Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 9

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790

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* History of Brunswick, pp. 58-60. + The names of these Indians were- Toxus, Magawombee, Harry, Soosephania, Nooktoonas, Nesagumbuit, Peereer, Cneas.

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

had bolted against them; the man at bay then fled through a window and running to the shore rushed into the water to swim across Back river and Newtown bay, half a mile, to Arrowsic island. The savages nimbly pursued, and resorting to their canoe, paddled after him; when they overtook their expected prize, he upset their canoe by a dexter- ous movement, spilling them into the water and putting them on the same footing with himself. Leaving them floundering, Mr. Rose re- sumed his swim and reached Arrowsic fort." The Kennebec saga- mores disavowed these and many other revengeful acts, that followed as a sequence to the unfortunate Wiscasset affray.

Thirty years had passed since the Pejepscot company made the land seizure that led to the war in which Father Rale was slain. During that period Richmond fort had been the outpost of the Eng- lish frontier. The time had now come when the Plymouth company, tracing its title to a patent given in 1627 to the Plymouth colony, wanted all of the lands above Richmond fort. The tribe that had protested a generation before, had been crushed for its contumacy: its survivors had nearly all removed to Canada; the few who still lin- gered by the burial-places of their fathers, had no steadfast and fear- less Rale to befriend them. So insignificant were they that the Ply- mouth company began to lot their land without any thought of asking their leave. Its strong hands built Fort Shirley (nearly opposite Fort Richmond) in 1751, but in February, 1754, a party of about sixty stal- wart Indians appeared at Richmond fort with a warning to the Eng- lish to depart. Governor Shirley in behalf of the settlers, retorted by detailing six companies of militia for the Kennebec. In April the general court authorized him to build a new fort as far up the river as he pleased. In June he made a personal visit to the Kennebec and decided to locate a fortress at Teconnet for the protection of the Ply- mouth company's lands.

On the 21st he held a conference (at Falmouth) with forty-two Kennebec Indians. Ongewasgone, the sagamore, pleaded piteously for his people, saying: " Here is a river that belongs to us; you have lately built a new fort [Shirley]; we now only ask that you be content to go no further up the river; we live wholly by this land, and live poorly; the Penobscot Indians hunt on one side of us and the Canada Indians on the other; so do not turn us off this land; we are willing for you to have the lands from this fort to the sea."+ But the poor chief was protesting in vain; as in the case of the Arrowsic parley thirty-seven years before, the will of the white man prevailed. The Indians signed what was conventionally called a treaty. The bitter- ness of the cup was lessened by a few presents. Immediately the gov-

* Luther D. Emerson, Oakland, Maine. + Journal of the Rev. Thomas Smith, pp. 153, 154. See Abbot's History of Maine, p. 352.

THE INDIANS OF THE KENNEBEC.

ernment sent workmen to build Fort Halifax at Teconnet (now Wins- low), and the Plymouth land proprietors sent others to build Fort Western at Cushnoc. Five hundred soldiers under General John Winslow # attended as escort, and some of them went far beyond into the wilderness to look for a fictitious fort which rumor said the French were establishing near the sources of the Chaudière. Fort Halifax was completed for occupancy in September, and put in command of William Lithgow. The Indians soon showed their opinion of it by killing and scalping one of the soldiers, and capturing four others. This bloody deed prompted the government to send Captain Lithgow a reinforcement of men and cannon, and to offer a reward of £110 ($550) for every captive St. Francis Indian, or £10 ($50) less for his scalp. Fort Western was armed with twenty men and four cannon, but it was not attacked.

Thus the advent of the Plymouth company was met with resistance and bloodshed, as that of the Pejepscot company had been. This was the opening of the sixth Indian war in Maine, which soon became part of the greater conflict between France and England that ended with the fall of Quebec. The Maine tribes having generally trans- planted themselves, recruited the French ranks in Canada; some of the warriors were on the flanks at Braddock's defeat (July 9, 1755); others were in the no less bloody actions at Crown Point and Fort William Henry, but a few chose their own war paths, and skulked fitfully on the outskirts of the Maine settlements. In the spring and summer of 1755, they shot one Barrett near Teconnet, and two others near Fort Shirley: a courier was captured while going from Fort Western to Fort Halifax; Jolin Tufts and Abner Marston were cap- tured in Dresden. The government at once increased the scalp bounty to $1,000 and offered $1,250 per captive.

In the summer of 1756, while England and France were moving with new intensity toward their final combat, the Indians continued their miserable warfare in Maine. On the Kennebec two men were assassinated at Teconnet; Mr. Preble and his wife were killed at their home on the northern end of Arrowsic island, opposite Bath, and their three children taken. One of the latter, an infant, was soon killed because it was an incumbrance. A young woman named Motherwell was captured the same day at Harnden's fort (in Woolwich). In the spring of 1757, a few soldiers went out from Fort Halifax to hunt for

* General Winslow was a brother of Captain Josiah Winslow (slain at St. George thirty years before), and the officer whom the government detailed in 1755 to enforce its order for the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, on which event Longfellow founded his pathetic and beautiful idyl Evangeline. The celebrated Winslow family, so prominent in affairs on the Kennebec after the voyage of Edward in 1625, has left its name to the town (incorp. 1771) of which Fort Halifax was the nucleus.

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

game; as five mysteriously disappeared their comrades supposed that a party of savages, discovered to be in the neighborhood, had taken them .. Captain Lithgow hastily sent ten men in a boat down the river to warn the settlements. While returning to Fort Halifax (May 18), and when about eight miles above Fort Western (in the vicinity of Riverside or Lovejoy's ferry). the boat was fired at from the shore by seventeen lurking Indians. Two men were wounded. The soldiers returned the volley, killing one of the enemy and wounding another; they then landed on the shore opposite the Indians, whom they saw in the distance bear across an open field the body of their fallen com- rade for burial." This was the last Indian encounter on the Kenne- bec; by a strange coincidence it happened near the place where Cap- tain Gilbert was received by the natives just one hundred and fifty years before.

England and France were now in the midst of their mighty con- test for supremacy in America: their respective colonies were the battle ground, and the prizes at stake. For more than a century- beginning with the labors of Father Druillettes at Cushnoc in 1646- the Kennebec had been an environ of Quebec, and a door to Acadia. Acadia itself with its shadowy boundary had made the territory of Maine an uncertain borderland. Five wars-not counting King Philip's -- had been waged against Maine settlements by French- Canadian intrigues; but the time was near when the terrible alliance that had desolated so many New England settlements must be dis- solved. An English heart was beating under a soldier's uniform whose valor was to thrill all hearts, and determine the political des- tiny of the western world. In July, 1758, General Wolfe was before Louisbourg, which capitulated on the 16th; fourteen months later he led his little army up the heights of Abraham to the mad fight on the plains above, where he died victorious (September 13, 1759), bequeath- ing to his countrymen the citadel of Quebec. His blood washed New France from the map. The flag that had been planted by Champlain in 1608 (three years after his visit to the Kennebec) was lowered from its staff, and North America came under the dominion of the English speaking race. Acadia was no more; its boundary was no longer of any importance; Forts Halifax, Western and Shirley, on the Kenne- bec, were needed no more. In the long, painful, tragical contest, the Kennebec tribe (as well as others) had been annihilated. A few families continued to live in hermit-like seclusion around the upper waters of the river, but the young men learned the art of war no more.

When Arnold's army was marching to Quebec, the pioneer party discovered at a point on the trail near the Dead river, a birch bark

* Letter of William Lithgow to Governor Shirley, May 23, 1757, quoted by Joseph Williamson in Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. IX, p. 194.

THE INDIANS OF THE KENNEBEC.

map of the streams of the region, which an Indian had posted for the benefit of his fellows: a score or more of Indians were dwelling in the vicinity. The intrusion disturbed them, and they flitted undiscovered within spying distance of the troops for more than a month. Finally, having divined that the army was the enemy of the English at Que- bec, they disclosed themselves as friends, and nineteen joined the ex- pedition as allies. Among them were the noted chiefs-Natanis and Sabatis. They took part in the assault on Quebec, January 1, 1776 .* Natanis received a musket ball through his wrist. This was the first time that Indians had fought in the war of the revolution. Thus, to the last remnant of the Kennebec tribe belongs the distinction of an alliance with the continental army, and Natanis was the first of his race to shed blood in the cause of American independence. Sabatis afterward lived for many years, an errant but amiable life on his native river-sensible and mild-a friend to the settlers as they were to him.

One of the last well-remembered Indians lingered with his family around the upper waters of the Sandy river for many years; this was Peerpole; he had received baptism, and like a good Catholic went yearly to Quebec with his humble gifts to receive the blessing of the church. He would not bury the body of his dead child in the soil of his lost country, but carried it to Canada for religious rites and deposit in consecrated ground. + About the year 1797, with his wife and sur- viving children and precious burden tied on a hand-sled, he wended his way for the last time northward to the adopted land of his surviv- ing kindred. The mournful procession symbolizes the extinction of the red men in the valley of the Kennebec.

* Account of Arnold's Campaign against Quebec, by John Joseph Henry, pp. 74, 75. + The late William Allen of Norridgewock, in Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. IV, p. 31, note.

CHAPTER III.

SOURCES OF LAND TITLES.

BY LENDALL TITCOMB, EsQ.

Indian Occupancy .- Sales of Lands by the Indians .- Claims of Spain and Portugal. - Counter-claim of France,-The Virginia Charter .- The New England Charter .- The Kennebeck or Plymouth Patent .- Trade with the Indians .- Sale of Plymouth Patent. - Settlement of the Kennebec Purchase. -Province of Massachusetts Bay .- Maine Separated from Massachusetts and Admitted into the Union.

W HEN first foreign peoples came to the shores of Maine with the purpose of occupying the territory, establishing homes and creating an organized government, they found, of course, the country occupied by a primeval people whose history was no better known to themselves than it is to us to-day. It is even probable, with the concentration of legends of other peoples and drafts from asso- ciated histories, that the history of the Indian nations could now be written, giving with greater certainty the story of their ancestry than the dim traditions which were to them the only record of their past. The different nations and clans occupied each a separate country, the natural divisions on the surface of the earth, in the absence of a sur- veyor's chain and compass, establishing the boundaries of the separate tribes and nations.

The Indian had no conception of the European idea of exclusive ownership of land. The tribes and their sachems neither made nor understood such claims of arbitrary ownership of the lands they occu- pied. The passing cloud which threw its shadow on his path, and the running water in which he paddled his canoe, were as much his prop- erty as the pathless land whereon his wigwam chanced to be. He neither coveted nor comprehended sole ownership of land. It was to him a mother whose streams and forests offered to him, as to his neighbor, food and shelter. No such thing as inheritance by children from parents was cared for or understood.

They held their lands, if theirs they were, as life tenants in common; and no matter what were the forms or words of the deeds they signed, they only signified to the Indian mind the white man's privilege to occupy the lands as they themselves had occupied them; hence the

SOURCES OF LAND TITLES.

trifling consideration named as price in the so-called Indian deeds. Monquine, son of Mahotiwormet, sagamore, sold for two skins of liquor and one skin of bread, more than a million acres of land above Gard- iner. As late as 1761 Samuel Goodwin was authorized to obtain a deed from the sagamores of the whole territory extending from the Wes- serunsett river to the ocean on both sides of the Kennebec river, " pro- vided he could obtain it at an expense of not more than £50." Hence also the fact that the Indian chiefs sold the same lands many times over and to different parties. In the " Statement of Kennebeck Claims," -Pamphlet Report of committee made June 15, 1785-after reciting the history of old Indian deeds the committee say: "From the his- tory and mode of living amongst the Indians in this country there can be no great doubt but that they originally held as tenants in com- mon in a state of nature; and though they have formed themselves into tribes and clans, yet the members of those tribes still retain a common and undivided right to the lands of their respective tribes."

The aboriginal occupant of Kennebec county was the Indian tribe called Canibas. This was a large and important tribe and claimed as their territory the land extending from the sources of the Kennebec river to Merrymeeting bay. It may be noted as bearing on the Indian ideas of ownership of land, that Assiminasqua, a sagamore, in 1653 certified that the region of Teconnet (Waterville) belonged to him and the wife of Watchogo; while at near the same time the chief sag- amores, Monquine, Kennebis and Abbagadussett, conveyed to the English all the lands on the Kennebec river extending from Swan island to Wesserunsett river, near Skowhegan, as their property.

In the earlier years a verbal grant was asserted by the English as a sufficient "deed." But subsequently concession was made to the formalities, and the conveyances from the Indians were made in legal form without much inquiry whether they were understood by the native grantors or not. Governor Winslow asserted "that the Eng- lish did not possess one foot of land in the colony but was fairly ob- tained by honest purchase from the Indian proprietors." But Andros, in 1686, boldly condemned the title so obtained from the natives and declared that "Indian deeds were no better than the scratch of a bear's paw." Though by a strict rule of right the Indian's deed could not be held to convey an exclusive ownership, it formed one of the strands, though a slender one, which the first settlers gathered together through which they maintained their early dominion over no incon- siderable portion of the soil of Maine. The thrifty adventurers from beyond the sea who sought wealth within her boundaries professed to largely base their rights on the Indian deeds and a prior occupation and possession.

But the Crown of England is the source to which trace all lines of title to lands within the county of Kennebec. It was by royal license

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

that the first English settlement was made in Maine. The emigrants came as English subjects and they brought with them English laws. England planted her colonies here as her subjects, on lands claimed by her as her territory. and she alone maintained her authority.

In 1493 Spain and Portugal claimed the entire New World which Columbus had discovered, by virtue of a bull of Pope Alexander VI. It is said that some seventy years later Spain took fortified possession of Maine at Pemaquid, but if so her possession was abandoned before many years.

In 1524, Francis I, king of France, saying he should like to see the clause in Adam's will which made the American con- tinent the exclusive possession of his brothers of Spain and Portu- gal, sent Verrazzano, a navigator, who explored the entire coast and named the whole country New France. Later King Francis, in 1534 and the following years, through Jacques Quartier, took actual possession of Canada, explored the St. Lawrence and " laid the found- ation of French dominion on this continent."

In 1495, Henry VII, of England, commissioned the Venetian, John Cabot, and his sons to make discoveries in the Western World, and under this commission they discovered the Western Continent more than a year before Columbus saw it; and in 1502 the same king com- missioned Hugh Eliot and Thomas Ashurst, in his name and for his use, to take possession of the islands and continent of America.

Under the claim made by France the southern limit of New France was the 40th parallel of north latitude. Below that line was Florida, claimed by Spain as her territory. These two powers claimed the whole of North America by right of discovery. But it was a settled rule of international law that discovery of barbarous countries must be followed by actual possession to complete the title of any Christian power. Neither Spain nor France willingly yielded to England's claim to the new territory. But when Spain complained of an alleged act of trespass at Jamestown, England replied that all north of 32º belonged to the Crown of England by right of discovery and actual possession taken through Sir Walter Raleigh and English colonies. And when France complained against England's assumed control north of the 40th north parallel, England replied reciting the discov- eries by authority of the Crown made by Cabot, and the colonies estab- lished by her royal charter.

England repeatedly asserted her claim to the lands held by her colonists, and overruled the claim to the whole country made by France, and as a result the map shows to-day not New France, but New England. By the English law the ultimate right to the soil remained in the Crown and grants made by the Crown were on condition of fealty and service, and on breach of such condition, the lands reverted to the Crown. " The newly discovered lands beyond the sea followed

SOURCES OF LAND TITLES.

the same rule. If they were to become English possessions it was the right of the Sovereign to assign them to his subjects, and the validity of the titles thus conferred and transmitted has never been questioned, but stands unimpeached to this day."*

The first transfer of title or English sovereignty was by what is known as the Virginia charter, which was granted by James I, April 10, 1606, to the Adventurers of London and their associates known as the first colony, and to the Adventurers of Plymouth and their asso- ciates known as the second colony, and under this charter a futile at- tempt was made the following year to plant a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec river.

On November 3, 1620, King James I granted what is known as the New England charter to the council of Plymouth in the county of Devon, successors to the Plymouth company under the charter of 1606. This charter was granted to forty lords, knights and merchants of England, among whom were the Duke of Lenox, Marquis of Buck- ingham, Marquis of Hamilton, Earl of Arundel, Earl of Warwick, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Francis Popham and Raleigh Gilbert. They were incorporated as " The Council Established at Plymouth in the County of Devon for the planting, ruling and governing New Eng- land in America." This charter granted in fee simple all the North American continent and islands between the parallels of 40° and 48° north latitude, " throughout the mainland from sea to sea," excepting " all places actually possessed by any other Christian prince or people."

Under the charter of 1606 no permanent colony with an organized government had been planted in Maine. But its rivers, coast and harbors had been explored, knowledge of the Indians and their habits had been acquired, and trading posts and fishing stations had been established. Gorges and his associates had learned the value of the fur trade and fisheries, and it was to control these that the Plymouth company sought and obtained the great New England charter.

On January 13, 1629, a grant was made by the Plymouth council to the Pilgrim colony, of what has since been known as the Kennebeck or Plymouth Patent. There was long dispute as to the boundaries of this patent, but its territory as ultimately settled, extended from the north line of Woolwich below Swan island on the east side of the river, and from the north line of Topsham on the west side of the river to a line a league above the mouth of the Wesserunsett river and fifteen miles wide on either side of the Kennebec. This patent covered about 1,500,000 acres. With the patent were transferred rights of exclusive trade, an open passage at all times from the patent to the sea, author- ity to make all necessary rules and regulations for their protection and government.

*H. W. Richardson, Introduction, York Deeds.

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

A trading post was established at Cushnoc, and some writers say, at Richmond's landing and at Popham's fort also. For several years the trade with the Indians was found to be profitable, but it gradually declined till in 1652 the trade at Kennebec was leased at the small price of fifty pounds a year, and in 1655 the lease was renewed for seven years at thirty-five pounds a year-" to be paid in money, moose or beaver." This rental was reduced after three years to ten pounds and the next year the trade was abandoned.

Discouraged by meager returns the holders of the Kennebeck or Plymouth patent sought a purchaser for their patent and on October 27, 1661. it was sold * for four hundred pounds to Antipas Boyes, Ed- ward Tyng, Thomas Brattle and John Winslow. This transfer, of course, carried with it whatever apparent shadow of title there was in the Indian deeds, which from the year 1648, when the whole Kenne- bec valley was purchased by William Bradford from a chief, had been collected from different sagamores covering the same territory.

From 1661 till 1749 the title to the lands on the Kennebec lay dor- mant and no special effort was made to establish settlements on the land. This was at least partially due to the French and Indian border wars, which for a series of years diverted attention from the arts of peace. But in 1749, eighty-eight years after the transfer of the patent, though the four original purchasers were dead, the proprietors had greatly increased in numbers and were widely scattered, and knew very little of the extent or value of their lands. On August 17, 1749, a number of the proprietors joined in a petition to call a meeting of the proprietors of the Plymouth company's lands to devise means of settling or dividing the same "as the major part of the proprietors shall or may agree." A meeting was called for September 21, 1849, at Boston, and a number of subsequent meetings were held until in June, 1753, the owners of shares in the patent were incorporated under the name of "" The Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase from the late Colony of New Plymouth;" though they were generally known as the Kennebec company or the Plymouth company.

The new proprietors in 1761 employed Nathan Winslow + to make a survey and lay out into lots the Kennebec valley on either side of the river, from Chelsea to Vassalboro inclusive, and offered to each settler, upon certain conditions, two lots aggregating 250 acres. The conditions imposed by the proprietors looked to the permanent settle- ment of the towns and the establishment of churches; for the grantee

* The deed was executed October 15, 1665, and recorded in the York County Registry in 1719 .- [ED.

+ Winslow's map of this survey shows on either side of the river, three ranges of lots, each one inile deep with eight-rod ways between the ranges. The origi- nal map is in possession of Governor Joseph H. Williams, of Augusta, and a copy is on file in the Kennebec County Registry .- [ED.

SOURCES OF LAND TITLES.

was required to build a house of certain size-generally 20 by 20 feet -and reduce to cultivation five acres of the land in his possession within three years; also to occupy it himself or by his heirs or assigns seven years besides the three. Each grantee was also bound to labor two days yearly for ten years on the highways and two days every year on the minister's lot or upon the house of worship.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 9

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York, Blake Number of Pages: 1790

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790