\nMany listeners will recall my account of the Samuel K. Smith diaries on this program about a year ago. Today I want to tell you about some of the incidental papers and documents left by that Colby professor of Rhetoric in the latter half of the 19th century.<\/p>\n
Just after he graduated from Newton Theological Seminary, following his Colby graduation in 1845, Smith became publisher and editor of the Baptist weekly, Zion’s Advocate. In 1850, two other Colby professors, John B. Foster and Moses Lyford, joined with Hezekiah Dodge of Portland in buying the paper from Smith for the sum of $ 2,500, and the deed stated that the sale included the subscription list, types and other printing implements, books of account, bills due from subscribers and any other bills receivable. The reason for the sale was that Smith had decided to become a full time teacher at the Waterville College and could no longer give the attention needed to put out a full-length weekly paper. The same soon became true of Foster and Lyford, who did remain as contributing editors as well as invested owners, but it was the Portlander Dodge who put out the paper. Foster was the long-serving professor of Greek, and Lyford was professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. Natural Philosophy was the old term for the physical sciences, physics and chemistry. It persisted longer as the title for physics than it did for chemistry, because as early as the 1830’s Colby had Ezekiel Holmes of Winthrop coming one day a week to Waterville to give lectures in chemistry.<\/p>\n
At the time when Smith joined the faculty in 1350, all its members were Baptists. It would have then been unthinkable for anyone except a Baptist to teach in that strictly Baptist College. In fact the five men who comprised the entire Colby faculty in 1850 were more than just Baptists; they were all ordained Baptist ministers. It was natural, therefore, that they should be interested in the official publication for Maine Baptists, Zion’s Advocate, and that interest continued for many years. Noteworthy is the fact that in the second decade of this century the Advocates’ editor was William Abbott Smith, son of the Samuel K. Smith who had been the editor in the 1840’s.<\/p>\n
In 1856 Smith decided to buy a home near the college, so he bought from the college trustees a house and 100 acres of land which Calvin Newton, a professor at the college under its first president, Jeremiah Chaplin, had sold back to the college when he left in 1838. It was part of the huge lot that the college had purchased from Robert Hallowell Gardiner in 1825, extending a quarter of a mile along the Kennebec and back to the Messalonskee. It had been college policy to sell pieces of the lot to faculty members and encourage them to build homes, so that the professors could live near the college buildings erected on the east end of the big lot near the river.<\/p>\n
In 1856 Smith could not pay cash for the property, although in terms of today’s prices, its cost to him seems absurdly low. He got that hundred acres and the Newton house all for $700. In return he gave the college 3 mortgage deed payable in three installments with interest over a period of three years. I now quote the wording of part of that mortgage deed because it shows exactly where that house, long since torn down was located in 1855.<\/p>\n
“A parcel of land bounded on the south by the north line of Chaplin Street, on the east by the west line of College Street, on the north by the north line of land conveyed by Calvin Newton to Waterville College, and on the west by a line drawn at right angles to Chaplin Street and so far distant from College Street that the parcel shall contain precisely oneacre, it being the Newton house and lot, so called, in Waterville”.<\/p>\n
That document was preserved in the Smith collection of papers because it was returned to him when he paid off the mortgage. On the back of the document is recorded: “October 29, 1862. In consideration of the full payment of the within described mortgage notes, I hereby discharge the within mortgage. E. L. Getchell, Treasurer, Waterville College.”<\/p>\n
Now for another subject.<\/p>\n
New information keeps turning up about Fort Halifax. As I told you only a few weeks ago, the best full account of the building and manning of that fort from 1754 to 1763 is contained in a small, paperback volume, published last spring by General Carleton Fisher, U. S. Army retired, a Clinton native, who is now a resident of Winthrop. More recently I have learned that there was kept by one John Barker,a journal of Captain Eleazer Melvin’s company, a part of the expedition that Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts Bay sent to guard and assist in building the fort in 1754. It was printed many years ago in an issue of an old, now nearly forgotten quarterly magazine, the New England Register.<\/p>\n
Let us now hear some of it in Lt. Barker’s own words.<\/p>\n
“May 30, 1754. We marched from Concord to Widm\\T Bowmlan’s tavern in Cambridge and lodged.
\n“May 31 – Marched to Bedford and from there sailed to Castle William in Boston Harbor, where we encamped until June 22.
\n“June 22 – Embarked in the sloop Success, Capt. Josiah Simpson, about noon and Governor Shirley in the ship Shirley sailed from Castle William. ”<\/p>\n
Barker then states the company consisted of the Captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a company clerk, and 55 privates.<\/p>\n
“June 23 – Came on the most violent storm ever known at this time of year. We steered by Piscataquis Harbor (Portsmouth). Night coming on, we tacked about and let the sloop run before the wind all night. After daybreak, the storm increased and tore away our jib. Most of the men were sick. We made for land and about 2 p.m. entered into York Harbor.””June 25. Sailed from York to Casco Bay. Ben Kimball fell from the bowsprit and went under the keel, came up at the stern and was pulled into the whale boat laughing. Caleb Bean fell into the York River and was carried 20 rods downstream; was taken up by James Sharp.
\n“June 26. Arrived at Casco Bay about 4 p.m. Went ashore on Bangs Island and set up our tents. Stayed there until July 4.
\n“July 2. Courtmartial of Morgan Dehortee and Richard Garvin for cursing and wishing damnation to themselves and others and threatening men’s lives. Captain Melvin was chief judge. They were punished accordingly, Dehortee with 30 lashes, and Garvin had to ride the wooden horse. The whole regiment was mustered in arms to see the sight.”<\/p>\n
At last on July 4, 1754 they were ready to leave Falmouth (now Portland) where Gov. Shirley had been lavishly entertained, and set off for the Kennebec.<\/p>\n
“July 6. Arrived at Fort Richmond above Merrymeeting Ray at 2 p.m. where the Indians were assembled. We hear that last Sabbath a lad was taken captive at Gorhamtown by a white-headed Indian.”
\n“July 8. When a raft with about 300 tons of lumber arrived from down the river, we accompanied it on to Cushnoc (now Augusta).
\n“July 14. From Cushnoc Captains Preble and Melvin went up the river in four whale boats 17 miles to Ticonic, in order to choose a place to build the upper fort.”<\/p>\n
Barker’s reference to “upper fort” concerns the well known fact that two forts had been decided upon, one at Cushnoc (Augusta) to be built at the expense of the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase of 1749, the other at Ticonic Falls, to be built by the Government of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
“July 18. The gondola came up from Fort Richmond with a number of carriage guns and some stores.” “July 28. The flag was hoisted and guns were fired. The fort will be built here on Ticonic Point. By this time Gov. Shirley had ordered exploration farther up the Kennebec to determine whether there was a French fort on the river anywhere between Ticonic Falls and the great carrying place above Bingham.<\/p>\n The Barker record tells about it: “Aug. 8. General Winslow with J6 officers and men began the long march to Norridgewock. Going up the falls, they lost one gun and two packs. There the rocks lie up edgeway for miles together.<\/p>\n “Aug. 12. Marched to Skowhegan Falls where we unloaded our o..;a!’.ces and carried them around the falls by hand.” That refers to the abandoned Indian village at Old Point between Norridgewock and Madison, which had been destroyed when Father Rasle was killed in 1724.<\/p>\n “Aug. 16. After a long march, we came to the remains of a fire where two Indians had camped the night before.”<\/p>\n There the Barker record ends. From other sources we know that the expedition found no French fort or encampment and returned with that welcome news to Fort Halifax.<\/p>\n Year: 1973<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #952, Broadcast on December 17, 1972<\/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":[42945,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299"}],"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=9299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n“July 19. Captain Church arrived in the sloop Wheel of Fortune with 108 new recruits.”
\n“July 25. Major General Winslow set out from Fort Western on a march to Ticonic with ten companies. His departure was saluted by discharge of five great guns. In the river were two gondolas, ten whaleboats, and 18 bateaux with stores. July 26. He learned that yesterday John Wall got as far as Ticonic and sold one of the guns brought up with them. lolall and Thomas Fisher had then deserted and gone to Canada. General Winslow ordered Indians to follow them and bring them back dead or alive. He promised a reward of fifty pounds and ten gallons of rum. Those Indians that the Governor had sent came down the river and met the Governor on his way up from Fort Western to Ticonic. They informed the Governor about the t’V70 <\/em>deserters. General Winslow had landed at Ticonic Point, where the Sebasticook enters the Kennebec, and where the Plymouth Colony had built a trading station more than a hundred years earlier. About two hours after we landed, the Indians brought down the two deserters. General Winslow sent the prisoners to Fort Western to await the Governor’s orders.<\/p>\n
\n“July 30. At night, the storehouse was broken into by one of the sentries who had had too much rum. The next day he was courtmartialed. He begged forgiveness and was acquitted.
\n“Aug. 6. Last night the two deserters, held to await the Governor’s orders, cut a hole in the floor and are now gone, leaving their clothing behind.<\/p>\n
\n“Aug. 13. We were ordered through the famous Indian town of Norridgewock.”<\/p>\n