St. George’s and its neighborhood
was one of the earliest points visited and occupied by
Europeans. In 1630, Leverett and Beauchamp, two English
merchants, received by grant from the Plymouth Company, the
territory lying between the Penobscot and Muscongus Rivers,
extending north far enough to form a tract 30 miles square, or
nearly 600,000 acres. This was first known as the Muscongus,
and, subsequently, the Waldo patent, from having passed into the
ownership of that family. This patent forms the basis of most of
the land titles in Knox and Waldo counties. In 1694, Sir William
Phips acquired a partial title to lands in the southern part of
Knox County, by purchase from Madockawando, a famous chief of
the Tarratines. The two block-houses which, by subsequent
enlargements, became Fort St. George, were erected in 1719—1720.
Lovewell's, or the “Three Years’ War” with the Indians began in
1722 and continued into 1725. During this time the inhabitants
of Knox County suffered greatly; and in July of this year two
Massachusetts commissioners held a conference at the fort with
thirteen Indian chiefs. This was adjourned to Boston, where for
a month the discussion of the differences between them and the
settlers in this region were discussed by the State authorities
and two chiefs representing the tribe; the Indians denying
Madockawando's right to make a sale of land here as he had to
Governor Phips. At length the chiefs were pacified by an
agreement to establish trading-houses on the St. George’s, where
goods should be sold to the Indians at a slight advance on cost.
This arrangement was known as the Dummer Treaty, and was
ratified in the following summer by a large concourse of Indians
at what is now Portland.
It was at this epoch that we first hear of Samuel Waldo, a young
Boston merchant, who, about this time, by inheritance and by
subsequent purchase came into possession of nearly the whole of
the Muscongus patent, all, in fact, of Knox and Waldo counties,
except what is now included in the towns of Camden, Hope and
Appleton. Thus Mr. Waldo became sole patentee of half a million
acres, whose northern boundary was claimed by him to be but very
little south of the site of Bangor. One of his first acts was to
open the lime-quarry which was long afterward enclosed by the
walls of the Maine State Prison, where he commenced the
manufacture of lime for the Boston market,—thus being the
pioneer of what has become a leading industry in the region. In
1735, Mr. Waldo contracted to deed to each settler a lot 40 rods
wide on the River St. George, and running back so as to contain
100 acres; the settlers on their part agreeing to build houses,
and clear four acres of land on the lots occupied within two
years. The first party consisted of 27 families of Scotch-Irish
extraction.
Among the names of these were Patterson, Boggs, Creighton,
Starrett, Spear, Lermond, McIntyre, Robinson, and Kallock,—still
represented in these towns. Mr. Waldo in the same year rebuilt
the saw-mill at Mill River; in 1740, he erected a grist-mill at
Oyster River, and erected a house for religious meetings. About
this time he also located 40 lots on the western side of the
river, on what is now Cushing, about 30 of which were at once
occupied. In 1743 a settlement was effected in what is now
Friendship (then Meduncook), by several families of English
Puritan extraction. In 1744, an Indian war again visited the
eastern regions, and the inhabitants again endured the horrors
of savage warfare. In 1745 occurred the famous expedition which
resulted in the capture of Louisburg. In the laud force Waldo,
who had some time previously become a militia colonel, bore the
rank of Brigadier General. With the return of peace, prosperity
again smiled upon the settlement. In 1753, General Waldo settled
another colony of twenty Scottish families some two miles from
the river on the western side. Anderson, Dicke, Crawford,
Malcolm and Kirkpatrick are the names of some of them. They
called their settlement Stirling, and the name still adheres to
the locality. Again from 1754 to 1758 an Indian war raged in
Maine, to the great distress of the St. George’s settlers. With
the fall of the French power in the north, the Indians realized
that they could no longer contend with the English, and in the
treaty with them which closed this war they acknowledged they
had forfeited their lands, and all contention ceased. General
Waldo died in 1759, and the larger part of this patent came into
the hands of his son-in-law, Thomas Flucker, of Boston.
At the breaking out of the Revolution, the inhabitants of this
region were generally found on the patriot side. All signed the
“Solemn League and Covenant” binding to non-intercourse with
Great Britain until the Boston Port Bill should be repealed; and
in June, 1775, they formed a Committee of Safety and
Correspondence. After the failure of the expedition against the
British at Castine in 1779, General Peleg Wadsworth, the second
in command of the land forces, bad his headquarters as commander
of the Eastern Department at Thomaston. It happened by the
expiration of enlistments that he was at one time left with only
a body-guard of six men, when his house was attacked in the
night by twenty-five British soldiers from Castine. After brave
resistance the General was wounded and carried as prisoner to
the British garrison at Castine. After being for some months in
confinement there, he together with a companion in misfortune—Majcr
Benjamin Burton — escaped during a severe thunder storm; and,
crossing the Penobscot, quickly found safety among their
countrymen.
At the close of the war, there was much uncertainty in regard to
land titles. Thomas Flucker, the heir of General Waldo, had
espoused the cause of the king, and was therefore included in
the act of proscription. In a few years, such portion of the
patent as had not been disposed of, came into the possession of
Flucker’s son in law, General Henry Knox. On resigning his
commission as secretary of war in 1195, he removed to the
mansion he had prepared in Thomaston. The mansion, to which Mrs.
Knox had given the name, Montpelier, was opened with a grand
feast, to which were invited all the neighboring
inhabitants—rich and poor; and here he continued for the
remainder of his life to dispense the most bountiful
hospitality. Among his distinguished guests were Talleyrand and
Louis Phitippe. General Knox entered upon the development of his
estate with energy. lie commenced the manufacture of lime,
erected mills, introduced new varieties of fruits and
vegetables, and improved breeds of cattle and sheep. His
extensive operations brought in many new settlers; but his
expensive establishment drew heavily on his income, and an
ardent temperament sometimes involved him in unprofitable
schemes, so that the great estate was after his death found to
be insolvent. He died suddenly in 1805; and his remains now rest
in the cemetery at Thomaston. In the war of 1812, the chief
interest centered in the privateering on the coast and the
importation of foreign goods in neutral vessels,—which having
run the British blockade were transported across the country to
Boston by ox-teams. In the war of the Rebellion, Knox County
sustained her credit for patriotism and bravery. Major General
Hiram G. Berry, who fell at Chancellorsville, was the most
eminent among her sons in this period of our history.
By the census of 1880, the amount of shipping owned in Knox
County was 84,931 tons, having a value of $1,660,584. The amount
of personal estate was $4,032,582; and of real estate
$6,846,154. The population in 1870 was 30,823; and 1880, 32,862.
Source: Varney, George J., Gazetteer of the
State of Maine. Boston: B. B. Russell, 1886. |
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