Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1892-11-18
rAalr HISTORY o. rHs xfssEsfcsallEr-



There ~as very large atsendanre al u
meeting Of this society at It's regular month
~ meeting on Tuesday evening. showing a
increasing Interest in is work. At an earl
hoar "a tie evening the attractive hall o
/ the ss,eiety was occupied With cool size
audience who spent half an lIoar in study
| lag the Interesting COLLECTIONS which tn
/ society has 10 It's well filled cases. Al eigh
o'clock the president of the society. Hon
| Charles T.. Nash. introduced Hon. Charlie
/ T.. Allen of Dres,en who read a most en-
ter.a: ming and Smelly written paper On som
I Little Known ksnnebec History. whiel
occupied nearly IN hour in its delivery
/ Mr. AIIen enEiypneI his address with man.
/ Illustrative of hand remarks AMI iDehlent
which heightened is interest for his audi
tors who manifested hearty approval at it
close by generous applause After pleas
ant personal introduction in which Mr.. Al
len alluded to his historic researche
regarding the early settlement Of Old Pow
Marlborough, and what he'd to his conclusion
tina, they were Of French rather than Ger
man origin, Mr.. Alien said;
Who we're tie first settlers on kenaebe'
river under the auspices of the proprietor
Of the 'keunebec Purchase fromfhe Colon
OF New Plymouth" or for short, as Dresden
Records always style them, the Honorable
the Plymouth Company:
At the mcetiBg Of these proprietors he'll
at the Grape Tavern in King ST., Boston
Dee. &, 1851, they, having procured sur
yey aud plan of their kennebee lands from
the sea As high up as Cashnoc island.
voted to lay out town On the east SHE Of
Kennebec river, opposite Fort Richmond
They also voted to build defensiifie house
and then sail whereas number of Ger
man Professionals have lately arrived from
Germany, voted 10 give such of them a.
will settle in the new township l0J acres OF
land" Sever days later they voted To cal
his new township FRANKFORT that -, The
township between the main river of kenne'
bee ami the Eastern river, opposite Il
Richmond fort. Various votes passed
at that time and subsequently always refer
20 the settlers they wanted As Germans
They also speak of them as having arrived
On the slip Priscilla, John Brown, master.
wish /. knew her tonnage AMI just the
number OF passengers she brought over on
that trip. now know the names Of part OF
them aud the ages of few. The proprie.
tors speak Of one Peer Will, who was a
sort of Interpreter, or immigration agent
Wild was, with others. interested in u sorl
Of traffic 10 uufortunates, who were forced
to emigraie In May Of 1852 the proprie-
tors wrote Pascal Nelson of London that
they had made beginning at place on
the east side of Kennebec river, a little
above Richmond fort, and that they had
about fifty men building house of defence
which they propose to build in a strong
manner, and that they had sent down "a
German settlers with provisions for twelve
months. DIR. Gardiner, however, has a
charge for supplies furnished 80 French and
Germans, this being the first intimation on
the part of anybody that the colony had any
one except German people. What proper
ton of them were really Germans!
Louis XIV. revoked the Elict of Nantes
in 1861. Before that time there had beer
Il considerable stream of emigration from
France, which the unwise decree of revoca
ton served to swell to an enormous size
Much of this emigration went the to lower
Palatinate of the Rhine. a section strong in
the Lutheran faith and then part of Germany
It was, however, subject to invasion BY
French troops, on which occasion these
French refugees were always the greatest
sufferers. It was, also, quite natural that
many Germans should look upon these
French with aversion. They were entirely
welcome in brave little Holland, but
the country could not readily
assimila,e so many all at once, and they
wandered to England in such numbers that
in one year many of them were encamped
in the fields about London, in tents fur
ashed by the government, whereat certain
Englishmen complained. They were as
fearful of what they then called foreign
paupers as towards in America are today.
Others of these refugees went TO Ireland
to Carolina, and to other places, where they
might not he pursued by fire and sword and
the cdict of coniiscation.
About this Williamson saws early
in 100, although it was earlier than that
one Joseph Crellius, originally from Fran
coma, but then Of Pennsylvania, had sort
Of rowing commission from certain propri-
etors of lands in the American colonies, to
obtain settlers for them. This Crelliris
was very active. have traced him to Mann
helm in the lower palatine, to Rotterdam
to England, Scotland, and probably to Ire
land. His correspondence with Count
Henri Ehrenfeld Luther, councillor OF
tate at FRANKFORT on the Main, with Sir
spencer Phips, lieutenant governor OF
Massachusetts, with certain merchants in
Rotterdam, and with others, is interesting
and at times spicy. There has always been
a tradition in Dresden that the first settlers
were cheated in some way, and this cores
pondence seems to prove that such was the
fact Indeed Mass. Colony was forced to
pass sort of navigation act to protect
these poor people. As that act specifies
that each adult should be allowed, when or
shipboard, space at least Is feet long and
Is inches wide. we cannot help feeling
much interest in and sympathy for a.moth-
or and babe, when we read in Pownalboro
records, John. son of Jacob and Elizabeth
Carior, born on ye sea. Oct. ISL. The
to which 1t alluded was car
ried on on the part of Count Luther in the
French language although the translation
of our letter is headed either stupidity oil
designedly, Translated from the German.
Mr.. Crellius had some hand in obtaining
the German settlers for Broadbay, now
Also for western Massachu,
sets. for Halifax. y. s.. and for Other
places. suspect that he sent French
refugees to very many places for not infre-
quently their names had assumed either
German OF Dutch forms. But on the 18th
Sept, lI5l, Count Luther refers to the
small vessel called Priscilla, Capt. Brown
which Mr.. John Stedman, merchant OF
Rotterdam fitted out, and which was to
carry the people Crellius brought down
bound to the new English province of the
bay and which then lay
before Rotterdam. Another allusion is to
the effect that they were destined for the
province of Maine. in New England. And
Mr.. Crellius states that when these people
left Germany they had a minister with them
W ho left them in Holland AMI went to Caro-
lima, and some of these immigrants ex-
pressed wish to 90 to Carolina, where
thousands of their countrymen did settle.
Indeed. Lincoln county records sho~ that
after they were settled on the Keunebec
they had some intercourse with those in
Charleston. s. e. They were told that the
climate of Carolina was too hot for them,
anil on the other hand it was said that Maine
was very marshy, cold and unhealthy
Probably the person who told them OF
in Maine had visited Scarboro. just
west of Portland. They finally chose
Maine. whether entirely willingly or
not. know not, but in the fall of
1852, Charles Estienne lIoudelette
whose descendants still live in Dresden.
complained in behalf of all the French
settlers in Frankfort of the ill-eonduct OF
Creilius, and sent his complaint in French
to Peter Clarlon of Boston, who translated
it into English, with other matters for the
Plymouth Company. aud even twenty years
later, two of the Germans complained of
the same individual, in a petition written in