USA > Maine > The history of Maine, from the earliest discovery of the region by the Northmen until the present time; including a narrative of the voyages and explorations of the early adventurers, the manners and customs of the Indian tribes, the hardships of the first settlers, etc > Part 35
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In 1779 Pittston was incorporated. It was the fortieth town in the State, and the last which was incorporated by the General Court under the royal charter. A settlement had been com- menced there about eighteen years before. In May of this year, the British sent a fleet of seven or eight war-ships, to. plunder and burn the settlements on the Penobscot. Nearly a. thousand men embarked in this fleet at Halifax. They landed on the 12th, at Biguyduce,1 now Castine, and commenced building a strong fort that they might command the whole of the valley. The detested Mowatt was assigned to this station, with three sloops of war.
This movement created much alarm. The General Court of
1 This name, taken from a French gentleman, Major Biguyduce, who formerly resided there, was pronounced Bageduce.
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Massachusetts, with the approval of the Colonial Government, promptly fitted out for the capture of the port, a fleet of nineteen armed vessels and twenty-four transports. The fleet carried three hundred and forty-four guns, and was amply supplied with material of war. The command of the expedition was intrusted to Commodore Saltonstall, of New Haven, Conn. He was un- doubtedly a patriot and a brave man ; but he was sadly deficient in military skill. The enterprise proved a total failure, followed by an awful loss of life and property. It is very clear that the fort could have been taken had proper measures been adopted. Gens. Lovell and Wadsworth, who commanded the land force, conducted with great bravery, but they were not supported by the commodore. The assaults which were made were so feeble that the garrison was enabled to strengthen its works, and to send to Halifax for aid.
On the 14th of August, a formidable British fleet of seven vessels entered the harbor. The result was that the American fleet was annihilated. Some of the vessels were captured by the . English. Some were run ashore and burned. Nearly all were abandoned. The sailors and marines commenced a retreat through the vast wilderness, to the Kennebec. After great suf- fering, most of them reached the forts on the river. This utter defeat was extremely humiliating. The General Court, after a thorough investigation of the affair, pronounced sentence in- capacitating Commodore Saltonstall from ever after holding a commission in the service of the State, and honorably acquitting Gens. Lovell and Wadsworth.
The British now seemed to be securely established at the mouth of the Penobscot. The American settlers, on the banks and the island, were exposed to constant insults and injuries. After the repulse of the fleet, the British sent a party up the river to Bucksport, where they burned five dwelling-houses and all the out-buildings, and returned to the fort with the plunder. The people of the struggling little settlement in Belfast were plundered, and so outrageously abused that they were forced to abandon their homes and all their possessions, and in destitution and tears to seek refuge where they could. It seems difficult to account for the fact that British officers, who had wives and
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children, and who were generally gentlemen by birth, could be guilty of such inhumanity as to burn the log cabins of poor settlers, rob them of their little all, and drive out mothers, babes, and maidens to perish of hunger and exposure in the wilderness.
There was a poor man by the name of John Gilky, living upon an island. He was absent, and only his wife and children remained in the lonely cabin. A boat's crew of Englishmen landed. They plundered his house, and shot his five cows, though the mother, with tears and on her knees, implored them to spare her at least one for her children. These men, sent on this diabolical mission from an English ship, then retired, leaving the family in the depths of woe.
An English soldier fled from one of these ships. It is proba- ble that he was in favor of American liberty, and did not like the employment he was in. Faint and hungry he came to the house of Shubael Williams. The kind-hearted American, poor as he was, gave him a seat by his cabin-fire, and fed him. Wil- liams was seized by the British, and was charged with encoura- ging the man to desert. These English officers, who called themselves civilized and even Christian men, sentenced the poor man to receive five hundred lashes at the whipping-post.1 The writer regrets to record such deeds, but history is unfaithful to its trust if atrocious acts are not held up to public execration. Many Tories from Massachusetts fled to this region, to be under the protection of the English. All the eastern towns were now in great peril from a foe more to be dreaded than the Indians. The General Court sent three hundred men to Falmouth, two hundred to Camden, and a hundred to Machias. The command of this eastern department was assigned to Gen. Wadsworth. His headquarters were at Thomaston.
The island of Mount Desert suffered severely from the rav- ages of the enemy. Boats' crews were often landing, shooting the cattle, and plundering the helpless inhabitants. Bath, the forty-first town in the State, was incorporated in the year 1781. It had previously been considered the second parish of George-
1 Williamson's History of Maine, vol. ii. p. 430.
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town. The first settlement here was in about the year 1670. The land was purchased of two sagamores, Elderunkin and Nenement.
Bath has become one of the most important commercial towns in Maine. It is admirably located on the western bank of Ken- nebec River, twelve miles from its mouth. The largest ships can float in its secure harbor, which is never impeded by ice. Capt. George Weymouth, as we have mentioned in the early part of this history, ascended the river to this point, in the sum- mer of 1605. He landed, with a boat's crew, and wrote, -
" We passed over very good ground, pleasant and fertile, and fit for pas- ture, having but little wood, and that oak, like that standing in our pastures in England, good and great, fit timber for any use. There were also some small birch, hazel, and brake, which could easily be cleared away, and made good arable land." 1
Ship-building has been its principal business. In the year 1847 it received a city charter, and in 1854 became the shire- town of Sagadahoc County.
During the vicissitudes of the war, Gen. Wadsworth was residing in a secluded habitation, on the banks of a small rill in Thomaston. His family consisted of Mrs. Wadsworth, an infant daughter, a son five years of age, and a young lady, Miss Fenno, a friend of Mrs. Wadsworth. Six soldiers were on guard. The English at Biguyduce heard of his defenceless condition, and sent a party of twenty-five men, under Lieut. Stockton, to cap- ture him. It was the 18th of February. The ground was covered with snow, and it was intensely cold.
At midnight the party approached the house. The sentinel, outside at the door, seeing such a band approach, rushed into the kitchen, which was used as a guard-room. The English dis- charged a volley of bullets through the open door. The house was immediately surrounded, the windows dashed in, and vol- leys discharged into the sleeping apartments of the general and of Miss Fenno. The general, armed with a brace of pistols, a fusee, and a blunderbuss, fought with great intrepidity, driving the foe from before his window and from the door. The attack
1 Maine Historical Collection, vol. v. Address by John McKeen, Esq.
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was renewed through the entry. The general defended him- self with a bayonet until a bullet passed through his arm, rendering him helpless. He then surrendered. He would have been shot down in cold blood had not an officer pushed aside the gun of the assassin.
Awful was the spectacle then witnessed. The general and nearly all of his guard were wounded, and their persons and the floors were stained with blood. One poor creature, writh- ing in anguish from a dreadful wound, begged them to shoot him and thus end his torture. The windows and the doors were dashed in, and the house was on fire. The thickly flying bul- lets fortunately struck neither of the females nor the children. . The general had sprung from his bed, and was in his night- dress. The bullet had struck his elbow, and the arm, from which the blood was gushing, hung helpless at his side; and he announced a surrender. An English officer came into his room with a lighted candle, and said, " You have defended yourself bravely. But we must be in haste. We will help you put on your clothes."
The excruciating pain of his wound rendered it impossible for him to wear his coat. It was given to a soldier to carry, and a blanket was spread over his shoulders to protect him from the piercing wintry blast. His wife begged permission to exam- ine and dress the wound. This was not permitted. A handker- chief was bound around the arm to stay, in some degree, the rapid gushing of the blood.
Several of the British soldiers were wounded. Two of them were placed upon the general's horse, which was brought from the barn, while he, faint from loss of blood, was compelled to walk four miles, through the snow, to the vessel from which the party had landed. After toiling along for a mile, his strength entirely gave out. As one of the wounded British soldiers who was riding was apparently dying, they left him at a house, and the general was placed upon the horse behind the other soldier. When they reached the shore, off which the vessel, which was an English privateer, lay at anchor, the cap- tain approached him, and exclaimed ferociously, " You damned rebel, go and help them launch the boat, or I will run you through with my sword."
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Gen. Wadsworth replied, "I am a prisoner, wounded and helpless. You may treat me as you please."
Lieut. Stockton came promptly to the rescue, and, addressing the brutal fellow, said, " Your conduct shall be reported to your superiors. The prisoner is a gentleman. He has made a brave defence. He is entitled to be treated honorably."
The general was granted a berth in the cabin, and such other comforts as circumstances would allow. The next day the ves- sel reached Biguyduce. The place was thronged with British officers, sailors, soldiers, and Tories, who had taken refuge there. They crowded the shore to see the captives landed, and assailed them with shouts of rage and contempt.
Protected from mob violence by a guard, they were marched half a mile to the fort. A surgeon dressed the general's wounds, and he was treated with great humanity. Gen. Campbell, who commanded at the fort, expressed his high admiration of the heroic defence Gen. Wadsworth had made against such fearful odds. "I have heard," he said, " of the treatment you received from the captain of the privateer, and I shall compel him to make to you a suitable apology."
A comfortable room was assigned him, he breakfasted and dined at the table of the commandant, and books were furnished him to relieve the weariness of his imprisonment. There was an encampment of American soldiers at Camden, on the western side of Penobscot Bay, about twenty-one miles from Biguyduce. Lieut. Stockton allowed his prisoner to send to that station, which was but four miles from the place where he had been captured, a letter to his wife, and another to the governor of Massachusetts, by a flag of truce.
Gen. Wadsworth felt extreme anxiety in reference to his family. He had been so hurried away that he knew not their fate. At the close of a fortnight he learned that they were safe. His little son, buried in the bed-clothes, had escaped the bullets which had been flying so thickly through the chamber. The wounds of the general proved to be very severe. It was five weeks before he could move about. He wished for the customary permission of going abroad on his parole; but this privilege was denied him.
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After close confinement of two months, his wife and Miss Fenno were allowed to make him a short visit. He then ascer- tained that he was to be sent to England, to be tried as a rebel. The British authorities were treating the American prisoners of war with the utmost brutality. If sent to London, there was but slight chance of his escaping the gibbet. About this time Major Benjamin Burton was captured, and was imprisoned in the same room with Gen. Wadsworth. He was a very brave man, who had been attached to a fortress in the present town of Cushing. His intrepidity had attracted the attention of the English, and excited their malevolence. It was soon evident that they were both to be transported to England.
Goaded by this peril, they effected their escape through toils and sufferings, scarcely exceeded by the world-renowned adven- tures of Baron Trenck. They were in a grated room within the fort. The walls of the fort were twenty feet high, sur- rounded by a ditch. Sentinels were stationed upon the walls, and on the outside of the portals which opened from the for- tress. Guards were also stationed at the door of their room. Outside of the ditch there was another set of soldiers, who were patrolling through the night. The fort was on a peninsula, and a picket-guard was placed at the isthmus to prevent any escape to the mainland. Under these circumstances it would seem that escape were impossible.
With a penknife and a gimlet, they, in three weeks' labor, cut an aperture through the pine-board ceiling of their room. Every cut was concealed by paste made of bread moistened in their mouths. On the 18th of June the long wished for night of darkness, thunder, and tempest came. The midnight gale, with flooding rain, drove all to seek shelter. At twelve o'clock they removed the panel which they had cut out. By the aid of a chair they crept into an entry above. The darkness was like that of Egypt. They groped their way along, and soon became hopelessly separated. Wadsworth succeeded in reach- ing the top of the wall by an oblique path used by the soldiers. Fastening his blanket to a picket, he let himself down until he dropped into the ditch. Cautiously creeping between the sentry boxes, he reached the open field.
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The gale still swept the plains, and the rain fell in floods. He groped his way through rocks and stumps and brush, till he reached an old abandoned guard-house on the shore of the back cove. This was the rendezvous where the two friends had agreed to meet. He waited half an hour ; but as Major Burton did not appear he sadly gave him up as lost. It was low water. He waded across the cove, which was a mile in width, the water often reaching nearly to his armpits. Thence he pressed on another mile, through a road which he had formerly caused to be cut for the removal of cannon.
The sun was now rising. He was still on the eastern banks of the Penobscot, about eight miles above the fort. It was a beautiful June morning. The smiles of God seemed to be rest- ing upon a world which its wicked inhabitants were filling with misery. At that moment the general, to his inexpressible joy, saw his companion approaching. The meeting was rapturous.
They found a boat upon the shore. With it they crossed the broad river, and landed on the western bank, just below Orphan Island. They had but just landed, when a barge of the enemy was seen in the distance, evidently in pursuit. Gen. Wads- worth had a small pocket compass. Guided by this they directed their course in a south-west direction, and after three days of toil and suffering reached the habitations of American settlers. They obtained horses, and were soon with their friends in Thomaston.
VIEW OF PORTLAND, ME.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE WAR OF 1812, AND THE SEPARATION.
Expenses of the War-The Question of Separation- Increase of Towns - Counties Formed - Bowdoin College chartered -The Farmington Schools - Lewiston - Augusta and its Institutions - Waterville - Gardiner - The War of 1812 - Causes of the War-Incidents of the Conflict - Increase of Population and Towns -The Penobscot Valley ravaged - General Alarm - Scenes in Castine - Peace -The "Ohio Fever" - The Separation - Maine an Independent State.
T THROUGH all this dreadful conflict with England, the In- dians of Maine remained firm in their alliance with the Americans. The coasts were ravaged by English cruisers. This led many settlers to push farther back into the wilderness. Four years after the capture of Burgoyne, the British army, under Lord Cornwallis, on the 27th of October, 1781, surrendered at Yorktown, to the combined force of France and America. The British were vanquished. Their cause was hopeless. A treaty of peace was signed at Paris, on the 3d of September, 1783. All hostilities ceased, and the British armies were withdrawn from our shores. England, in this senseless war, sacrificed one hun- dred thousand lives of her own subjects and mercenaries, and added a sum amounting to six hundred million dollars to her national debt. America gained her independence at an expense of the lives of fifty thousand of her patriotic citizens, and a debt of forty-five million dollars ; and this was in addition to indi- vidual losses and expenditures which can never be adequately estimated. 1
The Indians had won the kindly feelings of all. But they
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 504 ; Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. ii. p. 402.
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were no longer freeholders of the soil. They were allowed restricted territory, and all other regions were in the possession of the State. The District of Maine embraced, it was estimated, thirty million acres. An immense tide of emigration began to flow in upon these rich lands. A day of prosperity had dawned. In 1784 Machias, which had been deemed the most noted plan- tation in Maine, was incorporated. It took its name from a river passing through it, which the Indians called Mechises. The Tories of Maine generally retired across the Bay of Fundy, to the English province of New Brunswick.
In March, 1785, James Bowdoin was elected governor of Massachusetts. Three new towns were incorporated this year, - Shapleigh, Parsonsfield, and Standish. The last was named in honor of the renowned Capt. Miles Standish. The question arose respecting the separation of the District of Maine from the State of Massachusetts. But the inhabitants of Maine were.so widely scattered, that it was impossible to obtain an expression of public opinion. Conventions were held, addresses issued, and various measures adopted, to form and to ascertain the views of the people.
In the year 1786, Falmouth was divided. The peninsula and several of the adjoining islands were incorporated into a town by the name of Portland. For more than a hundred and fifty years there had been cabins and hunting camps on the Neck. Turner and Union were also incorporated this year. In the town of Union there were but seventeen families. The whole popula- tion amounted to but one hundred and fifty souls. Great efforts were made to ascertain, by a general convention, the wishes of the people of the State in reference to separation. It was found that the whole number of towns and plantations in the State amounted to ninety-three. This was in the year 1787. At the convention nine hundred and ninety-four votes were thrown. Six hundred and forty-five of these were in favor of separation. But, when the motion was made to petition the legislature for a separation, it was lost. The question was re- considered ; and, after a very hot debate, it was carried by a majority of but two votes. The majority was not deemed suf- ficient for pressing so important a measure. Massachusetts,
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desiring to retain the district, was very generous in its legisla- tion. Wild lands were exempted from taxation. Roads were constructed at the public expense. Every permanent settler was granted a deed for a hundred acres of land, upon paying five dollars. During this year, Penobscot, Limerick, and Water- borough were incorporated. Penobscot embraced the present town of Castine.
In the year 1788, a convention in Boston adopted the Federal Constitution, and abolished slavery from the Commonwealth. Maine was entitled to send one representative to Congress.
Harvard University had long been established. It was deemed important that a literary institution of high order should be established at Maine. The legislature appropriated the township of Dixmont for that purpose. Bowdoin, Orring- ton, Norridgewock, Greene, Fairfield, Canaan, and Noblebor- ough were incorporated this year.
The next year, 1789, a great cluster of towns came into being ; namely, Sedgwick, Cushing, Islesborough, Bluehill, Deer Isle, Freeport, Trenton, Goldsborough, Sullivan, Mount Desert, Dur- ham, Frankport, and Vinalhaven. This rapid progress indicates the prosperity of the State. In 1789 George Washington was elected President of the United States, and was inaugurated in New York on the 30th of April. The rapid increase of towns led to the formation, in 1789, of two new counties, Hancock and Washington. Penobscot, now Castine, became the shire-town of Hancock, and Machias of Washington County.
A federal census was taken this year, when it was found that the population of Maine had reached the unexpected number of ninety-six thousand five hundred and forty souls. The territory was now formally organized into a district, and invested with various rights of jurisdiction. Both the lumber and the fur business continued very profitable. In the year 1791, three towns were incorporated, Camden, Bangor, and Readfield. The Indian name of the first of these was Megunticook. Its new name was given in honor of Lord Camden, a warm friend of the Americans during the Revolution.1
1 When the royal proclamation was issued to employ the savages against the Americans, Lord Camden indignantly exclaimed in Parliament :-
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JOHNSON.DYEB.
Bearce Hall.
Sampson Hall.
MAINE WESLEYAN SEMINARY AND FEMALE COLLEGE, KENT'S HILL.
1
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Bangor had been called Kenduskeag. Rev. Seth Noble was influential in obtaining the act of incorporation. It had been urged upon him that the town should be called Sunbury, in reference to its charming location. But he, not fancying the name, took the liberty of substituting that of his favorite tune, Bangor.2
Readfield, the seventy-fourth town of the State, was taken from Winthrop. It subsequently became the seat of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary. This is one of the most important and flourishing literary institutions in the State. It is alike dis- tinguished for its intellectual, its moral, and its religious influ- ence. Though it was not instituted until the year 1825, its graduates may now be found in almost every State in the Union. The reader will find, annexed, a very correct pictorial sketch of the seminary buildings.
The next year six towns were incorporated. Monmouth, which, as a plantation, had been called Wales, took its new name in memory of the celebrated battle fought in June, 1778. Here also an academy was established in 1809, which obtained much celebrity throughout the State.
Sidney was taken from Vassalborough. Limington had pre- viously been called the Ossipee Plantation. Hebron with its Biblical name was called originally Philip Gore. Here also there was a very important academy, endowed with a half township of land. Bucksport had been called Buckstown, from one of its first settlers, Col. Jonathan Buck. The village is, beautifully situated on the eastern banks of the Penobscot, and enjoys one of the finest harbors that magnificent river affords. Mount Vernon commemorates the sacred spot on the Potomac,. which every American, in all time, will approach with veneration.
Two towns only, from the vast expanse of wild lands, were' incorporated in the year 1793. Buckfield had been called Num -: ber Five. Benjamin Spaulding first entered its forests in the
"Such a proposition ought to be damned. It holds forth a war of revenge, such as Moloch in Pandemonium advised. It will fix an inveterate hatred in the Americans against the very name of Englishmen. This will be left a legacy, from father to son, to the latest posterity."
2 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 552.
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BOWDOIN COLLEGE, BRUNSWICK.
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year 1776, and cut down a few trees. With several associates he purchased the township in 1788, of the Commonwealth, for two shillings an acre. Paris was formerly Number Four. The axe was, for the first time, heard in its densely wooded solitudes in the year 1779. It became eventually the shire-town of Oxford County.
Upon the commencement of the French Revolution in 1789, there was much division of public opinion in Maine. The Americans saw no French newspapers. All the information they could gain, of the tremendous events which were trans- piring, was drawn from the British press. Very many were consequently in sympathy with the British Government, in its warfare against the new institutions in France. But there were also many in sympathy with the French people, in their efforts to throw off the despotic yoke of their ancient kings.
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