Radio Script #1285

Little Talks on Common Things
October 18, 1981

Few people realize that a small town near Portland is one of Maine’s oldest. A long 140 years before Maine became a separate state, and 95 years before the shots were fired at Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolution, the town of North Yarmouth received its first founding papers in 1680.

It was an ancient habitation, having had a settlement of corn-growing Indians hundreds of years before any white men came. Near the North Yarmouth shore on Lane’s Island is a very old Indian cemetery. The Indian name for the place was Wescustego. The first white settler, George Felt, built a log cabin, soon followed by a strong garrison house, in 1643. Two years later John Cousins built a house on the mainland and another on a nearby island that still bears his name. Before 1650 they were joined by William Royal, who gave his name to Royal’s River, and John Lane for whom Lane’s Island was named.

King Philip’s War of 1675 dispersed the settlers and burned their homes, but after the Treaty of Casco in 1679 a few trickled back. The statement of organized settlement authorized by the government of Massachusetts on September 22, 1680, said: “There is hereby granted to the settlers of the waste land lying between the sea and the township of Demeras Cove, all that land to be named the township of North Yarmouth. The place of building and settling the town shall be on the neck of land commonly known as Maine’s Point, to be laid out in such a way as to be capable of defense against the Indians. Ten acres shall be reserved for a meetinghouse, a minister’s house, a school house, a burying ground, and a market place. On the four sides of the ten acre lot there shall be streets four rods wide. On the streets shall be house
lots of half an acre each. Nearby there shall be a common field available to all the community and also used for militia drill.”

That original plan was modest because it provided for only 24 private lots around the public square. It was a plan only on paper for no one wanted a lot as small as half an acre. Most of those who settled anywhere near the public square had a lot of at least 10 acres. A new outbreak of Indian hostility caused complete destruction of the town in 1688, and the place lay again uninhabited for twenty years.

Early in the 18th century a few settlers were willing to risk Indian raids, and by 1722 a committee of the proprietors of the place, all located in Boston, was set up to administer the community’s affairs. Rights of those already settled were recognized and new settlers were granted lots on condition that, within three years, each of them built
a suitable house, cleared and fenced five acres of land and resided on the place for five years. Then the settler would receive a warranty deed.

Absentee management of Maine communities, though in their early days quite common, never worked well, and a change to local government soon took place in North Yarmouth. In response to a petition from the settlers, the Massachusetts government, on April 6, 1733, ordered Samuel Seabury of North Yarmouth to call a meeting of the settlers to choose selectmen, constables, and other town officers.

The area of North Yarmouth was not good farmland. It had already been called wasteland in the grant of 1680. In addition to fishing, the settlers got a living by getting out lumber, for which the rapidly growing industry of shipbuilding created a sharp demand. By 1760 the town had in operation five busy sawmills.

During the first half of the 18th century North Yarmouth was still not immune from occasional Indian raids, but none that brought any appreciable destruction. By 1774 North Yarmouth people were already aroused by events that culminated in the Revolution. The town prohibited the use of tea and also sent to Boston assurance of support of Boston’s determined protests against oppressive acts in London. Two months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, North Yarmouth passed the following resolution: “If the Congress, for the safety of the united colonies, shall declare them independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain, the inhabitants of this town solemnly engage, with their lives and fortunes, to support the Congress in such a measure.”

While North Yarmouth citizens were eager to secure independence from England, they were opposed to an independent state of Maine. Apparently they feared that independence would interfere with their profitable trade with Boston. As early as 1788 they refused to send delegates to an independence conference in Portland. Between then and 1820, as the issue came up time after time, North Yarmouth persistently voted that Maine should remain a part of Massachusetts.

It is well known that almost all New England towns had religious services as soon as they had a dozen settlers. In fact, long before the Revolution, the colonial government refused to incorporate a town unless the petitioners agreed to set aside land for a meetinghouse and a minister’s lot, erect a place of worship within a specified time, and settle a minister to be paid by taxation on all inhabitants. One of the town’s early ministers, Amri Cotter, proved to be a man of varying interests. He left the ministry to become a physician and served as surgeon with the colonial forces under Sir William Pepperell in the capture of the French fortress at Louisburg in 1745.

Originally North Yarmouth was a huge town in area, extending from the eastern boundary of Portland to the present town of Harpswell. In fact, the town of Harpswell was incorporated in 1750 by using for it a part of North Yarmouth. In 1789 more land was taken away to make the town of Freeport. But North Yarmouth still remained large until 1820 when sufficient land was taken from it to make the town of Cumberland. Finally in 1849, it lost another area to make the town of Yarmouth. Despite the fact that North Yarmouth ended as a small town, overshadowed by three neighboring cities, it had a long and honorable history.

Now for some facts about early Maine not well known to people today, and seldom mentioned in the history books.

My mother, whose birthplace was Gorham, Maine, used to say that she was born in Narraganset No.7. That was one of the early townships laid out in an area popularly known as Narraganset. After the successful warfare that dispersed the Narraganset Indians, the Massachusetts government laid out seven Townships, each six miles square and designated them Narraganset Nos. 1 to 7. No.1 became the town of Buxton in Maine. It was surveyed in 1734, but not settled until ten years later. The first houses and meetinghouse were made of logs. The first settler was William Hancock, who came from Londonderry, Ireland.

Narraganset No.2 was in the middle of the present state of Massachusetts. It is the town of Westminster, near Worcester. It was settled largely by people from Cambridge, Watertown, and Newton. No.3 became the town of Amherst, N. H., and was settled largely by people from Salem, Mass. No.4 was west of Hatfield in the Connecticut River Valley. Hatfield was already a well populated town. Later No. 4 was split up among several towns. Narraganset No. 5 was also in New Hampshire, and became the towns of Merrimac and Bedford. It was settled by people from Boston and Cape Cod. It was Narraganset No. 7 in which I have always had the greatest interest. It extended from the Saco to the Penobscot rivers in Maine, was surveyed in 1734 and assigned to Shubael Gorham and 110 others who came from the old Plymouth colony region of Barnstable, Sandwich, Plymouth and Duxbury. At first called Gorhamtown it was incorporated in 1764 as the town of Gorham. The first permanent settler was not named Gorham, but was Captain John Phinney, who was to lead the first Maine company of soldiers to join the Revolutionary Army. He settled on Fort Hill, where now is situated the Gorham branch of the Portland/Gorham unit of the University of Maine.

Phinney became a sort of vigilante leader to round up Tories in Cumberland County. In Saco was a notorious Tory physician Phinney rounded up a posse, which apprehended the doctor in a tavern, made him mount an upturned hogshead and confess to his anti-patriotic sentiments. Another man who aroused Phinney’s wrath was Richard King of Scarboroug father of Maine’s first governor, William King. King declared he was an orthodox patriot, and he refused to admit Phinney to his home. Phinney had to return to Gorham without confronting King.

The first white child born in Gorham, Old Narraganset No.7, was Phinney’s daughter, Mary Gorham Phinney. When my mother died in 1937, she was the last fifth generation descendant of Mary Gorham Phinney.

And with that we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1981