Radio Script #831

Little Talks on Common Things
February 1, 1970

Many times on this program I have made some mention of Fort Halifax. It occurs to me that the time has come to put together what the contemporary records tell us about the building of that fort.

No serious attempt was made to bring settlers to the Valley of the Kennebec above Merrymeeting Bay until the corporation known as the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase was organized under the leadership of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner in 1749. Those proprietors bought up all rights from the heirs of the four men who had bought the grant from the Plymouth Company in 1661. In fact some of the new proprietors were themselves descendants of those owners.

During the first sixty years of the 18th century England and France were almost constantly at war, only brief periods of peace coming between their several wars. Since the Maine Indians persistently sided with the French, no English settlements were safe anywhere in Maine unless securely protected by forts and soldiers. It should be borne in mind that the lands of the Kennebec Purchase extended from the mouth of the Cobbossee at Gardiner to the falls at Norridgewock, and encompassed all the area for fifteen miles on each side of the Kennebec.

Even before Sylvester Gardiner and his associates had brought the first settlers to old Pownalborough, now Dresden, the Massachusetts government had taken some measures to protect their trading interests on the river. As early as 1723 there had been built Fort Richmond, on the west bank of the river just above Swan Island. After 1749 the proprietors saw that settlement above what is now Augusta would be impossible without protection against the all too frequent French and Indian raids.

The Kennebec had long been a highway for the Indians between Canada and and the seacoast. Its intersection with the Chaudiere, flowing to the St. Lawrence, was interrupted only by a carry of four miles at what was then and still is called the Height of Land. Furthermore, to reach Quebec the Penobscot Indians came by a chain of lakes and streams west to the head of the Sebasticook, down that river to the Kennebec, then up the Kennebec, across to the Dead River, over the four mile carry to the Chaudiere, and on to Canada.

Now all the lands of the Kennebec Purchase lay above Fort Richmond, whose commander in 1754 was Captain William Lithgow. From him the Provincial Governor of Massachusetts, Shirley, learned in February of that year that the French were building a fort on the four mile portage between the Kennebec and the Chaudiere. The Governor ordered Lithgow to explore the situation and make accurate report. On April 5, 1754 Shirley issued the first order for what would eventually become Fort Halifax. That order called for a fort above Ticonic Falls. Evidently the Governor knew little about the topography of the region, for he was soon persuaded to change that order, but we must note that this first change did not place the fort where it was eventually built. He ordered it to be erected on a hill behind the junction of the Sebasticook with the Kennebec. The Governor called for only a blockhouse at the fork itself.

Two weeks later, on April 20, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed the followi ng vote: “Whereas the fort at Richmond is in a very ruinous condition and past repair and a more suitable place may be found further up the Kennebec for a new fort, it is our earnest desire that the Governor journey to the eastern parts of the province and give necessary directions for building a fort.”

The Governor could not make the journey until fall, but meanwhile he placed in charge of the project Captain John Winslow, ordered him to select the exact site and start to build the fort. When Shirley made his visit in the fall of 1754, Winslow had two buildings under way and the surrounding picket fence all up.

Preserved is the report of the visit which Governor Shirley made to the Massachusetts House on October 18, 1754. Let us see exactly what that report said: “I raised 800 men, went to Falmouth and secured workmen to proceed to Ticonic with orders for 500 to go up the Kennebec and explore if there were any French settlements between that river and the great carrying place to the Chaudiere.

“The place where I decided to erect the fort is 37 miles above Fort Richmond on a fork of land by the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers, where the latter empties into the former about 3/4 mile below Ticonic Falls. This I did on advice of General Winslow, though I had intended the fort to be on the hill behind this fork.

“As the river is not navigable for sea vessels above Cushnoc, a storehouse must be built there, where supplies can be landed and stored, to be transported to the Ticonic Fort as convenient. The Plymouth Company has agreed to build that storehouse.

“I have also ordered a road to be cleared from Cushnoc to Fort Halifax, on the east bank of the river, for wheeled carriages, so as to make possible transportation in one day.

“As the fort is overlooked by an eminence from behind within cannon shot, I preferred a fort with cannon there. But I learned that carrying stone for a foundation to that hill would require three teams of oxen for five months and could not be completed until next summer. So I did not attempt it. Furthermore, it will be so difficult for the French to transport cannon and munitions down the river that I consider the danger not great. 1 therefore ordered General Winslow to build the fort at the forks, but to avoid surprise to build also a redoubt 20 feet square on the hill, picketed all around and mounted with two small cannon.

“Though our troops found no French settlements between Fort Richmond and Ticonic Falls, nor from there to the great carrying place, I am sure your action in authorizing the fort has prevented attempts that might have succeeded.”

Governor decreed that the new fort should be named Fort Halifax in honor of his British patron, the Earl of Halifax. Before the Governor left Fort Halifax, he arranged with General Winslow that he should be relieved, and his successor was Captain Lithgow, the commander at Fort Richmond. Much of what we know about Fort Halifax after October, 1754 comes from correspondence between Governor Shirley and Captain Lithgow, who was subsequently promoted to Colonel.

Let us now see how the work had got started under Winslow in the previous spring. Isaac Ilsley of Falmouth was employed to engage 12 carpenters and go with them on a government sloop to Cushnoc, and thence make their way by canoes to Ticonic Falls, where they were to remain two months to help build the fort. Captain Lithgow proposed alterations of Winslow’s plan. In fact at one time he suggested that the two Winslow buildings at the forks be abandoned altogether, and the whole fort be constructed on the hill. Considering the cost of that project too great, he decided to present instead plans to expand Winslow’s two buildings to five and alter somewhat the shape of the whole fortification.

The Massachusetts House approved the Lithgow changes. When completed, Fort Halifax consisted of a center building of two stories and four one-story structures. There were two blockhouses 20 feet square, of which the one that still remains was the south flanker put up by Lithgow in 1755. It projected ten feet beyond the east and south lines of the enclosure so that its guns could rake those two sides of the fort in case of attack. On the hill was not one blockhouse, but two, about 175 yards apart. In each were placed small cannon. Fort Halifax was regarded as impregnable against any French and Indian attack, but happily its defense was never tested.

The road that Shirley ordered between Cushnoc and Fort Halifax proved of little value. It was intended for use in winter when the river was not open, and even in summer it was hoped that provisions could come faster over the road than up stream against the current. But in winter snow filled the hollows to a height of 15 feet, and there just weren’t men and oxen available to keep it open. In summer the surface was so rough that wagons were frequently overturning or breaking down.

Building the fort was itself no small task. On one occasion Lithgow wrote: “I have 100 tons of board logs which I have had hauled here by hand. Now, 100 tons of logs made at least 200 separate, large logs, and think of hauling them to the fort by hand labor! Then, after the logs reached the site, they had to be sawed with pit saws worked by two men, one on top of the log, the other in the pit below.” In July, 1756 Gov. Shirley commented: “It is well known that Fort Halifax is not compact, but is built in three separate parts, and it is unreasonable to think that, with such separation, men can be spared to guard the hauling of timber and especially to transportation of stone from the other side of the river.” It is no wonder that Lithgow objected when the Governor announced that the garrison strength for both Fort Halifax and Fort Western would be reduced to only 80 men.

All was by no means well when Fort Halifax was finally completed in 1756. While the work was going on in the early part of 1755, Lithgow had written to the Governor: “The soldiers at Fort Halifax are in a most deplorable condition for want of shoes, bedding and bodily clothing. We have scarcely 30 men here who are capable of cutting and hauling the wood we need, and that work is especially hard because the snow is so deep. We have on hand only four weeks allowance of bread, one barrel of rum, and one of molasses. God knows how we can get any supplies up from Fort Western through the deep snow. I left Fort Halifax on January 4 to see if the ice would hold to get down to Fort Western. The ice was very weak, but I got to Cushnoc after sinking numerous times through two feet of snow and slush over the ice. I doubt, because of the strong current, whether the ice would hold a team all winter. As for the road, it would take 50 men and 10 yoke of oxen to break it out, then the first wind would fill it again. The only way we can get supplies is for men on snowshoes to beat down the road and carry provisions on their backs and even to do that we must first have the snowshoes.”

So Lithgow urged, and in subsequent letters kept repeating the urging, that in the future all supplies be brought up during the months of open water by flatboats, and he told Shirley if those boats were not available by the summer of 1755, the fort would have to be abandoned. Shirley saw to it that Lithgow got his boats.

Later Lithgow reported that he had been able to get supplies landed near the mouth of the Kennebec at Arrowsic up as far as the Chops of Merrymeeting Bay, where they had to be left because the men were completely fatigued. Two men, one from Topsham, the other from Brunswick. then got help to boat the supplies up to Cushnoc, from where Lithgow’s boats carried them to Fort Halifax.

As late as 1759 there were some 40 one-year enlistees who were spending their third hard winter at Fort Halifax because the government had not replaced them.

I have been unable to discover just when the garrison at Fort Halifax was finally withdrawn. We do know that it was soon after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, that ended forever any danger on the Kennebec from the French and their Indian allies. We know also that when Arnold’s Expedition stopped there in 1775, much of the fort was already a crumbling ruin, but the large barracks house still stood, and Arnold found it in use as a tavern. And with that we say goodbye to old Fort Halifax, to turn next week to an older fort farther down the river.

Year: 1970