USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 45
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The coming of this initial migration of Puritans covered the period from 1765 to 1775. It was by all odds the most important and influential fact in early Broad Bay history, for it meant a turning point in the future evolution of the isolated and feudal com- munity on the Medomak. It was important because these Puritans brought with them an entirely different culture and one com- pletely alien to the ways of life at Broad Bay. From this period on there were in the settlement two cultures that could not exist side by side as distinct entities. Interaction was inevitable and fusion unavoidable. To be sure, the two distinct patterns of life influenced and colored one another, but the Puritan being the pattern drawn from the dominant culture of New England was destined to furnish the leaven which in the fullness of time was to transform the feudal practices and viewpoints of Broad Bay into a democratic town specifically English in organization, thought, and action.
The term "Puritan" as used in this chapter requires perhaps a brief clarification. The newcomers to Broad Bay were not the Puritans of the 1600's, for the original nonconformist movement in Massachusetts Bay had long since spent itself, leaving a residuum of strong evangelicalism, with good and evil things strictly cata- logued, and definite demarcations between right and wrong, which imparted to human living the rigorous moral disciplines that still
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characterized life in this community down to a few decades ago. This Puritan influence certainly proved itself a durable one. In a simpler social structure it might have been permanent, but the social structure did not remain simple and in our time it has met more than its match in the moral dissolvents of our scientific cult.
The interest of these English in the settlement was twofold in character. There were those who had bought up lands and held them as a speculation and those who came to take up their residence here. In the former class we find Jonathan Robbins of Attleboro, who had bought up some of the abandoned lots in the old town of Leverett; Captain Thomas Waterman of Marble- head, William Simonton of Cape Elizabeth, Aaron Pratt of Co- hasset, and Anthony Thomas, merchant, of Marshfield. By the time the American Revolution broke, these men had disposed of their holdings and with that their active connection with the settlement had ceased. The second group was by far the larger and more important. It took up residence in the settlement, be- came its leaders, determined its way of life and left a lasting im- print on what is present-day Waldoboro. In consideration of a contribution so great and an influence so lasting, the first gen- eration of these new leaders merits more than a passing reference in the record. By 1770 the tide was in full swing; some of the Germans were pointing toward North Carolina, and the English were filling in such vacancies immediately; Broad Bay was buzzing with rumors. George Soelle wrote to Bishop John Ettwein as follows: "Wie man sagt, dann die Englische wollen die ganze Ostseite bis an Medamuck Fall kaufen, wo sie zu haben sei."10
Our interest in these first Puritans is second only to our interest in the first Germans, for they were the town makers, or at least the ones who reared the superstructure on pre-existing foundations. In order to understand the happenings of the later decade and those who figured in and shaped them, it is perhaps best to become acquainted with them at their arrival. We introduce them in alphabetical order:
Captain Stephen Andrews was a mariner of Boston and had been doubtless a frequent visitor in his coaster at Broad Bay in early days, and perhaps had dreamed of it as his ultimate snug harbor. In 1770 Philip Vogler joined the migration of that year to North Carolina, and sold his farm, Lot No. 9, to John Martin Schaeffer for £100. On the 13th of June, 1774, Schaeffer sold this farm to Captain Andrews for £120,11 and it remained Andrews' home for the rest of his life. This was in the period of frame house construction, and it is highly probable that the present
10 Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pa. "They say the English want to buy the whole east side up to the Falls wherever lots are available."
1Lincoln Co, Deeds, Bk. 11, p. 242.
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Davis house was built by the Captain. In the late eighteenth century it was the frequent scene of special Town Meetings which for one reason or another might be called in the winter months, when the present church, at that time stoveless, stood on Merle Cast- ner's shore. Whenever the temperature in the church was beyond the endurance of the few civic-minded faithful the meeting would invariably "vote to adjourn to Captain Andrews' house," and there transact town business. Andrews was not one of the wealthier captains who moved to Broad Bay at this period, but he did prac- tice the fine art of genteel living and to that end had brought here with him two negro slaves, a man, name unknown, and a woman, Phebe, who appropriated the Andrews name.12 Further- more, the Captain was a citizen of standing and repute whose name appears frequently in town records as one holding many offices and discharging many trusts in the complete confidence of the public. He was selectman in 1780, 1791, and 1797. Toward the end of their life the Andrews couple was unable to provide for itself, and in consequence on October 17, 1808, he and his wife, Susannah, deeded their farm to Charles Samson "in consideration of a maintenance for life secured by bond." So far as is known there are no descendants of the Captain now in Waldoboro.
The Buswell family left no trace in the town except by living and dying in it. Jacob Ludwig administered the estate of James Buswell on September 20, 1796. Cornelius Turner and Lorenz Seitz, both of Waldoborough, served as "sureties," and Jane, "widow of the deceased, resident in Hopkinton, N. H., re- quested appointment of an administrator" on August 12, 1795. The estate was inventoried by Jacob Winchenbach, Samuel Angier, and John Christopher Wallizer, all of Waldoborough, and was appraised at £98 22s.
Ralph Chapman and his wife Prudence were at Pownalbor- ough in early days. The husband was in trade there and while the volume of his business was considerable he was unable to make both ends meet. In December 1786 he was lost in the sloop Kenne- bec, wrecked in a storm on the Georges Islands. He left a family of seven children and a wife who was a Quakeress and extremely shrewd and capable in business dealings. She disposed of the estate in such a way as to leave the family something of a compe- tence, and in 1770 moved to Broad Bay, where on September 8, 1770, she purchased Lot No. 15 on the east side of the river.13 This was the old Jacob Ulmer farm of 1742, next north of Ralph Dean's poultry range on Friendship Road. The lot at this time
12Census of 1800, Bur. of the Census, Wash., D. C.
13Lincoln Co. Deeds, Bk, 8, p. 150.
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was in possession of David Kuebler who was about to migrate to North Carolina. Here the widow settled to rear her brood. The children were Prudence, born 1754; Sarah, born 1755; Deborah, born 1758; Ralph, born 1760; Mary, born 1762; Abraham, born 1765; and Isaac, born 1767.
The family prospered at Broad Bay. The widow was a good manager, shrewd, resolute, and as hard as the men of her time. When her daughter's husband, David Vinal, in his capacity as sheriff, overstepped what the widow regarded as her rights, she promptly instituted suit, won the case and, as Mr. Vinal did not have ready cash for settlement at the moment, had appraisers appointed to value his real estate, and recovered damages by tak- ing a slice of his land. Three daughters did well for themselves in marriage: Prudence married Levi Loring; Sarah was married to Abel Cole, and Mary married David Vinal. Deborah remained a spinster. In 1788 the widow made her will. Her son, Abraham, who doubtless worked the home farm, was the principal bene- ficiary on the condition of his providing a home for the single daughter, Deborah. The will was probated on May 26, 1796, which makes it possible to set the widow's death as occurring in 1795. Through her sons Prudence founded the Chapman family, once numerous in Waldoboro.
For three quarters of a century the Cole family was a promi- nent one in the town. It originally came from Pownalborough where, in the 1770's, Jabez Cole was its head. A son, Abel, moved to Waldoborough early in the 1770's, and there in 1776 married Sarah, the second daughter of the widow Chapman. Abel settled in the East Waldoborough district and took up seventy-two acres of land bordering on the northeast corner of the Vogler Pond. His wife, Sarah, died August 17, 1834. This branch of the Cole family is buried in East Waldoborough Cemetery. Abigail, a daughter of Jabez, married Levi Soule, son of Captain Nathan Soule of Waldoborough, on December 14, 1776. These connec- tions doubtless influenced the remainder of the family to migrate to this town, for in 1781 Jabez Cole, who had been elected tithing man in 1773, bought of Anthony Thomas of Marshfield for £100 Lot No. 13, David Rominger's farm from 1742 to 1769, which Rominger had sold to Thomas prior to his migrating to North Carolina.14 This farm is the lot now divided and owned by Ralph Hoffses, the Fred Scott Estate and myself.
A second son of Jabez Cole was Isaiah, from 1775 to June 1780 a soldier in the Revolution. After his return from the war his father, "in consideration of £80" set off from his own lot the
1Lincoln Co. Deeds, Bk. 30, p. 138,
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farm now owned and occupied by me, plus the northern half of the pasture and woodlot adjoining the farm on the east.15 This deed was drawn up on May 20, 1782, and shortly thereafter Isaiah built on this lot his own home, now my home, and the oldest occupied house in the town. This place remained the residence of the Coles for almost a century. In 1794 Jabez Cole sold his farm to Andrew Schenck for £80. Excepted was the land previously deeded to Isaiah, and excepted also was one half of his house and one acre of land conveyed earlier to George Leissner, son of Captain Charles, a cobbler, and the husband of Jabez' daughter, Ruth. The Schenck deed, as could be expected, included the privileges of the stream on the east end of the property "on which a saw mill is built, reference more fully had to a lease to Caleb Howard and others."
Jabez Cole was a citizen of weight and influence, and for his time possessed a good degree of education, as is attested by the records of the town which he kept as town clerk from 1784 to 1789. Cole left many descendants in the town, and his name still clings to the high hill east of the village, on which his grandson, Deacon William, built a large flat-topped mansion occupied for many years in more recent times by the village blacksmith, Everett Simmons.
The most brilliant family ever associated with our history was that of the Cushings, and its most brilliant but over-volatile member, Roland, was the one who took up residence in Waldo- borough. There were in all three brothers, William, Charles and Roland, sons of Judge John Cushing of Scituate, Massachusetts. William was born in 1733, was graduated from Harvard in 1751, and came to Pownalborough in 1760. He was the first Judge of Probate in Lincoln County. In 1772 he was made Judge of the Superior Court, and later moved to Boston, where in 1777 he became Chief Justice of Massachusetts. In 1789 President Wash- ington appointed him a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was at this time tendered the appointment of Chief Justice of that body but had declined the honor.
The brother, Charles, was born in 1734, was graduated from Harvard in 1755, came to Pownalborough in 1760, and was the first sheriff of Lincoln County. He came to Broad Bay early in this decade and acted vigorously against the Lutherans in their persecution of the Moravians. The youngest brother, Roland, was born in Scituate in 1750, was graduated from Harvard in 1768, then came down to Pownalborough and studied law in the office of his brother, William. In all respects Roland carried on the
15Ibid., p. 267.
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family tradition of high intelligence, plus qualities of grace, beauty, and a certain romantic dash and impetuousness that tended in the direction of instability. In 1783 he sold to Caleb Fuller of Pownal- borough his one-half interest of Lot No. 12 on the Kennebec River, and probably at this time came to Waldoborough and en- gaged in the practice of law. He was not in the best of health as he had somewhat recklessly squandered his vigorous physical assets, and had been compelled in 1774 to resign his commission as major in the second regiment of the militia of Lincoln County. It is doubtful if this handsome, brilliant, and romantic young man was either understood or appreciated by Waldoborough folk. His health apparently compelled him while here to lead a quiet and retired life limited largely to the practice of law. He died in 1788 and lies in an unmarked grave in the old Groton Cemetery on the west side of the river. Doctor M. R. Ludwig in his Gene- alogy of the Ludwig Family, speaking of this old cemetery re- marks: "Here lies the neglected grave of Roland Cushing, a man of rare talents and a very celebrated lawyer .... No monumental slab marks his resting place."
William D. Patterson of Wiscasset many years ago wrote of Roland Cushing as follows:
The personal recollections of those who knew him have been pre- served and show that endowed by nature with a graceful and manly form, possessing brilliant mental parts cultivated and enriched by study, eloquent and forceful in argument, he enjoyed a popularity that was long remembered. His untimely death, and the indulgence of habits that led to it, were much deplored by his friends and associates.
The Delano family was never prominent in local history, although it gave its blood and its name to one of the great presi- dents of the United States. On April 9, 1770, Samuel Waldo, Jr., sold to Judah Delano of Duxbury for £110 the lot at the entrance of Broad Bay containing seventy-eight acres "known by the name of Jones Neck,"16 for many years the summer home of Doctor John B. Deaver of Philadelphia. It is conjectured that Jones was one of the earliest settlers on the river and occupied this lot prior to the 1680's, when the few settlers on the Medomak were driven out in King Philip's War. If such be the case, this is one of the two earliest place names in our history.
Judah was probably the first Delano in these parts. On a small scale he was a dabbler in real estate, and moved from farm to farm, selling whenever he could do so at a profit. Eventually he and his children became settled in the southern part of the town and established the Delano clan here and in Friendship.
1 Lincoln Co. Deeds, Bk, 11, p. 253.
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The Ewells were an old Massachusetts family who came here from Marshfield. The first in these parts was Henry, a farmer who, on November 13, 1769, bought of William Simonton of Cape Elizabeth, gentleman, for £60 13s. 4d., a tract of land at Broad Bay, old Lot No. 20, east side, the most northerly of the two lots in possession of James Norton of the old town of Leverett in 1736.17 In more recent years this was the apple farm of Will Ewell, containing one hundred acres and bounded on the north by the land of Abijah Waterman, the present home of Andrew Currie. In this transfer, Henry Ewell and his heirs bound them- selves "to pay to Samuel Waldo or his heirs one peppercorn per annum, if demanded." These transfer papers show the name of Henry's wife as Mary Benson (X) Ewell.18
Henry Ewell's known children were two sons, Charles and Malachi. Captain Charles was born in Marshfield in 1764 and came to this district as a young boy with his father. He followed the sea and was for years in command of a coaster. In 1792 he bought of his father the house and acre of land last occupied a century ago by the herb doctor, Wing, and located in the pasture of the old Moses Burkett farm. This may have been the initial residence of Henry Ewell in Waldoborough. The Burketts and the Ewells always seemed to have paired off together on adjacent farms in the town. This was true of their holdings in South Waldo- borough as well as closer in to the village; for in 1806 Captain Charles purchased of the Burketts the northern part of the old Burkett farm, the present home of Frank and Mabel Ewell, a home which has been in that family continuously now since the date of purchase.
Captain Charles married Polly Gellerd of Waldoborough on August 14, 1791. He died on September 2, 1832, and lies buried in Slaigo Cemetery. The second son of Henry, Malachi, married "Cathy" Sides of Waldoborough, December 5, 1794, and around 1800 was living on the lot next south of the present Frank Jackson farm. It may have been another son who settled on a back lot in the vicinity of "Ewell meadows," as it was once known, in the corner on the Goose River just south of the old Friendship line. Today the Ewells, like the Burketts, are nearly extinct in the town, although there are a number of descendants of the Waldo- borough Ewells now living in Massachusetts as a consequence of a migration of many of them in the 1870's.
The Farnsworths touched Waldoborough history at many points in the late eighteenth century. This was a very old New
17 Ibid., Bk. 8. p. 158. 18Ibid., p. 172.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
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French and Indian War. We have already discussed his real-estate activities. He married Elizabeth Rutherford (1739-1809). In the Revolution Farnsworth received a commission as colonel, and among a number of assignments commanded the Lincoln County regiment in the campaign against the British at Castine. Following the war he built his family seat in a sightly location on the shore of the bay west of Frank Jackson's farm. For a number of years now, this home has been the summer residence of Glenn Mayo of San Antonio, Texas. In 1802 the Colonel disposed of a consid- erable portion of his real estate to his sons, William, Robert, and Isaac.19 His death followed in January 1806 and he lies buried on his own estate in a little private cemetery surrounded by the remains of his dearest friends and neighbors.
The family name of Fish, once prominent in the town, is now extinct, although there are still descendants in the female line. Captain William Fish, 3rd, the son of Ebenezer and Deborah Church Fish, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, was born in 1745 and for many years was the captain of a coaster. He married Mary Sprague (1747-1800). In 1780 he purchased of John Crawford what was long known locally as "the old Fish farm," and moved thither with his family. This lot was located in East Waldoborough on the corner of old Number One Highway and the road leading south, at what is still known as "Fishes Corner." The children were Deacon Abel, one of the first settlers in Hope; Samuel, who moved to Thomaston; Church, who resided and died unmarried on the family homestead with his sister, Sally; and William, who moved into Waldoborough Village, became one of the shipbuilders of the Great Days, and built and resided in the big house on Main Street now known as the "Will Achorn place." Captain William, the founder of the local line, died August 12, 1819.
The Fitzgeralds were one of a small group of Catholic families located in East Waldoborough in early days. Their pres- ence is a testimonial to the tolerance obtaining in the town at this period, for at a somewhat earlier date "Popists" had not been acceptable people in the Massachusetts Colony. The Fitzgeralds, however, were people of some education and quality. John came from Limerick, Ireland, where he had been born in 1752, and reached Waldoborough in the 1770's. The Latin inscriptions in some of his books betoken a considerable education, and it is probable that he was brought here from Boston by Andrew Schenck, in whose family he served as tutor. He married An- drew's daughter, Sophia, and the couple made their home in East
19Lincoln Co. Deeds, Bk. 49, p. 51.
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Waldoborough in the house now occupied by a Finnish family, next south of the old John Fogler homestead now occupied by Ivan Scott. There were ten children born of this union.
A brother, Edward, according to family tradition, came with John to Waldoborough, but did not remain, saying "he would not stay here and be buried under a pine bush." The brother, John, played a prominent part in the community in its early days as a town. He was a sterling, public-spirited man who held many minor and major offices and served on many committees dealing with the problems of large public concern. He was also a member of the building committee which erected the St. Patrick Church at Damariscotta Mills, and a close collaborator with Bishop, later Cardinal, Cheverus. He died at the ripe age of eighty-six in 1838 and lies buried in the churchyard of St. Patrick's.
The Grotons were one of the early Puritan families of merit in the town. They came from Ipswich, Massachusetts, to Waldo- borough in the 1770's, bringing a son, William, who was born March 30, 1768. The family settled on the west side of the river, apparently on Lot No. 19, originally owned by George Klein, the one-hundred acre lot next south of the Old County Road. William Groton married Mary Sprague (b. 1772), who had come recently to Waldoborough with her parents from Marshfield. Of this union there were six children, four sons, and two daughters. A daughter, Sarah, married Denny McCobb. A son, Nathaniel (b. 1791), went to Hebron to prepare for Bowdoin College, from which he was graduated in 1814. Thereafter he read law in the office of Colonel Isaac G. Reed and then established himself in Bath. He was State Senator from the county in 1832 and 1834 and later held the post of Judge of Probate for many years. In the years prior to his death in 1858 he wrote his recollections of early Waldoborough history, which appeared serially in the Bath Times. Other sons were James R., the shipbuilder, Joseph, and Isaac.
William Groton held many town offices in his lifetime, from that of selectman down to the lowlier posts. He died in 1845 and was survived by his wife, Mary, for four years. During his long life he devoted both care and expense to ornamenting his future resting place, a high, dry, rocky eminence on his farm, now known as the "old Groton Cemetery." Here lie buried William and his wife, and here "his beautiful and accomplished daughter, Sarah McCobb, lies buried beside her young and confiding husband," with this tragic inscription on their tombstones: "Denny McCobb, died August 9, 1834, aet. 27 years; Sarah A., his wife, died June 10, 1835." There is no further revelation of these untimely deaths. There are also related families and others lying here in their long rest, including Keenes, Church Nash, and Roland Cushing. The
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name Groton survived in Waldoboro down into my lifetime, George being the last of the name, who lived on the farm now owned by Byron Mills.
Miller in his History of Waldoboro lists a James Hall as being among the early Puritans in the town. While the Halls have been numerous in more recent times, the office of the Register of Deeds of Lincoln County contains no record up to 1795 of any member of this family having acquired real estate in Waldo- borough. The records of 1782 do show, however, a James, a John, and an Isaac Hall "of Damariscotta Pond"20 as having come from Ipswich to Nobleborough at some time prior to this date. Hence the Hall family in Waldoborough were later arrivals, moving in from Nobleborough. The best-known member of this family in the town was "Deacon Dandylion," a shipbuilder who lived in the house now occupied by John Burgess.
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