USA > Maine > Cumberland County > New Gloucester > New Gloucester, Maine, centennial, September 7, 1874 > Part 2
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In July, 1754, the proprietary offered 20 £ to settlers, 20£ the next January, and 20€ the January after ; and the next Spring, 1755, employed JAMES PROCTOR, of Woburn, "as Captain of the block house, at the same wages the Captain of Saco Fort had," and sent with him six men at 40s. a month for a garrison. This year the Indians attacked the block
24
PEACE AND PROSPERITY, 1760.
house and attempted to surprise the garrison. They cap- tured two men who were without, and killed and scalped a third. The next year the garrison was taken into the Provincial service upon half pay and allowance.
In the Spring of 1756 the Proprietary employed Jacob Parsons to make a new road from North Yarmouth water- side, on the west side of the river, by way of Walnut Hill, and directed him to seek help from North Yarmouth and New Town (now Pownal), cut the meadow, rebuild the saw mill and take a plan of the town, and offered 60€ to settlers during this and the next year.
In 1758, a grist mill was completed in connection with the saw mill on Stevens' Brook. Prior to this the settlers carried their corn to the mill in North Yarmouth, and fre- quently carried it thither, and brought the meal back again upon their shoulders in a day, a distance of twenty-four miles.
The year 1760 brought peace to the settlement. Canada had been taken by the English. The war was substantially over. The settlers who had previously lived within the garrison now began to build log houses upon their clearings, and to occupy separate homes of their own. This year marks the time when the settlement began to increase. A road was laid out to New Boston (now Gray). The mills were moved to the great falls on Royal's river. The second division of lots was laid out and £4 bounty brought a goodly number of settlers.
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COL. ISAAC PARSONS, a native of Gloucester, Mass., came in June, 1761, located and lived until his death, the 9th of Oct. 1825, at the age of 85, on the farm where his grand- son, PETER HASKELL, who succeeded him, now resides.
25
FIRST PROPRIETARY MEETING.
MR. JOHN WOODMAN moved to town from North Yar- mouth with his wife and one child the same year (1761), and settled a little south of " Woodman's Bridge," on the westerly side of the Yarmouth road ; his goods came on a raft up Royal's river.
In 1763 the road was laid out to the mills. New Boston line, which formerly ran near the block house, was moved south-west about two miles, and twenty-five new lots were laid out for settlers in the newly acquired territory.
The first meeting of the Proprietary at the block house, was held on the 22d of Nov. 1763. All prior meetings had been held in Old Gloucester, with which place, up to this time, both intimate business and social relations were main- tained. At this meeting SAMUEL MERRILL was chosen Mod- erator and Treasurer ; ISAAC PARSONS, Clerk ; JONATHAN TYLER, DANIEL MERRILL and WILLIAM HARRIS, Commit- tee to manage the prudential affairs of the township, and Assessors ; NATHANIEL EVELETH, Collector, and WILLIAM HARRIS, Surveyor of Roads.
The next year, 1764, the proprietors, actuated by a de- sire to provide suitable instruction " to the youth," built a school house at the center of the town, hired a school- master ; and eager to comply with the laws of the Prov- ince, as well as mindful of their religious duty, gave a call to the REV. SAMUEL FOXCROFT, a graduate of Harvard College, and son of the REV. THOMAS FOXCROFT, pastor of the Chauncey St. Church, Boston, to settle in the ministry, upon a salary of £80, and a settlement of £100 to be paid in. boards, clapboards, shingles and other things suitable for his buildings, and in labor, with which, and his own resources, he erected, in the year 1765, the commodious mansion that his grandson, SAMUEL FOXCROFT, EsQ., now occupies.
3
26
CHURCH GATHERED-PASTOR ORDAINED.
This call was accepted, and JOHN SAWYER, JONATHAN TYLER and WILLIAM HARRIS, were appointed a committee by the Proprietary to provide all things suitable for the ordination, which occurred on the 16th of January, 1765, and was largely attended from all the surrounding country. PARSON SMITH says, " It was a jolly ordination, and they lost sight of decorum."
At this time a church was gathered, consisting of THE PASTOR, JOHN TUFTS, JABEZ TRUE, DANIEL MERRILL, MOSES WOODBURY, WM. STEVENS, EBEN'R MASON and PELEG CHANDLER, which soon largely increased by the re- ception of new members.
In 1766 the third and fourth divisions of lots were drawn. The latter was called the pine timber division. In 1767 the fifth or intervale division, in 1773 the sixth division, and in 1790 the seventh, or last division, was drawn.
The meadows were " common lands," owned by the Pro- prietary, and when the time came for cutting the grass, a meeting of the proprietors was usually held to determine the method. In the year 1766 they voted "that sixteen cocks of hay be cut to a share in the great meadow, and seventeen cocks in all other meadows ; and to begin to cut August 11th, at seven o'clock in the morning, and that no man should begin before that time."
In 1770 sixty-one persons subscribed to build a meeting house. The lot where the Congregationalist Church now stands was purchased of COL. WM. ALLEN for this purpose. The pew ground in the church was sold at auction. Each purchaser built his own pew, which was required to be surrounded with a " rail and banisters."
The Proprietary, on the 8th of February, 1774, elected
27
NEW GLOUCESTER INCORPORATED.
SIMON NOYES, EBENEZER MASON and ISAAC PARSONS, a committee to petition the General Court for an act of in- corporation into a town.
1. For thirty-five years the proprietors and settlers of this . township had been striving to carve out new homes from the midst of a forest, twelve miles from the sea, and one hundred miles distant from their old homes, where regular communication could not reach them. Once they were driven away by the Indians. The product of five years' toil was lost. For six years more they were confined to the close limits of a garrison. Yet these. men, by their determ- ination, enduring energy and unyielding perseverance, brought up the settlement to above sixty families, built more than twenty miles of road, a saw-mill and grist-mill, built · and maintained a block house suited for a garrison in time of war, built a school house and meeting house, maintained a public school, and supported a public religious teacher for more than ten years, in addition to making their clear- ings, and erecting their own houses and barns.
Surely, when we look upon these fair fields to-day, we must feel grateful for the labors of these pioneers, as we enjoy the fruits thereof! The troubles and hardships they endured, we cannot imagine, for this generation was reared in the lap of luxury, in striking contrast with the privations of these men, which no tongue can now picture, no pen describe, and which the enervated imagination of to-day fails to conceive. This toil and sorrow was not in vain, and these happy faces about me bear witness to the fact.
The General Court of the Province lent a willing ear to the petition of the Proprietary, and early in the year 1774 incorporated the town of New Gloucester. A warrant issued to PELEG CHANDLER, from COL. WILLIAM ALLEN,
28
FIRST TOWN MEETING.
bidding him, in HIS MAJESTY'S NAME, warn the free- holders and other inhabitants qualified to vote, to as- semble at the " Old meeting house " on the 7th of September, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, one hundred years ago, to choose the necessary town officers.
This first town meeting is the event we celebrate. Insig- nificant in itself, it was the birth day of this town's cor- porate existence. Then was laid the corner stone for an edifice already one hundred years old, and good for centuries to come. At that meeting, every male inhabitant of the town who had reached his majority was allowed to vote, regardles of race, creed, color, and any property qualification. A right which the century has hardly ordained throughout this broad land-A FREE BALLOT,-the safeguard of our liberties.
Twenty days afterward the Selectmen were instructed by the town to hire Mr. SAMPSON COALBEE, a schoolmaster, and "to place the school in that part of the town where it would do the most good." At the same meeting the town voted to build a Pound in the westerly corner of the Com- mon about the meeting house. The construction thereof was put up at auction. ISAAC PARSONS stepped forth as vendue master, and it was bid off by PETER GRAFFAM, for 3£, 14s, 8d.
Scarcely had the town organized when the horizon of our country blackened, ominous clouds, threatening war, rolled upward, as each new budget of news came from Great Britain. The Sugar, the Stamp and the Tea Acts had been passed ; British troops were quartered in private houses ; trial by jury in the Colonies was denied; all principal colonial officers were to be appointed by the Crown; taxes were imposed without the consent of the Colonies ; those
29
THE REVOLUTION.
accused of treason were to be transported to England for trial ; the port of Boston had been closed to commerce ; citizens of Boston had been shot by British soldiers ; non- importation and non-consumption of British goods had become the watchword of the Colonies ; the appeal of that Boston Patriot, JOSIAH QUINCY, JR., had fired the colonial heart ; the Concord Convention had resolved " that to obey these acts of Parliament would be to annihilate the last vestiges of liberty in the Province."
On the 27th of September, 1774, in compliance with a request from the Hon. JEDEDIAH PREBLE, of Falmouth, this town appointed Col. WM. ALLEN, Capt. WM. HARRIS and Capt. ISAAC PARSONS, delegates to a County Conven- tion to be held at Falmouth, to take into consideration the alarming situation of public affairs ; and elected MICAH WALKER, JOSIAH SMITH, ISAAC PARSONS, JOHN WOOD- MAN, ENOCH FOGG and NATHANIEL BENNETT, a committee to inspect the inhabitants of the town, " to see whether they do submit themselves to the resolves of Congress, not to use any British goods, and expose them that do not."
This Committee faithfully searched every house in town, but such was the patriotism of the inhabitants, that they found no contraband articles, although one crafty dame succeeded in secreting in an oven her store of tea, obtained unbeknown to her husband for her own private use, from a Falmouth Tory.
In October, 1774, the Provincial Congress organized the Militia of the Province. This town was divided by a line running nearly east and west through the center of the town, into two companies of infantry. The North Company was commanded by Capt. ISAAC PARSONS, and the South Company by Capt. WM. HARRIS, comprising all the able
30
LAST TOWN MEETING IN HIS MAJESTY'S NAME.
bodied men in the town. One-quarter of these were de- tached as minute men, to take up arms at a moment's warning. The town purchased two casks of powder, two hundred pounds of lead, three hundred flints, and offered one dollar apiece for thirty men who would enlist and be ready for an encampment.
Early in the morning of April 25, 1775, news was received of the battle of Lexington, fought six days before. That afternoon a town meeting was held, which had been called on personal notice to all the inhabitants, by the Selectmen ; and it was determined to have twenty men in readiness for service, upon the shortest notice, and that "those who go shall have their labor done every week faithfully, while they were gone, and their wages ; and be furnished with as much provision as they could carry, and be billeted on the roads free."
On the 30th of October, 1775, Capt. WM. HARRIS, Capt. ISAAC PARSONS and Mr. DAVID MILLET, were chosen a Committee of Safety. This committee, and the Committee of Inspection, with a change of some members upon each, were continued until the close of the war in 1784. At this time the town voted to join in fortifying on Falmouth Neck.
This was the last town meeting warned in His Majesty's name, and the page of its record is the last evidence of alle- giance to the British Crown. Then Royal authority was formally consigned to the tomb, although it died long before in the hearts of this people. Thereafter, openly these ances- tors of ours asserted the eternal right to be free, and on the 21st of May, 1776, voted :
. " That if the Honorable Congress should, for the safety of the Colonies, declare them independent of Great Britain, they will
31
A TIME OF GREAT DISTRESS.
solemnly engage, with their lives and their fortunes, to support the Congress in the measure."
On the 4th day of July, 1776, a day that will live so long as centuries to come shall complete their circuit, this was done ; and through the next six years of blood the inhab- itants of this town kept that engagement sacred, freely giving their lives and their treasure a willing sacrifice to freedom.
The entire soldiery of the town above the age of sixteen years, numbered about one hundred and fifty. From this number, prior to the year 1780, the town had furnished more than thirty-eight men for the army, and forty-eight pairs of boots and shoes, forty-eight shirts and sixteen blankets, besides continuous and burdensome taxes. In May, that year, Capt. ISAAC PARSONS, with a company of fifty-five men and officers was mustered into the service for eight months, and ordered to the command of Brig. Gen'l WADSWORTH, at Thomaston, in Col. PRIME'S regiment, to operate against Bagaduce.
At this time the people of the town were reduced to great distress. In the spring of this year, 1780, the town was called upon to furnish seventeen pairs of shoes and stockings, and eight blankets, and in the fall, seven men for the Continental Army for three years, and ten thousand, eight hundred and sixty-five pounds of beef. The town had paid large bounties to soldiers (its quota had usually been filled by volunteers) ; had furnished the soldiers with clothing, and their families with the necessaries of life. The currency was depreciated. Coin was at four thousand (forty to one), taxes could not be collected in current money. Already, the Collector had on hand ninety bushels of corn, gathered for taxes, which the General Court voted to take in lieu of
32
FIRST TOWN MEETING UNDER COMMONWEALTH.
coin. The General Court had in vain fixed the prices of labor and merchandise. In vain had this town elected committees to regulate the prices of innholders, teamsters, laborers and merchandise, and to see that the people con- formed thereto. Eighteen dollars a day was paid the Selectmen, taxes had to be collected in produce, and all trade became barter.
Not discouraged by this deplorable state of affairs, these people still struggled to sustain the cause they so dearly loved. On the first of November, 1780, the town voted to raise 4,800£ to procure the beef required, and appointed a committee for the purpose, who canvassed the town, and reported that the beef could not be had.
On the 12th of January, 1781, the first town meeting was held in the name of the Commonwealth, under the new constitution, to procure the seven men called for, and the town voted to raise 202£ hard money for the purpose. So determined were the people to succeed, that this meeting met by adjournment fourteen times to accomplish the object.
On the 22d of June, 1781, two thousand nine hundred and nine pounds of beef, twelve shirts, twelve pairs of shoes and stockings and six blankets were required of the town for the army. This was the last levy furnished, as Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown the following October, and then for the first time during seven years of war, did the Patriots of our country clearly see a deliverance from the British yoke.
At the onset, the inhabitants of this town advocated the Revolution and engaged to support it. Nobly did they redeem their promise. They furnished money as long as any remained to be had, and then turned out from their substance its equivalent. They supplied their quota of men
33
SACRIFICE FOR FREEDOM.
to the Continental army by volunteers. By regular turns the soldiers were detached to serve in Rhode Island, on the Eastern coast, and under Arnold on his expedition against Canada. While the soldiers were away in the army, their labor was performed for them, and their families were sup- ported from the public treasury.
The men and women of this town labored day and night to provide clothing, shoes and blankets for the army, all manufactured from material raised by themselves. So eager were they to supply these for the fathers and sons fighting for freedom, that no beef was allowed to be eaten, no sheep or lambs to be killed, that the flesh of one and wool of the other might afford diet and covering to the shivering form of some Patriot exposing his life for his country. They lived upon corn and pork ; their drink was water and milk; their clothing rags, but within their souls burned the eternal fires of freedom, which to-day shine out from every hilltop in this wide land. Under one flag we are a free people, and as that flag to-day floats upon the breeze in every land and upon every sea, yielding ample protection to every American throughout the world, we should look back down the long line of the century, and return thanks beside the tombstones of these men and women for the boon they have bequeathed us.
When this town was organized, it assumed the support, by taxation, of the Rev. SAMUEL FOXCROFT, "an able, learned Orthodox minister, of good conversation, to dispense the Word of God to them," as required by the laws of the Province. Then the people were united in one faith, one worship, and one religious teacher. Then upon every Sabbath, the people were required by law to attend divine service, and give due observance to the ordinances of relig-
34
RELIGIOUS INTOLERATION.
ion. It was the duty of certain town officers to see these requirements observed.
A large portion of the early settlers of this township were of that iron mould, who could only see that "a rigorous enforcement of these laws would redound to the general welfare, and to the glory of God." A few thought other- wise, and believed that religious worship should be volun- tary, and free to the choice of every man, according to the dictates of his own conscience.
On the 31st of May, 1775, SIMON NOYES, DAVID MIL- LET, JOHN WOODMAN and seven others, appeared in open town meeting and objected to the payment of any tax towards the Rev. Mr. FOXCROFT's salary, and had their protest recorded ; nevertheless, the tax was assessed, and they were compelled to pay it. Four years after, they again applied to the town to be allowed to provide a public teacher for themselves, but were refused, and paid their taxes. Three years after this, JOHN WOODMAN and ADAM COTTON applied to the town to repay the money they had paid towards the support of the minister for the two years previous, but were refused. Then war being ended, these aggrieved brethren set about in good earnest to procure their liberty from the support of religious teaching they did not approve, and Mr. JOHN WOODMAN, the leading spirit in the measure, wearied with continued applications for relief, and in despair of any redress from the town, refused payment of all taxes for this purpose, and the tax gatherer sold his cow therefor. On the 2d of September, 1782, he applied to the town for indemnity, which was refused him. In May, the next year, he applied again, and was again refused. In June, 1783, opposition was made to raising the usual salary for the minister, but
35
A FAST OBSERVED.
the town voted to raise it, and that it was not dissatisfied with him, and in the next October again voted to the same purport. But November 4th, to prevent further disputes, the town voted to set off from Mr. FOXCROFT's parish, all who were dissatisfied ; and Mr. SIMON NOYES, JOHN STINCH- FIELD, JOHN WOODMAN, PELEG CHANDLER, WM. WIDG- ERY, ELIPHALET HASKELL, JOHN TUFTS, JOHN MEGQUIER and thirty-two others recorded their names for the purpose. These men represented all shades of belief.
Here was the first decisive step for toleration in this town. But the victory was incomplete, for, by law, towns were still compelled to maintain a public religious teacher of the Orthodox faith. Taxes for the purpose were levied as formerly until 1786, when the joint strength of the Baptists and Universalists carried a vote of the town by two majority, to absolve the former from taxes to support the town minister, although a like favor was refused the Universalists at the same meeting, by the Baptists voting with the Ortho- dox.
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The Universalists were not absolved from this tax until 1789, when it was voted them, they in return voting with the Baptists a free consent of the town, for the latter's incor- poration into a separate religious society.
At one time the Rev. SAMUEL FOXCROFT sent a letter to a town meeting, having these troubles under consideration, requesting the meeting to adjourn for two weeks, and that meantime the people join with the church in observing a fast, that greater wisdom might direct the deliberations of the town at the future meeting. The town having great respect for its religious teacher, at once complied with his request. The meeting adjourned and a day of fasting and prayer was duly observed.
1 36
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES INCORPORATED.
By act of the General Court, 1790, Mr. JOHN WOODMAN and seventy-two others, were incorporated by name of " The Baptist Religious Society of New Gloucester and Gray," which was afterward divided, and Mr. JAMES ALLEN and thirty others were incorporated in 1803, by name of "The Baptist Society in New Gloucester."
In 1805, SOLOMON ATWOOD, JR., and forty-eight others, citizens of New Gloucester, Gray, Pejepscot and Poland, were incorporated by name of the " First Universalist Society of Christians in New Gloucester."
The same year the town voted its consent to the incorpo- ration of the " Freewill Antipedo Baptist Society of New Glou- cester."
In 1818, DAVID NELSON, ISAAC GROSS and thirty others, certified to the town clerk that they were members of an " Unincorporated Particular Baptist Society," who had for a religious teacher, Elder ROBERT LOWE, of this town. This society was afterwards known as the Calvinist Baptist Society of New Gloucester, over which since then have been settled many able, pious, learned and beloved pastors.
In 1829, the Rev. ZENAS THOMPSON was ordained in the old church, which was freely tendered to the Universalist brethren for the purpose, where, less than half a century before, the Baptist and Universalist brethren had been for- bidden to worship.
"Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change."
The Rev. SAMUEL FOXCROFT, a gentleman of great talents and. fine education, from the time he was ordained over the church and people of this town, in 1765, until after the Revolution, was the sole religious teacher of an entire com-
37
THE REV. SAMUEL FOXCROFT.
munity. He stands forth to-day, a good exponent of the religious sentiment of his time ; a sentiment brought over by the Puritans ; an ideal church, to be universal, with none to gainsay its doctrines, none to deny them; its teachers to be supported by the entire community, and in return the whole community to attend upon their teachings, that all may be gathered within the fold of the church.
How futile such a scheme, the record of the pastorate of this man clearly proves. One whose piety, integrity, learn- ing and ability none would question, beloved by his church and esteemed by all; to whose culture, instruction and ex- ample the people of this town are much indebted for their intelligence and morality. For nearly twenty years his pastorate continued without serious dissent, but at length, actuated by convictions of their own, a few became uneasy of the restraint upon them by the laws of the time, and incited by their insatiable thirst for liberty, liberty from the burdensome exactions of a church, as well as from the tyran- ical hand of a monarch, determined to sever allegiance from that religious rule to which they could not honestly submit. And at the end of the next decade, when the Rev. Mr. Fox- CROFT voluntarily laid down his charge in 1793, he saw his ancient parish, once united in one belief, now severed into as many religious sects as the conscience of man told him was right. A sad spectacle indeed, that truth could not be viewed by all alike, and glorious too, that thought at last is free.
This town for a long time, doubtless owing to dissensions among the people, remained without a settled public teacher ; and at the June term, 1800, of the Supreme Judicial Court, held at Portland, the Attorney General of the Common- wealth filed an information against the town for not having
38
REV. ELISHA MOSELY AND OTHER PASTORS.
procured a settled minister for above five years ; and upon summons, NATHANIEL COIT ALLEN, an agent chosen by the town, appeared and answered in a spirit of humility, that the town did not wish to contend with the Commonwealth. The case was continued for judgment from term to term, until May term, 1802, when the town having procured a settled minister and paid the costs, the Solicitor General said he would prosecute no further.
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