F 29 ,G75/87 copy 2 HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP or GRAND LAKE STREAM PLANTATION Class ^E_g^^ holX^TlSL^X. Gop>TigiitN° -C4>|cv^^ -^ COPMRIGHT DEPOSIT. X 2 < s z s o Pi tu u O < Hinckley Township or Grand Lake Stream Plantation A Sketch by MINNIE ATKINSON ' Printed by thf KEWBURYPORT HERALD PRESS Newburyport, Massachusetts Copyright 1920 by MINNIE ATKINSON Published December 1920 DEC -6 1820 I ^CU601820 To my Uncle FRED L. ATKINSON in whose camp at Grand Lake Stream I have spent many pleasant months ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND FOREWORD For the information contained in these pages thanks are due and gratefully given to Mr. and Mrs Arthur Wheaton, Mr. W. B. Hoar, Mr. Truman Brown, Mr. David Welch, Mr. W. G. Rose, Mrs. Thomas Calligan, Mr. and Mrs Wil- liam Golltn, Mr. and Mrs James Sprague, Mrs Frank Hol- mes, Mr. Frederick Foster, Mr. John Story, Mr. Stephen Sprague, Mr. Stephen Yates, Mrs. Augustine Mc Donald, Mr Charles Calligan, Mrs. Jackson Brown, Mr. Abraham Mc- Arthur, Mrs. Alonzo Woodward, Mrs. Ellen Hawkins and many others of Grand Lake Stream, to Mrs Martha Gould of Township 2 7, to ,Louis Mitchel of Pleasant Point and to Joe Mitchel of Peter Dana's Point. Mr. Charles A Rolfe of Princeton has been especially kind in furnishing much val- uable information in regard to the Princeton and Milford road, early sportsmen and other matters. Messrs. Joshua Crockett, William Robinson and Orington Brown, life long residents of Princeton and its vicinity, the first two ^ith memories reaching back nearly eighty years, have given Vcil- uable information of lumbering, lumber firms and pioneers of Hinckley. Mr. John Gardner of Calais has furnished some interesting facts. To Mr. Wallace Brown of the latter city thanks are due for several Indian stories and the Indian my- thology. Mr. James Vroom of St. Stephen has also contri- buted information. In addition to his report in various num- bers of the "Report of the United States Fish Commissioner,* from which extracts have been freely made, Mr. Charles G. Atkins of Bucksport has furnished data of the earliest fish cultural work in the village. Mr. C. J. Webber of Bangor has given VcJuable information from the records in his office and Miss Alice R. Farnum, first assistant in the Massachusetts Archives Department, has given aid in the search of old re- cords. The Land Office in Augusta has been most court- eous in answering many letters of inquiry. Information has been gathered from many sources in addition to those mentioned. It has often come from chance conversations and from desultory reading. It would be impossible to trace all its sources, but an earnest effort has been made to weave it all into a true story of Hinckley Township. To the people of Grand Lake Stream who have patient- ly told me their unwritten annals I wish to say that my best hope of the history is that it will express somewhat of the deep regard I have for them, and perhaps in some measure repay their trouble in its behalf. I am conscious that it will fall short of expectations. Despite vigilance there will be almost certainly inaccuracies and omissions. It is with many misgivings that it is at length sent to the printer. This remote Township may seem to the casual visitor like one of the spare ends of (Our country, too little devel- oped to be important or interesting, too sparcely populat- ed to need depicting. My manuscript has grown, neverthe- less, breaking from the original thought of what it should be (the entertainment of a few idle weeks) and taking an un- expected shape, and length and much time in its prepara- tion. The work has been extremely interesting. Here, when white men first came, was a sort of inverted Nirvana where all was change yet nothing changed: years passed but brought no age; countless generations of trees, beasts, birds and fishes lived and died — all indistinguish- able one from another. One year was every year. Winds, lightenings, rain and frost worked havoc but altered nothing. Life, prolific, strong and rapacious, gained nothing. Indians snatched a scanty sustenance from land and water but arrest- ed none of the savage inertia, nor wrought changes in them- selves. No living thing here sought variation, or looked backward or forward. Nature's goal was forgotten, aband- oned or reached. Life, decay, litter, and again life, decay, litter unending, always the same. From the time of the De Monts settlement in 1 604 on an island near the mouth of the St. Croix river white men occa- sionally penetrated into these wilds. Trappers, hunters, ex- plorers, adventurers, men from the fort of La Tour on the St. John river and from the Seigniory of the Baron de la Castine on the Penobscot river sometimes passed along these lakes and carries. A Jesuit priest in his sable robes may have brought a passing touch of deeper gloom. As the eighteenth century neared its end soldiers of the Re- volution and then surveyors came here eJso. These were portends of events to come. They left no marks. Early in the nineteenth century lumbermen began to operate in the vicinity. Then a new force, human wills seeking a de- finite end, began the rout of savagery. A slow, uncertain but actual march of events began. Thus was ushered here the courageous, picturesque, ad- venturous, hale human life that took root and thrived. TTie pioneers, the rude epic of the tannery, the play of sportsmen are all acts in a drama whose plot lis the maintenance of life under difficulties. This history can do little to reveal the struggle, or the joy, sorrow and unconscious faith that haa attended it, but perhaps the facts here set down will aweiken the imagination of readers and thus be a medium to convey understanding of it. NewburjTJort, Massachusetts. CONTENTS Mythology Passamaquoddy Tribe Chapter 1 Location and some Early History Chapter II Under the Jurisdiction of Massachusetts, Logging Chapter III Squatters, Sportsmen, First Road Chapter IV The Tannery Chapter V The Village Chapter VI Lakenwild Chapter VII The Tannery Concluded Chapter VIII Hinckley Township becomes Grand Lake Stream Pleintation Chapter IX Later Days in the Village Chapter X Grand Lake Strecun in the World War Chapter XI Description of the Village Chapter XII Fish and Game Chapter XIII The Hatchery Chapter XIV Later Indians Chapter XV The Sewing Circle, The Church Chapter XVI Witteguergaugum Appendix Poems, Indian Neunes, Demons and Stories ILLUSTRATIONS Looking at the village from Indian Hill Frontispiece The Stream below Big Falls The Saw Mill TTie Dam Grand Lake Hotel The School House Boynton's Camps Treadwell's Camps i Ball's Camps Fishing from a Pier The Stream and Second Hatchery The Church Mythology of the Passamaquoddy Indians In the beginning, used to say the Indians, KIooscup, the first man, formed all things. All the animals then were of the same size. The lively flea jumped forty miles. This was too rapid locomotion for the best interests of all con- cerned. So KIooscup rubbed him down until he became very little. The moose, on the other hand, was so stupid that he would neither do harm nor be unduly exuberant so he was rubbed larger. The squirrel ran up a tree so fierce- ly that he tore it down. He was drubbed smaller. Thus KIooscup rubbed everything larger or smaller according to the nature which it displayed. The trees were next formed, and the ash tree made king of them all. KIooscup stuck a great many bows and arrows into it, and present- ly out came men and women. There was an old witch, called Poochinquis, who used to go up and down the forests crying; "I want your babies! I kill babies!" KIooscup caught her, cut her up in pieces, and threw the pieces into the water. Out of these pieces came the mosquitoes, the flies and all the bad insects^ with the exception, of course, of the fleas. Thus the world was made ready for the needs and story of human life. HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP or Grand Lake Stream Plantation Chapter I Location of Township and some of its Early History Almost in the center of the old Passamaquoddy land lay a tangled chain of lakes and streams like trinkets of sil- ver on the deep green of the earth. Largest of all the lakes was Witteguergaugum, now called Grand lake and next largest was Genesagenagum, renamed Big lake. Between these two and projecting broadly to the east and north was the wilderness that became Hinckley Township. Into Grand lake the water of thirty-two other lakes and ponds flows.* Three streams empty it into Big lake, thence through Long and Lewey lakes and by way of the St. Croix river the water flows to Passamaquoddy bay. The largest and middle of these streams is Grand lake stream. It has two water falls and is full of little rips. Nearly all of it is within the borders of Hinckley. It is three miles long, and runs almost diagon- ally across its southwestern corner. Bonney brook, the easterly stream of the three, is entirely therein. The third outlet. Little river, lies in the Township to the west which is Number 6, Range L The southern extremity and an east- ern cove of Grand lake, and the northwestern part of Big lake are in Hinckley. The chief settlement pf the ancient Passamaquoddy tribe (once called Sabbayk and by the French classed w^ith the Penobscot and Micmack Indians as Etchemins) was near the bay, but members of the tribe made frequent migrations • ■ i *The lakes and ponds flowing into Grand lake are Pocumpass, Warbash, Sistadobsis (Dobsis) Upper Sistadobsis, Junior, Scragley, Pleasant, Shaw, Horseshoe, Bottle, Keg, Norway, Pug (flowing into Junior bay of Grand lake) Pug (flowing in Dobsis) Duck, Mill Privi- lege, Pond, Lumbert, Lowell, Glaspy, Hasty Cove, Pickerel, Trout, McClellen Brook, Whitney Cove, 1st Ox Brook, 2nd Qx Brook, Dyer Cove, Killborn, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Chain lakes. 2 HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP up into this region. Sometimes as many as twenty families would paddle up through the lakes, one family in a canoe, one canoe behind another — a long, silent, single line. When the travelers reached the bead of Big leike — if they were going still further — they would carry the canoes, in- verted over the heads and resting on the shoulders of the men, along the east bank of Grand lake stream to Gtand lake. An Indian carry, so much used that even the rocks are worn, was thus made across the corner of the Township. Favorite camping places were upon the west bank of the stream near Grand lake and upon the lower eastern shores of the leikei In the former place many Indian rel^ics have been found. Sometimes the Indians pushed to the head waters of Grand, or to the further lakes. In the Autumn and Winter these trips were hunting expeditions. When deer were sought the hunters, epuipped with snow shoes, skimntied over the snow easily in the chase, but the deer sank through the snow, were speedily exhausted and estsily killed with clubs. Often wolves would come down from the north- ern forests, and drive away the deer for many sesisons. At such times the tribe would suffer from hunger. The mi- grations in the spring, in later times, were often for the pur- pose of making sugar. Sometimes Mohawks made incursions into the Pas- sam^aquoddy land and attacked these peaceful camping parties. At the head of Grand lake is a narrows which connects it with Pocumpass lake. It is called "The Thor- oughfare." Fragments of a tradition tell of an attack by Mohawks upon a party of Passamaquoddies at this point. A number of Indian graves on the east shore are said to contain the bodies of warriors who fell in the battle. Many arrow heads and other weapons are still found about the spot. The story of the battle runs thus: When the terrifying cry of the Mohawks rang through the woods the surprised Passamaquoddies defended them- selves desperately. So fierce was the ensuing onset that a brook, trickling into the leike in the midst of it, ran red and LOCATION AND EARLY HISTORY 3 thus received a baptism' of blood, and a christening for it has since been called Blood brook. With the coming of dark- ness the din and slaughter of battle halted. In the night the remaining remnants of Passamaquoddies fled in canoes down the lakes to a point on Big lake called Peter Dana's Point in honor of one of the more notable chiefs, or gover- nors of the tribe. The Mohawks had no canoes. The fugi- tives hoped they could not follow. Nevertheless lookouts were stationed on high land and in the tops of trees. A day of anxiety wore on. Late in the afternoon there was a cry of alarm. Above the tops of the trees on the west side of Grand lake a flurry of dead leaves rose in an om- inous and advancing cloud. The sign was easHy read. The Mohawks were coming and so rapidly that the wind of their passage drove the leaves upward. The Passama- quoddies took to their canoes and disappeared from the spot, hurrying to one of the remote recesses of this remark able and intricate system of lakes and streams where the Mohawks could not find them.* Another and still more fragmentary tradition tells of the final combat in the warfare with Mohawks. This ver- sion of it was told some time ago by Nicholas Lola, a chief of the tribe, to one of his white friends. Indians of a for- mer generation were fond of telling these traditions and would become very excited in the recital. This fight began at Loon bay on the St. Croix river, and showed excellent generalship on the part of the Passama- quoddies — if the manoeuvre was not incited by some ad- venturous white man, probably a Frenchman. A few fighters were placed in advance of the main body of Indians. TheiV duty was to fall back and entice 'the Mohawks to fol- low them. The main body of Passamaquoddies also con- stantly fell back, the taunting savages in front' of them drawing the Mohawks on. "They go back and back," said Nicholas Lola. "They *In an article entitled "The Abanaki Indians", Frederick Kidder attributes tbe historical obscurity of this tribe partly to the •water ways of their territory which afforded many and safe hiding places. "Collections of Maine Historical Society", Vol. VI. 4 HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP all go back to narrow part of Grand lake and there we fight!" To stimulate the warriors to frantic enthusiasm just be- fore the final battle the Medicine Man of the tribe dressed himself in a bear skin. Going a little in advance of the army he told ,them to shoot arrows at him. If he turned and came back to them it would be a sign that they would be defeated in the battle, but if he went toward the eneimy they were to follow and they would win. "That fellow," said Nicholas Lola, "he look just like a bear. We shoot arrows: he run forward and we lick 'em good I" Although no dates are attached to these stories, if the events are historical, they probably occured more than two hundred and fifty years ago when Mohawks terrorized so many white settlers and Indian tribes in eastern Canada and northern New England. After the discovery of America this north eastern part of the continent fell into the possession of the French. Jes- uit Missions were established in eastern Maine, Nova Scotia and Canada, and the Indian owners of Hinckley soon be- came converts to the Catholic faith. When the English obtained possession of the strip of land between the Pen- obscot and St. Croix rivers, in the early part of the seven!- teenth century, it, like the rest of Maine, was annexed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Indians here helped some- what m the war made on settlers who early pushed as far east as the Kennebec river. They took an active part in the Revolutionary War on the American side. Washington was held in almost sacred esteem by them. He sent letters to each of three tribes of the vicinity — the Penobscot, the Passamaquoddy and the St. John — exerting them to faith- fulness in the American cause. The Passamaquoddy tribe still treasures its letter.* Delegates of these three tribes went to Watertown to meet the Massachusetts Council. Through their spokesman, Ambrose St. Aubin, chief of the *This letter is in possession of the Pleasant Point branch of the tribe. LOCATION AND EARLY HISTORY 5 St. Johns, they promised to adhere to the American cause, but asked In return a favor. *"We want," seiid St. Aubin, "a black gown, or French priest. Jesus we pray to: and we will not hear any pray ers from Old England." So carefully had Massachusetts put up barriers aga^inst Catholics that it was sometime before a priest was procured for them. **Col. John Allan was "Superintendent of Indian affairs in the Eastern Department and Commander of the Port of Machias." The Indians were greatly attached to him. An account of their activities during this war belongs to the his- tory of Machias, but it is pertinent to say that if they had not been zealous assistants in the defence of that place all of the territory east of the Penobscot river would have been lost to Maine. Notwithstanding the "artful guiles of the enemy" to win their help they did, with very few exceptions, remain faithful to the American cause. The old Indian routes — one starting at the Passama- quoddy bay and following the western branch of the St. Croix river, the other starting from Machias and following the Machids river and short portage to Big lake — over these lakes and carries to the Passadumkeag river were the inland routes to the Penobscot river. They were constantly used during the war. Col. Allan sometimes sent his despatches this way and thus westward to Massachusetts. Once very important ones were captured on the Penobscot river by British agents. Col. Allan himself was nearly captured on one of these lakes. He was traveling on skates when "he was set upon by a party of Indians in the service of the British, also mounted on skates. They gave chase and closely pressed him for a mile or two, when coming to an open place, a channel of water, he gave a tremendous jump and landed safely on the other side." *"Historiral Magazine," July 1869. **This information pertaining to Col. John Allan and the Indians is nearlv all taken from a book compiled from the Journals and Tet- ters of Col Allan by Frederick Kidder, called: "Military Operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution." Publish- ed 1867. 6 HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP On a spot near the Grand lake stream carry there is a lonely grave where a soldier, possibly of this war, was bur- ied. Whether he was American or British is not known.* From Eastport upweird along the west bank of the Passama- quoddy bay are many graves of Indians who fell defending this eastern territory. In 1 793 Col. Allan writes in his report on the Indian tribes: "On the lakes you will find numbers of Indians from Canada, St. Johns, Penobscot and the Mickmack Country, pesuing their several employments agreeable to the seasons. Some constant residents, and many of them for years not seen on the sea coast, being perpetually on the move." The Indian owners of Hinckley also took part in the War of 1812. There are traditions that some of the command of John Brewer, Brigadier General of Militia in Washington County, came up through the Township over the old carry. A few years ago, near this carry, a copper coin was found which was dated 1 776. On one side was a likeness of George the third, on the other an effigy of an Indian on a prancing horse. The Indian's right arm was upraised, and in his hand a long spear was poised. Near the feet of the, horse was a coiled rattlesnake with its head uplifted. The coin was about the size of a Canadian penny, and had a hole in it. It had evidently lain in the ground a long time. It may have been dropped by fei soldier of one of these two wars, or, it is surmised, it may have been struck as a medal for the Indians, and been dropped by one of them. When in the last months of the War of 1812 the Eng- lish troops held all the land east of the Penobscot river and administered the civil government from Bangor, the Indians did, for a short time, jonce more fall under the sway of the disliked England. England proposed to make of this con- guest a separate province of the Canadian government, and to call it New Ireland. When the Peace of Ghent was signed, however, Hinckley and the rest of eastern Maine were once more saved to the United States. *It was probably an Englishman buried her© since an American would almost certainly have been carried to Mackiaa for burial. See verses in the Appendix. UNDER JURISDICTION OF MASS.. LOGGING 7 CHAPTER II Under the Jurisdiction of Massachusetts and Logging The Massachusetts Bay Colony seems to have given little attention to her lands beyond the Penobscot river. They were inhabited by hostile Indians and "renegade Frenchmen." Of the latter there were but few, and in an act, passed in 1 721, to prohibit trade or commerce of any sort with the Indians the Bay Colony makes no mention of them. The following section of the act shows how deter- mined she was to stamp out all intercourse. "That whoever shall, after the first day of October next, directly or indirect- ly have any trade or commerce by way of gift, barter or ex- change, or any way whatsoever, with any of the aforesaid Indians, or shall supply them with any provisions, clothing, guns, powder, shot, bullets or any goods, wares or mer- chandise whatsoever shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred pounds, and suffer twelve months imprisonment w^Atiout bail or main prize, upon the first conviction; the said forfeiture to be recovered by bill, plaint or information in any of his majesty's courts of record — one half to him, or them, who shall inform and sue for same." Upon a second conviction an offender against this law^ was to be "deemed a felon and suffer the pangs of death." A few settlements were made in the interior of eastern Maine pr^ior to the Revolutionary war, but there are no ob- tainable records to show^ whether or not there were any with- in the limits of the tract later to be called Hinckley. It seems as if somebody must have migrated into these forests very early for in the deed which Massachusetts later gave of the Township she makes provision for the rights of settlers who were here before 1 784. This Township, though near, was not included in the million acres of land set aside for lottery prizes by means of which, shortly after the Revolutionary war, Massachusetts undertook to raise revenue for her exhausted tren/'urv. 8 HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP When the lottery lands practically all passed to William Bingham of Philadelphia a rather curious thing happened. According to a paper found among those of Mr. John Gardner, for fifty years a surveyor in this region, the lottery land, as originally surveyed, fell a little short of the million acres. In order to give Mr. Bingham the full amount of his purchase an additional strip, two miles wide and thirty six miles long, was surveyed and conveyed to him. Such a strip is marked on a very old map preserved in the Massa- chusetts archives, but it stretches across the tops of six Townships west of Hinckley. They are in the same line, however, and doubtless when in 1 794 Samuel Titcomb sur- veyed and marked off the Townships of Washington Coun- ty he made those of Range One, in which Hinckley is Num- ber Three, the unusual distance of eight miles from the north ern to the southern limits in order to conform with this line. At all events the Townships of this range are eight miles in extent north and south and six miles east and west. In the same year that Washington County was surveyed, and Jt'j gloomy forests niarked by invisible lines into named tracts, Massachusetts made a treaty with the Indians. Town ship Two, just east of Hinckley, was set aside for them, and much other land in this vicinity. In Tow^nship Three one hundred acres of land on the end of a point that extends Into Big lake, and also Pine island, the northern part of which is in the Township, were reserved for them. The point is, on some old records preserved in the State House in Boston, called Nemcass. It is now usually called Gover- nor's point because several Indian chiefs, or, as they are now called. Governors, have resided there. The treaty with the Indians established for them the "privilege of fishing on both branches of the River Schood- ic" (the St. Croix river)" w^ithout Hinderance or Molesta- tion, and the privilege of passing the said river over the dif- ferent Carrying Places thereon." The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was now ready to dispose of her Townships in this part of the District of Maine, and anxious to have them settled. Township Three, UNDER JURISDICTION OF MASS., LOGGING 9 Range One, was contracted for by Titus Goodman and Seth Wright in 1 794. There seems to be no further record of Mr. Wright's connection with the contract. It was Titus Goodman who promised to pay the Commonwealth 2905 pounds, 1 8 shillings and 9 pence for these many acres of woodland. According to the crumbling "Report of the Commissioners for the Sale of Eastern Lands on June 1 6th, 1 795," Goodman paid 207 pounds of this sum, and gave his note for 2698 pounds, 18 shillings and 9 pence. He was a son of Captain Noah Goodman, a political leader of South Hadley. Close by in Northampton lived Samuel Hinckley, a judge of the Probate Court and an owner of var- ious townships, one of them being w^hat is now^ Rochester, N. Y. When, either because of financial embarrassment, or for other reasons, Goodman did not pay this note Judge Hinckley as his assignee, paid into the treasury of the Com- monwealth the money due on the purchase, by that time computed in dollars and cents, and became the proprietor of the Township. If the amount of Goodman's note equall- ed the $90 1 9.80 which Judge Hinckley paid then a pound in those days must have equalled in our money about $3.34. TTius the price originally paid for the Township approximat- ed $971 1.18. It became known as Hinckley. The follow- ing is a copy of the deed as preserved in the State House of Massachusetts. "Know all Men by these Presents: "That we, whose names are undersigned, and such of- ficers appointed agents by the General Court of the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts to make and to execute con- veyances agreeably to a resolve as passed the fifteenth day of March 1805, and by virtue of other powers vested in us by the same resolve: For and in consideration of $90 1 9.80 paid into the treasury of the Commonwealth have given, granted, sold and conveyed, by these same presents in be- half of the Commonwealth do give, grant, sell and convey unto Samuel Hinckley esquire of Northampton, in the Coun- ty of Hampshire and Commonwealth aforesaid, assignee of Titus Goodman and Seth Wright, a township of lan'^^ Tyin