USA > Maine > York County > Biddeford > Stories and legends of old Biddeford > Part 3
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This is the most vivid and detailed story of Biddeford's Indian history. After the burning of their homes, Major Phillips and Captain John Bonython went to Massachusetts - Captain John to Marblehead, and the Major to Boston. It is very probable that the story printed in Boston in 1677 (and which has been quoted here ) was told by Major Phillips himself. None of the white men were killed, and none fatally wounded. Major Phillips' wound, at the beginning of the fight, proved not dangerous. But he lost his home, his mill, and the other buildings on his development. He never returned here.
It is interesting that this first Indian war, which lasted for three years (1675-1678), was the only war directly between the Indians and the early settlers. All the later wars were part of the European feuds between England and France . And the forces on both sides, in those later wars, were made up alike of Indians and white men, fighting against other Indians joined with other white men.
This first war was also the only Indian war that was concluded by a treaty in which the white settlers agreed to pay tribute to the Indians. In this case, when the treaty was signed in 1678 at Casco (now Portland) the white settlers along the coast, from Kittery to the Kennebec, agreed to pay the Indians "one peck of corn annually for each family, by way of acknowledgement to the Indians for the possession of their lands. " Squando was one of the leading Indian sagamores, and maybe it was his contriving that Major Phillips was ordered to pay more than any one else - the Major having to pay a bushel of corn, where others paid only a peck.
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This is probably the type of early musket used by Major Phillips and his men in the battle with the Indians in 1675. It was loaded through the muzzle.
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After the peace treaty of 1678 there was a period of about ten years before the next war broke out - the war called "King William's War" after William of Orange who was king of England at the time. But it was an uneasy peace. The town records were not kept between 1675 and 1680; when they began again it was because enough people had come back and begun to build homes and mills again. There was an Indian disturbance at Wells in 1681; in 1685 there was a report in New Hampshire that the Indians on the Saco were making trouble and an old letter reveals how closely the Indians were watched:
"They (the Indians) having lately about Sacoe affronted our English inhabitants there by threatening of them, as also killinge their doggs: but more particularly in that on Friday and Lord's Day last they have gathered all their corn, and are removed both pack and packidge. A word to the wise is enough. " This was in early August, of 1685, and the fact that the Indians should harvest their corn so early, and move away, certainly looked ominous. But the trouble seems to have blown over, and for three years more there was peace.
And when the trouble did come, it was Massachusetts that made it - not Maine. Governor Andros, of Boston, in 1688, a bitterly hated man, went out of his way to provoke trouble by plundering and destroying the trading post on the Penobscot River that was the property of Baron de St. Castine who had married the daughter of the leading Indian chief in northern Maine. Governor Andros was soon removed but the people of Maine were left to pay the price of the enemity he had stirred up. The Indian chief, father-in-law of the Baron, took up the quarrel; it spread to other tribes. The Indians here complained that the annual tribute of corn, provided for in the treaty of 1678, was not being paid. They also said that the fishing of the white men in the Saco River - in which they used large nets and seines - was disturbing their fishing. And the owner of a sawmill that stcod at Cataract Falls in Saco, Mr. Benjamin Blackman, (the falls, incidentally, were long known as Blackman's Falls) made the mistake of ordering soldiers to arrest here some "sixteen or twenty Indians who had been most active in the former war" - on suspicion that they were planning another cutbreck. That autumn two families (named Barrow and Bussy) living neer Winter Harbor, were cut off by the Indians and carried away as captives. And for ten years thereafter, there was constant trouble and danger. In 1689 an Indian attack occurred on a Sunday in April, but nothing is known of the details. A few months later four local young men were ambushed and killed by the Indians, and a party of twenty-four men hunting for the bodies were caught in a swamp by the Indians and had six killed. In the next year (1690) came the bloody attack at Berwick and a fort was captured at Falmouth (Portland), which so alarmed the people at Cape Elizabeth, and Scarboro, that they fled to the Saco River for safety. In September of that year a party of soldiers saw smoke from a burning house on the east bank of the river, and going to see
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what caused it they surprised Indians on the opposite bank. Three Indians were found on the same side with the soldiers; they tried to escape across the river in a canoe, and one (who stood up so he could paddle better) was killed by a shot and in falling broke the canoe so that all three Indians perished - to the cheers of the soldiers. Up at the Falls, probably on what is now Factory Island, there was a noted Indian known as Robin Doney (and commonly called "Old Doney") who had a white man as
prisoner. Hearing the guns, Doney made his prisoner get in a canoe and paddled down river - probably thinking he was going to get still another prisoner. But when he saw the soldiers, 0ld Doney drove his canoe hard against the opposite bank, and as it grounded he gave one big leap that carried him clear over the head of the white man (who was sitting in the canoe 's bow) -and when he landed on shore Old Doney certainly didn't waste time getting under cover, and back with the other Indians. The one happy man in the whole proceedings was the white man whom Doney left behind in the canoe, and who thus escaped captivity. It
is interesting to know that four. years later (in August, 1694) Old Doney himself was taken prisoner at the stone fort that in the meantime had been built on the river bank just about where the power plant of the Pepperell Mills now stands. And he
couldn't jump over the walls of that fort.
There was constant ambush, and small raids, but no big attack in this war like that on the Phillips' home in the other war. Two soldiers from the stone fort were killed one year, and the next year five more were killed because in going on a trip outside the fort they made the mistake of returning the same way, and so were ambushed. The wise old Indian-fighters made it a rule never to go back by the same way they came - for it made it too easy for the Indians to simply wait for their return and catch them in an ambush.
But out of this long and tiresome war came two stories often told in after times. The first of these stories was told in Boston at the time, by the famous Puritan, Cotton Mather. Three soldiers from the stone fort had been sent to Cow Island (which was then much larger and more important than now) to cut firewocd for the use of the fort. As a guard , a Lieutenant Pendleton Fletcher (Fletcher's Neck, at the Pool, still bears his name) was sent with his two sons to keep an eye out for Indians. Unfortunately, however, the three got more interested in shooting birds than in watching - with the result that the Indians were able to kill the soldiers cutting wood, and to capture the three Fletchers. Cotton Mather tells the rest of the story in this way:
"The Indians carrying these three captives down the river in one of their canoes, Lieut. Larrabee (who was abroad with a scout) waylaid them, and firing on the foremost of the canoes that had three men (Indians) in it, they all three fell and sank in the river of death. Several were killed aboard the other canoes, and the rest ran their
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canoes ashore and escaped on the other side of the river. One of the Fletchers, when all the Indians with him were killed, was delivered out of the hands which had made a prisoner of him, though his poor father afterwards died among them."
It is in this war that a new note is evident - the Indians were paying more attention to taking prisoners than they were to killing. They had discovered that prisoners were more valuable than scalps. Kind-hearted people in Canada, seeing the forlorn prisoners with the Indians, had begun to buy their freedom. Others not so kind-hearted, bought them as servants or - if they thought the family had money - as a speculation against a possible ransom. As domestic servants, young girls and boys were especially prized and were in constant danger of being carried off. Some pathetic notes come out of these old times, like the will of the man living in York who in 1695 made this provision in his will:
"Item: Unto my Dear Daughter now in Captivity with the Indians, Dorothy Milbury, I will and give the sum of five pounds, In Case she returns by Gods good Providence from Captivity, but not 'till then to be paid; which Legacy I intend not payable by my son at all if she neuer return. "
This new practice and value in captives explains the remarkable case of the son of the Lieutenant Pendleton Fletcher who escaped from the Indians. The Lieutenant was carried off to Canada where he died within two years, and where apparently the other son remcined. But the one who escaped (who was also named Pendleton Fletcher) made almost a habit of being captured. Just twelve years later (in 1710, and during the third Indian war) he was captured at Winter Harbor and the statement was then made that it was the fourth time he had been an Indian prisoner, and either escaped or been ransomed.
This note of taking captives is apparent in the famous story of the Scamman Mug. The story, as told in 1830, by the granddaughter of the boy who had carried the mug (and who had heard the boy - when her grandfather- tell the story himself) runs as follows:
"When Samuel Scamman was about ten years old, as his granddaughter has often heard him relate, he was sent one day by his mother with a mug of beer to his father and brother, who were at work on a piece of marsh in the neighborhood of the lower ferry. He had not gone far from the house when he discovered a number of Indians at a distance, and immediately ran back to inform his mother. He regained the house , and wished to fasten the doors and windows but his mother prevented, saying that the Indians would certainly kill them if he did. They soon came into the house and asked the good woman where her
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sanap (husband) was. She refused to inform them, when they threatened to carry her off alone: but they promised, if she would discover where he was, to take them together without harm. She then told them. After destroying much of the furniture in the house, breaking many articles on a flat stone by the door, and emptying the feather beds to secure the sacks, they went away with the prisoners toward the marsh where they succeeded in capturing Mr. Scamman and his other son. A boy named Robinson, who had been for the team, as he was returning perceived the savages in time to make his e scape. Mounting a horse, with only his garters for a bridle, he rode up to what is now called Gray's Point, swam the horse to Cow Island, and leaving him there swam to the opposite shore and reached the fort in safety.
He found only a few old men and women in possession of the place. The guns were immediately fired to alarm the soldiers belonging to the fort, who were at work some distance off. The women in the meantime put on men's clothes and showed themselves about the fort so that they could be seen by the Indians who had come up to the opposite island (Factory Island). Deceived by the women's strategem (supposing the fort to be well manned, as they afterwards acknowledged) the Indians did not venture an attack but drew off with a number of prisoners beside Scamman and his family.
As the peace took place soon after, the prisoners were all restored, having been probably about one year in captivity. Mr. Scamman on his return found his house in precisely the condition in which it had been left. Even the mug of beer, which Samuel (the ten-year- old boy) had placed on the dresser, was found remaining there. The mug is still in existence. It is a handsome article of brown ware, with the figure and name of King William stamped upon it. "
That story was written in 1830. The mug had probably been made about 1690. The Scamman home was on the Sacc side of the river, about opposite Ferry Lane. And Gray's Point, where the Robinson boy forced his horse (which he rode bareback) to swim the river, is the point of land on the Saco side just about opposite George street in Biddeford. The incident tock place in 1698 - nearly two hundred and fifty years ago.
Peace was signed in January, 1699. But just four years later a third war broke out (called Queen Anne 's War, after the English Queen Anne) that lasted another ten years - or until 1713.
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The Stone Fort
This is the fort to which the Robinson boy rode and swam, to carry the alarm. On its walls the women showed themselves, dressed in men's clothes, to deceive the Indians. The drawing was made by an English military engineer in 1699, and not more than two years after the Indians carried off the Scammans.
The fort was built in 1693, and was the only fort here until after 1700. It stood on the high bank of the river just above where the Main Street bridge is now, and about where the Pepperell power plant stands. The gully shown to the right was the outlet of a brook of which one branch came down just behind the line of the present Alfred Street, and another branch came down from near St. Joseph's Hall and across Main, Stone and York streets. The line of trees in the background was on what was later called Biddeford Heights, and about on the line of the present Birch Street.
The ground plan of the fort is shown below, as drawn by the same engineer in 1699.
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a Main watch tower
b Rear watch tower
1 Captain's house
2 Storehouse for goods used in trading with Indians
3.4.5 Soldiers' barracks
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But before dealing with the next war there are two other stories that need telling. They show very clearly that in all the constant danger from Indians there was still plenty of other interest in the life of the people. The first story concerns Captain John Alden, son-in-law of Major Phillips, who in 1692 was accused in Boston of witchcraft. Sent to Salem for trial, Captain Alden was taken before the three magistrates (one of them an ancestor of the American writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne) who were investigating the charges of witchcraft made by (as was proved later) silly and hysterical girls. Alden was a distinguished man. He had been an Indian fighter, and a naval commander; he was then about seventy years old. And this is the ordeal he faced, as told in an old writing of that time.
"Those Wenches being present, who plaid (played) their jugling tricks, falling down, crying out, and staring in Peoples Faces; the Magistrates demanded of them who it was of all the People in the Room that hurt them? One of these Accusers pointed several times at one Captain Hill, there present, but spake nothing; the same Accuser had a Man standing at her back to hold her up; he stooped down to her ear, then she cried out, Aldin, Aldin, afflicted her. One of the Magistrates asked her if she had ever seen Aldin; she answered no; he asked her how she knew it was Aldin? She said the Man told her so.
"Then all were ordered to go down into the Street, where a Ring was made; and the same Accuser cried out, 'There stands Aldin, a bold fellow with his Hat on before the Judges, he sells Powder and Shot to the Indians and French .. .. 1 Then was Aldin committed to the Marshal's Custody, and his Sword taken from him; for they (the girls) said he afflicted them with his Sword. After some hours Aldin was sent for to the Meeting-house in the Village before the Magistrates, who required Alden to stand upon a Chair, to the open view of all the People.
"The Accusers cried out that Aldin did pinch them, then, when he stood upon the Chair, in the sight of all the People, a good way distant from them, one of the Magistrates bid the Marshal to hold open Aldin's hands, that he might not pinch those Creatures (by magic or witchcraft) .... Aldin asked them why they should think that he should come to that Village to afflict those persons that he never knew or saw before? .... They bid Aldin look upon the Accusers, which he did, and then they fell down. "
On the strength of such testimony the magistrates solemnly ordered Captain Alden taken back to Boston and put in prison. All bail was refused for him and he stayed in prison for fifteen weeks until his friends, convinced that he was in danger of
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being put to death (as other innocent men and women were at that time), persuaded the Captain to escape. And when the witchcraft accusers were finally exposed as the hysterical and malicious frauds that they were, the name of Captain Alden was officially cleared (in April, 1693) of all the charges so falsely made against him. He lived nearly ten years longer (until 1702). He had often visited here at the Major Phillips' home; it is very certain that the story of his ordeal in the witchcraft craze in Salem would have reached here and been much discussed. And it is a fair inference that the people here, hearing of Captain Alden's ordeal and denger, must have concluded that it was possibly less dangerous here (in spite of Indians) than it was in Salem exposed to the witch-hunters. There is nothing in Biddeford history or legend to match the ignorance, malice and sheer stupidity of the Salem witchcraft craze. And Biddeford can be justly proud of the contrast.
The second story deals with a ship-launching at the Pool in 1696 - just a year before the Fletchers (Pendleton and his two sons) were captured by the Indians. Whether this was the first launching or not, known here, no one can be sure. Though it is probable that there had been other launchings, since the letter quoted below does not show the launching to be any unusual
occurrence. The whole story can be read between the lines of a letter written by Colonel William Pepperell (father of the better-known Sir William Pepperell) to a Captain John Hill who was apparently Pepperell's agent. The letter is addressed to Captain John Hill, at Fort Mary, and shows that fort to have been built before 1700. It- stood on the hill commanding the entrance to Biddeford Pool. The sloop mentioned in the letter was apparently being built nearby. This is the letter:
Kittery Point, November 12, 1696
Captain Hill:
Sir: With much trouble I have gotten men and sent for the sloop, and desire you to dispatch them with all speed, for, if all things be ready, they may be fitted to leave in two days as well as in seven years. If you and the carpenter think it convenient, and the ground has not too much descent, I think it may be safer and better to bend her sails before you launch her, so as to leave immediately. But I shall leave it to your management, and desire you to hasten them day and night; for, Sir, it will be dangerous tarrying there, on account of hostile savages in the vicinity, and it will be very expensive to keep the men on pay.
I send you a barrel of rum, and there is a cask of wine to launch with. So, with my services to yourself and lady, hoping they are all in good health, as I am
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at present, who are your humble servant at command,
WILLIAM PEPPERRELL
That barrel and that cask illustrate a custom of the day, and there can be no doubt that the launching of that sloop (almost 250 years ago) was a great success. On such occasions it was considered necessary that not only should the water be wet, but the workmen and spectators should be well wet also. Or maybe Colonel Pepperell thought they would launch the sloop at low tide - and need the extra moisture.
Incidentally while the Pepperell name is invariably spelled with only one r both in Biddeford and Saco, there is no doubt that Colonel William, and Sir William, his son, wrote the name as signed above - with the double r. But spellings were not as fixed then, as they are now, and even in the Pepperell family the spelling varied. There is still on record in York County a deed executed in 1727 by Colonel William and his wife Margery. Side by side the Colonel and his wife signed the document. But the Colonel signed his name "Pepperrell" while his wife spelled it "Peprell" in her signature, and on the same document.
How the sloop probably looked
The drawing is made from an old print that dates from just a few years after the launching at the Pool. The print shows a typical sloop of the time.
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In June of 1703 a great meeting between Indians and white men was held in what is now Portland. The meeting was held to prevent, if possible, any outbreak of war. But the atmosphere was such that the white officials attending the meeting quietly arranged to seat themselves between the various Indian chiefs, and not in a separate body. It was well that they took such a precaution because after the meeting was over it was suggested that all the muskets be fired to celebrate the end of the meeting. And when the round was fired, it was discovered that all the Indian muskets had been loaded with bullets - but the Indians had seen no chance to fire at the whites without hitting their own sagamores or chiefs. And although the meeting ended with very "solemn professions of friendship", there was savage warfare all along this coast in August of that same year. Every settlement from Portland to wells was attacked, and the leader of the enemy raiding party later claimed that three hundred of the English settlers had been killed.
In this attack the stone fort at the Falls (whose picture is shown on page 22a) was able to beat off the Indians, although eleven of the garrison were killed and twenty-four prisoners were carried off by the Indians. There was also an Indian attack at or near the Pocl, but no real story has come down regarding it. In December of that same year, five of the inhabitants here, cutting down trees for firewood, were waylaid by the Indians, and three were killed.
In 1705 a Captain Hill was sent from Canada to arrange for the ransom and return of prisoners. He had been taken prisoner himself, and he reported that at that time there were 114 prisoners held by the French, and 70 more known to be held by the Indians. It is probable that most of these prisoners came from along the Maine coast. This was a bitterly fought war, and it is the first in which there is local mention of prisoners being tortured by the Indians. It was in this war also that the governments of Massachusetts (of which Maine was a part) and New Hampshire offered a bounty of 20 English pounds ($100) for every Indian prisoner under ten years of age, and a bounty of 40 pounds ($200) for every older Indian taken - or for his scalp!
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Three stories have come down to us from this war. The first dates from about 1705, and runs as follows:
About this time Ebenezer Hill and his wife Abigail (they lived in Biddeford, at the head of Ferry Lane, and had just recently been married) were carried into captivity. Several Indians who professed to be friendly and who were frequently in the houses of the inhabitants, called at Mr. Hill's in the usual manner one morning and partook of some food which was offered them.
They left the house, but soon after returned. Finding Mr. Hill gone, they told his wife that they must make her a prisoner. They proceeded to plunder such articles from
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the house as they could conveniently carry away, and destroying others. When Mr. Hill came back he found his wife secured (having her arms tied) and the savages employed in emptying a feather bed (to secure the bed-tick). He gave himself into their hands (so that he and his wife would not be separated) and the Indians decamped with the prisoners. They were carried to Canada where they remained for three years. Their oldest son, Ebenezer, was born either in Canada or while they were on their return. He was familiarly called the Frenchman in after years (because he was supposed to have been born while his parents were prisoners in Canada).
Two years later , in 1707, there was a curious battle at Winter Harbor that might be called the first (and only) naval battle in Biddeford history. The fullest account found gives the story thus:
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