\nTwo subjects have often been mentioned on this program: Fort Halifax and Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec in 1775. The two subjects come together in the accounts of the various stops of the four divisions of Arnold’s Army on their way up the Kennebec.<\/p>\n
I have told about many secondhand accounts of the Arnold Expedition, and have made some reference to Arnold’s own journal. It occurs to me that it is time for a broadcast based on all the preserved contemporary accounts, that is, diaries, letters and reports written by men who accompanied Arnold. These records are more numerous than one might suspect. The largest and most important of them is Arnold’s own journal and letters written en route, the journals of three officers, those of six non-coms and privates, and the very significant account by Dr. lsaac Senter, the physician who accompanied the expedition.<\/p>\n
Today we are concerned only with the portions of those accounts which deal with the progress of Arnold’s army from Fort Western at Augusta to the Great Carrying Place between the Kennebec and Dead rivers which left the Kennebec near the present towns of Solon and Embden.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the preserved part of Arnold’s own journal does not begin until Arnold was encamped on the chain of ponds between the Kennebec and Dead rivers, but we know from the records that Arnold himself did stop overnight at Fort Halifax and on the next day had dinner at Capt Weston’s in Old Canaan, a site still plainly marked beside the Kennebec between Hinckley and Skowhegan.<\/p>\n
By 1775, Fort Halifax was no longer garrisoned and was in no danger from Indians or French, since the Treaty of Paris in 1763 had ended that menace. A number of farms had been developed near the fort, and the population had sufficiently increased to secure a town charter for Winslow in 1771. The largest building inside the Fort palisade was in 1775 used as a tavern. Not far away resided the man who made the final revision of building plans and supervised the erection of Fort Halifax, Col. William Lithgow. Other prominent residents at that time were Ezekiel Pattee, Timothy Heald, and Robert Crosby. Dr. Thomas McKechnie, the man who had surveyed the area into building lots, by order of the Plymouth Company, tended some of the sick of Arnold’s advancing army.<\/p>\n
One of the most interesting of the contemporary accounts is that of another doctor, Isaac Senter, who was the official physician with Arnold’s army. On September 26, 1775, Dr. Senter recorded: “This morning at 10, I left Fort Western in company with Lt. Col. Greave, Mr. Burr, and several other gentlemen.”<\/p>\n
The Mr. Burr referred to was Aaron Burr, next to Arnold the most historically celebrated of all members of the expedition. He later became the vice president of the the USA first administration of Thomas Jefferson, but was even better known as the killer of Alexander Hamilton in the famous duel. It is of some significance that the two most famous men on the expedition to Quebec were later both to be labeled as traitors to their country – Arnold definitely so when he plotted to turn over to the British the defenses at West Point, and Burr when he planned to create a separate nation in the American southwest.<\/p>\n
After this reference to Burr, Dr. Senter wrote in his journal: “Lodged five miles below Fort Halifax at Mr. Hobby’s.” That refers to Remington Hobby, the leading early resident of Vassalboro, whose name has been mentioned many times on this program.<\/p>\n
On September 27, Dr. Senter wrote: “Quit our lodgings at Mr. Hobby’s at 10 a.m. and arrived at Fort Halifax at noon. This appeared to be a pleasant prospect with some few inhabitants. I was invited by Mr. Howard, an inhabitant who lived up a small river that entered the Kennebec close to the fort, forming a point between the two rivers, and on that point the fort stood. So I went up the little river called Sebasticook about four miles to Mr. Howard’s place.”<\/p>\n
“September 28. I returned to the fort, and finding the rear of the army net yet arrived, I went back to Mr. Howard’s where I fared exceedingly well.”<\/p>\n
“September 29. Waiting for the army, I again came down to the fort, but the rear having not yet come up, I returned to my hospitable lodgings at Mr. Howard’s. During all this time the bateaux were coming up and being carried around the falls. These falls are called Ticonic. The rapid water is about half a mile, past which our bateaux and camp equipment had to be carried by hand. By this time several bateaux had begun to leak profusely, being made of green pine and built poorly.”<\/p>\n
“September 30. My bateau had arrived at the fort in such battered condition that I was obliged to purchase another or I would almost certainly have risked destruction of my medical stores. So I got a new and more seasoned bateau for four dollars. The rear of the army have now arrived at the fort, I engaged Mr. Howard’s team, put the new bateau and my baggage on his cart and carried it overland from his house to the Kennebec.”<\/p>\n
Now who was the Mr. Howard who lived four miles up the Sebasticook in 1775? We can’t be sure of his identity, but he could not have been David Howard, one of the six men to whom the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase granted 18,200 acres of land in 1766. Howard is, of course, an old and respected name in Winslow, and there were several early settlers of that name, probably all somehow related to each other. A very old house on the river road from Winslow to Augusta, now owned by Dr. Paul Douglas, was still inhabited by Howards no longer than 40 years ago. When I came to Waterville in 1923, I used to buy delicious home made cheese produced by the Howard family then living in that house and Miss Jennie Howard was then the Winslow librarian. The builder of that house in the 18th century was Ambrose Howard. We regret that Dr. Senter did not give the first name of the Howard with whom he stayed on the Sebasticook.<\/p>\n
There were other Howards along this part of the Kennebec. Before his arrival at Fort Halifax, Dr. Senter had written in his journal: “September 23. Arrived at Fort Western. Our headquarters was at Esq. Howard’s, an exceeding hospitable, opulent and polite family.”<\/p>\n
Then on October 2, Dr. Senter mentioned a third Howard: “A message came from about 9 miles up the river from Fort Halifax, urging me to go to a sick soldier there. I found the patient at Mr. Howard’s place where were numbers of the army.”<\/p>\n
It is no wonder that, when Kenneth Roberts used the Senter journal as one source of his nevel, ARUNDEL, he commented: “Senter’s experience gives one the impression that the Upper Kennebec was entirely populated by Howards.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Senter’s journal contains an interesting item about Norridgewock. He wrote: “Most of the army now at Norridgewock. Col. Arnold called his officers for council of war, and it was decided to send letters to Quebec, informing some gentlemen in that city who are sympathetic with our cause of our movements. Those messages were carried by Mr. Jacquith, an inhabitant on this river and a native of Germany, who spoke the French language, accompanied by two Indians named Sabattis and Enneos, who are well acquainted with the wilderness. They set out in a bark canoe with sufficient provisions.”<\/p>\n
Another contemporary account is that of one of the company captains, Henry Dearborn. He speaks of having some difficulty at low falls four miles below Fort Halifax that was what became to be known as Vassalboro Rips. Of the fort he said: “It stands on a point between the Kennebec and the Sebasticook. It consists of two large blockhouses and a barracks enclosed by a picket fence.” Dearborn has given us the valuable information that the carry around Ticonic Falls was on the Waterville side of the river. He then tells of the hard going up the rips above Ticonic Falls. He says, ”Water filled the bateaux and wet all the baggage, but with great difficulty we finally got through.”<\/p>\n
On Oct. 2, Dearborn wrote: “Arrived at Skowhegan Falls, where there is a carrying place of 60 rods. Here we hauled up and carried our leaky bateaux.”<\/p>\n
Of Norridgewock, Dearborn wrote: “Here are ruins of an Indian town, a fort and a chapel. There is only one family now living alone here, at Norridgewock Falls, where there is another carrying place.”<\/p>\n
Another officer who kept a journal was Major Jonathan Meigs. He described Fort Halifax almost exactly as Capt. Dearborn did. Of Norridgewock, he said: “I called at a house and saw a child of 14 months, the first white child born in Norridgewock. Going up the falls there, I lost my kettles of butter and sugar, a loss not to be replaced here. At Norridgewock are to be seen vestiges of an Indian fort and chapel, and a priest’s grave. This must have been a considerable Indian village, for there are huge cleared fields.”<\/p>\n
Of that famous spot, now called Old Point, another of Arnold’s captains, Simeon Thayer, wrote in his journal: “At Norridgewock, we saw an altar constructed by the Indians and the remains of a Catholic chapel where they paid their devotions. Their curate or friar was killed about forty years ago when Provincials drove out the Indians. His remains lie buried here with a cross over them, as is the custom in Catholic countries. This place was formerly remarkable for being the Indians’ headquarters. Here are the last white inhabitants we shall see until we reach Canada.<\/p>\n
Other entries in those journals kept by participants of the Arnold expedition deserve our attention but today our time is up. So we must complete this story next week.<\/p>\n
Year: 1973<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #957, Broadcast on January 21, 1973<\/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":[35313,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310"}],"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=9310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}