The Portland daily press., 1885-07-03

went out through Hussey's Sound, outside of
| Cushing's Island and landed near the two
| lights, avoiding the Islands for fear Of the
Indians. If they had seen the other refu-
gees on Cushing's Island they would have
stopped there.
| Willis for once grows p0etical over this es-
cape and quotes Shakespeare
"a rotten carcase of a boat, not rugged,
Nor tackle sails nor mast; the very rats
Instinctvely had quit it"
although that hardly describes a birch canoe.
He grows enthusiastic, too, over Mrs. Brack-
EFT, who was not only an admirable woman
but was granddaughter of George Cleeve,
the first settler She died however, within
short time. Her five children when they
| grew up married and settled in Boston and
| vicinity, except the second son, Seth, who
was killed by the Indians when the town
was destroyed the second time in 1880. But
Anthony Bracket married again in 1879,
| three years later, and had five other children,
| the youngest Of whom, Susannah married
| Samuel Proctor, a son of that John Proctor
who was hung for witchcraft in Salem in
| 1862, and their granddaughter Kerenhappuch
| Cox, married Peter Thomas who was great
grandfather to our Minister to Sweden.
| But what became of the wife and three
| children of Brackets brother Thomas? asks
the little maid, and where did they live?
They lived near the foot of Bracket street
and after the father was killed the mother
and children were taken away captive by the
Indians, and kept long time. The mother
died in the first year. but the children were
finally restored and went to live in Green
Lou NJ 4 T.. l.
son had two boys, Anthony and Joshua, ir.,
who came back to Portland and owned
large tract of land reaching completely across
the city from Fore River to Back Cove. They
had large families, and a great number of
their descendants live here now and occupy
the land. This younger Anthony had a
granddaughter Mary, and her grandson is
our present member of Congress. He still
owns an old homestead where his youth was
SPENT on the street named after his great
great grandfather and rather euriously hey
born in house on Hancock street, not
hundred feet from the spot where his
great great great great-great- great-grandfa-
ther George Cleeve built his house on the
Neck, and within the limits of the ancestral
eornfeld.
Do all these descendants of the Brackets
know about their ancestors, Mr.. Newbegin?
No, my DEAR very few families know about
their great-grandfathers, and fewer STILL
know about family connections three gener-
ations away There is a lady in Portland
who is lineal descendant of John Proctor of
Salem and have been at her house when
she entertained the Minister to Sweden and
our member of Congress, and neither of the
three dreamed that they were all three thus
akin.
suppose great many more are equal
ly related without knowing it?
Yes, indeed. If each family had four chill
dren who married you can see how the con-
nection would increase in the seventh genera
ton, which is the distance of those two Brack-
EFT brothers, Anthony and Thomas, from u.s.
In the first generation there are two; in the
second, four in the third, sixteen; in the
fourth sixty-f0ur; in the fifth 356; in the
sixth, 1921; in the seventh, 7456 These mar
rying into different families would attach
! 7456 other families to the family tree. OF
course this is a large estimate, because the
same families would frequently intermarry
many times, and four children in each family,
marrying, is large allowance; but in this
had nine children married and the other
three, which was very good start, and the
| next generation was especially remembered
as having large families. Think how race
would spread out in a hundred generations.
1t will give you some idea of the significance
of the promise of Moses to the Israelites
where he described their Lord as 'the faith
| full God, which keepeth covenant and mercy
with them that love him and keep his COM
mandments, to a thousand generations
| Only about one hundred generations have
been born since the time of Moses and the
prophecy holds good for nearly thirty thous-
and years longer, which is not encouraging
| to the Second Adventists.
But it will give Portland IA good chance to
| grow, said the little maid.
Indeed, think so, | replied and then |
thought how many railroads our taxpayers
would probably build for other people in the
next thirty thousand years.
When did Anthony Bracket come back
here to live? asked the little maid, again
| turning to the Deering mansion.
In 1879, at which time he brought his sec
ond wife, Susannah Drake of Hampton. N.
H. here to live, and settled half his estate
|
dispute between the children of the two.
mothers, because the elder children did not
think it fair that the younger should take
one-half in their mothers right and one
! quarter in their fathers when it all came
from the mother of the elder branch; but it
was finally settled by an amicable division.
| 1t is possible that his house was burned at
| the time of the 1876 massacre, as the houses
| of the settlers were reported to have been
| generally burned at that time; if so, he re-
built it, for at the time of the battle Sept. 81
| 1859 he was killed at his house then standing
! on the old site. He must have lived much of
| the time in Fort Loyal at the foot of India
| street, for in 1852 he agreed to keep constant
| watch and ward of that post, and he contin-
ued in command until his DEATH In June,
| 1859, he complained that there were so few
men in the fort that they were worn out with
| watching. Such close watching argued con-
slant apprehension of the foe, and he would
| not have left his family in such an exposed
position, one that proved to be the scene of
the battle in the following September
Was it a great battle? my dear. Not SO
very hefty, as a battle, but it was the only
pitched battle we ever had here, and so it is
of the Fort the next year was more serious
affair, for in the battle only eleven of our
men were killed and ten wounded, although
three or four hundred Massachusetts troops
were here to assist the inhabitants. The In
dams had about the same number of men,
and occupied Brackets orchard. The troops
forded the Greek and drove them out after
six hours fighting. They must have fought
as our skirmishers do now, keeping under
cover as much as possible, or there would
have been greater proportion of wounded.
Being practiced marksmen they generally
killed their man when they got a shot at
him. No particulars are given of Captain
Brackets death but as deposition made
sixty years later by a witness, stated that he
was killed at his house. it is probable that he
led charge up to his homestead to drive the
savages out, and was shot down in the
charge The last we see of the brave Antho-
ny is the victorious troops returning to town,
bearing their dead for burial and their
wounded for nursing. His son Seth was