USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 50
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This, of course, was a highly divisive move. In many towns in the Province tarrings and featherings, riotings and burnings, became a part of the technique of action. On the Georges, under the fiery leadership of Captain Samuel Gregg, a party assaulted the house of Justice Fales of Tory sympathies and offered him the alternative of signing the paper or riding a rail, but were in part diverted from their aim by a pail of flip placed at their disposal by the Justice's wife. At Medumcook (Friendship) the "Solemn League and Covenant" was signed by fifty-five males and females. At Waldoborough the reception of the document is enshrouded in silence. Here Tory sentiment at this time, plus in- difference, was so strong that the more zealous patriots hesitated to press a line of action involving such a divisive effect.
The first Provincial Congress of Massachusetts had convened in October 1774. Cumberland, the only county in Maine repre- sented, sent five delegates. The main purpose of this body was to function as the government of the Province, to organize it and unite it in a solid front against the Crown. To this end it issued on December 10, 1774, a manifesto "To the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Towns and Districts of Massachusetts Bay." This document, sent to the selectmen of Waldoborough and all towns in the District, contained an outline of their common griev- ances; a summary of the measures recommended by the Congress and an admonition to all to prepare and arm as, to wit:
The improvement of the militia . . . has been thought necessary; . . . particular care should be taken by the towns and districts in this colony, that each of the minute men, not already provided therewith, should be immediately equipped with an effective firearm, bayonet, pouch, knap- sack, thirty rounds of cartridges and balls, and that they be disciplined three times a week, and oftener as opportunity may offer, . . . that the
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towns and districts are forthwith to pay their own minute men a rea- sonable consideration for their services.2
Furthermore, the letter provided for "a gentleman to be appointed in each county to check on military preparations." In Lincoln County Captain Sam Thompson of Brunswick, a lieutenant colonel of militia, was the appointee. There are no grounds for believing that this manifesto brought any wide re- sponse in Waldoborough, although the town had had a company of militia since the days of the last Indian war, with Matthias Römele as captain and Martin Reiser as lieutenant. It is possible that, under the pressure of opinion from without, this company maintained itself in more than its usual state of readiness.
The Second Provincial Congress of Massachusetts convened at Cambridge on February 1, 1775, at Concord on March 22nd, and at Watertown on April 22nd. At this session there were dele- gates from York and Cumberland, and six from Lincoln County. That there were none from Waldoborough may be construed as evidence of the town's limited participation up to this time. This Congress continued active preparations of war with the Crown and for the suppression of loyalists or Tories within its bodies. On March 31, 1775, it published a list of those persons who had refused to renounce the commissions they held from the King agreeable to a resolve of the First Congress. This resolve covered about three hundred of the most conspicuous people in the Pro- vince, and it enjoined that their names "be entered on the town and district records, that they may be sent down to posterity, if possible, with the infamy they deserve."3
First on this list was the name of Thomas Flucker, Secretary of the Commonwealth, son-in-law of Samuel Waldo and still one of the large landowners of old Broad Bay. Included also were the in-laws of the late General, and his only living son, Francis.4 Among other measures the Congress strengthened its position in reference to wavering and indifferent towns by setting up a Cen- tral Committee of Correspondence in each county to coordinate the work of the smaller town committees and to prod or coerce the wavering towns into action. In Lincoln County, Pownalborough was the seat of operations of this central committee; and it was made up of James Howard, Timothy Langdon, Dummer Sewall, Samuel McCobb, and Joseph Waldo.
It was this committee that turned the heat on Waldobor- ough and prodded it to declare itself. The reaction of the town provides the first evidence of Waldoborough having placed itself
2Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., 1774-1775; Act of Dcc. 10, 1774 (Boston, 1838).
3Journals, op. cit., Act of April 12, 1775.
4Died at Tunbridge, Kent, England, May 9, 1784,
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officially on record in reference to the central issue of the time. Its illuminating and significant report to the Committee, bearing the date of June 5, 1775, follows:
To James Howard Esq. and to the rest of the Honerable Committee appointed by the Hon. Congress.
Gentlemen - We recvª a letter from you to know how affairs stand in our town. Upon recept of your letter we called a town meating and we chose a Commitie to correspond with you Gentlemen and we voted unanymusly to abide by the Continentinel and Provencel Congress, and you Desireed to know how affairs stand relating to our Provence Tax. Gentlemen - We voted to colect the mony as soon as Possible and Convey the same when collected to Mr. Henry Garner, treasurer for the Congress.
Gentlemen, We Shall Endeavour to Meat on the days appointed and we shall let you know from time to time all that is Worthy of Notice.
We with all submission. We remain your Servents.
P.S. We the Commite are chose to colect the above monys.
Jabesh Cole, Andrew Schemle [Schenck], David Vinall, Jacob Wenigeburla [Winchenbach], William Farnsworth.
This is a communication in which one must go between the lines for a full meaning. From it we derive the following infer- ences. This was the first time the town had been smoked out from its neutral dilatoriness, and to secure such a response the heat applied must have been rather excessive; a Town Meeting followed which was ignored by "loyalists" and attended by "patriots," for in no other way can the unanimous action be ex- plained; that the town agreed "to abide" by the Congresses can only mean that it had not previously declared itself, and was only doing so now under pressure; when the town agreed at this time in its history to collect and pay out money, the categorical im- perative must somewhere have been very obtrusively inserted in the picture; that it had been brought to heel is clear from its agreeing "to meat on the days appointed" and to correspond. On the whole, this document is not so much a declaration of cooperation as it is one of submission.
The electric events around Boston in April 1775 - Paul Revere's Ride, Lexington, Concord, and the call on April 23rd by the Provincial Congress for an army of 30,000 men -shocked the whole Maine coast into action. It was felt that the coastal towns were particularly exposed to attack from the British fleet. Squire Thomas, representing the towns in this area, had sought to obtain needed supplies, but had been unsuccessful. Thereupon further appeals were sent to the Congress for military stores, and brought in but a mere dribble. The inland towns of Sudbury, Marl- borough, and Framingham were ordered to share of their limited stocks of powder with the Maine towns, and the selectmen of the
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latter town sent one half barrel of powder to Thomas Brackett for use in Bristol.
In addition to the dearth of military supplies, the Maine towns were suffering acutely from lack of food and from all articles which it had been their wont to import. A severe drought the preceding summer had resulted in very short harvests; and the blockade of Boston and the coast by the enemy fleet shut the towns off from access to their distributing centers and pre- vented the importation of provisions from the colonies farther south. Furthermore, the towns by reason of the blockade found themselves shut off from disposing of their main exportable sur- plus, wood and lumber. Petitions begging relief reached the Con- gress from Deer Isle, Waldoborough, Machias, and other towns. A typical petition, that of Machias, reveals the plight of all. It states "a very severe drought last fall prevented our laying in sufficient stores ... our laborers are dismissed; some of our mills stand still; almost all our vessels have forsaken us; our lumber lies by us in heaps."5
Waldoborough suffered in the general paralysis in trade and in the lack of essential military stores, although not critically in the lack of foodstuffs, as the Germans were the most frugal hus- bandmen in Maine, and from long and bitter experience they knew the art of making every thing count. On Sunday, June 18th of this year, a petition for powder from the Committee of Corre- spondence and Safety in Waldoborough was read before the Congress, whereupon it was resolved that "the petitioners have leave to withdraw their petition."6 There was no help from this quarter as the minutemen around beleaguered Boston had no sur- plus of precious powder to spare. In the meantime the enrollment of soldiers for the local militia and for the Continental Army was under way in the town. On Saturday, July 1, 1775, Thomas Rice of Pownalborough was appointed by the Congress to swear the soldiers in Lincoln County in the place of David Fales of Warren, whose Tory sympathies had brought him into collision with the committee of that town. On July 5th it was resolved by the Congress that "13,000 coats be provided, agreeable to a resolve of the Congress on the 23rd of April last, to be proportioned to all towns in the Province." Waldoborough's allotment was ten such coats. At this time on the eve of the Revolution the population of the Maine counties was as follows: Lincoln, whites 18,563, blacks 85, total 18,648; York, 17,834; Cumberland, 14,072. The popula- tion of the whole Province of Massachusetts Bay was 349,094.
In England the events of the spring of 1775 left no ground for doubt as to their meaning, and rapid action followed. The admiral
6 Acts of the Provincial Congress, May 25, 1775. 6Ibid., June 18, 1775.
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in command at Boston was instructed "to carry on operations upon the sea coasts of the four New England colonies as he shall judge most effectual for suppressing ... the rebellion which is now openly avowed," and to seize all colonial ships not owned by loyalists.7 There was little delay in carrying out these orders, war flared up along the entire coast, and a number of towns were bombarded, of which the most dramatic and disastrous was the destruction of Falmouth (Portland).
On October 18th four vessels arrived off the town and the commanding officer sent word ashore giving the two thousand inhabitants two hours in which to abandon their homes. He also stated that he was under orders to burn and destroy all towns on the coast without warning. The next morning the ships opened fire. The church, the town house, thirty stores, one hundred and thirty dwellings and many other buildings were totally destroyed. One hundred and sixty families lost all their property and stores of food, and were left homeless before the approaching winter. These attacks, even though previously anticipated, aroused the people along the Maine coast to fear, uncertainty and wrath, stepped up their awareness of war, and prompted many of the neutrals to cast their lot with the patriot cause.
In Waldoborough the reorganized militia went into action, for all the coast towns hastened to station their effectives at the most critical points. The local company was made up of men from the Georges, Waldoborough and Camden. Through the autumn and as late as December 31st a detachment of this company was billeted at Friendship for the protection of this little hamlet and to check any landing force that might march overland to Waldo- borough. Among the local men enrolled in this company, com- manded by Captain Samuel Gregg, were Philip Reiser and John S. Rinner, corporals; James Farnsworth, fifer, and privates William Farnsworth, Jr., John Feyler, Peter Lehr, Charles Seidensberger, and Samuel Sweetland. The year came to an end, however, without any local raids by the British fleet; and with the winter so far advanced cold and ice were deemed to supply all the protection needed, enabling the militia to disband.
The major center of war operations in the colonies through- out these months remained in Boston. On June 15, 1775, George Washington had been appointed to take over the command of the American Army and had set out at once for Cambridge to place himself at the head of "the rabble in arms" around Boston. With the British tightly locked up in the town, all governmental activi- ties by the Crown in the Province came to a stop; and on the advice of the Continental Congress, Massachusetts resumed her
"Dartmouth, to the Lords of Admiralty, July 1, 1775, C.C.S. No. 121.
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old charter form of government, and precepts were accordingly issued for an election of the General Court. This organization convened in Watertown on July 19th. According to the laws passed at this session Waldoborough was entitled to four or more representatives, although the town did not choose to be repre- sented for a number of years.
On June 17th the colonials came face to face with the British regulars on the brow of Breed's Hill. As long as powder and bullets lasted, the successive waves of the British were mowed down by the unerring marksmanship of the militia. In this bloody struggle the enemy lost between one thousand and fifteen hundred dead and wounded, a greater proportion of loss than had been suffered by the British arms in any battle of the Seven Years' War. With the news of this battle confidence and determination surged through the colony. The fate of Boston was settled and its evacua- tion only a matter of time.
Through the summer the blockade was so tight that no supplies could reach the city from the surrounding country, and most of their stores had to be sailed in from Halifax. This line of supply extending along the Maine coast led to the fitting out of small privateers, many of them officered and manned from the Maine coastal towns. The ordnance brig Nancy was one of the richest prizes falling to the privateersmen, for she was laden with two thousand rifles and bayonets, eight thousand fuses, thirty-one tons of bullets, barrels of powder, and military tools of every description. This prize was hailed by Washington as "an instance of divine Providence," for with these stores he was able in the spring of 1776 to force the British out of Boston and to plan and execute Arnold's march through the Maine wilderness to Quebec.
There were men of Waldoborough participating in the year 1775 in these stirring events around Boston. Among others were Isaiah Cole of Colonel William Bond's twenty-seventh regiment; Conrad Heyer, who had hastened to Cambridge to join Washing- ton's forces; and George Ulmer, a son of John Ulmer, Jr., who in his twentieth year had been captured on a fishing trip by the frigate Lively. The vessel and crew were taken into Boston, where Ulmer made his escape into the town and over the Charles River to the American lines at the imminent hazard of his life. There he enlisted in the American Army and served through the re- mainder of the campaign.8
The initial successes of the patriots were merely the pre- lude to a long, hard struggle. The issue was destined to be long in doubt largely because of the weaknesses inherent in the tem- peramental set-up of the American soldier. Such flaws in a large
8 Maine Inquirer (Bath), Obituary note, Feb. 7, 1786.
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measure were latent in his extreme individualism, and in his un- conventional military organization. One major source of weakness lay in the fact that the colonials elected their own minor officers, a weakness which gave Washington no end of trouble, for he found the subordinate officers of "nearly the same kidney as the privates," and wrote that there was no such thing as getting officers of this stamp to exert themselves in carrying orders into execu- tion, for "to curry favor with the men (by whom they were chosen, and on whose smiles possibly they may think they may again rely) seems to be one of the principal objects of their atten- tion."9 In this respect the men of Waldoborough differed little from their fellow soldiers. A second source of weakness was the dislike of long enlistments. The revolutionary service records of the Waldoborough soldiery is a tangled nightmare. They would enlist for the attainment of an immediate objective close at hand; but with that end attained or the few months of their enlisment at an end, they would streak back to their farms. There was no ade- quate realization that only the sustained effort of a trained and disciplined soldiery could enable them unaided to defeat the British, and that a few months of military experience was not sufficient to give a general an army. A substantial part of the Waldoborough enlistments were of short duration, a few months, a limited military objective and then home again. To be sure, there were a few, such as Charles Heavener, Conrad Heyer and George Ulmer, who saw the war in terms of a larger relationship and longer service, and who gave that service and contributed their share to the more critical campaigns of the war.
The lack of discipline on the part of the colonials was a further factor which rendered the issue a matter of doubt to the very finish. These men were for the most part unbridled individual- ists which made them undependable soldiers, frequently disobey- ing orders where their own judgment was otherwise, and desert- ing when the urge of other interests became imperative. In the main, the record of the Waldoborough soldiery in such matters was honorable, far above the average. For the most part their campaigns were short and not far from home. This fact mini- mized the causes for desertion in the local theater of the war, while in the larger field of operations of the Continental Army only Daniel Beckler, Friedrich Schwartz, and John G. Stilke, as far as we know, came under the cloud of suspicion.
In the summer of the year 1775, while Washington was holding Lord Howe tightly beleaguered in Boston, the expedition of Colonel Benedict Arnold through the Maine wilderness to Quebec was conceived. The personnel of this force was drawn
9Washington, Writings, III, 67, 97.
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largely from Washington's army around Boston. Uncertain is the part taken by Waldoborough men in this daring drive across the chain of lakes, over the height of land to the headwaters of the Chaudière and thence down the river to the Saint Lawrence and Quebec. It is known that Captain Samuel McCobb of Arrow- sic Island recruited men in Lincoln County for this expedition; that this was one of the companies in the brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Enos, which making up the rear of the expedition, de- serted when food became scarce and the going hard. The lists of those killed and taken prisoner contain German family names familiar in Waldoborough history, such as Secrest (Siechrist), Miller, and Newhouse (Neuhaus), but these names cannot be identified with certainty, nor can that of the Colonel Farnsworth who was Arnold's liaison officer on the Kennebec after the plunge into the wilderness. It was this Colonel Farnsworth's task to collect and forward supplies, to provide for the returning sick, and to forward Arnold's reports and messages to the outside world. It is only a possibility that this was Waldoborough's Colonel William Farnsworth. The one Waldoborough man believed with some cer- tainty to have been at Quebec was George Ulmer. The writer of his obituary states that he was with Montgomery at Quebec, but we are not told whether he was in the famous march through the Maine wilderness or joined the forces before the city when Montgomery moved down from Montreal and assumed command of the joint forces before Quebec.
An interesting episode of this campaign was the part played by a gallant little Waldoborough "topsail schooner," named the Broad Bay and probably built in this town, as she is referred to in some of the officers' journals as "the Broad Bay schooner." She was clearly the outstanding vessel of Arnold's fleet, and orig- inally was either a coaster or a fisherman. The expedition left Newburyport on September 18th on eleven small vessels, of which the Broad Bay was the only one to receive in the diaries more than passing mention. They were all small. Simon Fobes in his Journal describes them as "dirty coasters and fish boats." The Broad Bay was the key vessel and flagship of this fleet and had the honor of conveying the commanding officer of the expedition to the first base at Fort Western (Augusta). From the Journal of Captain Simeon Thayer we read:
Sept. 18, about nine o'clock the fleet sailed for Kennebeck River, bearing W. S. W., got over the bar and stood off until Colonel Arnold came on board the Broad Bay schooner, where little after the Swallow Sloop struck a rock, where she stuck, on board of which was Capt. Scott's company which was distributed among the fleet, and Capt. Han-
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drick's company of rifle men, together with mine which were on board the Broad Bay.10
Colonel Arnold's "express" to Washington from Fort West- ern, September 27, 1775, contains the following reference to the Broad Bay: "I have ordered James McCormick, the criminal, con- demned for the murder of Reuben Bishop on board the schooner Broad Bay, Capt. Clarkson, with direction for him to be delivered to Capt. Moses Nowell at Newburyport." This schooner seems to have remained the water base of the expedition, as is indicated in Arnold's order to Colonel Enos: "Fort Western, Sept. 29, 1775. You will bring up the rear and order all stragglers, except those sick, which you will send on board the Broad Bay, Capt. Clark- son." The whole story of the role of this gallant little craft is told in Arnold's express to Nathaniel Tracy of Newburyport, who may have been her owner: "Fort Western, Sept. 28, 1775. To Capt. Clarkson I am under many obligations for his activity, vigilance and care of the whole fleet, both on our passage, and since our arrival here ... he has really merited much."11
There is a flash back from this expedition which furnishes us with the merest glimpse of Waldoborough in 1776, and the princely way of life of Squire Thomas. Among Arnold's officers captured by the British before Quebec were Major Jonathan R. Meigs and Captain Henry Dearborn, later a brilliant general in the Revolution. These two officers were paroled in the late spring of 1776 and proceeded southward along the Maine coast to their homes. In Dearborn's "Journal of the Expedition" occurs the fol- lowing entry:
July 11. We started from Medumcook [Friendship] this morning for Broad Bay which is six miles distant from here. At 9 o'clock we ar- rived at said Bay where there is fine settlements, the inhabitants [Squire Thomas] seems to live very well; we were very Genteely Treated by Esqr. Thomas of said place, who I find was nephew to Gen. Thomas in the Continental Army, said Thomas favored us with his horses to carry our Packs as far as Damariscoty which is eight miles.12
It was during the decade of the Revolution that the first regular mail service was established in this section of the Province. In 1772 a weekly postal service was inaugurated between Falmouth and points along the coast extending as far eastward as Thomas- ton.13 Before the close of the year 1775 this service had been expanded by the Continental Congress, and extended from Maine to Georgia. The first postmaster in Maine was Samuel Freeman
10"Journals of the Expedition," reprinted in Kenneth Roberts, March to Quebec. 11 I bid.
12 I bid.
13Boston Gazette, Oct. 20, 1772.
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of Falmouth. From this point the post couriers rode along the coast to the Penobscot. They were paid twenty shillings a year for every mile of their route undertaken in the Continental service.
Early in the year 1776 the Massachusetts Legislature author- ized the raising of militia regiments in all counties. The fourth such regiment was raised in Lincoln County and was made up of men from Waldoborough, Medumcook, Camden, Belfast, and the other settlements from the west side of the Penobscot.14 Colonel Mason Wheaton and Lieutenant Colonel William Farnsworth were the top commanders of this unit. The third company was under Captain Andrew Schenck, with George Demuth as his first lieu- tenant and Zebulon Simmons as second lieutenant. The eighth company was under Captain Jacob Ludwig, and his second lieu- tenant was Jacob Winchenbach. These officers were commissioned July 3, 1776.
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