Town of Gorham

A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF GORHAM, MAINE. PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TOWN, BY JOSIAH PIERCE. PORTLAND: FOSTER & CUSHING, AND BAILEY & NOYES. Print.ed by Foster & Cushing, over Casco Bank. 1862. PREFACE. A. praiseworthy desire has of late been manifested in many towns in New England, to gather up the trustworthy documents relating to the early settlement and progress of our plantations, and to rescue from the oblivion to which they are r~pidl y hastening, .the records of the enterprise, courage, and sufferings, of our early ancestors. Such local statistics must be interesting to the citizens of those places to which they relate, and valuable to historians of our country, as furnishing reliable data to aid them in the composition of their works. I have devoted some time in investigating the early settle ment of the town of Gorham, and tracing its growth, till it became, what it now is, one of the most populous, wealthy, and important inland towns in Maine. I have thought a historical memoir of the place would be acceptable to its present inhabitants, and not wholly unin teresting to the people of our State generally. With these views, I have compiled the following pages, and now commit them to the public eye. In the preparation of tJtls work, I have been much as sisted in gathering materials, by several gentlemen. M. G. Hayden, Esq., Town Clerk, has at all times given me a free IV. PREF.A.CE. use of all the Town Records_ in his possession. I have also received valuable aid from Hon. Frederic Robie. Es pecially am I indebted to Col. Hugh D. McLellan, who has kindly furnished me with many historical facts and tradi tions, and loaned me his numerous and valuable family manuscripts and traditional papers, from which I have gath ered many interesting facts. J. PIERCE. GORHAM, January, 1862. GORHAM. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. WITHIN a few years a general wish has prevailed, to gather up and preserve the facts relating to the settlement and early progress of our town. The movement is credita ble to our citizens, and we regret that this interest had not been earlier excited, while_ fuller records, and the actors themselves in these proceedings were accessible. In many of our towns all the early settlers have passed away. The records of proprietors and plantations, in many instances, been lost or destroyed. We can now only make the best use we can of the materials within our reach, family records, grave-stone inscriptions, and :floating and oftentimes. unreliable traditions . The sea coast and islands of Maine had been discovered more than a hundred years by Sebastian Cabot, before any settlement was made by Europeans. After some islands and a few places on the main land by the sea side, had been occupied by Englishmen, another century went by before permanent settlements were effected in the interior. There were several causes for this; the princip~l of which were, the greater facility of obtaining the necessaries of living 6 HISTORY Ol"' GORHAJI. near the oeean, and the greater security from the hostile attacks of the Indians and Canadian :French. Thus Fal mouth (now Portland), and Scarborough, were settled a full hundred years before the adjoining interior town of Gorhan1. Falmouth was occupied by Englishmen in 1632, and Scarborough as early as 1633. The first settler moved into Gorham in 1736. The town of Gorham embraces an area of somewhat more than six miles square. Its contents, as is the case of most of the early·-Jocated towns in the State, exceeds the granted quantity. The surveyors employed, a century ago, made liberal allowances for waste land in the shape of ponds, bogs and mountains. An allowance of one rod in thirty for swag of chain, was also a general practice of surveyors, in laying out new townships, bet,veen sixty and one hundred years ago ; and such allowances were sanctioned by government at that period. Hence most of the to,vns in Maine, that were located during the last century, are found, on a strict measurement, to contain a larger surface, than are indicated by their grants or charters. The territory of the town of Gorham is circumscribed by an irregular figure of very unequal sides ; its longest side is that on Presumscot river; its shortest, the dividing line between Gorham and Westbrook. The former being about eight, the latter three miles in length. It is bounded easterly by Presumscot river ,vhich divides it from the town of ,Vindham; south-easterly by Westbrook; southerly by Scarborough; south-,vesterly and westerly by Buxton; and northerly by Standish. The surface of the town is what is called a rolling coun try. In the norther! y part is a plain of considerable extent ; but much the larger -part of Gorham is hilly. The hills are uniformly of gentle and even ascent, being nowhere preci pitous, or too steep for cultivation. Large and winding INTRODUCTORY. 7 valleys are spread out between the swells of land, and the whole is bountifully watered by springs and streams ; in ~ few places the soil is sandy, but a clayey loam is the pre vailing soil. Fort Hill is the highest eminence, and from its summit can be seen most of the to,vn and a large extent of the surrounding country, and waters of the ocean ; its sides are long slopes, easily ascended and covered with excellent farms. The town is not rocky ; the northerly part contains some granite, and limestone is found in some places. The prevailing stone is argillaceous slate, laying in ledges. It is believed that there is not so much as two acres of surface in any one place unfit for cultivation. It is, without doubt, one of the best agricultural to,vnships in Maine. Presumscot river washes its \vhole eastern boundary, and affords, by its numerous falls, many eligible water privileges for manufacturing purposes. Stroudwater river traverses the southern section of the town; and Little river, rising in Buxton, within two miles of the Saco, enters Gorham on its western boundary ; and, after flowing ·in a very winding channel, affording many mill sites, and forming and watering many fertile intervales, it falls into the Presumscot river on the eastern side of the town. Formerly there was a fine growth of large pine trees in the township, interspersed with ash, birch, beech, maple, oak, hemlock, fir, spruce, elm and walnut trees; the more valuable part of the pine has long since been cut and carried away. This town seems to have been first resorted to by white men for lumbering purposes ; they came first for masts, of which the noble pines that were numerous here afforded a large supply. After saw mills were erected on Pres~mscot and Saccarappa falls, logs for boards, which were easily floated down Presumscot river, were in de mand. 8 HISTORY OF GORHAM. Gorham, though having within its limits places bearing Indian names, was never, as far as is known, the residence of any particular tribe of the natives. It was sometimes occupied for awhile as the camping ground of roving parties of Indians, from the 9ssipee, Pequawket, Androscoggin, and Sokokis or Saco tribes. These with the St. Francois· Indians of Canada, with whom the remnant of the Pequaw kets united after their signal defeat by Lovell, at Fryeburg, in 1725, would make this town their summer residence, and planted large fields of corn in some localities, and it was their great thoroughfare from Sebago Lake to Saco and Scarborough. There are no traditions of Indian grants or Indian claims of land in Gorham. Several families from Canada resided here for some years for the sake of easy access to the trading houses of the English on the coast, where they could barter their furs, baskets and various trinkets, for such articles as they most needed. The early settlers of Gorham were greatly harrassed for several years by the Canada Indians. Crops were destroy ed, cattle killed, a few white persons killed, and a few carried away captive to Canada. These annoyances contin ued till the French power passed away by the conquest of Quebec by Wolfe in 1769. That victory put an end to the Indian depredations in this part of Maine. · The wars between France and England always drew into the conflict the colonies of the two nations in North Amer ica. Hence the inhabitants of New-England had to be in a state of warlike preparation at all times. For the first century after the settlement of Massachusetts, her men were frequently engaged in military expeditions; sometimes against the French-sometimes against the Indians-fre quently against both combined. The colonies were poor, and the. Legislatures of the same had slender means of INTRODUCTORY. 9 paying the expenses of the military or remunerating the soldiers except by grants nf wild lands. Most of the Pro vincial grants were therefore made for military services. The township of Gorham was granted for such services. Seven townships, of which this town was one, were granted to the officers and soldiers, or their representatives, who served in what was called King Philip's war, or the Narra gansett fight. The grant was made by the General Court of Massachusetts ; first of two townships in 1728, and five more in 1732. The number of grantees was 840. 2 10 HISTORY OF GORHAM. CHAPTER II. THE GRANTS. BY THE GOVERNOR AND COMPANY OF THE MASSACHU SETTS BAY, IN NEW ENGLAND. , At a General Oourt for mections held at Boston, 21th of May, 1685. IN answer to the petition of William Bassett, John Lin sey, Robert Porter, Sen'r, and twenty-two more inhabitants of Lyn, Jeremiah Swain, Samuel Damon, Samuel Lamb son, William Robbins, James Pyke, John and James Nich ols of Reading, Wm.

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