Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-11-02
PEMAQU|D MYTHS?
QUESTION DISCUSSED
. BY MAINE HISTORIAN

Ancient and mysterious Pemaquid
has just now engaged the attention
of thinking people in Maine, as II 1t
were o renaissance of the wonder of
the first discovery Of co years ago.
and Of guesses and questions, VINO
and what existed there in former
times
The call of the Maine Historical
Society to participate in its F1eiu DAY
and the circular in q broadside sheet
for public Indictment were informing
and valuable upon points of past his
tory and reference to prospective re-
suits of present Investigations to gain
clear light on that dim and uncertain
Cast. That circular treating of
matter of my former study, included
point appealing to my sense OF per-
sonal duty to the history Of my own
state for its accuracy, and therefore
ask the permission of all who direct
ed the affairs Of that holiday and
pardon of the writer of the circular
as l solicit attention to n point APP
parently a. variance with historical
fact. That error, If it SO be, is not
the writer's only so far as he accept
ed what others have written or what
had been derived from those who did
not sharply seek original sources.
The statement IN question is this:
"Here and in the region Immediately
round about, were settled before 1880,
nearly 100 families"
The same in substance has been
written or asserted elsewhere in past
decades in support of. early Maine
settlements. Its evident relation to
present affairs and problems at Penn
Ruuid makes it reasonable and very
desirable to seek the worth and au-
thority of the statement.
In it's first definite form it is
traced to Names first history eighty
four families, besides fishermen
about ,Pemaqud, st. Georges and
Sheepscot. Further search discloses
most pfainly that the source of the
averment was a report in 1901, by
Capt Sylvanus Davis on former con-
ditions in Maine, where he had spent
large part of his life.
Furnished to the Government, it
was copied by Sullivan from State
Papers. and the original is now in
the Massachusetts Archives. Capt.
Davis gave Accounts of the several
English settlements he hath known
to be at and to the eastward of
Sagadahock along the sea-
coast to Matinicus-sundry English
fishing placcs-some 20 and some 40
years since" Eleven stations for
boats and vessels are named, and
then he enumerates Farmers East
ward" with names of their locations,
and using numerals l, 6, 10, to show
families at each--from Sagadahock
and Merry Meeting, Cape Nawagan
to Pemaquid. New Harbor, St
Georges. Saquid Point. His compu-
tation makes n total of 81 families
AT several points he gives dates as
fifty, sixty, seventy years, "agone."
1t is manifest that Davis ranged
his memory over a period OF 80 years
indicated by those numbers-the lat
est 40. the most remote. 20, from his
recital in 1701--his death occurring
three years later. Some writers have
interpreted him to intend, as is prob
able. to bring his enumeration down
to the war, 1875 when he was al
Arrowsic and fleeing for his life. was
wounded, and his companion, Capt
Thomas Lake was killed. THAT
change would still have the 30 years
but would add Is to the period of his
reckoning. But it is noticed that this
view of the population is not fittingly
put in a paragraph upon Sheepscot
nor should that place have been in
cluded. for Davis had another divi-
sion in his report, within Land" a
section lying back from the seacoast
and extending from the Kennehec to
st. George, and including all. sheep
scot Farms" and town having sc
families. also Damariscotta and the
Muscongus, Pemaquid. its northern
part it seems. and Round Pond Tn
this inland belt he numbers 81 fam
lilies.
Hence it appears that Sullivan
seeking choice morsels for his pages
an he should drew from memory
three. namely 81 families. 70 years
three towns. Pemaquid. st. Georges
and Sheepscot. These he formed into
sentence when he was writing OF
Sheepscot though in fact It pertained
to the sea shore belt. In the process
he took 20 years, neglecting so, so
40 and so wrote 1880. He carried
back all accessions of those later
years and massed them in the yeai
most remote and earliest. 1880. and
thereby gave us the assertion cited.
For that date Davis gave no war
rant. nor has It any as ] have learn.
ed in any records of the time. Suln.
van is its authority. nor il It his only
mistake. 1t has been adduced often