USA > Maine > York County > Biddeford > Stories and legends of old Biddeford > Part 11
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Another set of cases before that old court, evidently came as an aftermath of war. They were cases involving the illegal sale of liquor. For some reason most of the cases seem
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to have originated around Kittery, though they were tried in Biddeford. Some cases tried in October, 1789, are interesting as revealing the way drinks were then measured, as well as how the drinks were made. In October, 1789, a man named Lewis, "of Kittery, yeoman", was tried because without a license he
"did actually sell to one Nicholas Welks, three Bowls - that is to say Three Quarts of mixed liquor part of which was spiritous, wizt., three quarts of liquor composed of Rum, water and Sugar commonly called Toddy. "
Another charge against the same man was that he had also sold, without a license, "twelve mugs, that is to say twelve Quarts of mixed liquor ...... commonly called Toddy." Thus if the court knew its drinks and measures (and there is no doubt that it did!) a bowl of toddy or punch legally measured a quart - and a mug was just as big. The man of the 18th Century were stout drinkers, and not all of their drinking was associated with inns and taverns. At the ordination of a New England minister in 1785 it is on record "that the eighty people attending in the morning had thirty bowls of punch before going to meeting - and the sixty-eight who had dinner disposed of 44 bowls of punch, 18 bottles of wine, 8 bowls of brandy, and a quantity of cherry rum."
The Courthouse and the Court Procession
It might be thought that thirty years of "meeting round" would have made the York County courts jump at the chance of a Biddeford courthouse. But there is a suspicion that perhaps the town of York which then had the only courthouse (built and paid for by the County years before) was not anxious to share the distinction. At any rate when Jeremiah Hill proposed that a courthouse be built here, the County to pay only half the expense - well, there seem to have been no loud cheers in York when Squire Hill urged the matter in the Fall Biddeford Courthouse, and School 1792 of 1790. At that time a group of Biddeford men, headed by Jere Hill, had subscribed forty pounds (about $200) for the project. As court only met for a few weeks each year, they planned the building to be a school in the time between courts. When the courts refused to have the county advance half the cost - on the ground that the Biddeford men had provided no land for the building - Squire Hill and his associates calmly went ahead, bought land, put up the school and in 1792 invited the courts to pay the expense of such finishing and equipment as court use would require. In November, 1792, with Rishworth Jordan presiding over a bench of
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twenty-four justices (one of whom was the good Jere Hill) the Court of General Sessions of the Peace met in the new building. Whether or not the county provided any money for its erection, is not clear. In April, 1792, the justices in York had authorized the county treasurer to pay Jere and his Biddeford associates the sum of 60 pounds "lawful money" in three yearly installments of 20 pounds each. But for this sum the county wanted title to the land on which the building stood - which seems to have been
rather sharp bargaining. And the fact that beginning in 1797 the court ordered paid "to Jeremiah Hill Esq., and Doctor Aaron Porter, the sum of ten dollars in full of their account for the use of their schoolhouse for the court at this term", would seem to show that the county had no right of ownership. The county also paid extra the sum of nine dollars to Daniel Hooper "for furnishing firewood and candles at this term" (of court).
The only picture of the building that has come down to us is the sketch made by the surveyor on the Biddeford map of 1795 ( see page 86). The drawing on page 95 is an enlargement of that sketch. It shows a one-story building with a belfry, but if there was a bell it was not rung for court. The colorful parade that opened court, marched to the beat of a drum. .
That court parade was not a custom peculiar to Biddeford It was an old English custom that the colonists brought with them to this country. And it lasted in Maine and other New England States well into the 19th Century. But it was probably at its most picturesque stage when the Biddeford courthouse was built. One of the best descriptions found is that given by Neal Dow, the Portland reformer, in his autobiography. As he was born in 1804, the spectacle he describes evidently dated before 1820 - but it was still a direct survival of Colonial days. These are his words:
"One of the interesting ... sights with which the youths of my day were familiar was the ceremonies attending the opening of court, or rather the progress - for it was altogether too majestic to be termed the walk - of the judge from his tavern or boarding house to the courthouse. At the appointed time, the sheriff, with several under-officers, the former armed with a sword, the others with staves, presented themselves at the domicile of the judge to escort his honor through the streets. Pending the pleasure of the court to begin the march, a group in which small boys predominated always gathered about the door, just beyond reach of the tip of the longest official
An old-time High Sheriff
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staff, which was liable without warning to tap the head, to poke the ribs, or to drop on the toes of some venturous urchin who approached too near the sacred circle which was to receive the "Jedge."
"When the door opened and the awful presence of the embodied majesty of law approached, stillness fell upon the group. The boys doffed their hats ... The sheriff would approach the judge, with his hat, a cocked one, in hand, and ask his 'worship's' pleasure . Then after the exchange of a few formal questions and replies the little procession would form.
"The sheriff, with drawn sword, placed himself in the lead, behind him two tipstaves took places, looking more important than the sheriff himself. Then came the judge, with a calm stern countenance, impressing all the boys ... and older people too, I dare say, with a deep sense of the great amount of justice, righteous- ness and wisdom the commonwealth had committed to his keeping. Behind the judge in position, but not a whit in pompousness of bearing, were two other officers carrying staves. Then the march began its slow and stately way to the court-house, perhaps a quarter to half a mile distant. Behind, at a respectful distance - no one presumed to get near enough to be by any chance mistaken for a part of the retinue of the court - followed men and boys. Hats ... were lifted by the townsfolk met or passed on the way to court."
That that description applied accurately to Biddeford in 1792 is shown by a letter written in 1855 by a Biddeford man and recalling scenes he remembered as a boy in Biddeford at the close of the 18th Century. In that letter he speaks of the old court- house, the "ancient and honorable Court of Justice .... (with) Seavy on top of the hill, drumming up this august body - the High Sheriff with a drawn sword - from Esquire Hooper's ... the St. Nicholas of Biddeford .. to the old School House - what a sight for a boy of those days in Biddeford."
It must have been a picture. Rishworth Jordan, chief justice, probably rode up (by horse or chaise) from his home on the old Pool Road. At the Hooper Inn he put on his robe, met the other justices and lawyers, and waited for the High Sheriff's approach. That dignitary for 37 years was Ichabod Goodwin whose official costume is said to have included a staff, sword, small clothes (knee breeches), cocked hat, blue coat and buff vest. When the -Judge' Jordan's home (now Stella Maris) procession formed in front of the inn, at the foot of what is now Foss Street,
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the High Sheriff would place himself in front, next would be two tipstaves, then Judge Jordan in cocked hat, wig, small clothes and robe. Then the other judges, also in wigs and robes, followed by the lawyers. There were then only three lawyers in all of York County, one in Berwick and two (George Thacher and Prentiss Mellen) in Biddeford. They also dressed in robes and wigs to adorn the occasion. The High Sheriff was short and portly, (he was also a Major General of militia!). Judge Rishworth Jordan was "a man of impressive personality, six feet in height, broad shouldered .. and possessed of a loud, strong voice." And George Thacher and Prentiss Mellen were also big, impressive men. Thacher was nearly six feet tall and Prentiss Mellen was above that height. , As that procession marched in slow stateliness over what is now Main Street to Emery, then wound up the Emery Street hill almost to present Bacon Street - marched to the solemn beat of the drum whose uniformed drummer stood by the courthouse at. the top of the hill ..... well, the law certainly then had a pomp and dignity and impressiveness not seen in later, less spectacular, days.
The Arundel witchcraze
The courthouse-schoolhouse was pleasantly situated on the hill, overlooking the river. From the memories of the old-time schoolboy, given in that letter of 1855, we know that the building stood near a grove of walnut trees under which the scholars ate their dinners during recess - or "'tween schools", as it was then called. Major Samuel Jordan was the teacher, and the school was a "master's school" - a school taught by a man, and only for older boys. The young boys, and all girls, were taught in "dame schools", by elderly women. Education then was pretty much a male perogative, and the saying ran: "All a girl needs to know is how to make a shirt and a pudding."
Perhaps it was partly due that sad ideal of education, that in November of 1796 the old building was the scene of a remarkable trial. Just a century before (in 1692) feeble old men and women had been dragged into court to face judges who ordered them hung - for the crime of witchcraft. That was in Salem, Massachusetts, at the close of the 17th Century. Now, 104 years later, as the 18th Century was ending, three women faced a bench of judges in the Biddeford courthouse - and the case involved the old fear of witchcraft. But there was this important difference. In Salem, in 1692, it was the alleged witches who had been on trial - and the judges themselves believed in witchcraft. In Biddeford, on the contrary, in 1796 it was the people who had accused an old woman of witchcraft who were on trial - and nothing is clearer than that the judges in Biddeford had no belief in witchcraft. It makes that Biddeford trial an illuminating measure of the progress of a century . There were still pools of ignorance among the people.
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The strange "hex" cases of Pennsylvania a few years ago, show that there are still such pools - and not just in New England. But the judges of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, in Biddeford in 1796. with Judge Rishworth Jordan and Squire Benjamin Hooper among them on the bench, refused to listen to any justification of witchcraft and roundly lectured the witch- hunters, for ignorance.
The case did not involve any resident of Biddeford. It arose in the neighboring town of Arundel - probably among the fisher folk of Cape Porpoise. The old court record runs:
"The Commonwealth of Massachusetts against Elizabeth Smith, wife of Daniel Smith; Dolly Smith, singlewoman; and Sarah Hilton, wife of John Hilton - all of Arundel in the County of York, Defendants upon an indictment of the Grand Jury found against them, and one Molly Hilton, singlewoman, at this term, in substance as follows:
"That the said Elizabeth, Dolly, Molly and Sarah, on the fifteenth day of October last past, with force and arms at Arundel aforesaid, in and úpon one Elizabeth Smith of : Arunded aforesaid, wådow; in the peace of God and this Commonwealth then and there being, did make an assault, and her the said Elizabeth Smith, widow, did beat, wound and ill treat, whereby her life was much in danger, and other wrongs to her then and there did to the great damage of the said Elizabeth Smith, widow, and against the law and the peace of the Commonwealth aforesaid and the dignity of the same."
The story concealed in that legal bad English can luckily be translated and amplified by a report of the trial which was printed in "The Courier and General Advertiser", an old newspaper of Boston. The report is dated November 17 and was evidently written by a Portland man who had attended the Biddeford trial. It gives a measure of the leisureliness of news in those days, to know that the trial was held around November 10th, was reported from Portland a week later (November 17) and was printed in Boston on December 8. And this is the report:
"In the course of the trial it appeared that in the month of October last, (Elizabeth Smith, widow) had been accused of Witchcraft; and that not only her neighbours, but her relations had been so incensed against herthat she was obliged to fly to a neighboring town for safety.
"It seems that one John Hilton had, sometime in
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October, become insane; and while in that state had accused the Complainant (Elizabeth Smith, widow) of having bewitched him. He said that as he was going home one evening, just before dark, the Complainant appeared before him and walked some time at about six yards distance; that he had an ox goad in his hand which he held by the middle; that presently he perceived the goad to move through his hand; that when it had passed almost out of his hand (being persuaded that it was the Complainant who was drawing it out, and that she did by the power of witch- craft) he attempted to strike her: but instead of doing any any injury (to her) , he himself received a violent blow on the lower part of the back: that the blow gave him great pain etc.
18th Century Judge
"Eaton Cleaves, witness on behalf of the defendants, further testified that till the time mentioned by Hilton, he had been possessed of a sound mind; that while he then declared the Complainant bewitched him, and had ever since continued to declare it. That the Complainant had been requested to visit Hilton, and that while she was in the house he appeared to be much better, and talked very rationally; that it was proposed to obtain some of her blood as an antidote, and that she consented her blood should be shed. But notwithstanding all this, it appeared in evidence that the defendants (Elizabeth, Dolly, Molly and Sarah) had threatened her life, had said that she ought to have been long ago in hell with the damned; and that they would let loose the man whom she had bewitched, John Hilton, to kill her. Whether they let him loose or not is uncertain; but it is a fact that he made his escape from the place where he was confined and ran immediately to the house of the Complainant, beat her violently with a stick, drove her out of the house, then seized her by the throat and well nigh choaked her. While Hilton was striking and choaking her, one of the defendants, and niece to Hilton, cried out 'Kill her, Uncle John,' It appeared also in the course of the trial that other means had been used to kill her besides calling on 'Uncle John.' The defendants had, to use their own expression, 'tried projects' . This not having the desired effect, Uncle John went in person.
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"Many circumstances given in evidence were calculated to provoke laughter. But at the close of the trial the subject assumed a very serious aspect. The delusion appeared to be general, and the ignorance of the people profound. While the Court were sitting, news was received that on account of the trial in question, a house had been entirely demolished in the neighborhood of the Complainant. His honor, Judge Wells, in an address to the defendants, endeavored to convince them of the gross error into which they had fallen; and that the difficulties and dissentions among them arose rather from ignorance in themselves than from witchcraft in the poor old woman. "
That report of 1796 is remarkably modern in its viewpoint, but the name of the reporter is not known. It might have been a lawyer "riding circuit", and writing back to Boston. Some of the details he singled out are amazing - such as that of the pathetic old widow, Elizabeth Smith, so afraid that she might somehow exerting an evil influence that "she consented her blood should be shed" as an "antidote." But the essential thing, the historical measure of advance, is in the attitude of that bench of judges for whom Justice Wells spoke. In Salem, in 1692, it was the judges who were convinced of the existence of witchcraft, and tried to convince the old men and women of guilt to merit hanging. But in Biddeford, in 1796, the judges attacked the ignorance of the old widow's accusers and refused to accept their accusations as excuse for their actions. In 1692 the judges who should have been the leaders of the people, in intelligence, actually only led them into insane error. In
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Biddeford, in 1796, the judges took their proper role. The old court record concludes:
"After the cause is opened to the Jury, the Court recommend to the Attorney for the Commonwealth that in case the defendants will recognize the Common- wealth in ( the sum of) one humdred dollars each for their personal appearance at next term, and in the meantime to keep the Peace and be of good behavior towards all the good citizens of this Commonwealth, more especially toward the said Elizabeth Smith, widow: to enter a nolo prosequi on said indictment ... ... Whereupon it is considered by the Court that the said Elizabeth, Dolly, and Sarah be discharged and go thereof without day."
That was the way of sanity and intelligence, made clear in the Biddeford courthouse on the hill above the river, by the judges of Biddeford - to those sadly uneducated, superstitious women of Arundel. Biddeford can be proud of its 18th Century judges. When that case was tried, George Washington was nearing the end of his Presidency. And John Adams, old friend of Biddeford, had just been elected as second President of the United States.
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The Heresy Trial of Jere Hill
Another story that George Folsom must have known, but failed to tell in his History, was the strange trial for heresy that was tried in the old Pool Road church on Thursday, May 2, 1793. But the story is worth telling, and needs to be told. Because it, too, like the trial of the Arundel women, is a measure of change and progress as the 18th Century closed.
When President Roosevelt, in January, 1941, put into words what he called "the Four Freedoms", his second - "freedom of every person to worship God in his own way" - exactly reflected the struggle that was going on in Biddeford 150 years before. Up to the close of the 18th Century there was but one church in the town. It was the official church, the salary of its minister was fixed in town meeting and paid by a special town tax. When in 1739 a group of Presbyterians (the famous Scotch-Irish who had settled here in 1718, and brought with them the white potato and the art of weaving linen) asked to be relieved from paying that tax (so that they could support a church and minister of their own) the request was sternly voted down. But now, fifty years later, all over New England intelligent men and women were beginning to find this town church monopoly too hidebound, too cramping to the ideals of liberty that were slowly spreading out from the American Revolution as ripples spread from the center of a pool to its rim - growing ever wider.
And, as usual in all profound movements, there were other things mixed in. The struggle in the church in Biddeford also reflected the growing feeling between Lower Biddeford and the Falls village (see page 81). Jeremiah Hill, the accused in the trial of 1793, was particularly identified with the Falls village. His home, which Folsom calls a "mansion", stood on what is now Peirson's Lane on the site of the old Phillip's Garrison House that had been burned by the Indians in 1675. Jere Hill, as he always signed himself, was Biddeford's man of progress. As has just been told, he was the active spirit behind the building of Biddeford's first school and courthouse. At the time of the heresy trial he was Town Treasurer and a Justice of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace. He had been 28 years of age
when the Revolution began and had personally enlisted a company, of which he was captain, that he had led for three years and through the great victory of Saratoga. He had also been an adjutant general in the Bagaduce expedition of 1779. Finally he was the friend and associate of the new men who had come to Biddeford after or during the Revolution - Dr. Aaron Porter in 1773, George Thacher in 1782, Prentiss Mellen in 1792 - and who were giving the Falls village what was perhaps the most brilliant period of its history. In attacking Jere Hill, old Deacon Simon Wingate, the accuser, was undoubtedly attacking everything that then stood for reel distinction and progress in Biddeford. It was fortunate that Jere Hill was a man of deep convictions and
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courage. He met the attack boldly, he met it "head on." The cantankerous old Deacon, Jere's own uncle, utterly failed in his apparent attempt to bring Jere "down a peg" - or to crush the spirit of progress and tolerance in Biddeford.
THE
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JEREMIAH HILL, Efq.
HERESY, BEFORE THE CHURCH OF CHRIST -
BIDDEFORD
MAY 2, 1993.
" Fofus of Nazareth, a man approved of God a- mong you . " Peter. "They received the Word with all readiness of mind, and Searched the Scriptures daily, whether there things were fo " Paul.
Title page of pamphlet now in the John Carter Brown Library, in Providence, Rhode Island.
A very rare old pamphlet of twenty-four pages and about 8,000 words, is the only record yet found of that trial. From internal evidence it seems to have been written and published by Jeremiah Hill himself and, if so, shows the man to have
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been a close and reverent student of the Bible. In fact, the first point that he insisted on in his defense was "That the Scriptures are true." He was what we would call today a Unitarian, while old Deacon Wingate was (to judge from the old pamphlet) a bitterly intolerant Trinitarian. It is hard to realize today how seriously such differences were then taken. This Biddeford case is very significant in history as one of the first (if not actually the first) expressions of a struggle that in the next thirty or forty years was to convulse all of New England. So bitter and bigoted was the feeling against the Unitarians that there is record of an actual case in which (thirty years or more after the Biddeford trial) a Massachusetts judge refused to admit the testimony of a witness in a law case, because said witness "was a Unitarian and therefore a man incapable of telling the truth." Which shows clearly enough that Deacon Simon Wingate was not something just peculiar to Biddeford.
But what interests us today are the personalities involved in that trial, and the results that came from it. The old pamphlet minces no words on the subject of Deacon Wingate. Its beginning is quoted to give its style, and as a picture of the times:
"Kind Reader,
Before I proceed, it will be necessary to give you the clue which led to this business. Simon Wingate, one of the deacons of the Church in Biddeford, a rigid Trinitarian, and a man of a violent temper, had for many years been endeavoring to stir up a church quarrel with Mr. Hill, on account of his catholic ideas which he in conversation held up to view when religion was the topic, influenced the Rev. Mr. Webster, pastor of said church, to invite him and Mr. Hill to meet at his house and at the same time to invite a number of the church to be present. (Mr. Hill had for a number of years carefully avoided any conversation with Deacon Wingate respecting religion, on account of his rigid principles and violent temper. )
"Accordingly they met at the Pastor's on Friday, the 14th day of September, 1792, and four other members of said Church ...... After a considerable conversation respecting various texts of Scripture ... , Deacon Wingate finding those present wished to drop the matter, expressed himself after this manner, "If you are all satisfied, I shall endeavor to make myself contented" - and each one returned to his respective home. The next sabbath, Deacon Wingate did not attend meeting and it was currently reported that he exclaimed bitterly against the Pastor and Church, calling them as much heretics as Mr. Hill, and that he was conscience-smitten and could not or would not worship with them."
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The Deacon's talk, it seems, badly upset a fellow deacon - Deacon James Emery, a first cousin to Jere Hill. From James Emery, old Wingate managed to secure a letter written by Jere and then travelled to Scarboro where the minister of that town, "filled with enthusiastic zeal", read Jere's honest letter and "passed solemn sentence of condemnation upon it, calling it heresy, blasphemy, damnable doctrine, etc." With that reinforce- ment, old Wingate scurried back home and in January, 1793, filed a formal charge of heresy against Hill, his own nephew. The Deacon had married Lydia Hill, sister of Jere Hill's father, in 1736 - which was eleven years before Jere, the Deacon's nephew, was born. It was a plain case of an older generation fighting against the ideas of a younger generation.
Deacon Wingate's charge brought about a call for a special church meeting, but the date was set ahead four months - to May of 1793 - to give Jere time to prepare his defense. In the meantime Jere boldly brought counter charges against the Deacon, and they make interesting reading. Specifically he charged the Deacon
"With absenting himself from the social worship and communion of the Church for six months last past ... For his unchristian conduct towards those who did not construe the sacred Scriptures agreeable to his notion ...
For being a railer, a tattler, and a busybody in other men's matters, contrary to the precepts and example of Jesus Christ ... For combining with others to defraud one David Hutchins in the sale of some iron-ore mines ... For persecuting him for a private pique under the cloak of religion ... "
The pamphlet further explains:
"Mr. Hill always supposed that Deacon Wingate carried on this matter out of revenge, because he enlisted his (the Deacon's) apprentice during the late war, contrary to his (the Deacon's) will, though his personal interest did not suffer by it, for the apprentice gave him (Deacon Wingate) one hundred dollars of his bounty. On this account the Deacon often quarrelled with Mr. Hill, and finding he could not get any advantage by quarrelling in that way, he commenced the combat under the cloak of religion. Besides, Deacon Wingate was jealous that Mr. Hill assisted Mr. Hutchins in his law-suit against him concerning the iron-ore mines, for Mr. Hill as a Justice of the Peace took a number of depositions to be used in that action on both sides, and when Deacon Wingate came to him for his advice respecting the matter, he candidly gave him his opinion and the
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reasons why he formed such an opinion, which offended the Deacon - though the judgment of the court of reference proved to be the same."
That, of course, is just one side of the story. But such reasons have caused such actions as the Deacon's many, many times in history.
So the trial of Jere Hill was held in the old Pool Road church on a Wednesday in May, 1793. It seems to have been an all-day meeting, the first part being taken up with a gathering of ministers from all over the County. Then the church members convened and the minister of the town of Wells presided while Jere Hill rose and eloquently (and boldly) defended his beliefs, and his right to them. His spirit comes out in the very first paragraph of his defense, as quoted in the old pamphlet:
"Friends, Brethern & Fellow-Citizens:
I think myself happy that I am permitted this day to answer for myself before this assembly, touching the things whereof I am accused, because I know that this is an age of free inquiry; and I desire to thank my God, that by the constitution of this Commonwealth, 'No subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace or obstruct others in their religious worship. '
Therefore I beseech you to hear me patiently."
It is to the credit of Biddeford that Jere Hill was heard patiently that day. And that no verdict of heresy or loss of church membership was passed against him. The Deacon went out of history at the end of that trial, with his baffled venom and bigotry still choking him. Within three years, Jere Hill, Squire Benjamin Hooper, Edmund Perkins (the shipbuilder), Samuel Peirson, and fifty-six other men of the Falls village had organized what the old town records call "the catholic Christian Society" that under the formal title of the "Second Religious Society" was incorporated in June of 1797 and built the first church in Upper Biddeford on the Crescent Street site now occupied by the White Church. Immediately after the incorporation they were joined by George Thacher (who is said to have been a leader in the whole movement, with Jere Hill) and the number, standing and influence of those men explains the fact that as early as March of 1797 a vote was passed that town meetings would thereafter be held alternately in the new church in the village, and. the old church on the Pool Road. Jere Hill had fought in the Revolution, for political freedom. In 1793 he fought (and won) the battle for freedom of worship, in Biddeford.
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An Afterword
In June of 1799, a boy was born in Biddeford within sound of the great Falls. He was born in his father's house on Dean's Hill, just across the street from the old inn of Squire Hooper who died before the boy was three years old. Thus he seems to have had no memory of "the St. Nicholas of Biddeford", but it is clear that he never forgot the Falls. He probably was taken to see them, from the vantage point of the Biddeford riverbank some distance behind the Hooper inn. Or the Falls could then have been seen clearly from the top floor of the boy's home on Dean's Hill.
The boy was Grenville Mellen, son of the lawyer, Prentiss Mellen, who was later Maine's first Chief Justice. Grenville was also educated for the law, but in manhood became better known as one of Maine's earliest poets. Although the family left Biddeford when Grenville was only six, he twice wrote of Biddeford in his later life - which ended at the early age of 41. The following quotations make a pleasant picture of Biddeford, just after the close of the 18th Century. For these quotations we are indebted to Brother Alban, of the St. Louis High School faculty, who discovered them during research in Maine poetry.
Grenville Mellen's first reference to Biddeford is brief - but it does not fail to mention the Falls:
"Well, I was born in Biddeford - and left That place when I was six years old - and thus Was of its sunshine, and its Falls bereft!"
The second is more descriptive:
"I first saw light in Biddeford - a spot Where roses bloom no fairer than elsewhere;
: Yet 'tis a fact - when Earth from chaos shot She cooled into strange form and pressure there. It was not fam'd for making of Morrocco - It has no steeple in't - and stands upon the Saco
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There is a bridge, which straddles o'er the tide In lofty grandeur - and the floating waves Pouring tumultuous in their torrent wide, Roar on the might below - and yet it braves The deaf'ning vengeance of the billowy floods; 'Tis made of best pitch-pine - Good Lord! how long it stood.
As I was saying - I was born in Biddeford - And learned to spell of women pedagogues - This spireless town no Eton did afford; 'Twas made for saw-mills - to get rid of logs! For 'tis a woody country - and they fell So many cloud-bath'd trees - I would not dare to tell!"
The Falls at Biddeford
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