USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 23
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etts an, The ject ever hore ugh d."§ solo Ung- 1 by n. ghts I his atis- tory 1 all and
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270
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
longed to the church society at Biddeford, where he contributed to the ministerial fund for the support of Richard Gibson, who was pastor at Winter Harbor and Richmond Island.
In 1645, Parker's Neck was acquired from Vines by Robert Jordan who had secured an execution for debt against the pa- tentee in favor of the estate of John Winter.
Parker withdrew to the Eastward, and that same year his hearsay evidence was incorporated by George Cleave, as magis- trate, in that of Henry Watts, the fishmonger of Black Point. The full text of this testimony contained the statement that "John Parkar of Dammarills Cove affermath that Robert nash being with him gave & sould so much Sack to his men that nash him- selfe and parkars me'n we'are all so drunke for severall dais to- gethar that his men Could not goe to Sea in the prime tyme of fishing whereby the said parkar & his Company lost 40 or 50 pownds."¡
Three years after this incident "John Parker Senr of Sacaty- hock" bought from Robinhood as local sagamore "a Tract of Land on the Easter Side of Sacaty hock being an Island com- monly called by the name of Sagosett alias Chegoney by the Indians." The first deed of the premises, known as Stage Island, was lost, but the sale was confirmed subsequently to Mary, widow of the grantee. In the same transaction Parker had acquired Small Point and the ancient site of Fort Saint George, which were transferred by his heirs to Thomas Clark and Thomas Lake.#
As a consequence, forty-one years after the first settlement Parker became sole owner of the plantation occupied by the first colonists at Sabenaw, or Sabenoa, as the last native owner was known.
February 27, 1650-1, he bought from Robinhood "the Island Called Rasthegon lying by Sacittihock Rivers Mouth." The island has since been called Georgetown and contains about 18,000 acres.§
May 23, 1654, the immigrant with other colonists on the Sagadahoc took allegiance to Plymouth Colony. At that time his son John was living at Arrowsic. This island, which con- tains about 4,100 acres, had been acquired from Robinhood by
Me. Doc. Hist., 4-6.
: York Deeds, 11-139; 14-140.
§ York Deeds, 10-252.
271
SAGADAHOC RIVER
John Richards in 1649. In disposing of it in 1654 Richards ex- cepted "one hundred Acres of landes Lying upon ye said Island formerly sold unto John Parker whereon hee hath erected a dwelling howse." When Parker sold the premises in 1657, he was described in the deed as a "seaman."*
An antedated copy of the immigrant's will, made October 31, 1661, was deposited with the files of Lincoln County. He be- queathed forty pounds in money to each of the three children, including Mary who had just married Thomas Webber, and the residue of his estate to his widow. The family relationships are plainly defined in a later transaction .;
Parker's Neck at Winter Harbor was acquired by Roger Spencer from Jordan before 1660. At that early date the place was described as "one fishing stage & house & Necke of Land wron the stage standeth, which is commanly knowne & Called by the name of Parker's Necke." In 1700, Joseph Webber, son of Mary (Parker) Webber, then living in Charlestown, sold his interest in premises defined by him as "one Neck of land called Parkers Neck lying in Saco within ye Province of Maine."}
From these conveyances it is obvious that descendants of the early immigrant persisted in claiming interests in his old loca- tion at Winter Harbor, although the courts had disregarded all such collateral titles to family ownership many years before Parker removed to Sagadahoc.
PIONEERS
ATKINS, THOMAS, fisherman at New Plymouth, 1640; at Atkins' Bay with wife Elizabeth, 1647; deceased 1680-6; children Abigail (Washburn), Ann (Clark), Elizabeth (Davis), born 1645, Esther (Pike), Margaret (Hackett), Rachel (Drake, Barry), Rebecca (Hall), Ruth (Haskins), Sarah (Gurney) and Susanna (Green).
DOLE, WILLIAM, Woolwich, 1650-1665; children John, born 1654, and Wil- liam, born 1656; the family removed to Salem.
GENT, JOHN, a fisherman at Salem, 1642; trading at Pemaquid, 1647; died at sea, 1661; widow Elizabeth bought land east of Mason's Neck from the Indians, 1663; she was driven from Sheepscot by the Indians, 1677, and married George Speare, of Boston; they returned to Sheep- scot, then called New Dartmouth, 1683; children Elizabeth, who married John, son of James Phipps and had John, born 1668, Mary (Mason, Allen) and Thomas, born 1642.
HOPKINS, JOHN, Woolwich, 1647-1654.
* Plymouth Col. Rec., 3-58 ; Suffolk Deeds, 2-44; Lincoln Deeds, 1-19.
+ York Deeds, 10-152.
¿ York Deeds, 1-113 ; 6-144.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
THE VALE OF CUSHNOC
With distant murmurs from the fall And music of a thousand rills, With breeze along the serried hills And forest echoes over all ; With salmon leaping to the sun And wild deer drinking in the glade, With wood duck glinting in the shade, A day at Cushnoc had begun.
But eagles homing one by one And shadows growing in the stream, And daylight passing gleam by gleam, Betoken that the day is done.
A cabin marks the terraced shore With smoke arising through the trees, With hunters resting at their ease And beagles romping at the door. And when at last the dusk comes on- The master whistles to his dogs, Piles high the open hearth with logs And dreams of home until the dawn.
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KENNEBEC RIVER
KENNEBEC RIVER
The colonists of New Plymouth first became interested in the resources of Maine in 1622, when from necessity they were compelled to seek supplies from the fishing vessels which came to Monhegan and Damariscove islands. In the words of Gov- ernor Bradford, they thereafter "knew ye way to those parts for their benefite."*
In 1624, the colony sent the Little James to Pemaquid to fish and trade, but it was wrecked in that harbor by a severe storm, and three of its crew were drowned. Late in the summer this ship was repaired and sent home, for the season was too far ad- vanced to use it again that year.
After the harvest of 1625 Edward Winslow was sent with a shallop forty or fifty leagues to the Eastward and up the Ken- nebec to trade with the natives. He exchanged a cargo of corn raised by the Plymouth planters for seven hundred pounds of beaver and other pelts. Winslow's Rocks near the City of Bath were discovered upon this or a subsequent trip.i
Although Massachusetts colonists claimed to have instituted the practice of intercepting the Indian trade by use of the inland waterways, Gorges was the first to adopt it, seven years before, when he instructed Richard Vines to seek the natives in their own haunts. Furthermore, Thomas Weston resorted to this method at Casco, the year before Winslow's expedition on the Kennebec, and Christopher Levett alluded to it as the scheme of an "evill member" in his harbor.
Near the end of 1626, according to the ancient style of reck- oning, the plantation at Monhegan, which had belonged to mer- chants of Plymouth, was discontinued. At that time the entire stock of unsold merchandise, including articles salvaged from a French bark which had been wrecked at Sagadahoc in the spring, was bought in equal shares by Plymouth Colony and David Thompson. The price paid was one thousand pounds, a part of which was promissory notes. The goods bought by the colony were intended for trade with the Indians in the vicinity.
* Bradford, 2-90.
+ Bradford, 2-138.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
It remained for Thomas Morton to anticipate the agents of New Plymouth on the "Kynyback River," where "his boate had gleaned away all before they came."}
In June, 1627, Governor Bradford complained that "Besides the spoiling of the trade this last year, our boat and men had like to have been cut off by the Indians, after the fishermen were gone, for the wrongs which they did them, in stealing their skins and other abuses offered them, both the last year and this."§
The price paid by Morton for his injudicious interference with colony's trade on the Kennebec was expulsion from the country in 1628, when he was accused of many imaginary mis- demeanors as a pretext.
Late in the fall of that year the colony delegated Isaac Aller- ton its agent "to procure a patente for a fitt trading place in ye river of Kenebec." The reasons advanced for this action were that New Plymouth had been the first to engage in trade on that river and might be excluded therefrom "by the planters at Pas- cataway & other places to ye eastward of them, and allso by ye fishing ships, which used to draw much profite from ye Indeans of those parts." In fact, some competitors had already threat- ened to secure proprietary rights on the river .*
The "other places to ye eastward" of Pascataqua, to which allusion was made in the quotation, must have included French settlements.
The procedure followed by Allerton to procure a patent was expensive and protracted. James Sherley, the London agent for the colony, complained later that "many locks must be opened with ye silver, ney, ye golden key" and that the grant for New Plymouth and Kennebec was no exception to the rule, since it was obtained "with no small sume of money."
Allerton first sought the advice and influence of Richard Vines, who as "servant" of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, then presi- dent of the Council of Plymouth, could act for him in the capacity of a friend at court.
To this end, in 1628, he advanced £30 to Vines and more to others.+
As there were several petitions before the council for private grants in New England, as well as an enlargement of the terri-
N. E. Canaan. 149.
Mass. Hist. Col., 3-57.
Bradford, 2-149.
+ 3 Mass. Hist. Col., 1-199.
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KENNEBEC RIVER
torial area of New Plymouth, it was deemed advisable, for all concerned, to take a general view of the premises. For this pur- pose a common fund was raised by the petitioners in 1629 and Allerton contributed £50 for the colony's proportion.
The exploratory expedition may have been present at Squam- scott May 17, 1629, when Vines and his associates, who were in- terested in settlements at Pascataqua, Saco and Penobscot, wit- nessed the deed from the Indians to John Wheelwright.
Owing to his intimacy with Vines and the expenditure of more than £500, Allerton finally secured the favor of the council, for according to Sherley he had become an intimate friend of Gorges and obtained "all that Mr. Winslow desired in his letters to me, & more also."
The grant at Cushnoc was not issued until January 13, 1629- 30, and was mentioned as just made, but not confirmed, in Sher- ley's letter to Bradford, dated March 19, following. As this let- ter was dictated by Allerton he must have been conversant with the contents.
The account of Bradford, written nearly twenty years after- wards, was misleading wherein it was claimed that a patent for Cushnoc was brought to this country by Allerton before 1630, since that writer later asserted that "ye patent came to above 500 li. and yet nothing done in it but what was done at first without any confirmation."}
After the issuance of the patent a house was erected at Cush- noc on the Kennebec. The site was identical with that of Fort Western, within the present area of the City of Augusta and "in ye most convenientest place for trade." The commander of this post was John Howland, a member of Plymouth Colony, who con- tinued there for several years with a few assistants, known as the "family." The stock in trade consisted of corn, coats, shirts, rugs, blankets, biscuit, peas and prunes.§
The business at Cushnoc was conducted by a partnership, consisting of the leading members of the New Plymouth planta- tion and Richard Andrews, John Beauchamp, Timothy Hatherly and James Sherley, merchants of London. This association had assumed the debts of the colony, four years earlier, in exchange for the exclusive privilege of trading within its jurisdiction.
Į Bradford, 2-166, 187.
§ Bradford, 2-157.
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276
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
This same year the partners established the trading post under supervision of Edward Ashley on their new grant at Penobscot.
John Alden took possession at Cushnoc, but the tract was never fully defined. It was situated so far inland that the bound- aries were uncertain. Although visited by Waymouth in 1605, all that the grantees knew of the wilderness had been obtained
FORT WESTERN 1754
MATTHENTS
FORT WESTERN, AUGUSTA
from vague reports of the Indians or from their own incursions to parts of it by way of the river.
According to the natives and early explorers, Sagadahoc River terminated at Merry Meeting Bay, where the Kennebec became an eastern tributary. Cushnoc grant comprised a tract fifteen miles in width on each side of the latter stream, extend- ing inland from the mouth of Cobbosseecontee River in the City of Gardiner to the Falls of Negaumkeag, or about six miles above the City of Augusta .*
Cushnoc trading post at the head of tide in the Kennebec River was intended, like that of the Laconia Company at Newich- awannock, to dominate inland traffic with the natives through control of a great navigable waterway. With the use of wam- pumpeag as a medium of exchange the colony soon diverted the entire trade with the interior tribes from the "fisher-men and in a great part from other of ye stragling planters."
Allerton, however, after his dismissal from the service of the * Ford's Bradford, 2-176.
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KENNEBEC RIVER
colony and the loss of Ashley in 1631, formed "a company of base felows * * * to rune into ye river of Kenebeck, to gleane away ye trade from ye house ther."¡
The company employed by Allerton must have been com- posed of passengers or members of the crew of the White Angel, who were described by Bradford as "such a wicked and drunken company as neither Mr. Allerton nor any els could rule." The later fatal consequences in the Hocking incident, when the colony undertook to defend its exclusive trading privilege at Cushnoc Falls, led to the general arraignment that "To the Eastward they cut throats for beaver."
Although the post at Cushnoc had been surrounded by a strong palisade and was kept guarded to prevent invasion, an early attempt was made there to kill Governor Winslow. An Indian concealed himself in a tree near the enclosure, and only the early retirement of his intended victim to the security of the barracks defeated his purpose.
In 1632 and 1633 the White Angel was on the coast fishing and trading.
In April, 1634, John Hocking, with two men and a boy, "be- longing to ye plantation of Pascataway, wente with a barke and comodities to trade in that river" (Kennebec) "and would needs press into their limites ; and not only so, but would needs goe up ve river above their house (towards ye falls of ye river), and in- tercept the trade that should come to them."}
In spring, the Indians were wont to come down from the hunting and trapping areas about the numerous lakes and streams above that point.
John Howland and John Alden, both magistrates of Plymouth Colony, were present at the time. Howland was commander of the post and Alden had just arrived with a boatload of supplies for opening the season.
Hocking was advised to depart on the ground that he had trespassed there the year before and such action on his part did not represent the sentiment of his plantation at Pascataqua. After refusal to comply Howland, John Irish, Thomas Savery, William Reynolds and Moses Talbot attempted to cut the vessel adrift. In the struggle which ensued Talbot and Hocking were
Bradford, 2-188.
į Bradford, 2-199.
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278
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
shot and instantly killed. John Alden, of Plymouth fame, did n participate in the action, but was arrested and imprisoned officials of Massachusetts Bay Colony.§
While during the earlier years Maine trading privileges h proven valuable, the volume of business at Cushnoc gradual diminished until it became unprofitable on account of the co of supervision. At first the trading had been managed by Bra ford and other ambitious members of his colony, of whom Alle ton was one, under the terms of the general lease, dated Se tember 30, 1627, and limited to six years. The employes we members of the colony who were referred to collectively as "t family."
After the expiration of the first lease, trading rights on t Kennebec were relet at decreasing rates, but December 1, 164 no one had been trading at Cushnoc for more than a year and t post was deserted. There had been no bidders when the previo lease had expired in November, 1639 .*
In 1641, the trading house was reoccupied under the supe vision of Thomas Willett, who formerly had had supervision Penobscot. The next year Winslow, who had selected the ori inal site for the station at Cushnoc twelve years before, made official inspection of the place. Winslow's visit may have be occasioned by the advent of a few Massachusetts colonists on t lower reaches of the Sagadahoc, where the acquisition of Peje scot by their colony had induced them to locate.
Eight years later Christopher Lawson appeared in the vic ity. After some negotiation with the natives he secured valual tracts at Swan Island and Waterville, where he was maintain by his employers, Clark and Lake, at an expense of more th £100 per year, and monopolized the native trade.
March 8, 1652-3, at the suggestion of Bradford, Edward Wi low filed a petition in England which sought further concessic in Maine. It was alleged in the declaration that "for many yea the plantation had had a grant of a trading place in the ri Kennebec, but not having the whole of the river under th grant and government, many excesses and wickednesses ha been committed, and the benefit for trade and furs, one of t greatest supports of their plantation, had been taken from
$ N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg .. 9-80.
Plymouth Col. Rec., 2-2.
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KENNEBEC RIVER
inhabitants of New Plymouth." The petitioners asked for a pa- tent for the whole Kennebec region .;
The request was granted and May 23, 1654, the straggling Sagadahoc settlers as well as those on the Kennebec submitted to the civil jurisdiction of Plymouth Colony. The family at Cush- noc, then in charge of Thomas Southworth, was composed of employes from New Plymouth, registered previously as "cov- enant servants" or freemen who were not required to resubmit. Like employes at the trading post, the independent settlers at Sagadahoc hailed from Massachusetts, Western Maine, or Pema- quid plantation.
Competition from Clark and Lake soon made the sale of the patent feasible, and October 27, 1661, Antiphas Boyce, Thomas Brattle, Edward Tyng and John Winslow purchased all Maine rights of Plymouth Colony for £1400.1
After the sale, the premises at Cushnoc returned to the soli- tude of former ages. Trade on the river was gradually reduced because of the extinction of local Indians by tribal wars, disease and the development of a general sentiment which proved ad- verse to English interests. The animosity of the eastern In- dians for Maine colonists became apparent in their first war of 1675, but did not culminate until a year later.
August 13, 1676, the savages closed in upon the unsuspecting settlements. The principal points of attack were the house of Richard Hammond at Woolwich and the mill settlement of Clark and Lake at Arrowsic. At the latter location "six several Edi- fices are said to have been there erected," besides other dwell- ings situated within a mile.§
The result was a series of massacres in which Captain Lake was killed. The river was abandoned by all planters and it be- came unsafe for any English settler to remain on the upper banks of the Kennebec.
These uncertain conditions prevailed at Cushnoc until 1754, when the influence of its owners and their desire to develop it led to the construction of a line of frontier forts on the river at Richmond, Augusta and Winslow. Fort Halifax, situated in the easterly angle of Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers on the last location, was built on the site of an ancient Indian stockade.
Sainsbury's Col. Pap., 1-376.
¿ York Deeds, 9-226.
§ Hubbard's Wars, 2-42.
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280
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE KENNEBEC.
The first religious ceremony on the river was performed at or near Sabenaw by Sagadahoc colonists in 1607.
Twenty-three years later the "family" of New Plymouth employes at Cushnoc conducted occasional services, after the manner of their colony, at the trading post. The Indians, how- ever, do not appear to have been favorably impressed.
Sagamores of the Upper Kennebec, who had formed com- mercial relations with French colonists on the Saint Lawrence River, became interested in the Catholic faith. At their urgent request Gabriel Druillettes was induced to penetrate the wilder- ness of Central Maine at an early date. At Quebec the object of the mission was described as an attempt to teach the natives "the path to Heaven."
Maverick assigned a different motive to the visit. He claimed that Druillettes, "a Gentleman and a Fryer," came down the Ken- nebec "from Kebeck to us in New England to desire aide from us agst the Mowake Indians" who were deadly enemies.
The story of this priest's hardships was thrillingly told by Jerome Lalemont in the Jesuit Relations.
He left Sillery August 29, 1647, accompanied by Indians and encountered almost insuperable difficulties from the start. He traversed the whole length of the Kennebec in company with a savage who was familiar with the resorts of the Abenaki Indians.
At Cushnoc he was well entertained by the English captain, John Howland. Later he visited Acadia and on his way thither was received cordially at "seven or eight" English settlements along the coast. A list of these places probably included the plantation of James Smith near Winslow's Rocks, and that of Bateman and Brown at Woolwich, as well as Cape Newagen, Winnegance, Corbin's Sound, Damariscove, Pemaquid and Mon- hegan. At Pentagoet he found a colony of Capuchin monks.
The Superior of this "little home" was styled "Father Ignace, of Paris." The inscription on a copper plate, which was un- earthed at Castine many years ago, proves that a chapel was begun at or near the French fort at Penobscot at an early date. A translation of the legend, perforated in abbreviated Latin, reads as follows :
"1648, June 8, Brother Leo, of Paris, in Capuchin mission, laid this foundation in honor of our Lady of the Sacred Hope."
281
KENNEBEC RIVER
Upon his return to the Kennebec he was conducted to a spot, situated about three miles above Cushnoc, where the Indians had already built a small chapel of boards and surrounded it with a village of fifteen large wigwams. Druillettes remained there about three months, during which time thirty of the natives were baptized.
The evangelist left Maine May 20, 1648, after paying another visit to the Cushnoc trading post, to which Howland, who had spent the winter in New Plymouth and Boston, had just returned. The account did not mention any other employes of the partners, nor imply that the station had been occupied since that fall.
Not long after the departure of the French missionary the Indians induced some English carpenters with mercenary mo- tives to erect a fort at Pigwacket as a protection against the Mohawks. This improvised refuge was enclosed with a palisade of logs and contained a rude chapel. It was situated in Frye- burg on the Saco River and was called Narrakamagog Fort. Similar buildings were constructed by the French at Norridge- wock.
The first Protestant society on the Kennebec was organized at Bath by Robert Gouch, of Salem, in 1660, when he purchased a large frontier tract of Robinhood as dominant sagamore of that district. All of the English, however, were expelled by the Indians fifteen years later.
In 1693, a new Indian fort was erected on the Kennebec at Arreseguntecook which was situated about one day's journey above Norridgewock. Phonetic spelling has evolved the word "Amiicungantoquoke" with the meaning, "banks of the river abounding in dried meat."
April 11, 1700, according to Romer, there were but three Indian fortresses in Maine, in each of which could be found a French chapel and two priests. The locations were at Narra- kamagog, Norridgewock and Arreseguntecook .*
EMPLOYES
HOWLAND, JOHN, arrived at New Plymouth in the "Mayflower," 1620; agent for the colony at Cushnoc, 1630-4; wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Tillie; died February 23, 1672-3; children, born at Plymouth, John, February 24, 1626, Deborah (Smith), Desire (Gorham), Elizabeth (Hicks), Hannah (Bosworth), Hope (Chipman), Isaac, Jabez, Joseph, Lydia (Brown) and Ruth (Cushman).
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