USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Prouts Neck > Old Prouts Neck > Part 5
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X LOCATIONS AND HISTORICAL PLACES.
TT may be of assistance to those who take interest in such matters to mention briefly some of the places and objects within the Cammock Patent and in the vicinity which are of historical association.
The Governor Henry Jocelyn Residence. There is no doubt that the original house erected by Captain Thomas Cammock was situated on the Ferry Rock point, at the westerly end of the Country Club grounds. This was occupied by Cammock and passed from him to Margaret, his widow, and his well-beloved friend, Henry Jocelyn, Esq., whom she subsequently married. When Jocelyn became what may perhaps be called contestant Governor of the Province of Maine, he and his wife resided there. The irregular trail known as the King's High-
THE EASTERN COVE
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way, from the Ambrose Boaden ferry at Higgins Beach, came over the Black Point plains and passing the house continued, after the ferry crossing, to Pine's Point and thence onward to Portsmouth and Boston. The building itself long since disappeared. It was probably destroyed in 1690.
The Flake Yards were upon the Scarbor- ough River shore, just northerly and beyond the Jocelyn mansion.
The Salt Works, where the sea water was pumped into an evaporating basin, were in the same neighborhood, both being upon the bank of the Scarborough-then called the Owascoag or Black Point-River.
The Old Wharf was where the present dilapidated structure now stands. This wharf location is quite certainly nearly three centuries old.
The Public Landing. Along the river bank, extending some distance each way from the wharf, was the public landing place. It has existed "from the time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,"
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though quite indefinite in extent. When traffic was mostly water borne, space for deposit, boat access, loading and unloading hay and general connection between sea and shore was indispensable. Accordingly, "landings" were established as well as high- ways. The bounds evidently were not made certain and were defined only by usage. The prescriptive right there has been kept alive by continuous custom to the present time.
The Old Church stood upon a little mound about a quarter mile northwardly from the Ferry Rocks, between the Ethan Wiggin house and the river, and not far from the river bank. It had, in English fashion, a churchyard adjoining. This churchyard was plainly distinguishable by its nameless head- stones, which remained until somewhat re- cent times. The gravestones, it is said, were taken up and used in the foundation of the Wiggin barn, and the old God's acre plowed over. This church is marked on one of the ancient maps and is represented as having a
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steeple. It was built prior to 1671 and was quite surely Episcopalian, as the good churchman, Jocelyn, then refers to it as "Our Church." Robert Jordan, the last minister named, who was quite as zealous in his sup- port of the Church of England as he was in his land speculations, probably preached there as well as at Spurwink, Casco now Portland, and at Saco. This building was destroyed in the French and Indian inva- sion of 1690 and was not rebuilt.
The Massacre Pond was within the limits of Sprague's Massacre Farm. It was said to be a two-mile walk around it.
The Great Grave. Between the Massacre Pond and the highway was "The Great Grave," also noted upon the map. It was located just across the road from Mr. Sprague's game keeper's house. In this grave were buried the nineteen who were slain there by Indians in ambush, probably in the autumn of 1713. Over their remains was heaped a large mound of earth. It can- not now be easily identified.
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Pine Point. Just southerly from the Black Rocks was a slight projection toward the river called Pine Point. This should not be confounded with Charles Pine's Point, across the bay, the residence of the martial pioneer.
(The population in Jocelyn's time was reckoned at about three hundred, a large proportion being located upon the present Country Club grounds. This is the same estimated number as is given of the inhab- itants of the Plymouth Colony ten years after its founding, so that Black Point, the Cammock Patent, was evidently entitled to be considered a place of reputation.)
Captain Swett's Battle Ground, so called, begins with the place of ambuscade on Moor's brook, near the present Black Point schoolhouse. Here a force of about ninety Massachusetts militiamen and Black Point residents, under command of Captain Benja- min Swett, of Hampton, N. H., and Lieuten- ant James Richardson, of Chelmsford, Mass., with about two hundred friendly Indians,
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were, in June, 1677, decoyed by what was supposed to be the main body of hostile Indians about two miles from the Jocelyn garrison on Garrison Cove at the Neck. A great force of the hostiles, supposed to be the clansmen of Mogg Heigon, who had been slain less than two months previous, suddenly arose from places of concealment. One of the most disastrous battles in colonial history followed. Captain Swett and Lieu- tenant Richardson, with sixty of their men, were killed or fatally wounded before the remnant reached the shelter of the fort.
Scottow's Fort. The great stockade built in 1681, and called by this name, was located on the ridge near the sea, within and upon the Atlantic House premises and easterly from the James Frank Coolbroth house, now occupied by John M. Kaler. This was one of the strongest fortifications in the Prov- ince. It had an outside ditch with palisade walls and could shelter all of the inhabitants. It was abandoned upon the approach of the overwhelming French and Indian force in
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1690 and was by them destroyed. Most of the outline that showed on the face of the earth has been plowed and smoothed off, but a part of one of the bastions or flankers may still be traced in the edge of the woods.
Boaden's Ferry, at the Spurwink River, was at the easterly point at Higgins Beach. The ledges there, reaching southerly, were called The Hubbard Rocks.
John Jocelyn's Cave. This was evidently a hollow place under the cliff called Castle Rocks, southerly from the present entrance to the bathing house lot from the Marginal Way. This was one of the places noted by John Jocelyn, brother of Henry, who pub- lished a book called Two Voyages to New England, the first voyage being in 1638 and the other in 1663. The cave has been pretty much obliterated by the removal of ledge rock for building purposes.
Jocelyn's Garrison, called also Scottow's Garrison, stood on the westerly side of the Neck overlooking Garrison Cove. The orig- inal garrison house was built prior to the
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first Indian war of 1675. It was surrendered
by Jocelyn to Mogg Heigon, who left it intact, so that it was again occupied. In May, 1677, it was beseiged by Mogg, who This was was killed in an assault upon it.
which fell into ambush at Moor's Brook. It headquarters for Captain Swett's company,
continued to be a fort until it was abandoned
to the French and Indians upon their inva-
sion in 1690. The structure was then de-
stroyed, the cellar alone indicating the spot.
Near by was "The Doganne," evidently an
arsenal for the storage of ammunition. The
present building erected over the cellar was moved back a little distance and remodelled.
purchased by Charles E. Morgan, Jr., and This was the Captain Thomas Libby house.
Prout after the second settlement and recon- It is said to have been erected by Timothy
was for a long time his conspicuous resi- Libby made additions to the house, and it structed by Alexander Kirkwood. Thomas
dence. It was the first hotel on the Neck, », called the Prouts Neck House. As a car-
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penter declared, "The old house is in there somewhere and is about two hundred years old."
The Old Fort, so called, on the West- ern Cove, where the dauntless eight resisted the French and Indian attack of 1703, was located upon the sandy bank about where the West Point House garage now stands. The defence of this garrison house by Captain Larrabee, the Libbys and Pine is historic. The ravine where the French sappers at- tempted to undermine the building remained until it was filled up in the construction of the Checkley House road.
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The Kirkwood Cellar, so called, was situ- ated about at the angle where the town road turns toward the Checkley House. Near this cellar was the starting point of the sur- vey for making the division plan of the Neck now in use. Probably this marks the first residence of Captain Alexander Kirkwood upon the Neck. It has now been filled up and no longer appears.
The Burial Place of Mogg Heigon. In
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LOCATIONS AND HISTORICAL, PLACES
the rear of the Willows Hotel lot and east- wardly from the buildings, an Indian burial place was accidentally discovered some forty years ago. A young man, Alvin Plummer, was making an excavation to set out a tree, when he uncovered a human skull. Fur- ther investigation showed others arranged in regular order. Members of the Maine Historical Society were notified, and care- ful excavation disclosed thirteen skeletons in a state of almost perfect preservation, arranged in a circle around a larger one adorned with strings of wampum and with a rude copper breastplate. Analysis of the copper showed that it was not of American origin. Therefore it was argued that the burial took place after the coming of the English. The only time when the place was open for native occupation was during the period of the Indian Wars. The ex- planation suggested was that when Mogg Heigon was killed, with others of his clans- men, in his unsuccessful attack upon Joce- lyn's fort in 1677, his followers, before re-
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tiring, ceremoniously interred their Chief, with the circle of his dead warriors about him, and left them concealed in the porous sand. They were all in sitting posture, and it appeared like a council of the dead. This is spoken of as the burial place of Mogg of the Kennebunk Arrowpoint, called in Indian language Heigon. He was the same named by Whittier, Mogg Megone. Plummer te- naciously refused to part with his treasured bones, wampum and copper. He held them until he died, when the aggregation was de- cently buried in some place unknown.
The Western Point Landing Place. This point, where the float is now maintained, was long used, as it now is used, for a sort of natural wharf. Indifferent to waves and storms and time, it has remained unmoved while generations of hardy navigators, ad- venturous settlers and happy pleasure seek- ers have come and gone.
Winslow Homer's Studio. This well known and charming spot, on the southerly side, has become a place of pilgrimage for
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WALK TO THE SANCTUARY
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LOCATIONS AND HISTORICAL PLACES
lovers of art. Homer lived generally alone in winter, but not as a recluse. There he did his best work. He loved the restless waves, the sky with its frowns and smiles, and the wonders of the sunset and the sun- rise. He once said of his greatest painting, kept long upon his easel, that he had waited four months for the sunset view that his fancy demanded but could not catch. It came at last and he preserved it. The mere painting of a picture he declared is nothing. It must be studied and thought out. "Mr. Winslow," as he was quite commonly called by those about him, was by strangers re- garded as somewhat reticent and austere, but to his intimates he was most genial and delightful. "The music of his life, that bides with us long after." The circular grist mill stone in his yard came from Mill Creek, not far from the Portland and Saco road. It long did useful service in the col- ony times. He loved his old-fashioned gar- den flowers as truly as he loved his friends.
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There are those who recognize the faces in his paintings and can tell you the names of the individuals. "You see the feller in the halibut picture" (The Fog Warning), said Henry Lee; "that's me."
The George Cleeve Location. Over on the Spurwink River, opposite Richmond Island, is the place where George Cleeve, from Ply- mouth, England, relying upon the word of King Charles, in 1630, a year before Cam- mock obtained his grant, made his clearing and established his home. From this place he was two years later ejected by the su- perior title of Trelawney and removed to Machegonne, now Portland, and became the first settler there. This is now the Ram Island Farm of Mr. P. W. Sprague, and the Cleeve residence was probably on the beau- tiful spot where the flower gardens now are. One can readily appreciate the good judg- ment of Cleeve in making his selection and his regret at leaving. For fifteen stormy years he was local Governor of the province, then called Lygonia, and regarded Henry
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Jocelyn at the Ferry Rocks as something of a rebel.
The Black Rocks. When one sees these rocks he understands]how they got their name. From this point, in direct line to the branching of the Spurwink, was the upper bound of the Cammock grant enclosing the fifteen hundred acres.
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