<\/p>\n
Today I want to tell you a story that had its origin in a part of Maine that is more than a hundred miles from Waterville, the York County town of Wells. It is a story of the early 17th century that reveals an interesting connection between the two conflicting nations who claimed possession of much of Maine – England and France.<\/p>\n
From its early settlement by Englishmen early in the 17th century until the end of the French and Indian Wars in 1763, the inhabitants of Wells were constantly harassed by Indian raids, usually instigated by the French on the St. Lawrence. In 1692, for three days a band of Indians besieged a garrison house at Wells where inhabitants had taken refuge. At every assault, repeated during the three days, the people inside the large garrison defended the place with such effect that the Indians could not reach the barred doors and windows. Two Frenchmen, who led the assault, were both killed, as was an Indian chief. Unable to take the garrison, the Indians then retreated into the forest.<\/p>\n
On August 10, 1703, there was another big raid more successful for the Indians. That year was the beginning of the European conflict known as Queen Anne’s War, that spread to the American colonies, causing greater damage to the York settlement than had happened in 1692. A large band of French and Indians swept down upon the settlement without warning, giving the scattered settlers no time to seek refuge within the garrison house. Twenty of the settlers were killed and nineteen were carried captive to Canada. There the captives – men, women and children – were held for ransom, meanwhile being in most cases unpaid servants, though not quite slaves, of wealthy habitants in Quebec City and along the St. Lawrence.<\/p>\n
In the 1703 raid at Wells, one of the captives was a girl of ten years, Tabitha Littlefield, who years later returned to Wells as an Indian squaw. She refused to return in her native Colonial village, but voluntarily returned to the tribe, insisting that she preferred life with the Indians.<\/p>\n
A more astounding case was that of Esther Wheelwright, captured in the same raid at the age of seven. It is the story of Esther with which this broadcast is chiefly concerned. Usually in such cases, after the captives reached Canada, word soon came back to the raided settlement that their captured relatives were in Canada and at what price each would be returned. But strangely, regarding Esther Wheelwright there came no word at all. She was given up for dead.<\/p>\n
Six years after the raid, a Jesuit priest, Father Bijot, when he visited one of the Indian villages, noticed a teenage girl with a pale, white face. Convinced that she was not a native Indian, he spoke to her in English, a language which he knew as well as his native French. The girl did not understand his words. She had lost all recognition of her childhood speech. In his years of contact, the priest had been with the Abnakis long enough to learn some of their language, and was thus able to converse a bit with the girl in the Indian tongue. The conversation convinced him that she was the Wheelwright child from Wells. So he pleaded with the chief to release her and let her return to her family at Wells. But the chief persistently refused, saying that the girl was now an accepted member of the tribe and would soon marry one of the young braves.
\nFather Bijot reported the matter to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of New France at Quebec, who arranged for the priest to pay to the Indian chief a ransom purse for the girl. So in 1709 Esther Wheelwright was moved to Quebec City and became a servant in the household of the Governor. The Governor’s wife became fondly attached to the girl, and the family made no effort to return her to Wells. Together with his own daughter, the Governor sent Esther to the boarding school operated by the Ursuline Sisters at their Quebec convent.<\/p>\n
Esther was happy with school, and there she made her decision to become an Ursuline nun. The Governor was persuaded to accede to the girl’s own desire and finally in the presence of the Governor and his official council, Esther Wheelwright became a Sister of St. Ursuline, and the young Indian captive was named Sister Esther Marie Joseph.<\/p>\n
Years went by, the British captured Quebec, and the French General Montcalm fell on the Plains of Abraham. Sister Esther helped an aged resident make a crude coffin, in which they placed the body of the slain general and covered it with dirt in a hole made by one of the British bombarding shells under the floor of the Ursuline chapel.<\/p>\n
In 1760, fifty-seven years after her capture at Wells, Esther Wheelwright was chosen Mother Superior of the Ursuline convent. She died at the age of 84 and was buried in the convent chapel.<\/p>\n
Thus for seventy years an English girl of colonial Wells loyally served the French Ursuline sisters. Best of all, though Esther never returned to the York county town, her mother accepted the daughter’s decision, and to this day there is cherished in the Ursuline convent a silver cup which the mother, before her own death, sent to Esther from Wells. This story gives us evidence that relations between French and English in colonial Maine were not always hostile, and that an English girl captured in an Indian raid became a friendly link between the two cultures.<\/p>\n
Now we turn to another subject. Not long ago, an issue of the Down East Magazine contained an interesting, well illustrated article on Maine stage coach lines. It pointed out that one of the first operated between Portland and Portsmouth, N.H., and the writer referred to its route as being over the Old Post Road. That was correct, but it is interesting also to know that the road had an earlier name, the King’s Highway. Just as it was customary in larger towns to designate the principal street as King Street, so as various portions of roadway were developed into a long single stretch of road between two major settlements, that road was called the King’s Highway.<\/p>\n
That long stretch of road between Portland and Portsmouth had actually, of course, been developed bit by bit in the other direction, from Portsmouth to Portland, and its chief promoter had been the most prominent property owner and merchant of Kittery, Sir William Pepperell. It was he who arranged for the provincial government to take over the private, short toll roads that made up the long route, and it was Pepperell who gave to all the name of the King’s Highway.<\/p>\n
At that time Vaughn’s Bridge, near where later were built Union Station and the Maine Central Yards in Portland, had not been erected, and to get off the Portland Peninsula the route out of Portland on the King’s Highway was by way of Stroudwater near where is now the Portland Airport. The road then proceeded through a part of Scarborough and the hamlet of Dunstan to Saco and Biddeford. It was not a well graded highway but a crude, rough road, where length was greatly increased by numerous curves to go around the steepest hills. Though parallel with the present course of U.S. Route 1, it did not completely follow that highway, and many portions of the old road that became the Post Road have long ago been covered by brush and trees, and, of course; the route does not cover at all the course of the newer Maine Turnpike.<\/p>\n
The King’s Highway, in fact, did not go to the site of modern Biddeford, but, en route to Portsmouth passed through Biddeford Pool, then by ferry on to Kennebunk through Wells. Before 1800 a bridge between Saco and Biddeford made a more inland route preferable. From Kennebunk, the old highway followed nearly the present Route 1 to Wells, then with many twists and turns, but since straightened out, through Ogunquit, Cape Neddick and York to Kittery, where the traveler crossed a shaky wooden bridge into Portsmouth.<\/p>\n
All along the King’s Highway were taverns where the stage changed horses, the passengers had meals and sometimes stayed overnight. The colonial travelers found the best accommodations at Broad’s Tavern in Stroudwater, where there entertained such eminent persons as General Lafayette and President James Monroe. Other well known inns were Donnells at Dunstan, Springers at Saco and Cleaves at Biddeford. At one time a favorite overnight stop of stage was Patten’s Tavern at Kennebunk. Lindsay’s Tavern halfway between Kennebunk and Wells became famous for its clam chowder, while McFreeman’ sat Cape Neddick was known for its gingerbread. There were numerous smaller inns scattered along the way from Cape Neddick to Kittery and at Kittery itself the large Jeffrey’s Tavern. All the taverns had a spacious barroom, where in the early 18th century stout brewed ale was preferred over New England rum, though by 1800 rum was the preferred Maine drink.<\/p>\n
I have long had a fondness for the town of Wells. It was there that I was married, and there, more than 30 years later, my son became town manager. During his term in that office, my son made his home in Ogunquit where I often visited with his family. Ogunquit Village is actually in the town of Wells, and during the 19th century saw development from a small fishing village on a well protected cove, to one of Maine’s most popular summer resorts, with hotels rivaling those at Kennebunkport and Bar Harbor, and it had a summer theatre occupied by the Ogunquit Players. The village also had a famous summer art colony with its Ogunquit Art Association. For many years it was the summer residence of John Kendrick Bangs, author of “A Houseboat on the Styx.”<\/p>\n
Year: 1979<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1204, Broadcast on May 20, 1979<\/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":[803,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9893"}],"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=9893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}