<\/p>\n
All the years that this program has been on the air it has paid no attention to one of the most prominent men of the Kennebec Valley in the years directly after the Revolution and well into the nineteenth century. I refer to Abiel Lovejoy of Sidney. So famous was the man’s grand-nephew, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, that every listener to this program has surely heard of that hero in American history. It was Elijah Lovejoy, the young man from Albion, Maine who in November, 1837 was killed by a mob while trying to defend his printing press at Alton, Illinois. He insisted upon his constitutional right of freedom of the press, and in that cause he died. The business and political leaders of Alton demanded that Elijah Lovejoy stop printing attacks on the institution of slavery, but he would not be silenced. So at the age of 35 he died a martyr to the freedom of the press.<\/p>\n
The Lovejoys are a numerous clan, whose American branch traces back to Johannes Lovejoy of Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England in 1460, thirty-two years before Columbus discovered America. A sixth generation descendant, John Lovejoy, came to America about 1635, was the father of Hezekiah Lovejoy, from whom both the Sidney and the Albion Lovejoys traced descent. Two of Hezekiah’s sons were Francis and Abiel. Francis was the father of Daniel Lovejoy, who in turn was the father of the Alton martyr, Elijah Parish Lovejoy.<\/p>\n
For the Albion Lovejoys, Lovejoy Pond was named.<\/p>\n
So famous was Elijah that the truly illustrious Abiel of the Sidney branch has been grossly neglected. So let me tell something about that man. Born in Andover in 1731, he was brought up in that town. In those days when early marriage was common, Abiel waited until he was 27 before taking a wife. He then married Mary, the daughter of Nathaniel Brown, keeper of the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown, where Mary was known as the belle of the town. He had already seen some military service against the French and Indians and had become captain of a militia company.<\/p>\n
Abiel had double right to the title of captain, on sea as well as on land. He went to sea as an ordinary sailor in the coastwise trade and finally commanded his own ship.<\/p>\n
Just before his marriage Abiel bought a Negro slave named Boston, and as a wedding present Mary received from her father a young Negress slave. Those two slave persons became man and wife and remained with the Lovejoys for many years. Mary Lovejoy accompanied Abiel on several cruises to Nova Scotia and to the West Indies. Old papers in the family describe Abiel just before he came to Maine as “marriner of Charlestown”.<\/p>\n
In 1760, two years after his marriage, Abiel Lovejoy purchased 35 acres of land in the newly incorporated town of Pownalborough in the Massachusetts District of Maine. I hope many of my listeners have visited the old Pownalborough Court House on the east bank of the Kennebec in the present town of Dresden. Through the interest of Miss Mildred Burrage of Wiscasset and other citizens, the old court house was restored and furnished with colonial pieces only a few years ago. That court house was in 1760 the county seat of Lincoln County, and at that time Lincoln County included all of Maine east of the Androscoggin River.<\/p>\n
On a lot situated on a peninsula where the Eastern River joins the Kennebec. Abiel and Mary Lovejoy with their two children settled in 1761. Prospering in business, Abiel proceeded to buy more land along the Kennebec, and he built a large house, furnished lavishly with gifts from his even more prosperous father-in-law. In fact, Nathaniel Brown sent his daughter two more Negro slaves. A part of Abiel’s land acquisitions was the whole of Swan Island in the Kennebec, where had been a well-known Indian village. Abiel also operated a ferry across the river.<\/p>\n
In 1754 the Massachusetts government had authorized the building of two forts, Fort Western at what is now Augusta, and Fort Halifax in Winslow. Those protections made it possible to open settlements above Fort Western, and Abiel purchased several tracts in that region. In 1764, with his father-in-law, Nathaniel Brown, he built a saw mill on his land beside a small stream that entered the Kennebec eight miles above Fort Western. He also built ships that plied between Pownalborough and Boston, and on them he shipped big cargoes of lumber.<\/p>\n
The Abiel Lovejoy family lived at Pownalborough for 15 years. Then in 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence, they became pioneer settlers of Sidney.<\/p>\n
At that time Sidney was a part of Vassalboro. One of four Kennebec towns incorporated in 1771, Vassalboro stretched not only to the east of the river but also to the west as far as Messalonskee Lake. Abiel soon had a saw mill going near his new home, and he owned another on the opposite side of the Kennebec near Getchell’s Corner. In 1792 the west side became the town of Sidney.<\/p>\n
A year before Abiel moved to Sidney, Benedict Arnold led his famed expedition up the river on the way to attack Quebec. Arnold was supplied with paper money of the Continental Congress. Abiel Lovejoy accepted a quantity of those greenbacks for good silver and gold coins, because Arnold knew the Continental paper would not be accepted in Canada. Every reader of American history knows what happened to those paper notes. They became so worthless that they gave rise to the expression “not worth a continental”. In 1777, when the Revolution was well under way, it took $30 in those Continental notes to buy one dollar in silver. It is said that Abiel Lovejoy papered a whole room in his Sidney home with worthless Continentals.<\/p>\n
Nathaniel Brown, Lovejoy’s father-in-law, took the British side in the Revolution and had to flee the country. Abiel’s relationship made him suspect also by some of his neighbors, and in 1781 he was accused outright of being a Tory. For several years he had represented Vassalboro in the Massachusetts Legislature, but in 1781 his reelection was hotly contested on patriotic grounds.<\/p>\n
An historical volume called “Reports of Contested Elections in the Massachusetts House of Representatives”, published in 1834, contains the following account: “1781 – The election of Abiel Lovejoy <\/em>from the town of Vassalboro was contested on the ground that illegal votes were received and that Lovejoy was not friendly to the cause of America. The House voted that the election of Lovejoy was not proved to be illegal, and that the charge that he was inimical to the government be referred to the next session of the legislature, and that Lovejoy be granted leave of absence until that time.”<\/p>\n “1782 – Abiel Lovejoy from the town of Vassalboro, having been qualified and having taken his seat, a petition was received from Denis Getchell, praying that Lovejoy be excluded from the House, on the ground that he was inimical to the government. Lovejoy was acquitted and retained his seat.”<\/p>\n Abiel Lovejoy is described in contemporary accounts as a man of strong will and determined character. When he was 70 years old and had nearly lost complete use of his eyes, his six sons petitioned the court to appoint a guardian for their father, but the old man satisfied the court that he was far from non compos mentis.<\/p>\n In 1806 Abiel deeded shares in his two saw mills and 100 acres of land each to his sons, William and Stephen, with the provision that they must care for father and mother as long as either should live. Two years later a large lot in Sidney was deeded to another son, Francis.<\/p>\n Abiel Lovejoy died on the Fourth of July, 1811 at the age of 80. It seems peculiarly fitting that this patriotic citizen, who was accused of being a Tory only because his father-in-law was one, should pass away on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n Now just note some of the public offices that Abiel Lovejoy held. He was on the Committee of Safety and Correspondence among the colonies, official highway surveyor, a member of the grand jury, moderator of town meetings, town treasurer, selectman, a delegate to the convention at Concord, chairman of the commission to inspect Kennebec fish, and chairman of the committee to divide the town into districts.<\/p>\n After Sidney became a separate town in 1792, Abiel was on the committee to make financial settlement with Vassalboro, collector of taxes for the new town, a member of the school committee, agent to build a town pound, agent to present a petition to the Massachusetts government for postal service, and representative for three terms in the Massachusetts Legislature.<\/p>\n Like every prominent man in pioneer times, Abiel Lovejoy has been the subject of legendary tales. Whether they are true or not, the stories were for many years after Abiel’s death still current in Sidney. Here is one of them.<\/p>\n When Abiel Lovejoy heard that Massachusetts had freed all the slaves within her borders, he told two who were still with him in Sidney, a couple named Salem and Venus, that they were now free and could leave the place at once. They refused to leave, and Salem said to Lovejoy, “All dese years you’ve had de meat, now you can pick de bones.”<\/p>\n Another story has it that, on a dark night when Abiel was piloting his big lumber boat down the river, the Devil appeared on the water and demanded Abiel’s soul in payment for his sins. Abiel calmly took off the big looped garters that held up his long stockings, and to the consternation of the frightened crew, tossed them to the Devil with the remark, “That is all you’re going to get. I’ll keep my soul. Now off with you.”<\/p>\n Another yarn says that one day in haying time Abiel went out to the field where his slaves and hired man were wielding the scythes. Abiel carried a big jug of cider. Suddenly he saw something that didn’t please him. “Who mowed that swath?”, he yelled. The reply was “Salem mowed it.” “All right”, said Lovejoy, “if Salem has done all the work, Salem gets all the cider.”<\/p>\n Some interesting items appear in the inventory of Abiel Lovejoy’s estate: a yoke of oxen, one red and one brown; another yoke, one black and one brindle; one grind stone and crank; two pairs of handirons; a fire shovel and tongs; nine harrow teeth; part of an old shay.”<\/p>\n As was always the case on a Maine farm early in the nineteenth century, articles in Abiel’s inventory were rated cheap — $50 for a horse, $12 for a cow, $42 for ten hogs, $1.25 for a grown sheep, corn 80 cents a bushel, and potatoes 25 cents, hay $9 a ton. Of Abiel’s household goods, the highest rated was a chest of drawers at $8. A looking glass was put down for $6 and a bed quilt for $4.<\/p>\n It was Abiel Lovejoy’s real estate that made him a man of substance in the Kennebec Valley. Th inventory recorded Lot No. 48, the farm on which he lived, $2,250; Lot No. 40 of 200 acres, $1,200; one-sixth of one sawmill and one-third of another, $817; Lot No. 68 in Vassalboro, $1,250; and a lot at 25 mile pond, $1,000.<\/p>\n Altogether Abiel Lovejoy’s estate was valued at more than $7,000, a very respectable sum in 1811.<\/p>\n And that is the story of Sidney’s leading citizen 150 years ago.<\/p>\n Year: 1966<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #685, Broadcast on March 27, 1966<\/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":[42954,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8567"}],"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=8567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}