Radio Script #1274

Little Talks on Common Things
May 3, 1981

This program has given much attention to Maine immigrants from French Canada. It has also told about the German settlements at Old Pownalboro and Waldoboro, about the Swedes in Aroostook, about the industrious Finns in several of our communities, and about the Russians at Richmond. We have also mentioned the Scotch who were so important in developing the Maine paper industry, especially the Hollingsworth and Whitney (now Scott) mill at Winslow.

Today I want to say a few words about another fine group of people who have played a part in the development of Maine, the Scotch-Irish from Northern Ireland. The Irish rebellion in the 16th century near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, nearly depopulated the northern counties of Ireland. It was Elizabeth’s successor, James I, for whom our King James Bible was named, who repopulated the area, filling it with Presbyterians from neighboring Scotland, inducing them to come to Ireland by generous grants of land. The Scottish clan of McDonald was especially conspicuous in that migration.

In 1719 Ireland was placed completely under British rule. Irish manufactures and trade were hampered. Like the American colonies, all parts of Ireland, both north and south, had to import their manufactured goods from England. Those energetic and resourceful Scotsmen in Northern Ireland were the first to seek greener pastures. Migration of thousands from Southern Ireland, caused by the potato famine in the middle of the 19th century, came much later.

The Scotch in Ulster saw many of their people turn their eyes toward the new world across the Atlantic. A leader of the movement was Rev. John McGregor, a Presbyterian minister, who led a small group to Maryland in 1674. Before leaving Belfast, he had preached a sermon in which he urged migration to avoid oppression and bondage and escape persecution, and be able to worship God according to the dictates of one’s conscience. During the first quarter of the 18th century large numbers of those Scotch-Irish crossed the ocean to America. The first to settle in Maine came in 1718, when twenty families arrived in Boston and were induced to try their fortune in the Massachusetts District of Maine. They were transported to Portland, where they spent the entire winter, picking up such odd jobs as they could. Then a few of them settled near Portland, while the rest returned to the Boston area.

Then a vigorous promoter took charge. He was Robert Temple. He made arrangements with the newly formed Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase to get them settlers on their Kennebec lands. He induced several settlers to come to Topsham, named for the town in England from which Temple had set out for America. Another such settlement on the Lower Kennebec was called Cork, and still another was named New Ireland. Today there are families in the region having the names McDonald, McGregor, McFadden, McGowan and McLellan. Although Indian troubles in the early 18th century broke up the settlements, enough of those staunch Scotch-Irish returned so that their families have been perpetuated to this day.

After the dispersal of the Indians from Old Point at Norridgewock in 1724, the Scotch-Irish settlements on the Kennebec thrived. At one time they proposed to separate from the government of Mass. and set up a separate colony. The movement was led by Col. Robert Dunbar, a native of Ireland of Scotch descent, who pulled the necessary political strings in England to get himself appointed governor of a new territory in Maine. He chose Fort Frederick at Pemaquid as his seat of government, and manned the fort with troops from Nova Scotia. He was able for several years to maintain his power against the government of Mass., but finally had to submit.

By liberal donations of land, Dunbar brought several shiploads of immigrants from Ulster. To three of his countrymen Montgomery, Campbell and McCobb, he granted the townships of Bristol, Nobleboro and Boothbay. In a period of three years, more than 150 Scotch-Irish families came to those towns. Many were ardent Presbyterians, led by their pastor, Rev. Robert Rutherford. Massachusetts could not remain idle and see Dunbar develop a rival sovereignty. Enlisting the aid of the wealthy and influential Samuel Waldo, who would later bring Germans to Muscongus Bay, Mass. overthrew Dunbar in 1732, and Massachusetts was again completely in control of Maine. In fact, it was Scotch-Irish, not Germans, who were Waldo’s first immigrants. In 1735 he brought to the Muscongus region 27 Ulster families, to each of which he gave 100 acres of land in what is now the town of Warren.

Some of those pioneer names still known in the region are McLean, McCracken and Creighton. In 1740 an accident contributed to the population of the Muscongus Bay Scotch-Irish. A ship from Northern Ireland bound for Pemaquid was wrecked near Mount Desert Island. At that time the earlier French settlement on Mount Desert had been abandoned, and the island was completely deserted. After several months of suffering, the survivors were rescued by a passing ship and transported to Damariscotta and Warren, adding to the Scotch-Irish colony.

In 1753 the last great migration of Scotch-Irish came to the St. George’s river. They were chiefly mechanics and artisans, who settled in the western part of Warren, giving it the name of Sterling, after the royal city of Scotland. Among them were Crawfords, Carswells and Johnstons. Maine has reason to be grateful that a segment of her population was early composed of such people as the sturdy, thrifty Scotch-Irish. Although Congregationalists rather than Presbyterians became predominant in New England religious life, it was Presbyterians, along with Baptists and Quakers, who finally succeeded in winning religious liberty.

As early as 1730 there were more than 60,000 Presbyterians in Ulster, and about half as many Roman Catholics. Already violence had become common between the two groups, and it has never wholly subsided. In fact it is so bad in Ulster today that Northern Ireland is one of the worst hotbeds of violence in all the world. Those Scotch-Irish who came to Maine brought with them the stern Presbyterian beliefs in predestination and the strict requirements of the Westminster Confession. In the 17th century, they formed a stronghold of religious independence in New England, that greatly affected Maine. In fact, during the 18th century, nearly all of Maine that lay between the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers was strongly Presbyterian.

The first Presbyterian minister was settled on the Pemaquid peninsula in 1730. Soon afterward, a Presbyterian parish was set up at Brunswick and one came to Scarborough in 1760. The most distinguished Presbyterian clergyman to come to Maine in that period was Rev. John Murray, an Ulsterman educated at the University of Edinboro. He arrived at Boothbay in 1763. There he formed what at the time became the largest Presbyterian church in Maine. He served communion by placing a long table in the central aisle of his meetinghouse. On one occasion that table had so many pieces that it extended from the pulpit to the front door of the building. Communicants were seated at the table on benches. When, during an illness of the celebrated Parson Smith of Portland, Murray was a substitute in the pulpit of that community’s First Parish Church, the people clamored for his later return. But Parson Smith was a stalwart clergyman of the established state church of the Congregationalists, and he wanted no competition from a Presbyterian. So Murray did not preach in Portland again.

Nearly everywhere in Maine the Presbyterians encountered the same kind of opposition. Typical was what happened to Rev. Nathaniel Whittaker, first pastor at old Canaan, now Skowhegan. He started as the town pastor in 1784, but four years later was discharged in favor of a Congregationalist. In the 19th century an agreement was made between the national bodies of Congregationalists and Presbyterians whereby the Presbyterians agreed to set up no more churches in New England, while the Congo agreed to stay out of the Middle West. That agreement was never completely honored. The Congregationalists set up Oberlin College in Ohio, and the Presbyterians strengthened their church in Portland so that it lasted well into this century. But Presbyterianism did subside in Maine until its revival about 25 years ago, and that denomination now has several churches in the state.

Anyhow, it is clear that Maine is historically indebted to the Scotch-Irish and their Presbyterian faith.

Now let us turn to a profession other than the clergy. While ministers of several faiths were very influential in early Maine, equally important were the lawyers. A number of them, residing in Maine, were leading attorneys in Massachusetts before Maine became a separate state. Also, attorneys living in the Boston area often tried cases in the Maine courts. One of the most famous was John Adams, second President of U.S., who several times came to the old Pownalboro Courthouse on the Kennebec. A contemporary of Adams was William Cushing, who became Chief Justice of Mass. in 1777, and in 1789 was appointed by President Washington to be a member of the nation’s Supreme Court. For a time Cushing lived at Pownalboro, having a large house near the courthouse.

Another early lawyer was John Gardiner, son of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, most prominent member of the Kennebec Proprietors. Born in Boston, John was sent to England for education. There he attended Cambridge University, and was trained in law at London’s Inner Temple. At the close of the Revolution he returned to Boston as an attorney, and was largely responsible for recovery by the Gardiner family of their Maine estate, which had been confiscated by the Continental Government when the Gardiners proved to be Tories loyal to the king.

Waterville had one of Maine’s best known early lawyers, Timothy Boutelle. Born in Mass. in 1780, he was graduated from Harvard and admitted to the bar. He set up practice in Waterville in 1804, only two years after Waterville had become a separate town from Winslow. He won many difficult cases, not only in the Kennebec and Somerset county courts but also in the supreme court of Maine. Boutelle had been in Waterville only six years when he was elected to the Mass. House of Representatives. After Maine become a separate state, he was a state senator and president of that body. In 1839 Waterville College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was the first treasurer of that college and influential in the disposal of its Penobscot lands. He was also the first president of the Androscoggin and Kennebec RR, the first rail line to reach Waterville in 1849.

One early Maine lawyer was killed in a duel. He was Jonathan Cilley of Thomaston, who at the time of his death was a representative in Congress from Maine. Cilley was challenged by a political enemy and killed in the duel.

And with that bow to early Maine lawyers, we say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1981