USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Leeds > History of the town of Leeds, Androscoggin County, Maine, from its settlement June 10, 1780 > Part 2
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Sent up for Concurrence.
EDW'D H. ROBBINS, Spk'r.
In Senate, January 14, 1800. Read and concurred.
SAM'L PHILLIPS, Prsdt.
Endorsed :
PETITION OF THE INHABITANTS OF LITTLESBOROUGH. Copied dld).
N B Boundries of the within Littelsborrough Beginning N W Corner of Greene running N on Anderscoggin Rivver to Livermore Line thence E to Vane (Wayne) thence S By Monmouth Line to Greene thence N W to the first Mentned Bounds Containing about 16000 Acres of Land includ- ing Boggs & warter.
In the House of Representatives, June 6. 1800.
Read & committed to the stand'g Committee on applications for Incor- porations of towns & to hear the parties & report.
Sent up for Concurrence.
EDW'D H. ROBBINS, Spkr.
In Senate, June 10, 1800. Read & concurred. SAM'L PHILLIPS, Presdt.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
A true copy. [L. S.]
Boston, Mass., March 7, 190I. Witness the seal of the Commonwealth. WM. M. OLIN, Secretary of the Commonwealth.
CHAPTER 41, ACTS OF 1800. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
In the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and One. An ACT to incorporate the plantation of Littleborough, in the County of Kennebeck, into a town by the name of Leeds.
Sect. I .- Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled and by the Authority of the same, That the plantation heretofore called Littleborough, in the County of Kennebeck,
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as described within the following bounds, vizt .: Beginning at the North- west corner of Grene, thence runing Northerly on the Great Amariscoggin River, to the line of Livermore, thence Easterly on the Southerly line of said Livermore, till it strikes the line of Wayne, thence southerly by the line of Monmouth to Green, thence Northwest to the bounds first men- tioned, together with the Inhabitants thereon, be and hereby are incorpor- ated into a Town by the name of Leeds. And the said Town is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities, which other towns, do or may enjoy by the Constitution and Laws of this Commonwealth. Sect. 2 .- And be it further Enacted, That John Chandler, Esqr., be & he is hereby empowered to issue his Warrant, directed to some suitable Inhabitant of the said town of Leeds, requiring him to notify and warn the Inhabitants thereof, qualified to vote in town affairs, to meet at such time and place, as shall be expressed in said Warrant, to choose all such Officers as towns are by Law required to choose in the month of March or April annually.
In the House of Representatives, Feb'y 13, 1801. This Bill having had three several readings passed to be Enacted. EDW'D H. ROBBINS, Spkr.
In Senate Feb'y 16th, 1801.
This bill having had two several readings passed to be enacted.
SAM'L PHILLIPS, Presdt.
February 16th, 1801.
By the Governor approved.
CALEB STRONG.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
A true copy. [L. S.]
Boston, Mass., March 7, 1901. Witness the seal of the Commonwealth. WM. M. OLIN, Secretary of the Commonwealth.
CHAPTER II.
THE ABORIGINES.
The origin of the primitive inhabitants of North America is involved in complete obscurity. That they were one of the ancient nations of mankind, no logical or reasonable doubt can be entertained. At what date, or by what means they became inhabitants of the western continent must remain shrouded in mystery and uncertainty,-an unsolved problem,-until further research shall discover the mysteries of "The great unknown."
The earliest books on America contained tales that only the wildest fancy could imagine and picture. Cartier claimed that a people might there be found who neither ate nor drank. And Lafitau believed that a headless race existed there. What a con- ception of one of the most noble races of men! They were endowed by Nature with propensities befitting their surround- ings. The Redman is nowhere at home except in the chase, or gliding along some lake or stream in his bark canoe. Such a race could live only in a country of woods and wild animals. De- prived of these, he pines, languishes and dies broken-hearted. The illimitable hunting-grounds, forest, hill and river, were the Indian's earthly paradise, and the type of his home hereafter. Not unlike the nations of the East, governments existed with them, founded on principles more just and equitable and less bar- barous and tyrannical than most others of their time. They were divided into nations and subdivided into tribes, and again, into clans. Their plan of government may have had weight with the founders of our Republic. Their nations like our States had their great sachems or chiefs, and their advisory councils from the smaller chiefs of the tribes corresponding to our counties, while their clans, like our towns, had their chiefs, who were admitted to the councils of the tribes. Without the knowledge of the existence of foreign nations, a union of their nations or States, for self-preservation, was instinctively provided for. Lying south of the land of the Esquimaux, embracing nearly all of Canada and that portion of the United States east of the Mississippi River and north of the thirty-seventh parallel of lati- tude, spread the great family of the Algonkins. The council-seat of this great confederation of nations was on the Ottawa River. Within this vast domain, like an oasis, the hunting grounds of
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
those powerful nations, the Huron-Iroquois, were situated. Their jurisdiction extended from Georgian Bay and Lake Huron to Lakes Erie and Ontario, south of those lakes to the valley of the Upper Ohio, and eastward to the Sorel River. Two nations of the Algonkin confederacy,-the Etchemins or canoemen, and the Abenakis, occupied Maine and the eastern coast of Canada. The Etchemins dwelt both on the St. John and St. Croix Rivers and the coast as far west as Mount Desert. The Abenakis occu- pied all the territory from the land of the Etchemins to the east- ern boundary line of New Hampshire. The number of tribes into which a nation divided was determined by the number of rivers within its jurisdiction that empties its waters into the sea or large lakes. On these, their wigwam villages were planted, while the tents of their clans, for convenience in hunting, were spread on its tributaries or by the lakeside where corn could con- veniently be grown. The names given to the nations, tribes, and clans were those suggested by the prominence of some natural feature of the place of their location. The Indians had an undy- ing love for running water, which has even been a favorite high- way to no people more than they-a means of immigration best suited to the genius of savage life ; and even civilized man has no path so free as the lake, the river, and the sea. Thus the four principal rivers of Maine were the hunting grounds for the four tribes into which the Abenakis Nation was divided, viz. : Wawenocks on the Penobscot ; Canibas on the Kennebec; Anasa- gunticooks on the Androscoggin ; and Sokokis on the Saco. The Wawenocks were later called Penobscots, and the Anasagunti- cooks Androscoggins.
To the everlasting credit of the Indian may the fact be stated, that, to the early English voyagers, their advances were friendly, and their many acts of kindness and faithfulness can never be blotted from the books of the nations. Had the colonies recipro- cated their kindness and the nation ever treated them with a degree of fairness, thousands of innocent lives of people, both white and red, would have escaped the sacrifice. In 1676, three ยท hundred and fifty innocent, confiding Indians, on the Maine coast, were enticed on board of vessels, made captives, shipped to Bos- ton, and sold into foreign slavery. For thirteen years like cruel- ties were perpetrated and endured by them, with no retaliation save repeated, sorrowing protests. They were the recipients of every indignity the magistrates could conceive of and execute. No redress was left to the noble and pure-hearted Indian but brute force, to which he was cruelly forced to resort. Friendship turned to hatred seeks the most cruel means of revenge. The memory of treachery is indelibly stamped on the whole human race. In June, 1689, a council-fire was lighted around which gathered the Abenakis chiefs, which resulted in the declaration of
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
war on the settlers along the coast of Maine. At Cocheco, where, thirteen years before, their kindred had been kidnapped and sold into slavery, the blood of the white man was first spilled in the east. In a descent on that place the settlers' huts were fired, twenty-three people were killed, and twenty-nine taken to their lodges in the forests. In August of that year a band of one hundred warriors from the Canibas tribe on the Kennebec attacked the stockade at Pemaquid, which at the end of two days capitu- lated, the defenders and their families were made prisoners and long held for exchange for those sold into slavery. The settle- ments east of Falmouth (Portland) were thus broken up and deserted. Blood once spilled was beyond recall. When the white man invaded the country of the Abenakis he did so at the risk of his scalp; yet those there were who did it. In July, 1722, the government of Massachusetts, by resolution, declared the eastern Indians traitors and robbers, and private parties offered one hundred pounds each for Indian scalps. In March, 1723, Westbrook headed an expedition to the Penobscot to scalp the Wawenocks. On the 9th of that month they came upon the Indian settlement at Oldtown. Under the cover of darkness they set fire to the stockade, and ere the rising of the sun every camp was in ashes. Fancy, if we must, the perpetrators of this crime in their second act-slaughtering and scalping men, women, and children by the light of their own burning wigwams. This act alone, under public auspices, was one of the most atrocious crimes ever conceived by man. Not content with the murder of these helpless squaws and pappooses for the tempting money value of their scalps, these representatives of a people who came to this country that they might enjoy religious freedom and worship according to the dictates of their conscience, committed other like atrocities. View these as we may, it was a crushing blow to the Wawenocks, and the few remaining joined their kindred in other tribes.
The previous year Westbrook had twice attempted the exter- mination of the Canibas tribe of the Kennebec, whose princi- pal village was on the east side of that river in Norridgewock,- nearly opposite the mouth of the Sandy River,-and although unattended with success, was effected in 1724 by a body of men under Harmon and Moulton sent from Fort Richmond. For want of space, an extended account of this butchery is omitted. Included in the list of slain was Father Sebastian Rasle, a French Jesuit priest who had for many years been the spiritual adviser and teacher of this tribe. The story of his death is poetically told in Whittier's "Mogg Magone," but of the awful butchery and destruction of the men, women, and children of this village it is silent. In 1833, with the lapse of a century and more, Bishop Benedict Fenwick, of Boston, purchased an acre of land embracing
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
the site of that fated chapel where fell the Jesuit priest and most of his people, and on the 23d day of August, the 109th anniversary of the massacre, erected thereon an obelisk of granite, surmounted with a cross, first of iron, since of granite, to the height of eighteen feet-a perpetual memorial of the tragic end of Father Rasles and his band of red men of the Kennebec. With the death of Father Rasles, the last Catholic missionary in New England was removed. The influence of the French had thus been overthrown with their missions, and the Indians with whom they had been allied, encouraged though unaided, were left to fight their own battles.
The warriors of the Sokokis tribe on the Saco, having been badly reduced by continued warfare, and driven from the coast farther inland, were vigorously attacked by John Lovewell and a party by him organized. Twice they returned laden with Indian scalps. In his third expedition, which was to destroy their encampment in the town of Fryeburg, he was overpowered by a superior force and his blood emptied on the soil of that town near a sheet of water which has taken his name, and the little stream that empties into it is still known as Battle Brook. The small remnant of that tribe abandoned the graves of their fathers and placed themselves under the protection of the French, in Canada.
With misgivings of the conduct of many of the early settlers of New England, we trace the history of the fourth and last of the tribes of the Abenakis nation,-the Anasagunticooks of the Androscoggin. From Merrymeeting Bay, where the majestic waters of the Kennebec and Androscoggin, so long separated on their missions of irrigation kiss anew their greetings, to the Rangeleys, and even to the source of the winding river, Andro- scoggin, and the many tributary lakes and streams along its course,-the most beautiful and picturesque water system in nature, their wigwam villages were spread. From these waters, stretching back to the hills and more majestic mountains, their loved hunting grounds were laid. In these chaste waters wild geese squawked their unmelodious songs, ducks quacked their more discordant notes of accompaniment, finny tribes gorged and gamboled in the shades of morn and twilight, forest animals laved and slacked their thirst.
In the earliest history of the Indians, this was the most numer- ous of the tribes of New England, the most favorably located. The great length of the Androscoggin,-formerly Aumoughcaw- gen,-in its flexuous meanders of more than one hundred and sixty miles, skirted along its course by numerous and beautiful lakes around which towered the evergreen hills,-nothing was wanting to make it the Indians' earthly paradise. In 1615, a deadly plague visited this tribe and cut them down like grain before the reaper.
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
When freed from this scourge but fifteen hundred warriors remained. From 1689 to August 6, 1726, at which time a treaty with the eastern tribes was effected by the colonies of Massa- chusetts, the warriors of this tribe, by continual warfare and other causes were nearly annihilated,-but five remaining above sixteen years of age. In 1750 their number had increased to one hundred and sixty ; while in 1780, when Leeds was first settled, they could boast of five hundred. Centuries unknown had come and gone since the council-seats of the four tribes of the Abenakis nation had been planted on the rivers, a short distance up their banks from the sea, the evident purpose of which was to facilitate easy communication by boat along the coast of Maine. With the advent of the white men that of the Anasagunticooks was at Brunswick Falls. After hostilities were instituted, it was removed to the junction of the Little Androscoggin with the main river, adjacent to the upper Pejepscot Falls. A little distance up this tributary their fleet of canoes were tethered, their tents of skins, with holes in the top for smoke to escape, their inclosure of stakes firmly driven obliquely and sharpened with their stone tomahawks, or made pointed by fire, presented them in their true aspect of home. This historic fort and home was captured in 1689, by Major Benjamin Church, and later selected by Edward Little, Esq., for his last resting place, and there he was first buried. Again was the main encampment, or principal village of the tribe, driven farther from the coast into the wilds of the forest, a demonstration of their treatment from our earliest history to the present ! The natural advantages for defense presented by the broken flow of water, the hills along the river banks, the abrupt windings of the river from Livermore Falls to Canton, to which they gave the name of Roccomeco, together with the utility of the soil in the upper portion, for corn culture, were the inducements that caused them to plant their depleted village of wigwams there. As in the past, the clans of the tribe were beside the lakes and streams throughout the entire Androscoggin valley. From the time of the capture of their fort at the upper Pejepscot Falls (Auburn) they improved every opportunity to engage their ene- mies in mortal combat. They contested the encroachments of the white settlers with all the vigor and strategy peculiar to their race. Those familiar with Indian history will recall the incident of the company of Caghnawga Indians,-a name given to a portion of the Anasagunticooks,-from "Phipps Canada" (then the name of Jay and Canton), who, joining with a party of French under D'Aillebout, DeMantel, and LeMoyne, destroyed the village of Schenectady on the Mohawk, above Albany, N. Y., on the night of the eighth of February, 1690. Continuing in their work of death and destruction their war-whoops grew more fierce and blood- curdling than the howling of wild beasts in the forests about them.
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
But many a whoop, echoed by the sound of a rifle, was silenced forever by the white man's bullets. When the treaty was effected there remained scarce enough warriors in this tribe to swear by. Recuperated from the boy-ranks, they gradually spread their tents anew on the hunting grounds of their fathers. Not forgetful of the past, though their numbers were comparatively few, they feebly aided the French in their war, from 1754 to 1760, by their incursions on the settlers near the coast who had come in during the time of peace. With the close of this war open hostilities ceased and an era of peace and safety dawned. Again they returned to their wigwam fastnesses in the forest, receding with the advance of the white settlers, until-where are they? The red man's sun has nearly set, far away o'er the western hills, and his glory is "a thing of the past."
No place in the Algonkin country afforded better facilities for Indian life than the banks of the Androscoggin in Leeds and the shores of its tributary waters of the "Thirty-Mile River" (the name early given to the chain of lakes and ponds extending from the mouth of Dead River to the water-shed of the Sandy River).
Nor was there another locality so thickly studded with wig- wams. Not only were the best hunting grounds and fisheries found here, but the light, productive soil was better adapted to their methods of cultivation and the crude implements ( shells and dried shoulder-blades of moose and bear) used for the growing of corn and interment of their dead. The natural water-ways constituted an easy and convenient means of transportation to and from the chase,
Do we forget that those there are now living who well remem- ber the first settlers of Leeds? Many there are who can recall the interesting conversations with the first white child born in the town and the eventful tales of adventure related by her. Do we realize that we are daily walking in the paths, stepping in the foot-prints scarcely grown cold, made in common by the white and red children of the forest? Should we make mention of the one and purposely forget the other? Who will question the fact that a work of this kind would thus be rendered incomplete ? How oft, when a child, did I draw near, or, perched on my grand- father's knee, attentively listen to the tales of his childhood, many of which I vividly recall as of yesterday. With brains less fertile and more accurate, many tales laid at the Indian's door would never have found a place in print. In 1780 Indians were quite plentiful in Leeds. One encampment was by the river near the place now owned by the Deane Brothers. Another was on the farm owned by Reuben Campbell, near the mouth of Dead River. Still another was on the east side of the road northerly of the old Francis George house, now owned by D. P. True. At the south
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
end of the *Androscoggin Lake, on the place now occupied by Herbert Parker, was an encampment; while Stinchfield's Point was another place occupied by them. These were small vil- lages-those of families, or clans. Others of a few tents were scattered along the shores of the Thirty-Mile River and in such other places as afforded good facilities for hunting and fishing. To say that on the Norris, or White-Oak Island, was an Indian cemetery is only to repeat the story familiar to every householder, not only in Leeds, but nearly all in the surrounding towns. This was only one of many in the vicinity.
Not unlike the white people of this country from colonial times to the present, they buried their dead in family cemeteries. They consecrated a place apart from others for the final resting place of their families, but none were placed therein until they had been before buried in a single lot, where they remained apart and alone. When an Indian died he was placed beside his wig- wam in a sitting posture and so was he buried. This was the universal custom of all Indian nations. The narrow house in which he sat was often hedged round with a palisade, and for many moons the women would repair to it thrice daily, to weep.
In no way could they be iuduced to believe that the body would be raised up ; yet they believed in immortality, in the continuance of life. No civilized nation paid so great regard to the remains of their ancestors. They were carefully wrapped in the choicest furs and preserved with affectionate veneration. Once every few years the bones of their scattered dead were collected and with great solemnities cleaned from every remainder of flesh and depos- ited in the common grave of their fathers,-the wigwam of their dead. These were guarded and cherished as their holy family relics. The deepest sorrow of the Indian was that of being driven from the sacred grounds where his heroic ancestors sleep. With the advance of settlers, the Indians gradually disappeared from place to place along the Androscoggin valley, and subsequently occupied the upper waters of both the Androscoggin and Kenne- bec. Twice each year, in the seasons of sea-fowl, they descended the river to the coast, stopping along the way to visit the graves of their dead and consecrate them anew. Their course lay along the main river to the mouth of Dead River, up which they paddled to the opening of "Father Thomas," where they always halted and sold their fur. A stay of a few days was here made- a time for those to come in who had scattered along the route on holy missions. Here they divided into two parties, one returning to the Androscoggin River, down which their halting course was made to the sea; while the other crossed the cape and lake, over their old portage to Wilson ; thence along its waters to Anabessa-
*Sometimes designated as Stinchfield Pond, Androscoggin Great Pond.
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
cook ; thence to Cobbosseecontee, following its outlet to the Ken- nebec ; thence to the coast. There large quantities of sea-fish and fowl-important adjuncts to the Indian's larder-were taken and carried back to their forest fastnesses. In the absence of salt, fish and meat were preserved by the use of smoke, and later dried by the sun. On these occasions all but those too aged and infirm to endure the journey were taken along, the squaws to spread the tents, gather the wood, bring the water, dress and cure the flesh and fish, and perform such other duties as the warrior's dignity forbade him. These journeys were made in birch-bark canoes- and attended with an array of paint and feathers-a sight worth seeing! Their last tribal trip to the sea was in the spring of 1796, on which occasion they bade a last sad farewell to their few white friends on the lower Androscoggin waters, abandoned the graves of their fathers to the watchful care of here and there a lone Indian in solitude, and followed the broken fragments of their kinfolks of the Abinakis nation to Canada. Where are they? To an island in the Penobscot River came such of them, in later years, as lacked the ambition and endurance to journey to the far west, and diluted by the blood of French Canadians while in their country, since, freshly infused, but a lingering spark of the red man's blood remains where once their mighty nations dwelt. Not one pure blood is left-the last having passed to the happy hunting grounds thirty and more years ago.
Far away 'neath the sunset hill, Lingering there in the dismal shade The red man's grave, in which to fill, His tottering form will soon be laid.
JOHN CLARK STINCHFIELD.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
STINCHFIELD FAMILY.
The pioneer settlers of Leeds were Thomas2 and Rogers2 Stinchfield. They were hardy sons of John Stinchfield1, who was born in Leeds, England, October 12, 1715, and Elizabeth Burns1, born in the north of Ireland, of Scotch parentage, December 21, 1713. John1 and Elizabeth1 formed an acquaintance on ship- board during their passage to this country in 1735, and two years later were united in marriage in Gloucester, Mass., at which port they landed and continued their residence until 1755, when they moved, with their family of six children, to New Gloucester, District of Maine, a tract of land granted by general court in 1735, to inhabitants of Gloucester, Mass., from which it derived its name. The block house to which John1 moved his family had been built and prepared by him, as were a few others by his fel- low-pioneers the year previous, and was located at the base of the northerly portion of Stinchfield Hill, south-easterly and adjacent to the old cemetery, southerly from Gloucester Lower Corner. A stockade was also built just north of the cemetery in which resort could be taken in defending the families against attack by Indians. Still another similar building was erected in which to corral the cows and goats that fed by day on the vast meadows of natural grasses that furnished them winter food as well. For a com- plete account, which includes the heroic defence of this little col- ony from Indian attacks, from 1754 to 1760, the reader is referred to the "Maine Historical Society," which is contemplat- ing the erection of a granite memorial on the same site, -- a fac simile of the original building, to the memory of John Stinchfield1, two of his sons, and the nine others whose names appear in the list of heroes of those years. The parents of Thomas" and Rogers2 Stinchfield passed the remainder of their lives in New Gloucester. The father died January 3, 1783, and the mother August 19, 1785. They were buried in the old cemetery near where they had lived.
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