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 7
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Wales Hubbard follows in the list of owners of the Birch Point property. He was born in Wiscasset in 1812 and was one of the many children of Samuel and Phebe (Hatch) Hubbard. Precocious in youth, he early devel- oped a fertile mind-almost approaching genius-and as a lawyer, politician and office holder he became widely known in the state. After his marriage he lived for many years in the Francis Cook house, still standing at the cor- ner of Main and Pleasant Streets. The late George B. Sawyer said of him:
He had his office in the northeast corner of the building in which he resided, where I always found him surrounded by a mass of unfinished business, always delving into the past making plans for the future. He had the interest of the town near his heart, and like some of the rest of us was inclined to be too venturesome. He spent much time and labor on the various railroad projects in which the town was involved, and was in every respect a public spirited citizen. One day when a young man came to him to study law, he answered: "if you can, come in sometime when I have a few minutes to spare. I will tell you all I know about it." He was Reporter of Decisions of the S. J. Court for some years, and at one time a Representative in the Legislature. He was also at an earlier period, Clerk of the Courts for Lincoln County. He died in 1878.
Wales Hubbard entered into many ventures in real estate. It is found that in 1835, for the expressed consideration of $ 10,000, he took convey- ance of the Birch Point property from Joseph E. Smith, giving back a mort- gage of $7,000. It would seem that he had an arrangement with outside
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parties in connection with that transaction, for he immediately gave deeds to Seba Smith of Portland, and to one Drinkwater of North Yarmouth, con- veying to each one-quarter, and to other parties he deeded six-fortieths of the property. But Smith continued to hold his first mortgage until his de- cease, after which the property passed into the holding of his brothers, Samuel Emerson, and Edwin. On the night of October 31, 1837, the mills were wholly consumed by fire.6 And thus ended Hubbard's connection with Birch Point.
In 1839 the Smiths sold to John B. and Abraham Dickinson of Wiscasset, and Consider Brown of Bath, taking back a mortgage of $5,000. It was probably in the time of the Dickinson and Brown occupancy that new saw- mills were built and a box machine installed. It was during such occupancy that John B. Dickinson's little son, John Henry, four and a half years old, was drowned at the mills.
The title finally passed to Samuel W. and Hugh Rogers of Bath, who, after a short ownership and operation, sold to James Stinson, in 1848, for $6,000. Stinson had before that time been interested with the Clarks in the lumber business on Holbrook's Island. He was of sturdy Scotch-Irish ances- try. After his purchase of Birch Point, he made his home there where he carried on the mills and farm, and there died in January, 1855, aged about sixty years.
After a time the Birch Point property passed into the ownership of David G. Stinson, one of James Stinson's sons, who, as his father's successor, car- ried on the business. The widow, Mrs. Julia Stinson, continued to reside at the Point until the last day of October, 1872, when the house was totally destroyed by fire during the night, while she was visiting a friend in this town. It may be that the Stinson house was a part of the original Lee Villa, but of this we have no proof. It is supposed, however, that it was included in Judge Lee's house and that it was originally connected by a one-story, inclosed gallery to another part which stood on an old cellar hole near the old well.
An aqueduct which ran from the barn now belonging to Alex Grover, across the Plumstead farm, supplies Birch Point with potable water.
The proprietor of this mill at the time of its destruction was David G. Stinson. He removed to Skowhegan and for more than three years before
6. See Lincoln Patriot, November 7, 1837.
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Early History of Wiscasset
his death was private secretary to ex-Governor Coburn. He died very sud- denly on Sunday, January 9, 1876, leaving a widow and a son and daugh- ter, Harry Stinson and Clara Louise Stinson.
Referring to David G. Stinson, Mr. G. B. Sawyer said: "He was a man of rare qualities, enterprising and genial, but somewhat reticent and pecu- liar. He was for several years one of the Selectmen of Wiscasset." He mar- ried Helen S., a daughter of Samuel Page, and lived in the brick house on the south side of Lee Street.
The Birch Point mills, begun by Jonathan Williamson and later operated by Lee, Langdon and Abiel Wood, were closed in the spring of 1896, and have never since been reopened.
Stinson's mill was where the ice-houses stood at a later date beside the dam, and a little further to the north. Hilton's lumber mill was on the same lot as Porter's Pottery.
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V
Thomas Pownall
T HOMAS POWNALL, the man for whom the shire town of Lincoln County was named, was a British colonial statesman and soldier. He was born in 1722 at Saltfleetby, Lincolnshire, and educated at Lincoln and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1743.
Ten years later, he came to America as secretary to Sir Danvers Osborne, who had just been appointed Governor of New York. Pownall remained in this country and in 1754 attended the first Provincial Congress at Albany. The objects of this convention were twofold: first, to renew a treaty with the Iroquois confederacy; and secondly, to stir up the colonial authorities to some sort of concerted action against the French. This assembly was not lacking in men of ability and eminence. No such venerable body of men had ever before assembled on the American continent. There were Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts; Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Is- land; and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania; and others as distinguished. After the treaty with the Iroquois had been consummated, they took up the question of uniting the colonies under a common government, and Benja- min Franklin laid before the commissioners a draft of a federal constitution. It was here that Thomas Pownall met this distinguished philosopher and statesman, and their acquaintance developed into a lifelong friendship.
In April, 1755, soon after General Braddock and his troops arrived at Alexandria, Virginia, the famous conference of provincial governors took place and Pownall was at the meeting. Here he came in close touch with the leading military plans of the colonies and the men who were responsible for Braddock's attack on Fort Duquesne; Shirley's expedition against Niagara; Johnson's movement against Crown Point; and Winslow's operations against Acadia.
That same year Thomas Pownall received from Whitehall the appoint- ment of lieut .- governor of New Jersey. The next year, 1756, he returned to England where he presented to Pitt a plan for a campaign against the French in Canada. Pitt appointed him royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts, February 25, 1757, in the room of Governor Shirley.
It was not long after his arrival at Boston in the Nightingale, that he re- ceived from Col. Daniel Webb at Fort Edward, fourteen miles from Fort
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William Henry, a call for immediate reinforcements. Pownall acted promptly and sent aid under Sir William Pepperell, but their help came too late for Fort William Henry had already been captured by Montcalm and Levis, and thirty of the English prisoners had been scalped by the drunken Indians.
In 1758, Pownall encouraged the equipment of seven thousand men to be recruited and armed in New England in order to protect the frontier. The fort1 which he erected at Fort Point, now Stockton Springs, Maine, bore his name2 until demolished by Capt. James Cargill of Sheepscot, agree- able to an Act of the General Court of August 7, 1775, which was author- ized "to give Instructions to the Commanding officer in said Lincoln County to order that Fort Pownal at Penobscot be immediately demolished. Fort Pownal, the principal defense on the Penobscot, was dismantled by Captain Mowatt early in 1775. Colonel Cargill of Newcastle, burned it in that year that it might not be used by the British. On June twelfth, General McLane landed at Castine with nine hundred men from Halifax and took possession of it as a strategic point for the English government.
The contractor who built Fort Pownal was Gershom Flagg, who also built the old Dresden court house. Flagg lived in Boston, but was employed in several building enterprises in Maine. He became a proprietor of lands in various parts of the Kennebec Valley and his descendants intermarried with prominent Maine families.
It has already been stated that when Pownalborough was incorporated the sixteenth town in Maine, the warrant for the first town meeting was issued by Samuel Denny to Samuel Goodwin and was held at the garrison house at Wiscasset.
On the first page of Book II, Plymouth Grants, Lincoln County Records, appears a record of a complimentary grant by the "Proprietors of the Ken- nebec Purchase to His Excellency, Thomas Pownall, Esq'. in consideration of his promoting & Encouraging the Settlements in the Eastern Country."
1. May 4, 1759, Gov. Thomas Pownall sailed from Boston with a regiment, commanded by him- self, and constructed a fort upon the Penobscot.
2. "On sum part of this Ground Governour Pownall buried a writing on a Shet of Lead agree- able to Anchent Coustom of taking possession of Islands and Countries for the King." See Sprague's Journal of Maine History, XIV, 77. (Fannie Hardy Eckstorm ) .
Pownall wrote: "I buried the said Plate at the Root of a Large White Birch Tree three large trunks springing from one Root. The Tree is at the top of a high piked hill on the East side of the river about three miles above Marine Navigation."
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
A Lot of land in the Town of Pownalborough, containing about Five hundred and one Acres, Butted and Bounded as follows; viz: Beginning on the South Easterly Cor- ner of the Sixty Acre Lot, Number One, which lays back of an hundred Acre Lot, abutting on the Eastern River and running from said Corner, on the Easterly End of the Sixty Acre lotts Number One & Two and Three and four; viz-One hundred and sixty seven Poles, to a Road; From thence to run on said Road, East Southeast, four hundred and Eighty poles, to another Road; from thence to Run South South West, on said Road, One hundred and Sixty seven poles, to another Road; from thence to run West North West on said Road, four hundred & Eighty Poles, to the first men- tioned Bounds; All of which will more fully Appear, by a plan of the plantation of Franckfort, now Pownalborough, made by Jonas Jones Surveyor, Dated December the Twentieth 1759 & said Lott is marked No. 20 on said Plan.
This lot contained 501 acres and was partly in Dresden and partly in Wiscasset, 301 acres being located in the latter town. It afterward became the property of Harvard College. In later years Dresden levied a tax on the "College lot," which was a part of the Pownalborough tract.
Pownall was for many years an active participant in colonial affairs and thus acquired a knowledge of conditions which, combined with sound judg- ment and wise and liberal views of the measures best calculated for their successful administration, put him in the foremost rank as a colonial states- man. He was a warm friend of the colonies in their struggle for independ- ence, and retired from Parliament because a bill which he introduced in 178 I to empower the King to make a treaty of peace or truce with America, was opposed by Lord North and the Tories.
In April, 1778, he wrote to his friend, James Bowdoin, of his intention of giving his Pownalborough lands to Harvard College; and in February, 1782, he executed a deed of the same, having for its object "a Professorship of political law, as derived from God and the nature of man, to form the minds of the students, so that they may become efficient members of a free state."
"This foundation," says President Quincy, "proved altogether ineffectual for the object purposed by the friendly donor. The lands had, during the American war, without his knowledge been sold for taxes, and after great trouble and expense in redeeming them and getting possession of them, the produce of their sale but little exceeded three hundred dollars."
It is an interesting fact that Joseph Christophers of Wiscasset, held the tax title. There exists a copy of a quaint old plan of the College lot, as it was called for many years, made by John Sutton Foye. The land is located
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Thomas Pownall
near the source of Montsweag Brook, the winding course of which through the lot is delineated on the plan as "mountswigg brook."
Nason to Christophers
To all people to whom these presents shall come, Abraham Nason of Pownalborough in the county of Lincoln, yeoman, and one of the Constables within said Town for the year 1779 sends Greeting. ...
Whereas the unimproved Lands belonging to Thomas Pownall, Esq. a non-resident proprietor of said Town known by the name of Governor Pownal's Lot and laying in said Pownalborough adjoining to Gov. Bernard's Lott and containing 500 acres was taxed in the two State Bills and the Town Bill committed to me to collect for the year 1779, the sum of forty one pounds five Shillings of which due Notice was given agree- able to Law, notwithstanding which no person has appeared to pay said Taxes and in- tervening charges, amounting in the whole to the Sum of Seventy seven pounds three Shillings.
Now Know Ye that I the said Abraham in my said Capacity and in pursuance of a Law of this State impowering the Constables or Collectors of Taxes to make Sale of so much of the non-resident Proprietors Lands at Public Vendue as will pay the Taxes and intervening Charges, for and in Consideration of the sum of Seventy Seven pounds three shillings to me in hand paid by Joseph Christophers of said Pownalborough, yeo- man, he being the highest Bidder at a publick Vendue notified agreeable to Law and this day held at the house of Ebenezer Whittier, Innholder in the said Town of Pow- nalborough, the Receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge do hereby grant, sell and convey unto the said Joseph the whole of the said Lot of the said Thomas Pownal Esqr bounded as follows, to wit, westerly upon Land left for a road at the Easterly End of the sixty Acre Lotts there measuring one hundred and sixty-eight Poles at right angles, Northerly by Governor Bernard's Land there measuring four hundred and seventy two Poles; Easterly by land left for a road at the Westerly End of William Taylor and James Bowdoin Esq: four hundred acre Lotts, there measuring one hundred and Sixty Eight Poles, Southerly by Land left for a road on the northerly side of William Taylor Esqr three thousand two hundred acre Lot, there measuring five hundred thirty six Poles, as by a Plan of the said Town of Pownalborough, taken by order of the Plym- outh Proprietors; reference being thereto had will more fully appear, with the appur- tenances thereto belonging-To have and to hold the same to him the said Joseph and his heirs forever, saving always to the said Thomas Pownal, Esq. and his heirs the Right of Redemption of the Land aforesaid at any Time within three years from the Time of Sale, he or they paying the said Joseph the Sum the Land Sold for with twelve Per cent Interest, on that sum with intervening Taxes.
In Witness whereof, I the said Abraham, Constable as aforesaid, do herewith set my hand and Seal the Eighth day of May 1780.3
3. Lincoln Records, Book 13, pp. 196-197.
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Joseph Christophers to the College
Know all men by these Presents that I Joseph Christophers of Pownalborough in the county of Lincoln in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Merchant, for and in con- sideration of the sum of Ninety Pounds Lawful Money by me received of the President and Fellows of Harvard College in Cambridge in the County of Middlesex in said Commonwealth, do hereby grant release and quitclaim unto the said President and Fel- lows of said College and their Successors forever, all my Estate right title and interest of in or unto the whole of the lot of land known by the Name of Governor Pownalls Lot and lying in Pownalborough aforesaid adjoining to Governor Bernards Lott contain- ing five hundred Acres bounded as follows, to wit, Westerly upon land left for a road as the Easterly End of the sixty acre Lots, there measuring 168 Rods at right Angles; northerly by Governor Bernard's land four hundred and seventy two Rods; Easterly by land left for a road at the Westerly end of William Taylor and James Bowdoin, Esq. four hundred Acre Lots, there measuring one hundred and sixty eight Rods; Southerly by Land left for a Road on the Northerly side of William Taylor, Esq., three thousand two hundred acre lot there measuring five hundred and thirty six Rods as by a plan of the said Town of Pownalborough taken by order of the Plymouth Proprie- tors, reference being thereto had will more fully appear, together with all the Privileges and Appurtenances thereunto belonging or any wise appertaining, being the same that was formerly the Estate of Thomas Pownall Esqr., a non-resident proprietor of said Town and sold by Abraham Nason of said Pownalborough yeoman & one of the con- stables within said Town for the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy nine for the Payment of the rate bills taxed thereon for the year 1779 aforesaid as reference be- ing had to the Deed of bargain & sale thereof from the said Nason and recorded with the Records of Deeds in said County of Lincoln Lib. 13, vol. 196 will more fully ap- pear. To have and to hold the above described Lot of Land with all the Privileges and appurtenances to the same belong unto the President and Fellows of Harvard College aforesaid and their Successors forever to the only use and benefits of the President and Fellows aforesaid and their Successors forever. And I the said Joseph Christophers do hereby covenant to warrant that neither I nor my heirs nor any Person or Persons claiming under me or them shall at any Time hereafter have or claim any right Title or Interest therein, but therefrom shall be utterly excluded and forever barred by these Presents. In witness whereof I hereto set my hand and seal this fifteenth Day of July Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHERS and a seal.
Signed sealed and delivered in presence of us Ezek .!. Price, Sam11 Colesworthy, Jun', Suffolk Co. Boston July 15, 1784.
The above named Joseph Christophers personally appeared and acknowledged this instrument to be his free Act and Deed Before me Ezek .! Price, Just. Peace.
Rec August 28, 1784 & accordingly entered & examined by
THO. RICE, Reg' 4
4. Lincoln Records, Book 17, p. 24.
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Thomas Pownall
Governor Pownall in a statement to the council represented that the Courts of Probate had no seal, kept no records, had no rules and did not observe the common formalities of a judicial court. After this time (1760) registers were appointed and seals adopted. Very little regularity existed in their proceedings prior to the Revolution and no material change was made in the organization of the courts.
Pownall was transferred to South Carolina because his manners were un- suited to the austerity of the New England Puritans. Although appointed governor of that southern state, he never assumed the office, as he chose at this time (1761) to return to England where he was elected to Parliament. He received the appointment of director-general of the office of control with the rank of colonel of the army under command of Prince Ferdinand in Germany.
After his return to England, Governor Pownall held many important positions. In 1765, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He de- voted the latter part of his life to literary pursuits in Bath, and it is believed that the city of that name on the Kennebec, having passed through the names of "Long Reach" and "Twenty Cow Parish," then growing to be a place of considerable importance, was named in grateful remembrance of him.
The only places now bearing his name are Pownal, Maine, once a part of Freeport, but incorporated March 3, 1808; and Pownal, Vermont.
The extent of his influence with the members of the legislature was evi- denced by their respectful addresses and by a compliment which the ma- jority of the House paid him by offering him passage to England in the Provincial frigate. (This he declined and took passage in a private ship.) When he embarked, both Houses attended him in a body to his barge and every ceremony was adopted which could leave a favorable impression on his mind, in recognition of his services to the colonies.
Thomas Pownall, the eponymous governor of a deme in Lincoln County, died in England in 1805 at the age of eighty-three years.
The accompanying portrait of Gov. Thomas Pownall, by John Singleton Copley, obtained through the courtesy of the Casson Galleries, was for- merly in the collection of the Earl of Coventry.
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VI Pownalborough
T HIS town under the name of Pownalborough, so called for the gov- ernor of the Province, at the time of its incorporation February 13, 1760, was the sixteenth town in Maine. It embraced all of the territory now occupied by the towns of Wiscasset, Dresden, Alna and Perkins or Swan Island. The inhabitants in the beginning recognized the necessity of divid- ing so large a town, comprising three distinct settlements, into precincts or parishes and on April 26, 1768, barely eight years after its legal formation, the town
Voted. To divide into two parishes by a line running from the south line of the town to the north, paralled to the Kennebec River so as to take one-third of the land on the west side of the town and two-thirds on the east.
Afterwards by Act of 1773 the east precinct of Pownalborough was created. "By order of Jonathan Bowman, one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, to Abiel Wood one of its principal inhabitants, the freeholders of said precinct were called to an ecclesiastical organization by choosing parish officers." Thus was formed the east precinct of Pownalborough, later Wis- casset, as a branch of the civil organization and so continued until the incor- poration of the Second Religious Society in Wiscasset.
At the time of its formation the long and terrible hostilities, both savage and foreign, were terminating and the settlers consequently entered upon their duties with a feeling of security. Louisburg and Quebec had fallen and with them the French supremacy in America. Peace and hope returned and prosperity quickened the land which had for so long been a prey to desolation.
The pioneers who subdued these wilds were, for the most part, men who were untutored, illiterate and poor, but the lessons they learned in the wil- derness through years of exile, loss, toil, suffering, hardship, and danger, schooled them in that creed they were so soon to defend with their very lives-the creed of everlasting liberty.
Although Wiscasset proper occupies the identical boundaries named in the Indian deed to George Davie, ancient Pownalborough claims direct Pil- grim ancestry. The land titles of a large part of its territory along with al-
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most all of the Kennebec Valley can be traced to the Pilgrims of Plymouth. King James I of England had granted the region then called New England to the Council of Plymouth in Devon, England, from whom William Brad- ford and his associates received the concession of fifteen miles on both sides of the Kennebec River in order to control the fur trade with the Indians.
In his manuscript history of New England Rev. Jacob Bailey states:
The ancient colony of New Plymouth, having met with losses and discouragements in their trade at Kennebeck, in 1661 conveyed their lands to Antipas Bois, Edward Tyng, Thomas Brattle and John Winslow with all the privileges of the Patent, for the sum of £400 sterling.
But the frequent wars and commotions which disturbed the Eastern country pre- vented these gentlemen and their heirs from making any improvements. And besides their territory being seldom visited was generally esteemed only a barren tract in a severe climate and a remote wilderness country. At length Mr. Samuel Goodwin of Charlestown (Mass.), now Major Goodwin of Pownalborough, having obtained some intelligence from his ancestors concerning the above mentioned purchase, and having procured a twenty-fourth part from his father, engaged with resolution in the affair. But the original Patent by which they were entitled to resume the possession could not be found, and a majority of the proprietors imagined it lost beyond recovery; it was therefore his first concern to acquire, if possible, this necessary instrument; and it was with indefatigable industry, unwearied application and great expense, that he was able to obtain proper intelligence of said Patent. After searching a multitude of records, he found it in the hands of Samuel Wells, Esq., one of the Commissioners for settling the bounds between the late Colony of Plymouth and that of Rhode Island. This Patent had been long concealed by an ancient woman with a view, it is presumed, of making some advantage to herself, or family, and it was finally wrested out of her possession by strategem and delivered to the above Commissioners in order to assist in their de- terminations. Mr. Goodwin obtained an order from the General Court, directing Mr. Wells to resign the Patent, and having in this manner procured the original con- veyance, prevailed with a number of gentlemen to be concerned by purchase, and Mr. Bowdoin, Vassal, Hancock, Dr. Gardiner, Hallowell and other wealthy persons were engaged, and formed themselves into a company, and the first meeting was held, agree- able to a warrant, in 1749. Mr. Goodwin, by order of the proprietors, began his sur- veys in 1750, and continued in that employ through the whole summer, notwithstand- ing the Indians, by their motions had terrified all the inhabitants into the garrison.
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