USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 61
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
By virtue of the vote of the town of Waldoborough on July 26, 1797 the subscribers were appointed a committee to meet the Commit- tee of the Legislature and General Knox in behalf of the Inhabitants of the said town of Waldoborough for the land promised the German set- tlers ... by Brigadier General Waldo and also to treat in behalf of all settlers: Beg leave to Report that agreeable to said appointment your Committee met the Committee aforesaid and General Knox, and found
18 An error, correct date 1785.
546
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
that said Committee were not invested with power to hear the old set- tlers' Demand but only to hear the Complaint of all Settlers who had petitioned the Legislature. Your committee found that there were few inhabitants that had signed said petition. General Knox proposed to submit any demand that the Inhabitants of the town of Waldoborough had against Brigadier General Waldo's heirs, and also old settlers' de- mands to the determination of three men to be mutually chosen by him and the Inhabitants. Judge Rice was proposed by him and agreed to by your committee, if agreeable to said Inhabitants. Sundry other per- sons were proposed but not agreed to.
Waterman Thomas Jacob Ludwig George Demuth
Waldoborough, Aug., 28, 1797
The town was loath to abandon negotiations. Consequently at the same meeting it voted:
... that a Committee of three be appointed to agree mutually with General Knox on three men living in the Province of Maine to settle all demands the Town of Waldoborough have against the heirs of Brigdr. Gen1. Waldo for Public Lots. Also that the Committee appointed by the General Court be directed to attend at Waldoborough to Hear and Settle all Claims of Settlers settled by said Waldo in Waldoborough on the promise of one hundred acres of land and who have not received the same.
Also that said Committee be empowered to fix the price that the settlers in the Town of Waldoborough settled on land belonging to Waldo's Patent, shall pay per acre for land they may have in possession receiving a warrantee Deed from the Representative of the said Waldo. Voted that Waterman Thomas, Jacob Ludwig, and Thomas McGuyer be a Committee for the above purpose.
The records are silent on the results of this committee's work. That it came to naught can be justly inferred from a report of a special committee of the General Court accepted February 25, 1803, from which the following paragraph is excerpted:
The inhabitants of the said Town of Waldoborough within the Patent refused to submit their claims on the pretext that certain per- sons without the Patent were not comprehended and who possess titles to their lands under other proprietors than those of said Patent, a case over which the said commissioners had no power or control.19
This was the issue on which Waldoborough remained obdurate and the rock on which negotiations foundered. The settlers were not "quieted" and the controversy dragged along into the new century.
In this showdown with Henry Knox the settlers had not scored on a single point in their case and the status quo was re- sumed. This was more embarrassing to them than to General
19Ms. filed with Laws and Resolves, 1802-03 (Mass. Archives). [Italics mine.]
547
The Last of the Proprietors
Knox, for there was the continuous realization that they were occupying lands that they did not possess. They could do little more than till and improve these lots, yet improvement had little point as they were merely adding to the value of someone else's land. Furthermore they could not legally divide such lands among their children, bequeath them to their own kin, or sell them. More and more they realized that they were only voluntary tenants. This condition in the long run was intolerable, and since the General Court would not intervene on their terms, they were compelled to ask the Court to intervene on its own terms. Ac- cordingly, on February 23, 1803, Waterman Thomas and others offered a Petition to the General Court outlining the situation and stating that "your petitioners conceive that they come within the Resolve of the Legislature of July 1785, as Reference being had to said Resolve will appear. They therefore pray your Honours to quiet them in the possession of their lands agreeable to said Resolve and as in duty bound will ever pray."20
This was capitulation. The document had fifty-five signers and it represented a marked recession of the settlers from their original demands. The signatories were all eastsiders, which meant that the westsiders were compelled to abandon their claims, since, as the Court had consistently ruled, such were outside the limits of the Patent. On the same date a committee of the Legislature reported as follows:
Whereas it appears that a certain class of settlers on that part of the Township of Waldoborough within the patent to Beauchamp and Lev- erett granted by the Council of Plymouth in the year 1629, and which Patent was defined and confirmed on the 4th of July 1785 - declined to avail themselves of the provision made by the Legislature in February 1797 for the purpose of quieting them on certain conditions. But as the Legislature have ever been desirous of quieting all disputes respecting settlers in the District of Maine, so far as they have a constitutional right so to do, Therefore Be it
Resolved that such of the Inhabitants within the Town of Waldo- borough within the Patent of Beauchamp and Leverett as adjusted on the 4th of July 1785, together with the Proprietor or proprietors of the Lands in the said Patent, cause a list of the said Inhabitants of Waldo- borough who were seated down as settlers on lots, and improved the same prior to the 19th of April 1775, or their legal successors on such lots, shall be made out and transmitted to his Excellency the Governor on or before the first day of June next, and if it shall appear that said description of settlers amount to the number of fifty - then his Excel- lency is hereby requested to cause the Commissioners appointed for the purpose of quieting the settlers on the lands of the Plymouth Company to repair to said Town of Waldoborough and hear the aforesaid de- scriptions of settlers and to decide upon their claims respectively. Pro- vided, however, that the said Settlers, at the time of transmitting the
20Ms. filed with Laws and Resolves, 1802-03 (Mass. Archives).
548
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
aforesaid list, authenticate their desire of submitting their Claims to the aforesaid Commissioners.21
As provided in this resolve the eastsiders forwarded a peti- tion promptly to the Governor requesting him to cause the terms of the resolve to be carried into effect. The petition carried sixty- one signatures. On August 30, 1803, Elijah Brigham, Dwight Foster, and Kilborne Whitman were appointed as the Commis- sioners and ordered to Waldoborough "to conduct hearings and to decide upon the claims of the class of settlers in Waldoborough who declined to avail themselves of the provision made by the Legislature in February 1797." The Commissioners came to town on October 19th, and about thirty settlers appeared and sub- mitted their claims. Henry Knox and the settlers promptly agreed to submit the cases to the Commissioners to settle and declare the terms.
The decisions rendered by the Commission could have been foreseen. Its members were men of prominence and of property, drawn from a class with a natural bias in favor of General Knox. Hence in their minds a valid property claim was about the sole decisive factor, and such a claim Knox unquestionably possessed. The squatters paid little, by modern standards, ample, by the standards of their day. The decisions rendered by the Commission were as follows:
Plan No. 26, Abel Cole, 72 acres, to pay Henry Knox $54.00 with interest to April 1, 1804; No. 29, John Seidensberger, 100 acres, to pay $135.00 with interest to April 1, 1804; No. 17, Joseph Ludwig, 103 acres, $92.00 with interest; No. 18, William Kaler, 100 acres, $135.00 with in- terest; No. 3, John Fitzgerald, 100 acres, $105.00 with interest; John B. Shuman, 99 acres, $86.00 with interest; Henry Benner, 993/4 acres, $59.00 with interest; No. 4, Paul Mink, 100 acres, $67.00 with interest; No. 24, Charles Feyler, 100 acres, $105.00 with interest; No. 27, Jacob Winchen- bach, 100 acres, $75.00 with interest; No. 9, Philip Mink, 100 acres + 1/4 mill rights on Goose River, $72.00 with interest; No. 8, Christian Hoffses, 83 acres, $50.00 with interest; No. 12, John Wallis, Jr., 100 acres [Back Cove], $60.00 with interest; No. 19, Christopher Feyler, 100 acres, $141.00 with interest; No. 16, Peter Cranmer, 100 acres, $150.00 with interest; No. 22, Jacob Benner, 100 acres, $150.00 with interest; No. 25, Levi Rus- sell, 93 acres, $77.00 with interest; No. 10, Charles Kaler, 100 acres, $59.00 with interest; No. 11, Henry Wallis, 100 acres, $60.00 with in- terest; No. 2, Nathaniel Pitcher, 99 acres, 20 rods, $80.00 with interest; No. 1, Jacob Ludwig, 100 acres, $102.00 with interest; No. 6, Samuel Sweetland, 100 acres, $81.00 with interest; No. 15, George Kuhn, 100 acres, $90.00 with interest; No. 5, Edward Manning, 56 acres, 76 rods, $34.00 with interest; No. 7, John Winchenbach, 991/2 acres [Back Cove], $90.00 with interest; No. 23, Jacob Benner and Peter Levensaler, 50 acres, $90.00 with interest; Nos. 13 and 14, Sidonia Welt, 100 acres
21Submission of Settlers, Waldo Claim (Mass. Archives), Vol. III.
549
The Last of the Proprietors
[east bank of Medomak River, north], $88.00 with interest; on another lot containing 100 acres, $88.00; No. 28, John Fogler, 100 acres, $135.00 with interest.
These lots were surveyed by Ephraim Ruling and John Harkness. When the amounts adjudged due to the proprietor were paid the ruling was "that the said Knox, or his heirs shall make or cause to be made to the said - -- , his heirs or assigns, a deed of the premises," in question, "whereby he and they may hold the same in fee simple forever."
In 1793 there had been one hundred and one settlers declared by Knox's agents, in the formal process of taking possession of his estate, as being in unlawful possession of their land. In the intervening decade down to 1803 some had settled with the Gen- eral as individuals, others had established the legality of their claims to his satisfaction, especially those whose lots bordered the east bank of the river, and still others, including all the settlers on the west side, had been obliged to abandon entirely their claims to lands within the Patent, as had the town in the case of any school or ministerial lots on the east side. The last thirty to make their adjustments were largely settlers in the northeastern, eastern, and southeastern sections of the town and represented clear cases of land usurpation. The whole controversy stretched out for more than a decade, and ended in the vindication of Knox on nearly all points at issue.
Taken as a whole, his treatment of squatters throughout his estate had been fair and even generous. The Waldoborough Ger- mans had held out against him nearly to the end of his days and their pertinacity seems to have brought out the old fighter's mettle. His refusal to deal with the westside Germans was undoubtedly legally correct in all ways; ethically it seems to have perpetuated an injustice, if injustice it were for Henry Knox to remain the beneficiary of wrongs committed by others over a half century before.
The last of the proprietors survived the final adjustment in his estate but by a few years. Death came to Knox on October 25, 1806. Inadvertently the General had swallowed a small frag- ment of chicken bone which lodged in the intestinal tract and caused an infection ending in his death. General Knox's passing was genuinely regretted and mourned. Down to his day no in- dividual had made a contribution so vitally affecting the progress and well-being of the county. On October 28th the last of the proprietors of the Waldo Patent was buried on his estate "be- neath the favorite oak where he, in his contemplative moods, loved to linger while living."
XXV
THE LAST DECADE OF THE CENTURY
A town-history ought to be just and truthful. The bad as well as the good should be told.
JOHN L. SIBLEY (Onetime Librarian, Harvard University)
So MANY TOWNS were incorporated "to the eastward" in the 1780's that Lincoln County, because of its great land mass, became unmanageable as an administrative unit. Accordingly by an Act of June 25, 1789, the General Court set off the two new counties of Hancock and Washington. This act gave to Lincoln its eastern bound on Penobscot Bay at the northeast corner of Camden, while the western bound still remained the New Meadows River.
The year 1790 brought the first nationwide Federal census. This was supervised throughout the states by United States mar- shals. In this particular area of Maine the count was made by John Polereczky, a Polish gentleman who had seen service in the American Revolution in the French force under Count Roch- ambeau, and after the war had settled in Dresden, where for fifteen years he was clerk of that town. Polish was his native tongue and English his adopted language. This linguistic back- ground complicated his task in Waldoborough, where he was compelled to struggle with German names, spelled variously for him by the holders, in an alphabet that was unintelligible to him. The result was a horrible mangling of names, some of which as listed are undecipherable.
This was the first reliable counting of noses ever affected in the Waldoborough area. The one earlier census, in 1764, had been made on order of the Lords of Trade primarily for taxing purposes. On its instruction the General Court had directed the selectmen of towns to canvass their respective bailiwicks and make returns to the Secretary's office. Nowhere were orders issued cov- ering plantations, consequently there were no returns for Broad Bay. It, together with Georgekeag, Thomaston, Warren, and Medumcook, was lumped at a grossly underestimated two hundred inhabitants. The census of 1790, in contrast, was a real enumera-
551
The Last Decade of the Century
tion. Its returns showed Lincoln to be the largest county in the District, with a count of 29,723. The largest town in the county was Pownalborough, with a population of 2,043, and Waldo- borough was second in the list of towns, with a total of 1717.1
The data contained in this census were very limited, but broken up into the questions asked by the enumerator we have the following statistical picture of Waldoborough: number of families, 269; free white males of sixteen years and upwards, including heads of families, 429; free white males under sixteen years, 454; free white females including heads of families, 821; all other free persons, 13; total, 1717; colored: Port Royal family, 2, and one colored person in the home of Captain Stephen Andrews, doubt- less a house servant brought back by the Captain from a West "Indy" trip.
By this time the families of the original Germans were small. The fledglings had left the old nests and were raising sizable broods of their own. In these days, as in later times, the Winchen- bachs, Eugleys, Kalers, and Minks were among the most prolific breeders. The largest families in the town at this time were the following: Jacob Winchenbach, twelve members; Peter Gross, ten members; Joshua Lincoln, eleven members; Bernhard Eugley, twelve members; Michael Ried, twelve members; William Kaler, thirteen members; Philip Mink, eleven members; Joshua Howard, fourteen members; Cornelius Seider, eleven members; Cornelius Turner, eleven members; Joseph Ludwig, ten members; John Ul- mer, Jr., twelve members; George Demuth, twelve members; Caleb Howard, thirteen members; Ludwig Castner, ten members; Peter Walch, fourteen members; Jacob Wade, twelve members; Charles Samson, ten members; Waterman Thomas, seventeen members; Matthias Storer, twelve members. At the other extreme are Mat- thias Remilly, three members; Colonel William Farnsworth, three members; Michael Eiseley, three members; Georg Leissner, three members, and Captain Stephen Andrews, three members. The largest household was the grand establishment of Squire Thomas with its seventeen members. This census makes it clear that in size and development Waldoborough had made remarkable strides.
From the beginning, material welfare and development had been the objective of the "thrifty Dutch," and in this decade the program of economic improvement was vigorously pushed. Then as now, roads were something everybody wanted and they were really essential in order to open up newly built and improved areas, and to provide them with an outlet to local and outside markets for their exportable surpluses. The rapid expansion of
1The population count given by Miller, History of Waldoboro (1910), of 1206 is quite inexplicable. The figures given above are derived from the Government Publication, Census of 1790 (Washington, 1908).
552
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
the road building of the preceding decade was continued apace. In the spring of 1790, £150 was appropriated "to be worked out on the highways," and men were credited with three shillings per day for such labor, with the same allowance "for oxen and carts, plows and sleds as last year." In 1791 this amount was raised to £200, and it was voted that the selectmen should "lay out the road from Charles Feller's [Feyler] to the upper settlement which is Peter Lear's [Lehr] and others."
Charles Feyler's farm was at Feyler's Corner, near, or prob- ably the present Roy Dyer farm, and Peter Lehr was at North Waldoborough. Hence it may be assumed that this road opened up the northeastern section of the town and connected it with a route to the sea. At the April meeting of 1792 the selectmen were voted a committee "to lay out a road from Talham's [Dahl- heim] to George Eicorn's." Achorn's two hundred acres lay on the west side opposite the old Christian Walter and Daniel Side- linger lots, a little less than two miles from the northern boundary of the town.
In the May meeting of 1792 it was decided to survey all roads "not already surveyed and to lay the several roads forty feet wide," exception being made in the case of the Dutch Neck Road. In 1795 the road from "the Thomas Hill to East Waldoborough was further extended from Matthias Waltze's barn to Peter Minks in a direction to meet the road running south into East Waldo- borough from the Warren road." With its many roads, crude and rough, the town was frequently subject to complaint and even to court action especially with reference to the condition of its trunk line running east and west, for in August 1797, to forestall action by "the next Court of General Sessions," extensive im- provements had to be made on the road to Warren.
The next year the two converging roads in East Waldo- borough were connected and this area organized into a single road district "from Fische's Corner to Peter Mink's." In addition, one thousand dollars were voted for roads, and this enabled the town to lay out the road running east from North Waldoborough to connect "at Will Mink's Store" with the County Road leading to Union. On the west side of the upper Medomak the road was laid out to the Balltown (Jefferson) line. In 1799 the Warren road was again improved and for labor men were allowed one dollar; for carts, thirty-four cents; ploughs, thirty-three cents, and oxen, fifty cents per day. By the end of the century the major lines of the town's highways had been laid out. Henceforth there re- mained in the years ahead the strenuous chore of improvement and the construction of crossroads and spur lines.
During this decade new families with insufficient means be- came an increasingly difficult problem for the town. In order to
553
The Last Decade of the Century
protect itself against indigent people taking up residence, it al- lowed no new families to settle without the approval of the selectmen. This was a power often unjustly exercised and not in- frequently revoked in case "the transient" in question could prove a good case. The procedure followed is illustrated by the case of Peter Bickel against whom, on April 1, 1790, the constable was instructed to serve notice, as follows:
You are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts di- rected to warn and give notice unto Peter Bickel, a transient person who has lately come unto this town with the purpose of abiding there without obtaining the town's consent, therefore that he depart the Lim- ment [limits] of said town with his wife and children and others under his ceare within fifteen days, and of the precept and your doings thereon you are to make a return into the office of the Clerk within twenty days next coming, that further proceedings may be had in the premise as the law directs.
In July of the same year a similar notice was served on "Ester Hunt of Duxborough in the County of Plymouth, single woman." Three years later such a notice was served on Samuel Packard, who seems, however, to have convinced the selectmen of his worthiness and of his ability to take care of his family. A kinsman, possibly a son, for years afterward constructed flax wheels. All the old Waldoborough wheels are of very fine work- manship and bear the initials, deeply cut in, M. P. or M. S. Martin Packard constructed most of those in use in the southern part of the town and in Bremen; while M. S., Martin Storer, who resided on the old Simon Storer Homestead in the woods west of the Peter Hildebrand farm, did those in the northern part of the town and adjacent regions. Apparently not all newcomers were as desirable as the Packards, for in June 1793 a purge was held in which notices were served on eight families, and only one escaped the order of eviction. The town records show no further expulsions during this decade.
As the turn of the century neared, some of the traditions of the older Germans began showing the earmarks of dissolution. One of these was the tender solicitude formerly accorded to aged and needy relatives. So long as the town was a strictly German community the pauper problem was hardly existent, and over- seers of the poor were not in the category of town officers. In the 1790's pauperism became more marked and the question was raised of choosing overseers of the poor, which the town definitely refused to do in 1792. It was then that the practice grew up of boarding out those unable to work. This solution was first ap- plied in May 1794, when Ezekiel Vinal took such for 2s. 10d., a week. At the same time the Legislature was petitioned for the maintenance of paupers by the state.
554
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
The same year half of the monies collected from fish fines was diverted to the support of the poor. The following year a new method was devised, when one of the paupers at Mr. Vinal's was removed by vote of the town to Mr. George Schmouse's and the selectmen instructed to bind out this child until of age. This was done under a legal writ known as an indenture whereby the pauper gave labor in return for care and maintenance until of age, at which time the patron was obligated to equip the bound servant with the wherewithal to begin an independent career. The town bill for paupers in 1795 totalled £7 7s. 4d., paid to Mr. Ezekiel Vinal "for keeping them for one year."
Another form of assistance to poor people was the abate- ment of taxes. In 1797 the following abatements were made: Joshua Lincoln, whose family numbered eleven members in 1790; Michael Sides, Leonard Wade, John Davis, Henry Morse, Chris- tian J. Lehr, Henry Vogler, William Hunter, and Caleb Howard, Jr. The same year Henry Lehr's request for aid was denied. On the whole, pauperism was a problem for which neither "Dutch" nor Puritan had taste. A pauper had to be penniless to secure aid, and all cases were thoroughly investigated, such as that of "the widow Tibbits" in 1798, when the selectmen were instructed by the town to see if she had "any property where with to support herself, and if she has, not to make provision for her support at the expense of the town." If any avenue was open as a possible dodge of their responsibility it was eagerly explored. The state was, of course, always a possible escape route and was invariably tried, as in 1799 when it was voted "that if the town send a repre- sentative this year [to the General Court] he shall use his en- deavors that George Vogler be made a state pauper."
During this decade it was only when moved by some prob- lem of self-interest, as in the Vogler case, that the town sent a representative to the General Court. Such representation cost money and the short-sighted folk would not spend unless they could see some immediate return. Hence representation was spor- adic. In 1790 Squire Thomas, and in 1791, Jacob Ludwig had sat in the Court, but in 1792 and 1793 the town was not repre- sented. In 1794, ironically enough, the representative went ap- parently to secure the abatement of the fine imposed by the Court on the town for not having sent a delegate the previous years. In 1795 the land controversy with Henry Knox was becoming acute, and Jacob Ludwig was sent to use his good offices in behalf of himself and of his angry and anxious constituents. There was no further representation in this century, with the possible exception of 1799, when the town authorized action in a specific matter "if a representative is sent to the General Court" this year.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.