The following was published on pages 96-100 in the Vol. 5 issue of Bangor Historical Magazine.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN OF PENOBSCOT, ME.
EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESS OF HOSEA B. WARDWELL, ESQUIRE, AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE TOWN OF PENOBSCOT, SEPT. 14, 1887.
In 1759 Governor Pownal visited the Penobscot river and superintended the erection of a large fort at Wasumkeag point (the seal place) on the western bank of the river. (now Fort Point.)
Already had those pioneers of civilization, Joshua, Reuben, Samuel and Andrew Gray, traversed and explored nearly all of that region now known as Hancock county. Bold and independent men these Grays were and their numerous descendants around us to-day possess the same noble characteristics their ancestors did. There never was a company of men raised in defence of home and liberty but one or more Grays were found in the patriot band. In 1761 an emigration fever pervaded Massachusetts and all eyes were turned to Major-bagaduce, prompted by different motives. Men of different characters came to the Penobscot as the Mecca of their hopes. Aaron Banks, Andrew Herrick, Charles Hutchings, Nathaniel Veazie and Andrew Wescott, heroes of the French and Indian wars, came with their families. Banks settled on Bagaduce Neck, Herrick at Alamabsook, Wescott on the east and Hutchings on the west side of the Bagaduce and here are found their children to-day. Wescott and Hutchings were two of the heroes who stormed and captured Louisburg, Cape Breton. Banks under General Amherst was at the capture of Montreal. * * *
It is at this time impossible to say positively who was the first settler in our town; but it is recorded, that in 1761, Joseph Basteen, Paul and Caleb Bowden, John Corner, John Grindle, Archibald Haney, Thomas Wescott and Israel Veazie were here and had built themselves houses and were engaged in cultivating the soil and in fishing. 1762 those who arrived and made a permanent stay were Nathaniel, Jonathan, Abraham and Jeremiah Stover, Benjamin and Edward Howard, Benjamin Curtis, Joseph Lowell, Timothy Blake and Andrew Webster.
From 1763 to 1774 among those who arrived and took farms, were Frederic Hatch, Charles Hutchings, Eben and Daniel Webster, Daniel Wardwell, Alexander Grant, Thomas Nutter, Matthew and Gersham Varnum, Giles Johnson, Joseph, Andrew and Israel Webber, Matthew Limeburner, Benjamin Lunt, William Marks, Moses and Israel Blake and John Redman and many others unnecessary to mention as they have (no) descendents in this vicinity.
Between this date and the Revolution we find as settlers here, John Wilson, John Stover, Jacob and Daniel Sparks, Isaac and Joseph Perkins, Thatcher Avery, Oliver Parker, John Bray, Ichabod Grindle, Pelatiah Leach, Elijah Winslow, Seth Blodget, David Hawes and Aaron Banks. The names given above were all early settlers and we may truly say they were the fathers of the town, as they have left numerous descendents, not only in Penobscot, but in every State from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.
It would be almost treason not to mention the names of those who, putting all at stake, went forth to battle for their country in the Revolution of 1776.
These honorable men are: Theodore Bowden, Edmund Bridges, Henry Dorr, David Dunbar, William Hutchings, Noah Norton, William Grindel, Alexander McCarslin, Nathaniel Patten, Moses Veazie, John White, Daniel and William Webber.
Space renders it impossible even to give a biographical sketch of the revolutionary soldiers as their deeds and their names are almost unknown to the majority of their descendants. That of Edmund Bridges is an exception. A stone marks his grave in the cemetery in Castine, which we have transcribed: "Edmund Bridges, born in Old York, Aug. 10, 1762, died in Castine, Sept. 14, 1851. A soldier of the revolution, faithful to his country's service, courageous in fighting its battles," and that is all we know of him.
The soldiers of the war of 1812, were Nehemiah Bowden, Ralph Bowden, Cyrus Bunker, Henry Dorr, who once before had met the Britons face to face in the siege of Bagaduce. Aaron and John Gray, David Leach, Joseph and William Leach, Eliakim W. Hutchings, Mark S. Patten, Mighill Patten, Joel Wardwell, Lewis Wardwell, David Wescott and Alexander McCarslin, another hero of the Revolution, and what scarcely has a parallel in the pages of history, took with him to the battle field his four sons, Adam, Andrew, James and Reuben. Fortunately they all returned, and their children now may be found in all parts of the world, everywhere distinguished for enterprise, courage and integrity.
Under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, the Orthodox Calvinistic was the established and state religion, and though in every township a lot was reserved for the first settled minister, no particular effort seems to have made by that denomination till 1793.
In 1795 the town voted to give Rev. Jonathan Powers a call to become their settled minister, which call was accepted.
On the 17th of June, 1796, the first Congregational church in Penobscot was established with fifteen members. Mr. Powers was ordained and installed Aug. 26, 1795. Previous to this the Rev. Isaac Case, of Rehoboth, Mass., a Baptist, had been ordained an evangelist, came to Maine in 1783, and was the first Protestant minister who preached in Penobscot. He was the founder of the first Baptist church in Blue Hill, and from that has sprung all the Baptist churches in Hancock county.
The first Baptist church for Penobscot was organized in 1820 with thirty-five members, Elder John Roundy the pastor. The deacons were David Dunbar, John Dunbar, and John (----). The first Baptist meeting-house was built in 1853, on the east side of the river. This house was destroyed by fire, the work of an incendiary, in 1848.
The first Methodist to preach in town was Rev. Joshua Hall in 1795. At this time Mr. Hall was on a circuit which extended from Union in Waldo County to Orono in Penobscot county, and his was the only horse owned at that time on the Penobscot. Mr. Hall was governor of Maine for the brief term of one day in 1830. He died at Frankfort, Me., Dec. 25, 1862, aged 94 years. He preached longer than any other minister of his denomination, having begun his itinerant work at the age of 19.
The Penobscot circuit was formed and regulated by Rev. Peter Jayne, 1798. It extended from Orrington to Castine and included Surry, Ellsworth and Sedgwick. Rev. Joshua Taylor was the first presiding elder.
Elder John Roundy, the pastor of the first Baptist church in Blue Hill, from 1809 to 1820, who had a large family to support and a small quantity of this world's goods, according to the law was taxed to support Parson Fisher, the minister of the established church. As Mr. Roundy had nothing wherewith to pay the tax his only cow was taken by the sheriff and sold to satisfy the demand. The first Methodist meeting house east of the Penobscot river was built on land of Capt. Davis Dunbar in the year 1801, by Col. Jeremiah Wardwell and Capt. Thatcher Avery. Persons of other religious opinions have been in town in small numbers but never sufficiently numerous to require any extended remarks. Capt. Eben Hutchings, who died April 16, 1881, aged 93 years, was, we think, the last Universalist among us.
Agreeably to this petition the town of Penobscot was incorporated by act of the General Court of Massachusetts, Feb. 23, 1787. The first town meeting was held April 18, 1787, at the house of Colonel Gabriel Johannot, and the house is now standing as an attachment to the dwelling of Capt. Melnor Grindle at the great eddy.
At this town meeting Joseph Hibbert was chosen moderator; John Lee, clerk; John Perkins treasurer; Joseph Perkins, Jeremiah Wardwell, Oliver Parker; Joseph Hibbert and Joseph Young were chosen selectmen.
The first representatives to the General Court of Massachusetts were Gabriel Johannot, 1789, and Isaac Parker 1793, after the separation of Castine, Jeremiah Wardwell Elijah Winslow and Samuel Wardwell of Penobscot. The first representative to the Legislature of Maine, after the separation from Massachusetts, was Charles Hutchings, Jr., 1823.
The first appropriation of money for schools was 1791. In 1796 Joseph Binney, Daniel Wardwell, Jr., John Snowman, Jonathan Stover, Samuel Wasson, Samuel Russell, Ralph Devereux and Jeremiah Wardwell were chosen a committee to divide the town into eight school districts and this was the beginning of the much hated district system of today.
The first school master was James Whitelaw, an Englishman. He was teaching here as early as 1785; taught in Mr. William Connor's house for many years. His terms were 12 1-2 cents per week, and we judge from the account between him and a thriving trader of that period, that he was a very intemperate man, as he took most of his pay for tuition in West India rum. Mr. Whitelaw is buried in the cemetery of the late Capt. William Connor. A chair which he brought from England is owned by Mrs. Lucinda Connor and is treasured as a valuable memento of that friend of the family.
Nearly contemporary with him was Jeremiah Wardwell, who taught young men navigation and surveying. Mr. Welson Carpenter, a native of New York, is the first of whom we have any record of teaching in the public schools. He was an elegant penman, a thorough arithmetician and a rigid disciplinarian. The next was Charles Hutchings, Jr., who taught the elements of an English education and also what were then considered higher branches of learning, English grammar, algebra and vocal music.
The first school-house in town is believed to be the one which stood on Perkins' hill, built about 1809. A brief description of this school-house, as we remember it, may not be out of place. It was about forty feet square, fifteen foot post with a hip roof; two huge fire places, in opposite corners of the house, capable of taking in a stick six feet long and as large as a barrel, gave warmth to thirty or forty as roguish boys and girls as were ever awed into obedience by the terrors of a green-hide.
The sears were elevated at about an angle of forty-five degrees from the master's desk to the back of the room. These seats were so near the ceiling a child of eight years could scarcely stand erect. It was no unusual occurrence for a child to lose his balance, drop under the seats and, willing or unwilling, roll down to the master's feet where he received a severe castigation for his carelessness.
The first mail carrier was John Grindle, 1795. He agreed with Joseph Habersham, P. M. General, to carry the U. S. mail from Penobscot by the way of Blue Hill, Trenton, Sullivan, Gouldsboro and Machias to Passamaquoddy once in two weeks, and for this service Mr. Grindle was to have $84.50 per quarter. That one dollar shall be deducted from his pay for each hour he is behind time at any office, and the postmaster is to have thirty minutes in which to change the mail. The first Masonic Lodge opened at the house of widow Deborah Orr, 11th of Nov. 1794; David Howe, Master; Gabriel Johannot Senior Warden; Samuel Woodman, Junior Warden.
The first white child born was William Staples, in the old French Fort Nov. 16, 1758. They moved thence to Naskeag Point within one year. There Mr. Staples was living at the age of twenty-five years, in December 1783. When the English evacuated Bagaduce he was seized and carried off by them as a pilot and nothing certain was ever heard from him again. It is supposed he was shot and thrown overboard by the British. He left two sons, William and Samuel, and a daughter, whose name is unknown to me now. His descendants live on Swan's Island and Deer Isle. - Belfast Journal
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