The Portland daily press., 1882-09-16
FOOTPRINTS OF THE PAST.
On the Way to Pemaquid.
NO. oNE-DAMARrscoTTA.


NEWCASTLE, Friday, Sept. 10.
10 the Editor ofths Press:
For the benefit of those who did not 60 and
will wish they had, send you some notes by
the way.
The Maine Historical Society, through a
committee, of which Mr. r. Fl. Gardiner, of
Gardiner, was chairman, arranged to go to
Damarisco.ta on Wednesday, preparatory to
visiting Pemaquid by land or water, or both,
on Thursday. When arrived in Portland on
Wednesday morning, found that the expedi-
ton had been postponed until the rext day,
for fear of storm predicted by the weather
man at Washington The day proved fine on
Wednesday. On Thursday the weather was
not promising, and finally it rained before
noon. Some of the members had taken the
earlytrain for Gardiner, to go down the Ken
nebec by steam yacht "Circe' to Damariscotia.
At 10 a. m. telegram was received by the
society from the chairman of the committee at
Gardiner, that the day of starting had again
been postponed, "proeably until Thursday"
thought it was hardly probable that three
consecutive fair days could be had at this sea-
son, especially after two months of continued
fair weather We, who are past three score
and ten, can not afford to spend many weeks
in waiting for fair weather, SO resolved to go
to Damariscotta regardless of the weather, to
be ready for Pemaqnid on Friday morning
l met Capt. Hight, of the custom house, who
came into my views, and We left on the 20
train, where we met another member, Mr..
Geo. b. Barrows of Fryeburg, who was also
OF our minds, and also Mr.. Geo. A. Thomas,
of Portland, who had decided to go with u.s.
Mr.. Jackson and MIR. fucker, president and
superintendent of the Maine Central railroad,
were on the train, on their way to Aroostook,
and Col. Robie, who was going to Augusta.
At Brunswick we took on board Mr.. Rict-
ardson, of the Portland Advertiser, and an
other member, MIR. Butler of Pennington, who
had not heard of the postponement. We ar
rived a, Damariscotta at $50, and were taken
to the Newcastle Hotel Capt. Hight and self
soon obtained wagon and drove back to the
west side of the river, to look at the site of
Col. VIM. Vaughans mill village of 1875,
where, in letter to his friends at Portsmouth,
he said he had in his employ about seventy
souls, who lived in his houses around him."
These tenements were built on the lodges near
his mills, by walling up to level the founda-
tions. He had timber fort, with cannon, to
protect his establishment.
The water power for his mills was obtained
from the fall at the outlet of Damariscotta
Pond, which has natural dam Of ledge, the
water falling 55 feet in as many rods. .Vsughan's
lumber was RATED down the river two or three
miles, where it was shipped. He also had
fishing village at Matinicus, in Peaobscot Bay,
which made him acquainted with the French
city of Louisburg, Cape Breton, where his
fishermen were sometimes captured and car
ried in. Daring the French war of 1644-5 he
projected the expedition which Gov. Shirley
adopted as his own, which captured Louisburg
under Sir William Peppersll, In which
Vaughan held Iieutenant-C Colonels commits
sion, aud behaved gsllanty, He died the
next year in London, where he had gone for
preferment, which he expected from the
crown, and was disappointed
After looking at the falls and quaint old
houses, wedroye to the house of Miss Wini-
fred Kavanagh, who gave $4,000 to establish
the Kavanagh school at Portland. She is
daughter Of James >Kavanagh, who, with
Matthew Cottrell, came from ireland in the
last of the last century, and established mer-
camille and numbering business at the falls,and
became wealthy. A son Of Kavanagh has a
monument and epitaph in the churchyard of
the little, brick Catholic "Church of st. Pat
rick half a mile from the falls, in Newcastle.
The following is a copy:
"In memory of Honorable Edward Kava-
nagh, formerly minister of the United States
to the court of Lisbon, aud late Governor of
Maine. He was born on the 9th of April,
1885, and died on the 10th of January, 1874,
aged 4S years." Edward Kavanagh was edu-
Gated. / think, in Canada, in Catholic col
lege, was President of the Maine Senate and
acting Governor The Kavanagh mansion is
ine piece of architecture, of wood, and has
been we'll kept. Connected with it is large
farm. In the Catholic churchyard are many
f1ne monuments bearing Irish nar es, which
were borne by the employees of Kavaragh and
Cottreli, among them the Madigans. This lit
tie brick church is curiosity. it is the Oldest
Catholic church in New England. 1t has five
arched windows on each side, with heavy old
sasnes and blinds, all we'll painted.
A young man, servant of Miss Kavanagh,
gave us admittance TO the church through the
tower, in which is bell. The chancel, with
splendid altar, before which our guide bent the
knee takes up oDe-tbird of the church. The
parish consists of 30 families, we'll to do people,
who sit on plain plank forms, without backs or
cushions. In the vestry is au elegant mahoga-
ny piece of furniture for the vestments worn
Dy tn6 priest, ana IN a Dack room Is l116-SlZ0
oil painting Of the Virgin blessing bishop in
his hes, with an inscription in Spanish. The
painting has been removed from above the al
tar to allow of painting and whitening the
walls. Forty-eight years ago, on like Sep
tember day, while on our wedding tour, my
wife and self, in two-wheeed chaise fasten-
ed our horse TO the Lombardy poplars in 'front.'
aud climbed up to look into the windows of
this little church with foreign look. The in
terror was then the same, except the tower and
bell, which has been added since. We then
went into the churchyard, which was not half
as full of monuments as now, but then had
many crosses of wood, of different heights.
This time e-honored little church, with It's sur
roundings, reminds me of the churches of the
Acadians at Glove, in Nova Scotia. This old
settlement has absorbed part of our interest
in Pemaquid. sadly miss my old friend, E.
Wilder Farley, who resided here, and on nv
last VISIT several years ago, took me in his car
riage TO see the immense heaps of oyster fhells
on the banks of the Damar scotia, where the
red man ate his oysters and threw the shells
behind him These shell banks are ten to
twelve feet deep, clean and white, with large
trees growing on them. We hope to visit
them on our return from Pemaquid.
There was a severe thunder storm last eve
ming, which seems to have cleared the weather
We shall leave here in an hour, in carriages,
for Pemaquid twelve miles off. Rev. Mr..
Hanson, Baptist clergyman, formerly of
Portland, is settlen here. He called ON us at
the hotel and said that the citizens had arrang-
ed for historical meeting at his vestry, and he
was TO entertain us at lunch at his residence,
when telegram came that we were not COM
ing. will send you some notes of Pemaquid.
w. G.