Radio Script #409

Little Talks on Common Things

February 22, 1959

Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago today there was born down in the old colony of Virginia a boy who has come down in American history as the Father of His Country. On this occasion of George Washington’s birthday, it occurs to me to ask if there ever lived in Maine any men who knew Washington personally.

At the time of the Revolution there were not many men living in the old District of Maine who had acquaintance with the commanding general of the Revolutionary Army. Most of the Maine residents who later had the distinction of being called veterans of the Revolution did not come to Maine until after that war was over. In fact it was as compensation for services in the war that such men received grants of land in what was at that time largely the wilderness of Maine. But among those settlers were certainly some who had at least seen General Washington, although they may have had no personal acquaintance with him. The foremost of those men was General Henry Dearborn, who came into possession of a large tract of land west of the Kennebec, and who at one time owned most of the land which is now encompassed in the town of Smithfield. He had been with Washington from the time of the New York campaign until the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and had been close to his side during the terrible winter at Valley Forge.

There is no evidence that Major Colburn of Pittston had ever seen Washington, when the General commissioned him to build the bateaux for Arnold’s expedition to Quebec, but he was so highly recommended to Washington that the General considered Colburn the best man in all Maine to meet that emergency.

Another man who was with Washington at Valley Forge, but only as a private soldier who probably never spoke to the General, was John Cool who was one of the few Revolutionary soldiers who lived in this region when he enlisted, for his enlistment record gives his address as Winslow. John Cool is the man for whom Cool Street in Waterville is named. He died in 1845 and was buried in the cemetery that was then situated on the present site of Monument Park.

Waterville’s most famous Revolutionary soldier was Asa Redington. He had certainly seen George Washington on two momentous occasions. when Washington took command of the Continental Army in Cambridge in 1775. and when he received Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1781. Although Redington did not actually enter the service until 1778. he had walked with a number of other boys from his uncle’s farm in Boxford to see Washington take command of the army under the big elm tree in Cambridge. Redington had more than five years of army service, not getting his discharge until December. 1783, more than two and a half years after Cornwallis’ surrender.

Another local Revolutionary soldier who may have seen Washington was Lot Sturtevant, who settled in the region of Ten Lots about 1790. He was serving in the garrison at West Point at the time when Benedict Arnold treasonably conspired to hand that fortification over to the British. Since Washington was often at West Point in the weeks immediately following Arnold’s treason, Lot Sturtevant may have seen him.

Waterville’s early physician, Dr. Obadiah Williams, took part in the Revolution. Although he did not come to Waterville until 1792, he brought with him memories of wartime service. He was a surgeon in General Stark’s regiment at Bunker Hill, after which he served in medical capacities throughout the war. The regiment to which he was assigned in 1777 was with Washington’s army at the Battle of Princeton, and it is very likely that Dr. Williams saw the General when the commander visited the wounded in the make-shift hospitals, as he often did.

Of course the Maine man who knew George Washington best was the commander of Washington’s artillery forces, General Henry Knox. We must admit that, like many others we have mentioned, Knox did not come to Maine  until after the Revolution, but when he did come as a grand lord of the manor over his vast Waldo lands, he became most decidedly a leading citizen of Maine, and his mansion, Montpelier, at Thomaston, became a show place of post-revolutionary architecture.

It was Knox who planned Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, who transported big guns across the whole state of Massachusetts in the dead of winter, who so placed his artillery as to assure victory at Princeton, and whose skillful deployment of guns made it impossible for Cornwallis to hold out longer at Yorktown.

All through the war Knox was confidant and adviser to Washington. It was natural that when the latter became the nation’s first President, he chose Henry Knox as his Secretary of War. The preserved correspondence between Washington and Knox shows that each had a high respect and affection for the other. In fact Henry Knox stands out as the one man in high command who never wavered in his loyalty and support of Washington, even in the darkest days of Washington’s defeats and military retreats.

It is not so pleasant, while considering Maine in the American Revolution, to be reminded that right on the Kennebec there were in 1777 some notorious Tories. John Jones of Vassalboro was one of eight central Maine residents arrested in 1777 on charges of acts “inimical to the American cause”. Specifically Jones was charged with attempting “to hurt and destroy the credit of the United States by saying of its currency, ‘Damn the trash; curse the Continental bills; I wish they were in hell. III

The case was not pressed because the indictment had been drawn informally and improperly. Jones was hauled up again a few months later and brought before a jury. On it was John Patten, his brother and his son, all of Winslow. Parson Bailey of Pownalboro, who was an ardent Tory himself and was later forced to take ) refuge in Canada, said ‘of the trial, “Jones would certainly have been convicted, if the three Pattens had not, in their sympathy for the Loyalist cause, held out for his acquittal. The result was a hung jury and no verdict.”

Notice that Bailey called the friends of the King and enemies of the Revolutionists by the term “Loyalists”, while those on the other side called them Tories. Even back there in 1777 there was much significance in names.

Men on the Continental side felt just as strongly as did the Pattens on the other side. Some of the patriots had even stronger feelings — feelings that were hardly consistent with the ideals of liberty and personal freedom that had prompted the Revolution. For instance, Judge North, leading citizen of Augusta, declared even thinking that the Continental government was wrong was itself a crime and deserved the sentence of banishment from the country. When it came time for a new trial of Jones in December, the town of Vassalboro had rounded up five other men charged with being obstructionist Tories, eager to defeat the Continental cause. Justice Howard, who had started his journey from his home near Fort Western to Pownalboro Court House, where the men were to be tried, broke his leg by a fall on the ice.

No other justice being available to hold court, there was indefinite adjournment. Before the case could come up again the selectmen of Vassalboro decided the other five men were innocent and they were not prosecuted. Jones, who unquestionably was an unrepentant Tory fled to Boston, where he was arrested and put in jail. He managed to escape and fled to Canada and was never heard of again in central Maine.

Another man of this region who was prominent in the Revolution was the founder of the famous Cony family in Augusta, Daniel Cony. On that eventful 19th of April in 1775 young Cony was a lieutenant in a company of Minute Men at Tewksbury, Massachusetts. That forenoon there came an urgent rap on his door. When the door was opened, the visitor cried, “American blood has been shed and the country must rally.” Cony rushed to the place appointed for sudden meeting in case of alarm, where the company received the blessing of the parish minister, then hustled off for Cambridge. In 1776, as regimental adjutant, Cony marched to join General Gates at Saratoga. There he witnessed Burgoyne’s surrender. A few days later the officers at headquarters were discussing who was the greatest general of all time. It was Mad Anthony Wayne who, according to Cony, put an end to the dispute. “I’ll tell you who was the greatest general. He was Moses. He knew how to lead an army. And don’t sing me the praises of David. Who ever heard of a great general with a slingshot?”

A Maine man who achieved high promotion in the Revolutionary ranks was William North of Pemaquid, ancestor of the North family of Augusta. He volunteered to accompany Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec, but was prevented by serious illness. In May, 1776 he was commissioned a lieutenant in Col. Craft’s artillery regiment — a unit that had been established by Henry Knox.

In 1777 he was made a captain, and in 1779 became a major, as aide-de-camp to Baron Steuben, the famous drillmaster of Continental troops. He stayed with the Baron for two years and was with him at Yorktown. There he was made a Colonel, the rank he held when the war ended. But soon after the war General Henry Knox, who had come greatly to appreciate the man’s worth, persuaded President Washington to appoint William North Adjutant General of the Army with permanent rank of Brigadier General.

We have left just time for a few words on another subject — the old time railroads. A number of railroad souvenirs were given to me last summer.

Among them is a really precious printed invitation issued in 1843. It was addressed to Mr. John Fogg of Scarborough and it reads: “The President and Directors of the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad invite you and your lady to take a ride in their cars, September 13th, if fair weather, otherwise on the first fair week-day thereafter. The cars will stop at road crossing, east of Nonesuch, and at Oak Hill. Cars leave Portland at 6! o’clock A.M. Signed, Josial Calef, President.”

The Portland, Saco and Portsmouth was the road that later became the Eastern Division of the Boston and Maine. In fact, before 1850 it had abandoned its original name and was known simply as the Eastern Railroad. It was the first railroad to enter Maine, its tracks reaching Portland in 1842. In the same year the Boston and Maine, which had been built from Boston to Dover, extended its tracks into Maine to connect with the Eastern Railroad at South Berwick Junction.

Another of my souvenirs is a ticket good between South Berwick and Portland on the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad for the dates June 24 to June 28, 1850. Two other bits are passes respectively on the Boston and Maine and the Maine Central. They were issued to the General Counsel of both roads, and all members of his family for the year 1902. I had not before realized that the recipient of a railroad pass had to waive all claim for personal injury or loss of property while traveling. Both of these passes have printed on the reverse side this statement: “The person accepting and using this free ticket agrees that the railroad company is not a common carrier in regard to him, and himself agrees to assume all risk of injury of every description, either to his person or property, while traveling upon this railroad, and that the railroad company shall not be liable under any circumstances, either by reason of the negligence of itself,its servants and agents or in any other manner.”

Another souvenir is a ticket on one of the few short, steam lines that preceded the horse cars in our big cities. This ticket was issued by the Baltimore City Passenger Railroad Company, an old steam road through the streets of Baltimore. On its reverse is the hand written statement, “Good only for the 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 of September, 1871.”

Finally I have a 1910 ticket on the Augusta, Hallowell and Gardiner street car line, on the reverse of which is a picture of the little trolley cars that used to run between those cities half a century ago.

Year: 1959