Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-02-25

Capt John Smith of pocahontas fame,
as he sailed in 1914 along amongst the
"gallant Hands of our picturesque coast,
charmed with its beauty he could find
no name for it that so well suited his
practical mind as IN ow England" a
name 1t will retain and keep green the
memory of Capt. John Smith.
The Pilgrim Fathers next appear on
the scene in 1920. They had "a full''
(patentl on the kennebec that reached at
least Cushnoc and here in 1925 the
thrifty, sagaclous founders of New Eng
land opened store and put out their
sign for trade with poor Lo. They made
big money in exchanging corn for beaver,
and were shrewd enough to sell out their
patent on the Kennebec in 1861, before
the trade in scalps commenced.
For more than one hundred and fifty
years of Names history the Kennebec
was noted for its Qualifications. No other
river in the State has so unique his
tory in forts or so many of them as the
Kennebcc Popham in 1907 was the plon-
Ger fort builder in Maine and his St
George stood near the present imposing
t. S stone fort at the mouth of the river,
commenced in 1861 and yet unfinished, it
WIN 1IS 10 luClt guns anu S'AN''' u t"so
near it. it is reminder of the great re-
bellion of 1S6l-65.
Early in the 18th century DIR. Noycs
erected a stone fort at Small Point ana
called the place Augusta. In l7l9 Fort
Richmond was built near Swans Island,
and later other "defensible houses. The
Indians now painfully began to perceive
that their ancient domain, their highway
to the St Lawrence, their richest 1nherl-
tance in fish and game, the legacy OF Their
fathers, was fast slipping from their
grasp, and with piteous remonstrance
i,nplorcd Don't build any more forts
But the inexorablc march of civiliza-
ton went on, and in 1854 forts Western at
Cushnoc, and Halifax at Ticonet, OWNS
iow) were built
AZ this date says North the first settle
ment of the future Augusta began. More
than a century had passed since the lone
trading house of the Pilgrims was estao-
lished here, and its very site was obllt-
Grated Here on the outposts OF civiiiza-
ton, in the forest primeval, within the
protecting II inch bullet proof walls OF
Fort Western, gathered the nucleus OF the
present beautiful, atlluont, esthetlc Capt.
toll City of Augusta, the delight ana
pride of the whole State. OF all the forts
built on the river that at Cushnoc stands
pre- eminent in historical interest Here
gathered much of the best blood of New
England The Towards, Lithgows,
Conys, Norths, Sewalls, Williams, and
many others. Here they planted liberty's
tree, watercd it with their tears and pro
tected it with their sturdy arms, and not
until after the fall of Quebec in 1888 did
the settlement begin to spread out from
the stockade of the fort, and all on the
western side of the river was bowling
Wilderness until about 1868. when
Ephraim Cuwan Cardwainer felled
the trees and built a shoemaker shop on
land where the State House now stands.
| But Fort Western continued to be the
especial gathering place and home of the
settlers until near the close of the 18th
century. Here their children were born,
| here they died. and close By in the old
fort cemetery they sleep Here with huz-
/ zas that made the fort ring they read the
Declaration of Independence ia l1a6.
Here in 1857 William Lithgnw, .lr. had
), law Office in the very room that an
irish woman now. rses for washroom
cngld the fathers and mothers OF an