USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from its first settlement: with notices of the neighbouring towns, and of the changes of government in Maine, Part II 1700-1833 > Part 10
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While this course was being pursued to engage the alliance of the western Indians, Gov. Shirley was endeavouring to secure the favour of those in the east, and at the same time to take such steps as in case of failure, would protect the frontier from their incursions. It had been rumored that the French had established a settlement between the Kennebec and Chaudiere rivers, with a view to secure the passes from Quebec to Maine, and to facilitate the march of their forces into New England. This report, although it afterwards appeared to have been unfounded, created great alarm in Massachu- setts and Maine, and the government immediately ordered a body of eight hundred men to be raised to break up the supposed settlement and by suitable fortifications in that part of the country to prevent the inroads of the enemy. Gov. Shirley took the immediate com- mand of the expedition, and to avoid giving offence or alarm to the Indians he invited them to a conference to be held at Falmouth in June, and in the mean time vigorously prosecuted his preparations for the ulterior purposes of the enterprise.
On the 21st of June forty-two Indians of the Norridgewock tribe, punctual to their engagement arrived here : the Governor with a quorum of the council and a number of representatives arrived on the 26th, and were received with great attention.1 On the day after their arrival a public dinner was given to them in the court-house: the town was filled with people. The transports with eight hundred troops had arrived a day or two before under the command of Gen- eral Winslow and had formed a camp on Bangs' island, and it is prob- able that the soldiery contributed to swell the crowd and magnify the parade. The conference was held on the 28th of June; the Gov- ernor asked the consent of the Indians to build a fort at Ticonnet
1 The Governor took lodgings at the house of Jabez Fox, Esq. who was a member of the council; he lived on the west side of Exchange street in a house that had belonged to Phineas Jones. Among the gentlemen present were Messrs. Danforth, Oliver, Bourn, Hubbard, Lincoln, Wheelwright, Mi- not, and Hancock.
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and another at Cushnoc falls,' and proposed to them the ratification of former treaties. They took time to consider these propositions, and on the 1st day of July they gave their answer assenting to the peace, but refusing to grant permission to erect the forts. The treaty was notwithstanding signed on the second of July and on the third it was ratified, when their usual dance took place. The Indi- ans left town on the same day, three of their young men going to Boston, the remainder returned home.2 On the 5th, twenty-five Indians of the Penobscot tribe arrived and the Governor met them the same day in the meeting-house, and on the next closed a treaty in which they bound themselves to remain at peace should hostilities with the French take place. The Governor continued in this neigh- bourhood until July 30, when he sailed for the Kennebec and pro- ceeded to Ticonnet, where he marked out the site of a fort on a point formed by the junction of the Sebasticook with the Kennebec, which when completed was named Halifax. A part of the expedi- tion proceeded up the river to the portage, and seeing no vestiges of French or Indians, they returned without having rendered services at all equivalent to the expense of the expedition. The Governor revisited this town on the 3d September and departed for Boston on the 8th.
This was one of the busiest seasons that our inhabitants had ever witnessed; the town was kept in confusion the whole summer, and for many years after, it was common to refer to the occasion as a measure of time, and the expression "the year that Gov. Shirley's treaty was made," was as familiar before the revolution as " house- hold words." Mr. Smithi after noticing in his journal the departure of the Governor, exclaims, " thus ended a summer's scene of as much bluster as a Cambridge commencement and now comes on a vacation when our house and the town seem quite solitary." One can readily imagine what an excitement must have been produced in town by a collection of the dignitaries of government and the representatives of two dreaded Indian tribes, when he reflects that the village on the Neck where all the parade was exhibited, con-
1 Ticonnet is at the junction of the Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers in the . town of Winslow : Cushnoc is now Augusta.
2 The canoes of the Indians were haled up on the bank where the custom house now stands, the ledge being then entirely covered with earth-The place was subsequently used as a ship yard which broke the ground and the soil has since been all washed away.
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tained but one hundred and forty or one hundred and fifty families, making a population of about one thousand-and that the high offi- cers of government were then invested by public opinion with vastly more reverence and splendor than at present exists. There were few houses in town which could give suitable accommodation to such visitors and those must have been necessarily crowded. Mr. Smith says in anticipation of the event, " we have been painting and fitting up our house for the treaty which is approaching," and June 28 he says, "yesterday and to day we had a vast concourse dined with us at our expense."1
Notwithstanding the precautions of the previous year, the com- mencement of 1755 found all the colonies from Virginia to the St. Lawrence engaged in a war with the Indians, and with the French of the neighboring provinces. As early as April the Indians appeared in Gorham and killed several persons, and all the frontier towns were harassed and sustained injury in the lives and property of their inhabitants. The whole country was alarmed by these attacks and by the appearance of a French fleet upon the coast. The govern- ment was making great exertions to prosecute the war with vigour; but these were spent rather for distant and brilliant operations than for securing the people from the marauding attacks of the savages.
- Two thousand New-England troops sailed from Boston in May 1755 to subdue the French in Nova Scotia, and atchieved a signal victo- ry in June.
Our town had now ceased to be a frontier post and was free from the alarm and dangers to which it had formerly been exposed, it was not however overlooked in the scheme of general defence. The fort at the foot of King-street, which had been repaired in 1742, and furnished with ten twelve-pounders, having been neglected, was again supplied by government in 1755, and placed in a condition for defence. Our people too, notwithstanding they were in a meas- ure removed from the scene of danger, where not unmindful of the exposed situation of the remote towns, and on every occasion when the Indians visited the neighbouring settlements, they moved with alacrity to resist their depredations. In May 1756 a report having
1 Mr. Smith was however compensated at the close of this scene, for he says July 28, "Capt. Osborne sailed for Boston, having paid me near £100 for my house."
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Exertions of Falmouth.
[P. II.
been brought to town that a body of one hundred and twenty Indians were coming upon the frontier and were about spreading themselves from Brunswick to Saco, four companies of volunteers were imme- diately raised from among our people and under the command of Captains Milk,' Ilsley, Skillings, and Berry, went out in pursuit of them. Capt. Skillings marched in the direction of Windham and succeeded in saving the people and property of that place ; he arrived in season to put the enemy to flight soon after they had commenced an attack upon the inhabitants in which one was killed and one wound- ed and scalped. The Indians left five packs, a bow, a bunch of arrows, and several other articles. On another occasion the same year, when a report reached here that the fort at St. Georges was attacked, a number of our young men proceeded without delay to offer their assistance .? In April 1757, Joseph Cox and Mr. Bay- ley of this town fitted out a small expedition on private account, a- gainst the Penobscot Indians, and returned early in June, bringing with them two canoes, a quantity of oil, fish and feathers, and the scalps of two men whom they had killed. The war in our part of the country was carried on in this desultory manner on both sides ; the out settlements were kept in continual alarm by small divisions of the enemy scattered over the province, and lighting, like the wary hawk, wherever spoil was easy to be obtained ; no regular efforts were made by either party.
The war was not formally declared by the English until May 1756, although hostilities in America had commenced two years be- fore ; the king in his declaration states that ever since the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, the French had been making encroachments upon
1 This was Dea. James Milk ; he was born in Boston in 1711, and was by occupation a ship carpenter or boat builder. In 1735 he married Sarah Brown, by whom he had a large family of children ; he was a useful and much respec- ted man, was for many years Deacon of the first church, and selectman of the town sixteen years. He died Nov. 10, 1772; Mr. Smith preached a sermon on the occasion from these words, " Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile." His children were James, who died the year after his father, aged 29, Mary married to Moses Little of Newburyport, Dorcas married to Nathaniel Deering, Elizabeth married to Abr'm Greenleaf of Newburyport, Eunice married to John Deering, Abigail married to Joseph H. Ingraham and Lucy married to John Nichols. These are all dead but Eunice, who was born in 1749 and is now living in Exchange-street. The name is extinct here.
2 The next year in Sept. an aların having been given of a great firing at Georges and it being supposed that the fort there was attacked; one hundred and fifty men mostly volunteers immediately hastened by water to its relief. Smith's Jour.
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War vigorously prosecuted. 93
his American subjects, and had in 1754, without any previous notice, broke out into acts of open hostility and seized an English fort on the Ohio.1 All attempts to procure reparation having been unavail- ing, the last resort of injured nations was applied. The three first years of the war had been generally unsuccessful ; it had been con- ducted at great expense and without much system. But in 1758, under the vigorous administration of the elder Pitt, English affairs both in Europe and America assumed a new aspect and her arms became triumphant. In pursuance of a recommendation from Mr. Pitt, the general court resolved to raise 7000 men for an expedition against Canada ; this was the largest force ever raised by the prov- ince, but the hope of conquering Canada and driving from their neighbourhood an enemy by whom they were exposed to continual fear and loss, stimulated them to an extraordinary effort. About 600 men of this force was raised in Maine, and sailed for Kittery to join the army on the 21st of May. The result of the campaign was very unfavorable ; the principal object of the expedition, the capture of Ticonderoga, failed, and our army of about 15,000 men disgracefully abandoned the seige, and retreated with loss of men and munitions of war, before an inferior force. The ill success may be attributed partly to the fall of the accomplished Lord Howe at the commence- ment of the attack. The effect of this disaster was somewhat dimin- ished by the capture of Louisburg, which capitulated to our arms July 26 ; the seige had been carried on with great spirit, and the garrison did not surrender until they had lost 1500 men, and the town was a heap of ruins.2 The number of prisoners was 5637. The arrival of this intelligence at Falmouth on the 17th of August occasioned great joy, and the people spent the afternoon and most of the night in rejoicing.3 The next year the war was pursued with larger preparations and a more determined spirit on the part of the mother country. The provinces also partaking of the zeal which animated the ministry at home, raised large supplies of men to co- operate in the favourite design upon Canada. Massachusetts raised 6,800 men, of whom 2,500 served in the garrison at Louisburg,
1 This was fort Du Quesne now Pittsburg.
2 There were found in this fortress 221 pieces of cannon, 18 mortars and a large quantity of stores and ammunition.
3 Smith's Jour. Aug. 17, 1758.
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several hundred in the navy, 300 joined General Wolfe before Que- bec,1 and the remainder served under General Amherst, who enter- ed Canada by Lake Champlain, with a triumphal progress, captur- ing in his course the forts at Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Niagara.
It was one of the conditions imposed by the general court in voting the last division of this large enlistment of soldiers, that 400 men of the levy should be employed under direction of the governor to erect a fort at the mouth of Penobscot river. In pursuance of this plan Gov. Pownal went to Penobscot in May2 and constructed upon a point in the town of Prospect, since called Fort point, one of the most substantial and well appointed fortifications that had ever been erected in Maine." Gov. Pownal was accompanied in this expedition by Brigadier Gen. Waldo, who being a large proprietor in the Waldo patent, on which the fort was laid out, was deeply in- terested in the result of the enterprise.
But while Gen. Waldo was pointing out to the governor the limit of his territory in or near Bangor, the bounds of his own life were fixed ; he suddenly fell, and expired in a few moments of an apo- pletic fit.4 The fort was placed under the command of Capt Jede- diah Preble of this town, on his return from Canada in 1759.3
Among the persons from Falmouth who served in Wolfe's army, were Brig. Preble, then a captain, John Waite, afterwards a colonel, and William M'Lellan.
2 He touched in here May 4th, and remained until the 8th.
3 It was called fort Pownal, in compliment to the governor, and cost £5000 which was repaid by England.
4 Williamson 2, 338. Gen. Waldo was son of Jonathan Waldo, a respecta- ble merchant in Boston, who died in 1731, leavi ig a large estate to his five children. He was interested in eastern lands, and his son Samuel was con- nected with him in these speculations. On his death, Samuel came into pos- session of large tracts here and further east. The General was the largest proprietor of land in this town for many years, having purchased the rights of old proprietors previous to 1730. In 1730, he bought 800 acres of the propri- etors' committee, and seized every opportunity to extend his interest here. He was an active, intelligent and persevering man, and spent much time in town. He died at the age of 63, leaving two sons, Samuel and Francis, who lived in this town, and daughters Hannah, married to Isaac Winslow of Rox- bury, and Lucy married to Thomas Flucker of Boston, who were the parents of the late Gen. Knox's wife ; a third son Ralph died young. Gen. Waldo went to England in 1729 to defend the interest of the Lincoln proprietors, and published a pamphlet in vindication of their rights.
5 Mr. Preble had the command of a company of provincial troops in the ex- pedition against Canada, was in the battle on the plains of Abraham before the city of Quebec, and near Gen. Wolfe when he fell. He was subsequent- ly promoted.
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The campaign of 1759 was crowned with complete success by the capture of Quebec on the 17th of September. No event could have produced greater joy in the colonies than this. It had been the place from which, for a long series of years, had issued the de- crees that had armed and let loose upon our frontiers a merciless and remorseless enemy. Various unsuccessful attempts had been made in the previous sixty years, at an immense cost and an extrav- agant waste of life, to drive this power from the continent. Now that the object of the most ardent wishes of the colonists was accom- plished, public feeling swelled to the highest note of joy. Mr. Smith in his journal says, " the country is all in extasy upon the surprising news of the conquest of Quebec." Information of the battle on the plains of Abraham Sept. 13, in which the opposing generals Wolfe and Montcalm were killed, reached here October 14; on the 15th and 16th the cannon at the fort were fired, Mr. Mayo's house was illuminated and small arms were fired in the evening.1 The next evening three mast ships in the harbour were illuminated. The 25th of the same month was observed as a day of public thanksgiving for the brilliant successes of the campaign.
The French power in this country having been thus broken, the Indians, who had fought under it, immediately sought safety by sub- mission to the conqueror; in the spring of 1760, the Penobscots, the St. John's and Passamaquody Indians, and those of Nova Sco- tia, finding they could not, unaided by French power and influence, resist the English arms, entered into a treaty of peace, and from that time forever ceased to become formidable in the northern colo- nies. The conquest of Canada was completed Sept. 8, 1760, by the surrender of Montreal, the other posts of the French having previously capitulated : but in Europe the war was not terminated until Feb. 1763. News of the surrender of Montreal and the total extinguishment of French hopes on this continent, was received in town Sept. 20, 1760, and caused a renewal of the rejoicing of the preceding year: on the evening of Sept. 22, Rev. Mr. Smith's . house and several others on the Neck were illuminated, and a pub- lic thanksgiving was kept for the reduction of Canada.
1 Ebenezer Mayo; his house stood on the west side of King-street, near the corner of Newbury-street. Ile was a respectable merchant and came here from Boston. He left three children, Apphia, Simeon and Ebenezer, the last of whom born in 1764, is still living in this town.
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By the treaty of peace which was signed at Paris, the French ceded all Canada to Great Britain and Louisiana to Spain, and thus took leave of the North American continent ; since which, they have never had foothold upon it, save the short period in the reign of Na- poleon, that they held Louisiana. When it is considered how much blood had been shed, how much suffering, desolation and sorrow had been brought upon the English colonies by the arms and the influence of the French over the Indians, their ever faithful allies, from 1688, we cannot be surprised at the deep and well founded satisfaction with which they viewed the removal of all fear of future alarm and dep- redation from that quarter.
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CHAPTER G.
Population at diferent periods before the revolution-Taxes-Cur- rency-Lumber and Saw Mills-Grist Mills-Trade and Com- merce-Customs and Collection-Wharves-General description of the town and buildings at the time of the revolution-Streets.
The Neck, now Portland, at the time of which we are speaking, was the chief seat of business and the central point of population of the town. It had increased more rapidly than any other part of the territory, and from its single family in 1715, had gone on with a steady progress to the period of the revolution. In 1725, the number of fami- lies in the whole town was 45, of which 27 were upon the Neck, 17 in Purpooduck and Spurwink, and 1 at New-Casco. The next year, although it was the termination of a destructive war, the number of families had increased to 64, beside 13 or 14 unmarried men. By a calculation of six to a family, which may be considered a fair average, the population at that time will be found to have been about 400' Some idea of the number of inhabitants in 1740 may be gath- ered from a remark in Mr. Smith's diary in August ; he says, "an exceeding full congregation and communion, and yet I reckoned more than 60 heads of families that were absent, and many of their whole families with them." This was after the separation of the Purpoo- duck parish, which probably at this time contained more than 100 families.2 In 1753, the third, or New-Casco parish, containing 62 families, was set off, which left to the first parish 240 families, of .
1 At the birth of Peter, the second son of Rev. Mr. Smith in 1731, most of the married women on the Neck attended at the birth, and their husbands, as the custom was, at supper. This anecdote related to me by a member of that family, now no more, shows the small population on the Neck, and at the same time is illustrative of the simple manners of that day. Mrs. Blake, who died at a very advanced age in 1824, said that when she first came here, she could go out after tea and make a call upon every family on the Neck and return home before 9 o'clock.
1 2 In 1745, the rateable polls in Cape-Elizabeth parish were 198 ; the valua- tion of real and personal estate was £7335. 17. Rateable polis were males of 16 years of age and upwards ; they constituted about 25 per cent. of the pop- ulation ; the age for rating polls was subsequently advanced to 18 years, and in 1825 in this State to 21 years. In 1749, the second parish petitioned to be incorporated as a town, and stated in their petition, that their precint was ten miles in length and about five miles in breadth, and contained about 150 fami- lies. In 1742, the number of white polls in Massachusetts was 41,000 ; in 1735, 3,5427.
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Population. [P. II.
which 120 were upon the Neck, 48 in Stroudwater, and 21 at Back Cove. These, at our former calculation would give to the Neck a population of 720 souls, to the parish 1440, and to the whole town, estimating Purpooduck and Spurwink at 150 families, a population of 2712 souls. The number of slaves at this time in Falmouth, was 211 In 1759, there were 136 dwelling-houses on the Neck, beside 4 ware-houses occupied by families, the whole embracing 160 fam- ilies, and making the population of the Neck 960. It appears by a census taken in 1764, that the number of dwelling-houses in the whole town in that year was 460, which contained 585 families, and a population of 3,770.2 In 1774, by an estimate on the polls of the first parish which were then, 481, and which included a few fami- lies at Back Cove, the population of the Neck was a little over 1900.3 In October of the next year, the number of houses on the Neck was 230, some of which contained 2 or 3 families ; if the number of families which occupied these houses was 320, which does not seem to be an unreasonable calculation, we shall arrive at a result similar to the one furnished by an estimate on the polls. In the absence therefore of any certain information on the subject, we may not deviate far from the truth in fixing upon 1900 as the population of that part of Falmouth now included in Portland, at the commence- ment of the war of the revolution.+ The Neck may be called the parent stock which sent out its branches to the remote portions of the territory. The parishes at Purpooduck, New-Casco and Stroud- water, had been successively set off, and a society of Quakers had sprung up in that section of the town which retains the ancient name. The second parish was invested with separate municipal powers in . 1765, under the name of Cape-Elizabeth, except for the purpose of choosing a representative to the general court, for which it remained connected with Falmouth until after the revolution.3
1 3 Mass. Hist. Col. N. S. 97. There were in York 24 slaves at this period, Kittery 35, Wells 16, Scarborough 11, Berwick 22, Arundel 3, Brunswick 3, Georgetown 7, Gorham 2.
" There were 44 negroes not included in the above number; the population of Maine by this census was 54,020. Will. 2. 373.
3 The number of polls at Back Cove in 1770, was 58, belonging to the first parish, who were assessed in the parish tax £48. 12. 11 of £328. 3. 5.
+ In January 1777, the selectmen returned 785 as the whole number of males in town of 16 years and upwards, which included Quakers, negroes and mu- lattos, who were not subject to military duty.
" The King's instructions to the governors forbade the incorporation of
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Taxes.
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Previous to the incorporation of the second Parish, the town and ministerial taxes were assessed in one rate, and money for the sup- port of the ministry was voted by the town ; after the division in 1733, a separation took place in the financial departinents between the town and parish. In 1727, the whole assessment was but £184. 17. 7. lawful money ; in 1730, it was £300, of which £100 were for the minister.1 In the course of a few years the town had become considerably embarrassed by the erection of a bridge over Fore riv- er at Stroudwater, and others over the Presumpscot, and by incurring other expenses out of the ordinary course of town charges, to which they had been stimulated by their enterprising character. To re- lieve themselves from this pressure, they potitioned the general court in 1739 for the privilege of taxing the unimproved lands.1 Liberty was granted them to assess a tax of two pence an acre on all unim- proved land for three years, and the court add, "that no difficulty may arise about said unimproved land, ordered that all land not with- in lawful fence, be subject to said tax." The next year 32,839 acres were taxed under the provisions of that special act. If the petition stated the proportion of unoccupied land correctly, we per- ceive that the whole quantity of land within the limits of the town to be about $6,000 acres.
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