USA > Maine > The history of the state of Maine; from its first discovery, A. D. 1602, to the separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive, Vol. II > Part 47
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461
CHAP. XVII.] OF MAINE.
The expedition planned against Fort Cumberland, St. John's A. D. 1777. and other places about the Bay of Fundy, and the general ren- Four armed vessels sent dezvous established at Machias, were measures, which could not against Ma- be kept secret from the British Admiral at New-York ; and be- chias. fore many of the recruits had arrived at Machias, he sent the
gregational church was gathered in 1807, and Rev. John Lord settled .- In 1826, there were in town a printing office, a Bank edifice of granite front, a bank of $50,000 capital ; 40 stores; seven ship yards; eight mills of different kinds, and a ropewalk 600 in length. Here is the STATE's PRISON, built of split granite, since the Separation, situated northerly of Mill river, 200 rods from its mouth .- In Thomaston is an inexhaustable bed of Lime-rock, which has been burnt into the best of lime from year to year since 1734; perhaps annually for the last 10 years, 50,000 casks. Connected with this business is the manufacture of Marble, which abounds and which has been wrought into beautiful slabs for chimney pieces, hearths, grave-stones, &c. The manufacture was commenced by Mr. Dwight in 1809, and in 1825, there were two mills and factories of it, in which 200 saws were in motion, and 12 or 15 men constantly employed, by whom 4 or 5,000 superficial feet of polished marble is wrought in a year. There was also a factory of Woollens and Linens established on Mill river in 1814, 60 feet by 40 and four stories high-costing $20,000 .- Among the inhabitants of this town, have been several eminent men. Ma- son Wheaton, a connexion of General Thomas, its first representative to the General Court, elected in 1781, and a Colonel in the war of the rev- olution ; John Puine, a most enterprizing trader, who in the single year of 1820, paid $170,000 duties on imports ; Mr. Healy, an extensive ship-build- er ; and David Fales, who removed to the fort from Dedham in 1763,-a physician, schoolmaster and surveyor of lands. Employed by Mr. Fluker, son-in-law of General Waldo, as agent, he became attached to the same politics. But the most distinguished inhabitant of this town was Major- General HENRY KNOX, commander of the artillery in the American revo- lution. He was born in Boston, July 25, 1750. With a common school education and a taste for military science, he stood forth, in 1774, among those ardent sons of liberty who blazed in the cause of their country. He was Secretary of war from 1785 to 1794. In the years 1793-4, he built his elegant mansion house in Thomaston, not a great distance from the bank of St. George's river, at the great bend, near where the fort stood. Its style of building, its piazzas, its balconies, its farm, summer, and out- houses, and its appendant gardens and walks, formed a seat which far sur- passed in beauty and commodiousness, any other in the State. It cost more than $50,000. He married the daughter of Thomas Fluker, Provin- cial Secretary, and grand-daughter of General Waldo. He died, Oct. 25, 1806, aged 56. His wife, son and 2 daughters survived him. - MS. Letter of Hon. Hezekiah Prince .- Though the post-office was not established here till 1794, there was a mail carried on foot from Falmouth to Thomas- ton, during the last years of the revolutionary war.
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THE HISTORY
[VOL. II.
A. D. 1777. Rainbow, two frigates and an armed brig there, to frustrate the
August. expedition. They arrived in August, and came to anchor at the foot of the narrows, a mile or more below the junction of East and West Machias rivers. They first burnt a tide water mill and took a coasting sloop, and the next day proceeded with her and their brig up the west branch ; and it being foggy, they landed at the " Indian Brim," two and a half miles below the village at the West Falls. Here they burned two dwellinghouses, two barns, and a building erected for a guard house-all near the battery. The barges then towed the brig and sloop to the mouth of mid- dle river in a dead calm, and anchored them half a mile below the foot of the Falls, when it was highwater and towards sun-
They were set. effectually repulsed.
Being briskly attacked on the westerly side by Major Still- man and his party, and on the other by Joseph Neptune, Chief of the Passamaquoddy tribe, the men were driven from their barges on board of the brig ; and before she could be worked down to Indian Brim, she run ashore, and the men to save their lives went below deck. When she fleeted, she received so brisk a fire from the north shore, that her crew could not manage her, and she grounded again ; yet with a fair breeze she at last effect- ed a retreat to the ships at anchor. Every man in the place able to bear arms, was upon the shores ; and when the barges were ascending the river, there were present between 40 and 50 Indian fighters, who raised and kept up a hideous yell ; which being echoed by the white people in the same Indian tone, so reverberated through the forests, as to induce the supposition that they were full of wild savages. Discouraged by these appear- ances, and by the vigor and spirit with which they were resisted, the British squadron in a day or two, left the place ; but the offi- cers published in the war-bulletin, or ' Field of Mars,' a very extravagant account of their expedition ; stating, that they had destroyed two magazines,* full of tanned hides, rice and other stores.
A flotilla of whale-boats enter and take St. John.
But the exaggeration produced a result highly favorable to the safety of the place, for it was not afterwards considered by the enemy, as worthy of another visit during the war .- Soon after
* These must have been the grist mill and one of the houses burnt, which had been occupied by a shoemaker, where they saw some leather and skins .- MS. Letter of Hon. Stephen Jones.
463
OF MAINE.
CHAP. XVII.]
their departure, a large party proceeded from Machias to the river A. D. 1777. St. John in whale-boats, in which they passed through the Falls and took possession of several houses on the western shore, and Make an un- occupied them as barracks. Two whale-boats carried another attempt up- successful on Fort party into Chignecto Bay, commanded by Captain Eddy, who Cumber- made another unsuccessful attack upon Fort Cumberland. How- land. ever, to prevent the Americans from continuing in the bay or visiting it for the purpose of plundering thie towns on its borders, the Vulture sloop of war was stationed between Annapolis and St. John's ;- nay, she actually "came into the harbor of the latter, while the Machias party were at their head-quarters above the Falls." Indeed, few of those towns could be secured from depredations, as whale-boats might easily pass ships of war in the night and in the fog. But though Fort Cumberland was not captured, the same or another party visited the harbor of Pictou, where the men seized a valuable armed merchant ship- which was afterwards recaptured. The British in Nova Scotia were so highly enraged towards those, who had retired to the United States, that they even ordered back a cartel arriving at Windsor with prisoners, to be exchanged for the families of the refugees, declaring those families should be removed to Halifax .*
In the language of Judge Jones, ' it was an immense advantage The eastern ' to the inhabitants eastward of Penobscot, that the great majority tached to Indians at- ' of the Passamaquoddy and St. John's Indians joined with us in- States. the United ' stead of adhering to the enemy ; for had they been against us and ' been set on by the British to plunder our towns and settlements, ' the whole population in this quarter must have been destroyed. ' Great credit is due to the Indians for their rigid adherence to 'our cause ; although at times, the commissary's department was ' destitute of sufficient provisions and clothing for them. In con- Recruits ' sequence of the attack on Machias,' he adds, ' several companies berland from Cum- ' of Militia, some of them from the western part of Cumberland County.
' County, were ordered out; and all of them tarried until the ' latter part of the autumn.'
There were memorable rencounters of the contending armies, Battles this this year, at Princeton ; at Brandywine ; at Germantown ; and at surrender of
year, and Red Bank; yet it was only the surrender of General Burgoyne and his army, October 17, at Saratoga, which diffused any exulta-
* | Halliburton's N. S. p. 258-9 .- Chubb's Sk. of N. B. p. 108.
Burgoyne.
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THE HISTORY
[VOL. II.
A. D. 1777. tions of joy through the United States. This was a great victory ; for it compelled more than nine thousand of our enemies to lay down their arms,-it reflected upon General Gates and his troops great glory, *- it averted all danger of an invasion from Canada ; -the theatre of war afterwards was confined to the southward, -- and within four months, an alliance with France was happily con- cluded.
The eastern seamen.
Commodore Tucker's success.
No part of the Union, it was justly acknowledged, could produce braver or better seamen than the towns upon the eastern shores. They were hardy, skilful, and bold ; of good character and hab- its. The water was their wonted element, and many enlisted into the navy ; also numbers entered the privateer service. To Commodore Samuel Tucker, since an inhabitant of Bristol, in this State, was given the command of a Continental Frigate. A. D. 1778. Having on board, in February, 1778, Hon. John Adams, the American Envoy to France, he fell in with an English frigate which he fought with the undaunted courage of a veteran, confi- dent of success ; then manoeuvreing with incomparable valor and skill, shook off his antagonist, and finished his voyage in safety. In the action, the intrepid Minister was bold and active to a de- gree, which drew from the Commodore rough mandatory expres- sions of caution-yet not otherwise affecting his illustrious friend, than to inspire still more his energy and exertions.
New consti- tution pro- posed.
In the preceding May, the General Court directed the towns and plantations to "instruct their next representatives, in con- " junction with the Council, to form such constitution of govern- "ment as they should judge most conducive to the public hap- " piness ;"-which when formed, was to be ratified by the peo- ple, convened in their respective towns throughout the State. Accordingly a committee of twelve was appointed in June ; and they reported a draft in January, which was submitted to the people for their acceptance, at the March town-meetings, A. D. Rejected by 1778. But still it was not ratified, for several reasons :- it con- the people. tained no declaration of rights ; it made the Governor the Presi- dent of the senate, and the Lieutenant-Governor a mere mem- ber ; it limited the number of senators, besides those two officers
* British force, surrendered, was 6,280; Burgoyne's other losses, 2,933, -total, 9,213 .- 2 Holmes' A. Ann. p. 391 .- When he returned home on pa- rol, his Sovereign refused to see him. The captured army proceeded to Cambridge, (Mass.) where they tarried a year or more.
465
OF MAINE.
CHAP. XVII. ]
to twenty-eight; it provided for choosing the Judges of the A. D. 1778. Courts by the legislature ; and it was thought not to have settled upon a just and equal principle of representation .*
There were two towns incorporated early this year, COXHALL Two new [LYMAN,] March 11; and GRAY, June 19 ;- both respectable towns incor- plantations. porated.
The title to the town of Coxhall, or Lyman is derived from Sagamore Fluellen's deed, A. D. 1660, to John Saunders, John Lyman. Bush and Peter Tarbitt, who sold their claim in 1668 to Harlac- kindine Symonds. This man afterwards conveyed the territory to Roger Haskins, and thirty-five others, under whose proprietor- ship, the town was first settled in 1767.f
Gray, hitherto managed as a " propriety," was granted by the Gray. General Court, A. D. 1735 ;- being afterwards called New-Bos- ton, because most of its proprietors had their meetings and dwelt in Boston. It is believed a settlement was attempted in 1750 ;- certainly a fort and meeting-house were built in 1755, near the centre of the township ; though it was, during the French war, mostly destroyed, and the plantation laid waste. It was never- theless effectually revived in 1762 ; and in August, 1774, a con- gregational church was formed and Rev. Samuel Nash ordain- ed.į
* See this constitution .- 2 Bradford's Mass. p. 349-62.
t Lyman is the name given to the town, Feb. 26, 1803 .- The people in their parochial affairs were at first connected with Alfred and Sandford. Their first church was formed in 1780. But in 1787-8, they began to asso- ciate as a separate people, from those in the other towns; and in 1801, they settled Rev. Jona. Calef. The baptist society settled Elder Simon Lock ; and each parish has erected a commodious meeting-house. It was first represented in the General Court, A. D. 1786 ;- John Low, Esq. having been its representative 30 years .-- Lyman is the 38th corporate town in the state. [See Sandford, ante A. D. 1768 .- MS. Let. John Low, Esq.] It is believed, its present name was chosen in compliment to Theodore Lyman, Esq. of Boston, originally of York.
# Gray, [the 39th town] so named for one of the proprietors, has one congregational parish accommodated with a convenient meeting-house. Mr. Nash, the first settled minister, was succeeded by Rev. Sam'l Perley, whose pastoral charge was continued from 1784 to 1791. There are in town also, methodists, baptists and some universalists; a school fund ; a social library ; six mills; and a woollen factory .- Little pond is partly in Gray and partly in Windham ; and Goose pond is in the corner of the two VOL. II. 59
466
THE HISTORY
[VOL. II.
A. D. 1778. Both the ministers and people of these new townships, were in The country high estimation with the government ; for they were all ardent people, whigs. friends of liberty. The Tories lived in the older and more op- ulent towns ; and in September a law was passed, by which the estates of 310 persons by name, late inhabitants of the State, Property of absentees confiscated. were all confiscated. Only seventeen of these mistaken men, however, dwelt in Maine ; and all of these belonged to Falmouth except one, who resided in Pownalboro' .* As they had retired to the enemy, they were called absentees ; and the several Judges of Probate, as authorized by law, appointed agents, to administer upon the estates, as if the late possessors were in fact dead. Copies of the confiscation or " absentees' act," were transmitted to every legislative assembly in the Union ; and also to Hon. John Adams, our minister to the court of France. Should any absentee return, he was to be arrested and transported to the do- minions or some military occupation of the enemy ; and on the second return, he was to suffer the pains of death.t
Smallpox.
Paper money.
The greatest occasions of present discouragement, were the prevalence and fatality of the smallpox, which had brought many of the bravest men in the army to their graves :- Also the alarm- ing depreciation in value of the paper currency, which was al- most the only circulating medium in the State. Thirty dollars of bills, which were constantly sinking, were now only equivalent to one dollar in specie ; }-a deterioration which wronged and disheartened the brave soldier, and yet the wisest men could ad- minister no adequate relief or remedy. For both the nation and
towns. Dry-pond is a curiosity. It has no apparent outlet : but has a re- markable embankment, evidently a work of art, a mile in length-the la- bor of unknown hands .- MS. Let. Jeremiah Perley, Esq.
* These were Francis Waldo, William Tyng, John Wiswell, Arthur Sav- age, Jeremiah Pote, Thomas Ross, James Wildridge, George Lyde, Robert Pagan, Thomas Wyer, Thomas Coulson, Joshua Eldridge, Thomas Oxnard, Edward Oxnard, John Wright, and Samuel Longfellow, all of Falmouth, and Charles Callahan of Pownalboro' .- Statutes, 1778.
t There was a Commissioner appointed in each county to enquire after absentees' lands, and make lists and returns of them to the Secretary's office ;- in York county, Tristram Jordan ; in Cumberland, John Wait ; and in Lincoln, Rowland Cushing, were Commissioners.
# There were given $6 for a shirt or pair of stockings ; $7 for a pair of shoes ; and in 1780, it was voted in one town to raise a sum of money suffi- cient " to purchase 1780 lbs. of beef at $5 a pound."-Eaton's Narrative, p. 18.
CHAP. XVII.]
OF MAINE.
467
the several States were without money or pecuniary funds. The A. D. 1778. despondency at this interval, however, was happily counteracted Battle of by the brilliant successes of the American arms in the battle of Monmouth. Monmouth, June 28; and by the arrival of Admiral Count Arrival of d'Estaing with a French fleet of 12 ships of the line and 6 fleet and a French army. frigates, with a considerable army .* The ultimate and entire es- tablishment of American Independence, and the co-ordinate po- litical rank of the REPUBLIC, among the nations of the earth, were after this, in view of the most intelligent statesmen, envel- oped with few or no doubts.
Congress, having by resolves, assumed appellate jurisdiction of all maritime causes, as incident to the rights of making peace and war, divided the state of Massachusetts into three districts, the southern, middle and northern ; the last embraced the three Maine con- eastern counties of York, Cumberland and Lincoln, and acquir- stituted a ed a distinctive name-the " DISTRICT OF MAINE ;" which it re- a maritime tained till the Separation. The Judge of this district was TIMO- tablished. Court es- THY LANGDON, Ese.t a lawyer of considerable eminence, who resided at Wiscasset ; and Nathaniel Thwing of Woolwich was clerk. The General Court conceded the jurisdiction to Con- gress, and authorized an appeal from the State Courts to that Body, or its tribunals, whenever the subject of a foreign power in amity with the United States, claimed a vessel or cargo cap- tured or libelled ; unless he chose to waive his right of appeal, and have his trial in the Superior Court of the State. The Judges of the Maritime Courts were also Judges in Admiralty ; but all persons charged with piracy or felony upon the high seas, were triable by any two Judges of the State, and the Admiralty Judge residing within it.
The fortieth and last town established by the General Court un- der the royal charter, was PITTSTON ; incorporated Feb. 4, 1779, Pittston in- which embraced at the time, both the present town of that name and Gardiner.] Our few succeeding observations will be con- fined to Pittston since the disunion. It was a part of Plymouth Patent, and the name given it was either in compliment to Pitts,
A. D. 1779.
corporated.
* The fleet arrived off Newport in July. La Fayette had been in Amer- ica several months. The treaty with France was signed Feb. 6, 1778. + See post, A. D. 1790.
# See Gardiner, incorporated Feb. 17, 1803 .- 3 Special Laws, p. 92-3.
District and
468
THE HISTORY
[VOL. II.
A. D. 1779. one of the proprietors, or to Sir William Pitt, a well known friend in Parliament to the late Colonies. The settlement was commenced by James Winslow and Ezra Davis in 1761. Doct. Sylvester Gardiner was the principal owner of the soil,-conveyed to him by the Patent-proprietors, and he presently built mills on Eastern river in Pownalboro'; also two dwellinghouses on Swan Island, and others in Pittston. Naumkeag, a small mill stream, in the lower part of the town, which empties into the Kennebeck, opposite to an Island of that name, was formerly celebrated, in consequence of the great though unsuccessful endeavors, made to limit the south line of the Plymouth Patent on the easterly side of the river, at that place .*
The Penob- scot coun- try.
The settlers upon the banks of the Penobscot and upon the shores eastward, attracted at this juncture the particular notice of the enemy, as well as the perpetual regard of the government. The British commanders had become sensible, that they were suffering considerable losses from the American cruisers and pri- vateers in these waters; owing to their minute acquaintance with all the harbors, which their vessels could at any time make, with convenience and safety. The enemy perceived the advan- tage, and believed, by establishing a military post in this quarter,
* In Pittston is Wolomontogus stream, emptying into the main river at the north-westerly corner of the town, a place, where in former times, alewives crowded together in such shoals that, " bears and even swine have been known to devour them from the water-side." There are in the south-easterly part of the town the ' Pebble Hills,'-which are ridges as clear of earth, as if washed and cleansed by running water. Some have been so infatuated with the notion, that there are precious metals hidden, or bedded below the surface, that they have dug more than one hundred feet for them, and are not yet discouraged. The town was first represent- ed in the General Court in 1799, by Henry Dearborn. In 1820, there were in town 162 dwellinghouses ; and two meeting houses, one for methodists, and one for congregationalists. The first congregational church was gath- ered in 1812, when Rev. Mr. Kendrick was settled, whose ministry was continued eight years .- Relating to "Nahumkee," " Nahumkike," or " Negumkike," there were taken in 1752-3, the depositions of Thomas Johnson, Joseph Bane, Jabez Bradbury, Philip Call, Obadiah Call and James Colliar .- Bane testifies, that he was with the Indians seven years and ten months, and learned their language, and there was a place called " Nahumkeeg brook," and falls on the east side of the Kennebeck, about seven miles above the foot of Swan Island .- Statement of Kennebeck Claims, p. 14-15 .- MS. Let. from Pittston, 1820. See the Plymouth Pa- tent-ante, A. D. 1729-30, where " Neguamkike," is mentioned,
CHAP. XVII.]
OF MAINE.
469
it would command those harbors, the coast, a wide region of ter- A. D. 1779. ritory, and a more ready supply of ship-timber for the royal navy-yard at Halifax ;- it would serve to check incursions into Nova Scotia ;- and it would offer to their ships in stress of weather and at other times, a favorable retreat.
Accordingly General McLane, and about 900 men, embarking June 12. at Halifax, and attended by a fleet of seven or eight sail, pro- McLane
troops take
of 'Biguy-
General ceeded to the peninsula of Major-biguyduce, called 'Biguyduce* and 900 neck, [now Castine,] and landed, June 12, without opposition, possession They immediately cleared away the trees and underwood, and duce. began to make preparations for erecting a fortification upon the They for- high ground, in the central part of the peninsula. Its form was tify. rectangular or square, with a bastion at each angle ; and its out- lines were so drawn as to embrace an area large enough to admit of a block-house in the centre, constructed with apartments for the officers, and barracks for the soldiery. It was intended to en- Three viron the embankment with a deep moat, and secure it by pickets. main under sloops re- Three sloops of war under Capt. H. Mowett,t of detested Mowett. memory, were assigned to this station ; and the rest of the fleet in a few days left the harbor.
Partaking largely of the general alarm, Brigadier-General Prepara- Cushing of Pownalborough addressed a letter, on the 24th, to drive the tions to the General Court then in session, advising an immediate expe- the peninsu dition to dislodge the invaders, before they had time to entrench la. themselves. The important subject had already been considered by that Body ; and directions were forthwith given the Board of War, to engage or employ such armed vessels, State or National, as could be procured and prepared to sail in six days ; to char- ter, or if necessary, to impress in the harbors of Boston, Salem, Beverly, and Newburyport, a number of private armed vessels, belonging to individuals, competent, when joined with the others, for the enterprize ; to promise the owners a fair compensation for all losses and damages, they might sustain ; to allow seamen the pay and rations of those in the continental service ; and to procure the necessary outfits and provisions with all possible de- spatch. Also the Executive Council ordered Cushing and Thompson, Brigadiers of the militia in Lincoln and Cumberland,
* Pronounced 'Bageduce.
¿ He commanded a 20 gun ship of war, the ' Albany.'
enemy from
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THE HISTORY
[VOL. II.
A. D. 1779. to detach severally 600 men, and form them into two regiments 1,200 men for a campaign of two months, subsequent to their arrival in the detailed from the eastern brigades. Penobscot ; and to avoid in any event, the failure of having a sufficient force, Brigadier-General Frost was directed to detail 300 men from the York militia, for the purpose of a re-enforce- ment.
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