<\/p>\n
Of the many topics on this program during its 26 years, I don’t recall ever talking about Maine’s haunted houses, though only a few years ago this region had a lot of publicity about a haunted house at Benton Falls. The subject was by no means new, for like every other part of the world Maine has had its share of such spooks.<\/p>\n
One of the oldest and most famous is the Bray House in Kittery. Its builder, Robert Bray had come to this domain of Fernando Gorges from the British port of Plymouth, from which the Mayflower had sailed in 1620. Bray was a boat builder himself and he brought that trade to his new American home. At his death, his fine two-story house in Kittery was divided among three owners. He left what he called the new end of the house to his widow, the middle to his son John, and to his daughter Mary the “lean-to with the chamber over it,” and “the east room and the chamber over that.” Mary Bray married Sir William Pepperell, the great squire of Kittery.<\/p>\n
Years later the Bray house came into the possession of Capt. James Cutts, and then the ghosts began to appear. Old Mrs. Bray appeared seeking her daughter, and some claimed to see Sir William Pepperell telling Mrs. Bray to mind her own business. Curses seemed to fall on the new owners – Mrs. Cutts died suddenly, leaving her husband a raving maniac for fifty years. The story went that a sailor on one of Cutts’ vessels, whom he had ordered lashed for not obeying orders, placed a curse that none of the captain’s family should die a non-violent death. Not only did everyone of his five children die by accident or murder, but his trade declined, his ships rotted at the wharves, and his fortune vanished. After his imbecilic death at the age of 97, people claimed they often saw the old man wandering the spacious halls of the old house and moaning for his lost ones.<\/p>\n
Another Kittery ghost was that of Dinah, one of Pepperell’s negro slaves. She was accused of trying to burn the Pepperell mansion, but the kindly squire did not haye her executed as he legally could have done. Instead he sent her to the poor house in York where she lingered for years after Sir William himself had died. Credulous people for years afterward claimed Dinah had been seen at the Pepperell house, repeating over and over, “I wish to God they had all burnt up.”<\/p>\n
Now let us turn from ghosts to reality. In a recent broadcast I reminded our listeners that the summer of 1975 will see the reenactment by the Arnold Expedition Historical Society of Benedict Arnold’s famous march to Quebec two hundred years ago.<\/p>\n
Our listeners are by this time familiar, especially if they have read Kenneth Roberts’ Arundel, of the details of that tragic expedition, its passage up the Kennebec to the Great Carrying Place, then across the chain of ponds to the Dead River, through the treacherous swamps to the Height of Land, over the heights to Lake Megantic and down the Chaudiere to the St. Lawrence.<\/p>\n
But less well known is Col. Arnold’s stay at the home of Maj. Colburn at Pittston, where were built the big bateaux to carry the army up the Kennebec and the Dead River. Reuben Colburn, builder of ships on the Kennebec, was in 1775 an ardent patriot. General Washington knew Colburn and placed great confidence in him. Three times since Washington took command of the army at Cambridge, Colburn had gone there to see the general, and Washington regarded him as one of the most influential members of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. On his third trip in early September, Washington confidentially informed Colburn of the plan to attack Quebec by approach over the old Indian route from the Kennebec, and Colburn agreed to build 200 bateaux to transport the troops, and supply the craft with oars, paddles and setting poles. Colburn’s recompense was to be 40 shillings per boat, a total contract of 400 pounds sterling.<\/p>\n
On the morning of September 21, the ship bringing Arnold from Boston anchored in the river off Colburn’s shipyard. Soon there were three of the transports – the Swallow, the Broad Bar, and the Admiral, at once followed by others until on the next morning eleven of those ships were in the river near Colburn’s place. Into a boat from one of the ships stepped a uniformed officer, and with him a young man in civilian dress. They were Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr. Mrs. Colburn served them a sumptuous meal. Then Arnold and Colburn discussed the problems faced by the expedition – the hasty building of so many boats from unseasoned wood, the accumulation of a vast quantity of provisions, and the handling of 1,100 men. Five year-old Reuben Colburn took it all in and the next morning said to playmates, “Let’s play go and take Quebec.”<\/p>\n
Colburn was indeed responsible for Washington’s acceptance of the plan suggested by others that Quebec be attacked via Maine. Washington had told Colburn to make for Arnold the detailed plan for the expedition beyond Gardiner. Pownalborough, Arnold’s first stopping place above Merrymeeting Bay, was a loyalist stronghold with little sympathy for the rebellious Yankees, and it was only with Colburn’s influence that Arnold was able to receive from the commander there a precious map drawn by the French explorer Montressor in 1761 of the route between Quebec and the Kennebec River. Though it had some inaccuracies, that map saved the expedition from complete disaster.<\/p>\n
The next morning Arnold inspected the bateaux. He seemed not too well pleased, and perhaps he could have predicted the criticism that followed, because those boats were leaky and much too heavy for the difficult passage. The men who had to lift them over the numerous carries were so angry that they quite unjustly accused the patriotic Colburn of deliberate sabotage. The truth was he could not possibly meet Washington’s deadline without using green lumber.<\/p>\n
There never was a time when profiteers did not take advantage of emergencies. Profit always ran higher than patriotism with greedy individuals. One merchant’ on the Kennebec not far from the Colburn shipyard, proceeded at once to double his prices, getting twice as much for flour, and he offered to obtain barrels of salted beef for much more than Arnold expected to pay. So angry were the men when they learned his prices for tobacco and other items they had to buy for themselves, one night they broke into the store and helped themselves. The expedition’s leader, Benedict Arnold, the very man who later turned traitor to his country, was then so honest that he insisted upon paying the storekeeper at reasonable prices for his loss, out of the army’s funds.<\/p>\n
Already on the Kennebec were a number of Quaker settlers who honestly and sincerely followed the Quaker principle of non-violence. They believed in American liberties, but they did not favor violent resistance. Hence, they were opposed to the expedition against Quebec. One of those Quakers at Gardinertown, seeing Arnold’s troops wearing caps with the motto “Liberty or Death,” said, “You’ll get the latter.” For many of those troops his prediction proved correct.<\/p>\n
One of Arnold’s company commanders, though this was his first visit to Maine, was so impressed by the Kennebec region that he told Colburn he would certainly come to live in Maine if he survived the war. He was true to his word and he became a prominent citizen of Maine.<\/p>\n
Provisions, completed at Fort Western after Arnold left the Colburn place, were assembled to last the entire army of 1,100 men for 45 days. From the later accounts of officers on that expedition we know the fate of far too many of those provisions. As the green lumber bateaux began to leak, the provisions got wet and much was soon completely soaked. The dried fish spoiled and had to be thrown away. Other dried food, in casks swollen by water, was lost when the casks burst. Much of the salt beef, put up in hot weather, became rancid. Even before they left Norridgewock, the army had little remaining except flour and salt pork.<\/p>\n
As the army went farther into the wilderness, rations were reduced to a pint of flour a day. When they reached the headwaters of the Dead River, all supplies were exhausted. They went to the desperate straits of boiling their moccasins and cartridge belts for food. Whenever a company could kill a bird or small animal, the meat was scrupulously divided into tiny bits. Even the few dogs they had were eaten. As the bateaux began to disintegrate, only a few were left to carry even the ammunition; much of it was buried in hope of its later retrievement. Many years later there were found near the mouth of the Dead River two iron-bound chests containing 3,000 bullets.<\/p>\n
The Colburn house in Pittston, below which was the old shipyard where the bateaux were made is now the headquarters and museum of the Arnold Expedition Historical Society, which, as I have said, will reenact next year the famous expedition of 200 years ago. In front of the house stands a boulder with a bronze tablet on which is inscribed: “This marks the headquarters of Col. Benedict Arnold, September 21-23, 1775, when he was the guest of Major Reuben Colburn during the transfer of the army of 1,100 men and supplies from the transports to the 220 bateaux built by Major Colburn for the Expedition to Quebec.”<\/p>\n
Now, 200 years after Arnold stopped there, the old Colburn House is in excellent condition with much of its original appearance carefully restored. The visitor can pass over the same threshold over which Arnold stepped, can stand before the same great fireplace where Arnold and Major Colburn made plans for the eventful march, can see the room where Arnold slept, the wine closet from which Major Colburn refreshed his distinguished guest, and the Major’s old flint musket standing in the corner. Seeing all this, it is hard to realize that the old flag on the wall is the banner that Arnold later disgraced when, angered and discouraged at his treatment by the Continental Congress, he turned traitor to the American cause.<\/p>\n
But long before his treason, this man could courageously and with personal sacrifice lead his starving men through to Quebec. That explains why Benedict Arnold, traitor or not, is still considered a hero along the Kennebec.<\/p>\n
Year: 1974<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1014, Broadcast on May 19, 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\/9463"}],"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=9463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}