USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: with a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants, and changes of government in Maine > Part 17
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DEATH OF EARLY SETTLERS.
Old Gloucester, and is undoubtedly descended from the first Nathaniel, and continues to preserve a portion of the Macworth blood, although the name has long been extinct. [The eldest son of Nathaniel and Rebecca Wharff was eleven years old when his father died. In 1684, he married Ann, a daughter of Thomas Riggs of Gloucester, by whom he had thirteen children. Nathaniel, his eldest son, born 1685, married Han- nah Stevens in 1715, and had sons, Thomas and Isaac ; Thomas married Dorcas Lane, 1738, and had six sons and two daugh- ters.1 His son Thomas, settled in New Gloucester, and died there in 1835, aged eighty-seven, leaving issue; among them was Thomas, who died February 18, 1864, at the age of ninety- four.]
George Bartlett, of Spurwink, died about this time ; an in- ventory of his estate, amounting to seventy pounds eight shil- lings and six pence, was returned by Ambrose Boaden and Henry Williams, February 14, 1674. He had a daughter Elizabeth married to Nicholas Baker, of Marblehead.
About the same time died John Mills, of Scarborough ; he left two sons, John and James, and other children who claimed his estate at Black Point, which the father had occupied thirty years. John subsequently lived in Boston, and James in Sand- wich. John married Joana, widow of Elias Oakman, of Black Point, and daughter of Andrew Alger.
1 Babson's History of Gloucester,
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST INDIAN WAR-INHABITANTS OF FALMOUTH, 1675-DESTRUCTION OF THE TOWN IN 1676-FUR . THER ATTACKS OF THE INDIANS-MILITIA IN 1675-PEACE-PRISONERS RESTORED-WALTER GENDALL -ROBERT JORDAN'S DEATH-BRACKETT-NAMES OF INHABITANTS IN CASCO BAY.
In the beginning of the year 1675, the prosperity of the town stood at a high point ; population had been steadily increasing in every part, and its various resources were rapidly developing. Mills had been established at Capisic and on the lower falls of Presumpscot river, and the borders of both rivers were occu- pied by an active and enterprising people. But their opening prospects were destined soon to be changed, and their hopes crushed. In June of this year Phillip's war commenced in Plymouth colony. The English on the Kennebec river re- ceived the first information of the movements of the Indians about Mount Hope, the seat of Phillip, their chief Sachem, July 11. They immediately met together to concert measures to discover the feelings of the Indians in their neighborhood, and to disarm them if it became necessary. In consequence of ex- ertions for that purpose, a number were induced to deliver up their arms and ammunition. In this attempt some collisions took place; the fear and the jealousy of the Indians were aroused, and they began to suspect that it was the object of the English to deprive them of the means of obtaining subsist- ence, and by degrees to drive them from the soil. The out- breaking in the east is to be attributed to such jealousies and
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THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
collisions, rather than to any supposed connection between them and the Indians of the west.
When mutual suspicion and recrimination were once excited, it were futile to imagine that the Indians would respect their engagements, the recollection of former kindness, or the dic- tates of humanity and justice ; and consequently open hostil- ities became the signal of extermination. They first began by gratifying their revenge, but they ended by an indiscriminate slaughter of those from whom they had received favor as well as of those who had done them injury.
In the beginning of September, about twenty Indians attacked the house of Thomas Purchase, an ancient settler in Pegyp- scot, now Brunswick, and robbed it of liquor, ammunition, etc., but did no injury to the females who were, fortunately, the only occupants at the time. When complained of for this depredation, they attempted to justify themselves on the ground that Purchase had injured them in their trading,
Soon after this affair, a party of twenty-five Englishmen went out to gather corn at the northern end of Casco bay, and at the same time to reconnoitre the enemy. They discovered three Indians in the neighborhood of some houses a short distance from the water, and in attempting to intercept their retreat, they killed one and wounded another; the third escaped, and rallying his friends, attacked the English, wounded several, and drove them to their vessel, with the loss of two boats laden with the corn which they had gathered/ This was the first blood shed on either side in this vicinity : it was however the opening of a vein, to use a metaphor of Cotton Mather, which was made to flow freely for many months after.
The English having exposed themselves to censure by this imprudent attack without a sufficient justification, removed at once all restraint from the Indians. They had seen the blood of their companions causelessly spilt, and they now sought opportunities of revenge. These were not wanting along an extensive and entirely unprotected frontier. In every planta-
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
tion the houses were scattered over a large territory, and the only defensive preparations were an occasional private garri- son, which, in cases of sudden emergency, afforded the neigh- boring inhabitants a temporary refuge. The able-bodied men in each town formed a train-band; but they lived so widely apart, and there were so many points to guard, that they could offer but little protection against the desultory and rapid attacks of their subtle enemy.
The first visitation of their vengeance was upon the family of Thomas Wakely of Falmouth, about a week after the affray before mentioned .. This unsuspecting family was composed of Thomas Wakely and his wife, his eldest son, John, his wife, who was far advanced in pregnancy, and their four children. They killed the old man and his wife, his son John and wife, with three of their children, in a cruel manner, and carried one daughter, Elizabeth, about eleven years old, into captivity. Next day Lt. George Ingersoll, who had perceived the smoke, repaired to the place with a file of soldiers to learn the cause. He found the body of John's wife and the three children with their brains beaten out lying under some planks, and the half consumed bodies of the old man and his wife near the smoul- dering ruins of the house.
Why this family was selected for a sacrifice we have no means of determining ; the Indians committed no further vio- lence, but immediately withdrew to a distant place. The daughter Elizabeth was some months after carried by Squando, the Saco Sachiem, to Major Waldron at Dover, where she sub- sequently married Richard Scamman, a quaker. The Wake- lys came from Cape Ann, and had originally settled in 1661, at Back Cove, on the west side of Fall Brook, where a son-in- law, Matthew Coe, died. The eldest son, John, had removed to the east side of Presumpscot river several years before the melancholy event which terminated his life; his farm was about three-quarters of a mile below the falls, and between the farms of Humphrey Durham and Jenkin Williams; his house
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THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
fronted the river "and stood within about a gun shot of said Durham's house."! His father and mother from their advanced age had probably taken up their residence with their eldest son, or had gone there at this time in consequence of the gen- eral alarm. He is spoken of by Mather as a worthy old man, "who came into New England for the sake of the gospel," and had long repented moving into this part of the country so far out of the way of it.
The inhabitants in the immediate vicinity had probably drawn off at this time to a more secure place, as it appears that Inger- soll who lived at Capisic was the first to visit the scene, drawn there by discovering the smoke.
The enemy next made an attack upon Saco, where they
. burnt the house of Capt. Bonython and the mills of Major Phillips, with the house of one of his tenants. They were pre- vented doing further mischief at that time, by the resolute manner in which the Major defended his garrison. His force consisted of but ten able-bodied men, while the Indians num- bered from sixty to one hundred. They went from Saco to Blue Point, where they killed several persons, one of whom was Robert Nichols, and returning to Saco they committed further depredations. They then moved westward marking their way by blood and rapine. They afterward, in October, returned to this neighborhood, killed Arthur and Andrew Alger, in Scarborough, with several others, and burnt seven houses there. 2
1 Hallom's deposition.
2 The Algers or Augurs early settled in Scarborough, where they purchased of the Indians a tract of one thousand acres about 1651. To this they gave the name of Dunston, from the town in England where they originated (Boden's deposition). The town referred to was probably Dunster or Dunstorre, in Som- ersetshire. Arthur, in the division of the estate, took the northern part, which was the highest English settlement in this region; it was separated from his brother's by a creek or brook ; he died without issue. Andrew had six children; three sons, John, Andrew, and Mathew ; and three daughters, Elizabeth married to John Palmer, Joanna married first Elias Oakman, and second John Mills, who
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Falmouth about the same time was again visited, and a son of George Ingersoll and another man, as they were fowling, were both killed. The Indians also burnt Lt. Ingersoll's house and others in that neighborhood, whose owners are not men- tioned. The number of houses burnt cannot be ascertained ; the last attack was probably confined to the vicinity of Capisic, and we have no notice of any houses having been burnt but Wakely's, those at Capisic, and Robert Jordan's at Spurwink. They were generally spared it may be conjectured this year, as we find the inhabitants still lingering among them and be- coming the victims of more severe calamity the ensuing year. At what time the attack was made on Spurwink, we no where find an account; but Mr. Jordan had barely time to escape from his dwelling house, when it was destroyed with all its contents ; Ambrose Boaden, Sen., was probably killed at the same time ; administration was granted on his estate the next July ; he lived on the west side of the river opposite Jordan's house. Jordan moved to Great Island, now Newcastle in Piscataqua river. It is estimated that from the beginning of August to the end of November, 1675, there were killed in the province about fifty English and over ninety Indians.
In November the government of Massachusetts made prepa- rations to carry the war into the enemy's country, and a force
dwelt in Boston, where she died, and the third married John Austin. John, son of Andrew, had several daughters, one of whom, Elizabeth, married John Milli- ken, first of Boston, then of Scarborough, housewright. After the two brothers were killed, and their houses, barns, and crops destroyed, the family moved to Boston. Andrew, Jr., was master of a vessel and was killed in Falmouth in 1690, leaving one daughter, wife of Matthew Collins. Matthew was master of one of the transports in Sir William Phipp's expedition to Canada, and died of the fleet fever soon after his return; he was the last surviving male of that race, and the name in this branch is extinct in this country. The widow of the first Andrew married Samuel Walker. Several of Andrew's children were married and settled near him before his death; first John, then Palmer ; the others fol- lowed fronting the marsh in the neighborhood of Dr. Southgate's house, whose farm is part of the Alger estate.
.
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THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
was organized to attack the remote settlements at Ossipee and Pequawkett with a view of disabling them from renewing their depredations in the spring. But the winter closed in so early and severely, that it was impossible to make any progress through the forest, and the enterprise was abandoned. By the 10th of December the snow was four feet deep in the woods, and was accompanied by such extreme cold weather that the Indians were driven by their sufferings to sue for peace. For this purpose a body of them repaired to Major Waldron at Dover, and terms were mutually agreed upon for the suspension of hostilities and for a permanent peace. But the encourage- ment afforded to the people by this treaty was of short duration, and the next summer the dreadful tragedy was renewed with more violence and greater loss of property and life than during the previous season.
The Indians engaged in these expeditions were from the Saco and Androscoggin tribes, joined with the wandering sons of the forest who inhabited the intermediate territory, and acknowl- edged subjection to neither of those more considerable tribes. The Sacoes were under the command of Squando, one of the most artful and daring leaders in the war. The Androscoggin tribe was under the guidance of Robinhood, a very prominent Sagamore. The Penobscots were subsequently engaged in the war, and, under the direction of Madockawando and Mugg, performed their full share in the work of desolation and death which were dealt out so freely to this devoted province.
At the commencement of the year 1675, there were rising forty families in town, which were distributed in the different sections as follows: On the east side of Presumpscot river, James Andrews, Humphrey Durham, George Felt, Jane Mac- worth, Francis Neale, Richard Pike, John Wakely, Jenkin Williams, and we may add Rebecca Wharff, who had recently lost her husband. On the west side of the river, were Benja- min Atwell, John Cloice, Sen., Robert Corbin, Peter Housing, Robert Nicholson, John Nicholson, and John Phillips. Around
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Back Cove, Anthony Brackett, George Lewis, John Lewis, Philip Lewis, Phineas Ryder, James Ross, Thomas Skillings, Nathan- iel Wallis, Thomas Wakely, and Matthew Coe's family. At Capisic, Thomas Cloice, George, George, Jr., John, and Joseph Ingersoll, and Richard Powsland. On the Neck, Thomas Brackett, Thaddeus Clark, George Munjoy, and John Munjoy; Elizabeth Harvey at this time was a member of Thomas Brack- ett's family. On the south side of Fore river, Lawrence Davis, probably Isaac Davis, Joel Madiver, Sampson Penley, Joseph Phippen, John Skillings, Thomas and Robert Staniford, Ralph Turner, and John Wallis. At Spurwink, Walter Gendall, Robert Jordan, and probably John Guy, a faithful vassal of Jordan. We cannot fix with certainty the location of several persons whose names follow, Nathaniel and John Cloice, Jr., Henry Harwood, a shoemaker ; we are not certain that he lived here in 1675, but circumstances favor the conjecture ; John Rider probably lived at Back Cove. We have also some doubt whether Josiah and Nathaniel White, who lived at Purpooduck, came until after the war. With respect to George Burroughs, for a number of years minister of this place, we were for a long time undetermined upon the question, whether he had settled here before the destruction of the town or not; but the discovery of additional evidence has satisfied us that he must have preached in town before that event. The following rec- ord would seem to determine the question : "At a general meet- ing of the inhabitants of the town of Falmouth held the 20th of June, 1683. Whereas there was formerly given to Mr. George Burroughs, minister, a parcel of land, judged to be about two hundred acres, and we being driven off by the In- dians for a time, and in time reinhabiting; therefore for to give people incouragement to come and settle down among us in a body, we took part of said Burroughs' land formerly given him by the people of Falmouth for the end before exprest." This two hundred acres was on the Neck, east of Robinson's Point, part of which was taken up on the resettlement in 1680
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THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
by the inhabitants. It seems evident from the phraseology of the instrument that the grant was made previous to the people having been driven off by the enemy, and unless Bur- roughs had been a settler before that event, there would have been no propriety in saying that a part of his two hundred acres had been taken for the encouragment of new settlers.1 Burroughs was graduated at Harvard College in 1570, and probably commenced his ministry here about 1674, and lived upon the Neck; but no church was then gathered.
After the war broke out in September, and probably not until after the destruction of the Wakely family and the slaugh- ter of young Ingersoll, many of the inhabitants sought refuge in more settled and secure parts of the country. The Jordan family went to the Piscataqua, James Andrews and his mother Macworth went to Boston, and John Phillips to Kittery. But the greatest number fled to Salem, where, January 11, 1676, by a vote of the town, they were "admitted with their families," "inhabitants during the time of the Indian wars, according to law." These persons were George Ingersoll, George Ingersoll, Jr., John Skillings, Goodman Standford, John Wallis, Francis Neale, and Jenkin Williams, besides a number from Saco and other towns in the province, to the number of twenty-one. The record in relation to their admission in Salem is as follows :2 "These persons above named, being driven from their habita- tions by the barbarous heathen, are admitted as inhabitants into the town, they most of them informing they have provi- sion for themselves and families one year."
By this withdrawal from the scene of action of so many in- habitants, the victims of the tomahawk were considerably
1 This conjecture has been rendered still more satisfactory and conclusive by a letter from B. Pendleton, of Saco, August 13, 1676, which will be found in a note in a subsequent part of this chapter, This speaks of "a brief letter written from under the hand of Mr. Burras, the minister," from the island in Casco, to which the inhabitants of the town fled. See p. 205.
2 From Salem town records, by the favor of William Gibbs, Esq. 14
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reduced, but still enough were left to keep the knife of the sacrifice deeply tinged.
In the summer of 1676, the war was renewed, and all the tribes from the Piscataqua to the Penobscot were engaged in it. Several causes have been assigned for the outbreaking at this time; one was the death of a child of Squando, supposed to have been occasioned by the folly of some English seamen ; another was that some Cape Sable Indians were enticed away by a few Englishmen and sold for slaves. Another still, was a general complaint among all the tribes, that the English were prohibited selling ammunition to the natives, without which they could not live. None of these causes is sufficient in itself to account for such a universal rising as occurred at this time. Some of the Narragansett Indians having been driven from their own retreat, had fled eastward, and probably brought with them all the feelings of hostile partisans, stimu- lated by revenge, and smarting under the loss of property, country, and friends. It is probable that these wanderers had promoted a spirit of hostility among the Indians here. And when they looked back upon the successes of the previous year, the ease, and almost entire freedom from danger, with which they spread desolation over the country, they were probably ready to seize slight pretexts to break their engagements and renew scenes so congenial to their minds.
The bloody tragedy was commenced on the 11th of August, at the house of Anthony Brackett, in Falmouth. The leader in this enterprise was Simon, who had not long before escaped from Dover prison, where he had been confined for his former murders, and found his way here by a counterfeit pass. He had made himself familiar with Brackett and insinuated him- self into his confidence. On the 9th of August, some neigh- boring Indians had killed one of Brackett's cows, and Simon promised that he would bring the offenders to him. Very early on the morning of the 11th, he returned with a party of his comrades and told him, they were the Indians who had
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THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
killed his cow ; this party immediately went into the house and took all the guns they could find. When Brackett asked the meaning of this, Simon replied that "so it must be," and gave him his choice to serve them or be killed. Brackett of course preferred the former alternative, and was bound with his wife and a negro servant and carried away with their five children. Nathaniel Mitton,' brother of Brackett's wife, who was then there, offering some resistance, was killed upon the spot.
Brackett lived upon the large farm at Back Cove now (1831) owned in part by Mr. Deering, and his house was on the ridge a short distance from the mansion occupied by that gentleman, now, 1864, by a portion of his children. From Brackett's they passed round the cove to Presumpscott river, where they killed Robert Corbin, Humphrey Durham, and Benjamin Atwell, who were making hay on Corbin's farm. The women and children in one of the neighboring houses hearing the alarm escaped in a canoe. Corbin's wife with the wife of one of the others, and the children of the third, were taken captive, as was also James Ross, the constable of the town, with his wife and children. They proceeded to other houses in the vicinity, where they killed some of the inhabitants and made prisoners, of others ; their names are not mentioned. Atwell and Corbin were brothers-in-law, and lived on adjoining farms ; Dur- ham lived on the other side of the river. The alarm was immediately communicated to another part of the town by "one Pike,"? who, with another man, was in his boat on the river a little above Corbin's house. When they heard the re- port of the guns they suspected some mischief, and immedi- ately turned back ; they soon saw an English boy running toward the river in great haste, and a volley of shot was fired which passed over their heads. Simon presently appeared and called to them to come ashore, "but they liked not his curtesy,"
1 He was the only son of Michael Mitton, and died without issue.
2 Richard Pike lived on the west side of Muscle Cove ; he had a son Samuel. A Captain Pike commanded a coaster between Boston and Falmouth in 1688.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND).
and passing down the river with all speed, when they came near to their own house they "called to the people to make haste away toward the garrison-house, and bid the rest look to themselves and fire upon the Indians that were coming against them."
These Indians, or some of their party, went over upon the Neck, where they shot John Munjoy, the eldest son of George, and Isaac Wakely, probably a son of Thomas. Three men who were going to reap at Anthony Brackett's, having heard from Munjoy and Wakely of the transaction there, left them to return, when hearing the guns, they turned toward Thomas Brackett's, who lived near Clark's Point, where they had left their canoe, having probably crossed over from Purpooduck. Here they saw Thomas Brackett shot down, and his wife and children taken ; they then made their escape to Munjoy's gar rison at the lower end of the Neck, which had become a place of refuge. Megunnaway, "a notorious rogue," who had been engaged with the Indians in Massachusetts, in 1675, was one of the murderers of Thomas Brackett, and probably instigated them to the bloody deeds of that day.
The persons who had found an asylum in Munjoy's garrison, not willing to trust the security of the place, fled the same day to "James Andrews' Island,"1 which lies at the mouth of the harbor. From this place Mr. Burroughs immediately wrote to Henry Jocelyn, of Black Point, for succor. After they had secured themselves upon the island, they recollected that a quantity of powder had been left in one or two places in town, which they were desirous of obtaining, as well for their own protection as to keep it from the hands of the enemy. They resolved therefore to take measures in the night to recover it. They succeeded in the attempt, and brought away a barrel from the house of Mr. Wallis,2 and a considerable quantity
1 Now Bangs' Island.
2 It is not said which Wallis; Nathaniel lived at Back Cove, and John at Pur- pooduck.
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from a chest in a store-house ; the Indians had ransacked the chest, but had overlooked the powder.
Next day George Lewis, who had remained in his house with his wife, without interruption, got safe to the island, together with two men who had been sent by the inhabitants some days previous to Major Waldron of Dover, to complain of Simon, against whom suspicion had begun to be aroused. George Felt also, who lived near Muscle Cove, having seen the smoke which arose from the burning houses and barns here, had sus- picions of the cause, and took his wife and children in a boat to ascertain the truth ; but when he came to a point of land, probably at the mouth of Presumpscot river, he saw a quantity of his neighbors' goods lying there, which warned him of his danger, and he sought safety upon the island with the other inhabitants.
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