were slaughtered. Then the cabins were fired. As the flames swept through the village, many Indians perished from smoke and fire in their cellars and lofts where they had taken refuge. Those seeking to escape from the flames were shot without pity. In less than an hour the deadly task was ended. The bodies of two hundred savages littered the ground, while uncounted others had been shot in the water while trying to escape, or burned in their wigwams. The village of the St. Francis ceased to exist. Vengeance, long deferred, had been swift, thorough, and terrible. Rogers' men replenished their stores of food from the storehouses containing the Indians' winter sup- plies, then fired them and without delay started the homeward march, now closely pursued by the French. Rogers had had one man killed and seven wounded in this daring enterprise. The re- turn route was up the St. Francis River to Lake Memphremagog, thence southeast across country to the headwaters of the Con- necticut and down this river to Fortress No. 4, where the surviv-
"Archives Moravian Church (Winston-Salem, N. C.).
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ing rangers arrived November 4th. This was a journey of horror and heroism, the whole story of which has been vividly and accu- rately told by Kenneth Roberts in his Northwest Passage, which has already become a classic of Colonial history.
As we have mentioned, these St. Francis savages were not Canadian, but New England Indians, largely recruited from the Maine tribes which had been expelled from their homes in the earlier wars. They were the surviving Pejepscots, Arasagunticooks, Abnaki and Wewenocs who had never been able to forget or for- give earlier injustices, and in consequence had been for decades the terror of the New England settlers. In every war they had descended from the St. Lawrence country to their old homes to satiate their hatred and destroy life and property with uncon- trolled cruelty. In his Journal Major Rogers states: "To my own knowledge in six years time they had killed or carried into cap- tivity on the frontier of New England four hundred persons; we found in the town hanging on poles over the doors about six hundred scalps, mostly English."10 One of the captives rescued by the Rangers alleged there were seven hundred scalps, among them her own husband's, which she had counted many times in her work about the village. The destruction of St. Francis was a boon to the settlers at Broad Bay, for since 1736 they had been repeatedly visited by this scourge, and now with the threat of its horror finally allayed, they were much closer to a life of durable peace.
The third and last expedition of the year 1759, which com- pleted the fabric of a lasting peace for the people at Broad Bay, was that involving Governor Pownal's subjugation of the Penob- scot tribe.11 On the eastern frontier the Penobscots had been near and uncertain neighbors and were now, after eighty-five years of warfare, the only savage neighbors left in the vicinity of Broad Bay. There could be no lasting security for the settlers on this frontier until their power was broken. The realization of this fact led Governor Pownal to organize an expedition to proceed to the Penobscot country and erect there a fort with a garrison of suffi- cient strength to hold the Indians permanently in check.
On May 4th the Governor arrived at Falmouth, which had been stipulated as the rendezvous of his force of four hundred men. He had also previously ordered that all materials for the construction of the fort should be there assembled and fitted. From this point, on May 6th he sent "expresses" to the captains of the eastern companies to meet him at St. Georges to receive his orders. Thither among others repaired Captains Leissner and Remilly from
10 Colls. Me. Hist. Soc., VI, 242.
11For details see Pownal's Journal, Colls. Me. Hist. Soc., V, 365,
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Broad Bay and received instructions concerning the plan and strat- egy of frontier defense during the time the main force would be in the field. Then Pownal proceeded up the Penobscot, took for- mal possession of the country, surveyed different sites, selected Fort Point in the present town of Prospect as the most suitable spot, and began the erection of Fort Pownal. When the construc- tion of the fort was well under way, the Governor with one hun- dred and thirty-six men moved up the river to the head of the tidewater and landed on the western bank. He met no opposition from the Penobscots, for they were too cowed, and their number too reduced by war, famine, and disease. To the remnant of the tribe he sent an ultimatum notifying them of his purpose to erect a fort in the heart of their country, and warning them that in case of interference every last member of their race would be hunted down or driven from the country. He also set forth a proffer of peace on his own terms and added, "though we neither fear your resentment nor seek your favour, we pity your distresses; and if you will become the subjects of His Majesty, and live near the fort, you shall have our protection, and enjoy your planting and hunting grounds without molestation." What the Penobscots had feared for decades had now come to pass. Henceforth their role in history was simply to live by the grace of their masters.
There was one other incident connected with Pownal's expe- dition to Penobscot lands which is an integral part of Broad Bay history. This was the death of the proprietor, "the Hereditary Lord of Broad Bay." General Waldo was in his sixty-fourth year, and there was no visible sign of abatement in his interest and plans for his project in "eastern parts." He had accompanied the Pownal expedition ostensibly as an adviser, but his real interest and purpose was to see the eastern bounds of his grant and to survey its possi- bilities of future expansion. The story of his death can perhaps best be told from terse entries made by Pownal in his Journal. After the work on the fortress was fully under way, Pownal with a smaller force, accompanied by Waldo, proceeded up the Penob- scot as far as the present site of Bangor. His narrative on this phase of his journey runs as follows:
23rd P.M. Landed on the east side of the river with 136 men and pro- ceeded to the head of the first Falls about four miles and a quarter from the first ledge. Clear land on the left for near four miles. Brigadier Waldo, whose unremitted zeal for the Service had prompted him at the age of 63 to attend me on this Expedition, dropped down just above the Falls of an Apoplexy, and notwithstanding all assistance that could be given him, expired in a few moments.
This took place on the site of the present city of Brewer. The Honorable Lorenzo Sabine describes the death in these brief
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words: "Waldo, looking around him, exclaimed, 'Here is my bound,' and dropped dead on the site of a city,"12 and William D. Williamson adds: "To commemorate the spot, the Governor bur- ied a leaden plate bearing an inscription of the melancholy event."13 Pownal concludes with the following entry: "25th. At Evening, Buried Brigd. Waldo at the Point [site of Fort Pownal] near the Flagstaff, with the honours of War in our Power."
A more detailed account of this event is to be found in the columns of a contemporary Boston newspaper which describes the details of burial as follows:
His Excellency had the corps brought down with him to the Fort Point, where it was interred in a vault, built for that purpose, on Friday, with all the Honours due to so faithful a servant of the public as the Brigadier had ever shown himself to be. Upon landing the corps, it was received by a guard, and when procession began, the Ship King George fired half-minute guns 'til it arrived at the place of interment. The pro- cession was led by an officers guard, next to which the minister, then the corps carried by the bargemen of the King George, and the pall was supported by the principal officers. The Governor followed, as chief mourner, then officers of the troop and master-artificers, employed in building the fort, two and two, and the whole closed with a captain's guard. Upon coming to the ground, the troops under arms formed a circle, Divine service was performed, and a sermon suitable to that aw- ful occasion preached by the Reverend Mr. Phillips; and upon the inter- ment of the corps, the Guards fired three volleys over the grave.14
The remains of General Waldo were not destined to remain in the soil of his great estate by Penobscot waters, however, for they were later removed by his family and placed in the church- yard of King's Chapel in Boston.
The death of the Proprietor was a serious loss to the settlers of Broad Bay, however little they may ever have come to realize it. In a very few years they were to be dispossessed of their lands on the western bank of the river, and as a consequence would be execrating his memory. It seems clear, however, that had the Gen- eral lived, he would not, as was done by his heirs, have utterly abandoned his "tenants" to the demands of the Pemaquid claim- ants, but through his influence in the government, would have worked out a juster solution of the impending land disputes, as a matter of self-interest if for no other motive.
Local history has not dealt altogether kindly with General Waldo. It has, in fact, held him responsible for much that is not consistent with his own self-interest or with the plain facts of his- tory. When all available evidence has been weighed Waldo must,
12 North American Review, LVIII, 313.
13 History of Maine, II, 338.
14Boston News Letter, Thursday, May 31, 1759, Libr. Mass, Hist. Soc., Boston, Mass.
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in a large measure, be absolved of the charge of deception, indif- ference, and inhumanity which has been associated locally with his memory. Such indictments are more apparent than real, and arise from a failure to understand the man's individuality and the practices generally in vogue in the time in which he lived. Waldo was born to a tradition of wealth and gentility, his father being a rich Boston merchant of one of the first families of that colonial commonwealth. Young Waldo was reared and educated in an aristocratic tradition; in his early business ventures he accumu- lated wealth and on his own merit became identified with the ruling class in society and government. He was in no sense differ- ent from other dominant figures in the business and commerce of his day. Highly energetic and a hard, unscrupulous, and tireless fighter where his interests were opposed, he held his own amid the shifting intrigues of his time by virtue of shrewdness, deter- mination, unflagging courage, and a love that amounted to a pas- sion for action and executive leadership. Family tradition has it that in his lifetime he made fifteen trips to Europe in pursuit of his own interests or on commissions intrusted to him by the gov- ernment.
His contacts while in England and on the continent were with the great and mighty of this world. In New England he executed the commissions of the King with fidelity and efficiency; in old England he served the young commonwealth with conspicu- ous success, moved with ease in a titled society, and was entirely at home in the intrigue of high governmental and political circles. The pomp and trappings of monarchy moved him deeply and perhaps quickened within him an ambition that was never to be gratified; for he possibly saw an America that some day would be powerful and populous, the first jewel in the crown of Empire, with great landed estates, and a titled aristocracy and himself a peer of the realm. Such may have been Waldo's dream, but all human history could be written as a series of might-have-beens. Broad Bay with its early feudal traditions might have become the family seat of an "Hereditary Lord." This dream, if such it was, became a part of the aftermath of Louisburg. Had it been realized it would have come to a tragic end a few decades later with the American Revolution.
Vain, arbitrary, and self-seeking General Waldo may have been, but the label of inhumanness associated with his memory is in the main without foundation. His settlements in Lincoln and Knox counties were the darling projects of his mid-life and later years. To secure settlers, to establish them at Broad Bay, and there permit them to starve and die was never a part of his plan or pur- pose. In this matter both he and they were largely the victims of
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circumstance. At Broad Bay the whole period of settlement and early history down to 1760 was co-extensive with Indian wars, a condition which rendered practically impossible the development of an economy of sufficient strength to provide the elementary hu- man needs of settlers totally unskilled in the modes of frontier liv- ing. Apart from this, there were the barriers of nature and of his- torical circumstances over which General Waldo could exercise little control. He could not time the arrival of his immigrants, nor overcome the barriers set by the forests and winters against com- munication with larger and more thickly settled areas. The early Scotch-Irish on the Medomak and the Georges, drawn from other sections of New England and thoroughly practiced in frontier liv- ing, offered no criticism of their patron's procedures. It was only the Germans and a later Scotch colony on the Georges, utterly unused to pioneer life, who felt themselves betrayed. In Waldo's dealings with his tenants he was undoubtedly guilty of errors in judgment, but in the matter of intent he must be largely exoner- ated. His death was in reality something of a tragedy in their his- tory, for in his passing there departed the scene the only figure interested enough and influential enough to defend many of them against being dispossessed of their lands.
In the ways outlined in this chapter the year 1759 brought an end to Indian troubles at Broad Bay. That winter one hundred and sixty men constituted the frontier defense, eighty-four of whom were posted at Fort Pownal in the heart of the Penobscot country, and there were also smaller garrisons at Georges and Broad Bay. The local economy, so long drugged by terror, roused itself and activity increased in the virgin woodlands. Cordwood, lumber, and staves were gotten to the river banks in large quanti- ties preparatory for spring shipment. The price of firewood had risen and a cord now brought about fifty-eight cents at the shore, whereas tea was available at forty-two cents a pound and corn in a normal season brought fifty cents a bushel. In the economy now becoming normal wages rose and a man's labor brought him fifty cents a day down to the period of the Revolution. This was a liv- ing wage, and it enabled the more recent migrants who were not yet well established on their lands to exchange their services for a more ample equivalent of food. Such luxuries as coffee and tea were available for the few; bean or barley broth was the lot of those in simpler circumstances. Then, too, families had learned how to provide themselves with more of nature's bounty from the sea, shore, and forest, and the specter of acute hunger receded. On the Georges there was an occasional Indian scare that season, but Broad Bay was never again molested.
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The Indians on the Penobscot, long weary of the war, sent their sagamores to Boston and finally concluded a peace on April 13, 1760. This was the signal for the settlers to abandon their long residence in the garrison and return to their own homes. When the Moravian brethren, Georg Soelle and Samuel Herr, reached Broad Bay in August 1760 they found the entire population liv- ing at peace in their cabins.15 They also found that there was in most cases enough to eat, but otherwise the people were fright- fully poor. Wood was their main source of maintaining a balance of trade, and the little coasters thronging the river lent an appear- ance of active commerce. These coasters, manned by three hands, made about fifteen voyages per year to Boston, carrying about thirty cords of wood each trip. Charge for passengers was around four shillings, and the passenger took his own supply of food for the trip. On their return these coasters brought provisions, gro- ceries, and miscellaneous supplies which they exchanged for the wood, staves, bark, and to some extent furs. Long years of scout- ing had familiarized some of the settlers with woodcraft and with the back-country with its network of lakes, ponds, and streams rich in fur bearers of every description. Wilfrid Schoff asserts that the Broad Bayers carried out far-flung explorations in the interior areas. If such were the case, these may have been trapping expeditions. He adds:
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