USA > Maine > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 26
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 26
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When the early voyagers came to the New England coast they were filled with amazement at the sight of the vast, interminable forests, and were awe- struck when they surveyed the towering proportions of the enormous old white pines. Returning home, they wrote such glowing descriptions of these trees that the crown interested itself to secure masts and spars from our shores for the royal navy. In a manuscript, dated 1666, it is stated that "at the falls of Newichawannock three excellent saw-mills are seated, and there, and down- ward that side of the river, have been gotten most of the masts which have come for England; and among them that much admired mast which came over some time last year, containing near thirty tons of timber, as I have been informed." These masts were as many yards in length as inches in diameter at the butt, after being hewed and dressed at the mast sheds erected along our coast for that purpose. Thirty-six inches was the maximum for the masts, at the large end; hence these were one hundred and eight feet in length. Although a thousand years old, the pines were as sound as a nut, and many of them as straight as an arrow.
The British government employed a colonial surveyor-general of the woods, under a large salary, whose business was to see that all trees suitable for masts for the royal navy were marked with the "broad arrow." A statute was passed, in 1722, imposing a heavy fine for cutting the mast pines without license from the commissioner. The government paid a premium of one pound a ton on masts, yards, and bowsprits. Ships were built for the especial purpose of transporting masts; they were of about 400 tons burthen, were handled by twenty-five men, and carried from forty to fifty masts at a voyage. In time of war these vessels were attended by armed convoys. The price at the royal navy-yard for masts thirty-six inches diameter, in 1768, was £153, odd.
The mast business seems to have been principally carried on in New
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Hampshire for many years, and the mast ships came to Portsmouth to load; but when the advantages of Portland harbor were known the trade was trans- ferred to Maine. In a newspaper printed in Boston, in 1727, it is stated : "The mast business *
* is removed eastward, where it has been car- ried on the last winter with such success as could hardly be expected, consid- ering the very little seasonable weather for it. As this must tend very much to encourage the settlement of those parts of the country * there is no reason to fear but that our government will, in their wisdom, look upon it very much to their interest to protect and encourage it."
Great mast houses were put up at the mouth of Saco river, and many workmen employed there for years, until the war of the Revolution. We have an ancient account book owned and "kept" by one of the early settlers of Saco, who was engaged in masting for a long term of years, as his charges for such work prove; his earliest mention of masts being of date 1759, and the last 1771. Those who were employed in the forest, cutting and hauling the enormous trees, were called "masters " and "mastmen," while those who hewed and dressed them, in the long sheds built for that purpose, were desig- nated "mast-wrights." When the woodsmen left the settlement and went in search of suitable trees, they were said to have gone "a-masting." The great forest monarchs cut down by them were named "mast pines." Then, as now, every occupation had its peculiar vocabulary.
Many very valuable masts were assembled at Saco and Portland when the Revolution came on, and became so much worm-eaten and decayed that they were cut up and used in building wharves. We have conversed with a venerable woman, who remembered the old mast house at Saco lower ferry, and who gave us the names of several men who were engaged in the masting business when she was a child, some of them having eaten at her father's table.
When the author commenced the writing of this book there were a few specimens of "mast pines" standing on an old estate on the borders of the Saco valley, but these old landmarks, that have been admired by hundreds of visitors to the locality, have now been hewed down. Only a few years back four such trees were sold for $1,200 in York county. Few, if any, now remain.
Much of the pine timber landed on the brow of the early mills was so large that the logs were slabbed down by the millmen before they would pass the saw-gates. Some such trees would scale 6,000 feet. In the wainscotting found in some of the old Saco valley houses the boards were three feet in width, and many of the doors were cut from a single board. The author was one of a family of seven who gathered about a dining table, the top of which was formed from a single board four by three feet.
The rough, unlettered men who engaged in masting were skilled in all the arts of wood-craft. They were like those ancient men of whom the poet Bryant wrote :
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" Among our hills and valleys, I have known Wise and grave men, who, while their diligent hands Tended or gathered in the fruits of earth, Were reverend learners in the solemn school of Nature."
The classics they knew nothing of, but they were profound in that of which school men were ignorant. To these sons of the forest every bush and brake was a silent teacher. The bark and moss upon forest trees were their instructive objects of study; without chart or compass they could find their way through the dark, pathless wilderness and emerge therefrom at any desired point.
Their eyes were trained for their craft; their judgment had jurisdiction of trees. As the experienced dealer in live stock estimates the weight of the bullock while going to the shambles, so those mastmen could tell, with won- derful precision, how much the standing pine would scale. When in the wood in search for masts these men would stand at a distance from some noble pine and by turning their practised eye toward the pillared trunk would instantly decide whether its size and height were suitable for their purpose.
But there were important tests to be applied. Was such tree sound? While one of the mastmen remained a little way off to listen, the other would approach the great tree and deal the trunk several hard blows with his axe- poll. Some of these grand-looking pines were like good men, sound to the heart; others, like the villain whose manners were polished but whose inward parts were as black as night. If the tree was solid to the core, the axe-stroke produced a dull, hard sound; if decayed within, a hollow, reverberating echo.
If the old pine bore the examination and "passed muster," the next thing of importance to consider was the course by which the mast could be hauled from the woods. This must be decided before cutting down the tree. The ground was now carefully examined and a roadway surveyed through the wilderness. Rocks were removed, hollows filled, streams bridged, and side hills " wharfed" with logs. Trees and underbrush standing in the way were cut down. The mast pine must fall in the direction opposite to that by which it would be removed from the forest. These things being settled, " spring- skids" were felled at right angles with the mast tree when it came down. Such would obviate risk of breaking and elevate the great trunk to facilitate loading. All bushes and obstructions were removed from about the base of the tree so that the choppers could avoid the danger of rebound by moving quickly away when the old hero fell.
Having selected their positions at opposite sides of the mast pine, the. two brawny woodsmen throw the shining, keen-edged steel into the mellow wood. Two "scarfs" were carried by experienced workmen when cutting large trees; the lower one to facilitate cleavage. The angle on the stump side of the incision would descend but slightly toward the heart of the tree; that above would intersect at an angle of forty-five degrees when the heart
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was reached. The skilled axeman would observe this rule and only a mini- mum of the valuable tree was wasted.
Mastmen expert with the narrow-axe would time their blows with the pre- cision and regularity of a drum-beat. How the shining blades gleam in the sunlight! With what lusty swing of arm do the choppers throw them in! How accurately the edge follows its aim! See the broad chips fall out, and the sweat drop from the shaggy brows of the workmen! But hold! The axes have reached the heart of the ancient pine. There is danger now, and the masters hasten away. For a moment the old monarch, that had laughed at a thousand tempests and shook his enormous arms in defiance of the winds, stood unmoved as if determined never to descend from his lofty throne. A passing breeze touches it far above the surrounding forest, and a quiver, a shudder, is perceptible below; then, slowly, the great trunk sways forward and with an awful roar, answering to a dying groan, the king of the mountain came down with a crash like a giant thunderbolt that made the ground quake, and with a rebound which was like the death struggle of an expiring behemoth. All was over now; prostrate lies the tree of trees. How has the mighty fallen! Bryant deemed the "death of the flowers" a theme worthy of his poetic pen. How much more sublimely impressive the death of the patriarchal pine!
It was no light undertaking to move one of these colossal mast trees from the forest to the coast. Their weight was stupendous. Simple but heavy appliances were used for loading them. They were usually hauled in winter upon a great mast-sled made for the purpose; sometimes, however, on three pairs of heavy block-wheels. From eight to twelve yoke of oxen were required for moving the largest masts. The strongest chains and hawsers were carried to the woods for securing the stick to the sled-bunk or wheels. Several active and experienced men, besides teamsters, were in attendance to remove obsta- cles, lag up depressions in the roadway, and to assist, perhaps, in lowering the load down some steep ascent.
It was a lively and exciting time when a great mast came from the woods. The whole forest resounded with the shouting of animated teamsters. A "'master-carter" superintended the undertaking; his orders were arbitrary; his right there were none to dispute. Others might act on a "committee of ways and means," but the ruling of the chief was final. His place was at the seat of honor, standing upon the fore end of the mast-stick. From this posi- tion he could see all obstructions and observe the movements of the men and their teams. To keep his foothold while the great, jolting mass moved forward was an accomplishment worthy of the most experienced river driver, and but few were competent for the place.
The old-fashioned New Englander was a believer in noise, and plenty of it, sure enough. Their theory was: the more noise, the more power -in meet- ing and out. The old teamsters believed cattle had the capacity for a fair
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degree of education ; this was evident from the way they talked to them. We observed this when following the long, slow-moving team connected with the great "breaking-up plow," and while listening to the brawling teamsters on the high road. We wondered then, we do now, why men should thus address dumb brutes, if to such their language had no intelligible meaning.
To a spectator of humorous proclivities there was something decidedly ludicrous and mirth-provoking in the posture, the impulsive movements, the excitability, the vehement demonstration, and - noise, of a genuine yankee teamster, especially when he "got stuck." In their dilemma they would chew their quid like a sheep, wrench their features into fantastic contortions, assume facial expressions as wild as a demon and vulgar as an orang-outang, roll their eyes like a raving maniac, and, if not well pickled with grace, they would swear by all the gods in the calendar.
Just watch such teamster as he approaches a hill with heavy-loaded ox- team. Coming events cast their shadows before-in such instances. The goadsman is acquainted with every inch of the road; knows that every ounce of muscle incorporated into his team must be brought into requisition. See how animated his gestures are! How he swings his right arm! Now he rushes forward to remind his leaders of their duty; then, with great agility, pays his respects to his "tongue " cattle. Standing on tiptoe he raises his right arm and goad-stick high above his head and shouts wildly : " Back, Star ! Her- Line ! Gee, Broad! Her-Golding !" He forgets to be merciful and cruelly punishes the straining oxen with hickory and steel.
All goes well when mast-hauling if the road be well swamped, level, or slightly descending; there must be hard driving when toiling up the steep ascent. Poor oxen, how they pant for breath when allowed to rest ! At the highest point the master-carter calls a halt and deliberation is in order. Men are sent forward to reinspect the road. Here danger is imminent. How can the hill be descended without accident? If in winter, heavy chains are thrown over the sled-runners as "bridles" to arrest the velocity in going down; if in summer, the wheels are chained to an axle-tree for the same purpose. As an additional precaution two yoke of oxen are detached from the chain forward and connected with the rear end of the mast to "hold back." Cool heads and steady hands are now in demand. If any mistake is made, if anything is overlooked, if any part gives way, fearful the consequences. But these sons of toil are brave-hearted and know their responsibility. If one expedient failed a new appliance was instantly seized upon; nothing too great, nothing too hazardous, for them to undertake.
With great caution they begin the descent, and with almost breathless suspense all watch the movements of team and mast-stick. Vigilance was the price of safety. Success attends the effort, and the level land is reached without accident. This achievement was worthy of a long pause in proceed-
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ing; there was a rest for man and beast, with refreshments. Congratulations were exchanged and stories anent mast-hauling aforetime told. All hands were in excellent trim for new adventures.
There were other difficulties to meet; the most dangerous hill to climb and descend. But victory gained inspired for new ventures. It was a long way to the coast and the mast-landing. The master-carter bestirs himself and orders an advance.
"Every man to his team! Every ox to his bow!" Robust shout of drivers, jingle of chains, rattle of horns follow. The master-carter mounts the mast and asks:
"Are you all ready, men ?"
"All ready," respond the teamsters.
" M-o-v-e-e-e-e!"
Shout of teamsters, creak of wheels, and the caravan moves slowly for- ward, crushing, like a conquering tyrant, everything beneath its heel. For a half-mile comparatively level ground is passed over and good progress made. The beginning of the end is reached.
"Whoa !"
Goads at rest. Oxen pant. Teamsters talk. Trigs are made ready. Obstructions are cleared away. The coast is clear.
"All ready?"
" Ready !"
"Then m-o-v-e-e-e !"
Clink of chains, jingle of yoke-rings, swinging of goad-sticks.
"Back, Swan! Her-Duke!"
"Gee, Buck! Her-L-i-n-e-e-e!"
"Get your trigs ready !"
"Whoa ! A good pull, men. Let your cattle breathe !"
"Say when you are ready!"
"Ready !"
"Then m-o-v-e-e-e!"
"Her-Duke! Her-Darling !"
" Her-Broad ! Her-Turk!"
"Drive on ! drive on! Hard! Hard! H-a-r-d-d-d!"
The air is rent with shout of teamster and command of the master-carter. The great wheels creak and groan under the enormous load. The straining oxen crinkle their tails, snort, moan, and hug the bows. The crisis is passed; the hill-top is reached; there were no broken chains, no person injured. All's well!
"Another strong pull, men; let the critters rest awhile."
"Back! Hish! hish!"
With protruding tongues the great, meek-eyed oxen pant and heave.
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Before the courageous, reliant mast-men there was one more hill to descend; the most rough and dangerous of all, I say; a deep ravine to cross near the bottom. Everything is overhauled and inspected, from wheels to bow-pins. Rings, staples, and chains are carefully examined. The roadway, already pronounced cleared and safe by the swampers, could not be tried until the master-carter had surveyed every foot of it. He orders improvements; has stones removed and additional skids at a sideling point. The descent was very steep, and the enormous load could not be entrusted to the intrepidity of teamsters or strength of steady-going oxen. New appliances were resorted to. The necessary fixtures had not been overlooked. Several hundred feet of hawser had been brought from the mast house. One end was made fast to the rear end of the mast-stick; then turns taken around a sturdy old oak on the hill-side, with several powerful men to hold the running end. An advance is ordered. Slowly, cautiously, teamsters and teams move down the hill, while the men above allow the "snub-rope " to render round the "anchor tree."
"Steady! ste-a-d-y! st-e-a-d-y!" measuredly shouts the master-carter, and down, down, down the hill-side goes the thundering cavalcade.
"Careful! care-ful! c-a-r-e-f-u-l, men!"
The gully at the foot of the hill had been bridged with stout oak stringers and covered with timber. The builders had guaranteed the work perfectly safe, but some were fearful. All felt that this was the point of greatest danger. It was no time now for speculation. The master-carter had inspected the bridge, had ordered the teams forward; the responsibility was upon him and to him would blame be attached if accident happened. It is a great relief to have a scape-goat ready on such occasions. But none dared to make suggestion. Men are not wanting in courage because cautious; the foolhardy lack pru- dence. Good judgment, careful management, cautious driving, these were the prime factors combined in what hap-hazard people call "good luck." The ravine was passed without a hitch, without harm to man or beast, and the level land in the valley reached in season with success. Reader, throw off the brakes. Excelsior!
A protracted rest. Refreshments, stimulants, to be sure. Anecdotes and hilarious laughter composed the social sandwich of their noon-time rest. The remainder of their journey down the river-side proved uneventful; their destination was reached in due season. The great mast was landed at the yard amid cheers from the workmen, who assembled about the master-carter, the hero of the hour, and teamsters to ask questions about the road, their success, and to tender congratulations. The weary oxen were led to their mangers and the mastmen went home to rest. A few weeks pass and the noble mast-stick, handsomely dressed, is crossing the heaving Atlantic to be admired by the English ship-builders, who will gather about it with eyes strained wide and mouths ajar at so wonderful a sight.
Garly Churches and Ministers.
NTRODUCTORY .- Those who came hunting for the lost sheep of the house of Israel in the early settlements of New England found a few only of the scattered flock in a howling wilderness; and if the sheep were of the human sort, meek and gentle as such sheep should be, the wolves with which these were surrounded were of the four-footed kind, well armed with tooth and claw. It was a rough country for classical men, men of "the cloth," unless that cloth was buckskin, well-tanned and sinew-sewed. Although some of them belonged to the "standing order" they needed rest and must, perforce, recline at times where the settler's bed of hemlock and coverlid of greasy bearskin were not conducive to the well- being of immaculate shirt fronts and snowy neck bands.
As will appear more particularly in another paragraph, the pioneer preachers who followed the colonists to the New World were members of the Episcopal body, bred in the old classical institutions, environed by influences of refinement. The service of their church was ritualistic and her ceremo- nials stereotyped; hence, wherever the ministers of this communion wandered they must carry along the pulpit gown, even if there were no pulpits to wear them in.
They were men of consummate courage and invincible faith, who were worthy -the worthy ones -of all honor. Wherever the settlers went, with keen-edged axe, to find timber for the walls of their woodland tabernacles, the pioneer preachers followed, with the sword of the Spirit, to hew out pillars for the spiritual temple.
As the rude log meeting-houses did not have robing rooms adjacent to the altar, we fancy these modest servants of the sanctuary resorting to some secluded dingle in the forest to don their clerical attire before appearing in the place of worship. Their "odor of sanctity" was exhaled from the balsam trees and woodland herbage. Though their parishes were as boundless as the far-extending forest, their worshiping assemblies were so limited in numbers that each listener could appropriate a liberal segment of the gospel loaf. No sweet-toned church bell called, with metallic tongue, the worshipers, who came from their cabins by the seaside, through the shady corridors, to the place of sanctuary; but impelled by a conscience trained from childhood's early morn to love the gospel, each moved onward as his heart inclined. The musket
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and horn of powder kept company with the Bible and psalm book, and those "weapons not carnal but mighty" were stacked in the same armory with those that contained the swift-flying messengers of death.
Somewhere about the pioneer preacher's portmanteau must have been the goose-quills and ink-horn alongside a goodly bundle of crown-marked paper brought from "Merrie England." Where wrote they those sermons so grace- fully conjoined and by numerals divided; sermons of generous length, well clad with doctrines and quotations from the ancient creeds? With stimulated brain and throbbing brow, these scholarly men, conversant with the literary style of the old composers, found some quiet hours for study and the organi- zation of written discourse. They must have the credit of being far-seeing men, if from the beginning they saw the end of their sermons.
Their hearers were of various grades of intellectual calibre; some pos- sessing the capacity and training that enabled them to analyze and assimilate the most profound disquisitions, while others, like the man described by Pol- lock, "had not a dozen thoughts in all their lives."
Among the early ministers we can mention those who had a keen eye to business and were not averse to speculation. Their ancestors had been land- hungry for generations where there was no land for them, and this longing, transmitted to their sons who came to our shores, though in "holy orders," rose above all the bulwarks of a consecrated life and ran wild to find an acre- age commensurate with the appetite.
CHURCHES OF SACO AND BIDDEFORD.
Richard Vines, the founder of the settlement on the Saco, was an ardent supporter of the Episcopal church, and his associates who accom- panied him were of the same faith. Many of the early immigrants who came to the New England colonies brought certificates from justices of the peace in which it was stated that they were "conformable to the Church of Eng- land." The first minister of whom we find mention in the old records as settled in the neighborhood of Winter Harbor was the Rev. Richard Gibson, who was at Spurwink before 1636, and whose name appears as party to a law- suit that year. This Episcopal clergyman probably officiated somewhere within the plantation about the mouth of the Saco river until 1640-41, when he moved to Portsmouth.
The ancient document here subjoined, which was incidentally mentioned in another place, is the only record known to exist which shows that there was a religious organization in the settlement at this early period. "1636 7 ber 7 (Sept. 7th) The Book of Rates for the minister, to be paid quarterly, the first payment to begin at Michaelmas next." This paper contains the names of six of the principal colonists, and the amount subscribed by each,
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with allusion to fifteen others. The whole salary pledged amounted to £31, 15 shillings.
Rev. Gibson was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Jordan, who was born in England in 1601, and settled on Richmond's Island as early as 1640. The Puritanical colonial authorities summoned him to court in 1657, charged with baptizing children, and practising the rites of the Church of England contrary to law. This was an exhibition of that religious bigotry possessed by those who fled to America to enjoy liberty of conscience; here they became perse- cutors. The beautifully ornamented brass baptismal font used by Mr. Jordan has been handed down by his descendants and may now be seen at the rooms of the Maine Historical society in Portland.
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