USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 38
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Any information or data which may be of assistance to you in this respect will be gladly furnished upon request.
Sincerely yours, JOHN J. PERSHING Acting Secretary of War
Fortifications
The oldest of the defensible houses was the Garrison on Fort Hill that stood on the Great Rock which formed a conspicuous eminence at Wiscasset Point. It is said that this house was originally the home of Mark Parsons, but when a garrison became a necessity this dwelling-house was altered, flankers added, and the building transformed into a fort.
As has been stated, a century before Pownalborough was incorporated, a settlement had been attempted half a mile north of the Point, where white men for a score of years resided and improved their lands until driven away by the Indian wars. In 1730, it was re-occupied when Robert Hooper and others came here at the time of resettlement. His house being somewhere near the base of the rock, it is believed that the fort here constructed was called Hooper's Garrison for him. This little colony continued to thrive until 1734, when it was made the object of an Indian assault during which attack the set- tlers were compelled to take refuge in the blockhouse.
Jonathan Williamson was an Englishman, one of the earliest and most prominent of the resettling inhabitants at the Point, and a public officer,
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deputy sheriff of old Yorkshire, who was well known to the Indians. Wil- liamson and two others went from this garrison to look for their cattle, when a savage ambuscade of Indians lurking in the alder swamps was laid for him. His companions were suffered to pass unmolested, when the Indians rushed from their hiding places, sprang on and overpowered Williamson, securing his person by main force, but otherwise doing him no physical harm. When Wil- liamson asked the savages the reason of his capture, they replied that the governor of Quebec desired them to bring him a prisoner who could inform him of the movement and plans of the English.32 He was marched to Can- ada, where he was well treated and exchanged in a year.
In this attack on the Point nine head of cattle were killed. Also, there were taken at the "New Towne on the Sheepscot," as it was then sometimes called, one Mr. Adams and two lads, James and Samuel Anderson. James, the father, being killed, they were all taken together and put into prison.33
It was planned in those dangerous days of Indian hostilities to have gar- risons large enough to protect all of the neighboring settlers. Tradition says that "a man returning from the Sevey farm to the Garrison and while about sixty rods distant from it, was shot by an Indian concealed in the forest." Soon after this, two other blockhouses were built, one on Sevey Hill, now owned by Elliot Carleton, and the other on the Williamson property, later owned by William Henry Clark, and at the present time, owned by his great-grand- daughter, Mary Sewall Metcalf. They were respectively, Sevey's Garrison and Williamson's Garrison. Nothwithstanding the proximity of the latter blockhouse to the log hut built by Robert Lambert, who had received fifteen acres of land from the Wiscasset Proprietors, land which was afterward pur- chased by Judge Rice, Lambert and his family went at night for protection to the fort on Garrison Hill.34 Here, too, in this old blockhouse Rachel Silves- ter was born.
This fort was destroyed between 1735 and 1740, and now on the top of the ridge, a litttle further to the north than the site of Hooper's Garrison, stands the Methodist Church.
Some of the old timbers of Hooper's Garrison are said to have been used for the construction of the Elliot house on Garrison Hill, and the size of the beams in the cellar certainly corroborates this statement.
32. Sullivan, Deposition of Jonathan Williamson.
33. See How's Narrative, pp. 134-8.
34. Statement of Frank Lambert.
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Water Batteries, Fort Edgecomb.
Garrison Fort at Wiscasset Point, erected 1730-1735. Site now occupied by church at Fort Hill. Refuge of settlers in savage wars of 1734 and later. Photograph by E. P. McLaughlin.
A REARY
AND THE TONE
BB MARSH, SWORN MEASURER OF TIMBER & IN LIVERPOOL PRESENTS, THESE TRIFLESTO KOLN LODGE AT WISCASSET
1793
The Lost Pitcher of the Masons. Photograph by Brayton.
A HEART THAT CONCEALS,
THE TONGUE
THAT NEVER RIVEUS
The Lost Pitcher of the Masons. Photograph by Brayton.
The War of 1812
Mrs. Sumner Bailey (Margaret McKenney) remembers being told that her grandmother, Rebecca McKenney, used to take her two children and go to the garrison to spend the night when her husband was away on duty at Fort Edge- comb during the War of 1812.
The Hilton Garrison at Montsweag, built before 1740, gave protection to the settlers in the south part of the town. It was built on an eminence on the Woolwich side of the stream, just east of the present state road. It was the scene of the massacre of 1747.
Spotted Fever
In the beginning of March, 1814, as though war were not plague enough, there appeared in this village, without warning or precedent, an epidemic called spotted fever. It was the dreaded disease known as cerebro-spinal meningitis, which up to that time had been an unknown malady here. It rav- aged the little hamlet for three months or more and many eminent towns- people succumbed to its virulence.
Germs had not then come into their own and the more superstitious people whispered that this pestilence was attributable to a dark visitation of Provi- dence, the awful judgment of Jehovah whose seven angels poured out the wrath of God from their seven golden vials on the heads of its victims! The irreligious ones said that the plague lay hidden like a stowaway in bales of rags brought from foreign shores to paper mills in this section of New England.
This disease, which pathologists trace to typhus and marsh poisons, is usu- ally prevalent among children, but in this specific instance it proved to be more fatal to adults. Hon. Silas Lee, who died on the third of March was its first victim. Among those who were sacrificed to the scourge of spotted fever were: Mrs. Abia Smyth, the wife of Caleb Smyth and mother of Professor Smyth of Bowdoin College; Capt. Samuel Parker, the son of Rev. Freeman Parker; Mrs. John Binney, the wife of Capt. John Binney of Hingham, Massa- chusetts, who was stationed at Fort Edgecomb; Catherine Hay, the wife of Capt. John Hay and daughter of William and Sarah Pitt, who died after an illness of twenty-two hours; Mrs. R. Smith, the wife of Capt. R. Smith; three children of Francis Cook, Esq., died within thirty hours of each other; they were Francis Cook, Jr., and Susan, the wife of Capt. John Johnston, Jr., brother and sister who died the same day (May 16, 1814) and were buried side by side in one grave; and Miss Mary Cook, their sister, who died the next day.
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Late in May Mrs. Abiel Wood, wife of Hon. Abiel Wood, and Miss A. Cutter, daughter of Col. Ezekiel Cutter, of military fame, fell victims to this raging epidemic.
Mr. R. K. Sewall records that "for weeks a cloud hung over Wiscasset, while in all of the surrounding towns the sun shone bright and clear. The weather-vane on the old steeple, every morning seemed to be nailed to the northeast, while the pestilence raged unchecked!"
Tar barrels were burned every night in the village in order to disinfect the atmosphere, but the spotted fever continued to be pernicious and fatal until the arrival on the scene of two Hallowell doctors: Dr. Benjamin Page, Jr., and Dr. Benjamin Vaughan, to whose skill is attributed the arrest of its progress and the control which led to its extinction.
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XVI
Organizations, Cemeteries and Banks The Wiscasset Artillery
T HE earliest Maine artillery organization which appears on the records at the State House in Boston seems to have been officially known as "The Corps of Artillery in the 8th Division," the officers of which were commis- sioned October 4, 1787, and their names, rank, and residence are given below.1
Seth Tinkham Captain
Pownalboro
David Payson
Captain Lieutenant
Pownalboro
David Payson, Jr.
First Lieutenant
Pownalboro
William Barker
Second Lieutenant
Pownalboro
Morrill Hilton
Third Lieutenant
Pownalboro
The only other militia division of Maine in those early days was the Sixth, which appears to have covered the counties of York and Cumberland. The of- ficers of the Corps of Artillery in the Sixth Division were commissioned No- vember 8, 1787, their names, rank and residence being as follows:
Joseph Tucker Captain York
John Sweet, Jr.
Captain Lieutenant York
Jeremiah Clark
First Lieutenant York
Theodore Webber
Second Lieutenant York
Samuel Moody
Jr. Second Lieutenant York
When this organization was disbanded is not known but there are a few allu- sions to it among the old newspapers.
Maj. Seth Tinkham had been for several years crier of the courts for this county and had held many offices of honor and trust. He commanded the first artillery company that was organized in Maine.
WISCASSET ARTILLERY
Yesterday morning, before daylight, we witnessed a spectacle which, to the slothful, would be like an idle tale, but to the true patriot and lover of our venerable institutions could excite none other than feelings of gratification that the spirit of our fathers is not yet extinct.
The Wiscasset Artillery Company drew their dreadful pieces from the Gun House I. Porter B. Chase, Adjutant-General, Boston, Mass.
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and moved off toward the field of Parade and Inspection before five o'clock in the morn- ing.
This company now consists of about seventy members, composed, not of dandies and fashionables, but of the hardy Farmers & Mechanics, -most of whom reside out of this vil- lage. It is commanded by Capt. Bradford Holbrook, Joseph Dunton, Ist Lieutenant; Abraham Dickinson, 2nd Lieutenant. Under their command, and apparently by a coinci- dence on the part of the non-commissioned officers and privates, this company has ap- peared several times in our streets, giving evidence of good discipline, martial spirit and firm and resolute determination.
The Wiscasset Artillery Company was organized as early as 1787, as the record shows, and Seth Tinkham and David Payson were among its officers at that date. David Silvester, Jr., Capt. : Ezekiel Cutter, Lieut .; Morrill Hilton, 2nd Lieutenant; succeeded them. Zebediah Thayer held command before the last war, and he appears to have been succeeded by Nathaniel Morse as Captain, with Thomas Brintnall and William Pitt, Jr., as Lieutenants.
The same spirit has been kept alive. Many officers appear to have been promoted who have gone through several grades in this company.2
The first uniformed military company in Maine was the First Artillery Company of Portland, whose organization dates back to June 17, 1791. In I 796 there were in Maine eighteen regiments of infantry and ten companies of artillery and cavalry. For many years subsequent to the Revolution the militia law compelled every able-bodied man between eighteen and forty-five to be enrolled in the militia and they were obliged to train twice a year, one-half day in May and one or more days in September which was the fall muster.3
The Fire Society
The first fire society in Wiscasset was organized in 1794. Its members were:
John Bridge David Payson
David Silvester, Jr.
Foster Cruft Henry Roby
Jonathan Thompson, Jr.
William Foster Wyman B. Sevey James Whittier (1763-1798)
They were all young men, and nearly all of them were engaged in business in Wiscasset. A copy of the rules adopted by them and the ponderous preamble thereto is now in the possession of the present society.
This organization was probably short-lived for some of its members assisted in founding the Wiscasset Fire Society, January 22, 1801.
2. The Lincoln County Republican, Vol. IV, No. 30, September 24, 1842.
3. The Maine Book, p. 316.
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-- 1
Wiscasset Fire Society, 1886.
1803
Wiscasset's First Fire-engine, the second oldest in Maine. Courtesy of Frank G. Trott.
... ...
LE
--
"The Nile."
G. B.Sawye
C.B. Sawyer
Sawyer
- ISO: 1869,
1669.
Buckets, Bag, and Bed Wrench.
Organizations, Cemeteries and Banks
The Wiscasset Fire Society
On Thursday evening, January 22, 1801, at the dwelling-house of Joseph Tinkham, Esq., with Joseph Christophers, Esq., acting as moderator, and John Merrill, Jr., as clerk of the meeting, was instituted the Wiscasset Fire So- ciety, "for mutual safety, protection and benefit," and they agreed to be gov- erned by certain rules and articles, and "to endeavor to promote, on all occa- sions, the interest, happiness and prosperity of each other." The house in which that meeting took place was later occupied by Hon. Jeremiah Bailey.
Joseph Tinkham did not join the Wiscasset Fire Society, probably on ac- count of infirm health, for he died the following year. His brother, Seth, who was an even more notable figure in town during the first quarter of the last century, and their kinsman, Spencer Tinkham, the shipmaster, and Franklin Tinkham, the blacksmith, were all numbered among the founders of the So- ciety.
William Pike was elected clerk at the first meeting, and the records were be- gun in his handwriting. On the second day of February, the clerk purchased "Paper for Printing the Rules & Articles & Covers for D. . o ," and on the fourteenth, he paid "Hoskins for printing 96 copies of the same $6." 4
The copy of that first edition of the rules and articles, which was the property of Hon. Moses Carlton, is now preserved in the archives of the So- ciety, it having been presented to them by the late Isaac Coffin, Esq. This in- teresting little book contains the names of all of the early members of the So- ciety, together with the names of the streets and places where they had their houses, shops, offices, etc.
Founders of the Fire Society
Joseph Christophers William M. Boyd
Franklin Tinkham
Jonathan Bowman, Jr.
David Payson, Jr. Joseph Tinkham Wood
Abiel Wood, Jr.
Moses Carleton, Jr.
Seth Tinkham
Francis Cook Francis Blyth
Ezekiel Cutter
Wyman B. Sevey
Henry Hodge
John Merrill, Jr.
Nymphas Stacy
Samuel Adams
Silas Lee
Spencer Tinkham
John S. Foye
Thomas McCrate
William Pike
The above were all admitted in January, 1801.
4. Taken from the papers of William Davis Patterson.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
The stated meetings were appointed for the first Tuesdays of January, April, July and October, and this custom still obtains. In the little book of Rules and Articles the preamble runs thus:
Article I. Considering that populous towns are ever exposed to distressing calamities by FIRE, and it is the duty of their inhabitants to take such measures as may best tend to lessen them, we the subscribers, agree to form ourselves into a Society, for mutual safety, protection and benefit. ... The object of this Society is to aid in the prevention and ex- tinguishment of fires in the Town of Wiscasset, and particularly by our united efforts to save and protect the property of our members when endangered thereby, and on all occa- sions to promote the interest, happiness and prosperity of each other. .. .
Every member shall provide, and constantly keep together in good order, two leather buckets, and two bags, each bag to be one and a half yards long, and about one and a half yards round, with strings at the mouth, (so that they may be drawn up with greater dis- patch) ; a socket bed-key, and a small bag or knapsack, sufficient to contain said fire-bags, which, when not in use, shall be kept constantly therein; which buckets and bags shall be marked with the first letter or letters of the owner's Christian name, and his surname at length, all of which equipments shall be kept in his dwelling house in the entry near the door which opens to the street that is most public and convenient and the same shall not be used for any purpose excepting fires. . . .
Article 15. At any alarm or notice of fire every member shall immediately with his equipments go to the place it may happen. . .
Article 20. There shall be a watchword, agreed upon by the Society, by which the members shall know each other which shall continue until the Society shall change it. . . The watchword was Safety.
The members of this organization have always been the representative and public-spirited men of the town. This society as a fire company ceased to function many years ago, but as a fraternal and philanthropic institution it has never waned. Their present meetings are of a social and reminiscent character and the betterment of the town has always been of prime importance to its members. Long before the Village Improvement Society was inaugurated, the Fire Society planted trees, mended cemetery fences, assisted the widows of former members and loaned money to those who had suffered loss by fire.
The house of Colonel Sevey, located on the old Sevey farm on the Bath road, was burned to the ground on Thursday, June 16, 1835. The diary of James Hunnewell, whose farm was on the old post-road since known as the McKenney place, shows us that on that day he had a hauling-bee to move to the water a 14-ton fishing vessel called the Sarah Ann which he had built on his farm, that thirty-eight yoke oxen were in the team, and that, when
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the hue and cry of "Fire!" was heard all of the men who were engaged in hauling the boat abandoned the Sarah Ann (the hauling-bee was deserted for the fire-bug) and went to Colonel Sevey's house to help to save his goods.
At the July meeting the Fire Society appropriated a sum of money, "one half to Col. Samuel Sevey and one half to Mrs. Mary Sevey on acct. of their loss by fire."
The funds have several times been divided among the members. The first of such divisions occurred in 1814, perhaps to save it from the British. For the defence of the exposed position of Wiscasset and its shipping, regulars were stationed here and the militia mustered to arms. Their fears were not without foundation, for the British naval forces had made a number of unsuccessful attempts to reach this harbor and capture the vessels here.
At the annual meeting in 1803, the influence of the Society was directed to a matter of special interest to members, when they voted that the selectmen of this Town be requested to put in force the "Vote of said Town Respecting the Engine, Ladders, Fire Hooks, &c." This referred to the vote of the town passed May 7, 1 802, which ran as follows: "That the Selectmen be empowered to purchase a good Fire Engine suitable for the use of said town with Two Ladders & Two Fire Hooks." The Society's efforts to have such a vote carried out were signally successful, for by letter, under date of February 10, 1803, we find the Hon. Silas Lee acknowledging the receipt of information from Colonel Payson, then a member of the General Court in Boston, of the pur- chase of an engine and its shipment by packet.
A fire company was soon afterwards formed, the organization of which is still maintained in Engine Company No. I. Sixty-five years later the owner- ship of this engine passed to the Society, being a gift from the town by a vote duly passed in town meeting, March 30, 1868. This historic relic holds the first place among the Society's valued possessions. With the exception of the fire engine of Kittery, which is two years its senior, it is the oldest engine in Maine.
When the "Old Settler Fire Tub" came to town in the packet of Mr. Cun- ningham, Alexander Johnston was chosen captain or foreman of Fire Com- pany No. I, and he served in that capacity for nine years, resigning in 1812.5 His son, Alexander Johnston, Jr., was the last captain, and after he had served for three years the engine was laid aside for a new one called "the Nile" of which he was captain for nine years. He resigned after twelve years of service as an engine man.
5. Diary of Alexander Johnston, Jr., submitted November 22, 1886.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
The "old Tub" as it was called, is now stored in the basement of the Wis- casset Public Library.
Con flagrations
Wiscasset has suffered vitally from several disastrous fires, and on two occa- sions has just escaped being wiped out.
During the eighteenth century, before the invention of the "Instantaneous Light Box," and long before the advent of the Swedish match, fires all had to be kindled with flint and steel, a process so tedious that it was quite in order to borrow fire from a neighbor. The ember was sometimes carried through the street in the open by a lighted stick or torch, but generally in a covered vessel as bread was carried about in the old port-pane of other days. This carrying of fire from house to house created a menace which gave rise to the curfew and watch-lists. The time for the ringing of the curfew was at sunset in the sum- mer season and at nine o'clock in winter.
The Point had its watch-lists, second only in importance to its muster-rolls. The watch was voluntary and for night duty only. The responsibility of the appointed officers was essentially to protect the town with its wooden buildings from the danger arising from open fires rather than from possible prowlers.
These volunteers were told off in couples, usually a staid and sedate man with a youthful companion. A printed list or record was posted in the principal stores to tell who would be on duty and when, as well as to facilitate the "changing off" or providing of substitutes. The night watch was called the "bell-man," and his pay was meagre, only a shilling or two a night, but a proxy could easily be found for a dollar. Every man in the community from the highest to the lowest stood his turn.
There were "put-in places" where watchers could for a brief space of time go in and warm themselves. Then fortified against the cold of a winter night and clad in their coats of lindsey-woolsey or of kersey, the twain would sally forth into outer darkness. With the exception of rush-lights and pitch-pine knots, the only illuminating power was manufactured by Stacy at Tan-Yard Brook in the little candle-house which is still standing near its original location. Stacy's dips, carried about in one of Samuel Hubbard's tin lanterns, or per- chance some home-made tallow candle cast in a tin mold were the only lights in the village, and these were snuffed at nine o'clock when the curfew rang.
The senior fire watch carried, as insignia of his office, a black tip-staff, six feet in length, with a brass tip on the end, in fact "tip-staff" was the old-time
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name applied to the constable. The junior fire watch would carry the lanthorn with a candle which did not "throw its beams far into a naughty world." As in other villages, the watchers would tell us "what of the night," calling off at intervals the time and the changes in the weather.
It has been said that the woods of Maine which afforded an unlimited sup- ply of logs for the open fires and their cozy warmth prevented the practice of bundling which was in vogue on Cape Cod, whose barren sands gave naught but fagots for fires which soon left the hearthstone comfortless.
Grandmothers have told us how their parents remembered that dark day in 1780, which was believed to have resulted from fires in a distant forest. This day was mentioned by Polly Light who died in 1874. On the morning of April 12, 1797, between the hours of one and two o'clock, the townspeople were alarmed by the cry of "Fire!" It was on board the ship Three Sisters, owned by Gen. Abiel Wood. The cabin quarters and main deck were entirely destroyed so they cut away the masts and scuttled the ship. The vessel sus- tained considerable damage between decks, but the rigging, though damaged, was saved. The loss was estimated at £1,000. The terrible fire at Miramachi in 1825, caused a black day as far as the state of Maine.
The first record of a local fire of great extent appears in the diary of Moses Davis, Esq., under date of September 3, 1823: "Blew very hard; extremely dry; fields and pastures all dried up, so the cattle can find but little food of grass to live upon.
September 4. - Wind fresh, westerly.
Sept. 4th. - The woods and houses back of Wiscasset Point all burned up for a number of miles; fire set in Woolwich."
The heavens were enshrouded in blackness; the sun was blood red; and wreckage and devastation were spread in the wake of the flames. The Lincoln Intelligencer (the Wiscasset newspaper) of Thursday, September II, 1823, states: "Since the first settlement of Wiscasset, its inhabitants have never wit- nessed a scene as truly awful in appearance or a calamity so destructive in its consequences, as the great fire on Thursday last. About four o'clock P.M. we were alarmed by information that the woods in the west part of this town were on fire, and the flames rapidly approaching our dwellings. The scene of de- struction from which the alarm proceeded, was nearly three miles west of the village. The gale which had been blowing from that direction had now in- creased, by the intense heat to the violence of a hurrycane, bearing along with
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