USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Freeport > Three centuries of Freeport, Maine > Part 3
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And yor Petrs Shall Ever Pray
Sept. 16, 1686
JERMH DUMMER SIMN STODDARD JOHN FOSTER WALTER GENDALL"
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
This petition was granted and nine families arrived to at- tempt a settlement on the two hundred acres which had been given for that purpose and which extended from the eastern boundary of North Yarmouth to Bunganuc Brook. It is diffi- cult to understand how it could have seemed feasible to try to make successful settlers of these people. Accustomed as they were to tropical life, they were in no way fitted to cope with the cold climate and inescapable hardships of pioneer Maine. It is not surprising, therefore, that with the clearing of a few acres and the planting of about sixteen of them to corn the en- terprise should have dwindled and died.
Samuel and Henry Lane, at their farm on Fogg's Point, had trouble with some Indians about this time. It is related that on July 26, 1688, at sundown an Indian and his squaw appeared and asked if they could spend the night there. They seemed friendly and as darkness was fast approaching the Lanes were willing to accommodate them. In the morning, however, it was not so peaceful, for the Indians at once proceeded to the shore and called out to some Indians who had passed the previous night on Lane's Island. As at a signal five of them left the Is- land and joined the Lanes' overnight guests. At their request fire was given them and they at once started to make a blaze un- comfortably close to the house. One of the Lane brothers re- minded them of the danger of setting the house ablaze and car- rying the coals to the waterside, told them to make their fire there. This act of caution infuriated the Indians, particularly one by the name of Joseph, who savagely struck out at Samuel Lane. But Samuel soon convinced his aggressor that he was much the better man and probably with the idea of getting re- venge, the Indian shouted that he would kill the hogs. He not only made this threat but started towards the animals which were peacefully feeding nearby, swinging his hatchet at them. He was overpowered again and the Indians were driven off without porcine bloodshed but muttering threats. The Lanes lost no time in making complaint to Henry Coombs, who was town constable at the time. He promptly set out after them and with the assistance of John Swarton the fiery Joseph was taken and brought before Colonel Tyng, who fined him for the of- fense. Joseph claimed to have been drunk with rum, which he said he had bought of John Royall, but which the latter said
27
The Second Settlement
had been stolen from his cellar two months previously by In- dians.
This trouble with the natives was a forerunner of trouble of a far more terrible nature, for in the fall of that very year an- other Indian war completely destroyed the town of North Yarmouth.
Nine years later, in 1697, the English and French made peace, signing a treaty at Ryswick and in this way deprived of their unscrupulous allies the Indians also began to think of peace. Accordingly in October, 1698, a commission from Massa- chusetts held a conference with six sagamores, the result of which was a treaty ratified at Mare Point January 7, 1699.
VI
THE FINAL RESETTLEMENT
B Y 1713 all towns east of Wells had been laid waste and one-third of the inhabitants of the coast of Maine had either been taken captive or killed outright by the In- dians. Visited by two wars between the destruction of the set- tlement in 1688 and the year 1713, it is not difficult to under- stand how deeds and other valuable papers were destroyed in flaming houses. And how easily all traces of old and well-known landmarks came to be obliterated, in consequence of which boundaries of land became greatly confused, particularly where bounds had been set by stakes and trees or by other perishable markers. Therefore, in order to straighten out this vexatious problem the General Court in 1700 appointed a committee of seven men: Samuel Sewall, John Walley, Eliakim Hutchinson, Nathaniel Byfield, Timothy Clark, Samuel Phipps and Israel Tay, to examine all claims to land which might be brought to them. For several years they held sessions, looking into the titles in question and entering them carefully in a vol- ume known to us as the Book of Eastern Claims. This has been of great value in locating early owners of land as well as facts re- garding their property itself. Unlike the case of many towns, the records of North Yarmouth were not destroyed and the Town Book containing them was given to the secretary of this committee, Captain Samuel Phipps of Charlestown in 1713.
The time when the settlers started to return to the site of their old homes is set as being around 1715. Five years later, in 1720, there is evidence that a town government of some kind was established, with four selectmen and a town clerk, which made grants of land. The old proprietors, who although they lived elsewhere still claimed land in the old plantation, in par- ticular, were not content with this manner of handling town affairs and May 30, 1722, joined with the resident proprietors in a petition to the General Court, requesting the same settle- ment privileges which they had enjoyed under the plantation form of government of 1680. They asked that in order to suc- cessfully manage the resettlement of the town and other busi- ness a committee be appointed, to consist of five men living in Boston or nearby to take charge of town affairs. It was felt that
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The Final Resettlement
under these conditions the town might be settled more rapidly and efficiently. They also desired that the early records of North Yarmouth, in the possession of Captain Samuel Phipps be given to this new committee.
A month later, June 28th, this petition was granted and a committee appointed of five dependable men: William Dud- ley, Elisha Cook, William Tailer, John Powell and John Smith. As it had been ordered by the Court, the Town Book "be put into the hands of the Committee a fair copy of all be draw out and to North Yarmouth (the original to remain in Boston for the present under the custody of a Clerk to be ap- pointed for that purpose) that attest copies may be given to such as want them," in August Captain Phipps turned over the Book to the Committee. It was not until the following April that this Committee became fully organized. They held their first meeting at the house of John Powell in Boston, where John Smith was elected to the office of clerk. Mr. Powell after- ward moved to North Yarmouth the better to look after town matters, and was given full power to adjust any trouble which might arise.
Indian attacks in the vicinity of Freeport were not over, for in 1722, in revenge for Colonel Westbrook's assault upon their town in Norridgewock, they burned St. George (Brunswick) carrying into captivity some families around Merrymeeting Bay, but whatever of a settlement there may have been in Free- port at this time seems to have escaped.
The Committee on North Yarmouth could do but little un- til after the peace treaty with the Penobscots, which was signed in Boston December 15, 1725, and ratified August 5, 1726, at Falmouth (Portland). Then they systematically set about settl- ing the town. In order that no ancient claim should be inter- fered with by that of a more recent settler all claims of the old proprietors were adjusted and disposed of first of all. Meetings were held and after allotments of thirty-six homestead lots had been made to the old proprietors (at the same time setting off the "Ministerial Lot" for the parsonage, the "Minister's Lot," the school lot and two others for a meetinghouse site) sixty- four lots still remained to be assigned. For in their plan for set- tling the town the Committee had fixed upon one hundred families as being the suitable number of inhabitants. These
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
sixty-four parcels were to be distributed through the drawing of lots, of which Rowe writes: "The method of drawing may be interesting. The names of the remaining lots were written on folded slips of paper and placed in a hat. In another hat were placed in like manner the names of all who were to participate in the drawing. A number of a lot and a name were drawn from both hats simultaneously thus deciding without prejudice the future homestead of the proprietor."
In order to obtain a deed to his home lot and to share in the after division each proprietor was required to build and well finish a dwelling house before the first of June, 1729. He was also to clear and fence five acres of his home lot and to live in North Yarmouth, either personally or to be represented by an able-bodied man, who was to make his home there until the ex- piration of the designated time. These were anything but easy terms for the proprietors who had drawn lots of inferior land and the greater part of the lots seemed to be of this nature. It is not surprising then that in March, 1730, there were but forty- one completed houses, whether well finished or not is debat- able, and twelve frames. All expenses, including building the meetinghouse, paying the minister's salary and the cost of sur- veying the lands, were met by a tax upon the home lots or rights. Of necessity the people were poor and the complaint arose that the minister, surveyors and carpenters were not promptly paid for their services. In addition to their home lots the settlers were eager for more land to improve, while at the same time the dread of Indians kept them back from leaving the comparative safety of the shore. In the representation which thirty-two inhabitants in 1731 sent to the General Court in regard to the division of the common lands, this fear is ex- pressed thus: "Whosoever's fate it is to have their lots at four or six miles distance, and perhaps poor land, near the head of the town, will not go to work on them, except they intend to starve."
On February 22, 1733, the Committee gave a detailed ac- count of their work in a report made to the General Court. The record of land which had been confirmed to the old proprietors of Freeport, as embodied in this report is as follows:
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The Final Resettlement
"One other grant of land made to the heirs of Mr. Richard Dummer, by the Hon. Thomas Danforth, Esq., when pres- ident of the Province of Maine containing not more than nine hundred acres at a place called Flying Point and To- bacco Point, as per the grant under the seal of the colony and the plat thereof doth appear. And other claims, altho' no legal grant appears, by reason of the many Indians wars and the destruction of persons and papers, the com- mittee on view, and consideration of ancient settlements have thought just and reasonable to allow and confirm; As particularly a neck; formerly called Sheppard now Harrisicket on which there were Three houses built, orchards planted and improvements made. So much there- of the committee have confirmed from the point upwards as two hundred and sixty three acres, as the same has been conveyed and platted out to the heirs and legal repre- sentatives of Thomas Sheppard and assigns forever. As also four acres of salt marsh lying up said Harrisickett river on the east side thereof granted to John Sheppard in 1686; as per the original grant appears: four acres more granted to Amos Stevens at the same time and place. And all the remainder of the marsh there on the east side of the river to Ann Stevens, granted at the same time, as per the grants appears there. The committee have allowed and confirmed another neck of land adjoining to the land Thomas Gorge Esq. sold William Royal so much thereof as to make up the quantity of two hundred acres from the point, the committee have allowed and confirmed to the heirs and assigns of Arnold Allen, the first grantee from the said Thomas Gorge which land is now in the possession of Offen Boardman or his tenants. One other farm of one hundred and sixteen acres, known by the name of Red- dings farm, the committee have allowed and confirmed to the heirs and assigns of J. Redding."
The subject of recompense for the Committee is then taken up and it is set forth that:
"whereas the proprietors have once and again manifested their desire and have voted the same as much as in them
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
lay: that the committee and Your Excellency's and Honour's Reporters might be well and honourably re- warded for their pains care and trouble in the manage- ment of the resettling of the town, the committee do therefore report that they have given, granted and con- firmed unto the Hon. William Tailer ... and the Hon. Elisha Cooke, ... a certain island known and called Little Chebasquadegan containing five hundred acres more or less, and to be in equal halves or moiety and to be divided accordingly. The committee have given, granted and con- firmed unto William Dudley, Esq., ... a certain island known by the name of Little Damaris' Cove containing one hundred and fifty acres more or less. And the commit- tee have further given, granted and confirmed unto said William Dudley, John Smith, John Powell and Mr. Tim- othy Prout, and to be equally divided amongst them . . . one island known by the name of Birch Island, containing one hundred acres more or less. One other island known by the name of Bustain island containing sixty acres more or less. One other island and a small island adjoining at low water known by the name of Goose or Hope islands containing one hundred and forty acres, more or less, and the piece of common land lying westward of the town bounds at Bungomug River to the land (made mention of in this report) granted to the heirs of Mr. Richard Dum- mer, and four hundred acres to the westward of said Dum- mer's land and bounded therewith and the lots No. 46 & 48, in the range marked." Mr. John Powell was also given "a small island known as Basket island, containing five acres more or less."
"Finally the committee propose that they may be dis- missed and the town have the powers and privileges of other towns. And that the common and undivided lands be hereafter managed, divided, improved and disposed of by the proprietors according to their interests, there be- ing now one hundred and five as aforesaid and not by the town as such. .. . "
This report was accepted and April 6, 1733, the General Court passed an order authorizing Samuel Seabury of North
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The Final Resettlement
Yarmouth to call a meeting of the inhabitants "to chuse Select- men, Constables, and other ordinary Town officers to manage the Presidential affairs of said town," and pursuant to his war- rant, a meeting was held in the old meetinghouse May, 1733. This formal town meeting was a significant one for it marked the beginning of an independent and self-governing North Yarmouth.
About four years later the town was called upon to deal with a foe as dangerous in its decimating power as the Indians. This was the terrible "canker or throat distemper," which spread from New Hampshire to Maine and of which Parson Smith writes in his Journal under date of May 1, 1737: "The dis- temper is now bad in North Yarmouth." And again later in the same year: "December 1, We have melancholy accounts of the sickness at North Yarmouth." The following year he also notes that on June 27: "The canker distemper is broke out .. . and at North Yarmouth."
VII
MEANS MASSACRE
N 1747, the Indians captured Joseph Knight of Windham and carried him into captivity in Canada. He remained there long enough to learn the language and ways of his captors so that when he was made prisoner for the second time in February, 1756, he was able to discover their plans without arousing suspicion. He soon learned that a large war party was to surprise the English settlements from Brunswick to Saco and made up his mind to warn the threatened people. Allowing the party a few hours' start he took what food he could and fol- lowed the trail until he found the Indians at a place on the eastern bank of the Androscoggin, which he recognized as the site of the camp made at the time when he was captured. Here the party divided and Knight started in the direction of Fal- mouth to give the alarm. Parson Smith in his Diary records his arrival under date of May 10: "This morning we are alarmed with young Knights who escaped from the Indians three days ago and got to North Yarmouth this morning, who brings news of one hundred and twenty Indians coming upon the frontier who are to spread themselves in small scouts from Brunswick."
It was one of these "scouts" which brought about the Means Massacre. The date of this has been a disputed point but there are two facts which seem to leave no question but that it happened on May 10, 1756. One is that a company of soldiers sent from North Yarmouth and Casco found the Indians' camp- ing place deserted on May 11, showing that they had com- pleted what they set out to do and had gone back to Canada. The other is an epitaph in a Brunswick cemetery, which ac- cording to Old Times reads as follows:
"Thomas Means, Died May 10, 1756, aged 33."
In May, 1756, Thomas Means was living in a log cabin situ- ated near the shore, just above Little Flying Point, on the farm now owned by Carl Ulrickson. An Indian raid was in progress and the outlying settlers had been warned to take refuge in their garrison houses but the Means family decided to wait until the next morning before going to the safety of the gar- rison house on Flying Neck, situated on the farm now owned
35
Means Massacre
by Henry Nudd, but then probably owned by Reuben Brewer. The distance in a straight line was a scant half mile but some circumstance induced them to take the risk of delay.
The family consisted of Thomas and Alice Means, the parents, Alice, Jane and Robert who were their children, Molly Finney, the sister of Mrs. Means and a hired man named Martin. Shortly after daybreak an attack was made on the cab- in and Thomas Means was killed. At the time of the attack Mrs. Means was holding Robert, aged eighteen months, in her arms. A second bullet passed through the infant's body, killing him and then entered his mother's breast, where it remained as long as she lived. While this was taking place Martin, in the loft above, was searching for his gun, mislaid in the dark. When he found it he fired into the group of Indians, wounding one of them. The enemy, uncertain regarding the force opposed to them, retreated but forced the child Alice and Molly Finney to go with them. Alice eluded her captor but Molly Finney, aged sixteen, made the long journey to Quebec, where she was sold to a Frenchman and forced to serve as housemaid until Captain William McLellan of Falmouth, now Portland, discovered her and aided her to escape on his vessel. Tradition says that Miss Finney was a handsome, high-spirited girl and made the Cap- tain an excellent wife, for they were married after their return.
The little girl, Jane, hid in the ashpit during the attack and she and Alice reappeared unharmed when it was safe to re- turn. They found Thomas and Robert Means dead and their mother wounded. The family was taken to the garrison house and there some months later Mrs. Means gave birth to a son, Thomas, who lived to serve in the Revolutionary army and lived in Freeport for over seventy years, dying in 1828.
Jane Means married Joseph Anderson, of Flying Point and Alice married Clement Skolfield of Harpswell. Mrs. Means, for her second husband married Colonel George Rogers, who afterward lived in Freeport.
In 1932, a pageant reproducing the Massacre was given on the site where it had taken place, before an audience of a thousand people. Nearly all persons taking part were de- scended from one of the originals, either Thomas, Alice, Jane or Mrs. Means, through her second marriage to Colonel Rogers.
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VIII
SETTLERS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
P ASTOR REUBEN NASON wrote in 1816 that the Manns, An- dersons, Chases, Jamesons and Meanses came from the North of Ireland. As all of these families settled in the Flying Point section of the town it is probable that they came about the same time, perhaps between 1730 and 1750. Gideon Mann was the pioneer of his family, James Anderson of the Andersons; Benjamin Chase of the Chases; James Jameson of the Jamesons and Thomas Means of the Means family. Thomas Coffin, who also lived on Flying Point, came from Newbury, Massachusetts. As his name does not appear on early petitions he may have been a later comer as was Silas Wentworth, who probably came in the 1760's.
The earliest of these petitions is as follows:
"The following dwellers at Flying Point petition 7 March 1763 for a road from Bunganock, or the town line, to go to mill and meeting and other conveniences.
JACOB ANDERSON BENJAMIN CHASE SILAS WENTWORTH
JOHN RAE JAMES JAMESON SAMUEL JAMESON"
MATTHEW PATTEN DAVID SEVEY
ROGERS GOOGINS GEORGE ROGERS
JAMES ANDERSON THOMAS CAMPBELL
Evidently these men were more interested in Brunswick than in the more distant North Yarmouth. Perhaps their re- ligious sympathies were Presbyterian rather than Congrega- tional, in which case the Brunswick church was more to their liking.
Eleven years later Flying Point residents again petitioned:
"7 March, 1774 these following protest against being set off as a separate Parish as has been proposed by a num- ber of Inhabitants of Harrisicket.
GEORGE ROGERS SILAS WENTWORTH DANIEL CRUER
JAMES JAMESON EDWARD BRUER JACOB ANDERSON
RICHARD GOOGINS JOSEPH ANDERSON JOHN MANN
JAMES ANDERSON THOMAS COBB JOHN DAY
ROBERT PICKEMAN JOHN HEWEY ENOCH DILL
BENJAMIN CHASE THOMAS CAMPBELL GIDEON MANN"
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Settlers before the Revolution
Edward Brewer is said to have been an early settler on Wolf's Neck, but if so he joined with the Flying Pointers for the occa- sion of this petition. Daniel Cruer seems suspiciously like a misspelling of the name Brewer. As there were early Brewers on Flying Point he may have been one of them.
Parson Nason goes on to say that the Sylvesters, Soules, Townsends, Dillinghams, Curtises and Brewers were from the Plymouth Colony; the Dennisons, Abner and David, from Gloucester and the Mitchells from Boston.
Ambrose Talbot, Henry Parker and Stephen Wesson were early settlers in the South Freeport section; William, Joseph and Nehemiah Ward in the northern part of the town and the Dennisons at Mast Landing. East of the Landing were James Sawyer, Melzor Byram and Jonathan Woodbury. Other set- tlers were Joshua and Abraham Mitchell, William Todd, Moses Cobb, Ezra Curtis, Captain Thomas Curtis, Job Doug- las, Samuel Griffin, Richard Grant, Richard Kilby, Asa Miller, Daniel Pratt, Josiah Stockbridge, Greenfield Pote, Jonathan Rice and Phineas Stevens.
There are two lists of names, both on petitions, of those liv- ing east of the Square which may be considered here.
"1 March, 1782. The following dwelling near and up- on the Flying Point Road, so called, consider its location as inconvenient and expensive to maintain and pray that it may be shut up and that the rangeway may be effectually opened in lieu thereof:
JOSEPH DAVIS MARK ROGERS DAVID COOPER
ABNER DENNISON, JR. EDWARD HOOPER LEMUEL FARROW
NEHEMIAH RANDALL MOSES MERRILL ABNER DENNISON
ICHABOD FROST JACOB WHITE EDMUND CHAPMAN
THOMAS CURTIS, JR.
JAMES SOULE PHINEAS FROST
JOE BENNETT
THOMAS CURTIS BENJ. RACKLEY
WILLIAM MITCHELL SAMUEL GRIFFIN"
ICHABOD SOULE
JEDIDIAH SOULE
Traces of the section of discontinued road may be seen to- day in the form of the abutments of a bridge which crossed the creek flowing out of Carter's Gully, some distance below the present State Aid road. Originally the road ran from Mast Landing in the present location, but instead of turning to the
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
left toward Pleasant Hill went directly ahead down to the bridge just mentioned and then came into the present road near the Litchfield school. This route was hilly and doubtless deserved the petitioners' complaint.
A few new names are introduced in a petition bearing the date of
"7 February 1785. The following dwelling on the east- ern side of the Harraseeket River, petition for a road from the town line to the Mast Landing.
THOMAS BICKNELL JOE BENNETT
RICHARD GRANT
JONATHAN WOODMAN
NOAH PRATT
WILLIAM ATKINSON
ELIAB GURNEY
JOSEPH DAVIS
BENJAMIN CURTIS
GIDEON LANE"
The above was probably the Pleasant Hill road, if we may judge from the names which this petition bears. No doubt there was some kind of a wood road, passable in the winter or used by horseback riders the year round, long before this time. Improved roads were late in coming and at their best very bad. It is said that when the Davis family, ancestors of the shoe man- ufacturers, came they landed in the eastern part of the town and had to cut a way through the forest to their home on Beech Hill. The Davises came originally from England landing on Cape Ann in Massachusetts and from there to Freeport. With them came Joe Edds who commanded the ship which brought them across the Atlantic. He also settled on Beech Hill and married Mary Davis.
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