Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1921-01-05
OLD CASTINE MISSION
CATHOLIC CHURCH - RESTORE
ANCIENT SHR Ne.
Chapel of Our Lady of Holy Hope,
Erected at Fort PentagCet in 1913.

Erected at Fort PentagCet in 1913.
(By Louis S. Walsh, Bishop of Port
land.)
If the lovers of Maine history and
the artists that frequent its shores
were asked what is the one place on
the coast of Maine that stands out
clearly first in history, romance,
tragedy and comedy, as also in pic
turesque scenery, with one accord
they would say, "Old Castine, and in
Castine, old Fort Pentagoet, and in
the fort, the old mission chapel"
This is the site now restored to the
ever old and ever new Catholic
church
1t was on this wonderfully pictur-
esque peninsula separating the Pc
nobscot and Bagaduce rivers and
then joining therl IL form the great
Penobscot bay, that there was set
Element or stati as, early as 1858,
when the Francis, Il, Father Thevet,
declares that he W the signs of
fort and sounded ne' praises Of God
and of the great .Jorumbega or Pc
nobscot valleys.
Here the noble French knight of
the Cross and he Lily, Samuel
Champlain, in September. 1904, is
said to have found an old moss COW
cred cross, (sign. af some previous
Christian soldie1 having passed that
way) and also fought of establish
ing a colony for France and for the
church.
The Cross showed tree that marked
the spot and ma de it holy grounds
To the same place came the first
nf
Father Peter Biard, in 1911, and Of
fered holy Mass on his way up the
winding river in search of the far
famed brilliant city of Norumbega.
In the year 1915 the French gov
ernor of Quebec decided this to be
the most strategic point for fort to
defend the now we'll known water
boulevard between Quebec and the
Thither also the Pilgrims of Ply
mouth sent their scouts, and the willy
Isaac Allerton, with a fine COM
mercIal eye, established trading
post in 1929, seemingly to keep the
Pilgrim colony from starvation and
bankruptcy, and then unscrupulously
robbed both the indians and the Pill
grims.
RICHELIEU'S MISSION
At this place the great Cardinal
Richelieu, prime minister of the
King of France, decided to organize
a colony and mission in 1882 and
shortly after sent the Capuchin
Fathers of St. Francis, because he
did not love the Jesuits.
Strangely enough another great
European character, Oliver Crom-
we'll, the Puritan lord and tryant OF
England, ordered the English Puri-
tans of Boston to plant here the en-
sign of Old England, but they could
not carry out his aim.
In the year 1916 came Father
Gabriel Druillettes, S. j., the first
white man to make what seems an
incredible trip. He started from
Quebec, went up the st. Lawrence
and Chaudiere rivers, then crossed
the chain of lakes to the Kennebec
river, down this beautiful stream, by
Norridgewock and Cussnock to the
sea, then along the coast in a canoe
with mis- Indian guides and up the Pc
nobscot to Pentagoet (original In
dian name of Castine) and had
conference with the Capuchin
Fathers in the first little wigwam
chapel and finally returned by the
same route to his home in Quebec.
France and England and Holland
fought for the possession of this I'M
rivalled point of land and each in
turn raised it's flag of victory over
the place that was judged the most
fruitful for traffic with the natives,
but France held it almost continually
for 100 years.
COMING OF ST. CASTIN.
Under the royal banner of France
came here and settled the most pie
turesque character in all Maine
history, the Baron of St. Castin,
nobleman, WARRIOR, commander of a
division of the most famous royal
regiment in France and at Quebec.
Here he married the daughter of the
renowned Indian chief, Modocka-
wando, was made chief Of the
Abenaki or Tarrantine tribe, reared a
family, trained the Indians in the art
of warfare, led them in peace up the
river and acrosSthe lakes and in war
guided them Il the downfall of
Pemaquid and Falmouth, fought
with them and for them in what is
now India street in Portland and
along the Saco road until they were
1.-THE terror of the Puritans in Boston
and all along the coast at Pentagoet.
Here also he received, with every
sim of French pride and dignity, the
B8@fsh governor of New England,
HfE Edmund An hos, who is described |
hX4Ehe high pr lest of Boston, Rev. |
ase Mathes, Jas naughty and ar |
IN at, whose Chew began to teach
FEN gland to drink, blaspheme,
damn an z steal, and whose |
brought u the bloody wars