Harpswell Historical Society Newsletter Fall 2017 www.harpswellhistorical.org [email protected] www.facebook.com/harpswellhistoricalsociety The Harpswell Historical Society is dedicated to the discovery, identification, collection, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of materials relating to the history of Harpswell and its people.. Johnson Harmon aggressive actions against English President’s Report Excerpted from A History of Harpswell, settlers. Dave Hackett At the Georgetown meeting, the Maine by Richard R. Wescott This past year has been a good Abnaki demanded specifically that one for our Society. A lot of good Johnson Harmon of York, Maine the settlements being made by the things have happened. We have had played an important role in the Pejepscot Proprietors around Mer- a few more visitors than in years early settlement of Merriconeag rymeeting Bay be withdrawn. The past. Artifacts regularly come to the [Harpswell] Neck, both as a set- Massachusetts delegates refused Museum, among them, a hooked rug tler and as an agent for the Pejep- to make any such pledge. In fact depicting the Basin Point Tide Mill, a scot Proprietors who, in the early they demanded and received four glass jar filled with wooden lobster eighteenth century, owned most of sachems as hostages for the Ab- pegs, and a Portland Cutter sleigh what is now Harpswell, Maine. He naki’s good behavior. (more about that in a bit), a wonder- was born in 1680 Father Râle, the Jesuit mission- ful tool collection, two school desks, The three winters from 1719- ary at the Norridgewock village one from the Orr’s Island School and 1722, with the permission of the of the Abnaki, who was militantly one from the old West Harpswell Pejepscot Proprietors who had opposed to the extension of British School and many more pieces of been granted Merriconeag Neck settlements in Maine, was angered our history. and nearby islands by the General by both the taking of the hostages Court, Harmon left his home on and the Massachusetts delegates’ Many people have found a con- the north side of the York River to stated intention to foster more nection to some of their ancestors go to the Neck to cut timber and English expansion up the Kennebec from the contents of our archives. firewood. River and along the shores of Mer- Our fund drive has had a higher In the summer of 1720 the rymeeting Bay. He demanded that total than in years past. General Court sent a delegation another conference be held the We acquired the Museum build- to meet with the Abnaki who gave following year at Brunswick where ing in 2000. At that time our Society assurances of their good inten- the Pejepscot Proprietors had built tions, but their killing and steal- Fort George as a strong point to Presidnt, continued on p. 4 ing of cattle and their threats to protect their settlements along the settlers along the Kennebec and Androscoggin River and Merry- Contents Androscoggin Rivers and around meeting Bay. Johnson Harmon .............................. 1 Casco Bay continued. In November, President’s Report ............................ 1 When the Massachusetts govern- Battle of Norridgewock .................... 3 Harmon, who had been commis- ment agreed to the later meeting French & Indian Wars in Maine ........ 3 sioned as a captain of a militia and sent a delegation to Brunswick, Some Snippets from company, was appointed by the Around the Country .................... 5 Father Râle, in a militant display Bailey Island Library Hall .................. 5 General Court to a new delegation of defiance, paraded a couple of Some tools acquired which had been created to meet hundred Abnaki warriors into the by the Society recently ................ 6 with the natives at Georgetown on Can you recognize this building? ...... 8 town. The conference was a com- Help Us Cut Our Costs ...................... 8 the lower Kennebec River to find Board Members ............................... 8 out why they were continuing their Harmon, continued on p. 2, col. 1 Harmon, continued from page 1 afternoon is unclear from the vari- cess directly to Governor Dummer plete failure, for Father Râle re- ous accounts of the battle by par- and the General Court. newed his demands that the British ticipants, but the village was over- Upon his arrival at the capital, abandon their encroachments upon run by the militia after some hard Harmon was invited by the Gover- the natives’ lands and release of skirmishing. At some point in the nor’s Council to give it an account all the hostages they held, and the melee, Lieutenant Richard Jaques, of the attack at Norridgewock, and English representatives, acting upon Harmon’s son-in-law, shot, killed, he gave them a brief report. After their instructions from the Massa- and scalped Father Râle. All told that meeting, under oath, Harmon chusetts government, refused flatly 26 or 28 of the natives were killed swore to the authenticity of the to make any such concessions and scalped and another thirty or scalps taken from the Abnaki and Frustrated by their inability to run forty were killed or drowned in the Father Râle to qualify his men to down the Abnaki away from their river as they fled. A young white receive the so-called scalp money principal village at Norridgewock, boy who had been taken captive in that the government paid for the in August 1724, Colonel Westbrook a native raid was freed. The follow- killing of hostile natives. After the ordered Captain Harmon’s and ing day, before they returned down required certification was given by Captain Jeremiah Moulton’s com- river, Harmon and Moulton had the Harmon, a warrant was issued to panies to attack again that bastion. bodies of the natives heaped into the treasurer to pay Harmon 100 Starting up the Kennebec River in a pile in the center of the village pounds as a reward for the killing seventeen whaleboats with 200 which was then put to the torch. of Father Râle. Each of his men men, Harmon and his father-in-law When Harmon and Moulton received a share of the scalp money Captain Moulton hoped apparently brought their forces back to Fal- which was computed on the basis to surprise the natives since the mouth and reported their victory of fifteen pounds for each adult English did not usually mount expe- to Colonel Westbrook, the town male scalp taken and eight pounds ditions during the summer months erupted in celebration even as ru- for each scalp taken from a woman for fear of illnesses erupting among mors spread that a native counter- or child. the militia. strike was already being organized. Johnson and Mary Harmon had As they approached Norridge- Colonel Westbrook in his report to moved to Merriconeag Neck in wock cautiously in the early after- Lieutenant Governor Dummer rec- October 1735, having sold for five noon, Harmon divided the militia. ommended that Harmon be com- shillings their house and the twelve He scouted through the cornfields missioned as a field grade officer acres upon which it was situated around the village looking for the as a reward for his victory. Harmon in York, along with the outbuild- enemy while Moulton led his men sailed the next day for Boston with ings, barns, wharves, orchards, and directly toward the center of the Colonel Westbrook’s dispatch in fences to their son Joseph who village. Exactly what happened that hand to report the expedition’s suc- would take over full ownership of the premises immediately after his father’s death. Six years after he and Mary moved to the Neck, perhaps be- cause he sensed that he was getting on in years - he was now 61 - Har- mon sold all his land and buildings on the Neck in 1741 to Joseph for seventy pounds in bills of credit. He and Mary moved back to York to live on the farm where he died a decade later on April 17, 1751. Johnson Harmon and his men attack the Abnaki at Norridgewock, killing and scalping Father Râle. Page 2 Battle of Norridge- Catholic proselytizing among the their way up the Kennebec River wock Abenaki (and thereby perceived toward their intended target. Aside Wikipedia French influence), and to allow the from destroying the village, Captain expansion of New England settle- Harmon was ordered to finally seize The Norridgewock Raid occurred ments into Abenaki territory and Father Sebastian Rale for his subver- in contested lands being fought over Acadia. New France defined this area sive activities among the Kennebec by England, France and the Wabanaki as starting at the Kennebec River in people. The approach of the Mas- Confederacy, during the colonial southern Maine. Other motivations sachusetts force was nearly betrayed frontier conflict referred to as Gov- for the raid included the special ₤100 when it encountered the family of a ernor Dummer’s War. Despite being scalp bounty placed on Râle’s head well-known and respected Kennebec called a ‘battle’ by some, the raid by the Massachusetts provincial as- sagamore known as Bomazeen while was essentially a massacre of Indians sembly and the bounty on Abenaki portaging around the falls in present by colonial British troops. Captains scalps offered by the colony during Skowhegan. Killing Bomazeen and Johnson Harmon, Jeremiah Moulton, the conflict. Casualties, depending his daughter, the force continued on and Richard Bourne (Brown) led a on the sources consulted, vary, but undetected with Bomazeen’s wife in force of two hundred colonial New most accounts record about eighty tow as a captive. Englanders, which attacked the Abenaki being killed. But both Eng- The expedition arrived unnoticed Abenaki village of Narantsouak, or lish and French accounts agree that before the village at Norridgewock Norridgewock, on the Kennebec the raid was a surprise nighttime on the afternoon of August 23.