USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Windham > Sketches of the history of Windham, Maine, 1734-1935; the story of a typical New England town > Part 3
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On hearing the report of the guns, four of the rear guard, John Farrow, Joseph Starling, and the boys, Stephen Tripp and Thomas Manchester, thoroughly frightened, ran back to the fort at full speed. The fighting blood of the remaining four was fully aroused, and they determined to teach the savages a lasting lesson. Cheered on by the voice of Abraham Anderson, who called out, "Follow on, my lads," they at once started in pursuit of the foe. With him were Stephen Manchester and the boys, Gershom Winship and Timothy Cloudman.
They passed through the bars, where the bodies of their fallen companions were lying and turned toward a brook.
* In spite of the "searching operation," Winship recovered from his wounds. The Indians had left a narrow strip of skin between the two crowns, which ever after presented a very singular appear- ance. He was a widower at the time, but remarried and had five more children, making eleven in all.
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On the approach of the whites, the Indians concealed them- selves behind trees, the chief taking his stand behind a great beech, that has stood within the memory of men known to the writer of this sketch. From this point of vantage, Polin, flushed with his success in slaying Brown, was the first to begin the fray. He discharged his musket at Anderson, but without effect. While attempting to reload, he exposed his person to Manchester, who was standing near Anderson, ready to fulfill his vow. Manchester instantly raised his musket, took swift but sure aim, fired, and Polin, the warrior king of the Rockameecooks, fell to rise no more.
The savages now made the woods resound with yells of rage, to which the little band of Spartans responded with a general volley, laying two more of the enemy low. This was too much for their stoicism to bear, and they fled, taking with them the bodies of their fallen companions, but leaving behind five packs, a bow, a quiver of arrows, and several other articles. By a circuitous route they made their way back to the canoes and retreated with all speed to the Basin Pond. There, as they afterward told William Bolton, a cap- tive, they buried the body of the chief beneath the roots of a young beech tree. (At the end of this sketch we give you Whittier's poetical account of the burial.)
The alarm having been given at the fort, a party of armed men from the upper garrison house (Mayberry's) immedi- ately started in pursuit. They took an easterly course, but missed the main body of the savages, who had already headed west for the river. At a place on the easterly side of Canada Hill, now known as "the Meadows," they overtook an Indian carrying a quarter of beef on his shoulder and armed with two guns. Seth Webb, the crack marksman of the settlement, fired and brought him to the ground; but he rose and made his escape. A well-authenticated tradition says that he died during that night, and that his body was buried a few days later near the brook. When Samuel T. Dole was a boy, he was shown a well-defined grave there, on the east side of the
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road leading from the River Road to the Duck Pond, between the east branch of the brook and a place called Rye Hill, and was told that it was the last resting place of the Indian killed by Seth Webb on the memorable 14th of May.
The death of Chief Polin put an end to all further trouble with the Indians in this vicinity. They never again attempted to disturb the settlers in the possession of their land; but, beaten and discouraged, they soon after lost their tribal autonomy and, with the remnants of some New Hampshire tribes, became incorporated with the Canadian Indians.
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FUNERAL TREE OF THE SOKOKIS 1756
(JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER)
Around Sebago's lonely lake
There lingers not a breeze to break The mirror that its waters make.
The solemn pines along its shore, The firs which hang its gray rocks o'er, Are painted on its glassy floor.
The sun looks o'er with hazy eye, The snowy mountain peaks that lie Piled coldly up against the sky.
* * *
Yet green are Saco's* banks below,
And belts of spruce and cedar show, Dark fringing round those cones of snow.
The earth hath felt the breath of spring, Though yet on her deliverer's wing The lingering frosts of winter cling. * *
Her tokens of renewing care Hath Nature scattered everywhere, In bud and flower, and warmer air.
But in their hour of bitterness, What reck the broken Sokokis, Beside their slaughtered chief, of this ?
The turf's red stain is yet undried, - Scarce have the death-shot echoes died Along Sebago'st wooded side :
* Error-The Presumpscot, not the Saco, is the outlet of Sebago Lake.
¿ Error-The chieftain was slain ten miles south of the lake, where a granite slab marks the spot.
(Published by permission of Houghton, Mifflin Co., copyright owners.)
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And silent now the hunters stand, Grouped darkly, where a swell of land Slopes upward from the lake's white sand.
Fire and axe have swept it bare, Save one lone beech, unclosing there Its light leaves to the vernal air.
With grave, cold looks, all sternly mute, They break the damp turf at its foot, And bare its coiled and twisted root.
They heave the stubborn trunk aside, The firm roots from the earth divide .- The earth beneath yawns dark and wide.
And there the fallen chief is laid, In tasselled garbs of skins arrayed, And girded with his wampum braid.
'Tis done: the roots are backward sent, The beechen tree stands up unbent, - The Indian's fitting monument !
When of that sleeper's broken race Their green and pleasant dwelling-place, Which knew them once, retains no trace ;
O long may sunset's light be shed As now upon that beech's head, - A green memorial of the dead !
There shall his fitting requiem be, In northern winds, that, cold and free, Howl nightly in that funeral tree.
To their wild wail the waves that break Forever round that lonely lake A solemn undertone shall make!
*
O, peeled, and hunted, and reviled, Sleep on, dark tenant of the wild. Great Nature owns her simple child !
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FIRST CHURCH IN WINDHAM
V YE have seen in a previous sketch that one condition imposed upon the original grantees of the town by the Great and General Court was that they "build a convenient meeting-house for the Publick worship of God" within five years of the date of their grant. As soon as there were enough families in the settlement, they started to fulfill this requirement. They contracted with a Mr. Nathaniel Coggswell to build a house of worship of Lot No. 33, that had been reserved for the ministry. The structure was to be forty feet long, thirty feet wide, and "ten feet high from the bottom of the sill to the upside of the plate, with a sufficient roof." The sum of 120 pounds was appropriated (and paid) to clear the lot and build the house. Coggswell came here and had made considerable progress with the work. The building was raised and roofed. It lacked a floor, doors, and windows, was, in fact, a mere shell, when the Indians appeared, claiming the land, and so frightened the workmen that they left the building in this unfinished state. There is no evidence that Coggswell ever finished his contract. In the fall of 1743, just before the first settled minister was secured, it was "voted to repair the meeting-house forthwith, as to what is broken down and settled, and to finish the same according to former votes, and to build a necessary desk or pulpit, and erect suitable seats in said house." This work may possibly have been done; but, in 1744, the settlers, fearing an Indian war, petitioned the Proprietors for leave to demolish the building and use the timber to erect a fort. Receiving no answer to this petition, upon the advice of the minister, Rev. John Wight, they did take the building down, used the tim- ber as aforesaid, and held religious services in the fort until long after the Indian wars were over.
Rev. John Wight has been mentioned in a previous sketch as the twelfth settler in the township. The Proprietors
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had been able to provide "a Learned Orthodox Minister," which was one of the conditions of the grant, more easily than to supply "a convenient meeting-house for the worship of God." They were exceedingly fortunate in the choice of Mr. Wight to minister to them. He was a graduate of Har- vard College in the Class of 1721 and had preached several years before coming here. He preached in the town twenty-
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
nine Sabbaths before he was called. The first charge we find in the account book of Thomas Chute, dated in New Marble- head, is against Mr. Wight "for 29 weeks' board." He was formally installed as pastor on December 14, 1743. As the first incumbent of this position, he was given one of the first home lots outright. It was Lot No. 34, situated in the middle of the settlement. Mr. Wight and his heirs also were entitled to one sixty-third of the public lands, when future divisions were made. In this respect, he was on a par with the other Proprietors.
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Mr. Wight was a true minister in every sense of the word. He devoted himself to supplying the manifold needs of an infant, backwoods parish. When the settlers were driven into the fort, he accompanied them, and probably seriously impaired his health in those days that literally "tried men's souls." He died in the fort on May 8, 1753, leaving a church of about 25 members.
It proved a very difficult task to provide a successor to Mr. Wight. There was no suitable meeting-house. The Proprietors could not give another lot of land to every suc- ceeding pastor, and there ensued a long quarrel between the settlers and the Proprietors, as to what the latter would do to help secure a successor to Mr. Wight. The matter was taken before the General Court in order to compel the Pro- prietors to supply this help. Finally, a compromise was reached on June 6, 1760, whereby the Proprietors agreed to give a liberal sum for two years for this purpose and to endeavor, in the meantime, to get the town incorporated. This incorporation took place two years later, as we shall learn.
Encouraged by the liberality of the Proprietors, the settlers began at once to look about for a pastor. On Septem- ber 22, 1762, Rev. Peter Thatcher Smith, son of the Rev. Thomas Smith, first minister of Portland, was ordained pastor in the new Town of Windham. Mr. Smith served as pastor until his dismissal on October 8, 1790, after a term of 28 years and 2 months. The ecclesiastical council of the district, which had been a party in securing Mr. Smith's dis- missal, strongly recommended the church to attend seriously to "providing a decent place for the worship of God."
In 1768 and again in 1783 a meeting-house frame was erected, neither of which was completed, and subsequently both of them were taken down. One of these was, as stated by Smith, the historian, "near the house where Reuben Elder now (1840) lives, and one near where Rowland Rand now lives," wherever these locations may have been. If we count
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these and the old first shell of a building as "churches," the fourth Congregational church was built in 1795 "on land given to the town by Joseph Blaney and Paul Little, Esqrs., and Capt. Thomas Barker, for a training ground, burying ground, and a site for a meeting-house." This location is on the summit of "Peter Anderson's Hill," in the south part of the town.
This structure was a very fine edifice for the times. It was a true type of early church architecture and, as such, deserves a detailed description. It was fifty feet long and forty feet wide, two stories high, with a double row of windows, filled with 7 x 9 inch glass, with a common pitched roof. When first built, it had a projecting porch, with a queer shaped roof, but some years later this was removed, and the building clapboarded and treated to a coat of white paint. One single door led from the outside to the hallway, which extended the width of the building, except that, at the opposite ends, there were narrow stairways leading to the singers' gallery. In a conspicuous place in the hall was fastened a wooden box with a glass front, in which the Town Clerk posted the names of those who were contemplating matrimony within three weeks. This piece of furniture was called "the publishment box" and was a source of unfeigned interest to all comers, young and old.
On entering the audience room, the first object to attract one's attention was the pulpit, placed directly opposite the entrance, at least a dozen feet above the floor, and reached by a narrow, winding stairway railed on either hand. This pulpit was upholstered with scarlet cloth, which had soon faded to a reddish brown. The top formed a sort of reading desk covered with a cushion of white velvet, on which reposed an ancient and well worn Bible. From the four corners of the pulpit hung large crimson tassels ; while, to complete the whole, a curiously carved sounding board hung by a slender rod just above the minister's head.
The pews were of the old-fashioned box variety, about
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four feet high, with seats on three sides provided with hinges so that they could be turned up to afford standing room during prayer time. Considerable taste had been displayed in finishing the pews with panel work, nicely adjusted doors, and a top rail or moulding stained in imitation of mahogany. The singers' gallery was opposite the pulpit and was in per- fect keeping with everything else in the room.
According to the ancient orthodox custom, no means of heating the meeting-house was ever introduced, even in the coldest weather; indeed such a thing would have been regarded as the sum of human depravity. A few families were provided with the old-fashioned foot stoves, in which a few live coals or a heated brick had been placed. These served to impart a slight degree of comfort to the owner's feet. Those less fortunate were supposed to absorb sufficient warmth from the two-hour sermon to keep the blood in circu- lation; and, aided by a large amount of faith, they appear to have been successful.
We have given this detailed description of a sectarian church building in a town history, because, for a long time, there was no other religious body in Windham; and, further- more, this structure, as the largest and most central building in the town, was used for all public assemblages, including town meetings, for many years.
In 1834 the building was abandoned in favor of a new edifice at Windham Hill, then a flourishing village near the center of the parish. This church building, like its predeces- sor, is a beautiful specimen of the church architecture of its period *. The old building of 1795 was purchased, moved away, and converted into a barn. It is now standing on the farm of Mr. Gilbert Roberts in the south part of the town.
* The church has had a great honor paid it this year (1935), by being the only church pictured in the May number of The National Geographic Magazine, in the article on Maine, as typical of an old New England church.
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The First Church has had thirteen pastors. Along with Mr. Smith, two of them have had very long terms of service. Rev. Luther Wiswall, the eleventh pastor, served from 1854 to his death, which occurred in 1885. He was 84 years of age. The present pastor, Rev. James E. Aikins, came here in 1891 and is, therefore, serving his 44th year, the longest in the history of the church. It is a very fine thing for a parish to have one pastor for so long a time; and the old First Church is to be congratulated on the long pastorate of Mr. Aikins.
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THE PARSON SMITH HOUSE (BY PROF. REGINALD R. GOODELL)
BOUT two miles from South Windham village on the River Road, on an elevated and beautiful site not far from the location of the old Province Fort, stands one of the oldest and most interesting houses in town. It is the Parson Smith House, built in 1764 by the Rev.
PARSON SMITH HOUSE
Peter Thatcher Smith, a graduate of Harvard College in 1753, who was ordained as the second minister of the town in 1762. He was the son of the Rev. Thomas Smith, the first settled minister in Falmouth, now Portland. The house was occupied by Mr. Smith on his marriage to Elizabeth Wendell, daughter of Jacob Wendell of Boston, and granddaughter of Evarts Jansen Wendell, who settled in Albany, New York, in 1645.
Founded literally on a rock, there are few houses, nowa-
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days, so strongly built as this colonial mansion, a sturdy structure, two and a half stories high; and there are few houses in Windham so interesting to both architect and antiquarian. Through its hospitable doors many interesting and distinguished people have passed in its 171 years.
The frame of the house and all of the supporting timbers are of hand-hewn oak, the panelling, wainscots, and floors of hand-worked pumpkin pine, all held in place by oak pegs and hand-made nails. A wide hall runs through the house on both the first and second stories. From the lower hall two flights
FIREPLACE IN PARSON SMITH HOUSE
go up to graceful and dignified balcony landings on the second floor. The rooms opening from these halls are large, high, and well-proportioned, with many paned windows. The chimneys are enormous, and every room has a fireplace, the one in the kitchen burning ten-foot logs. One can well believe that in winter one man was kept busy looking after the fires.
The house has always been occupied by the same family and is still occupied by descendants in the fifth generation.
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FIRST SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLHOUSE- SCHOOL FUND
A N old tradition, and one deserving of confidence, states that the first school ever taught in New Marblehead was kept by Mrs. Mary (Curtis) Chute, wife of the first settler. From what we know of her, she was a woman of good ability and had doubtless enjoyed the privileges of the common schools of Marblehead. Wishing to do her part in the development of the new township where her lot had been cast, she gathered the children belonging to the infant settle- ment around her in her own house, or, later, in her quarters at the fort, and, amid the multiplicity of cares incident to a settler's home in the wilderness, she found time to teach her little class the rudiments of an English education.
The first school of which we have any official record was kept by Samuel Webb, who came here from Tiverton, R. I., in 1744. He is said to have kept his school in one of the flankers of the fort. After the Indian wars were over the set- tlers built a schoolhouse a few rods south of the fort, on the opposite side of the road, in which for many years "the vil- lage master taught his little school." To this house came Benjamin Moody, a native of Newbury, who remained for several terms and then went to other fields of labor. He was succeeded by John Patterson, who is described by one of his pupils as "a red-headed Irishman." He seems to have been a decided improvement over Moody. Fifty years ago there were several persons living who united in saying that "Master Timothy Kennard" was the teacher par excellence of their childhood. He died here September 7, 1819, unmarried.
We do not know the exact date when the first schoolhouse was erected. The first mention made of such a structure in the town records is on October 11, 1770, when it was voted
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to raise 200 pounds, old tenor, to build a schoolhouse. An old resident, Mr. Abraham Cloudman, is authority for the state- ment that the house stood opposite the farmhouse of the late John Anderson, on the west side and within the limits of the River Road. Mr. Cloudman stated that he remembered the building as a small, rude structure, low posted, and heated by a fireplace. In all probability it was not all finished when first used, as we find the following record :
I
KENNARD SCHOOLHOUSE
"Dec. 25, 1772. Voted that Mr. Richard Dole finish shingling the schoolhouse and put Collars round the Chim- ney, an Clabbord the whole of the School House, and that the said Dole shall provide stuff to do the work with, and do the said work within three weeks from this 25th day of Decem- ber, 1772, and that said Dole shall be paid Twenty Pounds old tenor for the above-mentioned labor."
In 1790 - no day recorded - it was voted to give the old schoolhouse to the Widow Young. Mr. Cloudman is authority
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for the statement that Mrs. Young converted it into a dwell- ing house and occupied it for many years, and that, after her decease, an old Scotch tailor named Angus lived there. We do not know whether Angus owned it or not. It was finally taken down and so disappears from history.
In accordance with the original grant of the township, as we have stated already, one-sixty-third of the land was to be used for the support of schools. In 1802 a permit was obtained from the Great and General Court to sell the school lands to the town and invest the proceeds for the benefit of a school fund. The sum of $2440 was realized for this fund; and the interest at 6%, or $146.40, is raised annually by the town for school purposes, in addition to other school appropriations.
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CANADA HILL-EARLY ABODE OF WILD. ANIMALS
T THIS miniature mountain is situated in the southerly part of the town. It is between two and three hundred feet high and nearly a mile long. It is covered with a dense forest of pine, hemlock, and hardwood timber, much of which is now quite valuable. The entire hill is the result of an internal convulsion that took place in some prehistoric period of our planet's history. The rock is mostly granite, with occasional layers of mica and slate; while, in some exposed places, are seen finely developed trap dykes in the form of steps that look like the work of a human artist. There are many picturesque spots scattered on and around the hill, the most noted being the "Porcupine's Den." This is near the crest of the hill and consists of huge masses of granite piled one on the other in a confused mass to a con- siderable height; this shows that a tremendous power has worked here in that far-off time when the earth was in its infancy.
Some parts of this upheaval present perpendicular preci- pices, other places are roughly rounded slopes covered with shrubs and trailing vines, in summer redolent with the odor of myriad wild flowers. The labyrinths that everywhere traverse the ledge make a scene of rugged beauty far exceed- ing any other locality to be found in this vicinity. Not far from the Den is a small pond, about half an acre in extent, that has never been dry in the memory of man. Surrounded on all sides by evergreen trees, and half hidden by flowering shrubs and tall grasses, this tiny lakelet forms a scene of rare sylvan beauty that makes it a favorite trysting place for lovers of nature in her quiet aspects.
The view from the western summit is exceedingly fine, embracing a beautiful panorama of forests, well-cultivated
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farms, winding streams, and thriving villages; while, in the far distance, as far as the eye can see, tower the everlasting hills, Mount Washington and the entire Presidential Range. Nearer rest the rounded summits of Peaked Mountain, Saddleback, Chocorua, and Kearsarge.
The hill is said to have taken its name from the following circumstance. About 1770, William Mayberry, called "Cash Bill," cleared a farm on the southern slope of the hill and built a house and barn, the traces of which are still to be seen about ten rods from the road and nearly halfway to the sum- mit. When the barn was raised, they had a pretty lively time. Rum flowed like water; all and sundry became more or less intoxicated and boisterous. While the revel was at its height, a man named William Elkins in a foolhardy spirit climbed the highest tree, an immense pine, growing nearby. When asked how far he could see, he replied with drunken gravity, "All over the world and a part of Canada." A bottle of rum was then smashed against the trunk of the tree, and the hill was named Canada Hill. CANADA HILL LET IT REMAIN. LET IT NOT BE CALLED HIGHLAND CLIFF, AS SOME OF A LATER GENERATION WANT TO CALL IT.
The early settlers found here an abundance of wild animals to dispute with them the sovereignty of the mag- nificent forests that then covered the entire township. Many traditions have come down to us from the older people, some of which were related to Samuel T. Dole, when he was a boy in the 1830's and '40's. Among them are the following :
Ichabod Hanson, first of the name in Windham, built a log house near where his grandson Joshua later lived, the farm being in 1895 owned by "Billy" Waterhouse. One bright morning in spring he was attracted by the sound of a waterfall in a southerly direction from his house. Upon examination, he found that the waters of Dole's Brook near the house had been dammed up during the preceding days by beavers, and a pond covering several acres had been formed,
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the water flowing in one unbroken sheet over the top. The beavers were busily employed at their usual vocations. Some were standing guard over the dam ; others were bringing food to the colony. Hanson quietly withdrew and kept his dis- covery a profound secret until the following winter. He then returned, broke down the dam, and killed the entire com- munity, receiving enough money to complete the payments due on his farm.
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