USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 42
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The two Broad Bays thus separated lost contact over the years. Blood kin in Maine and North Carolina fought for a com- mon cause in the Revolution. In the great Civil War they warred against one another for separate causes. It is not known that any Waldoborough people have ever sought their distant kin in North Carolina, nor that any of the Friedlanders have ever made a pil- grimage to the old home of their ancestors. At Broad Bay, Maine, the Moravian cause, weakened as it was by its losses, persisted as a home religion even after the mission house had decayed and disappeared. Among these old Moravian families, there are those still living who can remember their grandfathers being called by some angry neighbor, "an old Herrnhüter."33
32Letter in the Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.). 33Oral narrative, Miss Enah Orff.
XVIII
LAND TITLES AND LAND TROUBLES
'Now, sire, for Godde's sake What shal I paye? Telleth me, I preye!' 'Y-wis,' quod he, 'it is ful deere, I saye!'
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
TH HE DECADE FROM 1760 TO 1770 at Broad Bay was an active and troubled period. It witnessed the end of the French and Indian War; the switch from garrison to home life; the expansion of the second generation of Germans into the back-districts; the rise of the Moravians, their persecution and migration; the coming of the Puritans from the shores of Massachusetts Bay; and the beginning of land troubles which were to lie heavily on the hearts of some in the community for half a century. These latter difficulties had their root in the shadowy character of the early grants, in the death of General Samuel Waldo in 1759, in the cold and indifferent methods of his heirs, and in the activities of Shem Drowne, rep- resenting the Pemaquid Proprietors.
At an earlier point in this volume the indefinite bounds of the two contiguous grants, the Muscongus and the Pemaquid, and the basis of the Brown claims were set forth in detail. To the settlers at Broad Bay the most valid and the most troublesome of these conflicting titles to the land were those of the heirs of the Pemaquid Proprietors represented by Shem Drowne. The basis of his interest and claim was the following. In 1712 Drowne had married Catherine Clark, an heir to the Pemaquid Grant through descent from Nicholas Davison, the sole owner in 1657. Drowne believed this claim of his wife a valuable one and became deeply interested in it. As a consequence in 1735 he was chosen agent and attorney to represent the interests of all the heirs. He visited in this area and settled forty or more families to whom he allotted land. In 1747 he had the grant surveyed and divided into con- venient lots for assignment to the heirs. In order to make this distribution legally binding on all the claimants, a company was organized on November 15, 1753, which, with Drowne as its agent, functioned for a little more than twenty years, its last
373
Land Titles and Troubles
meeting being held November 24, 1774. The record of its acts is preserved in two slim volumes in the archives of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. There were twenty-four heirs making up the corporation, among whom was distributed twenty votes. From the first, Drowne had been a zealous agent, but two successive Indian wars covering the gen- eral period from 1744 to 1760 had served to check his program, and to render it inexpedient for him to carry out acts of dispos- session against those who in many cases were innocent squatters on his land.
With the close of the French and Indian wars, action was started against the Broad Bayers and the English on the west bank of the Medomak, on the Necks and at Broad Cove. Without warning Seth Sweetser, Thomas Drowne, Alexander Nickels, and John Savage, all Pemaquid heirs, appeared at Broad Bay in 1763 with power to act, and laid claim to all land from Pemaquid to the First Falls of the Medomak south of a line extending from these falls to the Damariscotta River.1
General Waldo had died in 1759. With his demise all family concern for the settlement came to an end, although the oldest son, Colonel Samuel, visited the settlement, on occasion, to sell lands, collect rents, or consult with his representative, Charles Leisner. The interest of the heirs in the grant was now a purely pecuniary one, and hence they were unwilling to resist the Drowne claim to the populated west bank of the Medomak below the falls, despite the fact that their father had settled his Germans on the whole bank from Broad Cove up and for a space of two miles back from the river, and given deeds guaranteeing that such land titles would be defended by him against any future claims and "by his heirs and assigns." Under such conditions the Germans and others who had taken up land on the west bank had no reason to believe that their titles were invalid. Drowne, who had been waiting for the return of a more settled state following the end of the war, gave some warning in the autumn of 1761, by asserting his claim and making it clear that the lands were for sale and that he would give to those living on them the alternative of vacating them or purchasing them. It is doubtful that many took this declaration of intent seriously, but there were a very few who did, among them the Waldo heirs and Charles Leisner, who had had legal training at Jena, and apparently had made some study of the evi- dence. Hence the appearance of the four proprietary heirs on the scene in 1763 was like a full eclipse of the sun at high noon.
1Jacob Ludwig's Deposition; Lincoln Co. Reg. of Deeds (Wiscasset, Me.), Bk. 59, p. 127. Also the Pemaquid Proprietors' Book of Records under date of Aug. 5, 1763, Archives of Am. Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Mass.).
1
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
There was nothing that could have cast a darker shadow over the life of the simple folk at Broad Bay than the loss of their land. Land hunger and land love had been inbred for centuries into their ways of thinking and feeling. Their land was their all, their sole source of wealth and well-being. Their first reaction to possible dispossession was one of amazement and anger. They turned to their leaders for guidance, only to be told by Leisner that the whole western bank below the falls was owned by the Pemaquid heirs. The surveyor, Elisha Packard, came, checked the lines of their farms, and laid out new areas. Fear mingled with their wrath at this move. Under the pressure of events the truth gradually leaked out. Colonel Samuel Waldo himself had revealed to Jacob Ludwig2 that "the Waldo tract did not come on the west side of the Muscongus River."" This meant to those facing dispossession that Waldo's heirs were not going to defend the titles in jeopardy. Bitterness against the heirs deepened, along with that against Drowne, and it endured over the decades. Three- quarters of a century ago, when H. A. Rattermann was in the town making his studies in the history of the local Germans he was told by older people that Heaven had struck General Waldo with sudden death as a punishment on his children who were going to commit such a crime against justice.4
It was difficult for the people not to believe in the rightness of their claims. Consequently they resisted Drowne's demands, whereupon he initiated suit against them. They, realizing that they could expect no aid from young Waldo or Charles Leisner, found new leaders from their own race and blood, and presented a petition to the General Court seeking protection in the possession of their lands. The Court named a committee to investigate the matter and report. The findings of this committee were in effect that Waldo's Grant extended as far to the east as the Penobscot and northward along that river to Bangor. The western boundary it found to be the Medomak.5 Although these findings were not immediately ratified by the Court, the general feeling among the better informed at Broad Bay was that they were final. This judgment would leave the Pemaquid heirs in possession of every- thing west of the Medomak below the First Falls. In the face of this report the Waldo heirs were silent and held to their policy of laissez faire. In 1765, after some of the excitement at Broad Bay had subsided, they made an adjustment with the Commonwealth in which they released all the land on the west side of the river
Ludwig's Testimony, Lincoln Report, 1811, pp. 164-165.
3Known at this time as Broad Bay River, Muscongus River and Medomak River. "The bay as far up as there is salt water is called Broad Bay; above that Me- domok," Ludwig Testimony. (See above.)
4H. A. Rattermann, Der Deutsche Pionier, Jahrgang XVI (Cincinnati, 1886), pp. 350-352.
5\Villiam D. Williamson, History of Maine, II, 344.
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Land Titles and Troubles
below the falls to the Pemaquid heirs. This signing off, or relin- quishment, of claim left the Germans without a hope of indemnity or remuneration.
The farms on the west side of the river, apart from those on the two Necks, were laid out along lines running northwest and southeast. They were resurveyed for Drowne by Elisha Packard and a plan of the whole area submitted by him under date of September 21, 1763, which served as the basis of Drowne's settlement with the Germans.
The reaction of the people at Broad Bay to the findings of the Committee of the General Court, while violent, was diverse. There were those who believed that these findings were final, and that there was no redress. Those of this mind sought an under- standing with Drowne and accepted his terms, which were the purchase of their lands at the rate of two shillings and eight pence per acre, in return for which Drowne would issue them new deeds confirming them in the possession of their farms. Under date of September 21, 1763, about fifty deeds were executed to persons who had settled under Waldo. The following is a partial list of such individuals with the sum paid for the validation of the title:
Georg Störer, tailor
£12 10s. 8d.
Franz Müller, husbandman
£11 14s. 8d.
Peter Müller, husbandman
£10 13s. 4d.
Heinrich Müller, husbandman
£4 6s. 0d.
Heinrich Koeler, bricklayer
£9 6s. 8d.
Georg Light, wheelwright
£9 3s. 4d.
Georg Light, Jr., farmer
£4 18s. 4d.
Friedrich Winchenbach, farmer
£11 1s. 4d.
Jacob Hein, farmer
£7 12s. 0d.
Johann Koeler, farmer
£10 5s. 2d.
Bernard Uekler (Eugley), farmer
£17 1s. 4d.
Jacob Ludwig, farmer
£4 0s. 0d.
Heinrich Stahl, tailor
£4 5s. 0d.
Johann Peter Broest, farmer
£3 9s. 4d.
Georg Klein, husbandman
£12 17s. 24d.
Andreas Waltz, housewright
£14 8s. 0d.
Paul Kühn, tanner
£10 13s. 4d.
Johann Kuenzel, housewright
£15 16s. 10d.
Georg Krämer, husbandman
£24 6s. 8d.
Friedrich Kuenzel, farmer
£10 16s. 8d.
Bernhard Kuenzel, farmer
£6 15s. 0d.
Jacob Eichorn, husbandman
£10 0s. 0d.
£12 8s. 0d.
Jacob Unbehend, farmer Michael Ried, farmer Georg Roth, farmer
£14 2s. 8d.
Cornelius Seider, farmer
£16 2s. 8d.
Daniel Fielhauer, farmer
£13 4s. 0d.
Michael Heisler, husbandman
£14 13s. 4d.
Matthias Hoofses, weaver
£3 6s. 8d.
£13 10s. 0d.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Georg Mink, husbandman
£7 4s. 0d.
Gottfried Oberloch, farmer
£2 18s. 8d.
Jacob Kühn, farmer 5s. 0d.
Martin Sidelinger, farmer
£25 4s. 1d.
Matthias Eichorn, Jr., farmer
£15 Os. 10d.
Cornelius Klaus, farmer
£13 6s. 8d.
Andreas Weller, cordwainer
£5 2s. 0d.
Johann Genthner, carpenter
£13 17s. 4d.
John Walch, potter £4 5s. 0d.
John Georg Gross, smith
£11 5s. 4d.
John Joseph Weaver, smith
£12 4s. 4d.
Georg Havener, carpenter
£23 14s.8d.
Christian Woltzgruber, farmer6
£7 8s. 0d.
There are other names which must be listed as possibilities even though they are not identified with the later history of Broad Bay. Among such are Jacob Stein, possibly the later Stain; Wilhelm Brick, Wilhelm Kind, and Jacob Haus - men who per- haps did not come to terms with Drowne and who left the settle- ment in a South Carolina migration. It should also be noted again that the farms on the west side of the river run in a generally northwesterly and southeasterly direction. In consequence some of them cut across the line of the Pemaquid claim, a line running west from the falls of the Medomak to the rapids of the Damaris- cotta River. Such farms were compelled to purchase only that portion of their land crossing this line into the Drowne claim. This would explain why a few of the purchasers were bled so lightly in comparison with others, the whole of whose land fell within the limits of the Pemaquid Grant.
The Pemaquid heirs did, however, have the grace to honor Waldo's promise of land in common for church, ministerial, and school lots. They conveyed Lot No. 29 at Meetinghouse Cove containing one hundred acres to "the Dutch settlement on the west side of the Muscongus River," as a church lot, and Lot No. 30 adjoining and containing one hundred and ten acres to the Dutch as a farm for their resident minister. In addition two school lots were given. One was Lot No. 9 containing forty-one acres, and was made up, in part, of the land on which the present church is located; the other was Lot No. 45 in Elisha Packard's plan and was situated well down on Dutch Neck. In the case of this second "school lot," so denominated at the beginning of the writ of conveyance, it is of interest to note that at the close of the writ it was called a ministerial, or parsonage, lot "to be so used forever."7
There were other Broad Bay families that did not react in an entirely bovine manner to the findings of the Committee of
"Lincoln Co. Deeds, Bks. 4-13. "Ibid., Bk. 5, pp. 159-161.
377
Land Titles and Troubles
the General Court. Before enlarging on their reception of the report, it is of importance, in order to clarify later events, to follow the transfers within the Waldo family of those portions of the original grant which still remained at the disposal of the heirs. The status of the family respecting this grant is set forth clearly in an indenture of May 20, 1743, from which a brief excerpt has already been given.
General Waldo had died intestate and in possession of the major part of the Muscongus Patent. For a number of years the property remained undivided. Colonel Samuel Waldo, as the head of the family, managed the estate and from time to time visited Broad Bay to confer with his major-domo, Charles Leisner, to sell lots, and possibly to receive his annual rents in shillings and peppercorns. The first move made jointly by the heirs, as already pointed out, had been to release to the Pemaquid heirs all their claims to land on the west bank of the Medomak below the falls. Their next move in the disposition of their holdings came in 1768. On March 19th of that year a "Quadripartite Indenture" was executed by the heirs in Boston which reads in part as follows:
This Indenture Quadripartite made the 19th Day of March in the year of our Lord Christ one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight and in the eighth year of His Majesty's reign, between Samuel Waldo of Falmouth in the County of Cumberland and Province of the Massa- chusetts Bay, Esquire of the first part, Francis Waldo of said Falmouth Esquire of the second part, Isaac Winslow of Roxbury in the County of Suffolk and Province aforesaid and Lucy his wife formerly Lucy Waldo of the third part, and Thomas Flucker of Boston in the same County and Province Esquire, and Hannah his wife, formerly Hannah Waldo of the fourth part. Whereas Samuel Waldo late of said Boston Esquire de- ceased, Father of the first mentioned Samuel Waldo, Francis Waldo, Lucy Winslow and Hannah Flucker being seized in his demesne as of fee, of and in all the Lands hereinafter mentioned, all of which are scitu- ate in the County of Lincoln in the eastern part of the Province afore- said, and are part of the Patent commonly called the Muscongus Tract originally granted by King Charles the first to the Council of Plymouth and by them to John Beauchamp and Thomas Leverett Anno Domini 1629. That is to say a neck of Land called the Owl's head neck etc ....
There follows from this point a cataloguing of all the lands of the Patent still in possession of General Waldo's estate. The only lands unoccupied in the Waldoborough area here listed are as follows:
Three hundred Acres of Land at a place called Lane's Point lying in Broad Bay .... A neck of Land called Jone's Neck containing ninety- eight acres near the entrance into Broad Bay. Four Lots of Land ad- joining the said Jone's Neck of one hundred Acres each. ... And whereas the same Samuel Waldo is dead intestate and without making any disposition of the aforesaid tracts and parts of Land and Islands or
378
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
any of them, whereby by force of a law of said Province made in the fourth year of the reign of the late King William and Queen Mary en- titled an Act for the settlement and distribution of the Estates of the Intestate; the aforesaid Lands and Islands are descended and come into the first mentioned Samuel Waldo, Francis Waldo, Lucy Winslow and Hannah Flucker to be divided between them in manner following. That is to say Two fifth parts thereof to the same Samuel Waldo as oldest son of the said Samuel Waldo deceased, one fifth to the said Francis Waldo, one fifth to the said Lucy Winslow, and one fifth to the said Hannah Flucker.
In the two fifth portions in the Waldoborough area assigned to young Samuel were
the vacant lots at Medumcook supposed to be fifteen lots of Land . .. containing one hundred acres each, be they more or less. Three hundred Acres of Land at a place called Lane's Point lying in Broad Bay. ... A neck of Land called Jones Neck containing ninety-eight Acres lying near the entrance into Broad Bay. Four Lots of Land ad- joining to said Jones Neck of one hundred Acres each.º
The Lane's Point section here referred to was a tract deeded to and occupied by Captain Lane in the 1730's, originally a tract of about three hundred acres extending back from Schenck's Point to the Slaigo Brook. For some reason, suggested in an earlier chapter, Captain Lane did not return to his home after Louisburg, and the conditions of his settling the lot not having been fulfilled, the land reverted to General Samuel Waldo and remained in possession of the estate until April 20, 1769, when they were acquired by Andrew Schenck.
The Jones Neck area of ninety-eight acres still bears this name and is now owned by the children of Doctor John B. Deaver of Philadelphia. The four one-hundred acre tracts adjoining form a part of the present Back Cove. In addition to these plots the whole eastern part of the town, beyond the back end of the river lots, was still the property of the Waldo heirs. This fact was never recognized by the settlers who for thirty years follow- ing the French and Indian War exercised the squatter's privilege and freely appropriated and occupied it. This unwarranted act of usurpation was met by General Henry Knox, the last of the Proprietors, with writs of extensive dispossession in the 1790's.
For a number of years the Waldo heirs had been negotiating with the heirs of the "Twenty Associates" to the end of reaching an agreement in reference to the one hundred thousand acres of land in the Patent which would have to be set off to satisfy the valid rights of these latter claimants, and on April 7, 1768, the indenture10 effecting the final distribution of the old Lincolnshire,
"Lincoln Co. Deeds, Bk. 27, p. 82. 10Ibid., Bk. 6, p. 122.
379
Land Titles and Troubles
or Muscongus, Grant was drawn up, under which the heirs of the Twenty Associates received their portion of the one hundred thousand acre Patent in lands along the Penobscot. None of the lands thus apportioned were within the limits of Waldoborough township and hence are not a matter of immediate interest in this history.
In April 1770 Colonel Samuel Waldo, the son of the first Broad Bay Proprietor, died at Falmouth. Parson Smith laconically records this fact in his Journal as follows: "1770 April 16. Col. Waldo died P.M. at 47 years of age. 1770 April 20. Col Waldo was buried with great parade under the church, with a sermon and under arms."11 Colonel Waldo's death occasioned no shock at Broad Bay, where he had been largely a nominal proprie- tor. He, too, died intestate and his widow, Sarah, had no more interest in her eastern lands than their money value. On June 1, 1773, she effected the following disposition of them:
The said Sarah Waldo in her said Capacity as Administratrix of the Estate of the said Samuel Waldo, her said Intestate, for and in Consid- eration of the Sum of three thousand three hundred and seventy seven pounds two shillings and seven pence lawful Money of Great Britain with the interest thereof paid by the said Thomas Flucker for her In- testate aforesaid, at his special Instance and Request, as well as for and in Consideration of the Sum of five shillings lawful Money of Great Britain paid her in her said capacity by the said Thomas Flucker, the Receipt thereof she hereby acknowledges, and by virtue of the power and authority granted her for that purpose by his Majesty's Superior Court of Judicature etc., hath given, granted, bargained, sold, conveyed and confirmed ... unto him the said Thomas Flucker his heirs and Assigns, all that part and parcel of the said Samuel Waldo, her said Intestate, two fifth parts or Shares of and in the Muscongus Patent or Tract so called, which in and by certain Indenture of Partition, bearing date of the nineteenth day of March in the year of our Lord one thou- sand seven hundred and sixty-eight ...
There follows a list of the lands excepted in this conveyance. Those in our immediate area not conveyed to Thomas Flucker, by reason of prior sale by her husband, are "the four Lotts of Land adjoining to Jones Neck so called of one hundred acres each."12
Thus it was in the year that the Plantation of Broad Bay was incorporated into the Town of Waldoborough that the un- deeded lands at Broad Bay passed into the hands of Thomas Flucker, husband of Hannah Waldo and Secretary of the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony. His proprietorship of these lands, however, was destined to be short. In less than two years the guns would
11Extracts from the Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith, 1720-1778 (Portland, Me .: Thomas Todd & Co., 1821).
12Lincoln Co. Deeds, Bk. 10, p. 6.
380
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
be speaking at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, and Flucker and the Waldos were Tories. As such their lands and properties would be confiscate, unless some day there should be among these heirs a loyalist to claim the right of ownership. Such a person was to appear in Flucker's daughter, Lucy, soon to be the wife of Henry Knox, a bookseller of Boston.
In the meantime, the deep concern and resentment over the course events were taking at Broad Bay were greatly exacerbated by the revival of the Brown claims and the dispositions taken to support the title. The numerous heirs of this claim were un- doubtedly activated by the success Drowne was achieving at the expense of the settlers, and took steps to establish their own claim against "the Dutch." This claim, as previously indicated, was based upon the alleged deed of Samoset and Unongoit to John Brown of New Harbor in 1626.13 The heirs to this claim, if such it was, had seldom evinced much scrupulosity in their claims, the matter of their bounds, or their sales. Legally their claim to lands on the Medomak had little basis, and in the final adjudication in 1811 it was not allowed, but of this the simple yeomen on the Medomak, threatened with suits by the Brown claimants,14 could know naught, and the interjection of this new demand added to their bewilderment and rage as well as to their feeling of injustice and helplessness. To lose their land was to lose their all, and to hold it through purchase was a thing all were not in a position to do, for Broad Bay was poor, and pounds and pence, in many cases, were not even available for necessities. In the face of such a multiplicity of confusing and conflicting claims - Drowne, Brown, Tappan, and Vaughan - with which the settlers in neighboring towns as well as in Broad Bay were being bedeviled, and in view of the fact that peaceful possession of their lands would, so far as they could see, continue indefinitely a matter of uncertainty, the old question of giving it all up and starting over at some other place again presented itself to some as a solution of their problem. Among a few of the most embittered families this plan made head- way. Matters reached their climax in 1773 when some sold their claims for what they would bring, and others from sheer fury burned their houses, barns, sheds, and outhouses, and, so far as they could, dragged back into the fields and meadows the stones which they had originally removed in clearing the land. This was done to decrease the value of these lands to those claiming them. They then abandoned their farms on which they had spent twenty years of labor, and migrated to South Carolina.
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