COLLECTIONS

: AND

PROCEEDINGS

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SECOND SERIES, VOL. Ill

' "

PORTLAND

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
1892

PRESS OF

BROWN THURSTON COMPANY

PORTLAND, MAINE

~F

\lo

/M 33

vi.13

CONTENTS

PAGE

Edward H. Elwell. By Samuel T. Pickard, . . 1

The Abnakis and their Ethnic Kelations. By James P. Baxter, 13

Sketches of the Lives of Early Maine Ministers. By Wm. D.

Williamson. ..... 41

Rev. Eichard Gibson, ..... 48

Rev. William Thompson, . .... 52

Rev. George Burdett, ..... 191

Rev. Joseph Hull, ..... 195

Rev. Robert Jordan. ..... 198

Rev. Thomas Jenner, . . . . . 293

Rev. John Wheelwright, .... 297

General LaFayette and his Visit to Maine, ... 57

Field Day, 1891. ..... 79

Hallowell Records Births, . . . 105, 215, 331, 441

Massachusetts State Archives, Revolution Petitions, . 107

Maine Historical Society Offers, . . . .110

Maine Historical Society Wants, . . . Ill

Wm. M. Sargent. By Dr. Charles E. Banks, . . .113

Cilly and Graves Duel. By Horatio King, . . 127, 393

Wm. Barrows John Tripp, By Percival Bonney, . . 149

Military Operations at Pemaquid in the Second War with Great

Britain. By Henry S. Burrage. . . . 187

Joseph Dane. By Edward P. Burnham, . . 209

Proceedings. 1887, . . ' . . 219, 333

Corresponding Members, , 224

Dr. Nathaniel T. True. By W. B. Lapham, ... 225

Ancient Augusta. By Henry W. Wheeler, . . . 233

Rev. Robert Rutherford. By Josiah H. Drummond, . 265

Reminiscences of a Great Enterprise. By James P. Baxter, . 247

The Manuscripts of Wm. D. Williamson. Bv Joseph Willamson, 275
Land Titles in Monument Square, Portland. By L. B. Chapman, 281
Rev. Joseph Moody's Diary, .... 317

Kittery Family Records, .... 325, 431

Historic Hints toward a University for Maine. By E. C. Cummings, 337
Some Huguenots and other Early Settlers on the Kennebec in

Dresden. By Charles E. Allen, ... 351

IV CONTENTS.

The Conduct of Paul Revere in the Penobscot Expedition. By

Joseph Williamson, .... 379

The Plymouth Trading House at Penobscot. Where was it? By

Samuel Adams Drake, .... 409

Louis Annance. By John F. Sprague, . . . 418

Note Concerning Ancient Augusta at Small Point. By Henry

O. Thayer, ..... 424

ILLUSTRATIONS

Edward H. Elwell, . 1

Wm. M. Sargent, .....

Jonathan Cilly silhouette, . . . 127

Jonathan Cilly portrait, ....

Dr. Nathaniel F. True, . . . - .225

EDWARD HENRY ELWELL

EI>WAKI> HENRY ELWELL.

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS,

EDWARD HENRY ELWELL,

BY SAMUEL T. PICKARD.

Bead before the Maine Historical Society, December 10, 1891.

EDWARD HENRY ELWELL was born in Portland,
December 14, 1825, and resided nearly all his life in
his native city and in the adjoining town of Deering.
During one year only did he live elsewhere. His boy-
hood and youth were spent here, and to Portland he
loyally gave the full strength of his raaturer years.
He was born in an ancient house that formerly stood
at the foot of Free street, near the corner of Cross
street. His father, Charles Elwell, was a master mari-
ner who sailed from this port, as did his father before
him. Captain Charles Elwell died before his son, the
subject of this sketch, was old enough to remember
him. He inherited from his ancestors a yearning for
the sea which he found it difficult to resist. But as the
dutiful son of a widowed mother, he yielded to her
wish, and remained by her side.

Young Elwell received a good education in the Port-
land public schools, was an apt scholar and a favorite
with his teacher and his schoolmates. He was as fond
of play as of study, and joined in all the boyish sports
and games of his day with a zest even beyond the
average that obtained among the youth of half a
VOL. III. 2

2 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

century ago. To the end of his life his interest in
such sports never ceased. He retained for threescore
years his boyish delight in the bell ringing, the
cannon firing, the brass bands, and even the India
crackers of Independence Days and felt defrauded
of his holiday if no provision was made for what he
considered an adequate celebration. His delightful
book, "The Boys of '35," is a record of his own youth,
and each character in it is a true sketch of some youth-
ful comrade. Its great popularity as a boy's book is
due to its perfect fidelity as a sketch of juvenile life
in the second quarter of our now nearly completed
century.

His school life was finished when he was about fif-
teen years of age, mnd for a year he found employ-
ment in a commission store on Exchange street. He
then decided to become a printer, being moved thereto
by a belief that in this business he could have better
opportunities for intellectual improvement. In 1842,
Benjamin Kingsbury was publisher of the True Amer-
ican, which was the short-lived organ of the Tyler
administration. Young Elwell entered the office of
that paper, became an expert compositor, and soon
began to try his hand as a contributor not only to the
paper on which he was employed but to the two other
daily papers of that time, the Advertiser and the Ar-
gus. He wrote anonymously, but his letters were so
well considered and so neatly expressed that they were
in every case promptly published. When the publica-
tion of the True American was suspended at the close
of the administration it had supported Mr. Elwell,

EDWARD HENRY ELWELL. 3

who had not yet attained his majority, became a
compositor in the office of the Christian Mirror, then
edited by Rev. Dr. Asa Cummings. The venerable
divine became much attached to the young man,
whose faithful work and studious habits were under
his notice for about two years.

In 1847, when in his twenty-second year, Mr. El-
well went to Limerick, Maine, and was for about a
year the foreman in the office of the Free Will Baptist
Repository, a paper edited by Elder Buzzell. In July,
1848, in conjunction with the late Edwin Plummer,
he started a literary weekly, called the Northern
Pioneer, published in Portland. The enterprise was a
success from the beginning, notwithstanding its rivalry
with the Portland Transcript, a weekly of similar char-
acter, which had the advantage of having been pub-
lished eleven years, most of the time under the editor-
ship of Charles P. Ilsley, whose versatile pen had given
it an excellent reputation. The Transcript had, in
1848, come into the possession of the late Erastus E.
Gould, who was an excellent business manager and
who saw the need of a good editor for his paper.
Noticing in his rival contemporary an editorial article
that pleased him, he determined to find out which of
the two editors of the Pioneer wrote it, and then if
possible secure him as editor for the Transcript. He
soon found that Mr. Elwell was its writer, and began
negotiations which ended in the purchase of Mr.
Plummer's interest in the Pioneer, by Mr. Elwell, who
then united the Pioneer with the Transcript. This
was in October, 1848. The union of the two papers

4 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

gave strength and stability to the enterprise. Mr.
Gould's admirable business tact and Mr. Elwell's lit-
erary ability at once extended the circulation of the
paper and gave it a reputation that increased year
by year.

In April, 1855, the Portland Eclectic, a paper that
had been started by Edwin Plummer, and by him sold
to the late Edward P. Weston and S. T. Pickard, was
united with the Transcript, nearly doubling the sub-
scription list. The firm name, hitherto Gould & Elwell,
was changed to Gould, Elwell, Pickard & Co. Mr.
Gould's health failing him, he sold his interest to Mr.
Pickard in 1856 and thereafter until the death of Mr.
Elwell, the style of the firm was Elwell, Pickard &
Co.

The Transcript steadily grew in popular favor, at-
taining a circulation of twenty-five thousand copies.
At the time when Mr. Elwell assumed the editorship,
its circulation was not over two thousand copies.
The plan adopted and always borne in mind was to
miike it a family newspaper, excluding sensational
matter and the details of crime. Public issues were
discussed on their merits without regard to party.
Mr. Elwell was a fearless and independent writer,
and did good service in promoting every reform,
political or social, that appealed to his love of justice
and fair play. He was especially interested in the
cause of the slave, writing brave words for freedom,
at times when loss of patronage was a sure result
of plain speaking. He was also a zealous worker in
the temperance reform, and he never failed to demand
fair and generous treatment of the Indians.

EDWARD HENRY EL WELL. 5

His sturdy independence was manifested in his
treatment of questions that divided political parties.
The Transcript was non-partisan, but never neutral
upon any question that involved a principle. Dur-
ing heated political campaigns it was often taken to
task by one or other of the party organs for daring
to express an opinion before a constituency that
represented all parties. Here is Mr. Elwell's reply to
a Bangor paper which objected to his defense of our
representative in congress, Mr. Goodenow, who in
1850 voted to receive petitions praying for a disso-
lution of the Union.

We have spoken freely of public measures, and believing it to
be our duty as a journalist, shall continue so to speak. We
recognize the importance and necessity of parties, while we do
not hold that their acts are above criticism or censure. Of
course, we speak of those legislative acts which affect the wel-
fare of the nation, and not of the squabbles of politicians, which
affect none but themselves. We leave such matters to those
who have nothing more important to attend to. But being
American citizens, and therefore interested in all that affects
the character and welfare of the country, we shall speak of
things with the freedom becoming American citizens.

This was written at the outset of his editorial work
and it was the keynote of his whole career.

Mr. Elwell from early youth neglected no oppor-
tunity for the improvement of his mind. His reading
covered a broad field and his retentive memory stored
its treasures with an orderly system that made it easy
to draw upon them at will. When he was about
twenty years of age he helped organize a debating
society, composed of young men, which was called the

6 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Augustan Club. Among his associates in this club
were John Lynch, D. Fuller Appleton, Charles Payson,
Henry M. Parkhurst and Frederic E. Shaw. He here
developed a readiness in debate which greatly added to
his usefulness in many other literary associations with
which he was afterward connected.

He became a member of the Maine Charitable Mechan-
ic's Association in 1853 ; was early connected with
the Portland Society of Natural History ; was elect-
ed member of the Fraternity Club in 1874 ; of the
Ma'ne Press Association he was one of the founders ;
and his connection with the Maine Historical Society
dates from July 11, 1879.

He was a member of the White Mountain Club,
formed for the exploration and study of the peaks of
the White Mountain Range. Of several historical
societies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, he was
an honorary or corresponding member. In the Port-
land Society of Art, the Longfellow Statue Associa-
tion and the Diamond Island Association, he made his
influence felt, as he actively contributed to their suc-
cess. The school committee and village improvement
association of Deering each had in him a working
member. A liberal, charitable and enterprising spirit
characterized his dealings with every organization in
which he became interested.

I need not speak before this Society of the zeal and
success with which he prosecuted the studies in which
you as an organization are especially interested. There
are few men so thoroughly conversant as he was with
the early history of our city, our state, and of our

EDWARD HENRY ELWELL. 7

country. In him the American Indian had a steadfast
friend, advocate and apologist. The papers he read at
the meetings of this Society treat of the following
topics :

1. The White Hills of New Hampshire. Read May 25, 1881,
and printed in Vol. IX.

2. The Portland of Longfellow's Youth. Read Feb. 27, 1882,
printed in the Birthday Volume.

3. Memoir of Enoch Lincoln. Read Dec. 23, 1882, and print-
ed in the Maine Historical Society Quarterly, April, 1890.

4. The Aborigines of Maine, Read Jan. 8, 1885.

5. The Newspaper Press of Maine. Read Jan. 8, 1885.

6. The British View of the Ashburton Treaty. Read Dec.
22, 1885.

7. The Early Schools of Portland. Read Dec. 21, 1886.
Printed by the city.

8. Church and State in Maine. Read Feb. 9, 1888.

9. Extracts from the Ledger of Solomon Bragdon. Read
Feb. 22, 1889.

10. Influence of the Transmission of News on Public Events
Read March 27, 1890.

The themes of the papers he read before the
Fraternity Club, during the fifteen years of his mem-
bership of that literary association, cover a very wide
range of study. In 1886, a collection of these
essays was published under the title of "Fraternity
Papers," and this is a list of the subjects of which they
treat :

1. One Day in Florence, a reminiscence of his visit to Europe
in 1870.

2. The Building of the House, a pleasant essay upon ancient
and modern ways of building dwelling houses.

3. The Humors of Dialect, showing the different kinds relished
by varo us nations.

8 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

4. Dreams.

5. Conversation.

6. Discovery of the Mississippi.

7. The White Mountains, with many anecdotes of the early
explorers.

8. The Aborigines, treating particularly of the tribes inhabit-
ing Maine. He holds that our contact with the Indian has been
too close to admit of a true perspective. When the race shall
have faded away we shall see them in a truer light, and wonder
that when they were with us we knew so little of them.

9. The Puritan Sermon. This is a graphic description of the
services in the old-time New England meeting-houses.

10. The Gospel of the Disagreeable. This is an essay which
expresses the optimistic creed of the writer probably better than
anything else he has written. He believed that our race has steadily
grown happier and better, and it did not seem reasonable to
him that progress and improvement shall cease with this life.

The great mass of the literary work of Mr. Elwell is to
be found of course in more than forty volumes of the
Portland Transcript, edited by him from 1848 until
1890. The books and pamphlets which bear his name,
as author, have the following titles :

1. Successful Business Houses of Portland. Published in
1875.

2. Aroostook, with some Account of the Excursions thither of
the Editors of Maine, in the Years 1868 and 1878, and of the Colony
of Swedes settled in the Town of New Sweden. Published in
1878.

3. The Boys of Thirty-Five. Published by Lee & Shepard,
in 1884.

4. The Schools of Portland, from the Earliest Times to the
Centennial Year of the Town. Published by the city in 1880.

5. Fraternity Papers, 1886.

6. Portland and Vicinity. An Illustrated Guidebook of the
city. Published by J. & A. Reid, Providence.

EDWARD HEXRY EL WELL. 9

In the character of Mr. Elwell there was an admir-
able mixture of conservatism and enterprise. Attached
as he was to the traditions of the past, and fond of the
old ways of doing things, he was ever ready to examine
the claims of whatever was new. As a public lecturer
he was very popular and his services in that line were
frequently in demand. As an after dinner speaker he had
few equals. He made good points in a bright, incisive
way. In social intercourse he was the life of any com-
pany in which he found himself, having a fund of anec-
dote and apt allusion, and a readiness at repartee that
were inexhaustible. But profane and vulgar jests
were never heard from him, nor was he pleased with
the society of those who indulged in them.

Although not a member of any religious society, his
reverent acceptance of the truths of revealed religion
was never to be doubted. The form of public worship
he preferred was that of the Congregationalist church.
In temperament he was a level-headed optimist, be-
lieving that the world is growing better year by year,
and yet having a conservative leaning toward all good
things that have stood the test of time and experience.
He did not believe that the "good time coming" was
to come whether or no, and without human help. For
his part this help he was always ready to give. His
charities were numerous, and without ostentation.

He was particularly happy in his domestic relations,
and found his greatest enjoyment in home life. When
twenty-six years of age, he married Sarah C., daughter
of Capt. John Polleys of this city. Of the eight children
born to them, five are living, viz.: Mabel, Frank A., Dr.

10 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Walter E., Edward H. Jr., and Margaret. For the first
years of his married life he resided in Portland, but in
1857 he built the comfortable house on Pleasant street,
Woodfords, where he ever after lived. It was one of the
first houses built on that street, and Mr. Elwell took
much pleasure in developing a good orchard and gar-
den. A few years ago he built a beautiful summer
cottage on Diamond Island. All who were privileged
with the intimacy of Mr. Elwell are aware how happy
he was in his home, and how much he enjoyed the
loving attentions of his wife and children. As a neigh-
bor he was kind and helpful to a remarkable degree,
living happily with all who were around him. He
cheerfully took his full share in the burdens of his vil-
lage and his towaj and exercised all the duties of
citizenship with conscientious fidelity.

Mr. Elwell was overtaken by the illness that proved
fatal, while stopping at Bar Harbor, on his way from
Machias, whither he had gone upon the summer ex-
cursion of the Maine Press Association. He was ac-
companied upon this excursion by his daughter, Miss
Mabel Elwell, and by their relative, Miss Sarah A.
Gilpatrick, a teacher in the Portland high school.
When he arrived at Bar Harbor, upon his return home-
ward, he was feeling none the worse for his journeying,
and he spent the evening in pleasant social intercourse
in the parlors of the West End hotel. But during the
night he had an ill-turn of a kind to which he had been
occasionally subject, and which it was thought- might
be due to indigestion. He obtained relief, but thought
it best not to resume his journey on the morrow as he

EDWAED HENEY ELWELL. 11

had expected. He sent reassuring messages to his
wife and children at home, promising to rest a day or
so at the comfortable hotel. But there was a return
of unfavorable symptoms the next afternoon, and
though no immediate danger was apprehended, it was
thought best to telegraph to his son, Dr. Walter E.
Elwell of the Tog us Military Home, who went to Bar
Harbor by the next train. But he arrived just too late
to find his father living. During the night, Mr. Elwell,
who was tenderly cared for by his dearly loved daugh-
ter, in the intervals of relief from pain, (which it was
now known proceeded from an affection of the heart),
pleasantly made plans with her for the journey home-
ward, and suggested forms of telegrams that would be
most reassuring to the family at home. He was always
very considerate in such matters. At half-past seven
o'clock, Wednesday morning, July 16, 1890, after a
brief paroxysm of pain, while resting in the arms of
his daughter, he started up, with an exclamation of
wonder, "Oh, what !" These were his last words for
his soul had taken flight.

I cannot better conclude this imperfect sketch of the
life and character of my long-time associate and friend,
than by quoting the estimate of the man written by
Hon. George F. Talbot, which appears in the resolu-
tions adopted by the Fraternity Club, when his death
was announced to that association.

In the intimacy of our conversations and discussions, we have
learned more and more to value his modesty, the urbanity of his
manners, his admirable powers of expression in both written and
oral language, his scholarly tastes and those gifts of a successful
author which seemed to have fitted him for a larger literary
sphere, and a wider public recognition than he actually attained.

12 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Urged by a genuine enthusiasm no research dismayed him, and
no industry wearied him. The subjects of his frequent public ad-
dresses were always well adapted to the popular taste, as well as
the popular instruction, and he was able to unfold them in a
graphic and pleasing style, enlivened by anecdotes, and lighted
by flashes of spontaneous humor, so far as to impress his ideas
upon his delighted audiences.

A genial optimism determined the trend of his opinions. His
faith was large and liberal ; his heart enthusiastic and hopeful.
His mind was reverent and devout, and his spirit cheered itself
in the assurance that goodness and wisdom were at the center of
the universe and would bring all things at last to the best issues.
He believed in his country and its great destinies, in the world
and its redemption, in men and that they all have their good
side.

Perhaps his intellectual forte was history ; and he was fond of
bringing, to depict the customs and manners of people of earlier
times, his close and mintfte observation, his power of vivid de-
scription, and his kindly humor .... Indeed, it seems that with the
mental equipment he had, Mr. Elwell, if the editorship of a suc-
cessful paper had not too much absorbed his time, might have
prepared himself by training and study for the higher walks of
historical composition, and have enrolled his name among the his-
torians whose works survive the age in which they are produced.

In our meetings, though his share of literary work was always
done promptly, and with a degree of excellence that kept the
standard of quality high, he spoke too rarely. Never tedious or
commonplace, he only broke his customed silence to utter some-
thing pithy and striking, some new view that had escaped the
general notice, often coming with chivalric generosity to the de-
fense of some maligned person or some decried cause.

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 13

THE ABNAKIS
AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS.

BY JAMES P. BAXTEK.

Bead before the Maine Historical Society, March 27, 1890.

THE origin and history of the Pre-Columbian inhabi-
tants of America possess for the student of Anthro-
pology an ever increasing interest. Not only is the at-
tention attracted at every turn by constantly accumu-
lating collections of the archaic belongings of the
peoples who once occupied this vast continent ; but
the facilities presented him for exploration are such,
that he may with a minimum expenditure of physical
and pecuniary capital, personally study the most in-
teresting remains, which a decade past could be reached
only by exhausting and dangerous adventure.

When Europeans, the Spaniard and Englishman,
first set foot upon this continent, the one upon its
southern, the other upon its northern shores, they
found it peopled with men unlike themselves in com-
plexion, language, and modes of life. If they traveled
in any direction, they found that these people them-
selves differed in language and appearance, as well
as in those arts, which minister to man's comfort and
promote his civilization. Without regard, however, to
these differences, they applied to them all the common,
and perhaps not wholly inappropriate, title of Indians,
a term which, for convenience, we may properly adopt.

14 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

There was, however, a wide difference between the
men who occupied the southern, and those who occu-
pied the northern portion of the continent ; between
the Aztecs of Mexico, and the Abnakis of Maine. The
former had attained a degree of civilization which we
hardly yet appreciate, but of which we are learning
much through study of their architectural, sculptural
and textual remains, which almost rival in beauty
some of the admired achievements of old world art ;
while the latter lived in rude booths, or tents of
bark, and wandered from place to place half naked, or,
at best, clothed with the skins of savage beasts to
which they seemed akin ; indeed, had one traversed
the continent northward from the Gulf of Mexico,
while these peoples flourished, he would soon have
experienced a loss of most of those conditions which
make for civilization, and long before reaching the
North Atlantic seaboard, he would have found himself
face to face with an almost hopeless barbarism. The
questions which would persistently have presented
themselves to him, are the same which present them-
selves to the student, who to-day, in thought, takes the
same journey ; questions which relate to origin and
antiquity, and to which answers must largely be de-
rived from archaeological remains, though we may
learn something from early explorers, and may not
altogether overlook tradition.

C

An early theory of the origin of the Indians of
America was, that they were emigrants from the
Asiatic coast, probably by the way of Behring strait ;
but this theory was in time overshadowed by that ad-

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 15

vanced by Morton, and which was based upon that
illustrious scientist's study of the crania of tribes inhab-
iting widely separated parts of the continent. This
theory briefly stated was that the Indians of America
were indigenous to the continent : that they differed
from all other races in essential particulars, not except-
ing the Mongolian race. That the analogies of lan-
guage ; of civil and religious institutions, and the arts,
were derived from a possible communication with
Asian peoples; or, perhaps, from mere coincidences
" arising from similar wants and impulses in nations in-
habiting similar latitudes :" and that the Indian inhabi-
tants of America, excepting the polar tribes, were of
one race and species, "but of two great families, which
resemble each other in physical, but differ in intellect-
ual character;" and finally that all the crania which
he had studied belonged to " the same race, and prob-
ably to the Toltecan family." To this theory Agassiz
lent the weight of his great name, as it so well ac-
corded with his own theory, that, " men must have
originated in nations, as the bees have originated in
swarms, and as the different social plants have covered
the extensive tracts, over which they have naturally
spread." It is, however, evident that the autocthonic
theory, which for a time passed almost unquestioned,
is fast losing ground ; indeed, it has become evident
that in accepting it, Agassiz did not submit it to the
test to which he was wont to subject questions within
his own special field of investigation, but welcomed it
as favoring a scheme to which he had become wedded.
This change in opinion finds its warrant in Morton's

16 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

own field of cranial investigation, which has been
widely cultivated since his day, disclosing faults in
some of his most important deductions. Besides, a
comparative study of the handiwork and lingual char-
acteristics of the Indian peoples has been entered upon,
which has already disclosed a vein, that promises to
furnish a wealth of archaeological knowledge. Again
is our attention drawn to the high tablelands of Asia,
which we now know to be geologically the earliest
portion of the globe suited to man's abode. Of course
we at once face here the question of man's origin j
certainly a pertinent one, but altogether beyond the
scope of the present inquiry. It may, however, be
said in passing, that if the theory of evolution as ap-
plied to man be tjjue, the American ape could not have
been the progenitor of the American man. This is the
opinion of evolutionists upon the subject, including
Darwin, who declares that " man unquestionably be-
longs in his dentition, in the structure of his nostrils-
and in some other respects, to the Catarrhine, or old-
world division," and that, " it would be against all prob-
ability to suppose that some ancient new-world species
had varied, and had thus produced a man-like creature
with all the distinctive characters proper to the old
world division, losing at the same time all its own dis-
tinctive characters ;" and he concludes in these words,
" there can, consequently, hardly be a doubt, that man
is an offshoot from the old world Simian stem, and
that under a genealogical point of view, he must be
classed with the Catarrhine division."

As the theory that the American man is indigenous

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 17

to the American soil has lost ground, the theory of
the unity of the human family has again come to the
front, and considerable testimony has been adduced to
its support. The old belief, too, that human life dawned
upon Asian soil has been revived and fresh arguments
have sprung up in its support.

A remarkable correspondence between the peoples
of the two continents is found to exist ; indeed, a com-
parison of the people living upon opposite sides of
Behring strait show them to scarcely differ from each
other. On the Asiatic side the Chuckchis well know
that the two continents are connected by sub-
marine banks, and the tradition is still current that
they were once joined by an isthmus which mysterious-
ly subsided. A marked resemblance between some of
the Chuckchis and the Dakotas has been observed ;
at the same time, it is obvious that in common with
the Eskimos on the American side, they represent one
and the same type of ancient man ; a view which is
strengthened by a study of their customs, and particu-
larly of their implements, which are analogous to those
of the stone age in Europe and America. If from this
point we proceed to study the tribes of the old conti-
nent, we shall find still more remarkable resemblances
between them and the Indian tribes of America. Much
has been written about the remarkable mounds of the
western portion of the continent, and enthusiasts have
declared that they were the remains of an ancient
civilization, which once extended over a considerable
portion of the continent ; but there is nothing to war-
rant such a conclusion. These mounds are of va-
VOL. III. 3

18 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

ried character, some being strictly sepulchral, others
defensive, and still others in the form of elevated
plateaus of remarkable extent, most probably con-
structed for building sites, a purpose to which they
were admirably adapted, since from these elevated
situations, the inhabitants could more readily perceive
the approach of an enemy, and more easily resist his
attack. This custom of mound building is not peculiar
to this continent Extensive mounds exist among the
Turcomans and other Asiatic peoples. One of these
on the banks of the Turgai, is upward of a hundred
feet in height and nearly a thousand feet in circum-
ference ; nor is mound building yet obsolete, for such
structures are still reared above noted chiefs by their
friends, who each*contribute a certain number of bask-
ets of earth to their erection. Other customs too of
the nomadic tribes of the old continent, are remarkably
similar to those of some of the American tribes. Among
these are the adoption of animal names ; the artificial
flattening of the skull ; the burial of the dead upon the
branches of trees, the ideographic method of recording
thought, various religious observances, and a contempt
of labor, which is left to be performed by women.
Space will not permit a comparison of the art and
architecture of the Mayas and Aztecs with those of
the more civilized peoples of the old continent; but
here are to be found the strongest proofs of relation-
ship, if we except lingual affinities, from a more
thorough study of which we may expect still stronger
proofs.

When the tide of emigration to America first began,

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 19

we cannot learn; indeed, it is not impossible that at
this period, which antedated the glacial epoch, the
northern portion of the two continents were "united.
In that remote time a temperate climate prevailed in
regions now locked in eternal ice, and swept at all sea-
sons by devasting storms. When we view these re-
gions now so sterile and forbidding, impenetrable even
to the most daring adventurer, we can hardly realize
that this was the ancestral home of most of those
plants and animals with which we are now so familiar
in New England and other portions of the North Tem-
perate zone, and that here man flourished amid con-
ditions not unfavorable to his growth and comfort ;
and vet we have sufficient evidence to warrant such

v

belief. A time came, however, when a change took
place ; a change ascribed with much force to well
known astronomical facts ; the combined effect of the
progress of the equinoxes, and of the changing eccen-
tricity of the earth's orbit ; a change when winter in-
creased in severity, and the glaziers from the farther
north began to move southward. The ice age had set
in. As the glacial streams slowly advanced and
united, they formed in time a vast ice belt stretching
across the continent, and year by year continued mov-
ing toward the south. In its general form it was bow-
shaped, and when its southern limit was reached, its
most advanced portion rested on the southern line of
Illinois, its western arm curving sharply toward the
northwest, leaving uninvaded the territory occupied
by Nebraska and a portion of Dakota and Montana,
and its eastern arm extending northeastward until it

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

met the ea coast. New England was buried under
a moving mass of ice, which found in the Atlantic an
obstacle to its further progress.

Before the ever advancing ice flood, animals and men
retreated. The men who occupied the extreme north-
ern territory, rendered uninhabitable by the irresistible
power which blighted everything in its course, were
forced upon the tribes occupying more southern re-
gions, which must have resulted in continual warfare.

How long the northern portion of the continent was
enveloped in ice cannot be accurately determined ; but
in time this dreary scene of Arctic sterility began to
change. Attacked by a power which it could not re-
sist, the deadly ice began its retreat northward, which
it continued until it reached its present limit. The
men who dwelt upon its border slowly followed, forced
back probably in many cases by foes. In their long
wanderings many of the rude belongings of these
people, whom many archaeologists believe to be the
ancestors of the present Eskimos, must have been lost,
and those of an imperishable nature we should expect
to find among the debris left behind by the glaciers.
In this we are not disappointed. Numerous rudely
chipped implements of stone, similar in form, but as
unlike the stone implements found in more recent de-
posits, as early Saxon implements are unlike the fin-
ished productions of the English people of the nineteenth
-century, are found in deposits indisputably belonging
to the glacial period. These paleolithic, or ancient
stone implements, so called t'o distinguish them from
neolithic, or new stone implements, are known by

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 21

their rudely chipped surfaces, unfinished cutting edges
and irregularity of form ; while neolithic implements
are often finely finished, with cutting edges smoothly
and sharply ground, and symmetrical of form, showing
considerable skill in their manufacture.

Although we have attempted to briefly outline the
theory believed to be most in accord with present
archaeological knowledge respecting the origin of the
Indian tribes of America, it has not been our purpose
to consider the more civilized peoples of the extreme
south. In outlining the broader theory, we have hoped
to obtain a point of view from which we could more
intelligently consider a branch of a great family of
Indians, who occupied the northern and eastern por-
tion of the continent, south of the Arctic tribes.

As the glaciers disappeared from the lake country
of the north and the New England seaboard, a region
especially favorable to the sustentation of man was ren-
dered accessible, and was gradually taken possession
of by advancing tribes. These tribes probably came
from the west, and if we follow westward the lines
most available to sustain a migratory people in their
wanderings, we shall reach a vast region on the Pacific
coast, embracing the valley of the Columbia and ad-
joining territory, possessing all the requisites for sus-
taining a large population ; indeed when we study
this region where coast and stream still yield fish in
marvelous abundance, and where thick forests stretch-
ing east still shelter vast numbers of fur-bearing
animals, we may reasonably entertain the belief that
here, for a long period, was the initial point, the nur-

22 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

sery, so to speak, from which migration south and east
set out.

We are not to suppose that these migrations were
the result of caprice. On the contrary, they were move-
ments inspired by purpose and guided by natural law,
and would continue under the influence of physical
causes alone, until the confines of the continent were
reached. We should expect the advancing tribes to
follow those lines most accessible to the regions which
would furnish them with game and fish upon which,
especially the latter, they depended for subsistence ;
hence we should expect to find them following the
more fertile valleys, and gathering about the lakes,
along the streams, and upon the seaboard, especially
in the neighborhood of extensive forests, which would
afford a haunt for game ; and as these movements
would occupy long periods of time, and tribes of the
same original stock would become so widely separated
as to have no intercourse together, we should expect
changes to take place between them, which would con-
stitute noticeable differences in customs, habits of life,
and especially in language, and in this we shall not be
disappointed. When the early European colonists be-
gan to occupy the eastern shores of the continent, they
found it in the possession of various tribes of people
having similar physical characteristics, manners, and
customs. Their complexion was uniformly of a cop-
pery brown hue ; their hair black, straight and lank,
differing, as is now known from the hair of the
European in structure, having its coloring matter in
the cortex instead of a central duct. Their eyes were

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 23

black and piercing ; their noses aquiline, their mouths
large and their faces beardless, owing to a custom pre-
valent among them of plucking the hair from their
faces, whenever it appeared. Physically they were
tall, muscular, lithe and active, and could endure
severe hardship without apparent inconvenience. Fur-
ther study of these tribes revealed the fact that they
belonged to one great family, though their speech had
so changed that tribes living remote from one another
could not hold converse together ; moreover, they
were in continual strife, frequently engaging in wars,
which caused the destruction -of whole tribes. This
great family, to which the French gave the title
Algonkin, stretched along the Atlantic seaboard from
Labrador to South Carolina, and westward to the east-
ern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, occupying very
nearly the country which had been covered by the
glacial flood, except, where into its territorial domain
another powerful family had thrust itself like an im-
mense wedge, the head of which rested on southern
Canada, between Lake Champlain and Lake Huron,
while its point penetrated Virginia, separating the
tribes on the Atlantic seaboard from the western tribes,
and harassing them with destructive wars. These in-
truders, to whom the French gave the title of Iroquois,
were fiercer than the Algonkins, whom they most bit-
terly hated ; being feared and as bitterly hated in re-
turn. By tradition they held that they once occupied
the region along the St. Lawrence as far east as Gaspe
bay, but had been driven westward by the Algonkins,
who had invaded their territory from the east. This

24 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

tradition]will be noticed later. When discovered by
Europeans, the Algonkin tribes on the Atlantic sea-
board had become stationary within limited areas, while
the tribes to the west were still in movement. Observa-
tion has shown that the nomadic condition is unfavor-
able to the cultivation of the arts which tend to the
development of man's higher faculties ; hence, in settled
communities, agriculture thrives and competition stim-
ulates the people to improvement in manners, as well
as handiwork. This settled condition had but partially
obtained among the Algonkins of the Atlantic sea-
board. They had, it is true, their settled villages and
cultivated lands, but these villages were of an unsta-
ble character, and were not unfrequently abandoned
for localities supposed to possess greater advantages.
In spite of this, the semi-settled condition of these
Atlantic tribes conduced to more gentle manners, and
stimulated them in some degree to imitate their
European neighbors. This was especially noticeable in
the Narragansetts, a tribe which had advanced beyond
all others in the manufacture of those implements
which were necessary to savage life, and whose produc-
tion, were eagerly sought by even remote tribes.
Upon the introduction of the more elegant products of
English workmanship, these people at once began to
improve their own work, and in some cases succeeded
in producing articles of considerable elegance, which
found a ready market in the shops of London.

The Algonkin tribes possessed certain useful arts.
They understood the fashioning of domestic utensils of
clay, rudely ornamented and hardened by fire ; the

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 25

manufacture of a great variety of implements in wood,
stone and bone ; of rope and twine for nets from
filaments of bark ; of hand weaving from the same
material into various articles of ornament and use, and
from reeds and osiers into baskets ; the making of
boats; the canoe of birch bark, and the dugout of wood;
also the construction of musical instruments; the prim-
itive pipe and drum. Moreover, they employed the
ideographic method of recording thought. These arts
were possessed by all the Algonkin tribes in greater or
less perfection, but the more stationary tribes, like the
Narragansets, excelled the others in their practice.

Having thus briefly given a general description of
the Algonkin family, we may properly examine one of
its most interesting branches, the Abnakis of New
England, whose chief seat was within the limits of the
present state of Maine. While possessing the general
physicial characteristics of the great family to which
they belonged, the Abnakis were more gentle in man-
ners, and more docile than their western congeners;
the result perhaps, of more settled modes of life. They
were hunters, fishermen and agriculturists; if their
rude methods of cultivating the maize, the squash, the
bean, and a few other esculents entitle them to the
latter term. At all times they appear to have de-
pended largely upon fish for subsistence, though maize
furnished them with an important winter diet ; in-
deed we are told, that they undertook long journeys
through the snow, with nothing to sustain them but
parched maize pounded to a powder, three spoonfuls of
which sufficed for a meal. In their agriculture, they

26 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

used fish, of which there was a wonderful abundance,
to fertilize their crops ; one or two fish being placed
near the roots of the plant. Their dwellings were not
constructed with a view to permanence ; but frequent-
ly exhibited considerable taste in arrangement and
decoration. They were usually of bark fastened to
poles in a pyramidal form, and covered with woven
mats, which rendered them impervious to wet, and
when furnished with abundance of skins, were com-
fortable for habitation. Their villages were inclosed
for protection, with palings set upright in the earth.
Each village had its council lodge of considerable size,
oblong in form, and roofed with bark, and similar
structures were made use of by male members of the
village, who prefeired to club together in social fel-
lowship. They were hospitable to a fault, and de-
lighted to entertain strangers in their rude fashion,
generously sharing with them their food, even when
the supply was scanty. They possessed no articles of
furniture, using skins to sit upon as well as for beds,
and mother earth served for a table upon which to
spread their simple viands. Their costumes were of
the simplest kind. In summer they went naked
with the exception of a breech cloth fastened about
the waist, and hanging down before and behind like a
double apron; but in winter, they wore leggins of
dressed buckskin, reaching to their feet, which were
shod with moccasins, usually of moose hide, which
they skillfully tanned, the upper parts of their bodies
being protected by loose mantles made of the skins
of wild beasts. Like all untutored people, they de-

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 27

lighted in ornaments, and decked themselves gaily
with bracelets, ear pendants, and curiously wrought
chains, or belts, all of which were usually formed of
carven shells, bones, and stones. They also painted
their faces, and, according to Wood, imprinted figures
with a searing iron upon their bodies ; perhaps, as he
suggests, "to blazon their antique Gentilitie," for, he
says, " a sagamore with a Humberd in his eare for a
pendant, a black hawke on his occiput for his plume,
Mowhackees for his gold chaine, good store of Wam-
pompeage begirting his loynes, his bow in his hand,
his quiver at his back, with six naked Indian splatter-
dashes at his heeles for his guard, thinkes himself little
inferior to the great Cham; hee will not stick to say,
hee is all one with King Charles."

Father Vetromile asserts, that, "Their sentiments
and principles of justice had no parallel amongst the
other tribes," and that they were never known to
have been " treacherous nor wanting in honor or con-
science in fulfilling their word given either in public
or private treaty." While we may properly regard
this as too great praise, we must admit that they
possessed a nobility of character remarkable in a
savage people. It is certain that the missionaries
found them more tractable and more ready to listen to
their teachings than any other branch of the Algonkin
family with which they came in contact. Although
dignified and taciturn in council, and among stran-
gers, when free from restraint they were social and al-
ways ready to join in amusements among themselves.
They favored athletic sports, and engaged freely in

28 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

competitive trials of skill in wrestling, running, swim-
ming and dancing. Their most exciting game was foot-
ball, which they played on immense courses, with
goals a mile apart, a single game continuing some-
times for two days. They also indulged in games
of chance, two of which Wood has graphically de-
scribed to us under the names of Puim and Hubbub,*
which he says are "not much unlike Cards and Dice ;"
and he asserts, that they would often become so be-
witched by these games, that they would lose at a
sitting, " Beaver, Moose skinnes, Kettles, Wampom-
peage, Mowhackies, Hatchets, Knives ;" in fact, every-
thing which they possessed ; and yet, we are assured,
that however fierce the competition in these games
might become, they never quarreled nor harbored
feelings of anger on account of losses, or even of in-
juries received in athletic sports, but as friends would
"meete at the kettle."

Their domestic relations were sacred. Polygamy
was but little practiced by them. Courtship was sim-
ple, and the initiatory act was the bestowal of a pres-
ent upon the parents of the girl sought in marriage.
If the present was received, the marriage was con-
summated without ceremony, and the contract was
held by the parties inviolable. The life, however, of
the woman, was one of hardship. She was expected
to construct the covering of the dwelling; to braid
the mats; to cultivate the garden; and to prepare the

*This Indian game of chance, accompanied as it was by constant exclamations
of hub, bub ! hub, bub ! caused the early adventurers to the New England coast to
call any noisy demonsiration a " hubbub." The term having its original applica-
tion is still in common use in New England, and is used to some extent elsewhere in
the United States. Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary, permitting himself to be
misled by similarity of sound and meaning, derives it from whoop. The old form
he conceives to have been whoop-whoop, a reduplication from the Anglo Saxon
tr&p, an outcry. It is, he says, " in any case connected with whoop."

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 29

meals, of which it was not considered proper for her
to partake, until her husband and guests had regaled
themselves. In spite of this, the affection which these
rude parents exhibited for their children was consider-
able. They were reared with care, and as soon as
they were able to walk, the boys were taught the use
of weapons ; especially of the bow with which they
became remarkably expert ; and the girls the art of
basket making and other domestic employments.
Especial pride was taken by parents in the exploits of
their sons, and the first game which they secured was
publicly exhibited, and afterwards devoted to a feast
for their friends.

Both men and women are uniformly described as
being modest, and perhaps the most remarkable thing
to be recorded in favor of the Abnaki warrior is the
fact that no female prisoner ever had occasion to
complain of him in this respect.

Vetromile records the important fact that the
Abnakis, and they alone of the Algonkin family,
possessed the art of chirography, and he gives speci-
mens of characters employed by them, which strik-
ingly remind one of the ancient phonetic script of
Egypt and Phoenicia. He further states that the
people were accustomed to send missives to one an-
other written upon birch bark, and the chiefs, to dis-
patch written circulars of the same material to their
warriors, asking for advice ; indeed, the Abnakis as-
serted that their method of writing expressed ideas
as fully and as freely as that employed by Europeans.
Their government was autocratic. The king held

30 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

absolute rule, and at his death was succeeded by his
oldest son. If childless, the queen assumed authority.
If he left neither son nor consort to succeed him, then
his office was assumed by his nearest relative.

To understand a people, it is necessary to study their
religious beliefs, since these often furnish motives for
actions in themselves unintelligible. The Abnaki be-
lieved in the existence of an unseen world, and of un-
seen beings by whom it was peopled, and with whom
his priests could commune. These priests, or as rude-
ly translated into English, medicine men, performed
the threefold function of priest, prophet and physi-
cian, and they often practiced an asceticism as severe
as that of the ascetic priests of India. To the ignorant
child of the forest,they possessed miraculous power,
beholding the hidden things of a supernatural sphere,
which rendered them capable of forecasting the fut-
ure. We should not regard them as impostors.
Reared from childhood in the belief of supernatural
existences, which found embodiment in the surround-
ing forms of nature ; subject to long fasts and solitary
communings with imaginary beings, they held them-
selves to be akin to the mysterious powers to whose
service they were devoted, and acceptable mediums of
communication between them and the common people.
These men, therefore, exercised a controlling influence
upon the tribes, as men exercising the priestly func-
tion have done in all ages, and among all races of men.
To them the proudest chiefs bowed submissively, and
obeyed without question their mysterious utterances.

In common with other tribes of the Algonkin family,

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 31

and in striking correspondence with Oriental beliefs,
the Abnakis held that the world was under the influ-
ence of dual powers ; benificent and maleficent, and
that there was one great spirit who held supreme rule,
but at the same time did not interfere with these
ever conflicting powers. Upon this conception of
deity their entire system of religious belief neces-
sarily hinged; hence their belief in guardian spirits
which they denominated manitos, took a peculiar
form, a belief which perhaps exercised greater influ-
ence upon their daily actions, than any other doc-
trine which they cherished in the gloom of their
unillumined minds. In order to come into true re-
lationship with his manito, the youth, when he
reached the age of puberty, subjected himself to a
painful fast, which induced dreams. In this state, he
believed that his manito presented himself in the
form, usually of some bird or beast of which he
dreamed, and this animal became his manito, and
was adopted as his totem or crest. Thenceforward
he was under the influence and guardianship of his
manito, but it might be either good or evil, and
subject to a more powerful inanito possessed by an-
other member of his tribe, which often caused him
anxiety.

That they believed in a future existence, old
writers generally testify. Wood, who was a close
observer, quaintly says that "they hold the immor-
tality of the never-dying soule, that it shall passe to
the Southwest Elysium concerning which their In-
dian faith jumps much with the Turkish Alchoran

32 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

holding it to be a kinde of Paradise, wherein they
shall everlastingly abide, solacing themselves in odor-
iferous Gardens, fruitfull Corne fields, greene
Medows, bathing their tawny hides in the coole
streames of pleasant Rivers, and shelter themselves
from heate and cold in the sumptuous Pallaces framed
by the skill of Nature's curious contrivement ; con-
cluding that neither care nor paine shall molest
them, but that Nature's bounty will administer all
things with a voluntary contribution from the store-
house of their Elyizan Hospitall, at the portall
whereof they say, lies a great Dogge, whose churlish
snarlings deny a Pax intrantibus to unworthy in-
truders : Wherefore it is their custome to bury with
them their Bows and Arrows, and good store of their
Wampompeag and Mowhackies ; the one to affright
that affronting Cerberus the other to purchase more
immense prerogatives in their Paradise. For their
enemies and loose livers, who they account unworthy
of this imaginary happiness, they say, that they passe
to the infernall dwelling of Abamocho, to be tortured
according to the fictions of the ancient Heathen."

The doctrine of metempsychosis, in an obscure
form, seems to have been held by these people, and
also of the duality of the soul, which is said to have
been the reason for their custom of burying domestic
utensils and other articles with the dead, and of placing
food upon their graves. A singular statement is made
by Mather, that they called the constellation of Ursa
Major by a word in their language, which possessed
the same signification. In common with many other

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 33

races of mankind, they regarded the serpent as being
the embodiment of supernatural power, superior in
wisdom and cunning; in fact, a manito, which demanded
their reverence. Charlevoix tells us that they painted
the figures of serpents upon their bodies, and that they
possessed the power so noted among the natives of
India, of charming them.

Believing in the constant nearness of supernatural
agencies, we cannot wonder that they beheld in every
object in nature a form with which such an agency
could mask itself. The wind, invisible to the eye, but
announcing unmistakably its presence to the ear, formed
to them the truest symbol of spiritual power, as it ever
has with civilized man. The fire, whose beneficent
heat was so necessary to them ; the waters which yielded
them subsistence ; the animals which haunted the
woodland glooms, aye ! the very trees and rocks, and
above all, the great luminaries of night, whose move-
ments they could not comprehend, prefigured to them
mysteries which they strove in vain to grasp.

An affinity between Abnaki and Scandinavian myths
and legends, should not pass unnoticed ; though we
may not be able to indicate how it obtained. That
such affinity exists, seems, however, evident, and the
suggestion of a Norse-Greenland source, through an
Eskimo channel may not be altogether presumptuous,
though far from conclusive, since it is not impossible
that the myths of both peoples may have come down
from a common source by different channels.

In this brief sketch, we have given about all that is
known of this interesting people. They have left
VOL. III. 4

34 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

behind no monuments to excite the admiration of the
archaeologist ; nothing in fact, but implements of stone
and bone to testify to their former existence. Along
the shores of bays, islands, and river estuaries, where
fish most abounded, may be seen slight elevations
usually of a more vivid green than the surrounding
land. To the inexperienced eye, these are but knolls,
the common handiwork of nature ; but, if examined
more closely, are found to be composed of comminuted
shells. These are the kitchen middens of the Abnakis,
and when opened, reveal objects of interest. At first we
are likely to come upon ashes and blackened embers,
among which are stones that bear the marks of burning,
and, with emotions, akin to awe, we realize that we
are invading the fireside of an ancient people, to whom
the surrounding landscape, wood, stream, and rocky
shore, were familiar and beloved objects. With care
we examine the mingled shells and earth which the
spade exposes to view, among which are the bones of
birds and beasts, the remnants of former feasts, as are,
indeed, the shells, the extent and depth of which reveal
a long continued occupation of the spot. Often our
search is rewarded by the discovery of fragmentary
vessels of burnt clay, bearing the indented ornamenta-
tion familiar to archaeologists, and implements of bone
and stone upon which time has wrought no change.
The axe, which was used for a variety of purposes, was
commonly formed from a stone of convenient size and,
form by bringing to a cutting edge one end, and work-
ing about the other a deep groove, by which it could be
hafted, by attaching to it a cleft stick, with the end

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIK ETHNIC RELATIONS. 35

wound with a leathern thong ; or two sticks, one placed
on each side of the grooved stone, and held together
by being wound the entire length with a similar thong.
These axes were of various forms', and made of many
varieties of stone. Some made of slate or stone, which
lent itself readily to lapidarian art, being of elegant
shape and finish. Stone axes have been found a foot
in length, and more than half as wide, but specimens
five or six inches in length are more common. The
smaller axes were probably used in war, and known in
Indian parlance as tomahawks.

Another form of stone implements found in the
middens is the celt or chisel. These are slender stones
of some length, with one end worked to a straight
cutting edge, and were probably used by being fixed
into a horn, or cylindrical handle of wood, of suitable
size, which would permit the exposure of the cutting
edge. Some of these stones are grooved in the form
of a gouge, and served the purpose of the modern
implement of that character. Occasionally one comes
upon an implement which probably served as a hammer.
It is usually an oval stone with a groove worked around
it, by which it could be hafted. A rare implement is
semi-luna in form, and was used for cutting purposes.
It was five or six inches in length, the rounded edge
being ground thin, the straight side being held in the
palm of the hand. Doubtless many chipped flint stones,
with sharp edges, which are mistaken for spear heads,
were used as knives.

Sometimes we come upon an implement resembling
an imperfect arrow head, but with a long and slender

36 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

point. This was used for drilling holes, and served
the purpose of the modern drill or awl.

Oblong stones more or less finished were more com-
mon. Some of these were used in dressing the skins
of beasts, and others as pestles for pulverizing maize.
A common boulder having a depression upon its surface,
often served for a mortar, but sometimes a mortar neat-
ly wrought from a stone of convenient size and form is
found. Such a specimen is highly prized to-day, as it
doubtless was by its Indian owner.

The most common objects found are spear and arrow
heads. These are made usually of flint, or stone of
similar hardness, and often show much skill in their
manufacture ; indeed, it is no easy task for the modern
lapicide to imitate them. They are of various forms,
and their use may be largely determined by their size.
Some arrow-points are simple triangular forms, and
were slipped into the split end of the shaft. Some of
the spear and arrow heads have a groove at the base
so as to be bound to the shaft by a sinew, and others
have but a narrow, straight projection, which permitted
them to become easily detached from the shaft. The
reason for this seems evident. By this means the point
was left in the flesh, greatly aggravating the wound.
Whether any of these points were poisoned, or not, is
a mooted question.

It is well known that besides the spear and arrow,
the Indian used a mace or weighted club. This con-
sisted of a round stone which was covered with skin
and bound securely to the handle. Those which were
grooved readily attract the attention of the delver in

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 37

the middens. Among the most interesting objects
which reward the relic searcher are pipes. They are
not only curious in form, but are often elegantly
wrought and, we must believe, were highly prized by
their owners, as they were by the early European
settlers, who obtained them from the Indians whenever
they could induce them to part with them, and sent
them to Europe where they were in demand by curios-
ity hunters. Occasionally a pipe of red clay is found,
similar in shape to the clay pipe of civilized man, but
being composed of more fragile material than the stone
pipe, is usually imperfect.

Among the more common objects, are stones, often
in the form of an elongated egg, with a groove around
the smaller end, which are sometimes mistaken for
pestles, but their size clearly denotes their use as sinkers
or weights.

Some of the most curious objects, and those which
perplex the student most, are perforated, and, in rare
instances, inscribed stones, in forms which rendered
them unfit for any conceiveable use, unless as has been
supposed, they were employed in ceremonial observan-
ces. Some were doubtless used merely as ornaments.
The implements of bone, which are quite common in
the middens, would require considerable space to pro-
perly describe. They were mostly used for perforating
soft materials, for sewing, and for spearing the smaller
fish. Many of the Indian hooks were made of bone.

The wampum, which the Indians so highly esteemed,
and which served the important purposes of trade and
personal adornment, has mostly perished. It was

38 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

composed largely of beads made of variously colored
shells often curiously wrought ; the colored specimens
being considered of the highest value, unless we except
those of copper, usually cylindrical in form.

Of their pottery only fragments remain, but these
cannot be mistaken for fragments of the pottery of
civilized man, as they bear the peculiar indented dec-
oration so common among barbarous people, consisting
of upright, diagonal, and curved lines made w r ith a
pointed instrument, or left by the mold in which the
vessel was formed, and which was of some coarsely
woven material.

What has been thus briefly described, constitutes
nearly all that remains to tell us of a most interesting
people ; but this "description serves as well to depict
the remains of neolithic man in the old world. If
we cross the ocean to explore midden and barrow, we
shall unearth objects of the same form and character
as those we have found on the shores of New England ;
the same spear and arrow heads ; the same axes, stone
sinkers, hammers, chisels, gouges, bone implements,
and even fragments of pottery, with the same indented
decoration, showing how universal was the art peculiar
to neolithic man. We may not pause, however, to
pursue the interesting questions which here present
themselves to us ; but consider in a few words the
relation which the Abnakis of Maine bore to certain
tribes somewhat further west. Vetromile, who was,
perhaps, as well qualified as any student of the
Abnaki tongue to give us the correct etymology of
the name, insists that the modern title was derived

THE ABNAKIS AND THEIR ETHNIC RELATIONS. 39

from wanbnaghi, and signifies, our ancestors of the
East, and not, as some other writers have supposed,
men of the East. This title, our ancestors of the East
was applied to the Indians of Maine, by some of the
tribes west of them, and reminds us of the tradition, of
the Iroquois, already alluded to, that, they once occu-
pied the country as far east as the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, but were driven westward by the Algonkins.
We cannot but regard this tradition with interest, and
coupled with the title bestowed upon the Abnakis of
the coast by their congeners living between them and
the Iroquois, as significant ; nor can we escape the
conclusion, that the Abnakis, after reaching the coast
of New England, gradually spread northward along
the seaboard until they reached the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, where they encountered the Iroquois ; and
forced them slowly back against the western tribes,
compelling them to extend their lines southward, until
they occupied the strange position in which they
were found when discovered by Europeans ; a position
which separated the Algonkins of the east from their
brethren of the west.

The territory from which the Iroquois had been
driven was occupied by the Algonkins, the tribes which
called the Indians of Maine their fathers of the east,
and which if the theory assumed is correct, was their
proper title. If the Iroquois and Algonkins migrated
from the west as the traditions of both peoples claim
it is probable that the former pursued a line north of
the latter. In their long continued migrations, they
may. at times have approached each other, and come

40 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

into conflict. That they finally met upon the seaboard,
and that the Iroquois were forced westward by the
Algonkins, seems probable. Harassed by the Algon-
kins, who hemmed them in on every side, and living
in a state of perpetual warfare, the Iroquois at last
became such fierce and cruel experts in war, as to
strike their Algonkin enemy with dread. As they
were obliged to extend towards the south, it is quite
apparent that they forced the Algonkins, who occupied
territory on their southern border, still father south,
until they had reached the extreme limits which they
occupied w T hen discovered by European adventurers.
By the fierce conflicts, which brought about this condi-
tion, the Abnakis of the New England seaboard were not
affected. Their conflicts were with their own lineage.
They, might, however, have continued until to-day,
using their poor implements of stone and bone, in
happy ignorance of more useful ones, had not civilized
man come in contact with them. As it is, but a rem-
nant now remains of our fathers of the east.

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 41

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY
MAINE MINISTERS,

BY WILLIAM D. WILLIAMSON.

Presented to the Maine Historical Society, with an Introduction by Joseph
Williamson, December 10, 1891.

INTRODUCTION.

A CHEISTIAN ministry, as it is more or less distin-
guished for talents, learning, and piety, may be the
means of forming a similarity of character in a sur-
rounding community. Having chosen a religious
teacher, a people will assuredly partake of his senti-
ments, tastes, and morality. The first settlers of this
country were the highest liberty-men that England or
any European nation could produce. They emigrated
to these shores, on purpose to enjoy unmolested, as
much of civil, and religious equality, and other rights,
as would be consistent with reason, conscience, and
principle. The classes were two ; laboring men and
gospel ministers ; and it is remarkable how many of
the latter were learned, and how many of the former
were the unchanging friends of education. They were
the few on the earth in their generation, who thought,
and read, and judged for themselves. They believed
that all those who would be acceptable worshipers of
Almighty God, must be intelligent, and conscientious ;
their obedience cheerful, and their homage heartfelt,
and pure ; and that ceremonies were only a burden,
not any aid to divine service.

42 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

A sensible, well-informed people prefer an educated
minister. When the Puritans emigrated from London
to Holland, and settled at Leyden, A.D. 1609, their
minister, Rev. John Robinson, went with them a
gentleman educated in the celebrated university at
Cambridge, and subsequently, while he was an Episcopa-
lian, he enjoyed a benefice in the English county of
Norfolk till he became a proselyte to the Puritan sen-
timents. It is true, he did not cross the Atlantic in
1620 with the part of his church and their families
who emigrated and settled Plymouth in New England ;
but William Brewster, who was educated at the same
university, a learned and distinguished man, did emi-
grate with them, being the ruling elder in their infant
church, and a preaching teacher to the new settlement
twenty-four years.

The first settled minister in Scituate, the second cor-
porate town of Plymouth colony, was Rev. John Lath-
rop (Lothrop) who was installed A.D. 1635, having
received his education at the university of Oxford, and
had been an Episcopal clergyman in Kent. At the
same seminary, Rev. Samuel Newman received his
education, preached at Weymouth from 1639, three
years, thence removing with a part of his church, be-
came in 1644 the first settled minister of Rehoboth.
The early religious teachers of many of the towns in
the old colony were men of equal celebrity for abil-
ities and learning.

All the first settled ministers in Massachusetts, like-
wise, had, with few exceptions, a thorough classical
education at some European university, and were also

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 43

in priest's orders before they came to this country.
For instance, Rev. Francis Higginson of Salem, John
Wilson of Boston, John Norton of Ipswich, Jonathan
Burr, colleague with Richard Mather, of Dorchester,
Thomas Shepherd of Charlestown, Peter Bulkley of
Concord, Ezekiel Rogers of Rowley, Thomas Hooker
of Cambridge, John Fiske of Chelmsford, Thomas Par-
ker of Newbury, John Cotton of Boston, were educa-
ted at one of the colleges in the university of Cam-
bridge, in England ; except Richard Mather, who was
educated at Oxford, and Thomas Parker, who received
his education at the university of Dublin.

These, and others of the same exalted reputation,
were the men who laid the original foundations of the
churches, and first preached the gospel and adminis-
tered the ordinances in New England. Yes, more than
seventy 1 of this class came into this country within
fifty years after the first settlement of Plymouth ; the
most of whom, in unison with some political men of
liberal education and generous minds, and with an
aspiring people, acted a conspicuous part either in
founding or rearing that ancient and honorable temple
of science Harvard College. This is monumental
of their wisdom and worth, enduring as the pillars of
their fame. Perhaps no other literary seminary in the
world, within an equal period of time, and in propor-
tion to the number educated, has done more good to
the church and the community. As it was put under
the oversight, tuition, and guidance of literary and

1 Rev. (J. Mather says there were " seventy-seven in the actual exercise of their
ministry when they left England " and he gives their names. Magnalia, 213 Hart-
ford Edition, 1820.

44 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

professional men, who had their collegiate education
at one of the universities in England, the same pre-
requisites before admission were required, the same
authors were generally studied, the same classic course
pursued, and the same period of four years required
to be spent at college before the degree of bachelor of
arts was conferred. Indeed, so learned and faithful
was the instruction, and so watchful and judicious was
the government and discipline, that several students
from abroad, we are assured, pursued for a period, or
finished, their classical course at Harvard College. The
memorable year of its foundation was 1636, and its
first commencement in 1642; and "from that hour,"
as Doctor Cotton Mather says, " Old England had more
ministers from new*, than New England had since then,
from old." He might, however, mean to except the
fourteen he mentions, who being ejected by the act of
uniformity, which was passed 1662, removed to this
country, and were established in the ministry at dif-
ferent places.

Any scholar was thought fit to enter college 1 during

1 At the time I entered Williams college in 1800, the prerequisits for admission
were these : the scholar must be able to read into English, the four first ^Eneids of
Virgil, the four orations of Cicero against Catiline, and the four Evangelists in the
Greek Testament. He was not examined in any other book. The study hours
of each day, I think were eight, of which two in the winter were between seven and
nine in the evening. The scholars in the several classes recited three times in
everyday except Wednesdays and Saturdays, only twice : each recitation was
immediately preceeding breakfast, dinner, and supper. In study hours the scholars
were not allowed to be absent from their rooms, nisi ex necessitate ; the tutors daily
calling at their rooms to see if the rules were duly observed. On the afternoons of
Wednesdays, the scholars of the several classes convened in the chapel where the
tutors heard some half-dozen in each class declaim, and made remarks upon their
manner of speaking, and capabilities of improvement. During the two last years,
an original composition was read by one of the class every day, immediately atter
the forenoon recitation, each scholar reading in rotation, and also declaiming before
his class. The books studied and made classics during the collegiate course, the

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 45

the early periods of its institution, who could read any
classical author into English, make true Latin and
read it readily into English prose and verse, and per-
fectly decline the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the
Greek tongue. The classic course pursued was this
in the first year, logic, physics, etymology, syntax,
grammar of the English, Hebrew, and Eastern tongues,
and practice in the Bible. In the second year, ethics,
politics, prosody, dialectics, parsing in poesy, Nonnus
and Duport, read Ezra, and Daniel in Caldee. In the
third year, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, Greek ?
exercises in style, composition, imitation, epitome,
" both in prose and in verse," Hebrew, and the Eastern
tongues, the Syriac to be read in Trostius' New Test-
ament. Every scholar declaimed as often as once
every month, on the seventh day of the week lec-
tures on rhetoric on the sixth day of the week to all
the students in fine, perhaps the last year, botany,
history, and divinity.

But it is supposed that the scholars were not at first
required to reside actually at Cambridge more than
three years, l for in 1647, the corporation passed a vote
which required " the students to reside four years at

first year, were all of Virgil, Cicero's ten select orations, the whole of the Greek
Testament, making Latin, and Vulgar Arithmetick. During the residue of the
course, the scholars studied Horace, Guthrie's Geography, ("Grammar" as the
book was entitled) of the Eastern Continent, and Morse's of the Western, Duncan's
or Watts' Logic, Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric, Locke on the Human Understanding,
Webster's Mathematics, just substituted for Ward's, Hammond's Algebra, Enfleld's
Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy, Jasly's Ethics, or Moral Philosophy, Tully's
de oratore, Priestley's Lectures on History, Edwards on the Will. At Brown Uni-
versity, to which 1 went in the beginning of the fourth year, Lord Kaims on Criti-
cism was used instead of Doctor Blair, also Millet's Elements of History.

1 Doctor Elliot says in Ms Biograhical Dictionary, page 456, that Samuel Torrey
would have taken his degree in 1650, but left college because a law required four
instead of three years. Story.

46 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Cambridge instead of three " which vote seems to have
been so impolitic as not to have been carried into ef-
fect till about the year 1655, when "seventeen of the
scholars went away from college without any degree."

We are told in Pierce's History of Harvard Univer-
sity, (page 237) that a century after the establishment
of the college, in the days of President Holyoke 1737
-1769-and probably for many years before, the text-
books were Virgil, Cicero's Orations, Cicero's Offices,
the Greek Testament, and a little of Homer, Ward's
Mathematics, Gordon's Geographical Grammar, Grave-
send' s Philosophy, Euclid's Geometry, Woltebius' Com-
pend of Theology, and Brattles' Compend of Logic,
both in Latin, Watt's Logic, and Locke on the Human
Understanding. To those add instruction in Hebrew,
the professors' lectures respectively in divinity and
mathematics the president's expositions after even-
ing prayers twice in each week, and the disputations
of the seniors and juniors, and the whole collegiate
course at that period is classified, leaving the just in-
ference that the Oriental languages were not then so
much studied and so well understood as in former peri-
ods.

There was a " placing " of the scholars on the cata-
logue, as it was called ; that is, an arrangement of their
names in each class, which was to the college author-
ities a perplexing affair, as it occasioned much discon-
tent among the students. For this was not the country
to rate young men by the rank of their parentage, but
by the grade of individual merit. It was evidently a
badge of servility borrowed from the universities in

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 47

Europe, and yet it still prevails in Columbia College,
New York, though it was laid aside at Yale in 1768,
and at Harvard in 1773. This prerogative of placing
was exercised within six or nine months of the fresh-
man year, and their names, written handsomely in
German text, were then posted in a conspicuous place
beside the classes of the other undergraduates, where
the names of all were kept suspended till they left
college. Each freshman, apprised of his station, took
it at recitation, at commons, in the chapel, and on
other occasions. Nor was it ever afterward altered in
college or in the catalogue, " however the rank of their
parents might be varied." The " place " was ideal, as
it was a precedence which gave to the higher part of
the class some substantial advantages. Generally they
had the most influential friends, and the best chambers
assigned to them. At the table in commons, they had
the right to help themselves first, and might, perhaps,
raise their expectation of better appointments at com-
mencement. There were also some other injudicious
usages, such as giving the seniors the right to com-
mand the waiting services of the freshmen ; all which,
the spirit of republicanism during the American Revo-
lution, gradually subdued to the rites and rules of
equality.

At the annual commencement there were no other
performances in English than the president's prayers,
and no other printed order of exercises, than the " The-
ses" which were all in Latin, the caption of which
was an adulatory address or dedication to the rulers,
magistrates, ministers, and patrons of the college. A

48 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Thesis, for instance this: "Hebrew is the mother of
tongues " was discussed in Latin by the appointed
members of the senior class, after which the president
made his remarks upon the subject in the same lan-
guage. It is supposed that exercises in English were
introduced about the year 1758; and now there is at
most of the colleges none other, except a salutatory
in Latin.

As Harvard University has been the prototype and
pattern of all the colleges in New England, as well as
the Alma Mater of so many learned, distinguished men,
rulers, ministers and statesmen, this notice is only a
tribute of respect richly due to its merits and exalted
usefulness, especially before we proceed to record some
biographical sketches of its scholars, whose abilities,
labors and piety have been of such essential service to
Maine, as well as to other states.

REV. RICHARD GIBSON.

The first preacher of the Gospel in Maine of whom
we have any knowledge was Rev. Richard Gibson. He
arrived from his native England in the spring of 1636,
and after visiting Saco took up his abode on the banks
of Spurwink river, toward its mouth a short distance
westerly of the celebrated Richmond's island. : At
that time, all the inhabitants within the present limits
of this state did not exceed fifteen hundred, and the
number of settlements between the river Piscataqua
and Broad bay was only ten or twelve, the oldest of
which were York, Saco and Monhegan, planted A.D.

1 Some say he resided upon the Island itself. Willis, History of Portland.

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 49

1623-24 ; Broad bay and Pemaquid, in 1624-25 ; Pejep-
scot, in 1626 ; Falmouth, 1628 ; Kittery, Berwick, and
Scarborough, 1631.

Mr. Gibson was educated, without doubt, at one of
the universities in England, for none in that country
are permitted to assume the sacerdotal vestments and
the clerical character, till he is thorough in literature
and divinity. It was conceded by his opponents, Gov.
Winthrop of Massachusetts, and others equally qualified
to judge, that Mr. Gibson was a man of distinguished
abilities and scholarship. His notions of church polity
were exclusively Episcopal, and he was supremely
devoted to the English hierarchy. Admitted to the
grade of priests' orders before he left home, he believed
he had a right here, as well as there, to administer
baptism and the Lord's supper, and to solemnize mar-
riages. He was furnished with a very decent service
for sacramental occasions, and he resolved to adopt
entirely the forms of worship, the rites and ceremonies
of the mother church. He was a gentleman of unblem-
ished reputation, and his manners and appearance were
commanding.

It was meet, and might be expected, that such a
clergyman would be chosen by those who had obtained
the several territorial patents within which the settle>
inents had been commenced, such as Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, Richard Vines, Thomas Cammock, George
Cleeve, Robert Trelawny, Moses Goodyear, Alderman
Aldworth, Giles Eldridge, John Pierce, and others,
for they were, in general, of the same religious senti'-
ments with Mr. Gibson, though several of them never
VOL. III. 5

50 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

came into this country, and some of them might be
Puritans. His ministrations were not confined to Spur,
wink, and Casco ; they were extended to Saco, and
from expressions in the records and transactions of
that period, relating to his and his successors' support-
we may infer there was an attempt to introduce the
English policy of exacting tithes or tenths of products-
though paid by way of an equivalent or composition in
money.

A minister who first settles among a people has often
to encounter discouragements of no ordinary magni-
tude. Being strangers to each other, and having dif-
ferent opinions and views, they are not readily bound
together by any i>ond of sympathetic union. His par-
ishioners, too, being poor, are only able to contribute
proportionately toward their minister's support. To
justify their covetousness, they will often times com-
plain without cause ; and some will not restrain their
tongues from uttering bitter reproaches. Mr. Gibson
probably gathered a church and received from Mr.
Goodyear and others, some presents, still his support
was quite slender, hardly sufficient for himself and wife.
Moreover, controversy and ill-treatment begot discon-
tent. In 1640 he brought an action of slander against
John Bonyton of Saco, for calling him "a base priest,
a base knave, a base fellow," and recovered in damages
only 6, 6s, 8d, though 500 were the damages alleged
in the writ.

The same year the people of Portsmouth, opposed
to Puritanical sentiments, formed an Episcopal society ?
erected a chapel and parsonage house, and made choice

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 51

of Mr. Gibson for their first pastor. He accepted the
invitation, and left Maine, hence conforming in all re-
spects to the worship, rites and ritual of the English
church. The chapel was furnished with one great
Bible, twelve service-books, one pewter flagon, one
communion cup and cover of silver, two fine table-
cloths, and two napkins, which had been sent over by
John Mason.

The next year, 1641, Massachusetts, on a resurvey
of her patent, claimed to hold as far eastward as the
river Piscataqua, thus bringing Portsmouth and its
inhabitants, also Mr. Gibson, within her jurisdiction.
Considering this on her part an arbitrary stroke of
power, and determined not to be a subject of puritan-
ical, republican control, he left Portsmouth and went
to the Isles of Shoals. Here he commenced preaching,
probably the first these islanders ever enjoyed; also,
he joined parties in marriage, and administered the
ordinances. As they had been told by Massachusetts
that their islands, as well as Portsmouth, fell within
her patent, they were disposed to submit to her admin-
istration, and yield obedience to her laws. But through
the influence of Mr. Gibson, as Mr. Hubbard expresses
himself, they "were provoked to revolt," or in other
words, to withhold or withdraw their allegiance from
her, and attempt to form a social compact. These
measures, of which he was supposed to be the sole in-
stigator, touched the pride of Massachusetts, and set
her face against him. In the meantime, he was in-
volved in another difficulty. Hansard Knolleys, and
Thomas Larkham had been preaching at the same time

52 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

in Dover, New Hampshire, and severely contending
for the palm of popularity and influence. Displeased
with the interfering policy of the Massachusetts gov-
ernment, Knolleys pronounced its measures more arbi-
trary than the high commission court in England : a
stand which was truly grateful to the mind of Mr.
Gibson, and which determined him openly to espouse,
the interest of Knolleys. Larkham took fire, and in a
sermon he subsequently delivered, he inveighed se-
verely against such disorganizers, and hirelings, as he
represented Gibson to be. In return, the latter sent
to him an open letter, wherein, as Governor Winthrop
says, "he did scandalize our government, oppose our
title to those parts, and provoke the people by way of
arguments to revolt from us." Hence he was taken
into custody by the marshal, but, upon acknowledging
his fault, and submitting himself to the favor of the
court, they took the whole circumstances into consider-
ation, such, especially as his being a stranger, an Episco-
pal minister, and his certain departure from the country
in a few days, and discharged him without penalty, pun-
ishment, or cost. This was in June, 1642, and we hear
of this worthy clergyman no more. He is said to have
been a popular speaker, and a man highly esteemed
among the people of his religious sentiments. Indeed,
ministers of his zeal and character seldom fail to do
good, though their tenets be sectarian.

REV. WILLIAM TOMPSON.

The second minister of the Gospel in Maine was the
Rev. William Tompson. He was educated at the Uni-

SKETCHES OP THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 53

versity of Oxford, in England, and was afterward an
ordained preacher in Lancashire till 16-37, l when he fled
from the persecuting sword to New England. Doctor
Cotton Mather says he was a very powerful and suc-
cessful preacher, and his name is joined in the title-
page of several books with Reverend Richard Mather,
a native of the same place, who came into this country
two years before him.

The earliest ministerial services here, which have
been mentioned of him, were performed at Agamenti-
cus, now York. He was probably dwelling in that
place before the year of his transatlantic arrival closed.
It was then a plantation, only fourteen years of age,
having a population, probably, of one hundred and fifty
souls. Sir Ferdinando Gorges says in his history
"Colonel Francis Norton, and Captain William Gorges
went over in 1623, with divers workmen for the build-
ing of mills, houses, and all things necessary for the setr
tlement of our designs," at Agamenticus, and hence we
may j ustly infer it was permanently settled at that time.
The settlements on the northerly side of the Piscataqua
were commenced the next year, or soon afterward; and
we may well suppose the ministerial services of a man,
so distinguished for abilities, piety and zeal as his were,
would never be confined to a single plantation, between
one and two years, the probable period of his residing
there. For Governor Winthrop says he was " a very
holy man, who had been an instrument of much good at
Agamenticus." The conversion of souls, not pecuniary
gains, was the purpose of his heart, and his was an

^Perhaps A.D. 1636. Collections Mass. Historical Society, Volume IX, 191. Tola
family uniformly write their name without an ft.

54 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

inventory of good works, not of riches, and his successes,
the fruits of labor, prayer and faith.

At length he was installed at Mount Wollastoii
(Braintree) now Quincy, Massachusetts, September 24,
1639, probably the next year after he left Agamenticus.
In 1642, he went a missionary to Virginia, in hopes that
a journey and a milder climate might improve his
health of body and mind, and cheer his spirits, but his
wife, whom he left behind, died in January, 1643, and
he returned to Braintree the same year. He died
December 10, 1666, aged sixty-eight. His character was
adorned with graces; nevertheless, he was the subject
of a splenetic melancholy, 1 and was, as Dr. Eliot says,
under great temptation to commit suicide, a state of
mind which at times " almost wholly disabled him for
the exercise of the ministry." But he fought manfully
in his Master's strength against the satanic insinuation,
armed with the spiritual weapons of fasting, faith, and
prayer, also the pastors and pious brethren of the
churches in the vicinity, poured out their supplications
for his relief; and happy was the sequel, for though
his was a life of severest warfare his end was peace,
and his eternity blessed.

Reverend William Tompson, the subject of this no-
tice, had two wives, four sons, and a daughter. 1st, Sam-
uel, born in England, 1631, came to New England with
his father in 1637, settled in Braintree, which he repre-
sented in the general court fourteen years. He died
in 1695. 2d, William, Harvard College, 1653, was a
minister in Connecticut. 3d, Joseph, born 1640, settled

Doctor Mather says balneum diaboli. Magnalia B. Ill, page 896,

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EARLY MAINE MINISTERS. 55

at Billerica, where he was a lower officer, deacon of the
church, and a representative to the general court. He
died 1732, aged ninety-two. 4th, Benjamin, born 1642,
Harvard College, 1662, was famed as a poet, 1 physician,
and schoolmaster; died 1714. His son Edward was
minister of Marshfield, Massachusetts. William, an-
other son, Harvard College 1718, was ordained the
minister of Scarborough, 1727, and died 1759. Rev-
erend John Tompson Harvard College, minister of
Standish and Berwick was son of Reverend William of
Scarborough, and died 1828, aged eighty-eight. He was
the great grandson of the first Reverend William
Tompson.

!See a specimen of his poetry on Rev. S. Whiting's death and character. Mag-
nalia, Book III, page 459.

[To be continued.]

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENEEAL LA FAYETTE. 57

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL
LA FAYETTE.

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS VISIT TO MAINE.
Bead 'before the Maine Historical Society, November 16, 1881.
GlLBEKT MOTIER DE LA FAYETTE WES born in

Auvergne, France, on the sixth of September 1757, and
was sent at an early age to the College of Duplessis in
Paris, where he received a classical education. At the
age of sixteen he was offered an honorable position at
the French court, which he declined. At seventeen
he married a granddaughter of Due de Noailles. His
fortune was large and his rank was with the first in
Europe. His connection brought him the support of
the chief persons in France. His character was warm,
open, sincere and virtuous. At the age of nineteen his
thoughts and sympathy were turned to the struggle
of the American colonies against the oppression of
their mother country. Nothing could be less tempting
to a man of mere personal feelings than an interference
jn behalf of the United States at this time ; their army
was in retreat, their credit in Europe was entirely gone,
and their commissioners to whom La Fayette offered
his services, were obliged to acknowledge that they
could not even give him decent means for his passage^
Then said he "I shall purchase and fit out a ship for
myself." He did so, and his vessel was sent to one of
the nearest ports of Spain, that it might be out of the

58 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

reach of the French government. It was not until he
was on his way to embark that his romantic project
began to be known. The British minister became
alarmed, and at his request an order was issued for his
arrest, which overtook him at Bordeaux, where he was
detained, but in the disguise of a courier he escaped
and passed the frontiers three hours in advance of his
pursuers. He arrived in Charleston, South Carolina,
in April 1777. The sensation produced by his appear-
ance in the United States was much greater than that
excited in Europe at his departure. This event stands
forth as one of the most prominent and important cir-
cumstances in the Revolutionary contest. At the pres-
ent time few can believe what an impulse it gave to
the hopes of a people nearly disheartened by a long
series of disasters. Immediately on his arrival the
Marquis received the offer of a command in the
American army, which he declined. During the whole
of his service he seemed desirous to render disinter-
ested assistance to the cause in which he was embarked.
He entered the army as a volunteer without pay.
Soon after his arrival he purchased clothing for the
troops under General Moultrie in that quarter, he also
made an advance of sixty thousand francs to General
Washington for the public service. His services were
appreciated by Congress, and in July, 1777, he was
appointed a major-general, but he did not immediately
act in that capacity. At the battle of Brandywine in
September, he distinguished himself by his activity and
undaunted bravery, but in a subordinate rank. He re-
ceived a wound in the leg in this engagement, but

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 59

remained on the field until the close of the battle, in-
spiring the men by his presence and courage. Before
his wound, which was a severe one, was entirely healed,
he again joined the army under Washington.

In November, at the head of some New Jersey mil-
itia, he attacked a body of Hessians and defeated them.
Soon after, the young Frenchman took the command
of a division in the Continental army and frequently
was appointed chief officer in separate commands.
General Washington became greatly attached to him;
he loved him for his goodness and honored him for his
bravery and military talents. In 1778, it was proposed
to make an attack on Canada with the idea of annexing
it to the States, and General La Fayette was appointed
to take the command of the troops collecting at Albany
for that purpose. This project originated in Congress,
but was not approved by Geneneral Washington, and it
was abandoned.

General La Fayette had a distinguished command
at the battle of Monmouth, and received the unqualified
approval of the commander-in-chief. The same year he
made a visit to Boston, the object of which was un-
known, but Congress passed a resolve thanking him
for this and other services. In his reply he says, "The
moment I heard of America I loved her, the moment I
knew that she was fighting for liberty I burnt with the
desire of bleeding for her." Early in the year 1779,
after an absence from his family of more than two
years, General La Fayette revisited France, with the
consent of Congress and General Washington. In his
reply to a letter of Congress he says, " I dare flatter

60 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

myself that I shall be considered a soldier on furlough,
who most sincerely desires to join again his colors."
He arrived at Versailles on the twelfth of February, and
the same day had a long conference with the prime
minister, though he was not permitted to see the king.
As a punishment for having left France without per-
mission, he was ordered to visit none but his own rel-
atives, but as he was connected by birth or marriage
with nearly the whole court, and as everybody thronged
to his hotel, the order did not weigh heavily on him.
Congress had directed that Doctor Franklin, the Amer.
ican minister at Versailles, "cause an elegant sword
with proper devices to be made and presented to the
Marquis La Fayette." On the receipt of the sword, the
Marquis replied with a warm letter to Congress, in
which he said, " It is my present desire soon to employ
that sword in your service." La Fayette went home
to France ostensibly to offer his services to his own
nation, as war had been declared between France and
England, but he seems to have exerted himself, with
effect, to induce the king and court of France to lend
the United States more effectual aid. A large fleet
was sent over which rendered the United States essen-
tial service, as they had no efficient navy to protect
their coast. When La Fayette obtained permission to
revisit his native country, he retained with his rank in
the American army, an ardent zeal for the interest Of
the American cause, which was so well calculated to
inspire a young and generous mind in favor of a peo-
ple struggling for liberty and self government with the
hereditary rival of his nation. He came again to the

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 61

United States. He arrived at Boston in April, 1780,
although the frigate in which he sailed was obliged to
go into Marblehead to escape a British squadron. At
a time when it was expected that the ship would be
compelled to defend herself, the General was found at
one of the guns preparing to take a part, should she
be attacked.

On his arrival, he hastened to report at headquar-
ters, and then proceeded to Congress with the infor-
mation that the king of France had consented to employ
a large land and naval armament in the United States,
in the coining campaign. This intelligence gave a new
impulse, both to Congress and to the state legislatures,
who w r ere becoming despondent, and led to resolves
and movements of the most vigorous character.

Let us turn aside for a moment to consider who was
the French king who espoused our cause at that crit-
ical juncture. It was no less than the unfortunate
Louis the Sixteenth, "the mild and good," who with his
queen, Marie Antoinette, were guillotined in 1793 dur-
ing the French Revolution. They were the firm friends
of our infant republic, and with their fleets, armies and
treasure, they sent to Congress their full-length por-
traits, of which graceful act history makes no mention.
The fact was revealed, two or three years ago, by a
private letter loaned to me by a friend whose grand-
father, a representative in the fourth Congress, wrote
to his daughter. It is dated December 26, 1795.
After describing the halls of Congress, the writer says,
' You ascend the stairs leading to the chamber at the
north, and pass through an entry having committee

62 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

rooms on each side. In that on the east side of the
Senate chamber, is a full-length picture of the king of
France and in the opposite one, is one of the queen.
The frames are elegantly carved and gilt. They are
superbly dressed with the insignia of royalty. Hers,
I think, is the finest picture I ever saw. She is tall
and a fine form. Her eyes are blue and her counte-
nance expressive. She approaches near to a beauty.
Alas! how little did they dream of the dreadful catas-
trophe awaiting them, when they sat for these pictures
they were presented by the king." These por-
traits were undoubtedly removed from Philadelphia to
Washington, when the capitol was first occupied in
1801, and were destroyed with the records relating to
their reception, when the building was burned by the
British in 1814, which will account for the lack of any
mention of them. The writer of the description of the
pictures was Jabez Bradbury, the first lawyer who
resided and practiced in Cumberland county. He was
born in Newbury in 1739, graduated at Harvard Col-
lege in 1757. Commenced the practice of law in Fal-
mouth in 1762, and returned to his native town, after
the burning of Falmouth in 1775. He was chosen
representative to Congress for Essex district in 1794,
and died in 1803, aged sixty-four.

When General La Fayette joined the army after his
return from France, he received a separate command
of a body of light infantry of about two thousand,
which he clothed and equipped, partly at his own ex-
pense, and by his unwearied exertion rendered it the
finest corps in the army. He raised two thousand

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENEEAL LA FAYETTE. 63

guineas on his personal credit to supply the pressing
wants of his troops. His rescue of Richmond, his long
trial of generalship with Cornwallis, and finally the
seige of Yorktown the storming of the redoubt and
the reduction of the place in October, 1781, to which
he largely contributed, are proofs of his talents as a
commander, and of his devotion to the cause of the
United States. Congress had already repeatedly ac-
knowledged these services, but in November, 1781,
when he was again about to visit France, and only
twenty-four years old, they passed a resolution desiring
the foreign ministers of our government to confer with
him in their negotiations concerning American affairs.
At the same time Congress ordered, " that a convey-
ance be provided for General La Fayette in a public
vessel, whenever he shall choose to embark." In his
reply he said, "My attachment to America, the sense
of my obligations, and the new favors conferred upon
me, are so many everlasting ties that devote me to
her."

In France a brilliant reputation had preceded him.
The cause of the United States was already popular
there. On his return he was followed by crowds in
the streets wherever he went. In the 'meantime he
was constantly urging upon the French government
the policy of sending out more troops, and Count d'Es-
taing was ordered to hold himself in readiness to sail
for the United States whenever La Fayette should join
him. Forty-nine ships and twenty thousand men were
for this purpose assembled at Cadiz when peace ren-
dered the assistance unnecessary. This great event of

64 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

peace was first announced to Congress by a letter from
La Fayette dated Harbor of Cadiz, February 5, 1783.
At the pressing invitation of Washington, General La
Fayette revisited the United States in 1784, after the
struggle was ended. He was received with an enthu-
siastic welcome everywhere, and when about to depart,
Congress appointed a deputation of one member from
each state to take leave of him, and to assure him
"that these United States regard him with particular
affection, and will not cease to feel an interest in what-
ever may concern his honor and prosperity, and that
their best and kindest wishes will always attend him."
A complimentary letter was at the same time ordered
to be sent to the French king, acknowledging the ser-
vices of La Fayette and recommending him to the
favor of his Majesty. In 1786, he, with others, formed
a society in Paris for the gradual extinction of African
slavery. He was chosen a member of the celebrated
National Assembly at the breaking out of the French
Revolution. He was in favor of retaining the king
with limited powers, and was appointed to the com-
mand of the National Guard, and afterward to the com-
mand of a division of the regular army of France. The
Bastile was destroyed in 1780, the key of which he
presented to Washington, and it now hangs in the hall
at Mount Vernon.

In 1792, the Jacobin party got the power, and La
Fayette was obliged to leave France with the inten-
tion of coming to America, but he was arrested by an
Austrian general and imprisoned, first at Wessel and
then at Magdeburg where he was confined a year in a

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 65

dungeon without light, during which he was offered
his liberty if he would join the enemies of France
he spurned the proposal. He was then removed to
the fortress of Olmutz, and kept under the most rig_
orous confinement for three years, where he suffered
so much from cold and dampness that his hair fell from
his head. His wife and daughters shared his confine-
ment for the last two years. An attempt was made
by a Hanoverian named Bollman and Francis K.
Huger, a young American, who was accidentally in
Austria at the time, to assist La Fayette to escape
while taking an airing with a guard, which after a
struggle was effected, but he was retaken two days
after. General Washington, then president, made
repeated efforts to procure his release, but it was not
until 1797 that he was set at liberty by Napoleon's
desire, after a confinement of five years. Then he
had a Jacobin sentence hanging over him in France
and could not retire to his seat with safety. His ex-
ile finally ceased and he found rest at his home at
La Grange, about forty miles from Paris. La Fayette
differed with Napoleon and protested against some of
his measures, but was not disturbed in his retirement.
La Fayette had long entertained a wish and purpose
to revisit the United States. He was the last surviving
general of the Revolution. In January, 1824, when it
became known that he proposed to take passage for
America, Congress requested the president "to offer
him a public ship and to assure him in the name of
the Republic, that they cherish for him a grateful and
affectionate attachment." The legislature of Massa-
VOL. III. 6

66 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

chusetts at its session in June adopted a resolve re-
questing the governor to make such arrangements as
would secure to this distinguished friend of our coun-
try, an honorable reception on the part of the state,
and authorized him to draw on the public treasury to
meet the expenses arising therefrom. The Society
of Cincinnati of Massachusetts, composed of officers of
the Revolutionary army and their sons, at their meet-
ing on the fourth of July, appointed a committee of
whom Governor Brooks was chairman, "to consider
what measures it will be proper for the society to adopt
on the arrival of our distinguished brother." Letters
were written to General La Fayette before he left
France, by several distinguished individuals, and by
the mayors of NeV York and Boston in the name and
behalf of their corporations, expressing a strong desire
that he would visit the United States. To the letter
of the mayor of Boston, General La Fayette replied,
under date of May twenty-sixth, " I joyfully anticipate
the day, not very far remote, thank God, when I may
revisit the cradle of American, (and in the future I
hope) universal liberty. But while I profoundly feel
the honor intended by the offer of a national ship, I
hope I shall incur no blame by the determination I
have taken to embark as soon as it is in my power, on
board of a private vessel. Whatever port I first
attain I shall with the same eagerness hasten to Bos-
ton." This warm letter aroused the public spirit of
Massachusetts, and preparations were made to receive
their guest in a most honorable manner. General La
Fayette embarked at Havre in the packet ship Cad-

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 67

mus, and arrived in the harbor of New York on the
fifteenth of August, 1824. He was accompanied by
his son, George Washington La Fayette, and his friend,
M. L. Vasseur. A steamboat in waiting took them
immediately to Staten Island, to the residence of Daniel
D. Tomkins, Vice President of the United States. It
being Sunday he remained there through the day and
the night. On Monday five steamers, chartered by
the city and having its mayor and government on
board, proceeded to the island to receive the guests.
The center steamer, the Chancellor Livingston, had on
board the West Point band. On this boat General La
Fayette, and his party, were conducted to the city, the
band playing the Marseilles Hymn, Hail Columbia and
other national airs. In the flotilla was the Cadmus, in
which the General came, towed by a steamer on each
side. The reception committee had among its mem-
bers several field officers of the Revolutionary army.
Of the reception, a New York paper said, " Yesterday
was a proud day for New York. ' We have seen the
reception of the allied sovereigns, and the celebration
of great events in Europe, we have read of the landing
of King William, the entree of George the Fourth in
Ireland, and of Louis the Eighteenth in Paris, but
never witnessed a more splendid display, or a more
cordial, generous and spontaneous welcome than that
of yesterday, on the landing of La Fayette." On the
following days the Marquis was waited upon by several
societies, by their committees. To that of the New
York Historical Society he said : " The United States
is the first nation on the records of history, who have

68 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

founded their constitution upon an honest investigation
and clear definition of their natural and social rights."
General La Fayette came to Boston, through Con-
necticut and Rhode Island. At every large town he
was compelled to stop to receive the homage of the
people. In Connecticut the church steeples were
manned by watchmen to announce his coming. He
arrived at the residence of Governor Eustis at Rox-
bury, (the Governor Shirley house) on the night of the
twenty-third of August. His public reception in Bos-
ton was on the twenty-fourth, after an absence of forty
years of course it was most enthusiastic. On the
twenty-fifth, the commencement exercises occurred at
Harvard University. General La Fayette was invited
to be present and attended. The corporation had con-
ferred its highest honors on him forty years before.
President Kirkland made a long welcoming address to
which the Marquis made a hearty response. Three
days later committees from Portland and from Bowdoin
College arrived, and invited him to these places, which
he was obliged to decline, as he was engaged to be
|n New York at an early day, but promised to visit
Maine before his final departure from the United States.
While in Boston, General La Fayette visited Bunker
Hill, and also made an afternoon visit to Quincy, and
called on ex-President John Adams, then eighty-eight
years old. He also visited Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
halting at intermediate towns to receive attentions.
So pressing were his engagements, that he left Ports-
mouth on his return at eleven o'clock at night. After
visiting Lexington and Concord, he proceeded to Wor-

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 69

cester and from thence to Hartford, Connecticut, and
to New York, While there he was overwhelmed with
attentions and honors. A most pleasing and delicate
compliment was shown him at a public ball at Castle
Garden, which was attended by six thousand ladies and
gentlemen. At the close of a dance a large and beau-
tiful transparency slowly rose, representing his home,
the Chateau of La Grange, with its towers and park.

General La Fayette's next journey was the historic
Hudson to West Point and Albany, with frequent stops
on the passage. On his return to the city of New
York he rested three days, after which he left for Phil-
adelphia and Washington, visiting the battlefields of
Trenton and Princeton. On the eleventh of September
he attended the anniversary celebration of the battle
of Brandy wine. He remained in Philadelphia a week
and left for the South by way of Baltimore and Wash-
ington. His reception by President Munroe was most
cordial and honorable. He visited Mount Vernon on
a Sunday accompanied by George W. P. Custis, the
nearest male relative of Washington. At the tomb
Mr. Custis presented General La Fayette a ring inclos-
ing some of the hair of his immortal relative. The
General arrived at Yorktown the next day, and looked
over the scene of the triumphs of the American and
French armies in 1781, in which he had acted an impor-
tant part. Thence he proceeded to Norfolk and Rich-
mond and through North and South Carolina to
Georgia, and returned to Washington in December,
where he remained until spring when he again came
to New York and Boston. An association to erect a

70

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

monument on Bunker Hill had been organized in 1823.
On the seventeenth of June, 1825, the fiftieth anniver-
sary of the battle, General La Fayette, by invitation,
assisted in laying the corner stone of the monument.
Two hundred surviving soldiers of the battle were in
the procession. There were seven captains, three lieu-
tenants and two ensigns, but no field officers. The
monument was not finished until 1841, and the event
was not celebrated until the seventeenth of June, 1843.
Daniel Webster delivered the address, both at the lay-
ing of the corner stone and at the celebration of the
completion, eighteen years later.

We have seen that Portland and Bowdoin College
had sent committees to Boston to invite General La
Fayette to visit Maine, the previous year. On
the twenty-fifth of August, 1824, the citizens of
Portland met at the court house, to consider the pro-
priety of inviting the nation's guest to visit the town.
A committee of sixteen were chosen to extend an
invitation, of which General Joshua Wingate jr., was
chairman. He proceeded to Boston immediately and
presented the invitation in person the answer has
been alluded to. In June the next year, 1825, another
meeting chose a committee of arrangements for the
reception, consisting of General John K. Smith, chair-
man, William Pitt Preble, Asa Clapp, Isaac Ilsley,
Stephen Longfellow, Alpheus Shaw, Joshua Wingate
jr., Ashur Ware and Nicholas Emery. General Samuel
Fessenden was chosen chief marshal. Governor Parris
had also extended an invitation to La Fayette in be-
half of the state. General La Fayette left Boston to

SKETCH OP THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 71

visit Portland on the twenty-third of June, and slept
that night at Newburyport, in the same room and in
the same bed occupied by Washington in 1*789. The
second night he slept at Saco, having received hospital-
ities at that town and at Kennebunk. On the morning of
the twenty-fifth, Saturday, the reception committee, th e
town authorities and many other officials were formed
in procession, and escorted to the brow of the hill on
Congress, then Main street. The escort was com-
posed of the Portland Light Infantry, Captain
Benjamin Ilsley, Portland Rifle Company, Captain
Reuben Mitchell, Portland Mechanic Blues and the
Brunswick Light Infantry, which had marched the
entire distance from Brunswick. Captain Ilsley's sen.
iority gave him command of the battalion. Preceding
the military, were the truckmen of the town, mounted
and in uniform, formed in cavalcade under the com-
mand of Captain Seth Bird. It was a very dry time,
and to lay the dust the streets through which the pro-
cession was to pass were wet down that morning by
the fire companies with their hand engines. The ex-
pectant crowd had not long to wait; a cloud of dust
was seen rising over the road nearly to Stroudwater,
and promptly at the appointed hour, nine o'clock,
several carriages were seen coming up the hill and the
twelve pounder guns above the road, announced the
arrival of the guests. These guns were of brass and
were taken by La Fayette at Brandywine. Their fate
at the breaking up of the state arsenal at Portland is
unknown. General La Fayette rode in an open
barouche drawn by four white horses, and was accom-

72 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

panied by Colonel Robert P. Dunlap, one of the govern-
or's aids who with Colonel Emery, another aid, had
met the General at the state line. In the second car-
riage were George Washington La Fayette and M. L.
Vasseur. The guests, carriages, drivers and horses
were of the uniform color of dust. The reception com-
mittee and selectmen were in the only three coaches
in town two of which were private, and were loaned
for the occasion. They had come down from their
carriages to receive the General, who with Colonel
Dunlap left their carriage and was by the Colonel pre-
sented to the committee. Stephen Longfellow was
deputed to make the welcoming address. Although
he was a practicing lawyer and a ready speaker, he
was so impressed by the noble appearance and the as-
sociations connected with the guest, that after saying
a few preliminary words, he hesitated and was com-
pelled to refer to his notes in his hat, when he went
on fluently. The Marquis soon put him at his ease.
In his reply he alluded to Mr. Longfellow as being one
of the committee of Congress who invited him to
America, and spoke of the sacking of the town in 1775.
General La Fayette spoke very good English. While
all this was going on, the writer then sixteen years old,
was perched on the wheel of a coach holding by the
roof, in a position to hear and take in the whole scene
at a glance. There were no policemen then to inter-
fere. When the formal reception and presentations
were closed, all took their seats in their carriages, and
the procession took up the Hue of march under the
direction of that noble looking marshal, General Sam-

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 73

uel Fessenden. It passed through Main, State and
Danforth streets, to High street, where a lofty arch
of evergreen and flowers spanned the street bearing
on one side "Welcome, La Fayette" and on the other
side "Brandy wine." At the head of Free street was
a similar arch, on which was perched a live eagle, and
on the south side of that street the children of the
schools were paraded with their teachers. The girls
in white dresses, and the boys had on their hats the
words, " Welcome, La Fayette." At the junction of
Middle and Exchange streets, was an arch bearing the
word "Yorktown." At the head of King, now India
street, was a magnificent arch surmounted by a full
rigged ship, beneath which was this sentence, "Then
I shall purchase and fit out a vessel for myself." A
happy allusion to La Fayette's reply to Dr. Franklin
in 1777. The last of the arches for the procession to
pass, was at the junction of Congress and Pearl streets.
Portland had never been in such holiday attire. It
was the month of roses and all who had them, brought
them by basketfuls to decorate the arches, which were
literally covered with them in all colors. These arches
were no contracted structures, they spanned the wide
streets from curb to curb, with their crown twenty
feet high. The cities and large towns of the Middle
States, and New England, had for nearly a year been
endeavoring to surpass each other in decorations to
honor the nation's guest. These tributes had been
elaborately described in the newspapers. When at
last it came to be the privilege of Maine to entertain
him who had been our benefactor, " when days were

74 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

dark and friends were few," the people were moving
and exhibited a laudable pride in putting the capital
town of the new state into the most attractive condi-
tion. Not only was La Fayette to be entertained, but
also many people from the eastern towns, as the Mar-
quis was to proceed no farther east. After the recep-
tion, the guests were escorted through all the streets
named as decorated, which were crowded with the
people of the state, many of whom kept abreast of the
procession through the entire march. Of course great
enthusiasm prevailed, as the Marquis rode uncovered
over the whole route. He was received with all the
honors possible to be shown. Where now is the east-
ern wing of the city building, then stood the wooden
state house containing the senate and council chambers,
and rooms for the state officers. It was used in con-
nection with the adjoining court house to accommo-
date the legislature. Here the prpcession halted, and
General La Fayette left his carriage and was received
by Governor Parris, who welcomed him to the state.
In his reply he said, "I found in Washington a father
and in Knox a brother." This was in allusion to Knox
as a citizen of Maine. The Governor then conducted
the guests into the state house. A platform had
been built the width of the building, and about three
feet high. The whole area in front was shaded
by an awning which was fastened to the cornice
of the state house and to the elm trees in front,
one of which is yet standing into which, Zacheus-
like, I then climbed to see the ceremonies. The
General and guests soon returned to the platform

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 75

when an opportunity was given to the people to be
presented to the Marquis. An hour was spent in hand
shaking. Several soldiers of the Revolution were pre-
sented, the chairman of the committee of arrange-
ments, General John K. Smith, among the number.
General La Fayette recognized him and stepped for-
ward to receive him, calling him Captain Smith, the
rank he held in the army, but he was always known
as General, having held that office in the state militia.
While the reception was in progress, the part of the
platform on which La Fayette stood broke down, with-
out injuring anyone, and the General was obliged to
take a new position. Here the president and several
of the o fficers of' Bowdoin College were presented and
President Allen delivered an address and conferred on
La Fayette by diploma, the degree of LL.D. John
Davis of Augusta, presented invitations from Augusta,
Hallowell and Gardiner to General La Fayette to visit
those towns. At noon the guests were taken to their
lodgings, at the house now owned and occupied by
Abner Shaw, on Free street. It was then kept as a
boarding-house by Daniel Cobb. Here a collation was
waiting, which was partaken of by a company num-
bering two hundred or more, and including the state
and municipal officers. After the lunch and before
dinner, the Marquis called on Mrs. Thacher, daugh-
ter of General Knox, and on Mrs. General Win-
gate at her house, on the corner of High and Spring
streets, where were also a party of ladies. Mrs. Win-
gate was a daughter of General Henry Dearborn?
whose military services commenced while a boy at the

76 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

battle of Bunker Hill, and closed with the taking of
Little York in the war of 1812. At four o'clock in-
vited guests and subscribers met La Fayette and his
party at a public dinner at Union Hall, on the same
spot now occupied by the building of that name on
Free street. General John K. Smith presided at the
table and Thomas A. Deblois acted as toastmaster.
After the regular toasts, the president gave " La Fay-
ette, the faithful disciple of the American school."
The Marquis rose and acknowledged the honor in a
short speech, at the close of which he gave, " The
state of Maine, who yet an infant, and not weaned
from the mother, gallantly helped in crushing Euro-
pean aristocracy and despotism. And the town of
Portland, who ros% from the ashes of patriotic Fal-
mouth to become the flourishing metropolis of a flour-
ishing state. May their joint republican propensity
last and increase forever." George Washington La
Fayette gave, "Yankee Doodle the American tune
the oldest and gayest death song to despotism."

A much needed rain was falling when the company
left the hall, which increased in the evening. Not-
withstanding the violent storm, the distinguished
guests, state, town and college authorities were enter-
tained at a levee at the residence of Governor Parris
on Bridge street. General La Fayette and his party
left their lodgings at eight o'clock the next morning,
which was Sunday, without any escort none was of-
fered. The excuse was that he had engaged to be in
New York on the fourth of July, and his friends said
he would stop and attend church at Saco. A Boston

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LA FAYETTE. 77

paper says he did attend at Biddeford in the forenoon,
and that he arrived at Northwood, New Hampshire,
that night. To accomplish this he must have traveled
seventy-five miles. On Monday he went to Concord
and from there to Burlington, and was present at the
laying of the corner stone of the University of Ver-
mont. The rooms occupied by General La Fayette in
Portland had been richly furnished I think at the
expense of the state. The furnishings were sold at
auction, and are now kept as relics by the families of
the different purchasers. La Fayette kept his engage-
ment to spend Independence Day in New York city.
From thence he proceeded to Washington, and was the
guest of President John Quincy Adams at the White
House. The new frigate at Washington was named
the Brandywine in compliment to him, and was
offered to him for his conveyance to France. This he
accepted, and on the ninth of September, accompanied
by Henry Clay, secretary of state, and James Bar-
bour, secretary of war, he left the president's house
and proceeded by steamboat to Annapolis, Maryland,
where the Brandywine awaited him, and which con-
veyed him to France. General La Fayette remained
at his home in quietness until the three days' revolu-
tion in July, 1830, when the Duke of Orleans, after-
ward Louis Philippe, was called by the assembled
Deputies to the lieutenant-generalship of the kingdom,
and La Fayette was by acclamation chosen commander-
in-chief of the National Guard.

In a letter to a friend, dated Paris, twenty-first of
Angust, he says, "You ask for some personal views

78 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

I was at La Grange at breakfast on Tuesday when I
received the Moniteur and Ordances (these caused the
outbreak), eight hours afterward I was in Paris. The
fighting began on Tuesday evening and continued
through Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday
morning the Hotel de Ville after having been taken
and retaken became my headquarters, and the tri-col-
ored flag which I had there forty-one years ago, again
floated from its roof." La Fayette undoubtedly saved
the life of the king, and made his safe passage out of
the country possible. The Duke of Orleans, although
he was a Bourbon, had fought in the Republican armies
of France under the tri-colored flag and was an avowed
friend of popular rights. He was, by the exertions of
La Fayette, elected? con