The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1910-04-14
OLD CANAAN IN THE REVOLUTION
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Continued from First Page.)
Twice, nay thrice, a little band of
brave Englishmen tramped over
snow-clad hill and valley to strike at
the heart of fire and deadly purpose
at which were kindled the torches of
i Indian hatred which consumed the
j English homes springing up in Maine
and thrice they had failed while the
river slept and dreamed of spring.
The church and wigwams had been
destroyed once, and once incriminat-
ing letters were carried away to
prove that Frenchmens cunning had
been added to Indian cruelty in plan
ming the raids whose results had
been ravaged homes and Inflated cap
tives sold into slavery in Canada. In
fact the pestilent village had been
located by the report of a fugitive
from such captivity Now, on an
August day in 1924 this river, this
friend of the red man, the pathway
for his silent and graceful canoe had
betrayed him, had become the guide
of his destroyer. Through the will
derness, up the Kennebee, surely
steadily, now by canoe. now on foot
from the seventeenth to the twenty
second of that fatal August came the
men who brought the death warrant
of the Norridge Wocks and who served
it, too.
The river knows-the river mirror
ed each one. Harmon with his fol
lowers, Moulton with his, all woods
men. all Indian fighters, men who
had been in many skirmish, and the
captive boy whom legend says they
met escaping and pressed into SER
vice as a guide. Among these fig
ures were at least two men who af-
terward came to ole Canaan as pion-
GERS, Robert or Robin Hood and that
Chamberlain who contends on the
pages of history with Seth Wyman
who in Woburn dwelt" for the doubt
full honour of being the slayer Of
Chief PaugIs in Lovewells fight. The
flames of that confiagration lit up
the stream, the death cry of the
warriors, the funeral wailings of the
women over dead braves and priest
all were echoed across the waters and
Norridgewock falls shouted the tale
to Bombazee ;-Bombazee ran foam
ing and shuddering to tell the story
to Skowhegan falls and they repeat it
whenever the spring floods swell their
voices to War-Cry.
Part of the land belonging to the
Kennebec Purchase, a strip including
Fairfield, Canaan, Norridgewock and
Starks was granted to Sir Thomas
Temple who sold it to one John Mel
son, who had it surveyed; but of this
lot 1850 acres were reserved by the
company to be given away to actual
settlers who were willing to comply
with the conditions namely: To build
a house, to clear five acres for tillage
within three years and to dwell there
personally for that period and for
seven years more by self or substi-
tute. and to pay expenses for papers
drawn up and for surveying.
In accordance with these conditions
the first settlers, Joseph Weston oil
Lancaster and his brother-in- law
Peter Haywood Of Concord. Mass.
we're given grants along the river
some three or three and one-hall
miles below Skowhegan falls on the
south bank, including various is
lands. We have told the story oil
their coming so many times that we
know it by heart and the river re-
members it still. II remembers well
and sings of it softly to itself as il
slips past the old burying ground, the
summer day in Ill when the pion-
GERS, Weston and Heywood with three
lads, Asa Haywood, Eli Weston and
Isaac Smith reached the place chosen
for camp,-the forerunner of a
home.
One or both of the men had doubt
less been over the ground before, but
this time when the English foot print
marked the shores it was never to be
erased until along the river banks
were the beaten paths of English
progress. Like Rome our city was
founded by two youths. The men
with one lad returned soon for the
families and the two boys Eli and
Isaac were left in the solitude of win
ter. Solitary enough they must have
been at the best even though they
were visited by trappers and hunters
and although Weston himself travelled
all the way from PoWnalboro whittier
he had brought his household to wait
for spring, to see how things were
going.
Often that autumn the river mir
rored the canoes in which two boys
went and came from the islands
where were the clearings fittest for
cultivation; and under its icy bridge
it listened to their foot falls many
times before the ice broke up in the
spring Then in its flood of vernal
eagerness it reflected their forms as
/ they halted to look out for the COM
/ ing of sweetheart and mother Wher
the canoe Rainbow, bought at Fort
Halifax, was drawn up at the inter
vale landing-when Ellis mother, Eu-
nice Farnsworth Weston, with her
household goods and gods, began
housekeeping in the camp, the spirit
of home had entered the Wilderness
when Peter Haywood with Sarah
Weston, his wife, followed not long
after with their troop, Isaac's sweet
heart Hannah HeNWnod had hronPht