Ever since our school days, many of us have liked to think that no settlements\u00a0on this side of the Atlantic are older than Plymouth and Jamestown.<\/p>\n
Those dates of 1620 and 1607 are we I I embedded in our merrori es. We know, of\u00a0course, that the Spaniards founded St. Augustine in the previous century and\u00a0that they had also established settlements on the Pacific coast before the\u00a0Engl ish landed either on the James River or on Plymouth Rock. But it comes\u00a0as a surprise to many of us when we learn that the oldest settlement in North\u00a0America north of the Gulf of r~xico is not in the United States at al I, but in\u00a0Canada, in the province of Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n
It is known today as Port Royal, a few mi les from Annapol is Royal, on the\u00a0west coast of Nova Scotia. Here, three years before the settlement at James~\u00a0town, Champlain bui It in 1604 what was cal led the Habitation. And there on the\u00a0spot today stands a carefully constructed replica for the tourist to see. The\u00a0Habitation was a quadrangle of attached bui Idings, completely surrounding an\u00a0open court. Entrance was by a single narrow gateway, and outside was a twelvefoot\u00a0pa I isade. The bui Idings contained not only barracks for soldiers, but\u00a0also shops for artisans, a trading fort for the Indians, and the governor’s\u00a0quarters. On the bastion were gun holes through which protruded the cannon,\u00a0faced out to sea.<\/p>\n
Here, by the time when the English landed at Jamestown, was a French settlement\u00a0of more than 300 people, with a protected habitation against attack.\u00a0At least Champlain thought it was wei I protected. But an expedition from Virginia\u00a0captured it in 1613. The Habitation was destroyed, and when a new settlement\u00a0was made it was six mi les away at Annapolis Royal.\u00a0Before I saw Annapolis Royal, al I I knew about the place was that it\u00a0changed hands several times between English and French during what we cal I the\u00a0French and Indian wars, and that it was the place where the Tory preacher Jacob\u00a0Bai ley took refuge when he was forced to leave Pownalborough on the Kennebec.<\/p>\n
There in Nova Scotia Bai ley continued to preach for many years, and there he\u00a0lies buried.<\/p>\n
Annapolis Royal was the site of old Fort Anne, and on the site of the \u00a0fort, where is maintained one of the best colonial museums in all Canada, the\u00a0original rampart may sti II be seen. The powder magazine, erected in 1708, has\u00a0its original masonry and iron door. The old portcul lis gate is sti I I intact.<\/p>\n
The museum has several rooms, each containing authentic relics from colonial\u00a0days. A tour of the rooms gives one a genuine feeling for this historic\u00a0place, to which ships from all the western world came in times of peace, and\u00a0where in times of trouble the armadas of France and England alternately disembarked\u00a0conquering troops.<\/p>\n
The first fort on this site was bui It in 1635. In 1654 it was captured\u00a0by Col. Robert Sedgwick of Boston in the name of Oliver Cromwel I, but in 1667\u00a0the treaty of Breda restored it to French rule. Ten years later New Englanders\u00a0took it again, but the French soon got it back. That dauntless Maine Yankee,\u00a0Wi I liam Phipps, captured it again in 1690, but by 1702 it was again in French\u00a0hands.<\/p>\n
In 1710 it was finally brought into English possession after a successful\u00a0eight day siege, and it was then that the place was named Annapolis Royal for\u00a0Queen Anne. Previously, when in English possession, it had been cal led Port\u00a0Royal, the same name as the settlement abandoned in 1613, six mi les away.\u00a0During The long French and Indian wars after 1710, the fort was repeatedly\u00a0attacked by French and Indians, but always held out. A garrison was maintained\u00a0there as late as 1854.<\/p>\n
A mark of Nova Scotia’s association with Maine is a monument on the grounds\u00a0of the old site of Fort Anne. We Maine people are fami liar with the name Sieur\u00a0de rv10nts through the we I I known S i eur de Monts spri ng ,at Bar Harbor. \\1e know\u00a0he was one of the French exp lorers who came to ~#. Dese rt ear I yin the 17th\u00a0century. Nova Scotia too has a claim to this gallant Frenchman. On the monument\u00a0at Annapolis Royal are these words: nTo the illustrious memory of LieutGeneral\u00a0Pierre du Guest Sieur de Monts, the pioneer of civi lization in North\u00a0America, who discovered and explored the adjacent river in 1604, and founded\u00a0on its banks the first sett lement of Europeans north of the Gu r f of Mexi co.”<\/p>\n
Now let us turn to someth i ng nearer home.<\/p>\n
One of the persons to whom I pa i d spec i a r attent ion j n “Kennebec Yesterdays”\u00a0was Elihu Bowerman, pioneer settler of the Quaker community at North\u00a0Fairfield. Tonight I want to tel I you about another fami Iy of that general\u00a0region, in which the Society of Friends became prominent and influential.<\/p>\n
As am sure most of my listeners know, when you take a ride up through\u00a0Fairfield Center, a few mi les beyond the Center itself you come to a fork in\u00a0the road, the left fork leading to Norridgewock and the right fork taking you\u00a0over what is cal Jed the Middle Road to Skowhegan. Taking that right fork, you\u00a0cross Martin Stream, where both a saw mi II and a grist mi II were once operated,\u00a0but are now gone, ascend a steep hi I I and then ride along a high plateau. Just\u00a0after you pass a crossroad which goes west to Larone, you come to a rather extensive\u00a0area which for a century and a half has been known as the Covel I District.<\/p>\n
Sti I I standing on the left of the highway, near where the district begins,\u00a0is the house bui It by Allen Covell in 1828. His great-grandson, Arthur\u00a0Cove I I, now lives in \\1atervi lie and is the ch i ef source of my i nformati on about\u00a0the Cove I I Di stri ct.<\/p>\n
The first Cove II to come to Arne ri ca was eight gene rat ions back of the\u00a0present Arthur Covell. He was Nathaniel Covell, who arrived in Boston from\u00a0Chelmsford, England in 1653. He had made his way to the new country across the\u00a0seas the hard way, that many an emigrant had to take, namely by selling himself\u00a0for a term of years as an indentured servant. The master to whom Nathani\u00a0e I was indentured was a membe r of the famous VJ <\/em>ins’ ow fam i I Y wh i ch gave the\u00a0Plymouth Colony its governor and many years later gave our Central Maine town\u00a0of Winslow its name. Nathaniel Covel I was bound to serve Edward Winslow of\u00a0Marshfield for seven years after his arrival in the colony. On his part Winslow\u00a0paid his servant’s passage, and agreed to provide him with food, clothing\u00a0and lodging for the seven years, and at the end of the indenture term, to pay\u00a0Covell ten pounds in lawful money of England in such goods as the colony affords\u00a0and also 13 bushels of Indian corn.<\/p>\n At the time of Nathaniel’s arrival Edward Winslow was in England. So by a\u00a0letter dated May 2, 1653, he assigned the services of Covel I to his son-inlaw,\u00a0Peregri ne Wh i te, who had been the ch i I d born on the Mayf lower duri ng its\u00a0passage of the Atlantic in 1620.<\/p>\n Nathaniel Covel I served his seven years, then,a free man, he moved to\u00a0Yarmouth where he married and settled permanently in a community once cal led\u00a0Monomoy, but now a part of the Cape Cod town of Chatham. His son Nathaniel,\u00a0Jr. lived a II his life on the Cape, as di d a Iso his grandson John and his\u00a0great-grandson Nathaniel 3rd. Thus four generations of the American Covel Is\u00a0spent their whole adult lives not far from where the Pi Igrims had landed in\u00a01620.<\/p>\n In the fifth generation, however, was Samuel Covell, who was born in the\u00a0Cape Cod town of Yarmouth in 1763. It was he who was the first Covell to\u00a0settle in what became known as the Covel I District in North Fairfield. Sti I I\u00a0preserved is the Quaker marri age certi fi cate of Samue I Cove II and Mary Ho 110-\u00a0way who, after the manner of the ceremony of the Society of Friends, accepted\u00a0each other in matrimony in Yarmouth, Massachusetts on May 1, 1791. Some of the\u00a0names affixed among the 35 witnesses to that marriage became wei I known surnames\u00a0in the North Fairfield community, names such as f-bxie, Wing and Allen.<\/p>\n Short I y after the i r weddi ng, Samue I <\/em>and Mary Cove II took the long journey to\u00a0Maine and settled in North Fairfield near their oLd Cape Cod neighbor, Elihu \u00a0Bowerman, who had come to North Fairfield nine years earlier in 1782. Just\u00a0where they I ived is not certain, but thei r son Allen bui It the house that sti J I\u00a0stands on the west side of the Middle Road near the fork that turns off to\u00a0Larone.<\/p>\n An interesting old diary which recently came to my attention was written\u00a0by a Universalist minister in Norway, Maine more than a hundred years ago. He\u00a0was Rev. Ti mothy J. Tenney, who presi ded over the Norway Un i versa list Ch urch\u00a0from 1840 to 1846.<\/p>\n InTerest in theological controversy at the time is revealed in his entry\u00a0for January 9, 1840. HDiscussion alTOng several clergymen at the \\Alesleyan\u00a0chape I. Lasted from 10 A.M. unti I 1 :00 P.M., then resumed at 1: 30 and conti nued\u00a0tl I I 4:30. This is the first public controversy I have engaged in, and\u00a0it may be the last. Yet I never felt more at ease and do not regret anything\u00a0said. never had better command of myself than in the heat of the discussi\u00a0on. do not know what others may th ink of it, but I am fu Ily persuaded\u00a0that the doctrine of eternal punishment must have abler defenders than those\u00a0who supported it at this meeting, or it wi II fall forever.”<\/p>\n Aga in on February 16 he wrote: “I n the even I ng I rode to Bri dgton” where\u00a0heard Mr. Hotchkiss preach on conditional salvation. Salvation is not conditiona\u00a0I, but is the eventual destiny of all souls. Of that I am convinced,\u00a0and J sha I I rep I y to r”lr. Hotchk iss next Sabbath. iT<\/p>\n On November 20, 1840 Tenney wrote that he had voted for Squi re LittJe-\u00a0field of BridgTon as a member of Congress, and he added, “The elections this\u00a0year have gone against us. Hard cider, log cabins, and Tippecanoe songs have\u00a0done for t he ~Jh i gs what good sound judgment cou I d neve r have accomp I i shed. The\u00a0ignorance of the rabble has spelled the defeat of republicanism.~\u00b7<\/p>\n On June 11, 1841 he noted his criticism of the schools: nVisited the\u00a0vi Ilage schools today. Their standing is quite good and yet not so good as\u00a0might be expected considering so much money was expended on them. In them\u00a0singing is a regular exercise, and perhaps is too much indulged in for the\u00a0success of other and more important studi es. N<\/p>\n I n October he comp I a i ned about a congregati on: t!Preached on Bethe I Hi I I.\u00a0The congregat i on was sma I I and i nattenti ve. But in the even i ng lectured to\u00a0a more appreci ati ve audi ence in the Wa I ker schoo I house. n<\/p>\n On August 24 he found a funera I worth recordi ng in detai I : “Attended the\u00a0funeral of Mathis Thompson. She was 91 years old. Her life encompassed the\u00a0French and Indian War, the Revolution, and the last war (1812). Her father\u00a0was ki I led by Indians a few months after her birth. She married Mr. Thompson\u00a0in 1769 and had three chi Idren, none of whom survive her. She has been a widow\u00a0for more than 20 years.”<\/p>\n In August, 1842 Rev. Tenney had his first ride on a train. The railroad had just reached Portland. There he boarded the train for Boston. We wish he\u00a0had set down in the diary the details of that trip, but all he recorded was,\u00a0‘~he steam power moved us on rapidly, and we soon found ourselves in the midst\u00a0of the cabs and omn i buses of Boston. f’ He returned to Port land by stearrer, not\u00a0by tra in. He wrote, “Our journey has been a grand one. I have been we II, exlioo\u00a0cept a little seasick.n<\/p>\n Rev. Tenney’s many diary references to my native town of Bridgtonnaturally\u00a0attracted my interest. Squire Littlefield, whom Tenney helped elect to\u00a0Congress, was the town’s leading citizen when my grandfather came there from\u00a0Cape Elizabeth in 1845. Half a century afterward the old timers were sti II\u00a0referring to the renown brought to the town by the old Squire, and at the head\u00a0of the street where my father’s store long stood was the big white mansion\u00a0which Squire Littlefield had bui It in 1835. The diary tel Is us that Tenney\u00a0frequently preached in Bridgton, and unlike his reference to Bethel Hi I I, he\u00a0never described a Bridgton congregation as inattentive.<\/p>\n Year: 1956<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #312, broadcast on September 30, 1956<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[790,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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