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 4
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
The men of Westport, like the Widow Jewett, were as much at home on the water as on the land. A native of that island, now well advanced in years, recalls that in 1853 Westport was the richest town per capita in the state of Maine. There were fifty-four sail engaged in fishing on the Banks and their catch was shipped to Gloucester and to Boston. Fish flakes were to be seen all along the island, a few of which were a mile in length. Many of the men engaged in the cod fishery while others equipped with toggle-iron went forth to spear whales, but in the year 1875 the majority of them joined the porgy fishers off Boothbay who supplied the bait for the Bank fisheries. The bait business was a lucrative one for the fishermen and a great convenience to the cod fishers. At that time the mouth of the Sheepscot was a living line of bay men, porgy fishers and steamers from Seguin to the Cuckolds, also in Cape Newagen Harbor where the Massachusetts Bay men lay at anchor, jibs down, awaiting each his turn from the incoming porgy catchers, whose flags at masthead gave notice that they were ready with a surplus of fish for sale.
There were, however, other sea-faring men who went further afield than the bait and Bank fishermen, one of whom was Capt. William Colby, long
[ 26 ]
The Valley of the Sheepscot
known as the master of the Franklin and other coasters plying between Bos- ton and Wiscasset. His tragic death occurred on January 18, 1875. He was engaged in cutting up some wood on the shore near his home at the upper end of Westport, opposite this town, when the axe slipped and severed an artery in his right leg near the ankle, causing death before medical assist- ance could be secured. He was alone at the time and started for the house but fainted and fell before reaching it. He was survived by a widow and six children.
James McCarthy (for whom the cove was named) had two sons, James Jr., and Frank. The latter was cast away on Juan Fernandez Island and was there for a fortnight when the bark on which he was mate caught fire and was beached on its shore.
Another master mariner from Westport, one who attained the patriarchal age of ninety-two years, was Capt. Thomas Mclaughlin. He married Jan- ette Dunton and lived at McCarthy's Cove. His first command was the Village Bride, a schooner lost at Great Egg Harbor on the coast of New Jer- sey. He was master of the bark Glacier, which was managed by William P. Lennox of Wiscasset; later he served in two vessels built by W. H. Rogers of Bath, the Allen True and the Belle O'Neill, named for a native of Charles- ton, South Carolina; the Eleanor Percy and the William H. Clifford, built by Percy and Small of Bath; and the schooner Baker Palmer, built at Waldo- boro by George Welt. One of his later commands was the ill-starred bark- entine Herbert Fuller which Captain Mclaughlin took directly after she had attained notoriety through the trial in the Admiralty Court in Boston, fol- lowing the murder on the high seas of Captain and Mrs. Nash and the sec- ond mate, for which crime the first mate, Thomas Bram, was sentenced to serve for thirty years in the federal prison in Atlanta. Captain Mclaughlin commanded the Sainte Lucie, built by Jonathan Rideout at Bowdoinham; the John Swan, built by Swan & Son, New York; the schooners Charles A. Guild- berg and the Marson Dunton, and the Frances Minot, built by Charles V. Minot of Phippsburg and owned by Hagar & Marietta. Captain McLaugh- lin was on the Oregon when she arrived in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro dur- ing the Spanish War. He was also on the bark Edith Davis during a tremen- dous hurricane at Cape Town Harbor in Table Bay.
During all of his long and varied experience at sea, Captain Mclaughlin never had a mutiny and never put a man in irons.
Shipbuilding was carried on at Jeremy Squam in a limited way, the ves-
[ 27 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
sels built being mostly bankers and coasters. The island was at one time con- nected with Woolwich near Phip's Point by a bridge 1,350 feet in length, but for many years there has been only a ferry to connect it with Wiscasset, at a point three miles below the town.
Just east of Kehail Point lies Upper Mark Island and a little further south, off Brooks' Point lies Whittum Island. Somewhere in this vicinity a British warship in the War of 1812 fired a cannon ball across the river which lodged on the Westport shore. This cannon ball is said to have landed on the hill back of the Brooks' house at the southern end of the island. Another cannon ball, now in the possession of Mrs. Ettie Lewis, landed in the yard of Simon Dunton, whizzing past the pantry window. Mrs. Dunton called the men and they dug it out of the ground. This cannon ball which has been preserved as a war trophy, weighs five pounds and is the size of an ordinary baseball. During the War of 1812 when the British warships entered the Sheepscot the enemy landed at two or three places on the shore of Jeremy Squam: at Fowles' Point and at Hodgdon's Cove, where they foraged and took some salt fish.
The following item appears in the town records of Edgecomb, under date of July 23, 1832: "Quarantine ground at the mouth of the Sheepscot for cholera." Old residents say that an island somewhere in the vicinity of Hodgdon's Cove or Kehail's Point was called Hospital Island; that earlier still it was known as Hodgdon's Island, and that during the cholera scare a shack was put up which was used as a lazaretto. This is Upper Mark Island on the chart.
Among those who have lived long lives at Westport were Mrs. Amy Case, the widow of William Case, who died April 9, 1830, at the advanced age of one hundred years and six months; and Westbrook Greenleaf, a Revolutionary soldier who died suddenly in October of that year at the age of eighty-four.
About the time of the Revolutionary War, Capt. Josiah Parsons, the son of Joseph and Miriam (Preble) Parsons of York, settled on a farm near the cove now called Greenleaf Cove, where he had a grist-mill. The place is now owned and occupied by Everett Greenleaf, one of his numerous descendants. Parsons married, February II, 1771, Sarah, the daughter of Henry and Abigail (Titcomb) Sewall. They were the parents of Hon. Stephen Parsons whose home and mills were in Edgecomb on Parsons' Creek. They are both buried in the family burying ground not far from
[ 28 ]
The Valley of the Sheepscot
the house, and it is recorded on his tombstone that "He was a Patriot of Bunker Hill."
Names of Settlers
Names of Setlers
Lott No.
Acres
John Neal
7
25
Abel Keen
2
58
Charles Stockbridge Brooks
3
215
Henry Kehale 10
4
23
James Jewett
5
335
Cornelius Tarbox
7
I37
John Willis
8
54
Samuel Tyler
9
114
Samuel Duntin
10
109
James Shattock
II
16
Levi Shattock
I3
4
Danniel Duttin
14
65
John Hodgedon
15
128
John Duntin
16
97
Andrew Duntin
17
57
Samuel Duntin
18
117
A piece of Marsh or Meddows
19
9
John Hodgdon
20
12
Thomas Hodgdon
2I
64
Mason Dammon
22
164
Samuel Webber
23
91
James Jewett
24
301/2
Salt Marsh
25
31/4
Josiah Parsons
26
223
Daniel Hubbart
27
20
John Duntin
28
84
Benja Harrington
29
54
Mc Carthy
30
150
Josiah Parsons
31
1591/4
Welch & Duntin
32
105
John Knight
33
I26
Stephen Greenleaf
34
140
Lemeull Norton
35
273
Josiah Parsons
36
99
Io. For him Kehail Point was named.
[ 29 ]
James Thomas
6
200
Levi Shattock
12
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
Johnas Fowles
37
181
William Patterson
38
22
William Patterson
39
26
Michal Osburn
26
Israel Hunnawell
96
Nathaniel Greenleaf
96
Joseph Roins-Junr
84
Joseph Roins
93
Joseph Tyler
5
Peter Murphy
32
Henry Colby
190
Silvanus Colby
IO
Samuel Colby
81/2
Spencer Decker
81
Westbrook Knight
III
Benja Hodgdon
103
Thomas Hodgdon
30
Thomas Hodgdon
85
Joseph Hodgdon
153
[ 30 ]
III County of Lincoln
PRIOR to 1760, the Province of Maine consisted of but one county, York, and during that year, by an Act of the General Court, passed the nineteenth of June, two new counties, Cumberland and Lincoln, were set off from Yorkshire, then belonging to Massachusetts. Its name was taken from Lincolnshire, England, the birthplace of Thomas Pownall, in whose honor it was bestowed.
The county thus created is described as follows:
Boundaries of Lincoln (County ) Defined.1
And be it further enacted, That the most eastern country shall be bounded in the follow- ing manner ; that is to say: on the west by the county of Cumberland aforesaid, on the east by the province of Nova Scotia, on the south and southeast by the sea or western ocean, and on the north by the utmost northern limits of this province; including all the islands to the eastward of the county of Cumberland aforesaid; and all the towns, dis- tricts and lands within said bounds, together with the islands aforesaid, shall, from and after the first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and sixty, be and remain one entire and distinct county by the name of Lincoln, of which Pownalborough shall be the shire or county town; and the inhabitants of the said county of Lincoln shall have, use exercise and enjoy all such powers, privileges and immunities, as, by law, the inhabitants of any other county within this province have, use, exercise and enjoy.
From the time of its formation until the setting off of Washington and Hancock Counties in 1789, Lincoln extended over quite three-fifths of the territory of this province; but so diminished has it become by continued sub- divisions, that it now contains barely 520 square miles. From Lincoln Coun- ty, Kennebec was set off in 1799; Waldo, in 1827; Androscoggin and Saga- dahoc in 1854; and one-half of Knox County was taken from Lincoln in I860.
Lincoln County today is composed of the following towns: Alna, Booth- bay, Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Dresden, Edgecomb, Jefferson, New- castle, Nobleboro, Somerville (formerly Patricktown Plantation), South- port (Townsend in 1842), Waldoboro, Westport (formerly Jeremy
1. Revised Statutes of Maine (1857), page 760. Act for erecting and establishing two new coun- ties in the easterly part of the County of York. Passed A.D. 1760. County of Lincoln.
[ 3] ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
Squam), Whitefield (named in honor of Rev. George Whitefield), Wis- casset, Marsh Island, Muscongus Island or Loud's Island, and Monhegan Island.
Between the Penobscot and Kennebec Valleys the early inhabitants were principally English, German, a few French, and some of Dutch extraction. A Dutch colony2 had been sent from New York by the Duke of York to Sheepscot Neck where, with characteristic thrift and labor, they cleared the surrounding wilderness and wrested from the sterile soil such abundant harvests that Sir Edmund Andros called the Sheepscot Valley "The Garden of the East." But when the second Indian war broke out and the savages descended with the exterminating fury of Abderrahman when he swept across the Pyrennees, the men from the hinterland fled along with the rest of the white inhabitants and never more returned to their farms just above Wiscasset.
Within Lincoln County are many old Indian deeds granting land to the pioneers of New England. The oldest in this part of the country3 is that dated at Bristol, July 15, 1625, by which Samoset and Unnongoit, Indian sagamores of the Wawenock tribe, convey to John Brown land beginning at the falls of Pemaquid River and including lands on both sides of the Mus- congus River, and acknowledged before Abraham Shurte, a magistrate at Pemaquid, according to the formula of common law in England, "for fifty skins to us in hand paid to our full satisfaction, etc." The witnesses were Matthew Newman and William Cox.4
The Pemaquid Plantation was in existence when the above conveyance was executed and was the place of a magistracy and record office of land titles.
Jeremy Squam 1649
In 1649 Robinhood conveyed to John Richards the island of Jeremy Squam, John Richards being then a resident.
2. The Duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt says, in the second volume of his travels, "Some at- tempts were made by the Dutch to settle a colony at Newcastle as early as 1607, though, at that time, unsuccessful." (No proof has come to light either in Holland or America that the Dutch were here on the Sheepscot River at so early a date.)
3. The oldest Virginia deed still in existence is dated 1620, and is from Gov. Sir George Yeardly to William Sharpe. Virginia Magazine (October 1904), II, 219-221.
4. The authenticity of this deed was challenged by Charles Thornton Libby of Yarmouth but not satisfactorily disproved.
[ 32 ]
County of Lincoln
1649
Within the present limits of the town of Dresden, there are faint traces of attempts at settlement which go back to the time of the Indian deed to Christopher Lawson in 1649, and the subsequent conveyance by Lawson to Thomas Clarke and Sir Biby Lake in 1650. The Lawson tract included the present towns of Dresden, Wiscasset, Alna, and Perkins with a much larger territory. There is a faint trace of an attempted settlement as early as 1630 but it is unsupported by documentary evidence.
Edgecomb 1652
About the same time a neck of land lying on Sheepscot River beginning at Sheepscot Falls and running to a freshet called by the English "Oven's Mouth," subsequently known as Mason and Jewett's Neck embracing the entire town of Edgecomb, fronting on the Sheepscot, was conveyed to the above named John Mason by Robinhood and Dick Swash, witnessed by Nathaniel Draper and Edward Roberts, recorded at Pemaquid, Nicholas Reynells, J. P. The sagamores were accustomed to endorse the convey- ances of the sannups, or common or private men of the tribe. The above is an example. The same fact appears in the conveyance to John Brown, and also in one to Walter Phillips.
1662
The deed from Robinhood to Thomas Clives (Cleaves) "lands on the westward side of Shipscot River the place caled Wichcasset from the hier end of the upper narrows downe to the lower end of the lower narowes fower miles in length due Norwest into the Country and fower miles like wise in length from the head of the upper narowes due north nor west ... etc."
Resident Chieftains
Samoset ruled at and near Pemaquid; Damarin at Nequasseg and on the lower waters of the Sheepscot and Sagadahoc up to Wiscasset. Gosle and Agilke ruled over the oyster-bearing waters of Damariscotta, on the east side and head of the bay and pond; Erle Duglas and Witanvis on the west side and over to the Sheepscot, Gosle being the superior authority on both sides of the pond.
Samoset and Damarin were the seaside chieftains and of paramount au-
[ 33 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
thority in the transactions of these beginnings of New England, and men of the greatest note in the annals of those days.
To Samoset, New England, the United States of America, and the entire population of the new world owe an undying debt of gratitude.
Early Census Making in Massachusetts, 1643-1765, by J. H. Burton
Lincoln County-1765.
White Males
Females under 16 under 16
Males over 16
Females Male over 16 Negroes Negroes
Pownalborough
161
175
210
223
225
232
6
3
Georgetown
180
184
388
325
317
287
8
4
Newcastle
69
69
127
II7
100
109
I
Topsham
54
52
78
85
85
78
I
Woolwich
64
63
116
IIO
92
97
I
Bowdoinham
38
37
63
53
59
44
I
Female
Town
Houses
Families
[ 34 ]
IV
Early History of Wiscasset
Pioneers
1176044
TO understand fully the history of this locality it will be necessary to sketch its surroundings during the last decades of the seventeenth cen- tury. Ever since the English expedition of 1607 under Popham, to secure title to the territory of New England, by possessory acts in the right of the British nation, this region had been occupied and had become the object of European emigration.
The settlers in and about the Point were all within the "Ancient Domin- ions of Maine," an outgrowth of that expedition which first planted in the wilds at the mouth of the Sagadahoc the first English village in New Eng- land-a town of fifteen buildings of all kinds, defended by a fort mounted with great guns, having a village church and a shipyard.
In state relations and civil organization Wiscasset Point was a part of the dukedom. This section had become populous, valuable, and notable in Europe and was coveted by the Crown for private possession, and so by royal gift it became the property of the heir-apparent to the throne, the Duke of York. In its civil colonial relations it was appended to the city and province of New York under the name of Pemaquid and Dependencies, which embraced all of the villages, towns, and hamlets on the waters of the Pemaquid, Damariscotta, and Sheepscot Rivers, their sea approaches and surrounding islands.
Jamestown, embracing Long Cove and covering a territory of at least three miles square at the mouth of the Pemaquid River and harbor was the metropolis, trade center and the seat of authority and commerce; the abode of the governor and state officers, site of the custom house and naval station. It was a well-fortified place. New Harbor, a suburban village two and a half miles east and on the shores of the promontory of Pemaquid Point, was a commercial trading station; Monhegan Island, ten miles east of Pemaquid Point, a world-renowned fishing-mart; and Damariscove on the western landfall of Pemaquid was active in trade, population, and commerce.
Situated in the Damariscotta River at Hodgdon's Mills, a hamlet had grown up called Winnegance, the noted carrying place on the trail of Indian
[ 35 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
travel from Penobscot. This hamlet was settled by Walter Phillips, who sold out and moved up the river, bought land from Josle the Indian and opened a new settlement at the Salt Falls near the present bridge between the towns of Newcastle and Damariscotta. Here he built up another village and occupied it when these inland plantations, dependencies of Pemaquid, were erected into a county called Cornwall, and the village and farms at what is now Sheepscot Bridge were organized into the town of New Dart- mouth, and made a shire of the new county. Walter Phillips was the re- corder of the new jurisdiction, and he and John Mason of Sheepscot Great Neck were the leading men.
The settlement on the Sheepscot and Damariscotta waters seems to have been under the same civil organization as western and eastern parts of the town of New Dartmouth and without doubt the Wiscasset Point precinct was included.
New Dartmouth was also a celebrated milling site, and next to Pemaquid a center of business population and thrift in the dukedom. Its agricultural resources were unsurpassed, which feature, from the days of the Popham immigration, had made the locality celebrated, in consequence of which it bore the name of Sheepscot Farms. Jamestown or Pemaquid the capital, New Harbor a suburban village which carried on trade and commerce, Monhegan the great fish market of Europe, together with Damariscove with its mainland settlements, Winnegance and Cape Newagen-now the towns of Boothbay and Southport, New Dartmouth, covering the agricul- tural district, were at this date (1665) the populous centers, making up the ducal state-now mostly within Lincoln County and the municipal organi- zations of the towns of Bristol, Newcastle, Boothbay, Damariscotta, South- port, and Wiscasset.
South and west, on the Sagadahoc waters, an emigration from Pemaquid, the Plymouth Colony, and Massachusetts had spread itself along the great native thoroughfares of travel from the east, and had set up stores or truck houses for native traffic at convenient points. This thoroughfare crossed at New Harbor, thence Winnegance, a portage, at Hodgdon's Mills and over the waters of Boothbay Harbor, through the gut, in and across the Sheep- scot and into the Kennebec opposite the present city of Bath, through Hell Gate, now called the Sasanoa River. Out of this thriving emigration the Arrowsic towns had grown up. The traders were called truck masters, and their establishments were generally protected by garrisons, stockades, or
[ 36 ]
Early History of Wiscasset
fortified hamlets. Richard Hammond had such an establishment on this trail to the Kennebec below the Chops and farther below, at the head of Arrowsic Island, Clarke and Lake had their little settlement.
The populousness of this region may be inferred from the fact that the French authorities in Canada wrote to the state department of Louis XIV of France, October 11, 1670, saying their messengers at Pemaquid, Kenne- bec, found "handsome English settlements and well built," covering high- lands and in the valleys.
The period of Wiscasset's written history began with the advent of the brothers Davie, in 1660, when the place which has for many generations been called the Point received its first recorded white settlers. Prior to this date the soil had been visited, so far as we know, only by European discov- erers, fishermen, adventurers and traders, or neighboring settlers. Thomas Cleeves and Richard Pattishall were on the river in this vicinity about the same time as the Davie settlement.
George Davie, an English sailor from Cornwall or Devon, perhaps the latter if we heed the couplet,
The Tre, the Pol the Pen, Proclaim the Cornish men.
with his brother John and two others, Massachusetts men, came here and made clearings in the wilderness, on the highlands near the site of the pres- ent county jail-"half a mile north of the Point and fifty rods from the river"-being the spot where they "took seizin by turffe and twigge,"1 built huts and for a score of years improved their possessions.
Three years after the Davie hamlet opened its clearings, the site seems to have been deemed desirable for a homestead and a title thereto became necessary, so that on "the fiveteenth day of December in the Fivteenth yeare of the Reign of our Sovereign Ld Charles the secund, Etc.,"2 consid- erable territory was purchased in the Davie's right, of the original holders, Necodehant, Quesemecke, and Obyhas, three Indian sachems of the Sheep- scot River.
This purchase covered all the land beginning at Flying Point, then so
1. Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583 raised a pillar at Newfoundland with a plate of lead having the Queen's Arms graven thereon-a turf and a twig were presented to him which he received with a hazel wand. The expression turf and twig, a symbol of actual possession of the soil and its products, is still found in the old New England records.
2. York Deeds, Book II, page 8.
[ 37 ]
Wiscasset in Pownalborough
called, on the eastern shore of the Sheepscot River, which is nearly opposite Clark's Point, extending west about halfway to Dresden, some four miles; thence south and down Montsweag Brook to its mouth; thence across to the head of the island called Jeremy Squam (Westport) thence north up said island to Flying Point, first mentioned, a parcel very nearly identical with the existing boundaries of the town.
Every estate in this village is now held under the Davie title, that be- ing among the few legally established grants by the Indians east of the Kennebec.
Mohotiwormet, the Sheepscot sagamore, conveyed to one John Davie a "plantation on the north side of Wistassek Bay, north into the woods half way to Kennebec."
As early as 1630 a thrifty village at Sheepscot Falls had developed above the Wiscasset Point settlement, which embraced fifty families and was known as Sheepscot Farms. This population was estimated at three hundred persons besides the outlying farms between this hamlet and Pemaquid, where there were one hundred families and as many fishermen.
Where these Sheepscot settlers came from is not known; even the sug- gestion that they may have been a continuation of the unfortunate Popham colony is unsupported by contemporaneous evidence.
Tradition among the old settlers places the Dutch on this river at a very early date. Pipes, tiles, and other proofs of the presence of Hollanders have been excavated on the Newcastle shore. Sullivan states that there was a settlement there (on the Newcastle side of the Sheepscot) as early as in any part of the Pemaquid country.
The Davie brothers came here at the time of the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England, when the Duke of York was appointed viceroy over all of New England, and his commissioners were sent here to regulate the affairs of the country.
That the Davie settlement was a Massachusetts colony of Puritan affilia- tions is proved by the fact that when the ducal state with its capital at Pema- quid and shire town at New Dartmouth was created-covering the settle- ments from the St. Croix to the Kennebec-the commissioners opened their court at the house of John Mason on the east bank of the Sheepscot River to organize a civil government, no representative of the Davie family was present to acknowledge allegiance to the ducal authority, nor was there anyone from the Wiscasset Point hamlet, unless it may have been Mark Parsons.
[ 38 ]
Early History of Wiscasset
The Doles, Dyers, Scotts, Parkers, Whites, Hammonds, and Parsons, residents and freeholders hereabout, were there in convention when the new county of Cornwall was organized, and it was ordained that there the courts should be held and the public records kept.
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