NOTE: Rev. Thurston wrote this History of Winthrop, in part, according to oral history told to him by the settlers themselves. This is exactly how Thurston wrote it - including punctuation and spelling.
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The privations and hardships, to which the early settlers
were subjected, were such as those who have always been accustomed to
convenient and comfortable habitations and well supplied tables can scarcely form
an adequate idea of. So great was their destitution of the necessaries of life,
that some were, at times, reduced to the verge of starvation. Indeed, had it
not been for the wild animals, the fish, the native fruits and the milk of
their cows, some of them would doubtless have perished for the lack of food.
When they needed meat, some of the more favored ones, would take their guns and
kill a moose, a dear or a bear, with nearly as much ease as our farmers now go
to the pasture and select a sheep for slaughter. But all could not do thus, nor
could the most favored of them always do it. As a specimen, Nathaniel and
Joseph Fairbanks in the month of February, took their guns, snow shoes and
dogs, and started off in a western direction, on a hunting excursion. Having gone
a long distance, the dogs went up a hill and gave notice that they had found
game. This hill, they supposed
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| Early settlers hunting on snowshoes. www.allposters.com |
to be what is now in the town of Leeds. The dogs had found a
noble moose, which the hunters soon killed and dressed. But the day was too far
spent, they could not return. They therefore buried their meat in the snow and
camped for the night. The net day they took the meat upon handsleds and brought
it home. This was a valuable prize indeed. The four quarters of that meat
weighed eight hundred pounds!
Mr. Gideon Lambert was an early settler. He and his family
had to subsist one season from planting time till rye harvest, on milk and
herbs. During this time, he fell four,
and some say six, acres of trees, and
prepared them for the “burn” the ensuing spring. He had been a soldier in the
old French and Indian War. He aided in the defeat of the British army under the
command of Abercrombie, 1758. He also served in the war of the Revolution,
after he came to Pond Town.
Some families were so destitute of provisions, that one at
least, by the name of Delano, subsisted, for a time, on boiled beach leaves.
Others were without bread from sowing time till harvest. Some of them had
nothing for themselves except milk and maple sugar. One neighbor sustained the
children of another neighbor on skimmed milk. A woman said. The day after birth
of a child she dined on smoked moose meat and turnip greens. Her husband had
gone to procure them breadstuff, but was gone longer than expected. She had finished
the last of their provisions. What could she do? Her neighbors could not assist
her, for they were in the same predicament. She was greatly at a loss what
course to take to save herself and the child. She adopted this singular method.
She ate salt; that made her thirsty, and
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she drank more, and thus procured nourishment for her child,
till relief came. The neighbors would hunt in company, and share game between
them; because there were times in which they could obtain provisions no other
way. Mr. David Foster, in the month of June, was very destitute for food. He
went to a brook and caught a sucker, which, while it was broiling, gave a
cheering fragrance. He dug up some potatoes he had planted to eat with his
fish; but he found the fish very soft and the potatoes very watery. But they
sustained life. Mr. Squire Bishop came with his family to Pond Town in
embarrassed circumstances, poor and in debt. But though for a season they were
greatly straightened, and at times much disheartened, he at length accumulated
property sufficient to enable him to pay his creditors the amount of their
claims. Rev. Mr. Eaton once came to “preach the gospel to the poor,” and impart
the bread of life to these few in the wilderness, called on Mr. Bishop’s family
and found them very destitute. Mrs. Bishop went to the pigeon net and obtained
competent supply. At another time, Mr. Bishop’s
family was out of provisions, and none to be had nearer than Cobbossee.[i]
Mrs. Bishop spoke to her husband about
going to procure something for their sustenance. He was much discouraged, and
said he was so feeble, that he could not get to Cobbossee, and they might as
well die where they were. But the good woman, not so desponding, resolved to
see what she could do. “Necessity is the mother of invention.” She bent up some
pins, procured a pole and line and bait, and took her babe in arms and went to
the pond, which was a great distance, and soon caught
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as many fish as she could conveniently carry with her child.
On returning to the house, she heard a rustling in one of the trees and in
looking up, saw a raccoon. Now what shall she do? If she called to her husband
to come with the gun, it would, doubtless, frighten the animal, and he would
escape; or if she went and told her husband, the game might be gone. Perhaps
some good angel suggested to her the plan; which was this. She took off some of
her clothes, and some of the child’s, and made such an image as she could, and
placed it at the foot of the tree where the animal was, and hastened to the
house. She said to her husband, “the Lord has sent us a ‘coon’’ take your gun
and go shoot him.” Mr.
Bishop took the gun and shot the raccoon. They fed upon
the meat until Mr. Bishop recovered strength and courage to procure a supply of
food. Thus providentially their lives were saved.
There was a time when Jonathan Whiting had grain. Several
families had none. Lest the neighbors might suffer, his wife put the children
upon an allowance. He, to teach them to be economical in the use of their bread,
would sell only a limited quantity to any one lest someone might be more needy.
The soundness and strength of his moral principles were exhibited another way.
During this period, approximating famine, he might have had almost any price
for his grain. But he affixed a reasonable price, and no consideration could
induce him to take any more.
An aged man, now deceased, wrote me, that he had heard one
of the settlers say, he had lived a week at
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a time in smoked Alewives and milk. At the same time he was
under the necessity of laboring hard.
When Mr. Joseph Fairbanks and wife had five children they
took a journey to Marshfield, Mass on horseback. The mother became so anxious
for her children, on their return, that, bad as the roads were, she traveled
fifty-five miles! Much as the roads are improved, there are a few ladies now in
this part of the world who would be willing to perform such a day’s ride. There
was a time when this family was reduced to such as extremity of oppressions of
a certain man, I was about to say, but he appeared more like a brute than a man,
that they had nothing to eat or to wear. She searched the house to see if she
could find anything eatable, and discovered a quantity of bran. She attempted
to knead it, but could not make it hold together, even after it was baked. They
ate it, however, and it sustained life till he obtained something better.
The men had to roam quite a distance in search of their
game. Mr. Ichabod How, one winter, went into the neighborhood of Livermore
Falls on a moose hunt. He started three, two males and a female. He followed
them until they came near the hill where Mr. Nathan Kimball now lives. There was
a crust on the snow, which bore him, but was not sufficiently hard to bear
moose. They at length became so fatigued, that the oldest male turned upon him.
So he stepped behind a tree, as the moose rose upon his hind feet to strike him
down; but the tree was so small that the feet of the moose brushed his arms as
they came down, but without hurting him. He found himself now in a perilous
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condition. The moose however went back to the others, and
Mr. How shot him. By the time Mr. How reloaded his gun, the younger male came
at him, but the discharge from his musket, prostrated him. He then felt relieved,
for he did not fear the other, and soon dispatched her. He cut them open,
filled them with snow, and returned home. The next morning he called on his
neighbor, Mr. Gideon Lambert, and informed him what he had achieved the day
before, and offered to give him one of the moose, if he would go and help to
bring them in To this Mr. Lambert readily agreed, and he and his sons Ebenezer
and Paul, accompanied Mr. How and brought home the venison. Thus the families
were provided with meat.
Mr. Unite Brown and his son Jeremiah, went to hunt for moose
late one autumn. By what is called the “Great Bog” and they found and killed
one. [ii]
But the day was so far spent, that they were not able to return. The father cut
wood and kindled a fire and wrapped his son in the skin of the moose, and
encamped for the night. The cold was such, that the father had often to renew
the fire, to prevent their freezing. In the morning, the skin was so much frozen
that the father had no small difficulty in extricating his son from the
covering. The children of the early settlers not unfrequently, went barefooted
most of the winter if not the whole. They might often be seen walking on the
frost and snow with naked feet.
In the winter of 1785 Capt. Timothy Foster, the first
settler, was cutting a tree, and it fell on his head, and fractured his skull
so that he became speechless. His son, Stewart, went to Falmouth, now Portland,
on snow shoes, for a physician. But he could not leave, and
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sent a trepan, doubtless with some instructions on how to
use it. On the return of the son, the indented part of the skull was raised,
and Capt. Foster roused up and spoke rationally. But so long a time had
elapsed, the inflammation had proceeded so far that he died. His remains were
interred near where Mr. Metcalf lived.
A man by the name of Fish, came from port Royal, now
Livermore, to Mr. Nathaniel Fairbanks’ to obtain some leather. It was growing
so late in the day, and there was no road, and only spotted trees for a guide,
he was urged to spend the night; but he could not be prevailed to stay. He took
two bundles of leather and left, and perished along the way.
A Mr. Dutton, a hunter, had a line of traps on the streams
and ponds up toward the Androscoggin River. He had been examining them, and
night overtook him ere he was aware, and he lost his way. He began to call for
help, hoping he might be within hearing of some habitation. Mrs. Bishop thought
she heard a voice. Her husband doubted it. She insisted that she heard a human voice.
At length he went out and listened, and became convinced there was some one needing
assistance. Mr. Bishop called, and the man answered. He then went and brought
him into the house. All habitations, though but log cabins, and all tables,
were open and free. All were neighbors and brothers. The spirit of the caste
found no place among the early settlers.
The wife of Samuel Wood, Esq., was fond of referring to
their early poverty. The first pig they ever owned, she paid for by spinning
linen.
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The early settlers did not cultivate their farms as much as
would have been for their interest. Too
many of them went largely into the business of lumbering, and depended upon
that to procure bread and other provisions from Boston, or some other place in
the vicinity. After the war commenced in 1775, and the British cruisers were
hovering on the coast, their supplies were cut off. In the spring of 1776, they
were in a very destitute condition. Their scanty stock of provisions was nearly
exhausted. How to obtain a supply became a momentous question. The inhabitants
of the town were requested to meet for consultation on the subject. They
decided to charter a small vessel and send to Boston, for provisions. This was
an enterprise of no small danger. But they hoped that, by keeping near the
shore, they might avoid the large British vessels. Through the good hand of God
upon them their little craft performed the voyage, and safely returned with a
cargo of provisions. These were distributed among the people. From them,
through the blessing of God, they derived strength and courage to put an
abundance of seed in the ground. The next year they had bread and meat in plenty.
They thus learned an important lesson. Henceforth they cultivated their farms;
God smiled upon them, and they had a full supply.
Such was the scarcity of money in 1784 or 1785, a man who
had the occasion to borrow five
dollars, could not obtain it. Some of his neighbors had accumulated
considerable property, had a good stock of cattle, but had no money. Such was
the depreciation of the currency
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about this time, that Col. Simon Page iii
sold a pair of oxen for ninety-eight
hundred dollars! The real value, in present currency, was about seventy
dollars.[iv]
The people were, at times, somewhat terrified by the
Indians, as they passed, in their hunting excursions, from the Kennebec to the
Androscoggin rivers. But it does not appear that they did them any other
injury. A party once came to Mr. John Fuller’s, when he was absent, and Mrs.
Fuller and the children had no others with them. The Indians had “fire water’
with them and began to drink. This produced considerable alarm. But they
delivered all their knives up to her, and charged her to keep them, till they
became sober. They did this to allay her fears, telling her, they were afraid
they should hurt one another. They were certainly more considerate than many
who claim to be greatly their superiors.
Other instances of suffering there doubtless were, could all
facts be known. Some of them might even be more grievous than any here related.
These are given as a specimen. Well may they awaken, in the present
inhabitants, the gratitude we own Allwise Dispenser of events, for having
provided so much “better things for them.”
[i] Squire Bishop lived in Winthrop on (currently
called) Metcalf Hill Road.
[ii] This is located between Winthrop Road and Sturtevant
Hill Road and not far from where Unite Brown lived, which was near the current Readfield /
Winthrop town line, route 41.
[iii]
Lived on Stanley Road near the Winthrop / Readfield town line. He was brother
to Robert Page, Esq. who lived on the South Road and owned significant land
holdings in Winthrop / Readfield.
[iv]
Remember – this was written in 1855.
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