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It is time we devoted a broadcast to the historic Maine town of Wiscasset, the county seat of Lincoln County. It was not always the shire town. When Lincoln County was organized in 1760, its territory encompassed all of Maine except what was then in the counties of York and Cumberland; in other words, all of the Maine lands east of the Kennebec. The first county seat was Pownalborough, where the old court house, one of Maine’s oldest public buildings, still stands. Today there is no incorporated place called Pownalborough. The court house stands on the east bank of the Kennebec in the present town of Dresden not far above the Richmond-Dresden bridge.<\/p>\n
Wiscasset on the Sheepscot was at first part of the town of Pownalborough, but after the towns of Dresden and Alna were taken from its territory, the remaining section was, in 1794, given the name Wiscasset, and that village became the Lincoln County seat. Visitors today know Wiscasset as one of Maine’s most picturesque towns. The museum at the old 18th century jail, the court house, and the stately mansions attract visitors from allover the nation. The crumbling timbers of the old wharf and a rotting schooner near the shore testify to the town’s former importance on the high seas. A short distance up the river from the Maine Central Railroad station near the west end of the long bridge, are the ruins of the terminus of one of Maine’s little two-footers, the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington narrow gauge.<\/p>\n
The Wiscasset region saw some of Maine’s very early settlers. The first pioneer was George Davis in 1670. Only a few families had followed him when, in 1675, began the Indian devastations of King Philip’s War. That made the whole region again a wilderness, and it was not until 1730 that settlers came again. Even then they were not safe from Indian raids. They built a fort on Garrin Hill, in which several times the settlers took refuge. Later, on another hill was erected a brick powder house, with a thick door fully studded with bolts and nails, capable of resisting the heaviest blows. Back of the powder house stood for many years a giant pine that served as a beacon for ships far out to sea.<\/p>\n
During the Revolution a large fort was erected on Davis Island. When, in 1809, Captain Binney came from Hingham to take command of that fort, he sent a rather dismal report to his superiors in Boston. He wrote: “Since our arrival here we have had plenty of meat, but no vegetables or fruit. My men kill partridges and squirrels, and catch fish. Fire wood is plenty, but potatoes scarce. Although the fort is on the Edgecomb side of the river, I reside in Wiscasset Village. The blockhouse has no decent living quarters. I have command from the mouth of the Kennebec to Damariscotta, and I often visit the posts at both places.<\/p>\n
My company is reduced to 44 men because 20 have deserted. Among my men is every kind of character from the whining hypocrite to the professed gambler. Some are good men, but many are the laziest I ever saw. I have had to confine men in irons because they would not cook their victuals; yet they have nothing to do but cook, sleep and keep clean. As for even trying to keep clean, they are a filthy bunch.”<\/p>\n
The Wiscasset courthouse was built in 1824. It replaced a predecessor made of logs. The new courthouse, in the early days, heard the voices of Daniel Webster and Benjamin Butler, as they pleaded before Maine’s Chief Justice Sewall. In the court house is a pillar with this inscription: “Erected by members of the bar practicing in the Supreme Judicial Court of this Commonwealth to express their veneration for the character of Hon. Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of this court, who died here on June 8, 1814, while still in the prime of life at age of 56.”<\/p>\n
In the vaults of the old court house are precious historical documents: deeds of land from the Indians, records of the court, tax accounts, county actions, and many other items.<\/p>\n
Beside the courthouse stands the venerable Congregational Church, a large white building with Grecian front, having in its tower a Paul Revere bell. On top of the spire is a weather vane, also made in the Paul Revere foundry. From the pulpit of this meetinghouse was read the Declaration of Independence. Here was held the solemn service that mourned the death of George Washington. The first meetinghouse was torn down in 1840 and replaced by a larger one. That was burned in 1907 and the Paul Revere bell crashed to the ground. But its pieces were recovered and, recast, it was placed in the new church in 1909.<\/p>\n
When excavations were made for the present church, there was found an old bottle containing a message dated July 2, 1839. It said: “This bottle with its contents was deposited this day in the northeast corner of the foundation of the new church belonging to this parish. It contains two newspapers, this note and the pen with which it was written.”<\/p>\n
Beyond the church along the street, where not even yet has disease destroyed all the huge elms, is the Governor Smith house, owned by one of Maine’s early governors. Here also is the Carlton House, whose builder Maj. Carlton was ruined by the Embargo Act of 1807. Here too is the home of Abiel Wood, wealthy ship-owner and West Indian merchant 150 years ago.<\/p>\n
At the corner of Main and Federal Streets is a beautiful sunken garden, where stood an old inn of stage coach days. It was the Whittier Tavern erected in 1768. Here the early post riders, carrying the mail on horseback, stopped on their weekly trip between Portland and Waldoboro. Here lawyers met their clients, and to this door swung up the old covered coaches with passengers and baggage. In the old inn, Daniel Webster had a bed when he pleaded cases in this Wiscasset court, and here he stopped on his way to meet Lord Ashburton for one of their conferences that resulted in the treaty to settle the long dispute over Maine’s Canadian boundary. On the Edgecomb side of the river, across the long bridge, the traveler takes a right turn off present Route I into the various hamlets of the town of Edgecomb and to the old fort. On the way he passes one of Maine’s architectual curiosities, the Marie Antoinette house. It is a large, two-storied colonial mansion behind tall elms, and some distance back from the road.<\/p>\n
The house had been built in 1744 and was nearly half a century old when it came into possession of Capt. Samuel Clough, whose ships sent huge cargoes of lumber to southern Europe. Capt. Clough had been in Paris on the eventful day in 1789, when the angry mob successfully stormed the Bastille, ushering in the French Revolution.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 1792 Capt. Clough was again in France. By that time the Revolution had turned into the Reign of Terror, and Paris was flowing with blood. Louis XVI had already died on the guillotine. Capt. Clough wrote home: “There is a plot afoot to rescue the queen. I scarce dare write about it, for every day I see men and women hurried to the guillotine without even a prayer. My ship lies in the port ready to sail. Perhaps I may say no more, but I bid you prepare the house for a guest. Wait and watch for me and her deeply wronged Majesty Marie Antoinette.”<\/p>\n
Awaiting the captain’s return, his folks in Edgecomb got busy. The house was cleaned from top to bottom. Rooms saw new paint and paper. The room prepared for the strange guest was fitted with new furniture and fresh linen. Days passed into weeks and weeks into months before Capt. Clough sailed up the Sheepscot to his Edgecomb home. But he did return, bringing with him beautifully carved furniture, draperies of velvet and silk, magnificant wallpaper, and yards of rich brocade – all of which friends of the French Queen had placed on board his vessel to accompany the refugee to her Maine refuge. But with him came no Marie Antoinette. Instead he told how the plot had been discovered, how the message to the Queen to have her prepare for rescue was concealed in a bouquet of flowers, but was discovered by her jailers; how then she had been hurried off to execution, of his own hairbreadth escape, by pulling up anchor just as Revolutionary troops came down the wharf, and how even on the way out to sea he could hear the shouts of the mob accompanying the tumbril that carried Marie Antoinette to the guillotine on the night of October 16, 1793.<\/p>\n
After the Captain’s daughter Rosalind married, she named her first child Antoinette.<\/p>\n
In the War of 1812 there was genuine fear that a British fleet would attack Wiscasset. Men were drafted from the town to supplement the garrison at the fort. One of those men, Jonas Perkins, was a big eater. He brought with him to the fort a huge supply of pies, cakes and doughnuts, which he proceeded to eat without offering a crumb to the other men. After a few days his devoted wife sent him a replenished supply, but still Jonas parted with not a morsel. Then came a report that the British were coming. All was commotion except for Jonas, who sat quietly in a corner eating the whole of a big mince pie. Then he suddenly realized that a fight might be imminent. He threw the rest of his provisions on the floor and yelled, “Eat, comrades, eat. Stuff it all into you. Tomorrow we may all be in hell.”<\/p>\n
Year: 1974<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1012, Broadcast on May 5, 1974<\/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":[1203,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458"}],"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=9458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}