Radio Script #110
Little Talks On Common Things
May 27, 1951
Some time ago we passed on to you several interesting items from Drew’s Rural Intelligencer, published in Augusta In 1855. In all fairness, It is time that, – we ca lied attenti on to the fact that an Augusta newspaper stl II pub” shed today was In ci rculation even earlier than 1855. I refer to the Kennebec Journal.
I have before me right now a copy of the Journal which is Vol. IX, No. 24, dated Wednesday morning, March 2, 1853. At a time when most newspapers were weeklies, the Kennebec Journal In 1853 was a I ready on I ts way to becoml ng a dally, though I t had not quite reached that d I sti ncti on. I twas pub I I shed, th ree ti mes a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A greater part of thIs Issue of March 2nd Is taken up wIth the happenings In the Maine legislature. There was sharp controversy between House and Senate on a proposa I to grant al d to the Passamaquoddy I ndi ans to bui I d houses and barns. Advocates pointed out and, mind you, this was a hundred years ago, that even then the Indians’ hunting and fishing rights were giving out; they had be … come poor and needy. The Indians remaining at Pleasant Point were vagrant paupers, gettl ng thel r I i vi ng by makl ng baskets, wanderi ng about from p I ace to p I ace; but those who were already at the place where the proposed resolve would aid others to settle were relatively prosperous. Opponents said those Indians were natura Ily sh i ftless and unre Ii ab Ie, that they wouldn’t stay on good Icilnd I f put there, and any money spent helping them bui Id houses and barns was, Just so much poured down the drain. Finally humanitarian Interests prevailed and the,bill was passed.
The ,!-buse had Just cast their votes for Major General of the 8th Division of the StateMi litia, electing E. C. Belcher with 69 votes to 45 forL,.D. Palner. Some joker cast one VOTe for the Baskahegan Grant. IT wou I d be Interestlng to know how that term originated. Where was Baskahegan and what was its grant? Sorre of the petiTions presented in that 1853 Legislature strike us as very strange today. At thaT time one secured a divorce, not in the courts, but by petitioning the legislature. $0 one of the 1853 petitions was that of Calvin Hopkins for divorce. Isaac Bragg petitioned to construct a plank road from Bangor to Old Town. Samuel Chase petitioned for remuneraTion for clothes lost by his ward George Minot~ in the burning of the Insane Hospital. John Dulin petitioned for the right to change his name.
In one column of This issue of March 2, 1853 appears this jovial account of the State Prison: “This institution for gentlemen who have been unfortunate in business operations appears to be in its usual flourishing condition. Seventythree of these unfortunate individuals are now avai ling themselves of the quiet and wholesome Influence of this sequestered retreat, occupying their time princi pa Ily In contemp I at i on and cobb II ng.”
Some of the bewildering doings in Washington have led to the remaking of certain dictionary definitions. Perhaps you would like to know what some good English words have come to mean in the national capital. A lip rogram” I s any ass I gnment that cannot be CO”” leted by one telephone call. An “expediter” is one who confounds confusion with commotion whi Ie riding fast trains or faster planes and staying at the best hotels. On that basis you could make your own definition of an “efficiency expert”. He, of course, is a man who trains expediters; and a “coordinator” is one who has a desk between two expediters.
The good old verb “to activate” means to make a lot of carbons and add a lot of names to a memorandum. The phrase “under consideration” means “Never heard of it”; “under active consideration” means ”We’re looking in the fi les for it”. “In transmittal” means “We’re sending It to you because we’re tired of be Ing hounded about It j it’s your turn A~”. A “conference” is a p lace where conversatl(i)n Is substituted for the dreariness of labor and the loneliness of thought. A “modification of pollcy”means a co~lete reversal whIch nobody admits. “Synthesis” Is a co~ounding of detal led bewl lderman1- Into a vast but comfortable confusion which offends no one. “Research work” means hunting for the fellow that moved the files; as for the research itself, copying from one book is plagiarism; copying from two books is research. And the poor “economic expert”, the new definition for him is a man who tells you wha1- to do with the money you would not have if you had followed his advice.
Some day an unbiased, objective study will be made of Father Rasle of colonlal days in Norridgewock, and his part In the Indian wars of the l8thcentury. So bitter was both the national and the religious feuding generated and perpetuated th rough the years by the vi 0 lent death of Father Ras Ie, and the passage of time has obscured so many of the facts that It Is difficult to tell what part the missionary father really played In the politIcal and military 51-rIfe between the English and the French, In theIr bItter contest for control of the North American, continent. I n any event, because Fa the r Ras Ie was such a noted pe rson I n the 0 I d days of the Kennebec Va Iley, we owe him attention on th i s program.
The flrst French miss I on on the St. lawrence began as early, as HH4 under the patronage of Champlain. In 1625 three Jesuits set up a mission with Quebec as Its center •• The first mission church was bui It opposite the mouth·.of.,the Chaudiere, was endowed by a French countess, and was given the name of St. Joseph ofSlllery. Its first missionary of consequence was Father Gabriel Druillettes, who patiently learned the language of the Algonquin Indians. When the Abenakis of the Kennebec first came In contact wl1-h the Jesuits Is uncertai nj but I t was sure Iy as early as 1631, when a party of Kennebec I ndi ans went ‘to Quebec to buy beaver skins to sell to the Plymouth traders. We knOt that in 1640 aA Algonquin from Quebec brought his fami Iy to Old Point at Norri dgewock, and In 1642 an Abenaki chief was taken to Quebec for Christian baptism.
In 1646, when the Abenakis requested that a priest be. sent to them, Father OJ”uil fe’ttes left Quebec on August 29 of that year, went up the Olaudiere 90 mi les to Lake Megantic, crossed the di vide to the head waters of the Kennebec, ~nd in the middle of September reached Old Point at Norridgewock, which was then the prl nci pa I upper vi “age of the Abenakis. Fathe r Druil1ettes di d not rema in at 01 d Poi nt .He went on dOtn the ri ve r to Cushnoc (the Dresent site of Augusta) where he was kindly received by John Winslow; ‘then he took the long trip dOtn to the mouth of the river and along the coast ‘to Castine, to confer with the Capuchin priests there. On his return he did not go back 10 Norridgewock, but set up his first mission at an Indian village about a mile above the Cushnoc tradl ng post, at Gilley’s Point. He ca lied that mission ”The Mission of the Assumption on the Kennebec”. In 1647 Father Oruillettes accompanied the Abenakls on their winter hunt to tIoosehead Lake. After he returned to Quebec in the spring of 1647 it was three years before he again returned to Maine. Then he went far beyond the Kennebec waters. He went to BostOR and to Plymouth, to plead with the English settlements there for aid to his I ndian friends against the marauding I roquols. In 1651 he went as far as New Haven on the same errand, but he was ob I i gad to record in his Journa I that “Christi an New Eng land woui d not be roused to protect the Christian I zed I ndrans of the Kennebec.”
In 1685 the Quebec mission was moved across the St. lawrence to a point a few miles up the Chaudiere, and its name was changed to the “Mission of St. Francis de Sa les”. Soon afterward Jesuit priests from that mission traveled a long the Kennebec and built a chapel at Old Point, thus reviving the mission that had been closed there for thi rty years. Father Rasle came to the Old Point mission in 1693. One historical faction contends that his mission was entirely rellglous~ to continue the conversion of the Indians and hold them true to the faith and ceremonies of the Roman church. Another group of historians decJare that Father Rasle’s reasons for coming to Old Point were more pol itical than religious. As one historian puts it, “French statesmen and Canadian governors sought through the machinery of the church to manipulate the Indian tribes of Maine against the English.” In 1694 the English stupidly arrested and imprisoned Sonescen, Chief of the Abenakls, thus inflaming the tribe to war on the side of the French. Dreadful massacres ensued. What are spoken of as six separate Indian wars occurred In the next 30 years, though I t was a II a part of the long strugg Ie between the French and English for supremacy. Each side paid the Indians for the other sides’ scalps. Both French and English kept prodding the tribes to kill the white men on the othe r side.
In the midst of this hatred and bloodshed stood the priest. Was he merely a religious leader of the Indians, or was he a national patriot of New France? The English were sure he was the latter, and In 1721 the General Court at Boston demanded of the Kennebec I ndi ans that they hand over Father Ras Ie to English arrest. The Indians refused. So In December, 1721 Col. Westbrook led a battalion of 230 soldiers on snowshoes up the Kennebec. At Old Point they found Father Rasle’s hut deserted and the priest hiding in the forest. They seized his books and personal effects, including his precious manuscript of a dldtionary of the Abenaki tongue, and his strong box. believe those two items are now preserved In the Maine Historical Society at Portland. The raid by Col. Westbrook, though unsuccessful, had terrible repercussions. The Abenakls; now thoroughly aroused, went on the warpath. They ki lied and scalped and burned. The worst disaster was the burning of the enti re settlement that later became the town of Brunswick and the slaughter of some forty of Its Inhabitants. Acti ng quick Iy, the government at Boston offered a reward of 200 pounds for Father Rasle, dead or alive. On August 19,1724 Captain Moulton, with a party of 208 men, started out from Fort RI chmond, determined to capture Father Ras Ie. Laavi ng the i r boats aT Ti con i c Fa II s, the Mou I ton party went ove rl and the twenty mi les to Old Point above Norridgewock. Inexplicably they were able to take the I ndi an vi Ilage by surpri se. Let us nON have the story as to I din Coverse Francis’ “Life ofSebast,j,an Rasle”:
“The Indians rushed out of their huts in terror and dismay, the warriors seizing their guns and fired them wildly. The soldiers poured Into the Indian ranks volley after vol ley. The hope less survi vors scattered to the she Iter of the woods, on Iy to encounter ambuscades of sol diers. At the fi rst onset, Father Rasle ran out of his dwelling to the place of the vi I I age cross. A few terror stricken followers had gathered about him, as if to shield him or be shielded by his priestly person. Suddenly the soldiers caught sight of his clerical dress and recognized him as the person upon whom the hate of all New England was concentrated. Selecting his breast as a target, they sent a shower of bullets that laid him life less bes i de the miss i on cross.”
Thus died the most famous of those sturdy, devout Jesu I ts who mi n istered to the Maine Indians in the 18th century. Whether he died a martyr to his faith, or as a French plotter against the English, historians wi II continue to dispute for many years to come. On one point the disputants firmly agree: Father Rasle was a man of unflinching determination and courage.
Year: 1951