USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Sebago Lake Land in history, legend & romance > Part 5
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As we glance at this peaceful almost somnolent country- side today, it is difficult indeed to visualize that Windham was once the scene of many flourishing industries. The water
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power of the several waterfalls on the Presumpscot River was early used, and a number of grist and saw mills lined its banks. An interesting pamphlet published in 1840, lists the following industrial and business activities which existed at that date: - five saw mills, two shingle mills, two carding machines, one clothier's mill, one factory for manufacturing woolen cloth, one mill for making chairs, one manufacturing kegs, three grist mills, ten blacksmith's shops, seven groceries, five taverns, and two tanneries. Little is left today of what was once a "busy hive" of manufacturing.
As far back as 1818, gunpowder was being made at the little village of Newhall, which for more than a century rejoiced in the queer name of "Gambo". A great deal of speculation has arisen as to the origin of its odd nomencla- ture. Many believed it to be of Indian origin, but tradition quotes the following. In the early days a sea captain from Gorham visited the place and in the course of time made his home at the falls there. He brought with him a Negro from the West Indies, named Gambo, who was an excellent musi- cian. The notes of his violin, so the story goes, became a source of attraction to the young people of the vicinity, - thus it soon became a common saying, "Let's go to Gambo's." This old powder mill supplied the Russian government with immense quantities of gunpowder during the Crimean War.
The early community of Windham grew to consist of two more or less separate groups,-the older population, descen- dents of the first generation, and the mill people located in the manufacturing centers of Great Falls, Gambo, Little Falls, and Mallison's. Apart from these mill settlements were the villages of North Windham and Windham Hill. Through these two communities was the old highway on which passed tremendous traffic from the Coos region in New Hampshire and the intervening towns on its way to and from the Port of Portland. But with the construction of the old Cumberland and Oxford Canal along the western border of Windham, this heavy traffic was diverted.
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At that time the "Hill" was the principal village in the town. Congregated there were the orthodox church, the post- office, the doctors and the ministers, and the famous tavern kept by "mine host" Jason Webb. Windham Hill, now, in the main, an attractive residential section, still possesses an old brick structure that was once used as a station on the "underground railroad" through which slaves made their escape to Canada during the Civil War.
There is much historical lore and many points of interest in Windham. Near the railroad depot in South Windham is the quaint story and a half structure which was the birth- place of John Albion Andrews, later known as the "War Governor" of Massachusetts, born in 1818. And in the old Smith Cemetery nearby is the John Anderson tomb (1807). Its door resembles that of a bank vault and is fastened by a lock, the combination of which is known to few, if any, now living. At the corner of Main and Depot Streets in South Windham, there stood in the old days "Cilley's Tavern" where the weekly Bridgton, Harrison, Waterford mail-stage, on its regular trips, stopped and changed horses.
Situated in the southern part of town there is a so-called miniature mountain with the curious name of Canada Hill, -- a knoll beween two and three hundred feet high, and nearly a mile long, from which an imposing view of the countryside can be seen. It is said to have its name from the following circumstances. An early settler named Mayberry, locally known as "Cash Bill", cleared the land and built a farm on the hillside. With the barn "raising" came the customary drinking festivities. While the revelry was at its height, a man more or less under the influence, climbed the highest treetop nearby. When asked how far he could see he replied with drunken gravity, "All over the world and a part of Canada". Thereupon a bottle of rum was smashed against the tree, and the hill promptly named "Canada Hill". The immense amount of granite in the neighborhood attracted
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the attention of the Rev. George Whitefield, the famous Calvinist preacher, who visited the spot in 1745, and caused him to remark, "Pray where do they bury their dead?".
At Mallison's Falls, more commonly known as Horsebeef Falls, on the Presumpscot River at South Windham, is the site of the first saw mill in the town, completed in 1740. These falls received their name from an incident that is said to have occurred while the mill and dam were under con- struction.
Among the food supplied to the workers was a barrel of beef which the men thought to be of fine quality, until the day the cook produced a pair of horse's hooves from the bot- tom of the barrel. After the discovery, the hooves were put back, the barrel headed up and rolled over the falls, which were then and there named "Horsebeef".
This name they bore universally until 1866, when they were called "Mallison's Falls", after the new mill owners. But the old name still persists to this day.
One of the oldest and most interesting of the early houses is the one known as the "Parson Smith House", built in 1764 by the Rev. Peter T. Smith, a son of Parson Smith, the first minister of Falmouth (Portland). It is a two and a half story building in excellent state of preservation, and has two large chimneys providing a fireplace in every room, the one in the kitchen being ten feet wide. The frame of the house and all the supporting timbers are of hand-hewn oak, the paneling, wainscots and floors of hand-worked pumpkin pine, all held in place by oak pegs and handmade nails. This house has always been occupied by the same family, and its present owners are of the fifth generation. It is situated on or near the site of old Province Fort, built so hastily that the first church was partly torn down to supply material for it. The settlers of the town lived within this stockade almost constantly between 1744 and 1751, a period in which Indian raids were frequent.
The troubled and perilous condition of a frontier settle-
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ment during an Indian war, can hardly be imagined. The savages would suddenly emerge from their hidden haunts in the forest, and do their work of destruction and death, per- haps at the midnight hour, while the defenseless inhabitants were unconsciously sleeping. All that would be heard or seen would be the savage yell, the gleam of the tomahawk or scalping knife, the flare of the blazing torch, or the tall naked bodies of the foe, mighty in the ghastly slaughter. Then all would be silent, - the enemy having disappeared as myster- iously as he came.
Thus whole families of the early inhabitants of the settle- ment of New Marblehead, now Windham, were frequently shut up for months together, in a state of wretched anxiety, unable to cultivate their farms, or go about their daily affairs. They were even obliged to be armed when they went to their little meeting-house.
Windham's first trouble with the Indians occurred in April 1747, when the savages took as prisoners two youths, William and Joseph Knight while they were looking after their father's cows near Inkhorn Brook. They were well treated by the Indians, who took a great fancy to Joe. He adopted the Indian mode of life, painted his face, wore their costumes, and joined in their war dances. They would often pat him on the shoulder and call him "Good old Joe", and they promised to make him their chief. They even selected a young squaw to be his bride. As the years went by, his family hearing nothing of him, supposed him dead. On August 3, 1751, peace was temporarily declared and the cap- tives in Canada were returned to their homes. Among them was Joe, whose return created great rejoicing in New Marblehead, but history is silent however, in regard to his squaw wife.
Five years later Joe was captured again while lumbering at his father's mill at Little Falls in South Windham. Sur- prised by the Indians, he fled, but was shot in the arm. Two
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Indians at once approached and made him their prisoner, one of them saying, "Me got you now, Joe."
Weak from loss of blood, Joe was compelled to keep up with his captors in the hurried journey to their settlement. At nightfall they halted and proceeded to dig a hole in the ground, in the shape of a grave. The prisoner supposed that he was to be murdered and buried where his body could never be found. They bound his wounded arm to his side, and laid him at full length in the excavation, and carefully packed the earth over him except for his head. Joe, much to his astonishment, found on awakening that the blood had ceased to flow and that the pain had greatly subsided. The Indians' crude method of surgery had worked wonders.
Joe, escaping from his captors, ultimately returned home in safety. As fate would have it, after successfully surviving so many hair-raising experiences, he met his end by drown- ing in the Presumpscot River.
Another curious story of Indian warfare in Windham is told in the adventures of William Bolton and William Maxfield, while logging near the fort on August 27, 1747. Suddenly Chief Polin and his tribe from Sebago Lake appeared, and both men discharged their guns at the enemy but missed. Maxfield was seriously wounded but escaped to the fort. Bolton was captured, taken to Canada, and sold to a French naval officer, who carried him on board the ship as a servant.
Shortly after putting to sea, she was captured by an English man-of-war. Bolton became the servant of Lieutenant Wallace of the English warship, and thereby hangs a tale.
One day he was ordered to make a cup of tea for the Lieutenant's breakfast. The officer handed him a large package of the fragrant herb, which Bolton put into a tea- kettle of cold water and set over the galley fire to steep. Shortly the water began to boil, the tea leaves swelled, the
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steaming mass blew off the kettle cover, and the fragrant liquid flew in all directions.
The Lieutenant, suspecting that a joke was being played on him, ordered Bolton lashed to the mast and severely flogged. The Captain, thinking it might be the result of ignorance, asked the frightened youth if he had ever seen any tea before. Bolton replied that he never had, but sup- posed it should be made as his mother made herb tea. He was forgiven on the spot. Shortly after this Bolton's situation became known to the master of a coasting vessel from Portland, who applied to Governor Shirley for his release. This was promptly granted, and Bolton returned to Windham to the great joy of his parents.
Many years thereafter he had become a prosperous farmer, and while driving in Portland one day, saw a gang of youths and boys hectoring an old man. Leaping from his team, he rushed into the crowd, lashing his long whip, dis- pelling the tormenters. As he came face to face with the old man, imagine his astonishment, when he recognized him as the once proud Lieutenant Wallace, who would have had him flogged. Now he was homeless, friendless, and clad in rags. Bolton brought him to Windham, carefully cared for him until his death, and gave him a Christian burial in his own lot in the Smith Cemetery at South Wndham.
An interesting relic of these troubled times is now in the possession of the Maine Historical Society in Portland. This is an old and battered powder-horn, worn by Ezra Brown, a citizen of Windham when he was killed in an Indian foray on May 14, 1756. On the morning of that day, Ezra Brown, accompanied by Ephraim Winship started out to work on a farm about a mile from the fort. A guard had been detailed to accompany them, which was a necessity at that time, con- sisting of Abraham Anderson, Stephen Manchester, Joseph Sterling, and John Farrow, with four boys. Brown and Winship were less cautious than usual, and started about sixty rods ahead of the guard. In the dense woods they were
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soon out of sight, and had gone but a short distance when a party of Indians, lying in wait, fired a volley killing Brown and wounding Winship severely, so that he fell as if dead. The Indians then scalped their victims. Anderson and Manchester with two of the boys, hearing the guns, came up, while the others hastened back to the fort for assistance. Anderson, in a voice of command shouted, "Follow on, my lads", and followed by Manchester and two of the boys, rushed forward, and the Indians fled into the woods, con- cealing themselves.
Polin, chief of the Indians, fired at the party without effect, and in his haste to reload he exposed his body, when Stephen Manchester took deliberate aim, fired, and killed him. Thereupon the Indians set up a great yelling, and rushed about his body. The rest of the guard emptied their muskets into their midst, and, it is said, killed or mortally wounded two more Indians. The enemy gathered up their fallen comrades, and fled for their lives, leaving behind "five packs, a bow and a bunch of arrows, and several other things".
This little band of brave men did not know they had killed Polin then, but reloaded their guns, and waited devel- opments. They were soon reinforced from the fort, when they were enabled to care for their fallen comrades. This was a sad forenoon at the garrison. Within two hours from the time they had left the fort, Ezra Brown was brought back to his wife and children dead and scalped, and Winship's children saw him brought in so shockingly mutilated that his life was despaired of. He was shot through the arm and in one eye, and had two strips cut from his scalp, but he recovered, and it is said that he presented a singular appear- ance in after years.
The scene of the fight was on the farm of the late John F. Anderson at South Windham, and the tradition of the bury- ing of Chief Polin under a tree on the Songo shore was the
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foundation of Whittier's poem, "The Funeral Tree of the Sokokis":
"And there the fallen chief is laid, In tasselled garbs of skins arrayed, And girded with his wampum-braid.
The silver cross he loved is pressed Beneath the heavy arms, which rest Upon his scarred and naked breast.
'Tis done the roots are backward sent, The beechen-tree stands up unbent,- The Indians' fitting monument !"
The death of Chief Polin put an end to all further trouble from the red men in Windham as well as nearby settlements. The scattered remains of the Sokokis tribe of Indians left the shores of Sebago Lake, and joined the St. Francis tribe in Canada thus ending six years of bloody warfare.
From the quiet, unassuming aspect of the pretty village of Standish today, one would hardly associate it with the lively and thriving community it once was, not so very many years ago. At one period in its career it could boast of three tanneries, six stores, and a saw-mill. In addition it possessed no less than three taverns, all cheek to cheek, with "mine host" doing a flourishing business dis- pensing good fare and drink to the many guests and transient travelers. But this was in the bustling era of stage coach travel, when Standish Corner was an important by-way station for freight and passenger traffic on the old Bridgton, Sebago, and Portland stage and mail route, during the early days of the nineteenth century.
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This old and historic highway dates back to 1767, when the first road was opened "sufficient for passage on horse- back from Long Pond to Pearsontown Fort at Standish Corner." This route opened up the country to the northwest of Standish, which furnished a busy trade for the village.
Standish was first known as Pearsontown, named after Captain Moses Pearson, one of its first proprietors, who with forty-five others, petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for a grant of land "six miles in the northwest side of a line from Sebago Pond to the head of Berwick against Gorhamtown". This was granted in 1745. In 1785 however, the name was changed to Standish in honor of Myles Standish, the pilgrim, although it is not recorded that he ever visited the place.
The fort or stockade, sixty feet wide, was constructed of heavy hewn timbers, and stood at the present crossroads at the Corner, where a memorial now marks the spot.
The first few years of the tiny settlement abounded with hardships and danger, and when threatened by the Indians, the little colony took refuge in the fort. On one occasion when food supplies were short and the colonists were driven almost to starvation, two of the bravest ventured forth into the deep woods and shot a moose. After having cut off a quarter, they hastened into the fort and then returned with help, only to find that the Indians had made off with the rest of the carcass. This fort was eventually torn down to make room for the first meeting house, which was built in 1769. Its first minister was John R. Tompson, whose yearly stipend was payable "one-third each, - cash, East India Goods, and produce."
This church came to a violent end under most unusual circumstances, thirty-six years later. One night it was torn down by a mob of "over-excited" militia, for what reason was never known. Aroused by the crash of tearing shingles and clapboards, Squire Thompson, the local magistrate, went among the crowd, taking his perforated tin lantern in
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one hand, and in the other he held the riot act which he proceeded to read. The rioters however, threw shingles and put out his light, and raised such a tumult about his ears, that he is said to have beaten a hasty retreat. The few ruins of the old edifice were used in the later construction of a school-house.
Ebenezar Shaw, the original settler, came from Hampton, New Hampshire, in response to an offer of two hundred acres of land if he would move there and erect a saw-mill. He is said to have built it in the fast time of nine days. This was in 1763. The next year Joseph Shaw built a house which was also used as a tavern. A Josiah Shaw kept a tavern during the Revolution. Standish really became a Shaw neighborhood when in 1782 a Thomas Shaw built a windmill to grind corn. This was the first corn mill in town, and when the wind was favorable, it would grind fifty bushels of corn a day. Six years later the mill was turned into an "ashery", - the ashes being collected by sailboats from different places around Sebago Lake, and sold for six- pence a bushel.
Until a few years ago, there was still standing a quaint one-story cottage on the road leading out of Standish to Sebago Lake Station. Built in 1775, it was the home of the mournful ballad-singer of Standish, Thomas Shaw, who published and hawked his own doleful, crudely printed poetic ballads. He peddled his poetic works as far distant as Augusta, but his fame was unlimited, for the sailors of Portland Harbor during the early 1800's carried his songs from ocean to ocean, and to lands unknown. His ballad sheets featured a variety of weird subjects such as the grisly hanging of Daniel Drew, the ballad of a couple frozen to death at Raymond Cape, and many shipwrecks. Each sheet was usually decorated with a border of black coffins, - a grim reminder perhaps, lest we forget, that in the midst of life no matter how merry it might be, we are still in the shadow of death.
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An interesting example of the simplicity of early church architecture in Maine is the present so-called "Old Church", built in 1806. It has a square-towered belfry, the then fash- ionable box-pew seats, and the exterior, strangely enough, is painted a brick red.
There is a cluster of old-time square-shaped wooden houses, typical of the period in which they were built, but none are so conspicuous or so well-kept as the old Parson Marrett Homestead, with its picturesque white picket fence and its fine old trees. It is a large, roomy, two and a half story, white structure with an ample barn and out-buildings, built in 1789, and it served as the home of the Rev. Daniel Marrett on his appointment to the parish. He is celebrated as having owned the first horse-cart, and he was the first to introduce the cooking stove in place of the crane and spit and the old-fashioned tin kitchen.
The house has a somewhat remarkable historic connection. It was in the War of 1812, when it was believed that Portland might be taken by the British, that the money from the banks of that city, - mostly in gold bullion and coins-, was secretly transported by six yoke of oxen to the Marrett house, and hidden there until the scare was over. So great was its weight that the foundation of the house had to be strengthened, and on the doors were put special locks which still remain. The two elm trees standing nearby were planted when news was received of the Battle of Lexington, and even now are known as the Lexington Elms. This house, finely appointed inside, with period furniture, is shortly to be opened to the public.
However, the "Corner" has changed very materially since the years when the Portland and Ogdenburg Railroad, - now the Maine Central, - touched the lake and built a depot at Sebago Lake Station in the 1870's. It very defi- nitely occasioned a switch in traffic from highways to railways. Consequently the "Corner" dwindled in impor-
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tance, as the busy stir of events passed it by, and Sebago Lake Village grew accordingly.
Now the Standish countryside is devoted to the pursuit of orcharding and farming, which gives an added touch to the charm and peacefulness of the neighborhood, so welcome and refreshing to the tired summer visitor from afar.
Raymond & Casco
T HE pleasant elm shaded villages of present-day Raymond and Casco were founded under unusual and rather romantic circumstances, in that their ac- tual settlement was the direct result of a race between two pioneers in their eagerness to take advantage of free lots in that territory.
The area of land that now embraces Raymond, Casco and a part of Naples was granted by the Massachusetts Govern- ment in 1766, to Captain William Raymond and others for their services in the French and Indian wars of 1690, and was called the Plantation of Raymond Town. As was the custom in those days to encourage settlers to move there and develop the territory, the choice of free lots was offered to those who would move on the land and build a house and a mill.
In 1771, Captain Joseph Dingley, a blacksmith of Cape Elizabeth, and Dominicus Jordan, also of that town, started at the same time from the Cape to avail themselves of the offer. Arriving together at the old Indian "carrying place" at Standish Neck, they camped for the night. Dingley, a shrewd fellow, not wishing to be outwitted and hoping to steal a march on his fellow-traveler, rose early before dawn, took the canoe, and paddled across the lake to what is now South Casco, and selected his lot. Jordan awakening and finding Dingley gone with the canoe, cut a path along the shore of the lake to the outlet of Panther Pond in Jordan
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Bay, in what is now the town of Raymond, and established himself there.
The settlements made by these men were about three miles apart. Dingley built the first mill in South Casco on the road to the Cape for which he received a free lot. He also kept a tavern there in 1778. His old home which he built in 1780, still stands upon the first land occupied by a white man in that territory. It was originally a two-story frame house, but later fire destroyed the upper part. While the original ground floor has been kept intact, it has since been extensively remodeled into the present story and a half structure.
Raymond was incorporated into a town in 1803. Neither Raymond nor South Casco suffered from the Indian wars, but a trapper by the name of John Davis, said to be the first actual white occupant of this section, often complained that the Indians stole his game.
Raymond Village is on the northeastern shore of Lake Sebago, and is separated from Jordan Bay by a quarter of a mile of level meadows. It has many interesting facts in its history. In its old cemetery, which is unique in many re- spects, lie heroes of the Revolutionary War, and it contains a remarkable example of a tombstone seldom if ever seen in a churchyard. It is a monument erected in 1867, to the memory of a young woman, with a daguerreotype likeness of the person whose body lies buried beneath it, fitted closely into a recess cut into the marble. And there is also a tablet erected by the town of Raymond,-a memorial to Betty Welch, the first woman born in the town. She was born at Jordan Bay in 1775. In some ways Betty was a remarkable woman.
In those days "berrying" was an important part of the life of the frontier woman, and rattlesnakes were not infrequent- ly met with, and upon her berry trips "Aunt Betty" went prepared to meet them. She carried a sharp knife, and when a rattlesnake sounded its dread warning, she cut a forked stick, and deftly managed to place it on the neck of the
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