USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Freeport > Three centuries of Freeport, Maine > Part 7
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This crisis is known as the Aroostook War, but unlike most wars was entirely bloodless. General Winfield Scott, who after- ward commanded in the Mexican War was sent to Maine, to- gether with several companies of regulars and no doubt passed through Freeport with his little army.
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XVIII
THE SCHOONER ZELF AND BARK GLEN
I N our own day industrial life claims many human victims. Indeed, it is said that every story of a modern skyscraper is built at the price of a life. Nor is this waste of life peculiar to our time for our forebears paid a severe penalty at every step made in the advancement of their fortunes. Indians, falling trees and the toll of sailors drowned in shipwreck diminished their numbers but not their courage, even when the loss was most severe.
Three or more men taken from a community in a night must have left a noticeable gap when the area in which they had lived was no larger in population than the Flying Point of a century ago. Yet this happened and there is hardly a memory of the tragedy, except an inscription on a stone in the Little River Cemetery, which means nothing to the casual reader of today. This memorial to John Rogers gives the date of the wreck and we have the story of a long dead resident relating the event as his father told it to him.
It seems that a ship's longboat had been rebuilt and rigged as a schooner by some of the Flying Point men, who knew how to build and how to sail ships. The schooner must have been a tiny craft, but nevertheless the neighborhood loaded it with lumber and wood and sent it with several men to Portland to exchange the cargo for a winter's supply of groceries. The time was late autumn - November 6, 1839 - and when Clapboard Island was reached a storm was raging so violently that the captain, John A. Rogers, decided to anchor and await calmer weather. Probably it was decided that no watch was required for all on board went below and turned in. Some time during the night the little vessel capsized and every man was drowned, trapped in the cabin. News of the disaster reached Flying Point. Captain Thomas Means, home from fishing, offered to go to the wreck in his schooner and mustered a crew of his neighbors to bring back any of the bodies which could be re- covered. He proceeded to Portland, where he sought the assist- ance of a revenue cutter. Together the crews righted the Zelf and took out the bodies of the drowned men. We cannot say how many there were of these, but we are sure of Captain
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Rogers. Tradition says that there were also Captain James Chase, Joseph Bartol and William Lunt but others are un- known. The largest number of men in the crew is given as fourteen but that is probably more than actually sailed.
James Mann, father of Joseph Mann, was one of the local men who went with Captain Means. He told his son that the night of the homeward trip was one of the gloomiest he ever ex- perienced. No doubt it was, with the remains of his friends and neighbors stretched out on the deck of the schooner and the thought of the desolation to which he was returning.
Captain John Rogers left a son, also John, who was a life- long resident of Pleasant Hill and is remembered by many today.
Ten years later there was another tale of the sea and Free- port men.
"Sailed Friday, February 2, 1849, in ship Corsair. Bill of fare, raw beef and rusty pork. Captain a savage," thus reads the diary of George W. Soule, who with others started for the new goldfields of California.
The leader was Clement H. Soule, of South Freeport, while Ambrose Curtis, William Curtis, G. W. Soule, Benjamin Soule, Andros Osgood, Silas Osgood, Henry Green, George Bliss, Gorham Bliss, John Scott, Augustus Randall, Frank Phipps, George Baker, William Pratt, George Pratt, George Pennell, Levi Staples and Jeremiah Bartlett were others of the party. The sea voyage began at Boston and was completed at Chagres, Panama, in twenty-two days. There they transferred to dugouts, which a steamer towed up the Chagres River, a dis- tance of eighteen miles. From this point they traveled in native canoes to the city of Panama, where they booked passage on the British bark Callooney.
To quote again: "Ninety-eight days' passage from Panama Commenced work in mines July 5th one half oz. a day. Did a little washing and dug 4 ounces July 16."
According to Mr. Soule privations, sickness and suffering marked the trip but grit and courage were manifested to a marked degree. It is said that no fortunes were made by the company, although Frank Phipps washed between six and seven hundred dollars' worth in seventeen days. At first all were at Beal's Bar, but in the fall the party divided into smaller
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The Schooner Zelf and Bark Glen
groups, one of which consisting of six men remained at Beal's Bar. Others went south or into the head waters of the Sacra- mento. Many of the men remained in California five or six years and some followed up other discoveries in the British Provinces.
Other Freeport men reached California in various ways. One of the Soule craft, the bark Glen of two hundred and eighty tons, loaded with lumber which was then worth $400 per thousand in San Francisco, started on the voyage around Cape Horn on July 17, 1849. Freeport officers were captain, Charles Small; first mate, George Waite; second mate, one Smith; while Alfred T. Smith served as carpenter. The Glen was new and untried but made San Francisco in one hundred and seventy days. After the cargo was taken off the Glen was navigated to Sacramento, where she was left while officers and crew spent a year in the mountains, mining. In the fall of 1850 Captain Small started back in the Glen, beginning an experi- ence as exciting as any the mines could offer.
Stopping at Iquique the captain loaded copper ore for New York, with an estimated value of $300,000, which in addition to the freight money made a considerable fortune to be carried by such a small vessel. At Valparaiso a new crew was taken on and also a new cook, who may have tried to poison the officers, for all were taken violently ill. Two days out all of the crew, with the exception of three mutinied. Previously the con- spirators had taken all arms, even the captain's pistols, from the cabins. Damp powder reduced the handicap, but Mr. Havens, the second mate, was mortally wounded by a shot which left the two remaining officers to conquer the mutineers.
In the fight that followed Captain Small, single handed, for Mr. Waite was severely injured early in the battle, over- powered the crew and placed the leaders in irons. At the time Captain Small was thirty-four years old and noted for his strength and activity, otherwise the Glen would have been an- other of those vessels which had never been reported. The bark was sailed back to Valparaiso, where the mutineers were put in charge of the United States Consul who sent them to New York. Later two of these men were executed at that place.
The exploit was a feature in the papers of the time and un- derwriters of New York, Philadelphia and Boston presented
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Captain Small with $1,500 and gave Mr. Waite and also Mr. Haven's widow $500 each. The strain so told upon the captain however, that he was forced to give up the sea after making one more voyage.
Gold rushes and sailing were closely bound together, with sailors turning gold miners and miners turning sailors when, penniless, they sought this way of returning home. All of which, naturally, did not make it easy for a ship's officers and the letter received by Joseph N. Porter eighty-one years ago, reveals what one of them not only thought of the whole situation, this going to sea, sailors and gold mining, but clearly and forcibly ex- pressed it on paper.
San Francisco, Ship Stag Hound, J. 17, 1858
Dear Friend Joe:
I received your letter very unexpectedly, as I did not think you would write. We arrived here on the 7th of this month and in good health after such a long passage of 121 days from Boston and with the loss of our foremast, which we lost off the Cape, but do not think we ought to com- plain for about that time a ship went down and another sprang a leak and put in into Rio in distress and sailed from there 106 days ago and has not been heard from since. So you see we have beat everything on the way, even some of our fastest clippers, said to be sailed 2 weeks be- fore we did and they have not got here yet, and by the way, Joe you had ought to be here and to go up to the new mines, for there is the greatest rush you ever heard of. They go from here in shiploads and I think if I could get away from this ship I would go, too, for everybody is leav- ing the city and times is going to be awful. All the sailors in port has gone up to Frazier River, to get gold and sea- men now are getting $40 per month. What do you think of that?
We are here now and expect it will be some time be- fore we can get away for there is not more than a dozen seamen in the city.
Joe, last night I went uptown and heard a young lady sing "Kity Clide," and I thought of you in a minute and the old times we used to have on the farm and going on
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rides, &c. I tell you, Joe, I think of them often and it al- ways gives me the blues like thunder, for here I am, Joe, poor Dvl, way out here and expect to be for the next two or three years, knocking about from here to China and Havanah, and all these places before I go home again and I don't like to think of it.
And I believe you asked me if I had riled any sailors yet. No, I have not, but would like to kill all I come across, for we have had the damdest time with them here you ever heard of. They have sworn death on every officer on board the ship and the first officer is frightened almost to death and has left the ship and stowed himself away ashore some- where and I would like to see him get a dam hammering. The third mate and I go ashore every day and they don't trouble us much.
So, Joe, you see it is hard times here and I am tired of going to sea most but am going to stick it out as long as I can. I wish you was here, I would send you up on the main skysail mast to slush it down every day. I would show you what going to sea was in a hurry, for you know you was talking about going to sea when I left, but I suppose you are married by this time and settled down and, Joe, I want you to name your oldest boy Frank and give my love to your wife.
Now, Joe, I must go on the wharf to receive some bal- last, so I must close for this time and if you will excuse the writing this time I will write better next. I have been about five minutes writing this and stole the time at that, so good bye and write soon, I remain,
Yours truly,
FRANK W. HUSSEY
If "Joe" still wished to be a sailor after reading this letter, he had his wish because a few years later he was in the navy, serv- ing on three Civil War vessels, the steamers Sabine, Ohio and Trefoil.
XIX THE CIVIL WAR
F AROM the beginning of her existence as a separate state, whether she wished it or not, Maine was aligned as an anti- slavery unit. Proponents of slavery insisted upon pairing her with Missouri, thus beginning a series of compromises which eventuated in the Civil War, instead of the hoped for peace.
Maine's constitution in 1820 did not hold color or religion as a bar to citizenship. Slaves were held by some of our inhabi- tants in early times, but not after Maine became a state. The greatest indictment of slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin, was written in Maine and was almost universally read here, so that by 1861 those who had not made up their minds about the system were few indeed and far between.
The shock of the fall of Fort Sumter so aroused the men of the state that they enlisted with the utmost enthusiasm, and regiments of volunteers were early on the scene, taking part in the first engagements of the war. The First Maine, a Cumber- land County regiment, was organized three days after the fall of this fort, and mustered into the service of the United States on the third of May, 1861.
There were no Freeport men in that regiment, but they were represented in nearly every one of the thirty-two regiments of infantry raised by the state, as well as the cavalry, artillery and the navy.
The First Cavalry was organized at Augusta to serve for three years, but remained in service until the end of the war. The organization was actually present at that end, for it was at Appomattox and assisted in causing Lee to make up his mind to surrender. The First Cavalry had a record of thirty battles, beside some minor engagements, serving with Sheridan in the Shenandoah and at Gettysburg. Tristram S. Andrews, James A. Chase, Joseph E. Chase, William F. Chase and Samuel M. Corliss were Freeport men who served in this regiment.
Charles E. Brewer, Samuel Gould, Junior and Shepherd Corey were in the First District of Columbia Cavalry, Second Maine Infantry and Third Maine Infantry, respectively.
The Fifth Maine, which fought at First Bull Run, Penin-
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The Civil War
sula Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Rap- pahannock Station, Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor, had Thomas J. Gurney, Lieut. Andrew G. Lyon and Serg. Alonzo Mitchell; Samuel J. Clark, Junior and James E. Holmes served with the Sixth. The Seventh, which was thanked by General MacClellan in the field for unusual bravery at Wil- liamsburg, had R. N. Field and Francis B. Reed; the Eighth, David F. Farr and Elbridge Stevens. The Tenth was organized at Cape Elizabeth in October, 1861, and was an independent regiment until May, 1863, when the remaining men were trans- ferred to the Twenty-ninth. This regiment was at Antietam and Cedar Mountain and is said to have suffered more fatali- ties in actual battle than any other regiment. There were eleven Freeport men in this regiment: Joseph Brewer, George D. Carver, George W. Johnson, Joseph Lagassy, John Mc- Lason, John Miller, Wallace Milliken, Ferma Montruil, George L. Pinkham, Jerre Sonci and Reuben E. True.
The Eleventh had but two: Thomas Gillispie and Joseph Greenwood.
The Twelfth included sixteen Freeport men of whom four died in service: Serg. James E. Cushing, James H. Day, Eleazer W. Jordan and Moses Merrill, Junior. The latter was a victim of rebel prison treatment. Others were: Andrew Anderson, John W. Coffin, James W. Greene, Augustus M. Haskell, Peter Lane, Greenleaf R. Libbey, Serg. John P. Means, Darius L. Palmer, Eben Patterson, William H. Roberts, Musician, Ed- win A. Soule and William H. Thomas. The regiment fought at Irish Bend and Port Hudson.
The Thirteenth, known as Neal Dow's regiment since the well-known temperance reformer was its colonel, was sent by steamer to Ship Island, Mississippi, in 1862. It is said that the Thirty-first New York was on the same ship and that the hun- gry boys of the Thirteenth used to reverse the numbers on their caps and in this way draw second rations as members of the Thirty-first. The regiment did garrison duty in New Or- leans for a time, then in October was sent to Brazos de Santiago, Texas. There it participated in the capture of Mustang Island and Fort Esperanza. In 1864, the Thirteenth was ordered back to Louisiana for the Red River Campaign and took part in the engagement of Pleasant Hill. Ordered north the regi-
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
ment landed at Fortress Monroe and served on picket and patrol duty until the expiration of the three years' term of en- listment, when two hundred and eighty-two men reenlisted and were consolidated with the Thirtieth. The Freeport men in this regiment were: James H. Banks, Joseph E. Bragdon, Ansyl B. Coffin, Otis L. Coffin, Emerson Dennison, Joseph W. Dillingham, Joseph A. Grant, Marshall Grant, William Gregg, Serg. James H. Holbrook, Robert McFarland, Robert H. Mc- Farland, Joseph Sawyer, Charles H. Soule, George H. Staples, Josiah Talbot and Joseph Wyman. Emerson Dennison, Joseph W. Dillingham and Serg. James H. Holbrook died in service.
E. F. Cross was in the Fourteenth, which participated in the battles at Baton Rouge and Port Hudson.
The Fifteenth was at the capture of Fort Esperanza, Texas, and the battles of Pleasant Hill, Cross Roads and Cane River, Louisiana. John Lane, Corp. William Stack, George K. Sweeney and Corp. Isaac Welch served from Freeport.
There were seven Freeport men in the Seventeenth Maine, which had a record of the following battles: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Auburn, Mine Run, Wilderness, Po River, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopotomy, Cold Har- bor and Petersburg. The seven men were: Albion Allen, Dan- iel Grant, Albert A. Johnson, Cyrus M. Johnson, Clinton Lincoln, James E. Mitchell and John S. Tedford.
The Twentieth Maine had for its colonel, Joshua L. Cham- berlain, who as general acted for Grant at the surrender of Lee's army. This regiment's service at Gettysburg in the fight- ing about Little Round Top may have been the high light of its career, although it gave an honorable account of itself in the important battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellors- ville, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, Petersburg, Welden Railroad, Peeble's Farm and participated in the surrender of Lee. Of the Freeport men who served in this regiment William F. Merrill died at Gettysburg, Frederick Davis in Anderson- ville and Walter S. Grant of disease. Other members were: Isaac D. Brewer, George D. Carver, Ira M. Field, Enoch Grant, William D. King, Fred K. Moulton, Frank H. Reed, William D. Ring, Surgeon William H. True, John Tuck, Caleb Wil- son, George Winning, Second Lieut. Spencer M. Wyman.
The largest number of Freeport men was in the Twenty-
Otis L. Coffin on Veteran's Furlough in the Sixties
A group of Civil War Veterans
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The Civil War
fifth Maine, one of the nine-month regiments, organized when it was hoped that the war would be soon over. On arrival at Washington this regiment was stationed at Long Bridge and remained there until sent north for discharge. A number re- enlisted in other organizations. One man, William Adderton, died in service. Others were: E. P. S. Andrews, Evans C. Banks, Flavius C. Beal, Serg. Henry C. Brewer, Leonard Brown, Ru- fus E. Byram, William A. Campbell, Horace S. Curtis, Nelson Curtis, Joseph W. Dillingham, John A. Dunning, David R. Hawkes, Simeon P. Higgins, Arthur Johnson, Lieut. John C. Kendall, Corp. W. P. Kendall, W. C. Kendall, Thomas Lackey, John A. Lane, Rufus E. Lufkin, John C. Mann, Thomas J. Mann, William C. McFarland, Daniel M. Means, William N. Means, Gilman Merrill, Ansel L. Metcalf, Mark M. Mitchell, Parmenas Mitchell, Lewis Nason, Hiram Nevens, Thomas C. Pratt, Alonzo Randall, Capt. George W. Randall, Frank S. Reed, Albert T. Rogers, Serg. Robert W. Sherman, James W. Small, Benjamin F. Soule, George W. Soule, Joseph H. Town- send, Reuben W. Townsend, Surgeon William H. True, Albert Walker, Timothy P. Walker, Albert Ward, Corp. Albion Ward, Harrison Ward, Henry Ward, Joseph O. Ward, Elias S. Wilson, and Joseph Wilson.
The Twenty-ninth had two men credited to Freeport. They were George L. Donihue and Alonzo Mutter. This regiment fought at Sabine Cross Roads, Cane River Crossing and Pleas- ant Hill in Louisiana and at Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek in Virginia.
Beside recruits there were veterans of the Thirteenth and Twenty-fifth in the Thirtieth Maine. George W. Randall and John C. Kendall, late of the Twenty-fifth, were lieutenant- colonel and captain of Company E, respectively. Other mem- bers from Freeport were F. E. Adams, James Adams, William Angelin, Maciah A. Bailey, William H. Bennett, Charles S. Brown, Otis L. Coffin, Joseph D. Curtis, Harris M. Cushing, Albion Field, Charles Fogg, Marshall A. Grant, Drummer James H. Griffin, Wellington Hill, David J. Jordan, William N. Means, Henry F. Merrill, John H. Plummer, Thomas O. Pratt, William Robbins, Enoch Soule, Edward Stoddard, Granville M. Townsend, Walter S. Townsend, Luther True, Asa W. Webber and Thomas Welch.
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
During the first six months of 1864 the Thirtieth was in the lower Mississippi Valley, taking part in the campaign there. In July the regiment was sent to the Shenandoah Valley and served there until the close of the war. During the year 1864, the regiment engaged in four battles and marched over a thou- sand miles, exclusive of raids and temporary movements from camp.
The Thirty-first Maine was organized at Augusta in March and April, 1864. It was in the battles of the Wilderness, Spott- sylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Welden Railroad, Poplar Spring Church, and Hatcher's Run. Seth O. Rogers and Charles B. Webber served in this regiment.
The Thirty-second, also organized at Augusta, March to May, 1864, was consolidated with the Thirty-first on Decem- ber 12 of the same year. During that short period, the Thirty- second saw as much actual combat as many of the Maine regi- ments, suffering heavy losses, but giving a very good account of itself. The battles in which it engaged were Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Welden Railroad, Poplar Spring Church and Hatcher's Run.
Freeport men in this regiment were Lieut. C. F. Barr, James R. Brewer, Ormond Brewer, Algernon Brown, James Brewer, Clement P. Dennison, Serg. Maj. James L. Field, Floris E. Gould, Joel B. Patterson. Ormond Brewer and Clement P. Dennison died in service.
Captain William Pote Rogers was born in Freeport Novem- ber 4, 1826, and like many other young men of his time, went to sea. He rose to the command of merchant ships and in 1861 was commissioned sailing master in the navy. Assigned to the mortar schooner, William Bacon, he took part in the bombard- ment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, as one of Admiral David B. Porter's commanders, when New Orleans was captured. In 1863 he was given the steamer Merrimac and later the Somerset. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the navy in 1864 and discharged on October 26, 1865. Both Admiral D. B. Porter and Admiral Farragut commended Captain Rogers for meritorious service while under their command.
As a merchantman he sailed over a greater part of the oceans of the world. After he retired he became Socialist candidate for governor. His death occurred July 27, 1904.
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The Civil War
Captain William Edward Dennison, who died in Septem- ber, 1896, aged sixty-four, was the grandson and son of Free- port sea captains and himself had a son who commanded. He began at an early age to go to sea and had shipped in thirty- nine vessels before the mast and up to command. He was an officer of a transport conveying British troops through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea to the battlegrounds of the Crimean War.
As master of the schooner Adrianna he took command and saved the U. S. S. Wyoming, when she was run on shore by a rebel crew in the Gulf of California on July 31, 1861. The loyal officers were unequal to the task which Captain Dennison was able to accomplish.
He entered the service of his country shortly afterward and was placed in command of the U. S. S. Cherokee, which took part in the bombardment of Fort Fisher so effectively that he was commended for his activities. The crew of the Cherokee, led by their captain, took part in the assault upon the fort by land. In the course of duty Captain Dennison captured the blockade runners, Circassian and Emma Henly, said to be the largest prizes taken by the United States Navy.
After the war he commanded the coastwise steamers Frank Jones and Richmond, which are remembered as large and fine craft for their time.
It is almost impossible to reconstruct the Freeport of 1861- 1865, for conditions have greatly changed. What those who were at home thought and felt can be imagined by all who re- member the World War and will be known by those who ex- perience any future conflict. Those who went were the pick of the young men of the period and if any failed to return or came back enfeebled by their wounds or mental shocks, the town was so much the poorer. The Civil War came nearer to settling something than wars usually do, but losses due to Confederate privateers began the decline of our wooden shipping and that finally destroyed an industry in which Freeport had excelled from early times. In the sixties there were no centres of any size in Freeport, save the Square, and the population was more evenly distributed than it is today. The inhabitants farmed or followed the sea and there were no industries of any moment
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
except shipbuilding but most of the men knew some branch of that trade.
With nearly three hundred of their men at war, those who were left did the best they could and the women sewed and pre- pared comforts for those at the front, dreading bad news and hoping for the end of the war. Each battle kept them worrying until definite news was received. The surrender of Lee started a wave of rejoicing which changed to sorrow when word of the assassination of Lincoln was received. Then the last of the soldiers came back from the south and life began to adjust itself.
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