Radio Script #1332

Little Talks on Common Things
December 19, 1982

Interest in the Kennebec above Merrymeeting Bay began in 1629, when the Plymouth Colony obtained a grant of land 15 miles on each side of the river from the Cobbossee Stream to Skowhegan Falls, and set up a trading post near the later site of Fort Western. They made no attempt at white settlement on the river.

Even after 1661, when the Pilgrims sold that grant to four Boston merchants, Indian wars long prevented settlement. To make settlers feel more secure, and thus encourage them to take up lots, the Massachusetts government in 1719 built Fort Richmond on the west side of the river a short distance above the present site of Richmond Village. Thirty years later, in 1749, the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase, another Boston group, bought the grant from the heirs of the purchasers of 1661. By that time the danger of Indian raids had greatly decreased.

The new company recruited a band of German immigrants to settle on the east side of the river in what is now Dresden. Originally called Frankfort, the settlement became the Town of Pownal borough , which was for a time the county seat of Lincoln County, until it was outgrown by Wiscasset. still standing is the restored old – Pownal borough Cour-thouse, built in 1752. The settlers enjoyed the protection of Fort Richmond under command of William Lithgow, who later gave his name to Lithgow Street in Winslow.

To encourage settlements between Merrymeeting Bay and Ticonic Falls, the Massachusetts government, under Governor Shirley, agreed to build a fort at Ticonic Falls, if the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase would build one at Cushnoc, present site of Augusta. That was done in 1754, the proprietors building Fort western and the government putting up Fort Halifax, taking Col. Lithgow from Fort Richmond and placing him in command of the new fort at Ticonic Falls.

Because of difficulty of transportation when the river was frozen, Governor Shirley ordered a road built along the east bank of the river from Fort western to Fort Halifax, but it did not do much to facilitate winter transportation, because it so rapidly and so frequently became blocked by enormous drifts of snow. When the river was open, a fleet of whaleboats saw that Fort Halifax was kept supplied, but during the winter the men of that fort suffered great privation.

In January, 1755, Lithgow made a passionate appeal to Governor Shirley. Part of his long letter said:

“The soldiers at Fort Halifax are in a deplorable condition because of lack of shoes, clothing and bedding. We now have only thirty men who are capable of cutting and hauling wood to keep warm, and they have had extreme difficulty because the snow is so deep. We have only four weeks supply of bread, half a barrel of rum, and half a barrel of molasses, and we cannot get supplies from Fort Western because the river is frozen and the road is blocked with drifts ten feet high.

“The government should employ a number of men to carry at least minimum supplies on their backs to us from Fort Western until the road is open for sleds. Many of the men are so sick they will be unable to do any work before spring. Spirits are very low and can only be lifted by decent lodging and reasonable comfort.”

Governor Shirley replied that he had ordered a shipment of supplies expressly for Fort Halifax to be sent to Fort Western, and he would do his best to get them on from there to Fort Halifax. In February Lithgow informed the Governor that the promised supplies had arrived at Arrowsic near the mouth of the Kennebec, and had been brought up the river as far as Merrymeeting Bay.

From there they would have to be hauled to Fort Western over the ice. Then, somehow, laboriously, 200 barrels of provisions would have to be brought up to Fort Halifax. The whole 200 barrels never did arrive, but enough were somehow carried to Fort Halifax to keep the men alive. How scarce were settlers is shown by another letter to the Governor in 1756. It said there were a few settlers around the fort, but none otherwise within a distance of 15 miles.

In 1759 the soldiers at Fort Halifax petitioned to be released from service. They said they had already served beyond their year of enlistment, and were quite fed up with conditions at the fort. There had already been too many deserters. Their request was granted, but they were only partially replaced, with the result that Fort Halifax was never again fully garrisoned. Meanwhile the Proprietors continued attempts at further settlement. They granted to Sylvester Gardiner 3200 acres on each side of the river. On his lot on the west side he established the settlement that became the City of Gardiner.

By 1764 as many as 4,000 people were living in Lincoln County, which then included all of Maine east of the Androscoggin River. Pownal borough had about 900 inhabitants and Gardinerstown had 200. More than a hundred were scattered about Fort Western and Fort Halifax. Wiscasset, as a port, was growing rapidly. Settlers had begun to come to the area around Muscongus Bay, near Waldoboro, to augment those already at Pemaquid. After 1764 settlements increased so rapidly that in 1771 there were people enough to incorporate four Kennebec towns, Winthrop, Hallowell, Vassalboro and Winslow.

At Cushnoc, now Augusta, there had been intermittent residents after the establishment of the Pilgrim trading post in 1629, but they assumed no appreciable numbers until after the building of Forts Western and Halifax in 1754.The first permanent settler at Augusta was James Huard, who had been commander at Fort Western. Other early comers were Ezekiel Page, Edward Savage, Samuel Tollman, Asa Fisk and David Hancock. One Augusta pioneer, John Gilley, became noted for his longevity. Born in Ireland in 1690, he arrived at Fort Western in 1755. Since he was then 65 years old, the fort commander considered Gilley too old to serve the military, but Gilley demonstrated his strength by carrying a barrel of bread on his shoulders from the riverbank to the fort.

But Gilley looked so old that people at once called him Grandpa Gilley. When Gilley reached 100 years, he could still hold a ground-breaking plow. He was never confined to his bed by sickness until the day he died. That was on June 9, 1818, when he had already passed his 128th birthday. Even as late as 1770 the settlement at Augusta was primitive. Log houses sheltered most of the families. There were no roads and inhabitants had to depend upon the river for transportation, using sleds on its ice during the winter.

Above Cushnoc, in what are now Vassalboro and Sidney, were only ten families. The nearest grist mill was at Gardiner. As late as 1775 a travelling preacher, Rev. Shaw, paid four shillings for a guide to take him on a round of the scattered settlers’ cabins.

After the Revolution the settlement at Augusta increased so rapidly that in 1797 it was set apart from Hallowell as a separate town. From that time on, it continued to grow both in numbers and in influence so much that in 1832 it succeeded in getting the State Legislature to move the State Capital from Portland to Augusta.

Meanwhile similar growth was encountered around Fort Halifax. At first the major population was on the east side of the river near the fort. But late in the 18th century, people began to discover the manufacturing possibilities of the power sites on Messalonskee Stream. It was the development of those industries and the building of shipyards near the later site of the Lockwood Mills that made the west side population soon outnumber the east side’s. In 1802 all of Winslow on the west side of the river became the new town of Waterville. The Nye-DimmocK grant brought people to what became the town of Fairfield. Then came old Canaan, which grew into the present Skowhegan, and even larger by 1800 was the town of Norridgewock. By that time settlers were all along the river from Merrymeeting Bay to Norridgewock.

That, in brief summary, is the story of the settlement of the Kennebec Valley, and we must now say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1982